FLORA OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 177 



panicle, which is often reduced to an umbel of few small white flow- 

 ers. Capsule flat on the top, usually pubescent. 



Scattered more or less abundantly in various parts, trailing over shrubs, or scram- 

 bling among the herbage. A common weed in most tropical regions. The Hawaiian form 

 belongs to the variety with fruits scarcely 3-4' in diameter, often considered as a distinct 

 species (C. niicrocarpum HBK.>. It is as frequent and widely spread as the form with 

 fruits more than 1' in diameter. 



Ordee XXni. ANACARDIACE^. 



Trees or shrubs, with a resinous or milky, often acrid juice, which 

 turns blackish in drying; the leaves alternate, without stipules, and 

 not dotted. Flowers small, often polygamous or dioecious. Calyx of 

 3-5 sepals, inserted on the base of the calyx, or on an hypogynous 

 disk. Ovary one-celled, but with three styles or stigmas ; ovule soli- 

 tary. Fruit a drupe. Seed without albumen. Embryo curved or 

 bent. — Many species contain a caustic poison juice, but ours is innoc- 

 uous. To this order belong the Mango {ilangifera Indica), the Pis- 

 tachio-nut (^Pistacia vera), and the Vi {Spondias dulcis) of the Southern 

 Pacific Islands ; also other edible and useful fruits. 



1. RHUS Linn. 



Sepals, petals, and stamens, 5. Ovary 1-celIed, with 3 short styles 

 or stigmas. Ovule 1, suspended from an erect filiform funiculus. 

 Drupe small, oblique, often nearly dry. Eadicle short, curved against 

 the edge of the flat cotyledons. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves pinnate, or 

 sometimes simple. 



A large genus, widely distributed over the temperate and tropical parts of the globe, 

 a large proportion at the Cape of Good Hope. 



1. R. SEMiALATUM i)/?^rra?/. (Enum. iV^o. 93.) A shrub or tree, 4° - 

 40° high, the stout branches warty, smooth, or, when developing 

 velvety-toraentose, as are the petioles, inflorescence, &c. Leaves pin- 

 nately 5 - 13-foliolate, or the upper ones sometimes trifoliolate. Leaf- 

 lets oval or oblong, obtuse or acuminate, 2'-6' long, l'-4'wide, 

 serrate, almost sessile, downy beneath, glabrous above. Panicle 

 terminal^ very large and compound, 6'- 12' long (sometimes smaller 

 ones in the upper axils). Flowers small, 1^" in diameter, yellowish, 

 calyx nearly glabrous, deeply 5-cleft; the lobes oblong-ovate, min- 

 utely ciliate, not half the length of the oval and minutely ciliolate 

 petals. Stamens rather shorter than the petals. Fruit 2" in diam., 

 glabrate. — H. Sandwicensis Gray. 



Mountains of Oahu ; West Maui ; near Hilo, Hawaii. 

 COMMUNICATIONS ESSEX INST., VOL. V. 24 DEC, 1867. 



