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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Hothouse Flowers Grow In Rank Profusion Round Every House,
And Tea-Roses, Fuchsias, Geraniums Fifteen Feet High, Nile Lilies,
Chinese Lantern Plants, Begonias, Lantanas, Hibiscus, Passion-
Flowers, Cape Jasmine, The Hoya, The Tuberose, The Beautiful But
Overpoweringly Sweet Ginger Plant, And A Hundred Others:
While the
whole district is overrun with the Datura brugmansia (?) here an
arborescent shrub fourteen feet high, bearing seventy great trumpet-
shaped white blossoms at a time, which at night vie with those of
the night-blowing Cereus in filling the air with odours.
Pineapples and melons grow like weeds among the grass, and
everything that is good for food flourishes. Nothing can keep under
the redundancy of nature in Kona; everything is profuse, fervid,
passionate, vivified and pervaded by sunshine. The earth is
restless in her productiveness, and forces up her hothouse growth
perpetually, so that the miracle of Jonah's gourd is almost repeated
nightly. All decay is hurried out of sight, and through the glowing
year flowers blossom and fruits ripen; ferns are always uncurling
their young fronds and bananas unfolding their great shining leaves,
and spring blends her everlasting youth and promise with the
fulfilment and maturity of summer.
"Never comes the trader, never floats a European flag,
Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from
the crag:
Droops the heavy-blossom'd bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree -
Summer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea."
HUALALAI. July 28th.
I very soon left the languid life of Kona for this sheep station,
6000 feet high on the desolate slope of the dead volcano of
Hualalai, ("offspring of the shining sun,") on the invitation of its
hospitable owner, who said if I "could eat his rough fare, and live
his rough life, his house and horses were at my disposal." He is
married to a very attractive native woman who eats at his table, but
does not know a word of English, but they are both away at a wool-
shed eight miles off, shearing sheep.
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