The Society Islands are located northwest of the center of the southeast quarter of the Pacific Ocean. Thus each of the genera mentioned above has a large number of species in the East Indies and only one or two in the Society Islands.
Styphelia tameiameiae
Leaves oblong-elliptic; petiole 1-2 mm long; mucilage with a deciduous tuft of hairs at apex; corolla 4.3-5.2 mm long, the tube much exceeding the calyx; style about 3 times the length of the ovary. Hillebrand gives the length of the leaves as 4 to 6 lines (8-12 mm), and as mentioned above, the variation is even greater in the Hawaiian plant.
Styphelia pomarae (Gray) Moore
Grant observed the plant at 15 field stations in Tahiti, all, including the above data, from the northwest quarter of Tahiti-nui, in the districts of Papenoo, Mahina, Arue, Pare, and Paea. It usually occurs as a dominant or subdominant shrub in low moist upper ridge forests, where its most common dominant companions are, in order of abundance, Weinmannia parviflora, Metrosideros collina and Vaccinium cereum.
Ardisia elliptica Thunberg
Hosaka (1940) places the Hawaiian species, which generically certainly do not differ from the other Polynesian species, in the Myrsine. SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. centre), which has 10–15 species each in the East Indies, Philippines, New Guinea, Australia and New Caledonia, to be relatively absent from other Polynesian groups (e.g. Fiji, Samoa) and produces a large number of species in the Society Islands.
Rapanea taitensis (Gray) Mez
Drupe obovoid, 6 X 6.5 mm (4 mm, fide Mez), green and n d spotted with red when young, becoming chestnut and black maculate when ripe, or twigs. Umbels located mainly below the leaves, located on small branches (0.5 mm long) from stems 6-8 mm thick, 6-7 with flowers.
Rapanea ovalis (Nadeaud) Mez
Drupe ellipsoidal or slightly ovoid or obovate, fleshy, 6.5-7 x 5.5 mm in dry state, greenish, with prominent dark red dots in the longitudinal direction. It is a tree 2.5 m high and 4 cm in diameter, with petioles 5-10 mm long, leaves oblanceolate to elliptical, 13-17 x 5 cm, acute or blunt, weakened to rounded at the base, pergamene, minutely translucent punctate by transmitted light, umbels 3-4 flowered, peduncles 3-4 mm long, calyx tube 0.5 mm long, lobes 1 mm long, gland-ciliolate, drupe green, red-tipped (black when drying), spherical to obovate, 4-4.5 x 4 mm.
Rapanea ronuiensis Grant, new species Arbor parva, ramulis novellis ferrugineo-
Ash tube 0.5 mm long; lobes deltoid-ovate, 0.5-0.7 m long, obtuse to rounded, glandular-ciliolate to glabrous. Drupes globose (slightly obovoid), 2-3 mm in diameter (3 X 2.7 mm), gray (green, purple), marble-dotted (with longitudinal stripes).
Rapanea fusca Moore
DESCRIPTION.-It differs from the typical plant by smaller leaves (1.7-3.2 X 0.5-1.4 cm), shorter stems (2.5-5 mm) and slightly smaller fruits (3 mm in diameter). , whose reduction is typically associated with the plant's moist bog habitat. It was found that 27 identical pairs of Latin descriptive words and phrases were used in the original descriptions of the two entities.
Plumbago L
Of the above differences, then, only three of any significance remain: the size of the leaves (30y0 smaller in R. fasciculata) and the fruits (12y0 smaller), and the size of the ovaries and stigmas. The difference in the pistils, however, is due to the type of R, not noticed by Moore, because, as amply pointed out by Moore, this species, though close to the preceding, differs in the subsessile, dark green , more conspicuous punctured leaves, often subdentate at the tip, with upward lateral veins, the longer sepals and the larger fleshy fruits.
Plumbago indica L
Nadeaud states that it is used externally to cause blisters (F.B.H. Brown reports the same in the Marquesas) and for indolent swellings. In the Society Islands there are five genera (one species each) with two endemic and three cultivated species. Staminodes none; ovary 7-10 cells; seeds with endosperm; sepals, petals and stamens 5; leaves reddish brown, hairy underneath: cultivated.
Palaquium Blanco
According to Christophersen, in Samoa lau is tafifi, but this is only a general Polynesian term for. All of the above are endemic, except perhaps the Tongan Manilkara, which has also been reported from the New Hebrides. There is considerable difference of opinion as to the systematic position of some of the above genera, and a complete, consistent list of the Polynesian species cannot be given without the indication of some new combinations.
Paluquium nadeaudii Drake del Castillo
Style conical, pointed, slightly inclined, punctured at the top, rose-coloured, shorter than the stamens. From the description this is undoubtedly a true Palaquium, but it was omitted by Lam in his monographs on the group, and is, so far as can be determined, the only species of the genus so omitted.
Manilkara Adanson
Manilkara zapota (L.) van Royen
Planchonella Pierre
Seeds usually 3 (1-4), oval, flattened, 21 X 10 X 6 mm, pointed and hooked at the base, thick and rounded on the back, with a raised ventral furrow, gray, spotted with red. John (St. John, in Wilder, 1934) only in being a larger tree with petioles averaging shorter, longer white hairy pedicels, and seeds averaging larger. After the list of synonyms cited by St. Cheeseman and Sideroxylon uitens Bonpland Pe Humboldt.
Lucurna Molina
RANGE.-About 70 species in the tropics, mostly American, a few in Africa, one Asiatic, one Australian, and four in New Caledonia. Fruit a berry, deeply lobed and appearing as 2, each of the 2 cells ripening, but each with 1 seed, and often only one of the cells matures. RANGE - more than 200 species, mostly in Southwest Asia and the East Indies, many in Africa and Australia, one in Peru and one in the Mediterranean region.
