Rubiaceae. 

 GARDENIA Ellis. 



Calyx usually tubular and truncate, toothed or lobed, persistent. Corolla salver- 

 shaped, campanulate, or funnel-shaped with cylindrical tube; lobes occasionally more than 

 0. Stamens 5 to 11, inserted in the throat, enclosed or shortly protruding. Ovary 1-celled, 

 with 2-several parietal placentas; style often with clavate stigma protruding. Fruit coriace- 

 ous or succulent, often irregularly opening, smooth or ribbed, globose or pyriform Shnibs 



or trees with chartaeeous or coriaceous leaves, and interpetiolar, often connate and sheath- 

 ing stipules. riowers occasionally very large, terminal or axillary, white, yellow or purple. 



The genus consists of about 70 species which are distributed over tropical 

 Africa, Asia and Australia. About 10 species have been described from the 

 Pacific isles, two of which are peculiar to Hawaii, while the remaining ones 

 occur in Tahiti (1), Fiji (6) and in Samoa (1). 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Branches not glutinous, fruit globose G. Brlgliami 



Branches glutinous, fruit quadrangular, pyriform Gr. Eemyi 



Gardenia Brighami Mann. 



Nau. 



GARDENIA BEIGHAMI Mann in Proc. Am. Acad. YII. (1867) 171;— Hbd. PI. Haw. Isl. 

 (1888) 171;— Del Cast. 111. PI. Ins. Mar. Pae. VI. (1890) 191;— Brigham Ka Hana 

 Kapa in Mem. B. P. B. Mus. III. (1911) 146. 



Branches dichotomous, densely foliose, scarcely glutinous at the ends; leaves on short 

 petioles of 4 mm, ovate, shortly acuminate, chartaeeous, with prominent straight nerves, 

 shining above, papillose and puberulous when young; stipules triangular or truncate; 

 flowers single, terminal, subsessile; calyx tube shortly produced above the ovary, 10 mm 

 long, 4 lobed; anthers subsessile, linear, their apices exserted; style as long as the tube 

 (14 to 18 mm), the two clavate branches nearly half its length; fruit globose, with 4 faint 

 lines, about 2.5 cm in diameter, coriaceous, indehiscent, tipped with the contracted limb of 

 the calyx, 1-celled, with 4 (or 3 or 5) parietal placentas projecting about 4 mm from the 

 pergameneous endocarp; seeds many in a yellowish pulp, horizontal, flattened, obtusely 

 3 or more angled. 



The Nau is a small tree, reaching a height of 15 to 18 feet, or is even smaller 

 when it is a shrub. It has a trunk 6 to 8 inches in diameter and is vested in a 

 smooth or slightly roughened bark. The flowers are of a beautiful white and 

 very fragrant and would be worthy of cultivation on that account. During the 

 month of March the trees are usually loaded with the globose fruits, which tarn 

 black when mature. Hillebrand remarks that the fruits do not open on the 

 tree, though the writer saw them split into several divisions on most of the 

 trees on Molokai. 



The Nau is peculiar to the very dry districts on the leeward sides of the 

 islands, and is especially common on Molokai, where it forms the remnants of 

 the dry forest on the slopes of Mauna Loa which forms the west end of that 

 Island. The trees on Molokai are taller than on the other islands. It associates 

 with the Keahi, Clirysopliyllum polynesicum, Kokia drynarioides, Reynoldsia 

 sandwicensis, Xylosma Hillebrandii, Nototrichium sandwicense, etc. On Lanai 

 it is also very common in the Valleys of Mahana and Kaiholena, as well as on 

 the slopes of the Kaa desert, where it can be found with some of the above 

 mentioned trees and also with Bobea sandwicensis, Nothocestrum sp., Osrnanthus 



433 

 28 



