452 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



inquiry, the natives recommended going to the source of the new lava 

 by the way of Kaimo on the sea-side. This being a portion of the 

 island that remained unvisited, I was induced, after trying for a space 

 the surface of the new lava, to yield my assent. There was in fact 

 but a single path before us, and this led, by compass, nearly due South ; 

 ascending almost insensibly to the summit of this angle of the island; 

 where a branch path came from the Southwest, the same followed by 

 Captain Wilkes a few days previously. We here found ourselves at 

 the elevation of some two thousand feet ; and looked down upon the 

 sea in the Southeast; the declivity in this direction being quite rapid. 



At the base, we entered Kaimo, situated on a sea-beach; the only 

 one of the Southeastern coast, and therefore celebrated in Hawaiian 

 song. Beyond the village, we kept on the brink of the lava-cliff; 

 which is loftier than that of the Northeastern coast, and thirty to 

 sixty feet above the sea. Dwellings were very rarely met with ; and 

 only at points, where through some slight notch, the sea-margin hap- 

 pened to be accessible. The " lands" we crossed, were named to me 

 in the following succession : " Alapuna, Kupahua, Purunanai, Kau- 

 naroa, Ki, Hauwaria having a bathing-place, Popo," and the remainder 

 not recorded. After about nine miles on the lava-cliff, or a mile be- 

 yond Kamomoa, we turned away from the sea; and proceeded part way 

 up the slope to the chief's house, where we stopped for the night ; and 

 for the ensuing day, the 24th. 



We were now in the extensive district of Panau ; having entered 

 upon the very remarkable portion of the island where soil is wanting; 

 the old lava-streams presenting everywhere a clean surface of rock. 

 Cultivation is nevertheless practised ; for rain falls, and by the inge- 

 nuity of the inhabitants a portion is intercepted before disappearing 

 through the lava-rock. Indigenous plants even were not altogether 

 wanting ; but made their appearance singly and at wide intervals, 

 growing out of cracks in the lava-surface. To my surprise, several 

 of the species proved to be mountain plants : and low down near the 

 brink of the sea-side lava-cliff, OsteomeUs, gen. Epacrid., and the woolly- 

 leaved Met7'osideros, were alternating with the plants of the warm 

 Leeward side of the group; with the Heteropogon, tufted Eragrostis, 

 Wcdtheria, Sida, Euphorhia, Daphne^ Capparis, Erytlirina monosperma, 

 and especially the Cassyta, which was unusually frequent. At the 

 elevation of only a thousand feet, the Edwardsla commenced ; and at 

 a not much higher limit, the Pteris ternifolia ? 



