THE LANTANA.

I from the full native, for they grow darker as they

T is difficult, often, to distinguish the half-caste

get older, and the foreign blood in them never seems to predominate, but may manifest itself prominently in some traits foreign to the full native! All of them possess an unconscious grace, in manner and bearing. The national dress of the native women, and it is much used by the foreigners as well, is the "holoku." When cut and shaped with care and taste, and made of fine material-lawn, muslin, silk, even satin—it is as graceful and flowing a tea or breakfast gown as can be fashioned. I have seen one in white that was nothing less than an inspiration-a poem! They are often made with a loose, flowing demi-train, and tight waist in front, or the reverse, tight in the back, with flowing front, trimmed with lace and ribbons. The natives, as a rule, go barefooted. They will wear shoes to church, but, may be, take them off on the way home-always if a rain comes up! The darkey, when questioned about taking off his hat in the rain, said, you know, that his hat was his own, but his head was his master's. They are their own masters, and can quickly explain to you in Hawaiian, that "wet feet

will not induce illness, but to walk in wet shoes, or to keep them on, will." But, wet or dry, they hate to put their feet in prison. Oh, they are Nature's loveliest children all through and through, and all the real harm they know has been taught to them, and brought to them, I am sure!

They grow crazy over Fourth of July; don't pretend to go indoors for two nights and one day! Singing and music and firecrackers, and all, all three combined, every minute! On Sundays and holidays they come in from the outlying valleys, troops of them, all on their own native horses, women riding "cavalier," dashing over the roads-for they are reckless riderswith their hats and necks, men and women both, decked with leis of ferns, flowers and maile.

They are barbaric in their choice of colors, and no figure can be too large, nor no red too red for their holokus and neckerchiefs. Their national dish is "pig and poi," and on all state occasions-births, deaths and marriages, and, indeed, every "great time," the black pig must walk in and die! If they like you very much, they will give you one, always. I had, unfortunately, no place to keep them, or I might have competed with Chicago in the trade. We all know that a black cat is "good luck," but when I got to Hawaii, I found it was the "black pig," and the black cat did not fare any better than the white. It was a shock to my nerves to have my childhood's belief swept away, and I did not take kindly to the black pig. But this I can say, that the perfection of art is used in cooking

one, by the natives! An oven is built in the ground, of stones, and the pig is done up in ti leaves, and put in, and the place is filled up. I don't quite know the whole process. I know the result is all that can be desired in the way of a pig done brown!

Taro, like the calla, must have moisture and mud. The natives pull it up and sell it by the bunch-four for a quarter (hapaha). One, when boiled or baked, would make a meal for three; fine, firm, delicate and tasteless as a good potato; very nutritious, and easily digested. From this the natives make their poi, which is a thin porridge, subject to fermentation.

Europeans, as well as Americans and Asiatics, intermarry with the Hawaiians.

On King street, in Palace Square, one of the principal streets of Honolulu, and about ten minutes' walk from the steamer's wharf, and five from the English Church and the Hawaiian Hotel, is the Iolani Palace, with its fine grounds. When the Queen is in residence the royal standard is flying. Opposite are the Government Buildings, where the Legislature holds its term. Here, too, is a fine museum, with a multitude of native curios and relics. In the grounds is a statue in bronze of Kamehameha I.

From this point you can drive on to the sea, a distance of four miles, lined with pretty houses the entire road. You will soon pass a native church-Kawaiahao-built of coral formation, just beyond the Government Buildings; and the trees will often demand your attention. If it be a moonlight night, you may notice,

if you are watchful, an old coral wall, a couple of miles before you reach the sea, covered, loaded with the night-blooming cereus. The effect is beautiful and artistic at a little distance; but too near, they are coarse, pale, and rank-looking, not like those under fine cultivation.

And this brings to my mind the lantana-man's dreaded foe; as hateful a one, and as hated as the "Canada thistle" of the North. In New England the lantana is found in hot-houses in quite small plants. The bloom is changeable in its color, pinks and yellows intermingled-sometimes white. This rough, strong shrub, with its many interlacing, wire-like branches of toughest, ugliest kind, and its mass, its cloud of color in heads somewhat like the red clover, will, where it once gets a foothold-an inch of ground sowed with its pernicious, deadly seed-not only spread an ell, but acres upon acres; and so rapid and malignant is its growth, like to all other evil things, that it is almost impossible to uproot it. It takes so firm and determined a hold that "all the king's oxen and all the king's men" can hardly manage it. It saps the land, and literally makes a rich man poor! At its worst it attains a height of four or five feet. It must be chopped down and the ground chopped up! It has been suggested that if its millions of lovely laughing blossoms could be used by the chemist, a fine perfume could be made. Very likely. I am sure it could supply a nation. But it would be "high treason" to ask an Islander to buy a bottle-and the man

would be mobbed by the time "Lantana Perfume' was even suggested by him!

In nearly all of the valleys ferns and other plants worthy of the botanist can be collected, and often land shells on the uplands, for which these islands are noted.

Strange to say, some of the wild flowers are very pale, limp, colorless, and odorless. A wild convolvulus is sickly-looking, and as pale as moonlight. You will will see it on the sides of the hills, sometimes, but not pretty, at all. It looks very homesick and unhappy.

But most of the climbers and some of the bushes, as well as trees-the poinciana regia, for instance, where the pretty, delicate green of the leaves can hardly be seen, for the mass of scarlet-are truly superb, magnificent, in color. Then there is the pink poinciana regia, with changeable blossoms, the "Pride of India," with blossom that looks, at a distance, like the appleand oh, a multitude of others of beauty, in bush and tree. With the greatest varieties of elevation and temperature is a like variety of vegetation. There are said to be about one thousand different species of flowering plants and one hundred and fifty-five ferns. It is said six hundred of all these species are found only on the Islands. However, most all of the fruits and vegetables are not indigenous. The bean, palm, and fern families are the commonest kind of vegetation.

There was one royal palm in Honolulu that whenever I came into its presence—and that was often-I felt as if I ought to bend the knee as to a king—for it