392 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



in the vicinity; a shrubby Gcenotus? having rayed and larger flowers, 

 made its first appearance ; and in the occasional Eupliorhia groves, 

 a stock was seen fairly arborescent, full fifteen feet in height, with 

 the stem four inches in diameter. — The next day, we continued 

 the ascent; proceeding over an open country; the rock rarely ex- 

 posed, but proving hasaltic as before, and rather compact, devoid of 

 very obvious granules of either chrysolite or augite. At Isi p.m., a 

 heavy rain commenced, and we took shelter in a cave ; where, as the 

 rain continued soine hours, we decided to remain for the night : the 

 temperature outside at sunset, 49° Fahr., and the barometer marking 

 24"978 inches; the climate rather muist, as appeared from the ground 

 being completely covered with grasses and freshly-verdant vegetable 

 growth. The elevation, it will be perceived, proved only about fifty- 

 five hundred feet; yet of the thirty-seven species of plants collected 

 around this cave, all but the following three belonged to the moun- 

 tain-region : the Acacia heteroplnjUa, hardly becoming a tree; a Pteris 

 resembling P. aquilina; and an orange-fruited Coffeac. The coolness 

 of the temperature, and the fmst covering leaves and grass on tlie 

 following morning, seemed to afford an explanation. — We left the 

 cave just after sunrise; and at the further elevation of about five hun- 

 dred feet, bushes of Santalum or sandal-wood began to show them- 

 selves, continuing rather frequent in barren situations as far as the 

 elevation of G500 feet. To this limit, the country was green; but the 

 ground now began to be stony; while farther along the Northern flank 

 of the mountain, were woods and ravines; where the limit of trees 

 was subsequently ascertained by Mr. Brackenridge and myself, to be 

 at 6700 feet. The descrij)tion of the upper portion of Mauna Halea- 

 kala, will be given in the account of the Volcanoes and Mountain- 

 region. 



The Windward flank of Mauna Kea. Eeturning now to the 

 Vincennes, on her way from Maui Eastward. At nightfall on the 8th 

 of December, we were " twenty miles" from what seemed to be a long 

 and continuous ledge of highland, for I had no suspicion at the time, 

 that this was the celebrated Mauna Kea. 



On the morning of the 9th, the Vincennes having reached the 

 entrance of Hilo harbor, daylight brought a widely-extended and mag- 

 nificent scene. The land rising evenly and gradually, luxuriantly 

 verdant, and chiefly unwooded for the first three miles ; the fdrest 

 next extending along in a wide belt, with many myriads of trees 



