Rubiaceae. 

 MORINDA Linn. 



Calyx cup-shaped truncate or toothed. Corolla salver-shaped to campanulate. 

 Stamens inserted in throat of the tube, included or exserted. Ovary 4-celled; style with 

 two branches. Drupes or berries united into one fleshy fruit. Seeds obovoid or reni- 

 form. Trees or shrubs (occasionally climbing and epiphytic but not in Hawaii) with 

 opposite leaves, and interpetiolar stipules, connate with the petioles. Flowers in globose 

 heads, on axillary, terminal single or clustered peduncles. 



The genus consists of about 46 species distributed over both hemispheres, but 

 especially in the old world and the Pacific islands. Only two species occur in 

 Hawaii, one of which is endemic. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Leaves oblong, fruit 2.5 cm in diameter M. trimera 



Leaves ovate, fruit 5 to 10 cm in diameter M. citrifolia 



Morinda citrifolia Linn. 

 (Plate 194.) 



MORINDA CITEIFOLIA Linn. Spec. PI. ed. 1. (1753) 176; DC. Prodr. IV. (1830) 446; 

 Hook, et Am. Bot. Beech. (1832) 65; Endl. Fl. Suds. (1836) 176; Seem. Flora 

 Vit. (1866) 129; Maun Proc, Am. Ac. VII. (1867) 170; Wawra in Flora (1874) 

 p. ?; Mrs. Sincl. Indig. Fl. Haw. Isl. (1885) t. 40; Hbd. Fl. Haw. Isl. (1888) 

 177; Del Cast. 111. Fl. Ins. Mar. Pac. VI. (1890) 195; K. Schum. in Eng. et 

 Prantl Pflzfam. IV. 4. (1891) 138; Heller PI. Haw. Isl. (1897) 901; Brigham 

 Ka Hana Kapa Mem. B. P. B. Mus. III. (1911) 144. fig. 87. 



Leaves broadly ovate 15 to 20 cm long, 10 to 15 cm wide, on short petioles,, somewhat 

 obtuse, thick; stipules broad and rounded, connate into a sheath enclosing the peduncle; 

 flowerheads on short bractless peduncles placed opposite the leaves; calycine limb short, 

 truncate; corolla white, tubular to funnel-shaped, 5-cleft, pilose at. the insertion of the 

 sessile anthers below the middle of the corolla; syucarpium 5 to 10 cm, fleshy. 



This well known cosmopolitan species, which Hillebrand believes to be of abori- 

 ginal introduction, occurs only on the lowlands in the vicinity of native dwell- 

 ings, or now growing apparently wild but more correctly on overgrown for- 

 saken native dwelling-sites. The species has an exceedingly wide distribu- 

 tion and is cultivated by the Polynesians as a dye-plant. It is also used 

 medicinally by the Hawaiians and from the mature fruits they extract an oil of 

 very unpleasant odor, used for the hair; ripe fruits are also used as a poultice. 

 The wood is intensely yellow when fresh cut. The root yields a yellow dye Avhile 

 the bark furnishes a red dye. It is a small tree 15 feet in height with a trunk 

 of usually a few inches in diameter; the leaves are large and shining and have 

 impressed veins. The fruit when mature is foetid and of a yellow color. In 

 Fiji the fruit is eaten either raw or cooked. The leaves are also used medi- 

 cinally against diarrhoea and disturbances in menstruation, as well as for fever. 



Morinda trimera Hbd. 

 Noni-kuahiwi. 



(Plate 195.) 



MORINDA TRIMERA Hbd. Fl. Haw. Tsl. (1888) 177; K. Schum. In Engl. et Prantl 

 Pflzfam. IV. 4. (1891) 148. M. trinerva Del Cast. 111. Fl. Ins. Mar. Pac. VI. 

 (1890) 196, should be trimera, evidently a misprint. 

 Branches pale terete, covered with numerous warts and lenticels; leaves elliptical or 



obovate-oblong, 10 to 18 cm long, 3.5 to 6 cm wide, on petioles of 2.5 to 3.5 cm, acuminate 



467 



