Rhamnaeeae. 

 ALPHITONIA Reissek. 



Flowers polygamous; sepals, petals and stamens 5; disc flat annular. Style 2 to 3 fid. 

 Ovary 2 to 3 celled. Fruit below and at the middle invested by the eup-shaped calyx- 

 tube and coalesced with the same; exocarp strongly developed, brittle, but not so much 

 in the Hawaiian plants. Endocarp divided into 2 or 3 cocci with woody or crustaceous 

 partitions opening inward by a longitudinal slit. Seeds with aril, often enclosing the 

 seed completely. After the falling away of the pericarp, the seeds remain on the re- 

 ceptacle; in the Hawaiian plant the pericarp never falls away but it is often not even 

 cracked owing to the calyx tube investing the drupe up to the middle and even beyond. 

 (A fact which Hillebrand pointed out and correctly). A tree with leaves, petioles, and 

 inflorescence tomentose. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, penninerved, broadly ovate to 

 lanceolate, glabrous above, with a whitish to reddish brown tomentum underneath. Flow- 

 ers in terminal or lateral loose cymes. 



The genus Alphitonia consists of a single extremely variable species, which 

 is distributed from Australia to Polynesia and Borneo. 



In Hawaii the tree is known as Kauila. Hillebrand in his Flora of the Ha- 

 waiian Islands described it as a new species, "Alphitonia ponderosa." It is true 

 it is a quite different plant from those in the writer's possession from Australia. 

 In the Australian plants the fruits are barely 6 mm. in diameter and are cracked 

 to the base, while the Hawaiian plants have the fruits 14 mm. in diameter ; they 

 also are hardly even split ; only on rare occasions the writer found cracked fruits 

 on a tree. 



He, however, refers this tree to A. excelsa, as he has not seen the intermediates 

 of the Australian and South Polynesian plants. 



Alphitonia excelsa Reiss. 



Kauila, Kauwila or O'a on Maui. 



(Plate 112.) 



ALPHITONIA EXCELSA Eeiss. ex Endl. Gen. (1840) 1098;— Seem. Fl. Vit. (1866) 43; — 



H. Mann, Proc. Am. Acad. VII. (1867) 161, et Fl. Haw. Isl. (1867) 174;— Wawra 



in Flora (1873) 170;— Del Cast. 111. Fl. Ins. Mar. Pacif. VI. (1890) 140 (ex parte) 



et Fl. Polyn. Franc. (1893) 33;— Weberb. in Engl, et Prantl III. 5. (1896) 419;— 



Brigham Ka Hana Kapa (1911) 174, fig. 103.— Colutoina excelsa Fenzl. in Hugl. 



Enum. (1837) 20.— Rhamnus zizyphoides Soland. in Forst. Prodr. (1786) no. 510 



absqu. char.);- Sprgl. Syst. I. (1825) 768;— DC. Prodr. II. (1825) 27;— Pancher, in 



Tahiti, (I860) 230. — Pomaderris zizyphoides Hook, et Arn. Bot. Beech. (1832) 61; — 



Endl. Fl. Suds. (1836) no. 1570;_Guill. Zephyr. T^i.it. (1836-1837) no. 330;— A. ziz- 



phoides Gray Bot. U. S. E. E. (1854) 278 t. 22;— Nadeaud Ennm. (1873) no. 451.— 



A. franguloides Gray 1. c. 280 t. 22". — Zizphoides argentea Soland. Prim. Fl. Pac. 



378 et in Parkins Draw. Tahit. PI. (ined. cf. Seem, 1. c.)— A. ponderosa Hbd. Fl 



Haw. Isl. (1888) 81;— Del Cast. 1. o. 140;— Heller PI. Haw. Isl. (1897) 849. 



Leaves ovate, ovate-oblong, lanceolate, generally acute, entire, dark green above, with 



a rust colored tomentum underneath; flowers in the axils of the youngest leaves, in short 



tomentose dichotomous cymes; calyx 6 mm, lobes expanded; petals half as long as calyx 



lobes, spathulate, enclosing the short stamens; anthers ovoid, style very short 2 to 3 fld; 



fruit globose 14 to 18 mm in diam. ringed at the middle by the border of the adnate calyx 



in the Hawaiian plants, almost indeshiscent; arillus a dark red separable film enveloping 



the whole seed. Cotyledons broad, oblong. 



The Kauila is a stately tree and attains its greatest height, 80 feet, on the 

 Island of Kauai, especially in the forest of Kopiwai. It has a straight trunk of 

 1% to 2 feet in diameter with a whitish deeply corrugated bark in the dry dis- 

 tricts. 



285 



