Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 
9 
does not gain much in interest. 11 is over run with introduced plants. 
In places the detestable prickly pear and lantana cover the foot¬ 
hills. Introduced species of ants, slugs, the minah bird, and the 
English sparrow, are everywhere in evidence. There are a few 
native trees, such as the hau, a Hibiscus often having incredibly 
twisted, snaky branches, sometimes utilized as a canopy for open 
air lanais. The screw palm, Pandanus, often grows along the 
shore. The wonderful forests of tree ferns, the tree Lobelias and 
tree composites are to be seen only higher up, mainly above the 
thousand foot level. 
Where there is irrigation and cultivation, as around Honolulu, a 
multitude of beautiful and stately foreign plants flourish; the royal 
palm, Poinciana, monkey-pod, and golden shower (Cassia), are 
everywhere. Also fine banyans, each a grove in itself, and many 
graceful species of palms. Hedges of crotons and hibiscus are 
gay throughout the year. 
On the lower levels and up the mountain slopes some 600 or 800 
feet are great cane fields, which produced about 600,000 tons of 
sugar in 1920, earning huge dividends for the sugar companies. 
Where water for irrigation is not available, pineapples replace the 
cane. In the low valleys where there are natural streams, rice 
and taro are cultivated, both growing in water. The taro root, 
roasted, pounded and fermented, furnishes poi, a smooth, paste¬ 
like, starchy food, the chief bread stuff in the old days. 
All of these crops are dependant upon water from the moun¬ 
tains mainly brought through long ditches which wind along the 
mountain spurs high on the valley sides. They derive their water 
from tunnels driven into the mountains to tap the porous strata 
under the rain forest above. 
Though the lower zone is now more or less arid, there is evidence 
that this is largely a recent condition. In many places there are 
deposits containing land shells in great profusion, partly of extinct 
species, and often near sea level. These animals require moisture 
and forest conditions. During the Pleistocene period the islands 
must have been verdant nearly to the water’s edge. The dessica- 
tion has no doubt been accelerated by the destruction of forests, 
but it was evidently in progress before the coming of man. 
Every visitor feels the charm of this “loveliest fleet of islands 
that lies moored in any sea” as Mark Twain has said. The gla¬ 
mour of the Pacific possesses one. Years drop away, and with a 
