Solanaceae. 



eaten out by thirsty cattle, and are often covered with peculiar looking scars, 

 and covered with knobs, increasing the ungainly appearance of the tree. It 

 may be said here that none of the species of Nothocestrum {Aiea trees) deserves 

 any claim to beauty ; in fact they are the most ugly trees which the Hawaiian 

 Islands possess. In the forests of Naalehu, southern slopes of Mauna Loa, 

 Hawaii, the writer met with a form of this species, which owing to thb fact 

 that it grew in a wetter forest had a somewhat different aspect. The fruits 

 were more or less oblong instead of globose, but agreed otherwise well with 

 N. breviflorum. Collected fruiting June, 1909, North Kona, Hawaii, (no. 

 3552) ; and flowering and fruiting Jan. 15, 1912, in Hilea forests, Kau, Hawaii, 

 (no. 10016). 

 The tree is usually found at an elevation of between 2000-2500 feet. 



Nothocestrum latifolium Gray. 



Aiea. 



(Plates 172, 173.) 



NOTHOCESTEUM LATIFOLIUM Gray in Proe. Am. Acad. VI. (1862) 48;— Seem. Flora 

 Vit. (1866) 173;— Mann Proe. Am. Acad. VII. (1867) 191;— Wawra in Plora (1873) 

 62;— Hbd. PI. Haw. Isl. (1888) 308;— Del Cast. 111. PI. Ins. Mar. Pacif. VII (1892) 

 249;— Heller in Minnes. Bot. Stud. Bull. IX. (1897) 885. 

 A small tree; branches rigid, ascending; leaves broad ovate, or obovate-oblong, or 

 suborbieular (Lanai spec.) entire or with very shallow sinuses, acute or obtuse and often 

 rounded at the apex, covered with an ochraceous tomentum when young, puberulous at a 

 later age, of somewhat thick texture when fresh, thin chartaceous in dried specimens, 

 pellucid, 4 to 12 cm long, 3 to 7 cm wide, on petioles of 10 to 50 mm; flowers clustered 

 on short spurs, the pedicels 4 to 18 mm, calyx urceolate, about 6 mm, truncate, at length 

 globose, tomentose or glabrate, open with fruit; corolla greenish-yellow, silky, the tube 

 twice as long as the calyx, the lobes less tlian half its length;, anthers protruding, some- 

 what shorter than in the foregoing species; ovary globose, style as long as tube, berry 

 globose 4 to 6 mm, whitish. 



This species of Aiea occurs on all the islands of the group with the exception 

 of Hawaii. Like the former it prefers the dry forehills on the leeward sides 

 as well as aa lava fields. It is one of the most common and ungainly looking 

 trees on the Island of Lanai, where it can be found in the Kaa desert, the most 

 western point of Lanai. It is taller than any other tree in that locality and can 

 be recognized from a distance by its long stiff ascending branches, which are 

 only slightly foliate; on Molokai it is common at Mapulo'u in the dry canyons 

 and rocky situation 2000 feet above Kaunakakai, where it associates with 

 Sideroxylon, Acacia Koaia, Myoporum sandwicense, and other trees; collected 

 March 22, 1910, Mapulo'u, Molokai, no. 6155 fruiting; flowering, at Mauna Lei, 

 Lanai, July 26, 1910, (no. 8082). 



On the Island of Maui, on the southern slopes of Haleakala on the lava fields 

 of Auahi, land of Kahikinui, occurs a variety enumerated as /? by Hillebrand in 

 his Flora, During the winter months, especially in the month of November, 

 the trees are adorned with large dark green foliage hiding the ugly gnarled stiff 

 branches, while in the month of March they are either bare or with only very 

 scanty foliage. 



421 



