scanty grass vegetation. The trees on this lower plain are mainly Straussia and 

 its associates, such as Charpcnticra obovata, Pisonia inermis, var. leiocarpa, with 

 occasionally a Pelea. The trees are so scattered that one can count them easily. 

 This somewhat mixed forest passes gradually into an Oliia leliua (Metrosideros 

 polymorpJta) forest, with Suttonia Lessertiana (Kolea). Here also the lobe- 

 liaceous shrub Clcrmontia coerulea, somewhat different from that of Kau, is 

 present. It descends, however, as low as 1500 feet, but then only on the aa 

 flows, as will afterwards be described. The forest in this section is as a whole 

 very uniform. 



The Ohio, leliua gradually passes into the Koa forest, if such it can still be 

 called ; for nowhere has the writer found such a pitiable sight as the Koa forest 

 presents in this district at about 3000 feet up to 5000 feet elevation. Here 90 

 per cent of these giant Koa trees are dead; their huge limbs dangle in the air 

 on pieces of fibrous strings of bark, ready to drop, if stirred by the slightest 

 breeze. The remaining 10 per cent of trees are in a dying condition, and in a 

 very few years the country will be entirely denuded. Huge masses of trunks 

 and limbs are scattered over the ground, and it is really difficult to ride through 

 this remnant of forest. It is also dangerous, as any minute a few huge limbs 

 may drop from the heights above. Trees reach here a height of 80 feet or more. 

 This condition is mainly due to the cattle, which have destroyed all the under- 

 shruBs and also injured the trees, which are then readily attacked by insects. It 

 may be remarked that native insects, especially beetles, do not attack healthy 

 trees, but only such as have been injured. 



As we ascend farther the dead Koa trees are associated with Myoporum sand- 

 wicense (Naio), Sophora chrysophylla, Suttonia Lessertiana, and Santalum 

 Freycinetianum, the Iliahi, or true Sandalwood of commerce, of which trees 50 

 feet in height and trunks a foot and a half in diameter, are not uncommon. 

 Next to Koa, Sandalwood is most numerous; but, like the former, most of it is 

 destroyed. It differs from the Sandalwood found in other parts of Hawaii in 

 its smooth, black bark and very dark green, glossy leaves. The wood is also ex- 

 ceedingly fragrant. 



That the undergrowth must have been intensely interesting is evidenced by 

 the fact of the abundance of vines on aa flows which intersect this forest area, 

 and are very seldom frequented or even crossed by cattle. Lower down at an 

 elevation of 1500 feet these aa flows present a dense jungle of ie-ie vines, many 

 species of trees, mainly the rubiaceous Straussia and urticaceous Urera and 

 Pipturus. Ferns are abundant as well as one or two lobeliaceous Clermontia. 

 Higher up the main tree is Ohia leliua together with Sandalwood, which on 

 these flows is in splendid condition. At an elevation of 4600 feet Sophora 

 chrysophylla has encroached on the aa, but not the Koa. On the margins of the 

 flows and in cracks and fissures many species of Labiatae thrive, the most num- 

 erous representative of which is the genus Stenogyne. Trailing over aa lava 

 we find Stenogyne rugosa var. ,?., St. cordata, St. sessilis, while climbing over 



43 



