366 



say that the first trees planted on the Molokai Ranch were set 

 out before I came to the ranch in 1908. One of our men, M^-. 

 lames Munro, informs me that they were set out about the year 

 1905. The trees are from seed that came from Florida. They 

 now cover thinly about one mile of the shore. The planting of 

 the trees was for the purpose of holding back soil that is being 

 washed down by every heavy rain into the sea, and also as a 

 pasture plant for bees. I do not know of any other trees in the 

 Islands. In 1908 shortly after I came to Molokai we received a 

 lot of seed of the Philippine mangrove. These had been shipped 

 on a transport but were not landed till the steamer returned to 

 Honolulu from San Francisco. None of these germinated. 



'T have found volunteers from our trees growing along the 

 shore about five miles away. And the other day I found two 

 healthy seeds on our wdndward shore, to reach which the seeds 

 must have drifted on the currents at least sixty miles." 



THE PINEAPPLE GUAVA. 



A DELICIOUS SUBTROPICAL FRUIT. 



By Vaughan MacCaughey, College of Hazvaii. 



The true guavas (Psidium) are widely known and enjoyed 

 throughout tropic and subtropical regions, both as fresh fruit and 

 in the form of jam, jellies, etc. Closely related to them, how- 

 ever, is a little-known species, the Pineapple Guava, Feijoa Sel~ 

 loiviana. 



This species is native to subtropical South America, particular- 

 ly western Paraguay, southern Brazil, Uruguay, and parts of 

 Argentina. In these countries it is common in the forests. Al- 

 though not cultivated by the natives, the fruit is highly prized by 

 them. The designation Pineapple Guava refers to the flavor of 

 the fruit, which strongly resembles that of the pineapple. It is 

 also called Brazilian Guava or Fig Guava. It is not listed in 

 Wilder's book on Hawaiian fruits. 



It was named by Berg (Martins, Flora Braziliensis XIV, 1, p. 

 616, 1858), after material collected by Friedrich Sellow in Bra- 

 zil. The genus was dedicated by Berg to Joam de Silva Feijoa 

 (correctly pronounced fay-zho-a), director of the Museum of 

 Natural History at San Sebastian, Brazil. The first complete 

 and accurate description of the species was not made until forty 

 years later, by Dr. Edouard Andre, in Revue Horticole 70:265, 

 1896. Two other species have been described — F. ohovata Berg 

 and F. Schcnckiana Kiaersk, but the fruit of both these are un- 

 known. The genus is closely allied to Psidium, but distinguisli ■ 

 ed from it by albuminous seeds and stamens suberect in the bud. 



The only general account in the American literature is that 

 of F. \\'. Popenoe, in the Pomona College Jo^imal of Economic 

 Botany 2 (1912) No. 1, pp. 217-242, 13 figs.^ but this journal had 

 a limited circulation and has been defunct for several years. The 



