305 



shrubby, but under more favorable conditions and a humid at- 

 mosphere 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 hard- 

 woods (ex., teak, 50 pounds; greenheart, 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 5-10 alternate leaflets. The leaflets are ovate-acuminate, 

 entire, and petiolate. Like other members of this family, they 

 possess sensitive pulvini and exhibit nyctotropic 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, fra- 

 grant, and pale-pink to deep purple red in color. The calyx is 

 red, glabrous. The corolla is campanulate, with five petals. 

 There are ten stamens ; the five outer are usually minute and 

 sterile. Each locule of the 5-loculed ovary contains numerous 

 ovules. 



In the Hawaiian Islands the carambola trees flower in Julv 

 and August, and fruit frDm November to January. In India it 

 flowers from February to August. It fruits in three to four 

 years from seed (by which it is easily propagated) and in Ha- 

 waii bears one crop annually. In some more tropical regions it 

 bears two-three crops annually. 



The fruit is ovate, 2-5 inches long, fleshy, indeniscent, and with 

 five prominent, acutely-angled ribs. The skin is very thin, light 

 yellow and fragrant. It is easily broken or rubbed, discolors 

 badly, and thus makes the fruit a poor shipper. The immature 

 flesh is fibrous and highly astringent ; upon complete maturity it 

 becomes watery and crisp. There are two varieties of fruit — 

 the sweet, which is eaten out of hand ; and the sour, which is 

 very acid, and is used for pickles. In India the astringent un- 

 ripe fruits are used as a mordant for dyeing. In Hawaii the 

 acid juice is used to remove rust spots, etc., from clothing. An 

 excellent drink, which might well be called ,carambolade, is made 

 from the mature fruits, in much the same manner as lemonade 

 is prepared. Its antiscorbutic properties are widely known. In 

 1914 the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station conducted a 

 careful analysis of the carambola fruit and the results were tab- 

 ulated in part as follows : 



