Amarantaceae. 



nected at the base. Ovary one-celled, one-ovulate. Style slender; stigma capitate. Fruit 

 an oblong or obovoid thin utricle, enclosed in the perianth. Seed lenticular, with thin 

 testa. Shrubs or trees with dichotomous branches and opposite penninerved leaves. Flow- 

 ers in terminal and axillary spikes with a woolly or pubescent rhachis. 



The endemic genus consists of three closely-related species. In Engler and 

 Prantl's Xattirl. Pllzfam. the genus Nototrichium is merged with Psilotrichium, 

 from which it differs, however, in the equal perianth lobes and tetramerous. 

 flowers. 



Only one species, N. sandwicense, becomes arborescent; the other two species, 

 are shrubs. One of them occurs on Kauai, the other on Oahu, while N. sand- 

 u- ice use or Kului occurs on nearly all the islands of the group. 



Nototrichium sandwicense Hbd. 

 Kului. 



(Plates 49, 50.) 



NOTOTRICHIUM SANDWICENSE Hbd. Flora Haw. Isl. (1888) 373; Heller PI. Haw. IsL 

 (1S97) 821. Ptilotus sandwicensis A. Gray in Bot. U. S. E. E. ined; H. Mann 

 Proe. Am. Acad. VII (1867) 200. Psilotrichium sandwicense Seem. Fl. Vit. (1867) 

 198, adnot; Wawra in Flora (1875) 186; Del Cast. 111. Fl. Ins. Mar. Pac. VII 

 (1892) 270; Schinz in Engl. et Prantl. Pflzfam. III. 1. a. (1893) 111. 



Branches slender, articulated, covered with an ochraceous tomentum; leaves opposite, 

 ovate, acuminate, covered with a silky adpressed tomentum especially the underside of the 

 leaf, which is silvery tomentose, contracting into a petiole of 12 to 18 mm, 2 to 8 cm 

 long, 1.5 to -1 cm wide; spikes generally 3 or 5 at the end of a branch; thick ovoid to cylin- 

 drical, 1.5 to 3 cm long on peduncles of 6 to 30 mm, the rhachis densely villous; flowers 

 crowded, ovoid 2 to 3 mm long, villous with spreading hairs at the base; perianth lobes 

 ovate lanceolate 3 to 5 nerved, hispid at the back; stamens nearly as long; ovary oblong r 

 truncate; style as long as the perianth, with punctiform stigma. 



The Kului, which is usually only a shrub several feet high in the lowlands, be- 

 comes a small tree of about 15 to 20 feet in height in the lower forest zone at 2000- 

 to 3000 feet altitude. 



It is a handsome little tree and quite conspicuous by its silvery gray foliage and 

 its pretty catkins which droop from the end of every branchlet. It is peculiar to- 

 the very dry regions and may be found as a straggling shrub where nothing else 

 can live. 



In Kona, Hawaii, especially near Puuwaawaa, it forms a regular hedge along 

 the government road on the rough aa lava fields. On Molokai it grows on the 

 western end in gulches, on the slopes of Mauna Loa, where it forms, together with 

 the Xau (Gardenia Brigiiamii), the Ohe (Reynoldsia sandwicensis} and the Wili- 

 u'iU (Enjthrina monosperma), the last remnants of what was once a xerophytic 

 forest. At Puuwaawaa, Hawaii, proper, it grows to a small tree about 15 to 20 1 

 feet in height at an elevation of 3000 feet, besides also at Kawaihaeiuka (2500- 

 feet), together with Maua (Xylosma Hillebrandii} and the Mamani (Sophora 

 cJirysopJnjUa}. It also is not uncommon on Maui and Oahu. On the latter island 

 it inhabits the arid regions of the Waianae Mountains. It occurs as a tree on the 

 lava fields of Kau, and South Kona ; on the slopes of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and 

 forms, in certain districts as Manuka, about 80% of the growth. 



141 



