DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 217 



Caryophyllus malaccensis. Malay apple. 



Family Myrtaceae. 



Local names. — Macupa, Makupa (Philippines and Guam); Kavika (Fiji); 

 Nonu-fi'afi'a (Samoa); Ahia (Tahiti); Ohia (Hawaii). 

 A tree of medium size, bearing a profusion of white, purple, or red flowers, with 

 tufts of stamens of the same color as the corolla. These are followed by an abun- 

 dance of fruit having a fragrant, apple-like odor and a delicate flavor. Leaves large, 

 glossy, ovate, elliptic or obovate-oblong, attenuate at each end; inflorescence cen- 

 tripetal with solitary axillary flowers, or in short racemes (leafless branches), or 

 centrifugal in dense terminal cymes; calyx globose or more or less elongate, pro- 

 duced beyond the ovary, with 4 or rarely 5 rounded lobes; petals 4, rarely 5; stamens 

 many; ovary 2-celled, rarely 3-celled, wifh several ovules in each cell; style filiform, 

 stigma small; fruit nearly round, crowned by the scar of the calyx lobes; seed usu- 

 ally 1. 



This tree occurs on nearly all the larger islands of the tropical Pacific and in the 

 Malay Archipelago. It has been introduced into Guam comparatively recently and 

 is by no means common. In Hawaii, Samoa, and Fiji it is very highly esteemed by 

 the natives, more for its beauty than for its fruit. The ancient Hawaiians made their 

 idols of its wood, aud the tree figures in the myths of the Fijians. The etymological 

 identity of the Fijian, Samoan, Tahitian, and Hawaiian names of this tree is interest- 

 ing, indicating, as it does, an acquaintance with it before the separation of the various 

 divisions of the Polynesians or its introduction from one group, of islands to the 

 others, together with its name. 



References: 



Caryophyllus malaccensis (L. ). 

 Eugenia malaccensis L. Sp. PI. 1 : 470. 1753. 

 Jambosa malaccerms DC. Prod. 3 : 286. 1 828. 

 The genus Caryophyllus was published by Linnseus in 1753 with a single species, 

 C. aromaticus, which has since been referred to Jambos Adanson, or Jambosa, as 

 written by many authors. Adanaon's name, however, is of later date, and must 

 therefore be displaced by the Linnsean name of the genus. 

 Casay (Philippines). &&e Adenanthera pavonina. 

 Cascabeles (Spanish). See Crolalaria quinquefolia. 

 Cashevir. See Anacardium occidentale. 

 Casey (Philippines). See Anacardium occidentale. 

 Cassava. See Manihot manihot. 

 Cassia alata. Same as Herpetica alala. 

 Cassia ang^stissima Lam. Same as Cassia mimosnides. 

 Cassia esculenta Roxb. Same as Cassia sophera. 

 Cassia fistula. Pudding-pipe tree. 



Family Caesalpiniaceae. 



Local names. — Caiiafistula (Guam, Philippines, Mexico) ; Cafiapistola (Philip- 

 pines); Golden shower (Hawaii). 

 A tree with smooth, ashy-gray bark, bearing long, pendent, lax racemes of golden- 

 yellow flowers, followed by very long, woody, cylindrical pods. Leaves large, even- 

 pinnate, the leaflets in 4 to 8 pairs, ovate-acuminate, 5 to 15 cm. long; calyx tube 

 very short; sepals 5, obtuse; petals 5, veined, imbricated, obovate, shortly clawed, 

 nearly equal; stamens 10; pod black or dark brown, 30 to 60 cm. long, containing 

 one-seeded compartments, marked with three longitudinal shining furrows, two of 

 them close together and the third opposite them, marking the sutures; seed reddish 

 brown, glossy, flattish, ovate, embedded in a blackish-brown sweet pulp; odor 



