The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-24
Six days without sight OF land.

Six days without sight OF land n
wonder there is excitement among tn
passengers when, in the dawn of tn
seventh day, they distinguish close a
hand outlines of mountains losing them
selves above in cloud
| With impotence they wait for day
light, eager to see once more the greer
of living plants. 1t is we'll that thei
eagerness does not hasten the imper
| turbable course of nature, for the vol
canic cones of the lee coast they ar
passing, though striking in outline, ar,
nearly bare of vegetation.
At last as we pass Diamond Head
with the entrance of the harbor only
three miles ahead, the growing light Ell
ables us to discriminate the deep greer
of the tree-en1bowered city, the palel
shades of grass lands and the rudy
brown of the great tufa cone in the fore
ground The fringe of cocoanut palms
along the Waikiki beach. distinguishablt
even to the naked eye although two
miles distant tells us that we are IN
the tropics. Otherwise, while the YER
dure delights the starved eye as verdure
there is nothing in it suggestive of trop-
zeal luxuriance Indeed, unless there
have been copious rains, the country
will strike one as rather parched.
A bOtanist, new to the tropics, will
with the vegetation seen thus in mass
he / 10 Ea1I
glass to make out details as the steamer
continues its course, parallel with the
shore, but at tantalizing distance, oW-
ing to the coral reef
Arrived at the dock he will look in
vain for any green thing Even the
water will be destitute of the weeds that
would seem to him prizes. He must
content himself with watching the ka-
naka boys, clad save for a breech cloth
in their bare, brown skins, diving for
the coins that passengers throw into the
water.
AT last he is safely slowed in what is
called a hack with the agreeable pros
pect o. a breakfast on shore occupying
a large part of his thoughts, and as he
is whirled on through town he catches
glimpses OF unfamiliar trees and shrubs
that make him impatient to form their
closer acquaintance.
The results of his observations in the
next lew days he may summarize some
what as follows: The streets of Homo
lulu for the most part are unshaded, al
though the city seems like one great
park-the houses, in their spacious
grounds empowered in trees and shrub
berry Palm trees abound Of numerous
species. Most stately of all is the royal
palm, always rigidly erect, its head of
few pinnate frOnds sur
the pale colored, smooth,
tapering column of its stem.
Less striking but more beautiful is the
late palm, whose slender, numerous
fronds curve gracefully outward and
whose erect, shaggy, massive trunk is
symbolic of strength in repose. There
ire palms with slender stems not more
han three inches in diameter, and TWEEN
y feet high, stocky palms with immense |
ronds twice as large and three times
IS numerous as those of the royal palm, |!
he stem two feet or more in diameter
md only ten or fifteen feet high, palms !
With smooth, strictly cylindrical jointed /
runks, looking like gigantic bamboos, .
an palms, feathery palms, palms with /
'erry-like drupes, palms with cone-like !
ruit, palms bearing nuts small and |
arge, naked and covered with a husk. .
Queen of them all with its slender, /
rocked trunk so to 100 feet high, its .
lume of magnificent, gracefully waving, |
elbow green fronds and its generous
urden OF fruit is the cocoanut palm, {
which however. finds the climate of
honolulu scarcely warm enough for its
nest development.
One will find i'll Honolulu very few
lants belonging to the original flora O
he islands Even the grasses and weeds
re nearly all exotic. The few 'lndl-
enous" trees occasionally planted are
fter all not aboriginal, having been
rought from the Polynesian islands
1rther south by the original settlers.
cry few species peculiar to the Hawai-
IN Islands are to be found anywhere ex-
apt in the forests of the interior, where
1ch species mostly originated. There
re, however, many species of Ettoral
lants which are widely distributed, the
.eds. tubers or stems being transported
ing distances without injury by the
lit sea water These, with some cos
opolitan ferns, whose spores are read1-
carried long distances by wind, or
adhering to the feathers or
ct of migratory birds, are about the
1ly truly native plants one will see in
e vicinity of Honolulu. Only few
the rs or more native ferns are
planted in gardens. The one ,
at will particularly attract attention is
e birdsnest fern, Neottopteris indus,
hich is frequently placed in the crotch
branching tree trunk, its favorite
cation in its habitat. One would not
cognize it at first glance as fern at
|. Its fronds are entire, to 5 feet j
NO. by 5 to 7 inches wide, forming i
gular crown. The foliage is rather 5
at Of an indigenous plant like the i
mana than a fern, but the spores grow g
. on its under surface beray it. t
The tree ferns which abound IN the
rest. and which are peculiar Hawai-