203 



turbinate, minute, four-lobed, the minute lobes extending down 

 to the disk, imbricate, and early deciduous. The petals are 

 minute, obovate, often emarginate, pinkish, generally discreet, 

 but sometimes united and falling off together. Stamens 20-30, 

 shorter than the petals; style short; ovary two-loculed, with ten 

 or more ovules in each locule. 



The fruit is a bright red, turbinate or globose berry, flat at 

 the top, about one-third inch in diameter. The flesh is resinous- 

 astringent and insipid. The berries mature in the latter part of 

 the summer, and are often very abundant. The fruit is eaten by 

 the birds, but is scarcely suitable for human consumption. It 

 was not used by the primitive Hawaiians. There are one or 

 two seeds, with a pale, thin testa; the thick cotyledons are not 

 consolidated. 



The Ohia ha occurs in the lower rain forests of all the islands 

 in the group, from one- to four-thousand feet elevation. It does 

 not form pure stands, but occurs here and there throughout the 

 forest, reaching its best development at the lower levels, in pro- 

 tected situations. On the exposed summit ridges and slopes it is 

 dwarfed and shrubby. Representative localities where the Ohia 

 ha is plentiful are : the Wainiha and Na Pali regions of Kauai'i ; 

 Ka-hana and Puna-luu on Oahu; the great valleys of East 

 Molokai'i; the northern slopes of Hale-a-ka-la, and the Kohala 

 forests of Hawai'i. 



The second indigenous species, Eugenia rariflora Benth., is 

 very rare in the Hawaiian Islands, but is common in the South 

 Seas, — Samoa, Tahiti, and Fiji. It is a tall shrub with terete 

 glabrous branches. The leaves are broad, ovato- to elliptico- 

 oblong; they are quite variable in shape, and are often rhomboidal 

 and acuminate, or obovate and obtuse, or even suborbicular. 

 They are 13^-3 ins. long by i-i^i ins. wide, on extremely short 

 petioles; glabrous, pale green, glossy above, chartaceous, with 

 numerous minute oil-glands. The flowers are solitary in the 

 axils, or sometimes two or more near the apex of short foliar 

 axillary buds or spurs; on minute slender pedicels, which are 

 minutely bibracteolate below the calyx. The calyx tube is 

 puberulous, subglobose, minute, not produced, its four lobes 



