CONSPICUOUS TROPICAL PLANTS 



(Concluded.) 



T N driving out into the country near Honolulu you are sur- 

 ■'■ prised to find how few wayside wild flowers there are. 

 You look in vain for anything corresponding to our butter- 

 cups, daisies, sunflowers, golden rods, gentians or -asters. 

 You may, very rarely, see a 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 thistles {Argetnonc Mexicana). aS fine as you will 

 see on our western plains ; and over rocky ledges you may 

 see spread a mantle of convolvulus with profusion of blos- 

 soms, perhaps white striped with pink, perhaps blue, pale but 

 vivid, changing in the afternoon to pink; and here and there 

 the sand near the shore may be carpeted with Nohu {Zygo- 

 phyllum trihiihim) , and surely nothing could be more gay 

 than the gold of its delicately fragrant blossoms — Mahukona 

 violets they are called locally. But for the most part the 

 flowers by the wayside are inconspicuous and of dull colors.- 



But you have forgotten Lantana ! No, "that is an- 

 other story." Lantana cannot be counted as a wayside wild 

 flower. Originally introduced as a garden flower, it has 

 taken possessions of all tlie land, and would leave no road 

 at all, if perpetual warfare were not waged upon it. Gay 

 enougli it is, but with calico colors covering hill and dale and 

 field, you look in vain for the individual prize which you 

 could bring home as a wild flower. 



Returning to the city, where Lantana is proscribed, we 

 look about for garden flowers. In place of flowering plants 



