LEGUMINOS^. 481 



the hase, and often tapering towards the apex, which is either acute or 

 obtuse, often sphacelate and rounded ; the smooth surface is striate 

 with many nerves, of which 4 or 5 are stronger and more conspicuous. 

 On younger plants especially, some of the phyllodia bear a bipimiate 

 leaf, of few pinnse; the leaflets 12 to 15 pairs, oblong, emarginaie, 

 crowded. Peduncles solitary or fascicled in the axils, or often several 

 and somewhat racemose on a short rhachis, about half an inch long, 

 bearing a dense many-flowered head, of 4 lines in diameter. Calyx 

 turbinate, glabrous, except the rounded and very short teeth, 5 in 

 number, which are densely bearded or tomentose with a yellow and 

 someiohat glandular pubescence. Petals 5, oblong-lanceolate, glabrous, 

 more or less united, about one-third longer than the calyx, half the 

 length of the stamens. Ovary pubescent, or when sterile glabrous, 

 subsessile, oblong. Legume broadly linear, straight or slightly falcate, 

 3 to 6 inches long, two-thirds or three-fourths of an inch broad, gla- 

 brous, flat, obtuse at both ends, about twelve-seeded; the thin valves 

 transversely venulose ; the sutures not thickened, furnished with an 

 acute but very narrow margin. 



This, the Koa of the natives, is one of the largest and most impor- 

 tant timber trees of the Sandwich Islands : from its trunks the canoes 

 of the Hawaiians are made. Mr. Bentham's var. ? latifolia is only a 

 state of the species. Our specimens are wholly destitute of leaflets. 



Gaudichaud, who had the advantage of seeing both growing in 

 their native countries, pronounced the tree of the Sandwich Islands 

 identical with the original A. heterophylla, Willd. {Mimosa heterophylla, 

 Lam. excl. (3.) of Isle Bourbon, which moreover has long been culti- 

 vated in botanic gardens. Hooker and Arnott, adopted this view 

 (and even referred to it the A. laurifolia, Willd.), in which they were 

 followed by Bentham, who inadvertently overlooked the Bourbon 

 plant, and cited no habitat except the Sandwich Islands. In distin- 

 guishing the two trees, peculiar to these most widely separated 

 stations, perhaps I incur the charge of being influenced by geogra- 

 phical considerations rather than botanical characters : for neither 

 the flowers nor the phyllodia of the two differ very much ; and. for 

 lack of proper materials, I cannot complete the comparison, possessing 

 no leaflets of the present plant, and no pods of the original A. hetero- 

 phylla. I feel confident, however, that sufficient differences will be 

 found. 



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