PITTOSPORACEAE. 
With the exception of the genus Pittosporum, this family is exclusively Aus- 
tralian. It consists of 9 genera, 8 of which are peculiar to Australia. The 
genus Pittosporum is distributed over the tropics of the old world, from tropical 
and extra-tropical South Africa to the Hawaiian Islands, and reaches its 
northern boundary in Japan and from there to the Canary Islands. Its position 
in the natural system has been a varied one, as the relationship of this family 
to other plant families has been rather a mystery. Pax, in his treatise in Engler 
& Prantl, places it near the Hamamelidaceae, in common with which it has the 
resin ducts. 
PITTOSPORUM Banks. 
a fo lobes free or united at the base, petals sometimes united; stamina subulate; 
anthers erect. Ovary sessile or shortly stipitate, incom plet sii 2, rarely 3-5eelled. Style 
short. Capeule often laterally compress - with eous or woody valves. Seeds smooth 
rugose, covered with a viscous resinou maiy icp pulp. ee ergreen shrubs or trees, 
glabrous or tomentose. Lea entire or dentate, hai erowded in spurious whorls. 
Flowers in terminal or eines Suetnon. panicles or cluster 
The genus consists of more than 70 species, and is distributed from Africa 
to the islands of the Pacific, as in Fiji, Timor, New Guinea and in the Hawaiian 
Islands, where they have reached a wonderful development. The species are 
dependent on the insects for pollination. The flowers of the Hawaiian species 
are dimorphous; that is, they are of two kinds—fertile and sterile. It is very 
difficult to render the exact limitation of each species, which is shown by the 
fact that the writer has found capsules belonging to three different species on a 
single inflorescence, on a tree found on the island of Lanai. Hillebrand, who 
had no mature capsules of each species, but of only a few, based his key to the 
species on the flowers. Ten species were originally described, to which number 
the writer has added three new ones. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES. 
Inflorescence axillary or cauline. 
Leaves Shonen flowers white or cream-colored, the raceme pedunculate, seeds 
smo 
pc pedicellate. 
epals ovate, capsule smooth or occasionally roughened, a ae along 
gia 
late Gee InReeGlate oe oa vena oe een eee 
— lanceolate acute or subulate, sot rough. 
Pedicels and cane le very long, leaves acuminate. 
icels short, leaves thick dark green ro Bi kigewee spathula 
Pe unde 
Flowers sessile or glomerate at the end of a long poduns P. glomeratum 
Leaves tomentose, obtuse or acumi inate, flowers subsessile or | aoe seeds often 
h 
rough at the back. 
Flowers small in a opr dl cluster; capsule smooth.........--- P. terminalioides 
Flowers larger net pedunele, capsule smooth......... P. caulifiorum 
Flowers Stamatis atic capsule very large 5 to 7 em long, smooth 
eri 
rie ot percolate, capsule small, rough, densely tomentose, leaves, strongly 
Ie ae a ea ge Ihe a a a le, ae Ne RR SR RR SS 
