THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



3 



extensive lava flows, and its long windward coast line, all 

 combine to give this island a remarkable series of ecologic 

 zones. Within the range of few miles one may run the full 

 climatic gamut of the hymn "From Greenland's icy mountains 

 to India's coral strand." There is conspicuous diversity in 

 annual temperature and precipitation in the various zones and 

 districts, from tropic to frigid, and from sunburnt desert to 

 dripping rain-forest. 



The fern forests lie along the windward and middle slopes, 

 in the cloud-zone of fairly continuous humidity. Puna, Hilo, 

 Ola'a, parts of Hama-kua and Ko-hala, and wet districts on 

 Mauna Kea and Hu-ala-lai are the chief areas occupied by the 

 tree ferns. The total stand may be very roughly stated at 

 eig'hty to one hundred square miles. 



Of the seven genera and three hundred species of the tree 

 ferns (Cyatheaceae) , only one genus, Cibotiiiui, with three 

 endemic species, occurs in the Hawaiian Archipelago. The 

 fern forests of Hawaii are composed of C. Menziesii, C. Cham- 

 issai and C. glaucum; the latter rare and of minor importance. 

 Cibotiiim is from the Greek, "sl little seed vessel," and has 

 reference to the conspicuous indusia. Menzies was the botanist 

 with Vancouver's historic expedition toi Hawaii in 1792-94; 

 the botanist Chamisso accompanied the Russian expedition 

 under Kotzebue (1816). 



Menzie's tree fern, called hapu i'ii by the Hawaiians, is 

 the largest native species. In favorable localities it attains 

 regal proportions. The brown spongy trunk is frequently two 

 or three feet in diameter, and rises without branching to a 

 height of twenty or twenty-five feet. From its summit springs 

 a magnificent canopy of huge, tri-pinnate fronds ; this splendid 

 fountain of greenery being ten or twelve feet high and twenty 

 to twenty-five feet in diameter. However, with all its glory 

 of crown and magnitude of trunk, the hapu i'i'i never reaches 



