which has not been satisfactorily determined. Of these nine species, all but one—the kumara—belong to the Asiatic flora, and must have found their way into Polynesia from the west. In that direction, therefore, it seems reasonable to seek the origin of Polynesian agriculture. Of the eight Asiatic species, the breadfruit, banana, Malay apple, yam, alocasia, taro, aute, and calabash—on the first six of which the Polynesians were mainly dependent for food—belong, probably, to the Malay Islands. The breadfruit, as we have already seen, is unable to live on the mainland; the now widely-distributed banana and the Malay apple, as far as can be determined, originally belonged to the island region; while the taro, alocasia, and yam may have been brought into cultivation either there or on the continent, being found wild in both situations. The question, then, naturally arises, Is the Malay Archipelago the birthplace, or one of the birthplaces, of agriculture ?—for it is quite possible the art may have had more than one starting-point. The presence of the seedless breadfruits and bananas in eastern Polynesia, and of the aute or paper mulberry in New Zealand, proves beyond doubt that both regions were regularly colonised, and not accidentally peopled, as many writers have asserted. We know that into New Zealand all the cultivated plants the Polynesian people possessed capable of withstanding the climate were introduced. It seems therefore reasonable to conclude that in like manner all the plants in cultivation amongst the people of the Malay Archipelago at the period of Polynesian colonisation were also transplanted there, the climatic conditions of the two regions being the same. In Polynesian agriculture, at a period immediately preceding the European intrusion, we have, then, evidence of what Malay agriculture was at a more remote epoch. Considered as a whole, the Malayan plants found in cultivation amongst the people of the Pacific form a collection of esculents well adapted to support a people dwelling within or near the equatorial belt, where vegetable growth is constant throughout the year, and where, owing to the absence of periodicity, it is unnecessary to store provisions during any great length of time; but, besides their incapacity to withstand a low temperature, the perishable nature of their products unfits these species for countries where, from the lack of moisture or a low temperature, vegetation is periodically suspended. Leaving Polynesian agriculture, if we direct our attention to other portions of the earth we will find that both in ancient and modern times the labour of the husbandman has been chiefly directed to the production of commodities capable