AFRO-INDIAN REGIONS. 



437 



Gen. Fung., (No. 1); outwardly resembling a Lycoperdon, but a layer of egg-like bodies 

 under the slightly papillose skin. On the mountain-ridge behind Honolulu. 



Gen. Tremelloid ; bis Taheiti (perhaps No. 1 Samoa); large and brown. Growing on 

 dead trunks in the forest on Mauna Kea. 



The lava-covered portion of Hawaii. Hawaii is mainly buried 

 under lava-streams; these have descended at different times from the 

 summit of Mauna Roa, filled the inequalities of the natural surface, 

 and flowed over into the sea; except only, that in one direction 

 Mauna Kea has fenced off the flood. We emerged from the Mauna 

 Kea forest upon the outermost overflowing lava-stream from the val- 

 ley between the two mountains ; and in continuation of this margin 

 downwards, the lava-streams cease to encroach upon the sea at Hilo : 

 the harbor at Hilo is thus the work of a crater more than fifty miles 

 distant ; and the projecting summit and Windward flank of Mauna 

 Kea retain their original surface. 



The remaining much more extensive portion of the island has long 

 been covered over with an additional surface-layer of a peculiar cha- 

 racter. The plants, in their generations, survive ; but have been forced 

 into secondary adaptations, in a new soil, under new local influences. 

 A clearer idea of the normal Hawaiian vegetable growth may perhaps 

 be gained by omitting the exceptional district ; yet the observations 

 made therein have seemed worthy of record. 



In the view of the island from the harbor at Hilo, the forest was 

 observed to continue over the lava-covered district at about the same 

 distance from the coast, leaving the wide space in front almost as 

 unwooded as farther West. This lava-covered space was clouded with 

 darker patches, from the frequency of the dwarf tree-fern, Bleclinum 

 Fontanesianum ; while intervening tracts seemed filled with showy 

 yellow flowers ; these proved to be the falling leaves of a species of 

 Rhus; an instance of brilliant-tinted deciduous foliage even within the 

 Tropics, and in the entire absence of frosts. Hilo is noted for its rains ; 

 which are so frequent and copious, as to have caused the port to be 

 avoided by whale-ships. Back of H[ilo on the rising ground, the soil 

 in the little depressions of the lava-surface was observed to be very 

 generally marshy ; as appeared also by the character of the plants ; a 

 Thelijijteris abounding, together with lilhiscus Youngianus, i\\Q Ly thrum, 

 gen. DavalHoid, and an Eleocharis, This district proved moister than 

 any other portion of the island; yet the lava maintained its usual porous 



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