THE MACADAMIA NUT IN HAWAII 3 
small and undesirable quality of the nuts, the trees are believed to 
have been of the well-known Gympie nut (Mcocadanua minor), of 
the Gympie district of Australia. This opinion is further corrobo- 
rated by the fact that several Macadamia trees which produced 
small, undesirable nuts grew for some years in Kona, having been 
brought there as seedlings from the Hamakua district of Hawaii. 
These trees were recently cut down to prevent the spread of this 
undesirable variety, which corresponded very closely with the de- 
scription of the Gympie nut given by Rumsey (16, p. 12). 
Other introductions of the Macadamia have been made by differ- 
ent persons in Hawaii direct from Australia, and through the United 
States Department of Agriculture, at Washington, D. C. 
Figueb 1. — Well-formed Macadamia tree about 36 years old, growing on the premises 
of the late E. W. Jordan, Honolulu 
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION 
Macadamiia temifolia usually attains a height of about 30 feet, 
and the upright forms sometimes reach to a height of 50 or 60 feet; 
the foliage is dense and dark green ; the trunk is 1 foot or more in 
diameter; the bark is of medium thickness and light gray in color; 
the wood is uniformly light gray, mottled, and often shows a pink- 
ish cast; and the grain is coarse, tough, and fairly hard. The leaves 
are oblong-lanceolate, ranging from 3 or 4 inches to a foot in length, 
are sessile or nearly so, glabrous and shiny, and in whorls of three or 
four; the blade margins are serrated and somewhat prickly. The 
flowers are numerous, small, arranged in long spikelike racemes 
which are as long as the leaves or longer, and creamy white or pink ; 
the perianth is minutely pubescent or glabrous, the reflex points are 
four in number and spreading, exposing four anthers each having a 
