254 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



howevei". tlowers are planted, hut usually sueh hardy lilouniers as Aviiite and pink 

 Vinca ^' will have their place about the base of a palm tree or by the garden 

 wall, and likewise the beautiful l)hie phlox-like leadwort ■*- will be seen, but as a 

 rule the flowfrs lliat one sees are sueh as require little eare and are perennials. 

 As thei'e is abundant color in the Howi^ring trees and shrubs one does not miss 

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



The old-fasliioned four o'clock ^-^ is a familiar tlower so long- established in 

 ilawjiii. 1ha1. in favoi-able situations, it has escaped and grows by the roadside, 

 'i'hey ai-e handsome, branching herbs nitli o|>posite leaves, the lower ])etiolate, 

 the uppcn- sessile, and with quite large, often fragrant, tiowers 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 Peru, is the one usually seen. It derives 

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



Occasionally the curious sprouting-leaf ])lant. or "air" plant. "^-^ will be seen 

 in some neglected corner, and will be identitied as a l)egonia-like plant that may 

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

 pinned to the wall, little i)lants will spring up from the notches on the edge of 

 the leaf. 



XlGIIT-BLOOMING C'eREUS. 



It would not do to draw this long chaptm- to a close without mention of the 

 wonderful blooms of the night-blooming Cereus.^^ Likely as not fragments have 

 been carelessly piled on the stone fence at the bottom of the garden where they 

 have grown unnoticed until they have transformed an unsightly fence into 

 the semblance of a sprawding evergreen hedge. At intervals of not more 

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

 trianuular 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 flow^ers may be seen in blossom each year. They open 

 soon after the sun goes down and remain in full bloom during the night. But 

 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 l)e present at the "Cereus season," since the occasion is 

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

 fioral exhibitions. The night-blooiuing Cereus is a wonderful climber; it has 

 clambered high into many large algaroba trees in Honolulu, its magnificent 

 blossoms tantalizing beholders by being out of reach. 



"Vinca rosea. *~ Plumboi/o Capcnsis. *'■' Mirnl/ilis Jaliiim. *■> liriio/ilnilliiiii riihiciiniin. 



*^ Cereiis triangvlnris. 



