Economic Woods of Hawaii 705 



to show that many fine groves at the lower levels — 5,000-6,000 

 feet — have been destroyed by lava flows in relatively recent geologic 

 time. 



"The sandalwood {Santalus freycinetianum Gaud.) is a name 

 to conjiire with in Hawaii. In old monarchical days the sandal- 

 wood forests were the treasury houses of the kings. Sandalwood 

 was ready money, and was recklessly squandered, so that there is 

 now very Uttle sandalwood of commercial size."^ There are four 

 species of native sandalwood in Hawaii — 5. freycinetianum, 

 characteristic of xerophytic regions on all the islands ; S. ellipticum, 

 Gaud., confined to Oahu and Kauai, at elevations of 600-1,500 

 feet; 5. pyrularium Gray, restricted to Kauai, at elevations of 

 3,000-4,000 feet; and 5. Haleakalae Hillebd. , occurring only on 

 the slopes of Hale-a-ka-la, at elevations of 2,600-9,000 feet. 



In olden times the sandalwood — native name ili-ahi — often 

 attained heights of sixty to eighty feet, with trunks two to three 

 feet in diameter. The secretions of the fragrant oil increase with 

 age, so that the older trees are very much more valuable than the 

 young ones. Today it is difficult to find a sandalwood over 

 thirty-five feet high, and in most places they are small trees or 

 shrubs. 



The sandalwood is semi-parasitic in its feeding habits, and in 

 its seedling stages seems to be very dependent upon its haustorial 

 connections with the roots of other trees. No one has as yet 

 successfully germinated the seeds of the Hawaiian sandalwoods, 

 and this difficulty is apparently connected with the semi-parasitic 

 habit. One of its chief associates in the lower forest is the koa, 

 (Acacia koa), and it is likely that the young sandalwood tree 

 derives a portion of its sustenance from the koa. 



In the "sandalwood days" — 1790 to 1820 — ^the tree was 

 shamelessly exploited. The cargoes were sent to China, and the 

 Chinese designation for the Hawaiian Islands was Tan-Shan, 

 literally "the fragrant mountains." Although the prices received 

 by the Hawaiian chiefs for the wood were ridiculously small as 

 compared with the actual value of the product, in the height of 

 the period the income amounted to several hundred thousand 

 dollars annually. This extravagant exploitation came to a speedy 

 termination, the supply was exhausted, and today there is little 



' See The Woods of Hawaii, MacCaughey, Scientific American Supplement, 

 loc. cit. 



