Borraginaceae. 



with numerous endemic species. Of most of the species of Cordia, Brazil as well 

 as the rest of tropical South America possesses by far the majority. 



In Hawaii 3 genera are represented, of which only the genus Cordia has a 

 single cosmopolitan species which attains the size of a tree. 



CORDIA Linn. 



Calyx tubular or campanulate, 3 to 5 toothed, or split at the apex; after flo"wering 

 often enlarged. Corolla funnel or salver shaped, with 4 to many, but usually 5, rarely 

 imbricate lobes. Stamens as many as corolla lobes, inserted in the tube. Style usually 

 prolonged, twice bifid, with a capitate or clavate stigma. Ovules erect. Drupe sur- 

 rounded or more or less enclosed by the persistent calyx, 4-celled of which usually only one 

 contains a developed seed. Seed with very scanty albumen and irregularly folded, 

 thick or more often very broad thin and fan-shaped folded cotyledons, and short superior 

 radicle. Trees or shrubs with alternate, often almost opposite, petiolate, entire pr serrate 

 leaves. Flowers usually white or dark orange yellow, arranged in expanded or con- 

 tracted cymes. 



The genus Cordia consists of about 230 species distributed in the warmer 

 regions of both hemispheres, especially in tropical America. In the Hawaiian 

 Islands only the cosmopolitan Cordia subcordata Lam. (Kou) is represented. 



Cordia subcordata Lam. 

 Kou. 



COEDIA SUBCORDATA Lam. 111. I. (1791) no. 1899; Cham, in Linnaea IV (1829) 474; 

 Endl. Fl. Suds. (1836) no. 1212; DC. Prodr. IX. (1845) 477; Pancher in Cuzent 

 Tahiti (1860) 235; Seem. Fl. Viti (1866) 168, t. 34; H. Mann Proc. Am. Acad. 

 VII. (1867) 194; Nadeaud Enum. PI. Tahit. (1873) no. 375; Wawra in Flora 

 (1874); Sinclair Indig. Flowers Haw. Isl. (1885) pi. 7; Hbd. Fl. Haw. Isl. 

 (1888) 321; Del Cast. 111. Fl. Ins. Mar. Pac. VII. (1892) 240, et Fl. Polyn. Franc. 

 (1893) 128. C. Sebestana Forst. Prodr. (1786) 108 (non Linn.); Soland. Prim. 

 Fl. Ins. Pacif. (ined.) 235, et in Parkins Draw, of Tahit. PI. t. 29 (ined.) cf. 

 Seem.) Endl. 1. c. no. 1208; C. orientalis Eoem. et Schult. Syst. IV (1819) 

 449; Guill. Zephyr. Tait. (1836-1837) n. 239. 



Leaves ovate or subcordate 12.5 to 15 cm long, 8 to 10 cm wide, on petioles of 2.5 

 to 3 cm or more, acuminate, entire or wavy, glabrous excepting slight tomentose patches 

 or streaks in the axils of the principal veins; flowers in short terminal or lateral subrace- 

 mose panicles; calyx coriaceous, broadly and irregularly 3 to 5 toothed; corolla orange 

 colored, its tube little longer than the calyx, with rotund, broadly expanded limb, 5 to 7 

 lobed; drupe ovate, submucronate, enclosed within the calyx. 



The Kou, which is indigenous in the Hawaiian Islands, though presumably 

 brought here by the Hawaiians centuries ago, can only be found along the sea- 

 shore here and there. Nowadays it is exceedingly scarce, but in times gone by it 

 was rather plentiful, and much planted by the Hawaiians near their dwellings 

 or grass huts. The wood of the Kou was much sought for, on account of its 

 beautiful grain, for calabashes or poi bowls, spittoons, etc. It is a tree 30 to 

 50 feet in height and had trunks of sometimes three feet in diameter. 



Today trees are never larger than 15 to 20 feet, with trunks only a few 

 inches in diameter. The writer observed it growing wild on the Island of 

 Lanai, along the beach near Manele, and also on Maui near the lava fields beyond 

 Makena, together with the Algaroba (Prosopis juliflora), which has taken pos- 

 session of the country there, being on the leeside of Mt. Haleakala. 



415 



