78 T O R R E Y A 



libraries for the convenience of dangerous enemy aliens? The archives of a 

 foreign government possesses a stack of documents over an inch thick regard- 

 ing the speaker, and the F.B.I.. subjected him to scrutiny for his botanical 

 activities before he was granted a clean bill of health. Regarding the 250 copies 

 each of Books 3 and 4 of his ''Flora Hawaiiensis" left in his beach home in 

 rural Hawaii, many were destroyed by strangers who broke into the house to 

 pilfer and ravage. Consequently, the five volumes dealing with the plants of 

 the Hawaiian Islands are now unavailable and very rare indeed. 



The huge collection of plants shipped from Hawaii to Xew York consisted 

 mainly of undetermined species laid between sheets of newspaper. On their 

 margins had been scribbled pertinent field data in the speaker's private short- 

 hand, unintelligible to any one except himself. With induction into one of the 

 Services likely should the draft scrape the dregs loose from the bottom of the 

 barrel of available man-power, it was imperative to label the collection quickly 

 at least so far as field data were concerned. This herculean task was accom- 

 plished within the year. The best set of plants was reserved for The Xew 

 York Botanical Garden ; the second, for the Arnold Arboretum ; and additional 

 sets were donated or sold to other deserving institutions. Thus the chain of 

 events begun with the bombing of Pearl Harbor not only induced the speaker 

 to put his botanical house in order but enabled him to be available for the 

 address delivered to the members of the Torrey Botanical Club in Xew York 

 City, April 18, 1945, on "Plant Life and Customs of the Hawaiian Islands." 



The lecture, first illustrated with lantern slides, very briefly reviewed the 

 origin of the different Hawaiian Islands and how the Hawaiian Archipelago 

 became clothed with vegetation. This was followed by a discussion of ancient 

 Hawaiian customs. These to a very large extent coincide with the present-day 

 customs of the South Sea Islanders who, due to the exigencies of war, have 

 been suddenly thrown amidst the clashing members of the highly technological 

 civilizations ( ?) of the Japanese and of the White Race. The lecture ended 

 with motion pictures. These showed the Hawaiian Islands to be a kaleidoscope 

 of many races and combinations of races, a condition which the influx of the 

 most virile members of the warring factions into the South Sea Islands is 

 rapidly duplicating. Old Mr. & Airs. Smith of Virginia, old Mr. & Mrs. Jones 

 of Boston, old Air. & Airs. Goldstein of Fordham. and old Air. & Airs. O' Bryan 

 of lower Alanhattan will get the surprise of their long lives when their nut- 

 brown, clear-eyed, healthy and attractive Eurasian grandchildren come to live 

 with them shortly after the armistice in the Pacific has been signed. They will 

 meet as members of their own families a race of beings superior in many ways 

 to the poor, pure, effete white man. The meeting concluded with refreshments. 



Locust Farm 

 Poughquag, Xew York 



