Note 426 — Chapter XIII · BOTANICAL NOTES IN BOUGAINVILLE STRAITS.

At Treasury Island I found a solitary cycad at a height of a thousand feet above the sea. As it was in the vicinity of a plantation of sago palms, it is probable that it had been planted by the natives who employ the fruits for medicinal purposes.

[427] This fan-palm, the “firo” of the natives, was in 1884 only represented in Treasury by a single individual which had been brought a few years before from Bougainville, where the leaves are employed in making a conical hat that is commonly worn.