78 
PARK AND CEMKTERY 
ture books ; there is the Poinsiana regia, or flame tree 
— in February a leafless skeleton rattling long and 
uglv seedpods, but to be gorgeous later on ; there is 
the marvellous traveler’s palm, the useful algaroba, 
and such vines and hedges ! Waste and nearly stag- 
nant ponds are covered with the lotus and with lilies, 
white and blue ; and elsewhere rice fields paint the 
landscape with their peculiarly fresh green ; and the 
sugar cane waves in the wind, like a corn field yel- 
lowish green. Up on the mountain — on Tantalus — - 
one gets among the tree ferns and the wonderful 
giant vines, and knows at last that the north temper- 
ate zone is, indeed, far away. 
As for the algaroba, it is much the commonest 
tree on the islands and much the most useful. But it 
is not a native, and the mother tree of all the count- 
less brood can still be seen — with suitable label — on 
one of the principal streets of Honolulu. The tree 
is suggestive of the pepper in appearance, but not 
as large, averaging about the size of our apple trees. 
It was brought to the island in 1837, from Australia, 
by a Roman Catholic priest, who in that act did as 
much for the people of the Hawaiian Islands— speak- 
ing in a material sense — as perhaps any man who 
ever went there. The bean is good for cattle and 
so liked by them that one may see “pastures” with- 
out a blade of grass and looking like orchards, and 
tlie tree is invaluable as fire wood. It has shallow 
roots, so that one can never tell when a strong wind 
may lay it low ; but it is a rapid grower, and already 
woods all the islands, while a man need not have 
a great many trees in his back yard to supply his 
rather frugal fire needs throughout the year, and yet 
at the year’s end have as good trees as he had at its 
beginning ! 
The wonderful flowering vines are the Bougain- 
villjea and the Bignonia venusta — the latter a mass 
of orange colored bloom — throwing its royal mantle 
of Holland clear over the roofs of houses, and the 
former an ecjually wonderful mass of cerise, or 
much more rarely of scarlet, flowers. The Bougain- 
villaea is a great favorite, as it well may be, but its 
commoner color so fights with the color of every other 
flower in the garden that if one is particular about 
effect one must plan to set it in plain green. But it 
is sufficiently beautiful in itself ; and when, in walk- 
ing or driving about Honolulu, one comes on the 
great splashes of one or the other of these vines — 
as one very frequently does— any lack of flowers as 
compared with California is forgotten. 
The most familiar hedge is the hibiscus, which is 
found in all parts of the city. Almost all the time 
it is thickly covered with large flowers of a bright 
red, like very wide open red tulips. These lie on 
the top and sides of the hedge, showing stronglv 
against the green, as if they were pinned there for 
temporary effect. This also adds much to the floral 
show of the island. On the stone walls, of which 
there are a considerable number, the night-blooming 
cereus is a common hedge or cover. It is said that 
in front of Oahu College the flowers of the plants 
number some thousands at a time. In the gardens 
the most common decorative plant is the croton, 
which comes in many varieties. 
There is little good landscape work. The gospel 
of the open lawn with massed border planting seemed 
hardly to be known. In a few cases a tropical jungle 
had been attempted ; in many more there was an un- 
healthfully thick planting that was without beauty, or 
seeming purpose, while in most there were lawlls 
badly “spotted” with palms and other plants. As to 
the thick planting, the story was that things were 
put' in when small and that when they grew large, as 
everything soon does there, the owners could not 
bear to pull them up — which is a probable explana- 
tion, but a poor excuse. 
There are two “squares” which ought to be orna- 
mental, and of which only one can by the kindest 
of interpretations be called so ; and there is a large 
park that in most respects is worse than any of the 
private gardens. But the superintendent is now do- 
ing what he can for it, with meager appropriations, 
and the people are thoroughly aroused, have ideals, 
and give promise of sO' nearly realizing them that the 
conditions I have described must soon be an old 
story, of which the truth has passed. 
In fact, I do not know that I have ever been in a 
community more thoroughly saturated with “im- 
provement” zeal, and alive with “improvement” ef- 
fort. There are multitudes of neighborhood clubs — 
unfortunately more than one, sometimes, on a single 
street ; there is a Central Improvement Committee, 
which is designed to bring the activity of the various 
societies into association and harmony — and whose 
suggestion it was that the government should secure 
from me a general plan, for which and on which all 
might work for a better and lovelier Honolulu; and 
there is an Advisorv committee, made up of local 
experts in gardening, horticulture and forestry, to 
whom the technical questions are supposed to be re- 
ferred. Thus is the movement not only far reach- 
ing, but well organized, and it has the support of ail 
classes of citizens and of the government, local and 
territorial. The very vacant lots, in case after case, 
have well kept lawns. Honolulu, in the once far- 
away Sandwich Islands, might give points to most 
American towns even today in its manifestation of 
the spirit of town improvement. 
Little by little, as one stays on the island — even 
though one’s thoughts be busy with other matters — 
the charm of the place, its tranquility, its beauty, 
weave a spell upon one. With little that is awe-in- 
spiring or grand, and nothing that is colossal, peace 
and loveliness dwell there, pervade all that one sees. 
