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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXI, October 1967 
associated with such species as Canavalia ga- 
le ata, Si da sp., Plectranthus australis, Mucuna 
gigantea, Aleurites moluccana , Cordyline fruti- 
cosa, Psidium guajava , Lantana camara, and 
other aridity-tolerant plants, many of them 
weedy introduced species. The tree, with its 
leafless appearance and numerous dry, decayed 
branches, had an unhealthy aspect. It should be 
sought in a season when fruits are ripe so that 
seeds may be gathered for the preservation of 
this very interesting species, now perhaps nearly 
extinct. 
APOCYNACEAE 
The ”Kalaipahoa ” Tree of W ah aula Heiau, 
Haivaii , Is Rauvolfia 
During a survey performed by members of a 
Bishop Museum expedition for the U. S. Na- 
tional Park Service in Kalapana, Puna, Hawaii 
in the summer of 1959, a single tree of Rau- 
volfia remoti flora Degener and Sherfif was found 
at Wahaula Heiau, near the coast and not far 
from Kalapana village. This tree, called "kalai- 
pahoa,” was discovered by S. Konanui and J. 
Halley Cox. Supposedly in earlier times, during 
the ascendancy of this heiau, a grove of trees 
existed, and this one is a remnant of the grove, 
which was said to contain many kinds of plants 
useful to the priests. Another collection was 
made higher on the dry slopes of Kealakomo 
in native forest ( Stone and Pearson 3016, alt. 
1,400 ft. 9 July 1959, bish). The same species 
has previously been recorded from two localities 
in the Kau District (at Waiohinu and near Kaa- 
lualu) in SherfPs treatment of 1947 (Field 
Mus. Bot. sen). The possibility that the heiau’s 
priests used this plant suggests that they might 
have had some knowledge of the medicinal 
properties of the milky sap, which in some spe- 
cies (especially R. serpentina of India) provides 
an important drug now well known as reser- 
pine. It would be of interest, therefore, to have 
the Hawaiian species (which number seven) 
investigated for this material. 
SOLANACEAE 
The Identity of Solanum carterianum Rock 
Rock’s description (Indig. Trees Haw. Is. 
p. 423 , 1913 ), and specimens collected since 
his discovery of this plant in Hawaii, accord 
well with a variety of another species: Solanum 
verbascifolium L. var. auric ulatum (Aiton) O. 
Kuntze. This appears to have a natural distribu- 
tion in tropics of both hemispheres, in such 
regions as Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Amboina, 
and has been reported from Tonga. In Hawaii 
it has been found only in the Waiahole-Waianu 
Valley on the windward (east) side of the Koo- 
lau Range of Oahu. Rock listed a vernacular 
name ("pua-nanahonua”) for the plant, which 
evidently he took as an indication that it was 
an indigenous species. This is doubtful, how- 
ever. The very restricted occurrence of this 
plant in Hawaii, the fact that so many exotic 
species have been introduced (not all by known 
persons or at known times), and the remark- 
able, even reprehensible, lengths to which intro- 
ducers of foreign plants have gone in distrib- 
uting alien species, all tend to support the 
conclusion that this Solanum is an exotic, not a 
native, species. It may have been introduced 
about 1900. It is easily distinguished from the 
truly indigenous species of Solanum by its ar- 
borescent habit, dense fulvous tomentum, and 
rather large bluish-lavender flowers. Endemic 
species, such as S . kauaiense Hillebr., are 
shrubby, and bear white or purplish flowers. 
Other introduced species are also mostly herbs 
or shrubs, and inhabit disturbed areas. S. ver- 
bascifolium is illustrated, under Rock’s desig- 
nation, in Degener’s Flora Hawaiiensis. 
A New Variety of Nothocestrum ( Solanaceae ) 
Nothocestrum longifolium Gray var. rufo- 
pilosum B. C. Stone, var. nov. 
Folia magna elliptica usque ad 16-17 X 6.3 
cm, laminis costis nervisque pilis rufis tomen- 
tosis sed ultime glabrescentibus, ramulis glabris. 
Leaves large, elliptic, up to 17 X 6.3 cm, the 
blades, costa, and nerves beneath tomentose with 
rufous hairs, but at last becoming glabrous; 
branches glabrous. 
holotype: Hawaii: between Glenwood and 
Twenty-nine Miles, in wet forest, 24 June 1929, 
O. Degener 7434 (us). 
For its species this is an unusually large- 
leaved plant, the blades densely rufous-tomen- 
tose beneath, especially along the midribs and 
lateral nerves, but in age becoming somewhat 
glabrate except on the midrib. 
