Rubiaceae. 



The genus Bobea, named by Gaudiehaud in honor of M. Bobe-Moreau, a 

 physician and pharmacist in the French Marine, consists of 4 or perhaps 5 

 species, which are all peculiar to the Hawaiian Islands. They fornr two groups, 

 one composed of Bohea elatior and B. Mannii which are perhaps a single species, 

 and B. timonioides, B. sandwicensis and B. Hookeri, only differing from each 

 other mainly in the number of pyrenae. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Limb of calyx cup-shaped, truncate, drupe with 2 to 11 pyrenae. 



Leaves glabrous; peduncle erect B. elatior 



Leaves hairy underneath, peduncle drooping B. Mannii 



Limb of calyx cup-shaped, 4 toothed .- B. timonoides 



Limb of calyx broadly i lobed. 



Flowers in cymes; drupe with 2 pyrenae B. sandwicensis 



Flowers single; drupes with 4 to 6 pyrenae B. Hookeri 



Bobea elatior Gaud. 

 Ahakea. 

 (Plate 180.) 



BOBEA ELATIOR Gaud. Bot. Voy. TJranie (1826-30) 473. pi. 93;_A. Gray Proc. Am. 

 Acad. IV. (1860) 36;— Mann Proc. Am. Acad. VII. (1867) 170;— Hbd. Fl. Haw. 

 Isl. (1888) 173;— K. Schum. in Engl, et Prantl IV. 4. (1891) 96;— Del Cast. 111. 

 Fl. Ins. Mar. Pac. VL (1890) 192;— Heller in Minnas. B-ot. Stud Bull. IX. (1897) 

 893. — Burneya Gaudichaudii Cham, et Schlecht. in Linn. IV. (1829) 190. — Timonius 

 Gaudichaudii DC. Prodr. IV. (1830) 461;— Endl. Fl. Suds. (1836) 176, no. 1288. 



Leaves pale, obovate oblong, 5 to 10 cm long, 2.5 to 5 cm wide, on petioles of 6 to 24 

 mm, acuminate, chartaceous, glabrous; stipules oblong-lanceolate, 8 to 12 mm, rather con- 

 volute in the bud; flowers 3 (accord. Hillbd. 3 to 7) in a cyme, with a common peduncle 

 of 5 to 7.5 cm, the middle flower sessile, the lateral ones on pedicels of 12 to 18 mm;i 

 bracts and bractlets cup-shaped, low; calyx 4 to 5 cm, the cup-shaped truncate limb as 

 long as the adnate portion; corolla greenish, glabrous, the lobes in the bud silky near the 

 apex, the tube 4 to 8 mm, plicate at the throat, the obovate or rounded lobes 3 to 5 mm; 

 anthers sessile _at the middle of the tube; style 3 to 11 cleft; drupe rafher fleshy, purplish 

 ovoid 6 to 10 mm in diameter, or spheroidal crowned by the calycine limb which sur- 

 rounds a glabrous disk of 2 mm in diam.; pyrenae 3 to 11, thick walled, complanate. 



This Ahakea is a tree 30 feet or so tall with often a large trunk of 1^ feet 

 in diameter. It occurs in the rain forests of the Islands of Oahu, Kauai, and 

 Hawaii, and can be recognized by its rather pale green foliage, which is often 

 reddish-veined. 



It is not uncommon back of Honolulu in the Valleys of Pauoa and Palolo as 

 well as in the whole Koolau range. The biggest trees were observed in the 

 mountains of Punaluu on the windward side of Oahu. The wood of the 

 Ahakea is yellow and was employed by the natives for poi boards and the top- 

 rims of outrigger canoes, which in modern ones are painted yellow, to take the 

 place of the yellow Ahakea wood. 



Few are the natives now-a-days who are familiar with the Ahakeas of the 

 Hawaiian forests. 



At a lower elevation, about 1000 feet, there occurs an apparent variety of the 



439 



