REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 



the Hawaiians call it. It is found in a belt on the lowlands along the shores 

 of all the islands and occupies the soil almost to the exclusion of other plants. 

 The pods are very nutritious and are eagerly eaten by all kinds of stock. The 

 flowers furnish an excellent quality of honey. The prickly-pear cactus has 

 become extensively naturalized in the dryer portions of all the islands. The 

 ranchmen utilize this for feed when other kinds become scarce, the cattle eating 

 the succulent joints in spite of the thorns. Two introduced shrubs now occupy 

 extensive areas and have become great pests. These are guava, whose fruit 

 furnishes the delicious guava jelly, and lantana, with clusters of handsome 

 parti-colored flowers. 



The indigenous flora is highly interesting though not abundant in species. 

 Two of the commonest trees are the ohia and the koa. The former, also called 

 ohia lehua and lehua, resembles, in the appearance of the trunk, our white 

 oak, but bears beautiful clusters of scarlet flowers with long-protruding sta- 

 mens. The koa produces a valuable wood much used in cabinetmaking, now 

 becoming familiar through its use for making ukuleles. Among the peculiar 

 plants of the islands is the silversword, a strikingly beautiful composite with 

 glistening silvery leaves, which grows only on the slopes of cinder cones in 

 the crater of Haleakala and in a few very limited localities on Hawaii. The 

 family Lobeliaceae is represented by about 100 species belonging to 6 genera. 

 The numerous arborescent species are very peculiar and characteristic. Many 

 of them form slender trunks like small palms, crowned with a large cluster of 

 long narrow leaves. The trunks of some species are as much as 30 or 40 

 feet high, and the large bright colored flowers are sometimes remarkably 

 beautiful. 



The indigenous grasses of the Hawaiian Islands are not numerous. Three 

 peculiar species of Panicum inhabit the open bogs formed on the tops of many 

 of the high mountains in the wet zone such as Mount Eeka and Mount Kukui 

 in west Maui, some of the peaks of Molokai and Oahu, and Waialeale in 

 Kauai, that upon the latter covering in all several square miles. These bogs 

 are found near the summits or ridges in the regions of heavy rainfall, are de- 

 void of trees and shrubs, and harbor a peculiar vegetation. 



CINCHONA BOTANICAL STATION. 



Recently the Institution has acquired a three years' lease of the 

 Cinchona Botanical Station at Jamaica, comprising about 10 acres 

 of land, with offices, laboratories, and other buildings, for the fur- 

 therance of our knowledge of West Indian botany. Assignments of 

 botanists who desire to prosecute studies there are made on the 

 recommendation of organizations which have cooperated with the 

 Institution in securing the use of this important field for botanical 

 investigations. 



BIOLOGICAL WORK IN CHINA. 



Mr. Arthur de C. Sowerby has continued his work in northeastern 

 China though conditions have been so unsettled as to make collecting 

 extremely difficult. A shipment of natural history specimens to the 

 Museum from Mr. Sowerby received May 27, included 186 bird skins, 

 44 mammals, 1 reptile, 16 fishes, and other miscellaneous natural his- 

 tory objects. 



