BOTANY. 351 



berry ; it is edible, and possesses a slight acidity, but is 

 on the whole insipid. 



Sandwich Isles ; native name ohelo. 



Tribulus cistoides. Herbaceous and procumbent. 

 Leaves pinnated and silky. The flowers are yellow, 

 and have an agreeable odour. The fruit is a globular 

 capsule, armed with long diverging spines, which prove 

 a great annoyance to the bare-footed natives. I have 

 seen this plant growing only on the plains of Oahu, 

 Sandwich Islands, and, from its very local situation, 

 should suppose it to be an exotic, were not the species 

 mentioned by Captain Cook, as being amongst the 

 indigenous vegetation he noticed at this island upon 

 his first discovery of the group. The native name for 

 the plant is nohu. 



T. terrestris ? Flowers dark-yellow ; pericarp with- 

 out spines. Sands of the sea-shore, California. 



Conostegia Glabi*a. Society Isles. 



Bronnia spinosa. This is a crooked under-shrub ; 

 its branches armed with thorns, but scantily clothed 

 with leaves, and bearing at their extremities clusters of 

 handsome crimson flowers. 



Cape St. Lucas, California. 



DECANDRIA. PENTAGYNIA. 



Spondias dulcis. Brazilian- or Hog-plum. This 

 tree came under our notice only at the Society Islands, 

 where it is called vi; but the same native name being 

 applied by the Marquesans to the exotic Papaw, (Carica 

 papaya,) would lead to the belief that they have some 

 knowledge of the Spondias, although we could find no 

 traces of its existence at the island of Santa Christina, 



