INTRODUCTION 



The Hawaiian Archipelago is composed of eight islands and several small 

 ones which may better be termed islets. The material of Lohelioideae on which 

 this monograph is based was collected on seven of the larger islands which may 

 here be given in their order beginning with the westernmost: Niihau, Kauai, 

 Oahu, Molokai, Maui, Lanai, and Hawaii. The Island of Kahoolawe does not 

 concern us here as no specimens of Lohelioideae have ever been collected there. 

 This does not mean, however, that there never were Lohelioideae on that partic- 

 ular island. The smaller islands were nearly always neglected in the days of 

 tlie ea.v\\ navigators. Their stay was usually limited and they confined their 

 collecting activities to those islands which promised the greater harvest. Thus 

 practically nothing is known of the flora of Kahoolawe, or rather of the flora 

 which once upon a time occurred on that island, for today the island is denuded 

 not only of its plants lint also of its soil especially on the uplands of the island. 

 On a windy day the island is not visible as it is enshrouded in a cloud of red 

 dust representing tlir still available soil which is being lilown out to sea. In 

 all probability it is safe to say that genera like C'ljanca and Ch rmonfia. which 

 inhabit the moist regions or rainforests, were never present on Kahoolawe. liut 

 Brighamia insignis and perhaps one or two species of Dilissca did oectu- on it. 

 The writer believes this to be plausible for he has found Brighaiiiin insignis in 

 the dry and barren gulch IMauna Lei on the Island of Lanai, from which island 

 it had previously not been I'ecorded. 



Niihau the westernmost island of this group was visited by Jules Remy a 

 French collector in the years of ISfil-lSSS, and he seems to have lieen the only 

 one who collected extensively on Ihat island. He collected two Lohelioideae 

 on Niihau viz. Brighamia insignis and Delissca itndnhifa. Dr. Wm. T. Brigham 

 re-collected the latter on the same island. 



Kauai, Oahu, Molol^ai, Maui, Lanai and Hawaii arc tlien the renuiining 

 islands, on which the Loheliaideae form a more or less striking part of the vege- 

 tative covering. Before going into detail as regards the distrilnition of the 

 various genera and species of Tjolulioideac on each of the above mentioned 

 islands of the group, it is advisable to consider the tribe Lohelioideae of the 

 family Canipaunlaeeae as a whole, and then the IIa>\aiiaii endemic genera and 

 species of this remarkable tribe of plants. 



THE LOBELWIDEAE. 



The tribe Lobelioideae. formerly recognized as a distinct family "Leihclia- 

 eeae." is composed of twenty-three genera, of which six are peculiar to the 

 Hawaiian Islands, Clermnntia, Eollandia, Delissea. Cyanea, Brighamia and Tre- 

 matolohelia; one to the island of Raiatea and Tahiti, Apetahia; one to Tahiti 

 and Rarotonga, Selerolln ca -. these comprise the genera which are found in the 

 eastern Pacific. Next in interest are the two genera Centropogon and Sipho- 

 eampyhis each possessing about a hundred species distributed over tropical 

 South America, Central America and the "West Indies. 



Madagascar possesses the inonotypic genus Dialiiix liilnm. and I\rexico the 



