Urticaceae. 
in Asia and the Indian archipelago; about 14 per cent. in Africa, 14 per cent. in 
Oceanic Islands and only 3 to 4 per cent. in Europe. In the Hawaiian Islands 
the family is represented by 9 genera, of which two only are endemic (Neraudia 
and Touchardia). Two genera, Pipturus and Urera, however, have arborescent 
species only. The usefulness of the Urticaceae is mainly in the long and very 
strong fiber which is obtained from the bark of some species. The fibre of the 
Hawaiian Olona (Touchardia latifolia) is one of the strongest in the world. 
KEY TO THE GENERA, 
Urereae. oipagpiad a the female flowers four parted or four lobed, 
Flowers in 
Cymes divaricately dichotomous, corymbose, achene covered by the bse 
eg ee err er re Ter ee es Sere cae 
Boehmerieae. Perigone of the female flowers tubular, free. 
Flowers in axillary clusters 
Female flowers on a globose receptacle, the perigone dry with fruit. 2. Pipturus 
URERA Gaud. 
PE i vary. Female flower with equ ally large, or pantie outer segmen nts. 
globose-penicillate or iim is subsessile. Achenes enclosed in the fleshy Bt 
Seeds with scanty album —Trees or shrubs with alternate leaves, and punctiformous to 
elongate, in the Haw watiagn " species ovate- herent eystolithes, Ppt in dichotomous or 
irregularly branching, loose cymes or ¢orym 
The genus Urera consists of about 22 species distributed over the tropics of 
America and Africa and the islands of the Pacific. In the Hawaiian Islands we 
have only two species with several varieties, both species being peculiar to the 
islands, outside of which they have not been found. The native name for both 
species is Opuhe. 
Urera Sandvicensis Wedd. 
Opuhe. 
(Plates 38, 39, 40.) 
SANDVICENSIS Wedd. in Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 3. ae BS ye 177,—-et in DC. 
ne ets (1869) Sect. I. 92;—H. Mann Proc. Am. Me Baia gon _ 
Hbd. Haw. Isl. (1888) 410 inelus. var. 8.;—Del Coe 1. Mar. 
VIL cise 299,—Villebrunea crenulata Gaud. Bot. Voy. Bonite brs 52) £08. 
Leaves oblong, 15 to 20 em x 7 es 9 em, on gro of 3 to 5 em, ee moderately 
elliptico-« -eontracting but more or less obtuse at the base, wavy ecrenulate in the upper 
entire in the lower portion, schartacoous, or thick cepa tg fleshy, pale as, either 
glabrous or pubescent along the veins and midrib Mee in fresh sp 
penninerved, with 12 to 15 strong nerves on either aids, all parallel, straight, the lowest 
i leb ipule 
ia 20 in a glomerule, — essile, each about 3 mm - diam., pale reddish or yellow, with 
to 5 segments; anther s pale usually 5 in number; female perigone surrounded by a 
Fic ih cup : heckajmeages dean pedicellate, 3 to 4 scotia, at length fleshy and orange 
Yellow, about ; achene subobli 1, with yellow stigma, ovate, tuberculate 
on both San. eens sastoaea by the perigone 
119 
