Review of Mrs. Sinclair's 
'Indigenous Flowers of the Hawaiian Islands” 
Hawaiian Plant Studies 23^ 
Harold St. John^ 
INTRODUCTION 
In 1885 THE FIRST BOOK with color pictures 
of Hawaiian flowering plants was printed in 
London, It contained 44 plates and showed 
45 species said to be native to the Hawaiian 
Islands. It was written and illustrated by Mrs. 
Francis (Isabella) Sinclair, Jr. It is a large and 
pretentious book, of folio size, with full-page 
plates. Even today it has more color plates 
of Hawaiian plants than any other book. 
While the writer was studying plants re- 
cently collected on the island of Niihau, this 
book was carefully scrutinized, and the at- 
tempt is here made to document the source 
of the plants illustrated. As this was the first 
book dealing solely with the flora of the 
Hawaiian Islands, it did not pass unnoticed. 
At least two brief reviews of it were printed. 
Doubtless it was the editor of the Journal of 
Botany, James Britten (1886: 27), who re- 
viewed it, giving a brief account in three 
sentences. Besides stating that it was a nicely 
printed book and quoting from the preface 
the observation that the native vegetation was 
fast disappearing, he commented, ”Mrs. Sin- 
^ This is the twenty-third of a series of papers de- 
signed to present descriptions, revisions, and records 
of Hawaiian plants. The preceding papers have been 
published in Bernice P. Bishop Mus., Occas. Papers 
10(4), 1933; 10(12), 1934; 11(14), 1935; 12(8), 1936; 
14(8), 1938; 15(1), 1939; 15(2), 1939; 15(22), 1940; 
15(28), 1940; 17(12), 1943; Calif. Acad. Sci., Proc. IV, 
25(16), 1946; Torrey Bot. Club, Bui. 72: 22-30, 1945; 
Lloydia 7: 265-274, 1944; Pacific Sci. 1(1): 5-20, 1947; 
Brittonia 6(4); 431-449, 1949; Gray Herb., Contrib. 
165: 39-42, 1947; Pacific Sci. 3(4): 296-301, 1949; 
Pacific Sci. 4(4): 339-345, 1950; Bernice P. Bishop 
Mus., Occas. Papers 20(6): 77-88, 1950; Pacific Sd, 
6(1): 30-34, 1952; Pacific Sci. 6(3): 213-255, 1952; 
and No. 22 is in press. 
2 Department of Botany, University of Hawaii. 
Manuscript received May 18, 1953. 
dair does not profess to be a botanist, but 
she is evidently an observer, as is shown not 
only by her drawings, but by the simple de- 
scriptions which accompany them.” A second 
review appeared in Berlin. The editor of the 
magazine was E. Koehne, but the reporter 
for Plant Geography of Europe, the section 
concerned, was J. E. Weiss (1889). In two 
sentences he merely stated the nature and 
coverage of the book and that it was illus- 
trated, and he abstracted the statement that 
the flora was becoming extinct. Since these 
two reviews were merely cursory, and since 
the flora of Niihau has long been imperfectly 
known, it has seemed worth while to make a 
critical review and evaluation of Mrs. Sin- 
clair’s "Indigenous Flowers of the Hawaiian 
Islands.” 
The island of Niihau was sold in 1864 by 
King Kamehameha V to Mrs. Francis Sin- 
clair, Sr., for her two sons, J. and F. Sinclair. 
It continued in the family, being transferred 
to Aubrey Robinson, to the Estate-of Aubrey 
Robinson, and now to his heirs. 
In addition to the sheep and cattle ranch 
operated on Niihau, the Sinclair family ac- 
quired land at Makaweli, Kauai. Mrs. Francis 
Sinclair, Jr., was the daughter-in-law of the 
original settler, Mrs. Francis Sinclair (nee 
Eliza McHutcheson). The daughter-in-law 
lived in the big house at Kiekie, Niihau, and 
at intervals at Makaweli, Kauai, from which, 
during the summer, she visited the adjacent 
mountains. There, about 1886, was built the 
Gay and Robinson mountain house at Kaho- 
luamanu, Kauai, on a cool mountain ridge 
between the Waimea and Olokele valleys at 
3,600 feet altitude. It is on the trail leading 
through the rain forests to the .summit of 
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