Page I
TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,.
HELD AT PHILADELPHIA,
FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.
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VOL. VIII. — NEW SERIES.
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PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
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Philadelphia;
PRINTED BY WILLIAM S. YOUNG, — NO. 88, NORTH SIXTH STREET.
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1843.
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ARTICLE XIII.
Description and Notices of new or rare Plants in the natural Orders Lobeliaceæ, Campanulaceæ, Vaccinieæ, Ericaceæ, collected in a journey over the Continent of North America, and during a Visit to the Sandwich Islands, and Upper California. By Thomas Nuttall. Read December 3, 1841.
ORDER LOBELIACEÆ. (JUSSIEU.)
TRIBE I. DELISSEACEÆ, (PRESL.)
CLERMONTIA. (GAUDICHAUD.)
CLERMONTIA *macrophylla; arborescent; leaves very long, oblong, lanceolate, shortly acuminate, glandulosely serrulate, attenuated with a rather long petiole; beneath minutely pilose along the veins; peduncles stout, mostly two-flowered, much longer than the lanceolate, acuminate bractes, about the length of the petioles; tube of the calyx turbinate, about twice the length of the connivent lobes; lobes of the corolla linear, the length of the calyx; the upper segments connate.
HAB. Oahu. A spreading tree about twelve feet high. The ripe fruit a rather solid berry, about the size of a small Siberian crab, of a bright orange, and frequently strung as necklaces and chaplets by the natives of the Island. It is also said to be eaten by the birds. The leaf with the petiole about eleven inches to a foot long; near two and half inches wide.
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CYANEA Grimesiana. — A tree or large shrub, about ten feet high, very lactescent, sending out leaves chiefly at the extremities of the branches, which are smooth and deep green, from twelve to eighteen inches long and deeply pinnatifid; the petioles beset with spinulose tubercles; leaflets lanceolate, dentate, acuminate, about four to six inches long. Flowers in a short, fastigiate raceme, white, externally striped with dark reddish purple; the corolla falcate, about two and a half inches long, and the segments long and linear. Filaments connate to the summit, free at the base of the anthers; anthers with long, penicillate tufts of white coarse hairs. Berry turbinate; the seed even and lenticular, pale brown, very similar to that of Clermontia. It flowers in the winter season, and is indeed a splendid plant.