710 Forestry Quarterly 



meter. It occurs in the arid leeward districts of all the islands, to 

 an elevation of 3,200 feet. The wood is like that of Colubrina, 

 but is marked with conspicuous black streaks. This species is 

 not endemic, but is plentitiful in the islands of the South Pacific. 



A common hardwood tree is the lama, Maba sandwicensis 

 A. DC, or Hawaiian ebony. The wood is dense, fine-grained, and 

 rich reddish brown. It was formerly used for idols, temples, and 

 house timbers. The tree is twenty to forty feet in height, and 

 occurs in the humid and semi-arid lower forests on all the islands. 



The Hawaiian olive, pua (Osmanthus sandwicensis Gray, 

 Knobl.), is also common, but is restricted chiefly to the arid lee- 

 ward districts. It is a dominant tree on many of the Hawaiian 

 lava-flows. Its height is thirty to sixty feet, in old trees the tnmk 

 is frequently thirty to thirty-six inches in diameter. The wood 

 is exceedingly hard and heavy, fine textured and durable; it is 

 dark brown with blackish streaks, and takes an excellent poHsh. 

 The Hawaiians formerly used the wood for their implements. 



A comparatively scarce endemic tree, of economic value, is the 

 uhi-uhi, Mezoneurum Kauaiense Mann, Hillebd. It is a legume, 

 sub-family Caesalpinioideae, and grows to a height of twenty- 

 five or thirty feet, with a trunk of ten or twelve inches. The smooth 

 leaves are abruptly pinnate with one to five pairs of pinnae, each 

 with four to eight pairs of leaflets; the leaflets are about 1 finches 

 long. The dark purple red flowers are arranged in showy ter- 

 minal racemes, which appear in early spring. The thin flat pod is 

 33/2 X 2 inches, with a broad wing along one margin ; the young pods 

 are pink and showy. Uhi-uhi wood is very heavy, fine grained, 

 hard, and durable; in color dark chocolate brown, almost black. 

 It was used by the natives for fishing sinkers, as it is much heavier 

 than water, and easier to drill than stone. This tree occurs in 

 restricted localities on Kauia, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii, and is too 

 scarce to be of present commercial value. 



We have several species of the endemic genus Bobea which be- 

 come large trees — thirty to thirty-five feet — and were formerly 

 valued by the natives for their yellow wood. The Bobeas are 

 widely scattered on the various islands, chiefly in the rain-forests, 

 although also inhabiting the zerophytic districts. The bright 

 yellow wood was used for the gunwales of the outrigger canoes, and 

 afforded a pleasing contrast with the dark body of the vessel. 



One of the very tough, close-grained woods of Hawaii is the 



