The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-24

| be kept in pots half the year for fear Q
| injury from frost can hardly understan
| what | mean when | speak Of this plaI
| as In complete possession, but on Oah1
1t is not frost bit drought that IT has I,
contend with, and it seems impossible
| to scorch the life out OF the plant. Il
a tropical climate its growth IS astonish
Ingly robust. Three or four feet il
height IS a minimum; except in parchet
| regions, FIVE to eight feet IS more com
| mon, and in the borders Of the forest:
| where moisture IS abundant it become
almost a tree. l have piece of one o.
| the trunks that measures fully foul
| inches III diameter: the plant, supported
as 1t was by neighboring forest trees
was not less than twenty feet high. But
however favorable the climatic environ
ment, the lantana could never have
spread as II has without assistance It
found an ally in the newly introduced
nynah bird, which feeds on its fruit
and SO scatters far and wide its seeds.
Returning to the city. where Iantana
IS prescribed. We look about for garden
flowers. Every dwelling of any pre-
tension shows evidence of the care of a
yard man, who keeps up the grounds
tie could surely find time to plant and
tend a flower bed. but it is quite the
exception to find that he has done this
In place OF Towering plants, you will
md bordering the driveway and about
the dwelling, foliage plants and ferns
rather than flowers. Is it because the
yard man is not skilled horticulturist,
or IS there good reason why preference
IS given to the foliage plants? Custom
or fashion has something to do with it,
but custom is generally based on reason.
and here 1t is evident III the first place
that shade-loving plants must have the
and in the second that plants
which retain their beauty the year round.
and year after year will in the natural
course of things displace in a little while
the Towering plants which are not equal
ly perennial.
4 here is another reason. The eve
delights III color, and will not be content
with the beauty of form alone. But |
n Honolulu the flower bed is not |
necessity in order to satisfy this cray |
ng. II one has few oleander shrubs
not the spindling little plants seen |
n some countries in tubs, but perennial |
'heaves of bloom, redolent of perfume;
IN Alamanda vine shading the yeranda, |
md gorgeous the year round with its
sreat golden blossoms; perhaps a Thrul-
'ergia giving generously blue to supple
nent the gold, or if richer blue is
ought, Clitoria vine; hedge of scar
ct Hibiscus perpetual1y in bloom, and
me or two Plumierias, that may be I'M
5ainly in aspect for month or two
When the leaves drop from their club
Ike stems, but which make ample atone
nent the rest of the year in the pro-
usion of their fragrant, exquisitely
nodded, delicately tinted, starlike bios
oms; If one has few plants like these
e may rest satisfied as regards his APP
elite for color. Even without this, he
1ay have all through the summer
lonths almost surfeit of color A I!
eighbor has perhaps an arbor covered
nth a Bougainvillea vine. When the
losson1ing time comes, the deep green
t its foliage will be tlecked at first With | :
ruddy purple-rnore accurately MAJ !
enta-but soon the patches of color viii {
Dread and become continent, until the {
hole arbor is a mass of purple 1t !
GEMS like an experiment III decorative /
TT belonging to a primitive and bar !
aric stage. You are not sorry that /
ature has not yet repeated it. There I
re varieties of Bougainvillea, however,
a more pleasing color-salmon, brick
ID, even an orange scarlet. What is s
,nnarkable in all IS that it IS not the ! +
overs at all that are thus colored. 1t /
only the bracts that enclose the IN a
'nspicuous flower clusters. The plant G
OF the same family as the four O'Clock, 1
which, botanists tell us that the coli a
ed part IS calyx, not -coroIla. {
Another vine often trained over k
riches and barns, Bignonia, but I'M 5
le the Trumpet Creeper, makes the +
ougainvillea envious when it puts on il
gala. dress. Here again is solid col s
!, but no longer the suggestions of the b
re vat. 1t IS the color of living flame, I
IT uniform in tint, but full of lights b
Id shades such as belong to veritable b
me, and the plant wears this gorgeous Il
tire wholly concealing the every day Il
rn1ert Of green which it covers, for Ii
aells at a time, and more than once in c.
e year. o
More priced but less common is the r.
ephanotls, whose fragrant clusters in Il
cir season transform the trelliS into a Il
ow bank II
The same snow effect is produced
len the ungainly feshy stems of the b
cereus (Cereus triquetra) | Il
itch are piled up on stone fences, max Z
; the serlblance of an evergreen hedge, A
'the themselves, as they do once in re
zee or four weeks, through the sum b'
r months, with their giant lily bios ca
ms. There is one of those hedges at la
thu College, continuous stretch of P
o hundred yards, on which it is a
nmon thing to-see two thousand bios
rs at once-sometimes there have been
ZEE or four times that number. OF
1rse this snow melts under the morn
: sun. By nine o'clock in the morn
{ the glory is departed although the M
lowing night may see it restored The ed
mt blossoms two nights in succession, la
h perhaps few belated flowers for h.
third night, or few that anticipate -
general bloSsoming-thent there will as
a rest while a new crop of buds he