scanty grass vegetation. The trees on this lower plain are mainly Straussia and 
its associates, such as Charpentiera obovata, Pisonia inerm is, var. leiocarpa, with 
occasionally a Pelea. The trees are so scattered that one can count them easily. 
This somewhat mixed forest passes gradually into an Ohia lehua (Metrosideros 
polymorpha) forest, with Suttonia Lessertiana (Kolea). Were also the lobe- 
haceous shrub Clermontia coerulea, somewhat different from that of Kau, is 
present. It descends, however, as low as 1500 feet, but then only on the aa 
flows, as will afterwards be described. The forest in this section is as a whole 
very uniform. 
The Ohia lehua gradually passes into the Koa forest, if such it can still be 
called; for nowhere has the writer found such a pitiable sight as the Koa forest 
presents in this district at about 3000 feet up to 5000 feet elevation. Here 90 
per cent of these giant Koa trees are dead; their huge limbs dangle in the air 
on pieces of fibrous strings of bark, ready to drop, if stirred by the slightest 
breeze. The remaining 10 per cent of trees are in a dying condition, and in a 
very few years the country will be entirely denuded. Huge masses of trunks 
and limbs are scattered over the ground, and it is really difficult to ride through 
this remnant of forest. It is also dangerous, as any minute a few huge limbs 
may drop from the heights above. Trees reach here a height of 80 feet or more. 
This condition is mainly due to the cattle, which have destroyed all the under- 
shrubs and also injured the trees, which are then readily attacked by insects. It 
may be remarked that native insects, especially beetles, do not attack healthy 
trees, but only such as have been injured. 
As we ascend farther the dead Koa trees are associated with M yoporum sand- 
wicense (Naio), Sophora chrysophylla, Suttonia Lessertiana, and Santalum 
Freycinetianum, the Iliahi, or true Sandalwood of commerce, of which trees 50 
feet in height and trunks a foot and a half in diameter, are not uncommon. 
Next to Koa, Sandalwood is most numerous; but, like the former, most of it is 
destroyed. It differs from the Sandalwood found in other parts of Hawaii in 
its smooth, black bark and very dark green, glossy leaves. The wood is also ex- 
eeedingly fragrant. 
That the undergrowth must have been intensely interesting is evidenced by 
the fact of the abundance of vines on aa flows which intersect this forest area, 
and are very seldom frequented or even crossed by eattle. Lower down at an 
elevation of 1500 feet these aa flows present a dense jungle of ie-ie vines, many 
species of trees, mainly the rubiaceous Straussia and urticaceous Urera and 
Pipturus. Ferns are abundant as well as one or two lobeliaceous Clermontia. 
Higher up the main tree is Ohia lehua together with Sandalwood, which on 
these flows is in splendid condition. At an elevation of 4600 feet Sophora 
chrysophylla has encroached on the aa, but not the Koa. On the margins of the 
flows and in eracks and fissures many species of Labiatae thrive, the most num- 
erous representative of which is the genus Stenogyne. Trailing over aa lava 
we find Stenogyne rugosa var. ., St. cordata, St. sessilis, while climbing over 
43 
