Sandalwood in Hawaii — St. John 
globular, rough externally, and contains oily nuts, 
which, when baked and strung on a reed, are used 
by the natives of most of the Polynesian Islands 
as a substitute for candies or lamps, and burn 
with a clear and brilliant flame. The tree is 
branchy, attains an elevation of 30 ft. in height, 
and a circumference of 3 or 4 ft., the timber being 
of soft quality is useless, except as firewood. A 
gum is yielded by this tree, both spontaneously, 
and on incisions being made in the trunk. It is of 
a yellowish colour, inodorous and tasteless; the 
natives chew it, but the suspicious family [Eu¬ 
phorbia^*?] to which the tree belongs would ren¬ 
der caution requisite in its use. I tried it, however, 
as mucilage for the suspension of some balsams, 
without any ill effects arising from it. 
The turmeric plant ( Curcuma longa), called 
oreina by the natives, is abundant wild; the root, 
as well as that of the noni (Morinda dtrifolia), 
is used for dyeing their native cloth of a bright 
yellow colour. 
The foregoing account is quoted exactly 
as published, including the curious render¬ 
ing of the scientific names, some unaccented, 
some with grave, some with acute accents, 
some in roman type, some in italics or partly 
so or even with only one letter in italics. 3 
Probably Bennett’s underlining of the scien¬ 
tific names to be set in italics in his manu¬ 
script was hasty, and the underlinings did 
not equal the names, though he intended 
them to do so. The printer did not interpret 
them thus; rather, he followed the copy 
exactly. 
The plants mentioned in Bennett’s ac¬ 
count are now known as pukeawe ( Styphelia 
Tam eiameiae) ; popolo (Phytolacca sandwi- 
censis) ; uki (Dianella sandwicensis) ; uulei 
(Osteomeles anthyllidifolia) ; m a m a k e 
(Pipturus albidus) ; naupaka kuahiwi (Scae- 
vola Gaudichaudiana) ; kalia (Elaeocarpus 
bifid us ); lama (Diospyros Hillebrandii ); 
kealia or alaea laau (Bixa Orellana ); enaena 
(Gnaphalium sandiuicensium ); uala (1 po¬ 
rno ea Batatas ); kukui (Aleurites moluc- 
cana ); olena ( Curcuma longa ); and noni 
(Morinda citrifolia) . Explanatory remarks 
are here appended for several of these 
plants. 
3 A few vowel accents unavailable to the printer 
of Pacific Science have been omitted. [Editor.] 
11 
The naupaka kuahiwi does not have yel¬ 
low flowers. There is one native species 
which does, Scaevola glabra, but this grows 
only on the very crest of the mountains in 
the Cloud Zone. All indications are that 
Bennett did not on this day climb to the high 
peaks, but rather was describing collections 
made at the lower edge of the forest, in 
grassland or dry open forest. On Oahu, one 
of the commonest bushes and one of the first 
to be encountered on approaching the forest 
is S. Gaudichaudiana, which has white flow¬ 
ers with delicate magenta lines on the veins 
near the throat, but the flowers, when with¬ 
ering and drying on the bush, turn yellow¬ 
ish. It seems certain that this was the 
"nouputa” he noted. In confirmation of this, 
there was a specimen of S. Gaudichaudiana 
from Oahu, collected by Bennett, in the Ber¬ 
lin Herbarium (Skottsberg, 1927: 26). 
Bennett’s bush the "karia” is certainly 
kalia (Elaeocarpus bifid us) , though truly a 
tree. The native name is a clear indication 
and the abortive flowers settle the question, 
for even today nearly eve£y inflorescence 
through insect injury develops into a large, 
bright red, abnormal growth almost like a 
witches’-broom. 
The "lumma” is evidently the lama 
(Diospyros Hillebrandii) , which is conspic¬ 
uous in the lower forest in spring because of 
its flush, or luxuriant young growth with 
abundant new crimson leaves, which is even 
more showy than the similar red flush on the 
cultivated mango tree. The leaves of the 
lama are not glandular, but both surfaces, 
and particularly the upper, are strongly 
salient rugose reticulate, with thin tissue be¬ 
tween the meshes of the heavy close net¬ 
work. When looking through a leaf towards 
the light, Bennett may have mistaken the 
light intervals for glands. 
Bennett’s record of the name "ohava” is 
difficult to identify. There is no such name 
in the Hawaiian dictionaries or botanical 
works. The only similar name is hoawa 
