Thymelaeaceae. 
grows in company with Cheirodendron platyphyllum, Lobelia macrostachys, 
Pittosporum spathulatum, several species of Pelea, Scaevola glabra and others. 
On the low lands on the outskirts of the forest on open glades, as in Niu Valley, 
it is only 2 feet or so in height. The trunk and branches are clothed in a 
black, very tough, fibrous bark, which, owing to its strength, was employed by 
the natives for ropes and other purposes where strong fiber was needed; it 
almost equals the Olona in strength. The plant is poisonous and was employed 
by the natives, similarly to the Auhola or Auhulu (Tephrosia piscatoria) for 
fishing. The plant was pounded to pulp and thrown into the water, which 
stupefied the fishes in the immediate neighborhood, which floated to the surface 
of the water. This mode of fishing has been forbidden of late. 
Wikstroemia sandwicensis Meisn. 
Akia. 
WIKSTROEMIA SANDWICENSIS Meisner in DC. Prodr, XIV. (1856) 545;— Gray in 
Seem. Jour. Bot, III. (1865) 303;—Seem. Fl. Vit. (1866) 206;—Mann Proe, Am, 
Acad. VII. (1867) 199;—Hbd. Fl. Haw. Isl. (1888) 386;—De! Cast, Ill. Fl. 
Mar. Pae. VII. (1892) 280;—Gilg. in Engl. et Prantl Pfizfam, IIT. 6a. (1894) 235.— 
W. foetida var. glauca Wawra in Flora (1875) 176—Diplomorpha sandwice.sis 
Heller in Minnes, Bot. Stud. Bull. TX, (1897) 861. 
underneath, especially along the 
or ovate oblong to lanceolate, 5-10 
em long, 2.5-4 em wide, on petioles of 6-8 mm which are 
or often rounded at the base; adult spikes 4-30 mm long on pedunel f 
or drooping, usually terminal, densely red r pex, the rachys thick squarrose 
and to se, sometimes dichotomously forking; perianth on a short pedicel of 
ilky tomentose 5-6 mm , the lobes somewha tuse; scales 4 linear, free, as long as 
, 
To this species will have to be referred Léveillé’s Wikstroemia Fauriei, which 
is based mainly on the pubescent leaves. 
The writer has large material of this species (W. sandwicensis) with perfectly 
glabrous leaves, and again specimens with leaves which are pubescent under- 
neath. Pubescence in Hawaiian plants is not at all a characteristic to be relied 
upon, which anyone who has collected in these islands can readily verify. If 
one should make new species of a plant based on sueh characteristies there 
would be no end and the number of Hawaiian plants would reach several 
thousand. 
This species occurs mainly on Hawaii on the lava fields and on the great 
central plain on the outskirts of the forest and in the Koa forest at an elevation 
of 5000 feet, where it is a small tree 15 feet high. At this elevation it is much 
branching and the branches are drooping and sparingly foliose. Like all other 
Hawaiian Akia, the bark is very tough and blackish. It fruits prolifically 
during the winter months. Hillebrand records it from Hilo, where Faurie’s 
specimens were collected also. 
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