fl 



52 A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



considered indigenous are concerned. Dr. Hillebrand indeed 

 includes Calophyllum Inophyllum, Hibiscus tiliaceus, Thespesia 

 populnea, Morinda citrifolia, Cordia subcordata, and Pandanus 

 odoratissimus in the present Hawaiian flora, and nearly all of them 

 are to be found at times at the coast as well as inland ; but he 

 regards all, excepting the last-named, as having been introduced 

 by the aborigines. I was not inclined at first to go quite so far as 

 Dr. Hillebrand in this direction ; but he carefully considered the 

 case of each individual plant, and, remembering his sojourn of 

 twenty years in the islands, his authority cannot be lightly put 

 aside. In the list of Hawaiian strand-plants given in Note 28 

 there are several species not always littoral in the group, but 

 typically littoral in other tropical regions. One species, Ipomea 

 glaberrima, Boj., has not been recorded before from these islands. 



A strong reason in favour of the contention of this botanist is 

 that all the trees above-named are useful in some way to the 

 natives ; and, indeed, when we look at the works dealing with the 

 floras of the islands of the South Pacific, we observe that in almost 

 all the groups one or other of these six trees bears the reputation 

 of having been introduced by the aborigines. All of them in their 

 turn lose their fame as truly indigenous plants in some group or 

 other. The occurrence of two or three useless South Pacific 

 beach trees, that are known to be dispersed by the currents, in the 

 indigenous strand-flora of Hawaii, would go far to invalidate 

 Dr. Hillebrand's argument, since the six trees in dispute are also 

 known to be dispersed by the currents. But such trees are not to 

 be found ; and we look in vain for trees like Cerbera Odollam, 

 Guettarda speciosa, Gyrocarpus Jacquini, and Hernandia peltata, 

 that are spread far and wide over the beaches of the South Pacific. 



It is also of interest to notice how trees like Morinda citrifolia 

 and Terminalia Katappa, concerning the non-indigenous character 

 of which there can be but little doubt, are in our own day acquiring 

 a littoral station. The second is not even regarded by Dr. Hille- 

 brand as having been introduced by the natives, but is referred by 

 him to the European epoch. After having been extensively 

 planted, it is now, as I found, becoming a littoral tree on the coast 

 of Oahu, and supplies its buoyant fruits in a regular way to the 

 beach drift. Its native name of Kamani is merely that of 

 Calophyllum Inophyllum. All the six trees in dispute are known 

 in Hawaii by the names by which they are distinguished far and 

 wide over the South Pacific, a fact of which the reader may satisfy 

 himself by referring to my paper on Polynesian plant-names. The 



