THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 47 



to support the latter viewpoint, although the question is still 

 unsettled. 



The carambola tree is evergreen, 15 to 30 feet in height, 

 with a dense canopy of dark-green foliage. Trees in Hon- 

 olulu g-ardens, because of the relative dryness of the air, are 

 often small and shrubby, but under more favorable conditions 

 and a humid atmosphere the tree rises to 30 feet or more. The 

 trunk is slender, with many branches. The wood is light red, 

 hard, close-grained, and weighs about 40 pounds per cubic 

 foot. This ranks it as a heavy wood, although not as heavy 

 as many other tropical hardwoods (ex. teak, 50 pounds, green- 

 heart, 72, and jarrah, 65). In India the wood is used for 

 building and furniture ; in the Hawaiian Islands the tree is not 

 sufficiently abundant to render its wood of value ; it is raised 

 here exclusively for fruit and ornament. 



The leaves are alternate, odd pinnate, without stipules, 

 and with five to ten alternate leaflets. The leaflets are ovate- 

 acuminate, entire, and petiolate. Like other members of this 

 family, they possess sensitive pulvini and exhibit nyctitropic 

 movements. 



The flowers are in axillary or lateral cymes which are 

 often panicle-like. They appear in the naked portions of the 

 branches, and sometimes on the old wood. The flowers are 

 minute, fragrant, and pale pink to deep purple-red in color. 

 The calyx is red and glabrous. The corolla is campanulate, 

 with five petals. There are ten stamens, the five outer usually 

 minute and sterile. Each locule of the five-loculed ovary con- 

 tains numerous ovules. 



In the Hawaiian Islands the carambola trees flower in 

 July and August, and fruit from November to January. In 

 India it flowers from February to August. It fruits in three 

 or four years from seed (by which it is easily propagated) and 

 in Hawaii bears one crop annually. In some more tropical 

 regions it bears two or three crops annually. 



