26 The Journal 
who had collected the seed—who had, 
in fact, actually discovered the trees 
from which the seed came. 
When it was realized, not only that 
this wild cotton was scarce but that it 
might in a few years, or even in a few 
months, become extinct altogether, the 
Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Intro- 
duction took immediate steps to arouse 
interest in preserving it. The narrow 
margin of safety will be realized from 
an extract of one of Mr. Rock’s letters 
dated March, 1912: 
“T have been on the island of Hawaii 
for two months and have just visited 
the section in which these most inter- 
esting and beautiful trees grow. I am 
sorry to say that some of the trees I 
found alive on my last visit have died; 
but I found another section where 
there are three more trees in very good 
condition. I have brought up the ques- 
tion of preserving these trees, but until 
now hardly anything has been done. 
“The lessee of the land of Puuwaa- 
waa, where some of the trees grow, has 
just applied for some more land where 
these last-found trees grow, and I have 
suggested that it be made a condition 
in the lease that these trees be fenced 
off in such a way as to protect them 
from any kind of animal. Each tree 
will be given an area of half an acre, in 
order to protect the growth of young 
trees. The question now 1s to protect 
the trees by law from the inhabitants, 
who strip the trees of their bark, which 
they use in dyeing their fish-nets; the 
color of the sap is reddish and it is 
waterproof.” 
DANGER FROM CATTLE 
Mr. Rock adds that the trees grow 
on very arid land where vegetation is 
scarce; cattle therefore strip the trees 
of all the branches they can reach. The 
fruiting season is in July or earlier. 
“On Molokai,” he continues, ‘the 
of Heredity 
kokio has become a thing of the past, 
as the last tree which I found on the 
west end of the island has succumbed 
to the ravages of sheep, goats, and 
cattle. 
‘““Many are the trees that should be 
protected; for example, the newly- 
described genus, Hibiscadelphus, with 
two species, of each of which there is 
only one tree in existence.’ Cattle are 
doing great harm to the native trees, 
and I venture to say that not many 
years hence these interesting plants 
will be a thing of the past.” 
It was thereupon arranged to have 
all the available kokio seed in Hawaii 
gathered each year and sent to Wash- 
ington, and the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture wrote the governor 
of Hawaii on the subject. He promptly 
took steps to protect the kokio trees, 
in an effective way. 
Meantime, Mr. Lewton had been 
studying botanical specimens which Mr. 
Rock had collected from the island of 
Hawaii, and found they were different 
from those earlier described from the 
islands of Molokai and Oahu. Further 
deciding that the kokio was too different 
from the true cottons to be included in 
the same genus, he established the new 
genus, Kokia,* for them, retaining the 
original form as K. drynarioides and 
giving to the form from Hawaii the 
name KX. rocki, in honor of its discoverer. 
In the next year several pounds of 
kokio seed were received by the Office 
of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, 
and distributed to more than sixty 
botanical institutions throughout the 
world, mostly in tropical and subtropical 
countries. In general, attempts to grow 
the seed met with poor success, but 
they were established in several different 
localities. The distribution will be con- 
tinued for some time, in order that this 
genus may become as widely dispersed 
as possible. 
3 The loss to science, if any considerable part of the native flora of the Hawaiian Islands is 
destroyed, may be inferred from the fact that about 80% of the species in the islands are endemic— 
that is, are found in no other region. 
is surpassed only by Western Australia, where it approaches 85. 
species in Central America is 70, in India 60, in Ceylon less than 30. 
Excluding small islands such as St. Helena, this percentage 
The percentage of endemic 
It is obvious that the loss 
of a species from Hawaii will in four cases out of five mean its loss to the entire world. 
4 Lewton, Frederick .L. Kokia. 
Vol. 60, part 5, Oct. 22, 1912. 
accented on the middle syllable. 
A new genus of Hawaiian trees. 
Like the native name on which it is founded, this generic name is 
Smithsonian Mise. Coll., 
