Urticaceae. 



Leaves ovate to obloug acute or accuminate at the apex, cordate, truncate or rounded 

 iit the base, crenate to serrate, 10 to 14 cm long, 4.5 to 10.5 cm wide, chartaceous to 

 coriaceous, shortly wliite-tomentose underneath (Oahu) often light green, to dark brown 

 especially in specimens from the other Islands; tripli-nerved, the nerves often red in the 

 living plant; stipules triangular bifid to the middle into subulate lobes; flowers all sessile 

 in axillary clusters of 6 to 12 mm either all male or all female or male and female flowers 

 in one glomerule (in Lanai specimens), white tomentose or very hispid; male perigone 

 reddish acutely 4-fid to the middle or less; stamens little or much exserted (in plants from 

 Paauhau, Hawaii) ; female perigones on a thick, finally fleshy receptacle, the uncinate 

 stigma much longer than the perigone; fruit about 1 mm. 



This is a most variable species, and if one should undertake to separate the 

 various forms, one would have to name individual trees. The leaves vary greatly 

 in shape and size as well as in pubescence, some being densely gray tomentose 

 underneath, others light green to brown; the same holds good of the nervature, 

 which is often bright red. 



On Oahu the plant is only a small shrub about 8 feet in height, while in the 

 forests of Naalehu in Kau, Hawaii, the writer observed the biggest trees, which 

 occasionally attain a height of 30 feet with a trunk of often one foot in diam- 

 eter. When a tree grows in the open it has long drooping branches, which are 

 arranged pyramid-like. The trunk is clothed in an exceedingly strong fibrous 

 smooth bark of a light brown color. As already stated, it is a very variable 

 species and occurs on all the islands of the group, avoiding dry districts ; it in- 

 habits the mesophytic forests at an elevation of 1500 to 4000 feet, but does not go 

 higher. Occasionally it can be found in a sub-xerophytic district, but never on 

 the lava fields as is the case with the Hawaiian genus Neraudia, which can be 

 found in the hottest and driest districts, as well as in the rain forests. Two 

 species of Pipturus were described by Heller from Kauai, as P. Kauaiensis and 

 P. rubcr. The latter is a good species and was even distinguished by the na- 

 tives from their Mamaki; it is known to them as Waimea on Kauai. 



The Mamdke furnished the natives of old with the fiber for their tapa (kapa) 

 or paper cloth, which they obtained from the bark of the tree. It is said that 

 Mamaki fiber made the finest tapa and was preferred to that made of the Wauke 

 bark. For further information on the tapa making and the fibers used, the 

 writer wishes to refer the reader to Dr. "Wm. T. Brigham's valuable book "Ka 

 Hana Kapa, " which is an exhaustive treatise on the subject. The wood of the 

 Mamaki is exceedingly hard and durable. It is of pinkish color when newly cut, 

 and turns brownish with age. The bark and fruits of the Mamaki are supposed 

 to have been employed by the natives medicinally for consumption. 



In Samoa several species of Pipturus occur under the name fausoga or soga. 

 The bark of these trees is used by the natives in a similar manner as was that of 

 the Hawaiian species for their tapa or paper cloth. The Hawaiian species is 

 supposed to occur also in Tahiti. 



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