MYRTACEiE, 553 



Var. e. foliis ovalibus lato-ellipticis oblongisve basi rotundatis obtiisis vel 

 acutiusculis modice petiolatis glabris; inflorescetitia calycibusque pube 

 tenui canescenti-puberulis demum glabratis. 



Var. £ foliis tenuiter coriaceis anguste oblongis seu lanceolatis acutius- 

 culis basi in petiolum breviusculum vel longiusculum attenuatis glabris; 

 cymis midtifloris calycibusque (parvulis) glabris vel puberulis. 



Hab. Sandwich Islands ; abundant ; gathered by all collectors from 

 Nelson, in Cook's third voyage, and Menzies, to the present time. 

 Yar. a. Oahu, in the mountains behind Honolulu. (3. Hawaii ; both 

 near the coast and on Mouna Loa, &c, to the elevation of 8,000 or 

 9,000 feet. Maui, at the crater of Haleakala. Mountains of Kauai : 

 some forms connecting this with succeeding varieties, y. Mouna 

 Loa, Hawaii, at an elevation of 8,000 feet. 8. Hawaii, on Mouna 

 Kea, and in the district of Puna. A form allied to it from the 

 mountains of Kauai, e. Oahu, in the mountains behind Honolulu 

 and Waianae. Hawaii, near the coast, in the districts of Waimea and 

 Puna. £. Oahu, in the mountains behind Honolulu, &c. 



Although furnished with a fuller suite of specimens, probably, than 

 ever have been brought together before, I am equally unable with 

 preceding botanists to distinguish any of these extremely varied forms 

 into separate species. The first and the last, as different as two 

 species could well be conceived to be, are yet connected by a series of 

 intermediate states, of which the more prominent are characterized 

 above as varieties. Var. a., one extreme form, is remarkable for its 

 small, rounded-cordate and subsessile, or very sliort-petioled leaves, 

 crowded or even imbricated on the brancldets, from an inch to half an 

 inch in length, finely canescent-tomentose or cinereous underneath, early 

 glabrate above, coriaceous, but seldom very thick : the cymes incline 

 to be thyrsoid and prolonged ; the flowers rather small ; the calyx and 

 peduncles densely ivhite-tomentose. This passes into var. (3. (which 

 includes Gaudichaud's tab. 108), with very thick, rounded leaves (an 

 inch to an inch and a half long), mostly heart-shaped at the base, and 

 more distinctly petioled ; the upper surface at first pubescent, but soon 

 glabrous ; the lower very densely woolly -tomentose, as well as the 

 crowded cymes and larger calyxes. The wool inclines to rub off from 

 the older leaves. With this is connected an early glabrate state, 



