THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 21 



is in its glory — great clusters of the deep red, luscious-look- 

 ing "apples" clinging about its branches and larger limbs 

 everywhere. Juicy and refreshing the fruit is, but rather in- 

 sipid. 



Conspicuous among the trees planted for shade in the 

 city, as well as in its nativ^e haunts in the valleys of the in- 

 terinr, I)y the paleness of its silvery foliage, is the kukui or 

 candlenul tree {.llcinitcs triloba). The fruit looks like that 

 of our black walnut, but is larger and frequently contains two 

 nuts. These are !iearl\' as large as the bjiglish walnut, with 

 a >hell as hard as that of a hickory, from which are carved 

 effective ornaments, black as jet and capable of receiving a 

 high polish. The kernels are very oily and were used by the 

 natives to make torches, being simply strung on a thin splint 

 of bamboo, whence, to this dav, a lamp is in the vernacular 

 an \\m kukui. 



Another native plant, abundanir in the mountains, you 

 will often see planted for hedges, a Dracaena, more properly 

 Conlyliuc Init with green, not red or variegated foliage. The 

 natives call \t: "ti" (pronounced like our word tea), and find 

 many uses for it. The roots, which are three to six inches 

 thick and several feet long, are baked or steamed in imus or 

 underground ovens, sugar being produced abundantlv in the 

 process, although none is present in the uncooked root. The 

 baked root is eaten, or rather chewecMike sugar cane, and the 

 juice sucked from it. but the principal use* made of it bv the 

 natives is to produce okolehao. a kind of whiskev. The 

 leaves take the place of wrai)ping paper in the fish market or 

 grocery store. Haolis (white people) make a bungle of put- 

 ting up packages with it, but the native Hawaiian is very 

 dexterous in its use. and the imitative Chinaman succeeds 

 equally well. The Hawaiian shows the same kind of dexter- 



