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Preliminary List of Plants Growing 



in Mrs. Mary E. Foster's Grounds, 



Nuuanu Avenue, Honolulu 



By Joseph F. Rock, Consulting Botanist. 



The following preliminary enumeration of plants growing 

 under cultivation in Mrs. Mary E. Foster's grounds on Nuuanu 

 Avenue, Honolulu, is by no means complete. There are still a 

 great many trees on the grounds which, owing to their being 

 neither in flower nor in fruit, cannot be identified at present. The 

 same holds good for a number of palms. Some of the plants 

 omitted could be enumerated by their generic name only, but 

 these have been reserved for a later date, when it is hoped that 

 the writer will be enabled to publish an additional list completing 

 the enumeration. 



The residential grounds occupied by Mrs. Foster belonged orig- 

 inally to the late Dr. William Hillebrand, a resident physician of 

 Honolulu for twenty years and an ardent botanist, well known 

 in the botanical world through his excellent "Flora of the Ha- 

 waiian Islands." It was due to his enthusiasm that Honolulu 

 has at present so many beautiful and rare flowering trees, for a 

 great many plants which are now very common were introduced 

 by him in the early days. His grounds on Nuuanu Avenue are 

 a veritable jungle full of beautiful palms and rare flowering trees 

 and shrubs gathered from all parts of the world at great expense, 

 and many of which have as yet not been planted elsewhere in the 

 Territory. 



Of great interest are the palms, and special mention may be 

 made of Arenga zcightii (plate 4), a relative of the sugar palm. 

 It is stoloniferous, sending out young plants from an underground 

 creeping rhizome. Corypha umhracuUfcra, the Taliput palm of 

 the Singhalese (plate 2), is also represented. It is the largest 

 leaved of the fan palms, the leaves having a diameter of 13 feet. 

 It flowers the last year of its life, producing a great abundance 

 of seeds. Another remarkable palm is the Oreodoxa olcvacea, 

 the cabbage palm, of which there is one very tall specimen on 

 the grounds over 100 feet in height. 



Of the genus Ficus, six or seven species are to be found. vSpeci- 

 mens have been collected and, with others found elsewhere in the 

 Territory, have been sent on to Mr. Merrill in the Philippines, 

 who has consented to determine them for us. 



FiLICES. 



Cihotiurn chamissoi Kaulf. Hapu. Hawaii, 



