234 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL VI, July, 1952 
The species was obviously named from 
Laurus, the laurel tree; and Latin folium, leaf, 
indicating a resemblance in the leaves to 
those of the laurel. 
7. Isodendrion longifolium Gray, Amer. 
Acad. Arts and Sci., Proc. 2: 324, 1852; 
Gray, U. S. Explor. Exped. [official ed.] 
15 (1): 95-96, 1854, Atlas pi. 9, 1856; 
[public ed.] Botany, Phanerogamia 1: 95- 
96, 1854, Atlas pi. 9, 1857. 
ILLUSTRATIONS: Figure 7. 
DESCRIPTION OF ISOTYPE (US); Shrub (ac- 
cording to Pickering, 1854: 400, 6 feet high); 
glabrous, erect; older branches 5-8 mm. in 
diameter, its top broken, and from its apex 
arise 3 small secondary branches, bark of 
older twigs thick, corky, yellowish, with a 
few longitudinal fissures; leaf scars 3-5 mm. 
wide, suborbicular-shield-shaped, pale corky, 
with 3 bundle scars; twigs leafy for 1 cm., 
bearing 2-3 leaves, these ascending or diverg- 
ing, not crowded; upper leafy stem 2.5-4 mm. 
in diameter, green, smooth but for the scat- 
tered wart-like developing patches of cork; 
nodes 3-10 mm. apart; stipules 3-4 mm. 
long, broadly deltoid, a little asymmetric, the 
thick, raised midrib much widened toward 
the base, the sides membranous, yellowish 
shading to brown at the edge; petioles 8-16 
mm. long, channeled above, at base becom- 
ing thickened and corky; blades 11-16.3 cm. 
long, 30-65 mm. wide, oblanceolate or 
oblance-elliptic, subcoriaceous, finely reticu- 
late veined, green above, yellowish green 
below, the apex obtuse, the base short cune- 
ate, the margin subrepand; no flowers pre- 
served. 
Since this species is known only from the 
original collection, every effort was made to 
locate the type. It is not, as expected, in 
Washington. Instead, in that herbarium is an 
isotype, a smaller, sterile branch, broken at 
the top and with three weak shoots bearing 
broader and much shorter leaves than those 
described and illustrated by Gray from the 
better specimen then available. In the Gray 
Herbarium, in the fragmentary set of the 
Wilkes Expedition collections kept by Gray, 
there is a sheet of 1. longifolium containing two 
short stem pieces, with only one good leaf 
26.5 cm. long, 6 cm. wide, one broken leaf, 
one depauperate leaf, but no flowers or fruit. 
It has Isaac Sprague’s pencil drawings, the 
originals for the published plate. No other 
isotype has been located in any herbarium, 
and the fine flowering branch, illustrated as 
the type, seems now to be lost. Since it is im- 
possible to re-examine the type and make new 
detailed descriptions and drawings, a photo- 
graphic copy of Gray’s plate is here repro- 
duced, and his description is here quoted. 
Since his first publication in 1852 contained 
only the Latin diagnosis, and as this is re- 
peated verbatim in his fuller 1854 account, 
the latter is here quoted: 
”2. Isodendrion longifolium, sp. nov. 
(TAB. 9.) 
1. glabrum; foliis subcoriaceis obovato-lanceolatis 
seu cuneato-oblongis in petiolum angustatis 
subrepandis; sepalis ovatis stipulisque laevibus; 
floribus in ramos crassos brevissime pedicel- 
latis. 
Hab. Kaala Mountains, Oahu, Sandwich 
Islands. 
Stems 6 feet high, with rather few very stout 
branches, roughened with the cicatrices of 
fallen leaves, and above with the persistent 
stipules. Leaves alternate, approximate at the 
summit of the branches, of a coriaceous tex- 
ture, entirely glabrous, as is the whole plant, 6 to 
8 inches long, 114 to 214 inches wide, obovate- 
lanceolate, varying from obovate-oblong to 
oblong-lanceolate, somewhat acute or acu- 
minate, or rarely obtuse at the apex, below 
tapering to an acute base, veiny, and with the 
veinlets reticulated, the midrib very promi- 
nent underneath; the margins obscurely repand- 
undulate, or obsoletely and sparingly serru- 
late. Petioles 14 to IVi inches long. Stipules 
geminate, subulate-triangular from a broad 
Fig. 7. Isodendrion longifolium. A copy of Gray’s Plate 9, habitXV 2 ; i, stipulesX2; 2, floral diagramXS; 3, 
flowerX4; 4, petalX5; 3, 6, and 7, stamens and pistilX2l4. From type, Kaala Mts., Wilkes Expedition. 
