NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
SCIENTIFIC SURVEY
OF
Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands
VOLUME V
Botany of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands
Pandanales to Thymeleales
NEW YORK:
Published by the Academt
1924
CONTENTS OF VOLUME
V.
Titlo-pagc
1
Contents
Ill
Dates of Publication of Parts
HI
Preface
1-5
Descriptive Flora
7-620
Spermatophyta
7-620
Angiospermae
^
7-020
Monocotyledones
8-217
Dicotyledones (Part)
217-620
Index to Oidors, Families and Genera
G21-626
Dates of Publication of Pakts.
Part
1, pp.
1- loS.
August
10, 1923.
Part 2, pp.
1.59~.316.
January 10, 1924.
Part
.3, pp. 317-47 1.
.Tune 10, 1924.
Part 4, pp. 47.5-626.
November S, 1924.
PREFACE.
By
N. L. Britton.
Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands form a geographical, geo-
logical and
biological
province
with many
natural
features
in
common from west to east, only Anegada, the most eastern island,
diverging widely from the general type, through
its recent
soft
limestones and
the
accompanying
specialized
plant and
animal
types.
The archipelago, with a total land area somewhat less than that
of the State of Connecticut, lies within the geographical area from
west longitude 67° 56' (Mona) to west longitude 64° 16' (Anegada)
and within the narrow belt of north latitude 17° 40' (St. Croix) to
north latitude 18° 33' (northern coast of Porto Rico) and 18° 45'
(Anegada).
This narrow latitudinal belt renders the illumination
of
the
whole
area
essentially
uniform,
as
also
the
atmospheric
movements of tradewinds and cyclones, and the temperatures of
the
waters
enclosing the
islands;
the
air temperatures
at equal
altitudes are also essentially alike.
The
old land mountain
axis
of Porto Rico extends brokenly
and reaching lower elevations eastward through the islands Culebra,
Vieques, St. Thomas, St. Jan and Tortola to Virgin Gorda.
Dese-
cheo
Island, in the Mona Passage, west of Porto Rico,
is also in
this old land axis.
The newer.
Tertiary, land and
rock-series of Porto Rico, rep-
resented by
the
northern and
southern coastal plains and
their
accompanjdng
hills,
largely
of
limestone,
are
not
represented,
however, in the Virgin Islands from St. Thomas to Virgin Gorda,
though occurring on Vieques, on Cayo Muertos, and on Mona.
St. Croix, which lies isolated well south of the main axis of the
archipelago, is included in the Virgin Islands in a broad sense only,
being geographically^ separated from the other
islands, although
with much in common with them biologically.
The elements of greatest natural diversity within the area are
found
(1)
in
the
differing altitudes and accompanying
differing
1
2
PKEFACE
barometric phenomena;
(2)
in the differing rainfalls
; (3) in the dif-
fering soils.
All these profoundly influence the distribution of the
native plants and animals and also agricultural and horticultural
practices and possibilities.
1. Altitudes.
On the mainland of Porto Rico the monadnocks
of the Luquillo Mountains and of the Cordillera Central rise to ele-
vations of about 1200 meters, much of the central part averaging
about 600 meters.
St. Thomas rises to about 450 meters; St. Jan
is a
little lower; Tortola reaches about 550 meters.
Ascending
anywhere from sea level, the observer can not
fail to notice de-
creasing
temperatures and
changes
in
the
vegetation;
reaching
about 600 meters, most of the lowland plants have been left behind,
and the flora of the high mountain summits is almost wholly com-
posed of characteristic species.
We
designate
as
higher
elevations,
altitudes from about 900
meters
to the mountain summits;
as
7niddle
elevations,
altitudes
from about 500 meters to about 900 meters; and as lower elevations,
lands of less than 500 meters altitude.
2. Rainfall.
The moist northeasterly tradewinds, almost con-
tinuous except during cyclonic disturbances, impinge upon the land
masses and precipitate their vapor in the form of showers of varying
intensity, from mere sprinkles to excessive cloud-bursts.
The high
mountains of Porto Rico cause the greater part of the atmospheric
moisture to be precipitated over the northern and central districts,
so that by the time the winds reach the southern coast they are dry
or even drying, causing truly desert conditions to obtain in the
southwestern coastal areas.
