The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-24
WHAT A BOTANlST MAY SEE
IN HONOLULU.
Continued from page So

those of other acacias, are tassels con-
jsisting mostly of the conspicuous fila
ments. A tree twenty years old may
| have bole twelve or fifteen feet IN
girth, and cover with its shade a circle
hundred feet in diameter. The sa-
mang obviously, like the banyan, also
occa sionally seen III Honolulu, is a tree
for the wealthy man. For the poor-and
for the rich as well--there is the alga-
roba, the tree that more than any other
gives character to the Honolulu lard
scapes. What the elm is to those III the
Northern states, the algaroba is to the
kamaaina in Honolulu. Its lank, law
less, often contorted, branches are too
conspicuous, but they have picturesque
ness of their own, and if we have
been inclined to take offense at them
on artistic considerations, there is
grace in the poise of its slender branch
lets and a witchery in their sWaying
to the breeze, and lightheartedness and
abandon with which the living tree gives
itself to play with sunlight and shower,
with gale and zephyr, that makes ire
sistible appeal to that in the human llfe
that reflects the life universal.
Not on sentimental grounds only IS
the algaroba a favorite 1t IS a tree
easily propagated and of rapid growth.
It's diaphanous shade moderateS the heat
of the tropical sun, yet permits the grass
of the lawn beneath it to grow perfectly
well, in dry seasons indeed saves 1t from
scorching. 1t supplies fuel for the
kitchen, fodder Tin Its saccharine pods)
for the horses, and honey of finest quail
ty for the beehive. Finally its roots go
so deep that they find water for vigor
Gus growth where other trees can be
kept alive only by irrigation. The arid
1owlands on the lee coasts OF Oahu,
Molokai and Hawaii have been convert
ed from desert to forest by the algaroba
tree And the parent tree from which
these forests have sprung still stands,
not yet an old tree, near the Roman
Catholic Cathedral on Fort street.
In driving out into the country near
Honolulu, you are surprised to find how |
few wayside flowers there are. You |
look in vain for anything corresponding |
with buttercups, daisies, suntiowers, |
goldenrods, asters or gentlans. You may, |
very rarely, see forlorn May weed-the |
plant was introduced long ago, but does |
not thrive and multiply-the bright coll |
ors are almost absent.
Yes, there are white poppy th1stles, |
Agemone Mexicana, as fine as you will
see anyWnere-a1lQ over EOChy ISeSCS |
YOU may see spread mantle of convol-
yulus, with profusion OF blossoms per
haps white striped with pink, perhaps
blue, pale, but vivid, changing TO pink.
Here and there the sand near the shore
may be carpeted with nohu-Zygophyl-
um tribulum-and surely nothing could
De more gay than the bold OF It's deli
lately fragrant blossoms 1ahukona
7iolets they are called locally. But, tor
he most part the flowers by the way
tide are inconspicuous and OF dull colors-
But you have forgotten lantana! No,
that is another story" Lantana can
lot be counted as a wayside wild flow
r. 1t has taken possession OF all the |
and and would leave no road at all II
perpetual warfare were not waged upon
t. Gay enough it is, but with its callco
olors covering hill and dale and feid,
on look in vain for the individual prize
which you could bring home as wild |
lower. For once nature has placed III !
uxtaposition in this plant harshly in
ongruous co1ors, but who could have
imagined thirty years ago that the care !
ully tended garden novelty seen here
nd there in Honolulu would within t
convert into impenetrable {
hicket half the pasture land Of Oahu? {
hose who have seen only the little 5
lants which in temperate chimes must