Hawaiian Flowers — Reading Companion

From Preface to Plate: The Book’s Dual Audience

The preface explicitly addresses two kinds of readers: the layperson seeking to identify flowers, and the “more serious” student who will consult technical works. This split is visible throughout the excerpts. For the general reader, descriptions emphasize visual and sensory details—the “miniature, holly-like leaves, crisp, shining and thorny” of Singapore Holly, or the “pompons of pink or white stamens” of Haole Lehua. For the botanically inclined, each entry includes Latin names, family classifications, and native ranges (e.g., Euphorbia splendens from Madagascar). The color plates, the preface explains, aimed to be “both artistic and scientific,” though mass effects like those of Shower trees were sacrificed for individual clarity. A first-time reader benefits from noting which details are meant for quick spotting and which for taxonomic precision.

The Structure of a Single Entry: What to Expect

Each plant description in the excerpts follows a consistent pattern: common name, scientific name and authority, then a physical description that moves from overall form to specific parts. The Crown of Thorns entry, for instance, begins with “Quantities of very long, sharp thorns on a low shrub bearing small, red flowers,” then zooms in on the “rosy-scarlet flowers” and their bracts. Next comes habitat or use—the Crown of Thorns is “sometimes planted in areas from which it is desired to keep people”—and finally botanical family and native origin. This structure lets a reader quickly locate key identification cues. The entries also occasionally include historical or cultural notes, such as the association of Jasmine with Princess Kaiulani’s white peacocks at Ainahau. These asides are rare but enrich the otherwise straightforward botanical prose.

Local Names and Colonial Layers

The book records multiple names for many plants, revealing layers of Hawaiian, English, and imported terminology. The entry for Cassia glauca gives the Hawaiian name “Kalamona,” noting it was “transferred to this plant from a native Cassia of similar appearance.” Similarly, “Haole Lehua” (foreign Lehua) is applied to Calliandra because its flowers resemble those of the native Ohia Lehua. These naming practices show how introduced species were absorbed into local vocabulary. The authors do not dwell on this, but a careful reader will notice the pattern: common names often reflect resemblance or substitution, not botanical relationship. The preface’s promise that “each name accurate to aid those going to the accepted authorities” suggests the authors were aware of the potential for confusion and tried to standardize.

Wartime Details and the Living Landscape

Beyond the preface, wartime references appear in the plant descriptions themselves. The Crown of Thorns is noted as growing in the “parking strip before the Advertiser building”—a mundane detail that becomes a small landmark. More strikingly, the preface mentions bomb shelters in gardens and parks, and the book’s publication in 1943 is itself a wartime act. The authors hope the book offers “an hour’s escape from the strain and pressure of war.” This framing gives the botanical descriptions an unexpected poignancy: the flowers are not just specimens but persistent elements of daily life under duress. A first-time reader might watch for other subtle signs of the period, such as references to specific buildings or uses of plants in defense-related landscaping, though the excerpts provide only these few examples.

Because the excerpts cover only the preface and a handful of entries from Chapter IV (Tropical Shrubs) and later chapters, a first reader should not assume the entire book follows the same tone or density of cultural notes. The later chapters on flowering vines, ginger blossoms, and special tropical flowers may introduce different structural patterns or more technical language. To get the most from this guide, read the preface carefully for the authors’ stated intentions, then sample entries from different chapters to gauge consistency. The color plates, though not reproduced in this digital edition, are referenced throughout and were clearly integral to the identification system.

This reminded me of my grandmother’s shelf, where her 1943 guide felt like a quiet hand holding mine through names I couldn’t pronounce. The same gentle patience lives in Flowers of mountain and plain — Text and Context, where landscape and history breathe softly beneath each description. I remember sitting with that one, too, feeling less alone in my slow noticing.