AFRO-INDIAN REGIONS. 



393 



brought into view at once ; beyond the forest, the ground continued 

 rising gradually all the way to the clouds, and after an interval, peered 

 out above them in a broad uneven summit brushed with snow. This 

 unevenness imparted to Mauna Kea some faint resemblance to a peak 

 of the Andes; but the more distant gentle arc-like Mauna Roa, also in 

 sight, could not with all the aid of the imagination be conjured into a 

 mountain ; in the absence of steepness, the very vastness of these 

 mountain-masses deprived them of an imposing presence. At the base 

 in front, a minor object hardly attracted notice in the landscape: a 

 coast-crater, maintaining connection with the other islands of the 

 Group; and except in being triple, resembling the coast-craters on 

 Maui and Oahu. 



On landing, on the 10th, the forest was found to commence very 

 regularly about " three miles" from the sea, and at the elevation of 

 " fifteen hundred feet." The trees being of large size, this proved a 

 tract of real forest, and the only one in the Group; extending, twenty 

 miles or more in width, along the whole Windward Hank of Mauna 

 Kea. I was surprised therefore to find this forest composed of but two 

 kinds of trees ; the " ohia" or Metrosideros, and the " koe" or Acacia 

 heteropliijlla ; the first occupying almost exclusively the inferior 

 portion, and in the upper portion the Acacia predominating. The 

 trees, very generally sixty to eighty feet high, with the trunk ave- 

 raging three feet in diameter, often reminded me of our tracts of White 

 oak ; the Metrosideros having a continuous central trunk with minor 

 lateral branches; the Acacia being also very similar in aspect, though 

 more inclining to separate by large branches into a spreading summit. 

 The " koe" seems the loftiest tree of the Acacia tribe, being in one 

 observed instance ninety feet by five ; and of the species of Metrosi- 

 deros, the " ohia" is perhaps equalled in dimensions only in New Zea- 

 land. By a peculiarity remarked in the "ohia," roots are occasionally 

 given out some yards above the ground, after the manner of species 

 of Ficus. 



The Hawaiian palm, flabellate-leaved and " twenty-five feet" high, 

 has been found growing in only one locality ; quite limited, and situated, 

 according to Mr. Brackenridge, " about ten miles" from Hilo in the 

 midst of this forest. 



On entering the forest, the GonvolvuU soon disappear; and a Frei/- 

 cinetia is seen in all directions, climbing to the tree-tops, and further 

 conspicuous from its orange-colored floral leaves. The undergrowth 



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