Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

FIG. 40. OLOKELE GULCH, KAUAI. The trees with light-colored foliage are Kukui

(Aleurites moluccana).

The second night was spent at the cave and on the third day we reached Kaholuamano. The return was even more arduous than the outgoing trip. The load was heavier because of collections, which were not offset by the consumed provisions, and furthermore the rains had been heavy and continuous, so that the streams were higher and the trail more water-soaked.

A few days were spent at the mountain house, collecting in the vicinity. A very interesting species of Poa obtained on one of the ridges has been described by Professor Hackel as Poa siphonoglossa. It grows in large tufts on the steep slopes just below the top of the ridge. The numerous culms are several feet long, leafless, green, and have the appearance of a

[graphic]

FIG. 41. REPRESENTATIVES OF THE LOBELIA FAMILY; peculiar palm-like forms. bullrush except they are lax and hang down the bank. The flowering culms are shorter and bear leaves to the summit. The spikelets and the flower culms look like those of Poa, but the rush-like sterile culms are different from any known species of that genus.

One of the interesting families of the Hawaiian flora is the Lobeliaceæ, represented by about 100 species belonging to 6 The numerous arborescent species are very peculiar genera. and characteristic. Many of them form slender trunks like small palms, crowned with a large cluster of long narrow

leaves (Figs. 41 and 42). The trunks of some species are as much as 30 or 40 feet high and the large bright-colored flowers are sometimes remarkably beautiful.

The ferns of the Hawaiian Islands are numerous in species and individuals. They are the dominant feature of all the wet forests. Three species of tree ferns (Fig. 43) of the genus Cibotium are found and in some places form extensive forests.

[graphic]

FIG. 42. AN ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE LOBELIA FAMILY (Cyanea sp.), a group highly developed in the Hawaiian Islands. Forests of central Kauai,

[graphic]

FIG. 43. TREE FERNS (Cibotium Menziesii) IN THE KOHALA MOUNTAINS. Those in the foreground are in a pasture and the surrounding vegetation has been kept down. In the background the ferns are mixed with other vegetation in a dense mass. These produce at the base of the stipe a great ball of brownishyellow wool called pulu by the natives and used by them for stuffing pillows and mattresses. One species (C. Menziesii) is shown in Fig. 43. Contrasted with the tree ferns are numerous small epiphytic forms, some species with fronds only an inch or two long. The ferns and fern allies number about 170 species.

THE INFLUENCE OF ANTHROPOLOGY UPON

T

HISTORY

By WILSON D. WALLIS

FRESNO, CALIFORNIA.

HE definition of history as a record of past events suggests the advertisement of a certain firm which promises to teach one how to train the memory. This man, it says of the discoverer of the system, can give the size of every city in the United States having a population of over 5,000, and can give the dates of two thousand historical happenings. This Cinquevallian feat of memory may afford the possessor, and others who enjoy such harmless pastimes, considerable amusement; but certainly no one who has burdened his poor mind in this way can hope to be of any use to society. He has learned figures, but not history; he might make a mathematician or a guide to railroad schedules-he certainly could never become a historian.

For the sake of history itself it is entirely regrettable that the insistence on a series of dates as the groundwork of history was not carried at once to its logical conclusion. It is not enough, such logical insistence would tell us, to know that the Hegira occurred in the first half of the seventh century; we must know that it was in the year 622. Nor is that enough. We ought to know that it occurred at 6: 15 P.M., on August 3, 622. No less exactitude should be demanded of those who find the beginning and end of history in dates. They may then take their place with those earlier Biblical scholars who declared the date of the Creation to be the year 4004 B.C., October 28, at four o'clock in the afternoon.

Dates are comparatively unimportant for two reasons: In the first place, simply as so many isolated dates they add no more to our knowledge of an event than if we described the temperature rather than the time of year when they occurred. After all, why should the historian have his eye always on the calendar rather than on the thermometer?

Furthermore, dates are comparatively unimportant because they are only relatively true. Indeed, dates are more false than true; they are more often misleading than enlightening. Take, for example, the French Revolution. The older histories tell us VOL. V.- -28.

« AnteriorContinuar »