THE ECONOMIC WOODS OF HAWAII 

 By Vaughan MacCaughey^ 



The Hawaiian Archipelago is remarkable in its geographic and 

 biologic isolation, and in the highly endemic character of its fauna 

 and flora. Thereis no other land mass, of equal area, on the planet , 

 so remote from continental regions as is Hawaii. The islands lie 

 in the North Pacific Ocean, 2100 miles west of San Francisco, and 

 just within the tropics. The archipelago consists of over twenty 

 islands, extending from the great volcanic island of Hawaii in the 

 south-east, for a distance of two thousand miles to tiny Ocean 

 Island in the north-west. Only eight of these are inhabited; the 

 remainder are minute coral rings, sand islands, and barren vol- 

 canic rocks, with a combined area of less than twelve square miles. 

 The eight large islands — Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, 

 Lanai, Niihau, and Kahoolawe, in order of size — ^have a combined 

 area of 6,454 square miles. Hawaii, the largest island of the group, 

 has an area as great as that of all the others combined. 



These eight islands are, or were, all heavily forested in their 

 interior, mountainous districts. Within historic time there has 

 been extensive deforestation, and two of the smaller islands, Lanai 

 and Kahoolawe, have been stripped by goats and cattle of practi- 

 cally all their forest mantle. The forest is composed largely 

 of peculiar, endemic species, and presents many striking contrasts 

 to the familiar mainland forests. There is no other region in the 

 world with so large a percentage of endemic plant species as 

 Hawaii, and the great majority of these are perennial, woody, and 

 arborescent. A lumberman from Georgia, from Michigan, or 

 from the Puget Sound country would find in our Hawaiian forests 

 not a single familiar tree, not a single conifer, and but few species 

 that even faintly resemble those of the continental forests of the 

 United States.* 



The lowland climate of Hawaii is mild and equable throughout 

 the year, with an average of about 75° F. and extremes of 60" and 

 85**. There is a drop of about fom- degrees for every thousand feet 

 ascent; the high mountains of Maui and Hawaii (8,000-13,825 



1 Professor of Botany, College of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii. 

 * MacCaughey, V. The Forests of the Hawaiian Islands. Plant World, 

 vol. 20, 1916, pp. 162-166; 2 figs. 



Teaching dendrology in the Hawaiian Islands. F. Q., vol. XIV, pp. 46-9. 



696 



