Economic Woods of Hawaii 707 



several hundred acres. This tree (Jambosa malaccensis (L.), 

 P. DC.) is cosmopolitan, and occurs throughout the Pacific. It 

 is thirty to sixty feet in height, with a straight, smooth-barked 

 trunk, and handsome, dark green, glossy foliage. The flowers are 

 pompons of showy magenta stamens, and produce juicy, crimson, 

 obovate fruit, the size of a small pear. During the fruiting season, 

 generally in mid-summer, the fruit is common in the Honolulu 

 markets. The wood was used by the natives for their house and 

 temple timbers, and for idols; it has not been used to any extent 

 by foreigners. 



A highly laticiferous tree of possible commercial value is the 

 koko, {Euphorbia lorifolia Gray, Hillebd.). The native name 

 koko means "blood" and refers to the latex. This is a small 

 endemic tree of twenty or twenty-five feet, with a trunk of eight 

 or ten inches, which on old trees is encrusted with fissured protuber- 

 ances. It occurs on Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and Hawaii, at 

 elevations of two- to four-thousand feet, in zerophytic habitats. 

 A variety, gracilis, is restricted to the semi-arid waste-lands on 

 the slopes of Mount Hu-ala-lai, on Hawaii, at an elevation of 

 three thousand feet. This variety, which is estimated to occupy 

 about five thousand acres, has a very copious flow of latex, and 

 has been investigated by the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment 

 Station as a possible soiirce of rubber and chicle. The favorable 

 reports and the considerable acreage involved may lead to the 

 commercial utilization of this tree. 



Among the comparatively few Hawaiian trees which attain large 

 stature is the aV, Sapindus saponaria L. It rises to a height of 

 sixty or eighty feet, with a straight, buttressed trunk, often six feet 

 in diameter. In no other part of the world does this tree reach 

 such a large size as in Hawaii. The bark flakes off in large thick 

 irregular plates or scales, exposing the smooth young bark be- 

 neath. The wood is white and soft ; it is not utilized by the natives, 

 nor is the tree of sufficient abundance to be of special commercial 

 importance. The leaves are pinnate, and deciduous ; the small, yel- 

 lowish flowers are in hairy terminal panicles, and produce round 

 black berries. The saponaceous qualities of the fruit are well 

 known, and utilized by natives in all lands where the tree occurs. 

 In Hawaii the a'e occupies the middle forest zone, at an elevation 

 of about four thousand feet. A second species, 5. oahuensis 

 Hillebd., is a small endemic tree, twenty to thirty feet, distributed 

 throughout the leeward lower forests of Kauai and Oahu. 



