Aquifoliaceae. 



ILEX L. 



Flowers through abortion dioecious. 4 to many lobed, usually isomerous, calyx 

 rarely oligomerous, and ovary pleiomerous. 



Subgenus BYRONIA (Endl.) Loes. 

 Inflorescence single or in the leaf axils or single lateral at the base of young shoots, 

 usually long peduneled, one or several times diehotomous or triehotomous, eymose or ir- 

 regularly forked, rarely umbellately contracted. Flowers isomerous, or oftener at least 

 the female flowers heteromerous. Petals occasionally shorter than the ovary. Staminodia 

 of the female flower often without anthers, resembling entirely the petals. Ovary 5, or 

 more often 6, to many celled, occasionally 22 celled. Ovules single in each cell. Trees 

 with chartaceous or mostly thick coriaceous, entire, or rarely serrulate leaves. 



The genus Byronia, established by Endlicher, was reduced by Loesener to a 

 subgenus under the genus Ilex, which was again divided into two classes, A. Eu- 

 hyronia, into which falls the Hawaiian representative, now Ilex sandwicensis 

 (Bndl.) Loes., and B. Micrococca Loes. with a single species found in Japan. 



Ilex sandwicensis (Endl.) Loes. 



Kawau, or Aiea on Kauai. 



(Plate 102.) 



ILEX SANDWICENSIS (Endl.) Loes. in Engler et Prantl Pflzfam. Naehtr. I. 7 218.^ 

 Ilex ? anomala Hook et Arn. Bot. Beech. (1832) 111 t. 25. — Byronia sandwicensis 

 Endl. in Ann. Wien. Mus. I. (1836) 184,— et PI. Suds. (1836) no. 1577;— A. Gray 

 Bot. U. S. E. E. (1854) 296. pi. 26;— H. Mann Proc. Am. Acad. VII. (1867) 161, 

 et El. Haw. Isl. Essex Inst. V. (1867) 171; — Wawra in Flora (1873) 170;— 

 Hbd. Fl. Haw. Isl. (1888) 78;— Del Cast.' 111. Fl. Ins. Mar. Pac. VI. (1890) 138;— 

 Brigham Ka Hana Kapa (1911) 178, fig 105. — Byronia anomala Heller PI. Haw. 

 Isl. (1897) 847, et B. sandwicensis Endl. Heller 1. c. p. 848. 

 Leaves elliptico-oblong or obovate to ovate, 5 to 12 cm long, 2 to 6 cm wide, on petioles 

 of 5 to 25 mm, obtuse, narrowing toward the base, entire or rarely serrulate, coriaceous, 

 dark green above, lighter underneath, glossy above, with impressed nerves; flowers numer- 

 ous in eymose panicles of 5 to 10 cm in length, the naked compressed two-edged peduncle 

 2.5 to 5 cm, pedicels 6 mm, bibraeteolate below the middle, the bractlets 2 to 3 mm; 

 calyx 4-lobed, the lobes rounded, corolla rotate white, deeply 6 to 10 cleft, female flowers 

 with staminodia often without anthers, as many as the lobes of the corolla and alternate 

 with them; ovary closely sessile in the calyx, globular, 12 to IS celled; in sterile flowers 

 smaller and imperfect; stigma sessile, broad, radiate with 12 to 18 lines, persistent, ovules 

 single in each cell, stamens half the length of the corolla, filaments flattened, anthers 

 didymous, drupe spherical, smooth, 12 to 18 grooved when mature or dry, black, dull, with 

 purplish fruit flesh, containing 2 to 18 separable pyrenae. 



The writer has abundant material of this species from various localities all 

 over the group, and after comparing the many specimens he comes to the conclu- 

 sion that, as so many of our Hawaiian trees are polymorphous or variable, the 

 Kawau or Aiea proves to be no exception. Hillebrand in his Flora of the Ha- 

 waiian Islands fails to mention that the flowers are often sterile and that the 

 anthers are often wanting in fertile flowers. 



It is a handsome tree reaching a height of 20 to 40 feet, with a trunk of often 

 one foot in diameter. It is, however, occasionally a shrub with stifE .ascending 

 branches and leaves crowded at the ends of the latter. Such shrubs can be found 

 near Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii, elevation 4000 feet, among the sub-xerophytie 

 vegetation, or in open swampy country. It is one of the most common forest trees 

 on all the islands and is more or less confined to the rain forests, though occa- 



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