SECTION IV : G. TAITENSE 



often broader than long, owing to the expansion of the ear-like lower por- 

 tions of the blade, 1 to '2 inches broad by 1 to 2 inches long ; petioles longer 

 than the blades, slender, angled, warted, and with a few long hairs near the 

 apex ; veins 5-7, the central one only with an obscure gland, near the base ; 

 stipules ovate oblong to linear-lanceolate, pilose, very caducous. Inflores- 

 cence short lateral aborted branches, terminated by one or two flowers, and 

 bearing one or two ovate entire or angled leaves ; bracteoles with 7 to 9 

 fimbriated teeth ; peduncles almost square, furrowed, and ending in a 

 thickened cavernous gland within the auricles of the bracteoles. Flowers 

 small, pale yellow with a purplish tinge ; corolla very woolly on the outer 

 margins; calyx campanulate, relatively very large. Fruit small, sub-rotund 

 to ovate oblong, acuminate, 3- to 4-celled ; seeds and floss already fully de- 

 scribed. Pollen-grains see Plate No. 53, f. 19. 



Habitat. A wild or, at all events, non-cultivated species found Polynesia, 

 in the Mascarene, Malayan, and Polynesian Islands more especially 

 the Sandwich Islands, where Captain Cook found it wild. 



Citation of Specimens. In the Herbarium of the Eoyal Botanic Speci- 

 Gardens, Kew, there are only a few sheets of this imperfectly known wild mens. 

 plant, such as the samples collected by the Eev. E. Baron in Madagascar, 

 n. 881 ; those discovered by Professor J. B. Balfour, during the Transit of 

 Venus Expedition at the Island of Eodriguez ; a sample from Maibung Sulu 

 Islands, Philippines, collected by Vidal (n. 2,185, wild) (which seems to belong 

 to this species though the calyx-teeth are short) ; the specimens procured 

 from New Caledonia by Deplanche (nn. 130 and 417) and by Paucher 

 (wrongly named G. religiosum). 



In the British Museum Herbarium there are many interesting specimens, 

 such as those made by Christopher Smith (Voyage of the ' Providence ') in 

 Otaheite (Tahiti) in 1791 perhaps the oldest sample extant ; the specimens 

 collected by J. E. and G. Forester in Tahiti. 



In M. de Candolle's Herbarium, Geneva, there is a specimen collected by 

 Morrenhout hi Tahiti. 



Nomenclature. The species is thus essentially an insular plant, An insular 

 and may be said to be confined to the islands of the Pacific Ocean. p 

 It has been collected there between 15 N. (Philippines) and 22 S. 

 (New Caledonia). In its Indian Ocean habitat, namely, 12 to 22 S. 

 (Madagascar, &c.), it is possibly only an acclimatised, not a truly 

 indigenous species. The specimens recognised in the above citation 

 as belonging to this form must, however, be those of an indigenous 

 or at all events a non-cultivated plant, since the wool afforded would 

 be quite useless. It seems the correct view therefore to regard its 

 cultivated states as the forms described under G. purpurascens the 

 Bourbon Cottons. 



Parlatore's description of G. taitcnse is better than his drawing, 

 where the leaves are shown as distinctly cordate, too deeply palmately- 



