Thymelaeaceae. 



grows in company with Cheirodendron platyphyllum, Lobelia macrostaclnjs, 

 Pittosponim spathidatum, several species of Pelea, Scaevola glabra and others. 

 On the low lands on the outskirts of the forest on open glades, as in Niu Valley, 

 it is only 2 feet or so in height. The trunk and branches are clothed in a 

 black, very tough, fibrous bark, which, owing to its strength, was employed by 

 the natives for ropes and other purposes where strong fiber was needed; it 

 almost equals the Olona in strength. The plant is poisonous and was employed 

 by the natives, similarly to the Auhola or Auhiilu (Tephrosia piscatoria) for 

 fishing. The plant was pounded to pulp and thrown into the water, which 

 stupefied the fishes in the immediate neighborhood, which floated to the surface 

 of the water. This mode of fishing has been forbidden of late. 



Wikstroemia sandwicensis Meisn. 

 Akia. 



WIKSTROEMIA SANDWICENSIS Meisner in DC. Prodr. XIV. (1856) 545; Gray in 

 Seem. Jour. Bot. III. (1865) 303; Seem. Fl. Vit. (1866) 206; Mann Proc. 'Am. 

 Acad. VII. (1867) 199; Hbd. Fl. Haw. Isl. (1888) 386; Del Cast. 111. Fl. Ins. 

 Mar. Pac. VII. (1892) 280; Gilg. in Engl. et Prantl Pflzfam. III. 6a. (1894) 235. 

 W. foetida var. glauca Wawra in Flora (1875) 176 Diplomorpha sandwice-isis 

 Heller in Minnes. Bot. Stud. Bull. IX. (1897) 861. 



Leaves dark green, glabrous, or slightly pubescent underneath, especially along the 

 midrib and veins, chartaceous and faintly nerved, ovate or ovate oblong to lanceolate, 5-10 

 cm long, 2.5-4 cm wide, on petioles of 6-8 mm which are often pubescent, acute at both ends 

 or often rounded at the base; adult spikes 4-30 mm long on peduncles of 2-6 mm, suberect 

 or drooping, usually terminal, densely flowered near the apex, the rachys thick squarrose 

 and tomentose, sometimes dichotomously forking; perianth on a short pedicel of 1 mm, 

 silky tomentose 5-6 mm long, the lobes somewhat obtuse; scales 4 linear, free, as long as 

 the ovary, drupe ovoid 8-10 mm, usually only two maturing at the apex of the spike. 



To this species will have to be referred Leveille's Wikstroemia Fauriei, which 

 is based mainly on the pubescent leaves. 



The writer has large material of this species (TV. sandwicensis) with perfectly 

 glabrous leaves, and again specimens with leaves which are pubescent under- 

 neath. Pubescence in Hawaiian plants is not at all a characteristic to be relied 

 upon, which anyone who has collected in these islands can readily verify. If 

 one should make new species of a plant based on such characteristics there 

 would be no end and the number of Hawaiian plants would reach several 

 thousand. 



This species occurs mainly on Hawaii on the lava fields and on the great 

 central plain on the outskirts of the forest and in the Koa forest at an elevation 

 of 5000 feet, where it is a small tree 15 feet high. At this elevation it is much 

 branching and the branches are drooping and sparingly foliose. Like all other 

 Hawaiian Akia, the bark is very tough and blackish. It fruits prolifically 

 during the winter months. Hillebrand records it from Hilo, where Faurie's 

 specimens were collected also. 



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