1918] BRIEFER ARTICLES 275 
the vicinity of waterfalls or in the depths of narrow, sunless ravines. 
In many of its ecological characters it resembles the endemic Gunnera 
petaloidea. 
The native Hawaiian name for Hillebrandia is Pua-maka-nui, lit- 
erally “the flower with the big eyes,” referring to the large, showy 
flowers, which contrast strongly with the gloom of its habitat. On the 
island of Kauai it is known as Ala-aka-awa; the Kauai natives use 
many names and words which are used in no other parts of the islands. 
The rhizomes of many begonias, particularly those of South America, 
are bitter and astringent, and are used medicinally by the natives of 
those countries. It does not appear that the primitive Hawaiians used 
Hillebrandia in any way, although it should be stated that much of the 
medicinal lore of ancient Hawaii has been irrevocably lost—VAUGHAN 
MacCaucuey, College of Hawaii, Honolulu. 
SECONDARY PARASITISM IN PHORADENDRON 
Brown’s' illustration of Phoradendron californicum parasitic on 
P. flavescens? has a twofold interest. First, it records a case of secondary 
parasitism which seems to be very rare indeed. It has never, so far as 
I am aware, been noted by workers at the Desert Botanical Laboratory, 
a number of whom have heen especially interested in parasitism. For 
the most part P. macrophyllum and P. californicum occur on quite 
different hosts.s Second, the case is of interest physiologically, as 
BROWN suggests, in its relation to osmotic and other physical phenomena. 
Harris and LAWRENCE, in their study of the sap properties of Jamaican 
montane rain forest Loranthaceae,! find that in these forms the sap 
extracted from the green stems of the leafless species shows lower osmotic 
concentration than that from the foliar tissues of the leafy forms. Thus 
in working with 7 species of Loranthaceae they found average values 
of the freezing point lowering of 1.153°, 1.176°, and 1.177° in the 
leafless species as compared with 1 .305°, 1.347°, I goo’, and 1.650° in 
beanie G., Mistletoe vs. mistletoe. Bor. Gaz. 65:193. fig. 7. 1918. 
s is presumably P. macrophyllum Cockerell, the P. flavescens cage 
of ieee and of some subsequent workers, or one of its varieties. The 
here, as Professor BRowN has kindly written me, was a Fraxi 
3 TRELEASE (The genus Phoradendron, p. 14, Urbana. ae notes that P. cali- 
fornicum, while occurring exclusively on angiosperms, belongs to a group, the “Pauci- 
florae,”” which with this and one other exception is limited to coniferous hosts. 
. ArTaur, and LAWRENCE, J. V., On the osmotic pressure of the 
tissue fuids of Jamaican Loranthaceae parasitic on various hosts. Amer. Jour. 
Bot. 3:438-455. 1916. 
