Heller: plants of the Hawaiian islands. 859 



found in our markets. The female flowers, and consequently 

 the fruit also, are sessile and clustered at the base of the lowest 

 leaves, while the male flowers are on long peduncles which 

 spring from the axils of the leaves above. It has a palm-like 

 growth, the soft, scarcely woody trunk often six inches in 

 diameter, and thickly studded with the scars of fallen leaves. 

 The milky juice is said to possess properties similar to pepsin. 

 July to October (2618); original locality "in Indiis." 



THYMELAECEAE. 



DIPLOMORPHA Meissner, Denkschr. Regensb. Ges. 

 3:289. 1841. 



[ Wikstroemia Endl. Prodr. PL Norf. 47. 1833, not Spreng, 



1821.] 



Diplomorptaa elongata (A. Gray). 



Wikstroemia elongata A. Gray, Seem. Journ. Bot. 3: 303. 1865. 



This species is common in the forests above Hanapepe val- 

 ley, Kauai, and exceedingly variable. Hillebrand describes it 

 as a " sparingly branching shrub, 4-6 feet high," and says it 

 grows "in the lower woods of Kauai, Lanai, Maui." Near 

 the lower edge of the woods it is usually of a shrubby nature, 

 but at elevations of 3000 feet and more, in the depths of the 

 forest, where it is also plentiful, it is arborescent. Here it is a 

 small tree, with a symmetrically branched top. The leaves in 

 these arborescent forms are smaller and narrower than in the 

 shrubby forms of lower elevations. 



July (2535, 2631). 



Diplomorpha elongata recurva (Hillebr. ) 



Wikstroemia elongata var. recurva Hillebr. FL Haw. Is. 386. 



1888. 



Among specimens sent to the Gray Herbarium, at Harvard 

 University for verification, No. 2581 was pronounced to be the 

 variety recurva of Hillebrand, as it matched specimens from 

 Hillebrand and Mann & Brigham. It seems to differ only 

 slightly from the other specimens referred to elongata, and is 

 hardly more than an individual variation. The specimens were 

 taken from a large bush on the lower edge of the forest, on the 

 ridge west of the Hanapepe river. 



No. 2545, collected on the same ridge, but higher, could not 

 be matched at Harvard, and I had decided to describe it as a 