In the Virgin Islands and on Vieques
and Culebra, the much lower mountains do not bring about this
extreme diversity of rainfall, but it is, nevertheless, locally evident,
the higher parts
of these islands being for the most part better
supplied with
rain than the
lower.
It
is the mountain masses
themselves, rather than their vegetation, that cause high rainfall,
no proof whatever
of a
forest covering having any
effect being
ascertainable, but a forest covering is all important in conserving
the rain and regulating the flow of streams and of rivers; the present
denuded condition
of most
of
the mountain area
is detrimental
and unfortunate.
We designate as wet districts those in which the average annual
rainfall is over about 200 centimeters; as moist districts, those with
rainfall from about 100 to about 200 centimeters; as dry districts.
PREFACE
3
those with rainfall of less than 100 centimeters; the wettest districts
are in the higher Luquillo Mountains and in the higher western and
central Cordillera Central, where the rainfall may exceed 300 centi-
meters; the driest areas are in the extreme southwestern coastal
parts of Porto Rico, where the average fall is under 60 centimeters,
and where no rain may
fall during very long periods.
Reference
is made to the map of Porto Rico, showing the distribution of rain
published by Dr. Lobeck in "The Physiography of Porto Rico"
(Sci. Survey Porto Rico and V.
I.
1: 303,
fig.
1).
As
to Vieques
and
the
Virgin
Islands
their
rainfall would
bring them,
for the
most part, within our areas regarded as moist, but locally as dry;
Desecheo
Island,
as
its name impHes,
is
evidently
dry; Mona,
Culebra, Icacos and Anegada are probably dry.
This varied distribution of rainfall
is evidently a fundamental
factor
in
the
natural
distribution
of
native
plants, and
this
is
noticed by
all observers, even the most casual.
In passing from
north to south, over the central mountain axis of Porto Rico, the
change of vegetation
is, locally, abrupt, trees and other plants of
the northern slopes giving place on the southern to different species,
and
the
natural
vegetation
of
the
northern
moist
districts,
as
about San Juan and Arecibo, is seen to be almost wholly different
from that of the southern, as about Ponce and Guanica.
3.
Soils.
The
soils of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands are
varied; they have been derived from the rocks by erosion, and dis-
tributed for the most part by water.
Some regions, such as the
plateau of Mona Island, parts of southern Porto Rico, mountain
slopes in Porto Rico and St. Thomas and elsewhere have scarcely any
soil, the vegetation springing directly from rock-crevices in which
the roots of plants are firmly embedded or between loose rocks;
from this condition we have soils of differing thickness, up to the
very deep and thick deposits of the Porto Rican alluvial coastal
plains.
The soils also differ greatly in the amount of water they
contain, some being very wet, others nearly dry.
Along the coasts
within the maritime influence, the soils contain varying amounts of
salt,
as
also along the borders
of Lake Guanica.
On limestone
hills and their slopes the soils are more or less calcareous, on eruptive
rock hills and mountains and in granite and shale regions they are
often predominantly clayey, and along rivers and especially on the
northern coastal plain of Porto Rico they are almost pure sand or
gravel, as also on coastal beaches and dunes.
4
PREFACE
All these soil features fundamentally govern the distribution of
plants.
Some species can exist only under saline conditions; some
only on calcareous rocks; some only in sand; some only in marshes,
some only in water.
But
it may be remarked that some species
are far more cosmopolitan than others, being able to thrive under
various conditions.
A large number of kinds of plants exist naturally only in Porto
Rico and the Virgin
Islands;
these are termed endemic
species.
They are scattered
in
distribution,
not being
restricted
to
wet,
dry, high, or low districts or to specific types of soil, though many
of them appear, from our present knowledge, to be very local in
distribution.
All
the endemic
species
are more
or
less
closely
related
to
other
species
inhabiting
other West
Indian
Islands,
indicating community
of
origin, and
differentiation through
iso-
lation.
The cutting of the forests over the greater part of both
Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands has probably eHminated some
endemic species.
