242 XATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



giving it a thick comma shape. When ripe the fruit is a rich yellow with apple- 

 red cheek on the side turned toward the sun. But they vary in size, shape and 

 color as mncli as apples do, for, like the apple, they seldom come true from the 

 seed. 



The tree is supposed to have originally come from India. It is the only one 

 of thirty or more species belonging to the genus Mangifera that has any value. 

 As many as five hundred varieties have been reported from India, and perhaps 

 forty or fifty of the best sorts to be found are established in Honolulu. While 

 usually grown from seed they may also be propagated by budding. This, un- 

 fortunately, is a somewhat difficult process involving much care and skill. Within 

 the last few years the trees here have been affected with a blight not common 

 elsewhere. It is due to a fungus disease that is thought to be aided in spreading 

 b>' the blue-bottle flies and other insects carrying the spores from flower to flower. 

 It will be noticed that the sooty mould, when severe, often gives the whole tree a 

 blackened ajipearance. 



]MONKEY-POD. 



In almost every yard and square about the city, and indeed over the whole 

 group, will be found one or more monkey-pod trees. -^ The better name for the 

 tree is samang; although it is sometimes called the rain-tree, since it blossoms 

 at the beginning of the rainy season in its native home in tropical America. 

 It is an exotic, having long been introduced. It belongs to the great group of 

 acaeia-like plants, and has compound or multi-compound leaves. Like most of its 

 relatives it has the habit of closing its leaves in sleep at night. After sun- 

 down it presents a Avilted appearance and does much toward changing the aspect 

 of the whole city after nightfall. Trees of this species that are several feet 

 in diameter at the girth and spreading shade over a space 150 feet across, 

 ai-c to lie commonly seen about the islands. It is a permanent shade tree, and aside 

 from the litter of the discarded leaves and pods and a slightly ragged appear- 

 ance during the winter season it is highly desirable as an ornamental tree. As 

 a tree to be planted along the sidewalks it is hardly to be recommended, as it 

 grows at such a furious rate that it is liable to lift the walk and injure the 

 curbing It is therefore a tree better suited to ample lawns, open spaces and 

 parks. 



The Alg.vrob.v. 



Of all the introduced trees the algaroba -" is the favorite. It is a mesquite, 

 perhaps of the southwestern United States and Mexico, and has been greatly im- 

 proved and modified by the change of environment. The original tree in Hawaii 

 grew from a seed planted in 1837 on Fort street, near Beretania, by Father 

 Batchelot, founder of the Roman Catholic mission. It is thought that the seed 

 was brought from Mexico, though this point is far from being settled by the his- 

 torians of the islands. The tree is still in a thrifty condition and is the pro- 



'^ Pithecolobiiim .Snnuniii. "^ Prosn/iis juUflurii. 



