feet, with a straight trunk and black bark of half an inch thickness. Xylosma 

 Hillebrandii becomes here a beautiful big tree with a trunk of one and a half 

 feet in diameter, straight ascending and clothed in a gray bark. Tetraplasan- 

 dra Hawaiiensis is here a large tree 60 feet in height, with a fine trunk ascend- 

 ing for 30 feet or so before branching. It is about two and a half feet thick 

 and vested in a whitish bark three-quarters of an inch thick. It is the only 

 representative of the family Araliaceae in this forest. Myoporum sandwicense 

 is here a slender shrub, and only a few individual specimens can be observed. 

 Coprosma, Perrottetia, Pipturus, Pelea volcanica only, Cheirodendron gaudi- 

 chaudii, Antidesma platypliyllum and a species of Suttonia form the tree 

 growth, together with Pittosporum and Ilex, up to the Koa belt at an eleva- 

 tion of 4200 feet. Sadleria cyatlieoides, Gibotium Menziesii, and the lobelia- 

 ceous Clermontia coerulea, which ranges from the extreme eastern end of Kau 

 to North Kona, form the undergrowth. The latter ascends, however, up into 

 the Koa belt, where it can be found on Koa trees, growing in the forks of their 

 branches. 



Several aa flows of more recent origin intersect this forest. The flows are 

 covered with a scanty vegetation, such as Vaccinium, Styphelia, Coprosma 

 ernodeoides, Raillardia scabra (very common), and stunted Ohia; while the 

 lava itself is entirely hidden by a species of lichen. At 4200 feet elevation the 

 trees described above are replaced by Acacia Koa, which grows here under 

 similar conditions as near the Volcano House, together with Urera sp. and the 

 tree ferns. Cattle, however, have played serious havoc with this beautiful forest. 

 The undergrowth is mainly composed of Polystichum falcatum var., Dryopteris, 

 Asplenium, and Cibotium. 



The most interesting vegetation, however, occupies the area between 1500 

 to 2000 feet, above which the forest is very uniform. Nowhere has the writer 

 found such beautiful stands of the ebenaceous Maba sandwicensis (Lama) as 

 in this district, where it associates mainly with tall-growing Kukui trees. Trees 

 30 to 40 feet in height with trunks of a foot or more in diameter are not un- 

 common. Beyond Kapua the country is covered mainly with Ohia leliua, and is 

 as a whole very uniform, until we reach the boundary of South Kona, where a 

 forest similar to that back of Naalehu, Kau, forms the lower and middle forest 

 zones. Most of the land about 600 to 2500 feet elevation is under cultivation, 

 Coffea arabica being the crop. 



THE MIDDLE FOREST ZONE IN KONA AND FLORAL ASPECTS OF THE GREAT CENTRAL 

 PLAIN BETWEEN MAUNA LOA, HUALALAI AND MAUNA KEA. 



If we ascend from Kealakekua up the slopes of Mauna Loa, we at first pass 

 through large areas of Psidium guayava, which has taken possession of the land 

 and is the only shrub up to an elevation of about 1200 feet. The country then 

 becomes more open and old pahoehoe flows are visible, which are covered with a 



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