FIJI ISLANDS
661
FILICALES
FIG PLANT Fig. a. Fruit shown in section
trunk measuring 9 feet. There are three crops a year, the second the most important. The tree has few insect-enemies, and
is considered one of the most beautiful of fruit trees. It grows readily from cuttings, and is propa-g at e d also by budding, grafting and seeds. The highly-regarded Smyrna figs, now success fully grown in California, do not bear s t a m i -nate flowers, and near the trees it is necessary to plant the wild or Capri figs, which alone of the figs bear staminate flowers. To obtain pollination, the fig-wasp, which inhabits wild figs and visits the cultivated fig, has been brought into the country.
Fiji Islands (fe'je}, a group of islands belonging to Great Britain, situated in the South Pacific. Their nearest neighbors are the Friendly Islands, 200 or 300 miles southeast. They are 4,700 miles from San Francisco. They lie in a ring, open on the south, and number about 200. The area is 7,435 square miles, nearly the size of Wales. They are of volcanic origin, and are surrounded by coral reefs, are well-supplied with harbors and rivers, possess a rich soil and fine climate, but suffer from hurricanes and earthquakes.
Natural Resources. With the exception of the pearl-shell industry, the resources are almost entirely agricultural. Bananas, bread-fruit, cocoanuts, sugar, corn, cotton, tea and coffee are among the products. There are hardly any native animals and few minerals.
Races. The people belong to the Polynesian race, and until the introduction of Christianity, were fierce cannibals — the terror of the sailors in those regions.
Manufactures. Considerable distilled spirit is manufactured, and there are six sugar-mills, one tea-factory, one soap-works, two saw-mills and 17 boat-building yards.
Commerce, Fiji is in regular communication with New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Honolulu, Tonga and Samoa. A subsidized steamer trades regularly within the group. There are an overland telephone from Suva to Lautoka, 120 miles long, and a telegraph between Suva and Levuka, 45 miles by land and 12 by submarine cable. The principal exports are sugar, bananas and fruit, copra and beche-de-mer; the prin«
cipal imports, textile fabrics, hardware and iron, machinery, coal and timber. Maize is grown in exportable quantities.
History. The islands were discovered by Tasman, the great Dutch sailor, in 1643. Turtle Island was discovered by Captain Cook in 1773. In 1835 Wesley an missionaries came from Tonga and began the wonderful work which resulted in the Christianizing of the islands. The Wesleyans now number about 100,000, and the Catholics 10,000. Since 1858 the islands have been governed by Great Britain, though not formally taken into her dominions until 1874.
Population. The total estimated population on Dec. 31, 1909, was 133,831, divided between Fijians, Rotumans, Indians and whites, the last numbering 2,459. In 1903 births among Fijians numbered 3,431, and deaths 3,298, while the Indians showed 910 births to 545 deaths and the whites 89 births to 37 deaths. Part of this is due to the fact that the population other than native has already undergone a process of selection, but it presages the passing of an interesting race.
Fil'ament (in plants), the stalk-like portion of a stamen. (See FLOWER.) The name is also constantly applied to the peculiar thread-like bodies of algae and fungi. »
Fil'icales. The greatest group of pteri-dophytes, including the forms commonly
known as ferns. About 4,000 species of ferns are known, the large majority occurring in the tropics, where ferns of great size grow, in -eluding the w ell-k n o w n tree-ferns. The ordinary ferns of the temperate regions con-sist only of leaves above the surface of the ground, these leaves arising from a subterranean stern. On account of what seemed to be the peculiarity of a leaf rising directly out of the ground, the name frond was once given to fern-leaves. Usually upon the under surface of these leaves the so-called fruit-dots appear, which technically are known as the sori. Each sorus or dot consists of a group of sporangia, each sporangium containing numerous spores. The sori are often protected by a flap which is an outgrowth of the epidermis and is known as the indusium. Occasionally, as in the maiden-hair fern and common bracken, the sori are along the leaf-margins,
FERN PROTHALLIUM
