THE MANGROVE 



By Vaughan MacCaughy. 



ONE of the most abundant and characteristic trees along 

 tropical and subtropical coasts, throughout the world, is 

 the mangrove. This tree possesses a number of highly interest- 

 ing peculiarities. It grows in salt water and forms impene- 

 trable thickets with its branching serial roots. It does not have 

 true seeds, but is viviparous and the young plants are remark- 

 ably adapted for life in their marine nursery. 



The mangrove is a notable land-builder. It has added 

 thousands of miles of terra jiniia to the coast lines which it 

 inhabits. The writer, who has been interested for the past 

 decade in the natural history of Hawaii, has often deplored 

 the absence of mangrove swamps in the Hawaiian Archi- 

 pelago, both from the economic standpoint and from the 

 standpoint of the general natural history interest of such a 

 life zone. The absence of the mangrove from Hawaii is 

 another evidence of the profound isolation of this Archipelago 

 through long [)eriods of time. The coasts of the Hawaiian 

 Islands, both naturally and as a result of the devastations of 

 man and his live stock, are singularly barren of arborescent 

 vegetation. There are extensive areas, particularly on the 

 islands of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai and Ahuii. that are admir- 

 al )1\- adapted to the mangrove and that would be greatly bene- 

 fitted by the presence of this valuable land-building tree. 



The mangrove tree was not generally known to have been 

 introduced into the ilawaiian Islands, until the writer by 

 chance discovered a line si)ecimen growing in a fish pond at 

 the Kalihi Farm, near Honolulu, belonging to the Alexander 

 Young Estate. This tree was i)lanted by Mr. Allan Herbert 



