Rubiaceae. 
The genus Bobea, named by Gaudichaud in honor of M. Bobe-Moreau, a 
physician and pharmacist in the French Marine, consists of 4 or perhaps 5 
species, which are all peculiar to the Hawaiian Islands. They form two groups, 
one composed of Bobea elatior and B. Mannii which are perhaps a single species, 
and B. timonioides, B. sandwicensis and B. Hookeri, only differing from each 
other mainly in the number of pyrenae. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES. 
Limb of calyx cup-shaped, truncate, drupe with 2 to 11 pyrenae. 
ele t 
pest O8 -PlADTOUS: Neauncle Greet «5.4 we ace sew ee ee ws )em cin a B. elatior 
Lea a underneath, peduncle drooping...........--.se+seeeees B. Mannii 
Limb of ca cup-shaped, 4 phakleds oOo ari Beek an eee B. timonoides 
Limb of calyx Laehaies = lobed. 
Flow FUNG: With: S PYTOMAG savas ow ees Canes Fe vee ed B. sandwicensis 
Wiewors eg ieee with 4 to 6 peas ERG Caen oD area era Ure B. Hookeri 
Bobea elatior Gaud. 
Ahakea. 
(Plate 180.) 
BOBEA ELATIOR Gaud. Bot. Voy. Uranie (1826-30) 473, pl. 93;—A. Gray Proe. 
Aead. IV. (1860) sat Peat Ahh Am, Acad. VII. oe 867) 170 ;—Hbd. FI. Bay, 
Isl. Bhagee 173;—K. Schum, in Engl, et Prantl IV. « (1892) 96; —Del Cast. Hl. 
nie oa Pa ac, TL (1890) ‘192 ;—Heller in Minne Toe Stud Bull. IX. (1897) 
urneya Gaudichaudii Cham. et Schlecht. in bink. TV. (1829) 190.—Timonius 
pane mctaaaet DC. Prodr. IV. (1830) 461; Ena Fl. Suds, (1836) 176, no. 1288. 
Leaves pale, obovate oblong, 5 to 10 em long, 2.5 to 5 em wide, on petioles of 6 to 24 
mm, acuminate, chartaceous, glabrous; stipules oblong-lanceolate, 8 t cage mm, rather con- 
volute foe the bud; iter 3 (accord. Hillbd. 3 to 7) in a cyme, wi ith a common geet 
OF 5-to7.5._em, the middle flower sessile, the cities ones on pedicels me 12 to as 
bracts ‘and bractlets cup- have ed, low; calyx 4 to the cup- she truncate ap 
rtion; corolla greenish, glabrous, the lobes in the bu aed near the 
ee hs tube 4 to 8 mm, ’plicate a at the throat, the obovate or rounded lobes 3 to 5 mm 
anthers sessile at Ais middle of the tube; style 3 - 11 cleft; tosh nas hued purplish 
ovoid 6 to 10 mm in meter, or spheroidal crowned by t alycin which sur- 
rounds a slabeGis disk ar 2mm in diam.; pyrenae 3 to 11, hick wailed. Sosa 
This Ahakea is a tree 30 feet or so tall with often a large trunk of 1% feet 
in diameter. It occurs in the rain forests of the Islands of Oahu, Kauai, and 
Hawaii, and can be recognized by its rather pale green foliage, which is often 
reddish-veined. 
It is not uncommon back of Honolulu in the Valleys of Pauoa and Palolo as 
well as in the whole Koolau range. The biggest trees were observed in the 
mountains of Punaluu on the windward side of Oahu. The wood of the 
Ahakea is yellow and was employed by the natives for poi boards and the top- 
rims of outrigger canoes, which in modern ones are painted yellow, to take the 
place of the yellow Ahakea wood. 
Few are the natives now-a-days who are familiar with the Ahakeas of the 
Hawaiian forests. 
At a lower elevation, about 1000 feet, there occurs an apparent variety of the 
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