110 JOURNAL OF THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM [vol. i 



and twisted branches and between these extremes there is every conceivable 

 condition, but the tree form is rare. The leaves are bright green and not 

 pungent, and the fruit is shining chestnut brown and glaucous along the 

 edges of the confluent scales. Formerly it was a common tree and was 

 called "Sj^ruce" by the original Bonin Islanders and used by them for posts 

 in their houses and for fuel. It is peculiar to these Islands but in books the, 

 Liukiu Juniper, which is nothing but the wide-spread littoral J. conferta 

 Pari., and the Formosan and Chinese J.formosana Hay, have been confused 

 w^ith it. It had not been introduced to cultivation until I sent to the 

 Arnold Arboretum seeds gathered on my visit. 



Of the four Monocotyledonous trees three of them togc^ther form the 

 dominant features of the whole arborescent flora of the Bonins. The 

 Screw Pine {Pcnidanus honinensis Warb.) is a handsome species often 8 

 meters tall with many rope-like aerial roots and a dichotomously much- 

 branched crown of dull green leaves. On young plants the leaves are clear 

 green. The fruit is orange-colored, as large as a man's head and very 

 heavy; the seeds are edible and are much sought after by the Fruit-bat 

 {Ptcropus pselapJum Andersen), the only mammal indigenous to the L>lands. 

 The Pandanus is common from sea-level to mountain tops but is a light-de- 

 manding tree and does not thrive in the dense forest shade. It is probably 

 the most common tree on the Islands and is much used as a windbreak with 

 the Fan Palm (Livistona chinensis R. Br.) and Calophyllum Inophyllum L. 

 around sugar-cane plantations. 



The Cocoanut has been sparingly planted by Jaj)anese but It also occurs 

 as a strand tree although it is rare. Planted in front of the cottage of the 

 Rev. J. Gonzales at Omura, Chichi-jima, is a fruiting Cocoanut-trcc grown 

 from a nut picked up on the beach and planted by him a number of years 

 ago. The other two Palms are abundant, and it was the Cyphokentia to- 

 gether with fresh water that made the Islands famous in the days of whaling 

 ships. It is the Cabbage Palm mentioned in all the accounts of the Islands. 

 As a vegetable it is the core of the stems of young trees say 2 meters tall and 

 not more than 20 centimeters in girth, that is esteemed and whirh I tried 

 and found delicious, but this means the destruction of the plants. In spite 

 of this annihilation carried on for nearly a century this Palm is still plentiful 

 in gullies on the sparsely populated Muko-jimaand Ani-jima. It is not un- 

 common on Chichi-jima but comparatively scarce on Ilaha-jima, the two 

 large islands. It is a slender tree from 10 to 15 meters tall, crowned with a 

 tuft of pinnate, arching, dark green leaves. It is the "Areca oleracea" of 

 Captain Beechey and has been wrongly referred by botanists to Plychos- 

 perma elegans Bl. which is an Australian Palm. The Fan Palm is Livistona 

 chinensis R. Br. which 1 have also seen growing wild on Aharen Island of 

 the Liukiu group, and by Japanese botanists is considered to be indigenous 

 in parts of south Japan. The oval, bluish green fruit is a favorite food of 

 pigeons, and thus might easily be carried long distances when the birds are 



blown out to sea by storms. It is a sturdy tree often 16 meters tall, rearing 

 itself above its companion plants and topped by a mop-hke head of large, 