All plants may be grouped in four main categories, known as
Phyla or Subkingdoms, as follows:
Phylum
1.
Spermatophyta,
those which bear
seeds,
a seed
being different from all other vegetable structures by containing an
embryonic plantlet.
All spermatophytes bear flowers of one kind
or another, and this phylum is also called Anthophyta, or flowering
plants and, to distinguish it from the three other phyla collectively,
Phanerogamia.
Phyla 2, 3 and 4 taken together are called Cryp-
togamia; all of these are seedless.
Phylum
2.
Pteridophyta, comprises ferns and fern
allies;
all
are
flowerless
and
have
two
separate and
distinct
alternating
generations,
the
one
represented by
the
fully
developed
plant
having
root, stem and
leaves, with
vascular
tissue and bearing
spores, a spore being a single vegetable cell capable of growing into
a new plant; the other, called the prothalliura stage,
is small,
in-
conspicuous, grows from the spores, has no vascular
tissue,
is not
differentiated
into
root, stem and
leaves, and
bears
the
sexual
organs; from the female organ of the prothallium (archegonium)
the
fully
developed
spore-bearing
plant
again
arises;
the male
organ, borne either on the same prothallium or on a different one,
is called an antheridium.
Phylum
3.
Bryophyta,
consists
of mosses and
their
allies;
all are small
flowerless plants with alternating
sexual and non-
PREFACE
5
sexual
(spore-bearing)
generations, but the spore-bearing genera-
ation never becomes separated and independent; the sexual gener-
ation
is commonly the more conspicuous and
is,
in most
cases,
differentiated into stem and leaves, while the spore-bearing gener-
ation
is never thus differentiated;
their spores are borne in con-
ceptacles termed
capsules, and from the spores the plant again
develops.
Bryophytes
consist almost wholly of
cellular
or non-
vascular tissue.
Phylum
4.
Thallophyta, includes the algae, fungi andUchens;
all are flowerless and their methods of reproduction and propagation
are varied.
They contain no vascular tissue (except a few large
algae) and the plant body is not differentiated into stem and leaves.
Many of them are of microscopic size.
DESCRIPTIVE FLORA.
Phylum 1.
SPERMATOPHYTA.
Seed-bearing
Plants.
By N. L. Britton and Percy Wilson.
Plants producing seeds which contain an embryo formed of one
or
more
rudimentary
leaves
(cotyledons),
a
stem
(hypocotyl,
radicle), and a terminal bud (plumule), or these parts sometimes
undifferentiated before germination.
Microspores
(pollen-grains)
are borne in microsporanges (anther-sacs) on the apex or side of
a modified leaf (filament).
The macrosporanges (ovules) are born
on the face of a
flat or inrolled much m.odified leaf (carpel) and
contain one macrospore
(embryo-sac);
this develops the minute
female prothalhum, an archegone of which
is fertilized by means
of a tube (pollen-tube), a portion of the male prothallium sprouting
from the pollen-grain.
There are two classes which differ from each other as follows:
Ovxiles and
seeds contained
in
a
closed
cavity
(ovary)
stigmas
1 or more.
Class
1.
Angiospermae.
Ovules and seeds borne on the face of a scale; stigmas none.
Class 2.
Gymnospermae.
Class
1.
ANGIOSPERMAE.
Ovules
(macrosporanges)
enclosed
in
a
cavity
(the
ovary)
formed by the infolding and uniting of the margins of a modified
rudimentary'- leaf (carpel), or of several such leaves joined together,
in which the seeds are ripened.
The pollen-grains (microspores)
on alighting upon the summit of the carpel
(stigma)
germinate,
sending out a pollen-tube which penetrates its tissues and reaching
an ovule enters the
orifice
of the latter
(micro pyle), and
its
tip
coming in contact with a germ-cell in the embryo-sac, fertihzation
is
effected.
In a few cases the pollen-tube enters the ovule at the
chalaza, not at the micropyle.
There are two sub-classes, distinguished as follows:
Cotyledon one; stem endogenous.
Sub-class
1.
Monocotyledones.
Cotyledons normally two; stem
(with rare excep-
tions) exogenous.
Sub-class 2.
Dicotyledones.
Order
1.
