Araliaceae. 



digitate with 3 to 5 leaflets, long petiolate. entire or toothed. Flowers umbellate on the 

 ultimate division of a terminal or lateral panicle, with opposite horizontal branches, 

 which are articulate at all nodes and below the calyx. Bracts small opposite. 



A genus of two species peculiar to the Hawaiian Islands, but related to 

 Xothopanax, a genus occurring in New Zealand, Samoa and Tasmania. Xotko- 

 panax samoense Gray is called Tanc-tane by the Samoans. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Leaflets 3 to 5, longer than broad Ch. Gaudichaudii 



Leaflets 3, broader than long Ch. platyphyllum 



Cheirodendron Gaudichaudii (DC.) Seem. 



Olapa, or Kauila Malm on Kauai. 



(Plates 146, 147.) 



CHEIRODENDRON GAUDICHAUDII (DC.) Seem. Journ. Bot. V. (1867) 236; Hbd. 

 Fl. Haw. Isl. (1888) 148; Harms in Engl. et Prantl Pflzfam. Ill, 8 (1898) 48. 

 Panax? Gaudichaudi DC. Prodr. IV (1830) 253; Hook, et Am. Bot. Beechey 

 (1832) 84; Endl. Fl. Suds. (1836) no. 1340; Del Cast. 111. Fl. Ins. Mar. Pacif. 

 VI (1890) 181. Aralia trigyna Gaud. Bot. Toy. Uranie (1826) (but appeared 

 in reality 1830) 474, pi. 98. Hedera Gaudichaudii A. Gray. Bot. U. S. E. E. 

 (1854) 719, t. 90; H. Mann Proc. Am. Acad. VII (1867) 168; Wawra in 

 Flora (1873) 142. Cheirodendron trigynum. (Gaud.) Heller PI. Haw. Isl. 

 (1897) 870. 



Had Gaudichaud's Botany of the Voyage Uranie appeared really in 1826, as 

 indicated on the title page, Heller's combination would hold good; Gaudichaud's 

 description, however, appeared in 1830 after the publication of the species by 

 DeCandolle in his Prodromus (1830). 



Leaflets 3 to 5, the outer ones smaller, petioled, ovate, oblong or obovate, the margin 

 generally thickened and toothed or serrulate, with a gland in the notch of each serrature, 

 or entire (in specimens from the Punaluu mountains, Oahu) with no signs of any denta- 

 tion, chartaceous to coriaceous, glabrous, shining above; panicle subpyramidal, shorter 

 than the leaves, compact, with 4 to 5 nodes to the rhachis; flowers 4 mm greenish; 

 pedicels 2 mm; petals thick ovate 2 to 3 mm, soon caducous; stamens nearly as long; 

 ovary generally 3 celled, or 2 or 4 celled, rarely 5 celled; stigmas short and thick, re- 

 curved, sessile or subsessile on a short stylopod; drupe ovoid 6 mm long, 2 to 5 angled 

 when dry. 



Hooker et Arnott's Panaxf ovatum is Cheirodendron Gaudichaudii (DC.) 

 Seem. var. 'X Hbd. I.e. 



The Olapa, as the tree is usually called on all the islands, reaches a height 

 of 40 to 50 feet and sometimes more. It derives its name ' ' Cheirodendron ' ' from 

 the Greek (Keiros hand and Dendron tree) on account of its leaves, which 

 consist usually of five leaflets, giving it the shape of a hand. It is one of our 

 most common forest trees, and is always conspicuous in the woods by its foliage, 

 which is constantly in motion, even if there is hardly any breeze. Its trunk is 

 sometimes two feet and even more in diameter, and is vested in a smooth, yel- 

 lowish bark when growing in wet forest, and rough, scaly bark in dry districts. 

 All parts of this tree, as well as of the Lapalapa, emit a very strong carroty 

 odor when bruised, not unlike turpentine, and the wood of both species is said 

 to burn when green. Several varieties are recognized which are peculiar to cer- 

 tain sections of the various islands, and are as follows : 



361 



