THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



5 



The natives who gathered the pulii displayed the same lack of 

 foresight as did the sandalwood cutters of an earlier Hawaiian 

 era. No thought was given to the conservation of the supply. 

 Whole groves of splendid hapu iii were felled in order to more 

 easily gather the golden harvest. A few machete-strokes were 

 less laborious than climbing the tree. This recklessness ruined 

 many of the finest groves, and cause a rapid shrinkage in the 

 supply. The industry was further curtailed by the inherent 

 inferiority of the puhi itself. The hair is brittle and weak- 

 jointed, and in usage soon breaks into fine pieces. The mat- 

 tress becomes hard and lumpy, and its elasticity cannot be re- 

 stored. The rapid deterioration of puhi products was soon dis- 

 covered by the trade. The exploitive industry dropped forever 

 from the commercial world, to the great good fortune of 

 Hawaii's beautiful fern forests. 



Humorous stories are told of the tricks used by the piilu- 

 mattress makers to stimulate trade during the decadent days of 

 the industry. A secretly-hired emissary would be sent tO' a 

 hotel or lodging house ; he would pretend to desire lodging for 

 several weeks ; then, just before registering, he would inquire, 

 ''does the bed have a piihi mattress ?" If the reply was to^ the 

 contrar}^, as was frequently the case, he would emphatically 

 state that he never slept on any save a pidu mattress ; express 

 high indignation at the shortcomings of the hostlery ; deliver a 

 fluent harangue on the virtues and excellences of pulu; and 

 stormily depart. The enlightened manager, fearful of losing 

 other /)i//w-preferring guests, would thus be inveigled into 

 ordering some of these short-lived mattresses. 



These dense bud-and petiole-coverings of silken brown hair 

 are not confined to Cibotknn, but occur on other g*enera of tree 

 ferns. The pulu of a javanese Dicksonia is exported to Europe 

 in considerable quantities as a surgical styptic. It is of interest 

 to recall in this connection the fabulous mediaeval stories of the 

 ''Scythian lamb" or Agnus Scyfhiais. The tree fern that gave 



