The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-15
Continued from yesterday.)

Other fruits that will be found in Ho-
nolulu are the South American mammee
apple, fine tree with handsome foliage:
the poniegranate, planted as an orna-
mental shrub rather than for the sake
of its fruit: the pineapple, in numerous
varieties; the loquat (Rosaceous); the
Java plum and so-called Spanish cherry
1both Myrtaceous) and the familiar
peach. Very few of the fruits of the
temperate zone will grow in Honolulu
Apples. pears, plums, cherries, as well
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 long ago in Nuuanu Cemetery,
and perhaps for this reason is scarcely
seen elsewhere. Instead of pines and
spruces, we find araucarias, which GER
tainly supply their places very well, ard
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 frequent
ly mistaken for a confer is the IRON
wood, Casuarin equisetifolia, probably
Originally a native of Australia, although
now widely distributed in tropical coun-
tries. A leaf1ess tree with dropping fla
mentous branchlets stimulating the foli-
age of the pines, and with a fruit quite
as cone-lIke IN appearance certainly as
that of the juniper, it might with great
show of plausibility claim relationship
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 is
lands forks were made of it to be used
exclusively IL the cannibal feasts. Elk
cept III eating human flesh they used
simply their fingers. The tree was not
known, however, to the aboriginal Ha-
waiianS.
One of the finest exotic shade trees is
the samang. commonly known in Homo
lulu as the monkey-pod tree. 1t is one
of the numerous legufninous trees that
have been introduced-nost of them be-
longing to the Acacia or TO the Cassia
group, and having accordingly com
pound or decomDound 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 exhuberant vital
ity. The foliage may become a little
ragged in winter, but only preparatory
to a more glorious rehabilitation, which
eliminates with its poisoning time.
when for weeks the deep, rich green OF
its foliage is seen as through haze or
mist of rose-purple. The blossoms, like
those of other acacias, are tassels con-
sisting mostly of the conspicuous flla-
ments. A tree twenty years old may
have a bole twelve or fifteen feet III
girth, and cover with its shade a circle
hundred feet in diameter. The saniang
obviously, like the banyan, also OCCASION
ally seen in Honolulu, is tree for the
wealthy man For the poor-and for the
rich as well-there is the algaroba, the
tree that more than any other gives
character to the Honolulu landscapes.
What the elm is to those in the North
ern States, the algaroba is to the kama
alma in Honolulu. It's lank, lawless,
often contorted, branches are too con-
spicuous, but they have a picturesque
ness of their own, and if we have been
inclined to take ofense at them on ar
tistic considerations, there is a grace in
the poise of its slender branchlets and
witcherv in their wa--ing to the breeze,
and a Iiphtheartedness and abandon with
which the living tree gives itself to play
with sunlight and shower, with gale and
zephyr, that makes irresistible appeal to
that in the human life that reflects the
life universal.
Not on sentimental grounds only IS
the algaroba favorite 1t IS tree
easily propagated and of rapid growth
Its diaphanous shade rnoderates 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 kltch-
en-. fodder Gin its saccharine podsl tor
the horses. and honey of finest quality
for the beehive Finally its roots go so
deep that they find water for vigorous
growth where other trees can be kept
alive only by irrigation. The arid low
lands on the lee coasts of Oahu, Molo-
kai and Hawaii have been converted
from desert to forest by the algaroba
tree. And the parent tree from which
these forests have sprung still stands,
not vet an old tree, near the Roman
Catholic Cathedral on Fort street
In driving out into the country near
Honolulu, you are surprised to ind how
few wavside flowers there are. You
look in vain for anything corresponding
with buttercups, daisies, sunfiowers,
qoldenrods, asters or gentians. You
may. very rarely, see forlorn May
weed-the plant was introduced long
ago. but does not thrive and multiply
the bright colors are almost absent.
Yes. there are white poppy thlstles,
Agemone Mexicana, as fine as you VIII
see anywhere-and over rocky Lodges
Won NAV see spread a mantle OF convol-
yulus. with profusion of blossoms per-
hans white striped with pink, perhaps +
blue. pale, but vivid, changing to pink
Here and there the sand near the shore