FLORA OF THE GROUP. 229 



and unique species in its aspect, perhaps, is a composite belonging exclusively to 

 the higher elevations known as the silversword."- In ils general appearance 

 it might be related to almost anything more nearly than the sunflower and the 

 chrysanthemums to which botanists make it next of kin. Its stout, woody tiower 

 stem, two or three inches in diameter and several feet high, is surrounded at the 

 base by a dense head of slender, rigid, dagger-like leaves, eight to sixteen inches 

 long, that are covered with white glistening silvery hairs. The tiower heads are 

 large and striking, objects much admired by mountainers. The securing of a 

 specimen of the ahinahina, or of a second closely related species known as the 

 green silver-sword,*'^ from their home on the high mountains of Maui and Hawaii, 

 seven to twelve thousand feet aliove the sea, is a feat that even as yet l)ut com- 

 paratively few have performed. 



In Hawaii the gathering of a silversword corresponds with the gathering of 

 the edelweiss in the Alps, and furnishes the adventurous elim])er a prize well 

 worth keeping as a memento of a trip that invariably costs much in exertion if 

 not in actual peril. 



Another plant peculiar to the region is one of the half dozen species 

 of the shrubby Geranium, or nohuanu of the natives. The leaves are 

 usually covered on both surfaces with silvery hairs like the species just men- 

 tioned, l)ut unlike them they are small and the flowers are regular and red or 

 white in color. 



The ^Mountain Bog Flora. 



Leaving these few plants and their less striking associates struggling for 

 existence at the limit of vegetation, we now return to consider for a moment the 

 most unique of all the Hawaiian flora, that which belongs to the mountain sum- 

 mits and table lands that are almost perpetually concealed in clouds at an elevation 

 of approximately 5,000 feet. Strange as it may seem, here and there about the 

 group are several curious mountain bogs that are nearly destituto of shrubby 

 plants of any size, but are clothed with a mat of grass, sphagniun moss and 

 sedges, together with a number of interesting plants of small size whose near 

 relatives are natives of the mountains of New Zealand, the Southern Andes and 

 the Antartic regions. It has been suggested that they represent the survivors 

 of an ancient flora that has been crowded out l)y the arrival of new plants. 

 Whether it is that, or some equally interesting and significant fact in distribution 

 will doubtless long remain open to discussion. The occurrence in such a locality 

 of several species of violets is remarkable to say tlie least, but a more curious 



"" Argyroxiphium Sandwicense. ^^ Arygroxiphium virescens. 



(Description of Plate Continued from Opposite Page.) 



Kaapeape (Asplenium pseudofalcat uin) . 7. Asplenium sp. 8, 9. 10. Cibotium sliowing the 

 development of a fern frond. 11. Asplenium ro)iti<iuii)»- 12. sp. indet. 13. Poalii (Pol}/- 

 podium spectrum) . 14. Aspidium sp. in. Kilau (T ricliom manes davallioides). Ki. Stajjliorn 

 Fern [Uluhe] (Gleichenia linearis) = (67. iIk-Ik, Ionia). 17. Waliine noho niauna {Pol i/ podium 

 tamariwinum). 18. Asplenium ereetum. 19. Kkaha {Elap]toglossum = (Scrostichum) coin- 

 forme). 



