The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-08
TALKS OF
HAWAII.
Stubs Lectures to
the Louisiana
Planters.
HE DESCRIBES THE
ISLANDS BRIEFLY
Distinguished Agricultural Expert
Who was Here for the
United States.
(Concluded.)
FLORA OF THE ISLANDS.

Inc nora OIL lllc lSldIluS are dlNlutu
into three classes. First, Indigenous
plants, those found by the Hawaiians
when they first settled the islands, reck-
oned by Judge Fernandez to have been
about A. D. 500. Second those introduce
ed by the Hawaiians and brought from
other Islands by Captain Cook in IT'S.
1t has already been shown that the affin
tiles of the native flora were Polynesian,
Andean and Californian. The complete
isolation of the islands has given a pc
culiar flora containing a larger proper
ton of endemic plants than any other
known country. The islands not only
vary among themselves as to the char
acter of flora found, but each Individual
island varies in its fora just in proper
ton to altitude. Again, the size and
characteristics vary just in accordance
with their environment. Heat and dry
ness of the air, a scanty soil, especially
lava, check life and dwarf
the plants, and sometimes impose new
properties A period of short growth
follows an occasional IA mall and then
a long repose with great effort to sus-
tain life. These varying conditions act
ing through a series of years, have the
power of smodfying pre-eXisting quail
ties and irnpressing new ones. often pro-
ducing variations from the normal type.
Varieties change ultimately to species,
and species to genera. Hence the large
number of endemic plants on the ISL
ands. The native plants served to make
the enormous canoes in which the ma
tives crossed from island to island and
occasionally made voyages to other ISL
ands in the South Pacific. Others were
used for outriggers and masts. Idols
were carved from the softer as well as
the hard wood. The hardest varieties
furnished mallets for beating KAPPA"
cloth The forest furnished the bark,
leaves and fibre out of which KAPPA"
CLOTH mats, fishing lines, nets, ETC., were
made. They also furnished the dyes for
the cloth and for tattooing their skins
The Materia Medica of the Kahunas
native doctors) was gathered exclusive
ly from the fields and forests.
When the HawaiianS came to the ISL
ands they brought with them plants
which extend throughout Polynesia into
Malaysia and have accompanied the Ma
orr race in all their migrations, yielding
them food, Intoxicating beverage, mate
rial for cloth, rope and other domestic
and religious purposes The seedlesS
breadfruit, the sugar cane, banana and
taro could not possibly have reached the
islands by any other than human agen-
cy. There is an abundance of evidence
to show that frequent visits Were made
to southern islands in remote times.
Hence the large number of endemic
plants on the islands. The family of
gymnospenus, to which our pine, cedar
and cypress belong, is not represented
on the islands, and is accounted for on
the ground that these islands were form
ed subsequent to the geological age in
which they were universally distributed.
a striking popularity of Hawaiian trees
is their very low height Only the CO.
coanut palm exceeds a hundred feet.
Other trees rarely exceed sixty feet.
Nearly all native plants are perennial and
woody The islands once abounded in san
fol, 1ati
| the great demand for this wood in Can
ton, China, for incense and for the man.
ufacture of fancy articles caused a trade
which quickly destroyed the forests of
this tree. Between 1910 and 1925 this
trade was at its height, and while it
and chiefs in guns, ammunition, liquor,
boats, etc, which they received In eX-
change. 1t fetched 6 to 10 cents per
pound. 1t was the first export that at
1 tracted commerce to the islands. So great
was the destruction of these trees that
! it was found necessary to lay a "tabu''
! on the few remaining ones.
| If time permitted / might speak of the
beautiful groves of cocoanut trees lining
| everywhere the shores of the islands
and how visitors to Honolulu are taught
to enjoy the several drinking stands.
might mention also the extensive banana
plantations and pineapple fields. which
of the islands, but must hasten on tc
! the chief crops, which are rice, coffee
and sugar. l might also enlarge upon
the numerous taro patches and the uni
versal use of poi as food, and of the
many fine groves of bananas skirtine
the forests of cocoanut trees, hard by
the oceans brink, of the gardens of pine.
apples everywhere to be found the or.
chards of alligator pears, mangoes pa.
payas, ETC., but time forbids. The mar
! crops of the islands, however, deserve
more than a passing notice. Corn is
grown in very small quantities; oats anG
barley not at all. Wheat, once an ar.
ticle of export, is now scarcely known or
the islands,
Rice (Oryza sativa) is now the second
crop on the islands in quantity and val.
ue. The cultivation began in 1856. Now
every acre of land adjoining the ocean
capable of being worked and susceptible
OF being watered, is under cultivation
me Chinese are exclusively engaged il
this industry, paying for rent $50 to So
per acre Two crops per year are grown
on the same land After the field is
once prepared and watered it is never
permitted to be unoccupied. AS fast as
one crop is harvested another is plant
ed. The soil is prepared by using a kline
OF harrow. propelled by a Chinese buf.
falo, an importation from China. and
the companion of the Chinaman. This
narrow is drawn through the water. II
pulVerizes the clods and stirs the soil
ana resembles the tools for the cultiva
ton of oyster grounds, on the shores OF
connecticut. The rice is sown thickly
IN beds, and when, sufficiently large are
transplanted by hand in the field. ir
checks six to twelve inches apart the
water being several inches deep. LONG
nnes are frequently used to keep the
rows straight. 1t is a slow and tedious
process; and only the persistent industry
or chinese would essay such a task
ne rice is harvested with a sickle AND
] trodden out by horses on a hard floor. II
is prepared for market in the crudest
or mills. located on the shoses of the
ocean, and propelled by water coming
from artesfan wells at a high altitude
/ The overshot water wheels which drive
these mills are ten feet or more high
and one to one and a half feet wide
This wheel turns a pair of crude stones
and works a set of Founders, all wrought
| from the surrounding lava rocks