TEACHING DENDROLOGY IN THE HAWAIIAN 



ISLANDS 



By Vaughan MacCaughey^ 



The study of trees and their timbers has won a place of recog- 

 nized technical standing, not only in the curriculum of foresters, 

 but also in the training of the engineer. In every realm of 

 structural engineering there has been felt increasingly the neces- 

 sity for accurate knowledge of timber sources and timber prod- 

 ucts. The rapid shrinkage of the world's great lumber supplies 

 is enforcing rigid economy in the use of wood for structural 

 purposes, and this economy is reflected in a growing knowledge 

 of the specific properties and uses of wood. In the engineering 

 courses offered by the College of Hawaii, a one-semester, three- 

 credit course in dendrology is required for graduation. 



The unique and interesting flora of the Hawaiian Archipelago ; 

 the peculiar geographic and biologic isolation of this island world ; 

 the diversified forests, varying widely in composition, rainfall, 

 altitude, and economic uses ; the entire dependence of the local 

 lumber markets upon supplies from California and Puget Sound — 

 these and other conditions give a distinctly local atmosphere to 

 the teaching of dendrology in Hawaii. Many of the students 

 have never been away from their island home, and to them 

 the names of maple, elm, ash, hickory, pine, and oak are almost as 

 lacking in concrete associations as the names kukui, lehua, koa, 

 kiawe, lama, would be to the average mainlander. 



The course in dendrology is organized around four phases or 

 aspects of the subject, as follows: First, the structure and life 

 history of the tree as an individual ; the physiological processes 

 of the tree ; modes of reproduction ; ecologic adaptations. Second, 

 the formation and development of the forest as a whole ; the for- 

 est floor, canopy, wood-volume ; the life of the forest ; conserva- 

 tion. Third, the forests and important forest trees of the 

 Hawaiian Islands; of the mainland United States; and great for- 

 est areas in other parts of the world. Fourth, detailed studies 

 of the histologic structure of representative woods ; and the 



* Professor, College of Hawaii, Honolulu. 

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