176 Mr. Scott Wilson on some 



chrysophylla), confined to the higher region of Hawaii only, 

 the ohia ai {Eugenia malaccensis) , another very local tree, 

 but the deep green foliage and pink fruits of which combine 

 to make it very attractive. To these must be added the 

 numerous species of gigantic tree-lobelias and the huge 

 tree-ferns, which latter are often over twenty feet in height 

 and four to five feet in circumference, the dark brown stems 

 and feathery fronds adding greatly to the beauty and tropical 

 aspect of a Hawaiian forest. These ferns are, moreover, 

 interesting from an ornithologist's point of view, as being 

 the favourite hunting-ground of the Akihiloa (Hemignathus 

 obscurus), which bird finds a soft material for its slender bill 

 to work in, and also insects innumerable, in the brown stems 

 of these graceful plants. 



I have now enumerated most of the trees to be found in 

 any quantity in the island of Hawaii, which may be said 

 to be fairly typical of the entire archipelago, although, as is 

 the case with its avifauna, the several islands each possess 

 peculiar species. But I must leave this for my forthcoming 

 work, in which I propose to describe in detail the forests 

 found on the different islands of the group. 



Although these are the principal trees constituting a forest 

 on Hawaii, one must not pass over the numberless creepers 

 which, especially in the lower and damper forest-zone, hang 

 in festoons from tree to tree, and thus form a complete net- 

 work of graceful greenery. Nor must one omit to make 

 mention of that most graceful of Hawaiian ferns, Gleichenia 

 hawaiiensis, to the tangled masses of which is due the 

 impenetrability of parts of the forests on the Sandwich 

 Islands, and especially on Lauai, which possesses but few 

 feral cattle. This fern seems to revel alike in damp and dry 

 soil, as it is as often found in great masses on the compara- 

 tively dry sides of the steep ravines, as in great fantastic 

 festoons hanging over the forest streamlets. The filmy ferns 

 and the moisture-laden mosses, which find their homes on 

 the tree-trunks in the sombre forest-depths, are interesting 

 alike to the botanist and to the lover of the beautiful in 

 nature. And it is in a great measure to the numerous 



