88 



HAWAII. 



[letter X. 



rich, deep green when mature, which contrast beautifully with 

 the flaky, silvery look of the younger foliage. Some of the 

 shallower gulches are filled exclusively with this tree, which in 

 growing up to the light to within 100 feet of the top, presents 

 a mass and density of leafage quite unique, giving the gulch 

 the appearance as if billows of green had rolled in and solidified 

 there. Each gulch has some specialty of ferns and trees, and 

 in such a distance as sixty miles they vary considerably with 

 the variations of soil, climate, and temperature. But every- 

 where the rocks, trees, and soil are covered and crowded with 

 the most exquisite ferns and mosses, from the great tree-fern ( 

 whose bright fronds light up the darker foliage, to the lovely 

 maiden-hair and graceful selaginellas which are mirrored in 

 pools of sparkling water. Everywhere, too, the great blue 

 morning glory opened to a heaven not bluer than itself. 



The descent into the gulches is always solemn. You canter 

 along a bright breezy upland, and are suddenly arrested by a 

 precipice, and from the depths of a forest-draped abyss a low 

 plash or murmur rises, or a deep bass sound, significant of 

 water which must be crossed, and one reluctantly leaves the 

 upper air to plunge into heavy shadow, and each experience 

 increases one's apprehensions concerning the next. Though in 

 some gulches the kukui preponderates, in others the laahala 

 whose aerial roots support it in otherwise impossible positions, 

 and in others the sombre ohia, yet there were some grand clefts 

 in which nature has mingled her treasures impartially, and out 

 of cool depths of ferns rose the feathery coco-palm, the glorious 

 breadfruit, with its green melon-like fruit, the large ohia, ideal 

 in its beauty— the most gorgeous flowering tree I have ever 

 seen, with spikes of rose-crimson blossoms borne on the old 

 wood, blazing among its shining many-tinted leafage, — the tall 

 papaya with its fantastic crown, the profuse, gigantic plantain, 

 and innumerable other trees, shrubs, and lianas, in the beauty 

 and bounteousness of an endless spring. Imagine my surprise 

 on seeing at the bottom of one gulch, a grove of good-sized, 

 dark-leaved, very handsome trees, with an abundance of smooth, 

 round, green fruit upon them, and on reaching them finding 

 that they were orange trees, their great size, far exceeding that 

 of the largest at Valencia, having prevented me from recog- 

 nizing them earlier ! In another, some large shrubs with oval, 

 shining, dark leaves, much crimped at the edges, bright green 

 berries along the stalks, and masses of pure white flowers lying 

 flat, like snow on evergreens, turned out to be coffee ! The 



