254 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



however, Mowers iire planted, but usiuilly such hardy hhionicrs as white and pink 

 Vinca^i will have their place alxiut the base of a palm tree or by the siarden 

 wall, and likewise the beautiful lilne phloxdike Icadwort ^-' will be seen, but as a 

 rule the tiowers that one sees are sueh as rei|uire litth^ eare and are perennials. 

 As there is abundant color in the tiowerini;' trees and shrubs one does not miss 

 the old-fashioned tiowers as nnieh as otherwise would be the case. 



The old-fashioned four o'clock •'•' is a familial' tiower so lony- estalilished in 

 Hawaii, that, in favorable situations, it has escaped and grows by the roadside. 

 They are handsome, branching' herbs with opposite leaves, the lower petiolate, 

 the upper sessile, and with quite large, often fragrant, flowers which are white, 

 scarlet, or variegated. There are perhaps a dozen other species that are native 

 to the warmer parts of America, a few of which are occasionally cultivated, but 

 the common four-o'clock, or marvel of I'eru, is the one usually seen. It derives 

 its name from the fact that the flowers open daily in the late afternoon. 



Occasionally the curious sprouting-leaf plant, or "air" plant, ^' will be seen 

 in some neglected corner, and will be identified as a begonia-like plant that may- 

 be propagated by leaf cuttings. In fact, if one of the thick, fleshy leaves is 

 pinned to the wall, little plants will spring uii from the notches on the edge of 

 the leaf. 



Night-blooming Cereus. • 



It would not do to draw this long chapter to a close withoiit mention of the 

 wonderful blooms of the night-blooming Cereus.-*" Likel.v as not fragments have 

 been carelessly jiiled on the stone fence at the bottom of the garden where the.v 

 have grown unnoticed until they have transformed an unsightly feniT' into 

 the sembhince of a sprawling evergreen hedge. At iiitei'vals of not more 

 than a few weeks, especially during the summer, it clothes its ungainly, fleshy, 

 triangular stems with giant creamy-white, lily-like blossoms a foot or more 

 in diameter. Few there are who have visited Honolulu and not been delighted 

 by the famous cactus hedge at Punahou Academy. On the wall about the campus 

 is a continuous stretch of Cereus, five or six hundred yards in length, on which 

 thousands of these great flowers may be seen in blossom each year. They open 

 soon after the s\ni goes down and I'emain in full bloom during the night. lint 

 by nine o'clock of the following day the glory of the night before will have de- 

 parted, although the following night belated blossoms will somewhat restore it. 

 Fortunate, indeed, is the visitor whose 'ramble in a Honolulu garden' has been 

 so timed that he may be pi'csent at the "Cereus season," since the occasion is 

 without doubt one of the most remarkable and wonderful of the city's many 

 floral exhibitions. The night-blooming Cereus is a wonderful climber; it has 

 clambered high into many large algaroba trees in llouolulu, its maii-nificent 

 blo.ssoms tantalizing beholders by being out of reach. 



" rincn ro«ea. *' Plumbnga Caprnsis. >-iMlmlnUH J<dn,'ii. << Br,„;,l,„llini, ruliiritiuw. 