Jasminum sambac (L.) Aiton
Jasminum azoricum L
Corolla tube 1.5 mm long, longer than the calyx, hairy at the throat; lobes oval, 1.5 mm long, acute (Forster), obtuse (Gilg and Benedict), expanded, strongly papillate inside. Measurements on the Forster plate indicate that the flowers are about 7 mm long and the capsule 8 X 3.5 mm. The flowers are about 3 mm long, and in this large amount of material the capsules are 5.5 to 13 mm long.
Fagraea berteriana Gray ex Bentham
In the Bishop Museum there are six collections from the Marquesas (Nukuhiva and Hivaoa) where it was first collected by Barclay and since then reported by Jardin and Brown. T he Tongan form, reported by Hemsley and Burkill, would presumably be one of these two "species" or possibly distinct. Barclay's collection from the Louisiade Islands was referred to this species, but probably incorrectly, as many other species have since been described from that general region, and F.
Fagraea berteriana has showy subsucculent, abruptly pointed leaves and petals 7-8 cm long, with lobes 1.4-2 cm long. Placenta very thin: secds dorsally attached, appendage; corolla less than 2 cm long, grenish or cream-coloured: drupe dry; leaves opposite or whorled; native shrubs. Corolla to 13 cm long and wide, bright yellow, with a narrowed basal part approx. 4 cm long, tube broadly expanded in the upper part, lobes spreading, 5 cm long.
Lepiniu taitensia Decaisne
Two species in the Society Islands (1 extends to Rarotonga), others endemic to the Marquesas (l), Samoa (2), Fiji (2), and one found in both Samoa and Fiji (A. reineckiana Lauterbach). It is one of the dominant trees in the elfin ridge forest, where it grows to an average height of about 3 meters. However, the sepals are not only 'blunt', but may even be rounded at the apex, while in the actual species they are acute to blunt.
Eruatarnia orientalis (R. Brown) Turrill
First introduced to the Society Islands off Moorea by "Makatavishia". a mr. MacTavish?), according to native informants.
Ramis obtusis vel leviter angulatis, 1,5—2 mm diametro, dilute brunneis, colore griseo vel leviter purpureo. AZyxia Zatilimba Grant, Frutex species novae, 1,5—2 m altae, nudae, ramis tri- busi, 1,5—2 m altis, nudis, ramis triangularibus vel subalatis, 2—3 mm crassis; folia verticillata terna sessilia vel petiolata, petiolis usque 4 mm longis, latis ovato-ovalibus vel anguste ovatis, lamina 3.5—5,6 cm longa, 2—3 cm lata ad basin, cuneata vel sub-rotunda, apice obtusa, interdum. parum diluti, coriacea, nitida, flavido-viridia, subtus pallida - margines marginibus revolutis; cymae axillares 4-florae, pedunculis 10—15 mm longis, pedunculis 5 mm longis; calyx viridis, tub0 0,4 mm longus, lobis ovali-lanceolatis 1.2—1.5 mm longis obtusis apice ciliatis; corolla infundibulariformi lutea, tube0 5.5-6.5 mm longa 1—1,5 mm, infra faucem leviter expansa, ad apicem intus villosa, lobis ovalibus vel suborbicularibus paulo asymmetricis 2,8—3 mm longis 2,5 —3 mm latis, apice rotundatis cilia; filamenta 0,3—0,5 mm longa, inclusis ovali-lanceolatis, antheris 1 mm longis; duo ovaria 0,6 mm longa, basi tomentosa; stylus solitarius 4—4,5 mm longus glaber; stigma ovatum 0,6 mm longum, barbatum; drupo duplici elliptico vel subsphaerico (vel saepe patulo miro-formato) 13 mm longo 12 mm lato 9 mm crasso leviter acuminato. Corolla colerformia, lutea; tubus 5.5-6.5 mm longus, infra faucem 1—1,5 mm leviter expansus; lobi ovatis vel suborbicularibus, leviter asymmetricis, 2.8-3 x 2.5—3 mm, apice rotundatis, vage ciliolatis.
Ochrosia Jussieu
There are 7 collections from the Marquesas in the Bishop Museum, 4 of which are cited by F.B.H. Leaves erect, in 3s, sessile or on petioles to 4 mm long, broad, ovate, elliptic or almost ovate, 3.5-5.6. Corolla ointment form; tube enlarged above middle, 12 m m long, smooth inside, greenish white; lobes oblong-linear, oblique, 12 mm long, obtuse, white.
Cerbera L
Leaves elliptic to oblanceolate, 12-30 X 3-5.5 cm, cuneate at the base, blunt and slightly acuminate at the tip, yellow, green, dried black. Corolla whitish, somewhat irregular, 7 cm wide, white, waxy; tube 1.5-2 cm long, enlarged above; lobes elliptic or obovate, 3 cm long, rounded at tip. Brown's description of the Marquesan material shows shorter peduncles, wider leaves, longer sepals, pink central flowers, and longer corolla lobes.
Thevetia Adanson
ETHNoBOTANY.-Tahitian and Rarotongan: reva, which is the name throughout Polynesia, becoming by frequent consonant shift eva in the Marquesas, leva in Samoa, and rewa in Fiji.
Thevetia peruviana (Persoon) Schumann
After all, the geographers argued, the previous voyages were in the vicinity of the Tropic of Capricorn. At this time the Secretary of the Royal Society communicated a final request to the Admiralty (Banks. Delessert (1848) wrote an account of his travels in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and included notes on the vegetation of the Society Islands .].
Literature Cited
Appendix 1
Those who first reported the island's existence, not necessarily those who first landed beneath them.
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Index of Botanical Names
