Borraginaeeae-Solanaceae. 



The Kou, whose Tahitian name is Toil, and is known in Samoa and Fiji as Tou 

 or Eauanave and Nawanawa respectively, ranges all the way from the Hawaiian 

 Islands to Madagascar, the Moluccas, and tropical New Holland. 



The wood is used by the Samoans for rafts, and the fruits for paste for their 

 tapa clothing. The wood, which is much prized by the natives, is rather soft 

 but durable. 



SOLANACEIAE. 



The family Solanaceae is distributed over the tropical and temperate regions 

 of the old and new world. The center of distribution is in Central and South 

 America. In the Hawaiian Islands the family has one endemic genus which is 

 closely related to a genus occurring in Brazil, but is not known from any other 

 part of the world. Of the genus Solanum six species are also peculiar to these 

 islands, but only one is a tree. 



KEY TO THE GENEEA. 



Corolla salver-shaped, 4 lobed, anthers sessile Nothocestrvun 



Corolla rotate, S-lobed, anthers connivent Solanum 



NOTHOCESTRUM Gray. 



Calyx campanulate, 4-dentate or the teeth almost bilabiate. Corolla silky, salver- 

 shaped, 4:-lobed, the lobes ovate, valvate and folded in the bud. Anthers 4, sessile 

 below the throat, linear, acute, the cells opening inward and lengthwise. Ovary globose 

 to ovoid, 2-eelled; ovules many. Style very short with a 2-lobed stigma. Eruit a berry. 

 Seeds reniform, suspended from a funicle, the testa chartaceous and pitted. Embryo peri- 

 pherical, curved around a fleshy albumen; the thick clavate radicle longer than the 

 cylindrical cotyledons. — Soft wooded trees or shrubs with single or fasciculate, greenish- 

 yellow, inconspicuous flowers. 



The genus Nothocestrum consists of 4 species and is peculiar to the Hawaiian 

 Islands, where all of its species are known by the name Aiea. The genus 

 Nothocestrum is closest related to the genus Athenaea Sendtn. which possesses 

 about 14 species peculiar to Brazil. The Hawaiian genus differs from the latter 

 mainly in the tetramerous flowers which are salver-shaped, and besides in the 

 calyx, which does not become enlarged at the maturity of the fruit, as is the 

 case in Athenaea. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



riowers single, rarely 2 or 3; berry longate N. longifolium 



I'lowers several on short axillary spurs; berry globose. 

 Tube of corolja enclosed in the calyx. 



Leaves elliptical-oblong; fruit enclosed in the calyx N. breviflorum 



Tube of corolla longer than the calyx. 



Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, often sinuate; calyx remains open with 



fruit N. latifolium 



Leaves ovate-cordate; fruit not closed over by calyx N. subcoidatum 



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