PREFACE 
During a residence of more than nine years in these lovely 
Islands, the writer has had opportunity in his connection with the 
Board of Agriculture and Forestry and the College of Hawaii, as 
Botanist, to devote all his time and lately part of his time to the 
study of the Hawaiian Flora. It is true he was not interested until 
lately in the introduced ornamental plants of Hawaii, but made the 
native Flora his specialty. The result of part of the writer's re- 
search was published under the title "The Indigenous Trees of the 
Hawaiian Islands." 
Many have been the requests, however, for a non-technical vol- 
ume treating the ornamental shrubs and trees of Hawaii and Hono- 
lulu especially, the need of which has long been felt. The writer 
took it upon himself to prepare such a book, which at first seemed 
an easy task. He was, however, sadly mistaken. While some of 
the trees did not give much difficulty as far as their identity was con- 
cerned, others again proved more elusive, especially such as belong 
to genera with numerous species. It took many journeys to all the 
by-ways of Honolulu in search of plants, and often the writer was 
told that in such and such a yard there was a tree which seemed to be 
the only one in Honolulu. Often the tale proved to be true, and 
occasionally it was a false alarm. 
It may be stated that the plants treated or mentioned in this 
volume are represented by specimens in the College of Hawaii Herb- 
arium, and that they have been critically worked up. They have 
not been cited from mere hear-say, but specimens were examined in 
every instance. 
The nomenclature has been kept strictly in accordance with the 
laws laid down by the last Botanical Congress held at Vienna in 
1905 and not according to horticultural dealers or gardeners, who 
simply apply a familiar name to a plant for the sole purpose of selling 
it more easily. This accounts for the many species of Kcntia, while 
in reality none of the palms on the market as such have anything 
whatsoever in common with species of that rare genus. Nomenclature 
of such type belongs to commercial botany. 
While the title of this book is a modest one it gives more infor- 
mation than is announced on the cover. The writer has treated not 
only the ornamental trees, but also shrubs and in addition has men- 
tioned the fruit trees and ornamental vines. It is not claimed that 
this book includes all of the introduced trees, and, while it is a fairly 
complete presentation of the trees found in Honolulu and elsewhere 
