Sapotaceae. 



This species, which is a tree 25 to 30 feet high, has a rather broad round crown, 

 and pale glaucous, terete, glabrous branches. The tree differs from >S'. sand- 

 wicense mainly in its pale yellow sessile fruits, in its single unisexual flowers, and 

 very pale glabrous foliage. It was discovered by the writer during the month 

 of November, 1910, on the Island of Maui, southern slopes of Mt. Haleakala, on 

 the lava fields of Auahi, district of Kahikinui, elevation 3000 feet. It grows in 

 company with Alectryon macrococcus, Pelea multiflora, Pterotropia dipyrena and 

 Sideroxylon sandwicense, as well as with another Sideroxylon with perfectly 

 globose, orange-colored fruits which are smaller than in the species in question, 

 and may be described as follows : 



Var. aurantium Rock var. nov. 

 (Plates 156, 157, 158.) 



Leaves elliptical-ovate to linear-oblong, acuminate or rounded at the apex, covered 

 with a bronze-colored tomentum underneath, pale green and dull above"^; flowers single; 

 fruits perfectly sessile deep orange-colored, globose, 2 to .2.5 cm in diam., one to five 

 seeded, seeds smaller than in the species, enclosed in a thick pergameneous pyrena. 



This variety is a medium-sized tree, of different habit than the species, with 

 straight ascending branches. The biggest tree the writer observed on the lava 

 fields of Puuwaawaa, North Kona, Hawaii, with trunks of nearly two feet in 

 diameter, and clothed in a thick gray very rough bark, while the younger trees 

 have a smooth grayish-white bark. The variety occurs on the Island of Hawaii 

 in North and South Kona, as well as at Auahi, Maui, and can be distinguished 

 at a glance from the species, even at a distance. 



SIDEROXYLON SPATHULATUM Hbd. Fl. Haw. Isl. (1888) 277;— Engl, in Engl, et 

 Prantl Pflzfam. IV. i. (1890) 144;— Del Cast. 111. PI. Ins. Mar. Pac. VII. (1892) 

 228; — Eock Coll. Haw. Publ. Bot. Bull. 1. (1911) 20.— Sapota sandwicensis var. p 

 Gray Proc. Am. Acad. V. (1862) 328. 



A small stiff -branched tree or shrub 4 to 5 m in height; leaves spathulate or elliptico- 

 oblong, bluntly acuminate, contracting into a margined petiole of 12 to 18 mm, rusty- 

 tomentose underneath, thick coriaceous, with the veins little prominent; flowers single or 

 in clusters of 2 to 3, on short pedicels of 2 to 4 mm; calyx and corolla rusty-tomentose 

 4 mm high, their lobes somewhat acute; stamens inserted at the middle of the corolla, at 

 the base of the lobes, the short filaments slightly reflected, not hairy below, the anthers 

 apiculate; staminodia broad, half the width of the lobes; ovary hairy, with short style; 

 berry dark orange colored and glabrous when mature, covered with a rufous tomentum 

 when young, 3.5 em long, by little over 2 cm wide, conical in outline, with an acuminate 

 apex, 5-seeded, each seed enclosed in a membraneous yellow pyrena, 20 mm long, 7 mm 

 wide, rounded at both ends, grayish-brown, rather dull, linear elongate, cotyledons nearly 

 as long and broad as the albumen, radicle about 3 mm long and superior, fruit flesh 

 light yellow. 



This species is quite common on the Island of Lanai in the valleys of Kai- 

 holena and Mahana, as well as on the windward side toward Halepalaua, and 

 in the Kaa forest. It grows in company with Chrysophyllum polynesicum, 

 Bolea Hookeri, Osmanthus sandwicensis, etc. The writer met with this same 

 species on the southern slopes of Mt. Haleakala, on the lava fields of Auahi, at 

 an elevation of 2000, near the government road, in company with Reynoldsia 

 sandwicensis, Antidesma pulvinatum, etc. 



391 



