Tab. C953. 

 HILLEBRANDIA sandwicensis. 



Native of the Sandwich Islands. 



Nat. Ord. Bkcjoniace.e. 

 Genus Hillebbandia, Oliver; (Benth. ct Huol: f. Gen. PL vol. i. p. 813.) 



Hillebbandia sandwicensis ; herba succnlenta, sparsim pilosa, ereeta, ramosa, fbliis 

 amplis oblique rotundatis profunda cordatis breviter-multilobatis lobis in- 

 aequalibus triangularibus acuminatis dentatis v. serratis, floribus in cyinis 

 ramosis bisexualibus dispositis, sepalis 5 amplis, petalis totidem parvis cncullat is, 

 staminibua perplurimis, filamentia liberis, antheris oblongis, ovario ap;ce libero 

 hiante, placentis 5 parietalibus, stylis 5 bil'urcatis, cruribus spiraliter stigtaa- 

 tosis, capsula membranacea inter stylos dehiseente. 



H. sandwicensis, Oliv. in Trans. Linn. Sor. vol. xxv. p. 361, tab. 46; H. Mann. 

 Enum. of Hawaiian Plants in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and dc. vol. vii. 

 p. 167; Sinclair, Jndig. Flowers of Hawaiian Jsds. tab. 37. 



For upwards of a century the large genus Begonia was 

 supposed to have had no near ally, and from the date of 

 the establishment for it in 1802, by Trattenick, of the 

 Natural Order Begoniece, till 1865, that of the publication 

 of Hillebrandia by Oliver, the Order was represented by 

 but the one genus. It is true that the 350 to 400 species 

 constituting Begonia itself have comparatively lately been 

 arranged by some botanists under even as many as thirty- 

 five distinct genera, but this disruption of the old genus 

 has not been approved by more recent authors. Since 

 the publication of Hillebrandia still another genus has been 

 added to the Order, by the discovery of Begoniella, Oliver 

 {Linn. Trans, vol. xxviii. p. 513, t. 41), in New Grenada, 

 a very remarkable plant, with the sepals united into a 

 campanulate cup. 



Hillebrandia differs from Begonia in the presence of 

 petals, and in the ovary being free for its upper third; 

 in habit and all other respects it is a true Begonia. It 

 was discovered in the Island of Maui, one of the Hawaiian 

 Archipelago, by M. Baldwin, of Lahaina, and specimens 

 from it were sent to Kew in 1865, by Dr. Hillebrand, 

 after whom the genus is named. It has since been found 



sei'T. 1st, 1887. 



