The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-14
WHAT A BOTANlST
MAY SEE IN HONOLULU
By Albert B. Lyons, Nd In Thrums Annual.


ton in its habitat One would not recog-
nize it at first glance as d fern at ALL
Its fronds are entire, 3 to < feet long,
by ) to 7 inches wide, forming a regular
crown The foliage is rather that of
an indigenous plant like the banana than
fern, but the spores growing ON its
under surface betrav it.
The tree ferns which abound in the
forest, and which are peculiar Hawai-
ian species, you will rarely see in cult
walton in Honolulu. They do not thrive
in so dry climate. This is unfortunate,
| for nothing could be more ornamental.
The finest of them is the pull fern,
| Cibotium Chamissoi, whose uncoiling
young fronds are clothed with glisten-
ing, silky, capillary chaff of an old gold
color, fine and soft as the finest wool
formerly collected under the vernacular
name pulu for filling pillows and mat
tresses-the same thing that in Suma-
ira is known as pengawar jambi, or
paku kidang. used by surgeons as a
styptic. The fern trees in the woods
have trunks six TO fifteen or even TWEEN
ty feet high and six to ten inches or
more in diameter.
| Among the indigenous trees OCCASION
ally seen in Honolulu is the breadfruit
tree, which is planted as shade tree
with an eye to utility. The young trees
are very beautiful as long as they retain
their symmetrical, pyramidal form. The
ample, dark green, rigid leaves, more
than a foot long and pinnately lobed
make a very dense shade, and suggest
the idea of extraordinary vigor OF
growth which is carried out consistently
| by the great green globes of its fruit.
In the older trees the beauty of synrne-
try is lost, but there remains an air of
sturdy self assertion which seems to
excuse their grotesaue ugliness.
| Another tree doubtless imported by
/ the aborigines is the ohia, or mountain
apple, Eugenia Malaccensis, occasionally
: seen in Honolulu, but not happy where
there is so little rain. A noble tree it is
under favorable conditions, with its
large, oval, deep green, shining leaves,
and the scarlet tassels of its numerous
blossoms, but it is when the fruit is ripe
that the tree is in its glory, great clus-
tiers of the deep red luscious looking
apples" clinging about its branches and
larger limbs everywhere. Juicy and re-
freshing the fruit is, although rather in
sipid.
Conspicuous by the paleness of its
silvery foliage among the shade trees
near the city, as well as in the valleys
of the interior, is the kukui, or candle
nut tree, Aleurites Moluccana. The
fruit looks something like the black
walnut, but is larger and frequently con-
ta1ns two nuts. These are as large as
an English walnut, with a shell nearly
as hard as that of hickory nut, from
which are carved effective ornaments,
black as jet, and capable of receiving
a high polish The oily kernels were
formerly strung on bamboo sp1ints by
the natives for torches, whence, to this
day. lamp is an 1pu kullui
Another native plant, abundant in the
mountains you will often see planted
for hedges-a Daracaena (more proper
ly Cordyline) but with green, not red
or variagated, foliage. The natives call
it ii, and find many uses for it. The
roots which are three to six inches
thick and several feet long are roasted
or steamed in underground ovens, sugar
being produced abundant1y in the pro-
cess. In this condition it is eaten, or
rather chewed and the juice sucked from
It, but the principal use made of it by
the natives is to produce okolehao, a
kind of moonshiner's whiskey. The
! leaves take the place of wrapping paper
in the fish market. Haoles (white peo-
ple) make bungle of putting up pack
ages with it, but the native Hawaiian
is very dextrous in its use, and the ir1li-
tative Chinaman succeeds equally we'll
Banana trees YOU see everywhere but
not generally planted for ornament. The
trade wind blows too constantly TO allow
them to keep a whole leaf more than
day or two, unless under shelter of a
house. The stranger is surprised at
their variety, as different one from an
other as the varieties of pear or apple.
Some grow on small trees" not more
than six feet high. others run up fifteen,
twenty and even twenty-five feet The
rapidity, of growth is something amaz-
ing. Cut off the trunk of half grown
plant-you find that if is made up SIM
ply of the sheaths of leaf stalks, the CEN
ire occupied by the cornine leaf, which
immediately begins to push forward so
that in few minutes it projects notice
ably, and in half day it will have
grown out several inches.
The fruit of the different varieties
varies greatly in size, shape, color and
flavor; the fruit cluster in some varieties
are very large. III others always small.
OF the thousands of blossoms produced
from each bud" only a few, fifty or
less to two hundred of the first, are fol-
lowed by fruit; a seed is never develop
ed
One variety has the fruit cluster erect
instead OF pendant Some are good to
eat uncooked.s and spoiled by cooking,
others are unpalatable unless cooked,
when they are delicious.
You would not distinguish plant of
Manila hemp from banana tree" but
the fruit OF the former is insipid, and
filled with perfectly developed seeds.