COFFEE BROWN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 273, 17 November 1936, Page 5

COFFEE BROWN.

BEAUTIFUL FLOWER.

WOOD ROSE OF HAWAII

BKINGEE OF GOOD FORTUNE.

(By NATURALIST.)

A strangely beautiful flower came into the writer's possession the other day. It is the wood rose of Hawaii, a rare variety of tropical convolvulus, which retains the elasticity in its twisting stems and the complete, unwrinkled shape of its blossoms for an indefinite period after being gathered.

The specimen to which reference is made came from Honolulu, and had been in the house of an Auckland resident, Mr. L. Crozier, for three years, but there is still a queer, almost uncanny, feeling of life about it. The colour of the blossoms is best described, as that of Turkish coffee, a delicate shade of brown. Each blossom is about the size of the palm of the hand, with four cupshaped petals, and in the centre a globe not unlike a ping-pong ball in size and texture, which contains the seeds of the plant. The flowers are extremely fragile looking, but are surprisingly strong.

Captain Johansen, of the Monterey, mentioned having seen the wood rose in Samoa as well as Hawaii. It is of a vivid green colour when twining amid the tropical vegetation of the Islands, but quickly becomes dry and coffee brown when picked. The number of varies from two to four. They cluster neatly together like the sections inside an orange.

Those from the spray referred to have been planted, some under glass and others in sheltered garden plots. It will be interesting to see whether they germinate. Like the rest of the flower and its stalk, they still retain that indefinable feeling of vitality, and to an even greater degree than the parent stem. Romantic interest attaches to the wood rose, for it is believed to be a briuger of good fortune, but only if it is given by on&-oi-ihe-x>ppo6ite -