76 T O R R E Y A 



mailed another to the next public library. He continued this procedure until 

 all excess books were gone. He felt it better for his ego and for posterity to 

 give away the greater part of his editions than to risk their complete oblivion 

 by a well directed Japanese bomb. It was a tremendous task, particularly 

 wrapping books by touch in a totally darkened house at night, with only the 

 faint intermittent glare of the searchlights as they swept in long beams across 

 the waves. With each book went an explanatory postal, more than hinting 

 that four other profusely illustrated books written by the speaker were avail- 

 able at the regular, very reasonable price. Auto loads of plants and books 

 left the beach house for the neighboring village post office, and the sale of 

 stamps was large enough to raise the post office to a higher category of 

 classification. 



While this evacuation of botanical assets was proceeding, the speaker 

 estimated that the first part of his task would be completed by February 1st. 

 The next was to write the thousands of labels for the plants mailed to New 

 York so that in the event of his eventual death, later workers could use the 

 herbarium to full advantage. He therefore wrote the clipper company to 

 reserve passage for two for the flight to California any day after February 

 1. The reply instructed him to be in Honolulu with his protege from that 

 date on. As the clipper left for California at an undisclosed time and passen- 

 gers received but one hour's notice of its departure, they had to be near the 

 air field in Honolulu. If they missed the call for passage, they were placed 

 at the very end of the list of reservations. 



February 1st the speaker removed to his Honolulu house with his 

 Hawaiian protege. It had been recently vacated by his tenant, an army 

 officer, and the only furniture remaining was a Steinway concert grand piano, 

 a white elephant, that would deteriorate if kept in the salt air of the beach 

 house. The speaker borrowed two light mattresses, a porch table and two 

 chairs from neighbors until clipper time should arrive, preparing to "camp" 

 in the house with his protege in the meantime. 



The amount of mail delivered to the Honolulu house twice daily increased 

 like the bulk of a snowball rolling down hill. Besides letters of thanks from 

 librarians, man}- with most interesting observations about the war. cash orders 

 streamed in for the volumes not represented in the sample shipment. Such 

 orders received immediate attention. Then out of a clear sky. like a bomb, the 

 printer of his book on "Plants of Hawaii National Park," brought the unsold 

 copies of that nontechnical work to his door with the announcement that the 

 warehouse was needed by the government. 



During all this time alerts and air-raid warnings were almost daily occur- 

 rences — often twice daily — and. after a while, the speaker simply filled his 

 bath-tub with water and placed the mop inside as a possible fire-fighting 

 weapon. Work was little interrupted as the botanical show must go on. An 



