552 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXI, October 1967 
type), and it would account for the spread of 
such a remarkable type from island to island. 
A few years ago just such an unusual kukui 
was described as a species, Aleurites remyi 
Sherff (Field Mus. Bot. ser. 17:558, 1939) 
from specimens collected long ago by Jules 
Remy (1851-55), apparently somewhere near 
Kona, Hawaii. Additional collections and good 
photographs of the leaves were published by 
Sherff in a later paper (Am. J. Bot. 31:157, pis. 
1-3, 1944), and definite localities then were 
known: Holualoa-Kailua road, North Kona; 
and a garden in Hilo. A plant was grown 
from a seed by Dr. Sherff in Chicago. How- 
ever, according to Mrs. Thomas Jaggar, the 
Kona tree (or trees) were supposed to have 
been brought to Hawaii from Kauai (as a 
nut) and was known locally as the "Kauai” 
or "mango-leaved” kukui or, because of the 
Kona locality, as the "Kona” kukui . 
More recently, another unusual kukui has 
been discovered, nearly simultaneously, by Dr. 
Otto Degener and by Tadayuki Kato on Kauai. 
Like the "Kona” form, it differs from the com- 
mon kukui in its strikingly different leaves. An 
individual of this form may be seen on the 
grounds of Kauai High School in Lihue. 
In fact, these two forms have a common ten- 
dency, i.e., a relative lengthening of the leaf 
and reduction or loss of the lateral lobes. In 
A. remyi the lateral lobes are very narrow, the 
terminal lobe much elongated; in the Kauai 
High School form the lateral lobes are reduced 
or absent. In reasonably typical A. moluccana 
proper, the lateral lobes are present and rather 
broad, and the terminal lobe is not particularly 
longer. For comparison the sketches in Figure 1 
are given. It will be noticed that even in A. 
moluccana proper there is a marked variation 
in extent of lobing. 
In describing A. remyi Sherff states: "Several 
staminate inflorescences have been seen. They 
appear different from those on A . moluccana , 
with which A. Remyi will stand in the section 
Camirium. . . . However, the floral characters 
of A. moluccana are so lacking in sharp delimi- 
tations that much reliance upon them for a dis- 
tinction from A. Remyi seems for the present 
unwise. A . Remyi has slightly smaller petals 
(for its staminate flowers) and these are often 
sharply 1 -denticulate on each margin close to 
their expanded distal portion, which in turn is 
very often irregularly obtuse-denticulate or 
-lobulate. In A. moluccana the tendency is for 
