IMyrtaceae-Araliaceae. 



range, and on the vertical cliffs or pali on the windward side of the island. It 

 certainly is quite distinct from the ordinary Oliia lelnia and can be distinguished 

 from it at a glance by the deeply rugose small leaves. It is never a large tree, 

 but only of about 10-15 feet in height or more often a shrub. Flowering, Koolau 

 Mts. Punaluu, Nov. 14-21, 1908. no. 291, College of Hawaii Herbarium. 



Metrosideros macropus Hook, et Arn. 

 Ohia lehua. 



METROSIDEROS MACROPUS Hook, et Arn. Bot. Beech. (1832) 83;— Eudl. Fl. Suds, in 

 Ann. Wien. Mus. (1836) 181, no. 14.53;— Gray Bot. U. S. E. E. (1854) 564. t. 70;— 

 Maun in Proc. Am. Acad. YII. (1867) 166, et El. Haw. Isl. (1867) 244;— Wawra 

 in Elora (1873) 172;— Hbd. El. Haw. Isl. (1888) 127;— Del Cast. 111. El. Ins. Mar. 

 Pae. VI. (1890) 168;— Ndz. in Engl, et Prantl Pflzfam. III. 7. (1893) 87.— Nania 

 macropus 0. Kuntze Eev. Gen. PI. (1891) 242;— Heller in Minnas. Bot. Stud. Bull. 

 IX. (1897) 865. 



A well proportioned tree glabrous throughout; the branchlets angled; leaves ovate or 

 ovate-oblong, coriaceous rather dull, acute at the base, copiously feather-veined; petioles 

 2.5 to 5 cm long usually margined, and standing nearly at right angles to the stem; 

 cymes terminal usually geminate, subsessile, many-flowered, crowded, evolved from a 

 large scaly bud, the scales of which remain persistent for some time as ovate or oblong 

 pointed bracts, 12 mm in length; pedicels about 4 mm long, subtended by similar smaller 

 ovate lanceolate bractlets which are deciduous; flowers larger than in the largest flowered 

 forms of -1/. imlt/moriihu; petals and stamens red or yellow, ovary three-celled, free nearly 

 to the middle; capsule nearly included in the turbinate tube of the calyx, of which the 

 lobes are persistent, free to the middle, three-valved, many seeded; seeds fusiform, subu- 

 late, not much pointed. 



This species is peculiar to the Hawaiian Islands and differs from the cosmopoli- 

 tan M. polymorpha in the long petioled leaves, large floral scales, and much 

 larger flowers. It is a tree of considerable size and can be found in the moun- 

 tains of Oahu on the main Koolau range, as well as on Molokai and on Kauai. 



Hybrids of this and the cosmopolitan species can be met with wherever they 

 occur together. 



ARALIACEAE. 



The family Araliaceae, which is chiefly tropical, consists of 51 genera and 

 numerous species. In Polynesia it is represented by the genera Plerandra, Rey- 

 noldsia, Meryta, and others ; while in Hawaii, the most northern islands of Poly- 

 nesia, it has two endemic genera, Pterotropia and Cheirodendron, besides several 

 species of Tetraplasandra, which now includes also Triplasandra, which genus 

 has been merged into the former by Harms. The genus Tetraplasandra is not 

 peculiar to the islands, as it has two species which occur outside of Hawaii, one 

 m New Guinea and the other in Celebes. Reynoldsia, which is represented in 

 Hawaii by one species, has also one species in the Society Islands and one in 

 Samoa. 



336 



