FLORA OF THE GROUP. 229 



and unique species in its aspect, perhaps, is a composite belonging exclusively to 

 the higher elevations known as the silversword."- In its general appearance 

 it might be related to almost anything more nearly than the sunflower and the 

 chrysanthemums to which botanists make it next of kin. Its stout, woody flower 

 stem, two or three inches in diameter and several feet high, is surrounded at the 

 base by a dense head of slender, rigid, dagger-like leaves, eight to sixteen inches 

 long, that are covered with white glistening silvery hairs. The flower heads are 

 large and striking, objects much admired by mountainers. The securing of a 

 specimen of the ahinahina, or of a second closely related species known as the 

 green silver-sword,*"'* from their home on the high mountains of Maui and Hawaii, 

 seven to twelve thousand feet above the sea, is a feat that even as yet but com- 

 paratively few have performed. 



In Hawaii the gathering of a silversword corresponds with the gathering of 

 the edelweiss in the Alps, and furnishes the adventurous climber a prize well 

 worth keeping as a memento of a trip that invariably costs nuTch in exertion if 

 not in actual peril. 



Another plant peculiar to the region is one of the half dozen species 

 of the shrubby Geranium, or nohuauu of the natives. The leaves are 

 usually covered on both surfaces with silvery hairs like the species just men- 

 tioned, but unlike them they are small and the flowers are regular and red or 

 white in color. 



The ]\Iount\in Hoc, Flor.v. 



Leaving these few plants and their less striking associates struggling for 

 existence at the limit of vegetation, we now return to consider for a moment the 

 most unique of all the Hawaiian flora, that which belongs to the mountain sum- 

 mits and table lands that are almost perpetually concealed in clouds at an elevation 

 of approximately 5,000 feet. Strange as it may seem, here and there about the 

 group are several curious mountain bogs that are nearly destitute of shrubby 

 plants of any size, but are clothed with a mat of grass, sphagnum moss and 

 sedges, together with a number of interesting plants of small size whose near 

 relatives are natives of the mountains of New Zealand, the Southern Andes and 

 the Antartic regions. It has been suggested that they represent the survivors 

 of an ancient flora that has been crowded out by the arrival of ne\v plants. 

 Whether it is that, or some equally interesting and significant fact in distribution 

 will doubtle.ss long remain open to discussion. The occurrence in such a locality 

 of several species of violets is remarkable to say the least, but a more curious 



'■ Argyroxiphium SaTidwicense. ^^ Arygroxiph 



(Description of Plate Continued from Opposite Page.) 



K,Ta|.i:i|M> ( .Uplenium. pseadofalcatum) . 7. Aspleniuvi sp. 8, 9, 10. Cibotium showing the 

 cli'v.lc>|ii]iciit nf a fern frond. 11. Asplenium contipuum. 12. sp. indet. 13. Peahi (I'ol.t)- 

 poiUuni siiictnim.) . 14. Aspidium sp. 1.5. Kilau (Trichommanes davalUoides) . 10. Staghorn 

 Fern [Uluhe] {Gleichenia linearis) = (Gl. dtchotoma) . 17. Wahine noho mauna (Polypodium 

 tamariscinum) . 18. Asplenium erectum. 19. Ekaha {Klnphofflossum = (Scrostichum) corn- 

 forme). 



