FLORA VITIENSIS. 93 
(* Mantissa,’ p. 519, 1767) quotes Nieuhof and Ray’s names as synonyms of his Terminalia Catappa, 80 
there ean be no doubt about the plant he really meant. Rumphius (Herb. Amb. vol. i. p. 175. t. 68, 
1750), enumerates under the heading “ Catappa, Catappan," three kinds of Terminalia, viz. domestica, 
litorea, and sylvestris. The description of the first belongs undoubtedly to Terminalia Catappa, Linn. But 
which is the second (litorea)? Rumphius has well stated the difference between them. The true 7. 
Catappa (Catappa domestica) is a middle-sized tree with the habit of a Conifera, extremely well figured by 
Rheede, and it is largely cultivated throughout the eastern hemisphere. The branches are always in 
whorls, and nearly at right angles with the stem. The leaves are generally crowded at the extremity of 
the branchlets in spurious whorls, and before drooping they undergo a series of changes in colour from 
grey to yellow and bright red, as many North American, but few Asiatic or Polyfiesian, plants do. Catappa 
litorea is a much higher tree than Catappa domestica, but does not possess that regularity of growth; the 
leaves are more irregularly placed, and do not undergo a change of colour to the same extent. The plant 
is never cultivated, and closely confined to the sea. Its branches, as Rumphius well observes, overhang 
the salt water. The fruit is much smaller than that of T. Catappa, compressed, and those I have seen 
were not spoon-shaped as is sometimes the case in T. Catappa. But very little reliance can be placed on 
the shape of the fruit in this genus, it being extremely variable. On a branch of T. Catappa, now before 
me, there are seven fruits, all of which are different, and three of them quite spoon-shaped. A. Gray has 
remarked the same in the specimens colleeted in Wilkes's Expedition. Lamarck (Eneyelop. Méthod., 
Paris, 1783), established, upon Rumphius's pl. 58, a new species which he terms Terminalia Moluccana, and 
he distinguishes the two species thus :— 
T. Catappa, foliis obovatis crenulatis, subtus tomentosis. Rheede, Mal. vol. iv. p. 5. t. 3 et 4. 
T. Moluccana, foliis obovatis, integerrimis utrinque glabris. Rumph. Herb. Amb. vol. i. p. 174. t. 68. 
Now, the leaves of the genuine T. Catappa are, when the plant is old, generally quite glabrous, though 
they are more or less tomentose in young plants, and the crenulation of the edge is at the best of times 
obscure, and in some instances the margin is quite entire. Rumphius's figure, quoted by Lamarck, certainly 
belongs to the true Terminalia Catappa, as expressly stated by Rumphius. Lamarck's T. Moluccana must 
therefore fall to the ground, and has already been suppressed by Miquel (Fl. Neerl. Ind. vol. i. part i. 
p. 599). The species which several authors have mistaken for 7. Moluccana seems to have been what 
Rumphius calls Catappa litorea. Specimens which I collected in Viti agree with A. Gray’s brief descrip- 
tion of what he believed to be Lamarck's T. Moluccana, but what I take to be Rumphius's Catappa litorea, 
and shall call 7. litoralis. When young this species is more or less hairy, but when old perfectly gla- 
brous, much more so than any specimen of T. Catappa I have ever seen.  Forster's T. glabrata, an original 
specimen of which is preserved at the British Museum, is identical with 7. Catappa. A. Gray was right in 
his conjecture that Forster must have taken his character of the drupe from immature fruit; it is de- 
scribed as “ green by Forster, whereas in Parkinson's drawing of Tahitian plants, t. 116, it is shown 
to be purple, and Solander, in his manuscript notes, terms it “obscure purpurea.” The Tahitian plant 
might, on account of the difference of colour in its fruit from the ordinary red-fruited plant, be regarded as 
a distinct variety, for there is no specific difference between Forster's and Linneus’s plant. T. Richi, 
A. Gray, must also bé a small form of T. Catappa. 
1. T. Catappa, Linn. Mant. 519; arborea; ramis pseudoverticillatis subhorizontaliter paten- 
tibus, ramulis petiolisque ferrugineo-tomentosis ; foliis sparsis v. in extremitate ramulorum subverti- 
cillato-aggregatis, longiuscule petiolatis, obovato-oblongis, rotundatis v. breviter acuminatis, basi 
subcordatis v. in petiolum angustatis, obsolete crenulatis, supra glabris, subtus ad costas pubescen- 
tibus, basi et in axillis nervorum glandulosis, nervis primariis utriusque lateris 8-10; racemis erectis, 
pedunculo ferrugineo-tomentoso v. glabrato ; calyce 5-fido, extus glabro; drupa compressa cochleata 
v. ovata obscure angulata glabra.— Katappers, of Indianensche Amandelboom, Nieuhof, Reize, ed. 
Amst., 1682, p. 237. Adamarum, Rheede, Hort. Mal. pars iv. p. 5. t. 3 et 45. Pluk. Alm. p. 28; 
Ray, Hist. Plant. p. 1521; Rumph. Herb. Amb. vol. i. p. 175. T. Moluccana, Lam. Encycl. 
Méth. p. 849. T. glabrata, Forst. Plant. Escul. n. 20 et Prodr. n. 389; Spreng. Antiq. Bot. t. 2 (?). 
Sol. Prim. Fl. Ins. Pac. p. 348, et in Parkinson's Drawings of Tah. Plants, t. 116. Nomina ver- 
nac. Tahitensia, teste Forster, * Auwiri," «Tara iri” v. * Taraheiriri ;" Vitiensis, teste Seemann, 
«Tavola. ”—Common throughout Viti, and often cultivated (Seemann! in 187; Barclay ! in Mus. 
. Brit.). Also collected in the Society Islands (Forster! Mus. Brit.), and much cultivated throughout 
* 
the tropies of both hemispheres. 
. _ The “Tavola” supplies a valuable timber, used for various purposes, tlie most singular of which is, that 
. itis made into drums, called * Lali,” the beating of which is resorted to when distinguished guests arriye, 
