The bud, growing upright on the bare branch, is like a stubby cigar, rising from the calyx which is like the cup of an acorn. The bud splits into five parts, which peel backward like a banana, and curl into a spiral. These are the petals, purplish brown outside, silky white within. The conspicuous part of the flower is the great pompon of pink stamens, an exploding rocket of color. The stamens are about five inches long.
Except when in bloom the tree is inconspicuous. Its foliage is made up of five radiating leaflets. The tree is a native of South America and a member of the Bombax family.
The species is said to produce pods in which the seeds are embedded in a cotton wool. It is, indeed, closely related to the Kapok tree which produces the kapok of commerce. (For an example of this tree, _Ceiba pentandra_, see the Foster gardens.) But in Honolulu the single specimen of Bombax has never produced seeds nor has it been propagated by other means, so that the tree in Queen’s Hospital grounds has no rivals in interest although others are known to be growing in the Islands. (Plate IV)
Long before the first human being landed on Hawaii, these islands were covered with a thick growth of trees, shrubs and smaller plants. Land which first rose above the surface of the ocean as hot lava, or as coral, slowly deposited on undersea volcanic rocks, gradually became covered with plant life. It was brought ashore by ocean currents, by birds and by the wind. Among the first plants, doubtless, was the coconut. The huge nuts of this tree, covered with their tough, thick husks, can float on the ocean for months, and after finally washing ashore will take root and grow. The roots are tolerant of brackish water so that they can become established near salt water lagoons.
In spite of what we know of the way in which such isolated bits of land as Hawaii became covered with plants, it remains a constant wonder that so many different ones arrived here without the help of men. For Hawaii has a very rich native flora that has been of great interest to botanists. Many of the plants found growing here are common to all the South Sea islands. Others have so changed, through mutation and self-selection, that totally new species have been created, unique to Hawaii. Trees are among the finest of these native plants, some of them attaining huge size. A few of those most often seen, are illustrated and described here.