The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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I Find That It Is From The Seeds Of
This Tree And Their Coverings That The Brilliant Orange Leis, Or
Garlands Of The Natives, Are Made.
The soft white case of the
leaves and the terminal buds can also be eaten.
The leaves are used
for thatching, and their tough longitudinal fibres for mats and
ropes. There is another kind, the Pandanus vacoa, the same as is
used for making sugar bags in Mauritius, but I have not seen it.
One does not forget the first sight of a palm. I think the banana
comes next, and I see them in perfection here for the first time, as
those in Honolulu grow in "yards," and are tattered by the winds.
It transports me into the tropics in feeling, as I am already in
them in fact, and satisfies all my cravings for something which
shall represent and epitomize their luxuriance, as well as for
simplicity and grace in vegetable form. And here it is everywhere
with its shining shade, its smooth fat green stem, its crown of huge
curving leaves from four to ten feet long, and its heavy cluster of
a whorl of green or golden fruit, with a pendant purple cone of
undeveloped blossom below. It is of the tropics, tropical; a thing
of beauty, and gladness, and sunshine. It is indigenous here, and
wild, but never bears seeds, and is propagated solely by suckers,
which spring up when the parent plant has fruited, or by cuttings.
It bears seed, strange to say, only (so far as is known) in the
Andaman Islands, where, stranger still, it springs up as a second
growth wherever the forests are cleared. Go to the palm-house, find
the Musa sapientum, magnify it ten times, glorify it immeasurably,
and you will have a laggard idea of the banana groves of Hilo.
The ground is carpeted with a grass of preternaturally vivid green
and rankness of growth, mixed with a handsome fern, with a caudex a
foot high, the Sadleria cyathoides, and another of exquisite beauty,
the Micropia tenuifolia, which are said to be the commonest ferns on
Hawaii. It looks Elysian.
Hilo is a lively place for such a mere village; so many natives are
stirring about, and dashing along the narrow roads on horseback.
This is a large airy house, simple and tasteful, with pretty
engravings and water-colour drawings on the walls. There is a large
bath-house in the garden, into which a pure, cool stream has been
led, and the gurgle and music of many such streams fill the sweet,
soft air. There is a saying among sailors, "Follow a Pacific
shower, and it leads you to Hilo." Indeed I think they have a
rainfall of from thirteen to sixteen feet annually. These deep
verandahs are very pleasant, for they render window-blinds
unnecessary; so there is nothing of that dark stuffiness which makes
indoor life a trial in the closed, shadeless Australian houses.
Miss Karpe, my travelling companion, is a lady of great energy, and
apparently an adept in the art of travelling.
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