Rutaceae. 



The writer did not meet with this plant in the forests of Mauna Kea, but on 

 the slopes of Mauna Loa at about 5000 feet elevation the writer collected speci- 

 mens of a Pelea which resembles very much the above species. The leaves are 

 quaternate instead of ternate, are subsessile and very slightly auriculate ; they are, 

 however, decidedly punctate and so are the deeply-parted capsules which answer 

 well Gray's description. It is an erect shrub or small tree with straight ascending 

 branches ; trunk about 3 inches in diameter ; leaves quaternate subsessile ; flowers 

 arranged in fascicles as in P. clusiaefolia; female flowers: sepals acuminate, 

 petals linear oblong, acute, little longer than the sepals; the 8 stamens short, 

 rudimentary, little higher than the glabrous ovary; style filiform, 2 mm, with 

 thickened clavate 4-lobed stigma. 



It is still somewhat doubtful if this plant is actually P. auriculae folia, as there 

 is no description of either fertile or sterile flowers given by Gray, who had only a 

 fruiting specimen. As the leaves are very variable in the Hawaiian Pelea, the 

 plant collected on the slopes of Mauna Loa by the writer seems to be best at 

 present referable to this species. 



Collected flowering and fruiting in the forests above Naalehu, Kau, Hawaii, 

 January 13, 1912 ; no. 10012. 



On Molokai occur several Pelea with quaternate leaves, resembling this one in 

 question, but are more affiliated with P. clusiaefolia than with P. auriculae folia. 



Pelea microcarpa Heller. 

 Kukaimoa. 



PELEA MICROCARPA Heller PL Haw. Isl. Minnes. Bot. Stud. IX. (1897) 839, pi. 49. 

 A small tree with stout trunk and grayish bark; branches more or less curved up- 

 wards; leaves in threes or quaternate, near the ends of the branches, on flattened, some- 

 what hirsute petioles of 3 to 3.5 cm, obovate-oblong, or spathulate, rounded at the apex 

 and retuse, quite glabrous above, pubescent below, especially along the midrib, 8 to 14 

 cm long, 4 to 6 em wide, coriaceous, opaque, the secondary veins parallel, at almost right 

 angles to the midrib, united by an intramarginal nerve which is very close to the edge; 

 flowers all along the naked branches, in the axils of fallen leaves; peduncles exceedingly 

 short, about 1 mm, 2 to 3 flowered, pedicels stoutish 2 mm; sepals ovate acute, 3 mm, 

 about as broad as high, petals twice the length of sepals, acute, stamens 8, 4 protruding 

 from the corolla, 4 smaller, half the length, or of unequal length, on broad filaments; 

 style very short less than 1 mm, with a very indistinctly 4 notched stigma, capsule small, 

 cuboid, 8 to 10 mm in diameter, merely notched or slightly lobed, glabrous. 



This tree, 10 to 15 feet high, is called Kukaimoa by the natives. It is quite 

 common in the forests of Kaholuamano, Kauai, at an elevation of 3600 to 4000 

 feet and inhabits the swampy forests together with Pelea Kauaiensis. It was 

 first discovered by Heller. The writer found the tree quite numerous and col- 

 lected flowering and fruiting specimens at different times (no. 5621, September 6, 

 1909, and no. 2010 flowering at Halemanu, Kauai). 



Were it not for the small cuboid capsules the plant could be mistaken for 

 Pelea sapotaefolia, of which Hillebrand omits the description of its fruits, while 

 Mann says the immature capsule is puberulent and deeply four-grooved. 



The native name of this species, which means ' ' chicken droppings, ' ' originated 



220 



