The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-02-26
WHAT A BOTANlST MAY SEE
IN HONOLULU.
Continued from page g.

peg-top; this is surrounded with pulp
of delicate texture which almost melts
in ones mouth-not sweet nor acid, but
having characteristic nutty flavor that
commends it highly to the educated pal
ate. 1t is commonly eaten with salt and
pepper, with or without vinegar, often
with a mayonnaise dressing, or in a
sandwich with thin bread and butter
frequently as an addition to (bouillon
or consomme) soups. Unfortunately
the fruit does not bear transportation
well, or it would be better known in
America.
The custard apple (Cherimoyer) is
not much planted in Honolulu, although
the fruit sometimes comes into market
from other districts. The sour sop, a
congener, you will meet with more fire.
quently, the tree with foliage somewhat
like that of the avocado, like scales. AS
in other custard apples, the pulp con-
tains scattered through it numerous
seeds. 1t is fibrous and quite acid, re-
sembling cotton batting soaked in a
solution of cream of tartar. Few per-
SONS profess fondness for the fruit.
Over arbors you will often see trained
a vine of luxurant growth, with ample,
nearly round leaves, and fragrant, dark
purple flowers, four inches or more i'll
diameter, whose multitudinous rays pro-
claim it passion flower. Among the
leaves here and there is the large,
melon-like fruit six to eight inches long,
oval, pale green, with a smooth skin.
This is the grenaldilla, one of the most
delicious OF tropical fruits. The edible
part is precisely that which is pulp
which is agreeably acid, and OF flavor
like that of the Catawba grape. Only
those with Anticipated ideas about the
cause OF appendicitis hesitate about par
taking OF the delicacy, for to remove
the seeds would be PROCLAMATION.
Another passion flower produces dull
purple fruit of the size OF goose egg,
which has a similar acid pulp, less deli
cate in flavor, but priced by many; it is
known as the water lemon. Still an
other species, distinguished as the sweet
water lemon, has fruit somewhat larger
and of rich yellow color when ripe. the
pulp, however, wanting acidity, and so
not highly esteemed.
Other fruits that will be found in Ho-
nolulu are the South American mammee
apple, fine tree with handsome foliage;
the pomegranate, planted as an orna-
mental shrub rather than for the sake
of its fruit; the pineapple, in numerous
varieties; the loquat (Rosaceious); the
Java plum and so-calIed Spanish cherry
(both Myrtaceous) and the familiar
peach. Very few of the fruits of the
temperate zone will grow in Honolulu.
Apples, pears, plums, cherries, as we'll
as such berries as the raspberry, black
berry, currant, gooseberry are conspicu-
Gus by their absence.
But few coniferous trees appear in
Honolulu. The Monterey cypress is
planted occasionally. and seems to
thrive. Arbor Vitae was planted long
ago in Nuuanu Cemetery, and perhaps
for this reason is scarcely seen elsewhere.
Instead of pines and spruces, we find
araucarias, which certainly supply their
places very well, and which maintain
their symmetry of growth in spite. of
the trade wind.
One tree which is more frequently
seen in and about Honolulu than any
OF the foregoing, and which is fire.
quently mistaken for a confer is the
ironwood, Casuarin equiSetifolia prob
ably originally native OF Australia, al
though now widely distributed in trop-
ical countries. A leafless tree with
dropping Harmonious branchlets stimuli
ating the foliage of the pines, and with
a fruit quite as conelike in appearance
certainly as that of the juniper, it might
with great show of FEASIBILITY claim
with pine, cypress or cedar.
The heavy, black, hard wood of the
tree has been used by the South Sea
islanders for making war clubs, and in
the Fiji islands forks were made OF it
to be used exclusively in the cannibal
feasts The tree was not known, how
ever, to the aboriginal Hawaiian.
One OF the finest exotic shade trees
is the samang, commonly known in Ho-
nolulu as the monkey-pod tree. 1t is
one OF the numerous leguminous trees
that have been introduced-most OF them
belonging to the Acacia or to the Cas-
STA group, and having accordingly COM
pound or decompound leaves. This is
a great spreading tree of rapid growth,
throwing out its branches as near the
ground as circumstances will permit. |
Like many other plants OF the family, |
it has the habit OF folding together its
leaflets at night, so that after six o'clock |
it presents peculiar wilted appearance
quite in contrast with its ordinary as
pect, which is one of exuberant vitality |
The foliage may become little ragged |
in winter, but only preparatory TO a |
more glorious rehabilitation, which cul- |
inmates with its blossoming time, when |
for weeks the deem rich green of It's '