398 



DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



4. Legimrinosce. On account of the bulk, and the frequency as a 

 forest-tree, of Acacia heieropliylla. 



5. Coffeacem. Consisting, as usual elsewhere, mostly of shrubs. 



6. Urticacece. Consisting almost exclusively of shrubs. 



7. Loheliacece. Provided the Scoivolas be included. 



8. Lahiatce. From the abundance of the PltyJlostefiia Tribe. 



9. Composito}. Not only frequent, but in very considerable variety. 

 Next in order, the six following Families were the most frequent: 



Malvaceo}; Pa;?(/f«i'acecp, from the abundance of Freycinetia; Eaphor- 

 hiacece, presenting however little besides a single type of Euphorbia; 

 Convolvidacece ; Oyrtandraceoi ; and AraUacew. 



Chiefly prominent among the independent features of the Hawaiian 

 flora, are the tvoody Loheliaceo?. ; including several well-marked genera, 

 and a much larger number of species than has been supposed. They 

 are mostly rank-growing plants ; many of them simple-stemmed shrubs, 

 six to twenty feet high, the terminal tuft of long narrow leaves, often 

 imparting a Dracaena-like aspect. One species only became a tree, 

 branching, and forty feet high. But there are species havirig broad 

 and very large leaves: others with prickly leaves, especially in young 

 plants, or even deeply and compoundly lobulated as in certain species 

 of Solanum. The flowers too are often very large, and would be con- 

 spicuous but for their prevalent green color ; yet showy species are by 

 no means wanting, bearing ornamental spikes of large deep-blue 

 flowers, others having the flowers white, and one species having them 

 bright yellow. ScmvoJas are likewise abundant and various, but have 

 the normal habit of ordinary shrubs. Another independent feature is 

 found in certain remarkable Violaceoi ; forest-shrubs, and hardly orna- 

 mental, but they are quite rare. — Many of the peculiarly Hawaiian 

 features are more or less connected with the presence of mountains ; as 

 the Duhaniias, numerous and generally diffused, most of the species 

 shrubs, and some becoming small trees; Bromsaisia; Osteo^neles, a 

 Rosaceous plant ; and a woody-stemmed Plantago, becoming a tall 

 shrub. — But there are other peculiar genera, unequivocally Tropical ; 

 as Charpeniiera ; nov. gen. Rutac. ; nov. gen. Pal mac. ; several remark- 

 able genera of AmUaceoe; as also of CojfeacecB and Ferns. — In all, 

 there are probably not less than fifty genera peculiar to the Hawaiian 

 Islands : and of the indigenous species, all that grow inland seem 

 strictly confined to these islands, and do not extend to any other 

 portion of the Globe. 



