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very rich in tree species and indicate a type of forest which at 

 a former period covered the land hefore destructive lava flows 

 from Mauna Loa removed it. 



Among the most interesting of these and only three miles 

 west from the Volcano House at the edge of Kilauea is Kipuka 

 Puaulu, on the trail to Mauna Loa, comprising over 50 acres of 

 rich soil surrounded hy rough aa lava flows. Here, in this ver- 

 itahle hotanical oasis, situated at about 4,000 feet above the sea, 

 may be found a forest similar to that in the dry forest of the 

 lower forest zone and in addition many unique and rare species 

 of trees. One may readily escape from the wet climate of the 

 Volcano House and spend in this drier spot many profitable 

 hours drinking in the varied woodland scenes in this beautiful 

 park-like forest, studying the rare representatives of the botani- 

 cal world, or simply listening to the sweet singing indigenous 

 Hawaiian birds as they flash in and out of the sunlight in quest 

 of insects or nectar. 



H you are fortunate you will see the rare combination of the 

 scarlet apapane as he rests on the orange-yellow blossoms of 

 the maiuoni tree, or is scarcely distinguishable as he hovers about 

 the red blossoms of the ohia. 



To my mind, true lovers of nature who are soon satisfied with 

 the spectacular, will seek out this charming tree garden and 

 spend the larger part of their time there with profit and keen 

 enjoyment. 



Another smaller but curious spot supports a grove of koa 

 trees away out in the sterile desert about two and one-half miles 

 southeast of the lava lake. How the seven koa trees came to 

 establish themselves there, so many miles away from any of their 

 fellows, is hard to explain, but the grateful shade of this koa 

 oasis is a welcome spot to reach when one has spent most of 

 the day on the hot desert looking for pit craters and other vol- 

 canic formations or searching for solidified raindrops or human 

 footprints made in the fresh ash deposits a century ago. 



The more one studies into the forest trees of this region, the 

 more interesting the subject becomes, for here one may find the 

 trees producing the timber which the early Hawaiians depended 

 upon for their house posts and beams, for their wooden utensils 

 such as poi bowls and meat dishes, for their adze handles, fire 

 sticks, surf boards, canoes and idols. From certain trees they 

 used the bark for their paper cloth, from the bark of others 

 they made strong twine for their fish nets and even used a pois- 

 onous bark for stupefying fish. Other trees furnished perfume 

 and a sticky substance for snaring forest birds, whose feathers 

 were used in making the royal capes, and still others furnished 

 various dyes for coloring their paper cloth. From the tree fern 

 puhi stuffing for pillows and mattresses in later years was ob- 

 tained. 



To the newcomer these trees are all so strange that it seems a 



