h waves the Hawaiian flag. In front is a smooth lawn where grow
century-plants and ornamental shrubs, including the India-rubber tree.
It is much finer than the so-called palace of the king, a many-roomed,
one-story wooden cottage in the centre of the city, surrounded by a
large grassy yard enclosed by a high wall.

The land beyond the marshes is planted in _taro_ and irrigated by a
network of streams. Taro is the principal article of food used by the
natives: the root, which looks somewhat like a gray sweet potato, is
made into a paste called _poi_, and the tops are eaten as greens. The
plant grows about two feet high, and has an arrow-shaped leaf larger
than one's hand. Like rice, it grows in shallow pools of water, and a
patch of it looks like an inundated garden. As we passed along we saw
half-clad natives standing knee-deep in mud and water pulling the
full-grown plants or putting in young ones. Reaching higher ground, we
cantered along a hard, smooth road bordered with short green grass. On
either side were dwellings of wood surrounded by broad-leafed banana
trees, with here and there a little shop for the sale of fruit. This is
a suburb of Honolulu and is called Kupalama. We met a number of natives
on horseback going into town, the men dressed in shirts and trousers of
blue or white cotton cloth, the women wearing the long loose gowns I
have described.

At last we reached the open country, and started fairly on our long
ride. On our left was the ocean with "league-long rollers thundering on
the reef:" on our right, a few miles away, was a line of mountains,
divided into numerous spurs and peaks by deep valleys richly clothed in
tropical verdure. The country about us was uncultivated and generally
open, but here and there were straggling lines of low stone walls
overgrown with a wild vine resembling our morning-glory, the masses of
green leaves starred with large pink flowers. The algaroba, a graceful
tree resembling the elm, grew along the roadside, generally about
fifteen feet high. In Honolulu, where they are watered and cared for,
these trees attain a height of thirty or forty feet, sending forth long
swaying branches in every direction and forming beautiful shade trees.
Now and then we crossed water-courses, where the banks were carpeted
with short green grass and bordered with acacia-bushes covered with
feathery leaves and a profusion of yellow ball-shaped flowers that
perfumed the air with their fragrance.