ZANNICHELLIACEAE
9
solitary, pendulous;
stjde elongate; stigma linear or spatulate,
unilateral.
Fruit minute,
subsessile or long-stipitate.
Seed subcylindric or narrowly
ellipsoid; albumen
farinaceous;
testa membranaceous; embryo
cylindric,
straight.
The family comprises only the following genus.
1. TYPHA [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 971.
1753.
Characters of the family.
[Name ancient.]
About 9 species, widely dis-
tributed in temperate and tropical regions.
Type species: Typha latifolia L.
1. Typha angustifolia L. Sp. PI. 971.
1753.
Typha latifolia domingensis Pers. Syn. PI. 2: 532.
1807.
Typha domingensis Pers.; Kunth. Enum.
3: 92.
1841.
Typha angustifolia domingensis Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 512.
1864.
Typha domingiensis Kronf. Verh. Zool.-Bdt. Ges. Wien. 39: 163.
1889.
Stems slender, 1-3 m. tall.
Leaves narrowly linear, 6-16 dm. long, or longer,
3-20 mm.
broad; racemes
light-
or dark-brown,
the staminate and
pistillate
portions usually separated, each 1-4 dm. long; hairs accompanying the pistillate
flowers with or without club-shaped tips; pollen-grains simple; denuded rachis
of the pistillate raceme roughened by the short, rigid pedicels.
Along rivers and in marshes, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Croix;
St. Jan;
Tortola;—Bermuda; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba to Trinidad; southern United States to
Patagonia; Europe; Asia.
Enea.
Eneas.
C.\t-tail.
Its leaves are used for thatclnng.
Pandanus utilis Bory, Screw-pine, native of Madagascar, of the related
familv Pandanaceae,
is sometimes planted for ornament and interest in Porto
Rico and the Virgin Islands.
It is a large, often little branched, tree-like plant
with
stilt-like roots and long
narrow green, sword-shaped leaves armed with
reddish prickles, the long-peduncled syncarpous pendulous fruits are sometimes
15 cm. in diamater.
[P. odoratissimus of Eggers.]
Pandanus Veitchii
Hort.,
Polynesian,
is
also planted
for ornament;
its
spiny toothed leaves are dark green in the center, margined with broad bands of
white or silvery white.
Order 2.
NAIADALES.
Aquatic or marsh-inhabiting caulescent or acaulescent herbs, the leaves
. various.
Flowers perfect, monoecious or dioecious.
Perianth rudimentary
or wanting.
Parts of the flower mostly unequal in number.
Carpels
1 or
more, distinct and separate or united; endosperm none, or very Uttle.
Carpels distinct.
Fam.
1.
Zannichelliaceae.
Carpels united, or
1 only.
Staminate flowers of 2 long-pedicelled anthers; pen-
anth wanting;
acaulescent plants.
Fam.
2.
Cymodoce.\CEAE.
Staminate flowers sessile or nearly so, consisting of an
anther
surrounded
by
the
perianth;
caulescent
plants.
Fam. 3.
Naiadace.^E.
Family
1.
ZANNICHELLIACEAE Dumort.
PoNDWEED Family.
Marine or fresh-water perennials, with floating or submerged leaves or
both.
Flowers monoecious or perfect, inconspicuous.
Perianth prerient or
wanting.
Stamens 1-4.
Carpels 1-seeded.
Fruit drupe-like.
Endosperm
wanting.
About four genera and 90 species.
Perianth wanting; stamens 2.
.^^€\ f^ X"^*V
V d^?„^^"/,«mm
Perianth of 4 segments; stamens 4.
y^\v*Vv'-
)s.
i^oiamogeion.
10
ZANNICHELLIACEAE
1. RUPPIA L. Sp. PI. 127.
1753.
Submerged,
usually
salt or brackish water herbs, with long
thread-Uke,
forking stems, and slender alternate 1-nerved leaves.
Flowers 2 or more together
within the leaf-sheath on a short peduncle which usually becomes greatly elong-
ated after flowering, and is ultimately a loosely coiled spiral.
Perianth wanting.
Stamens 2
; anthers 2-celled, sessile.
Carpels 4, 1-ovuled, sessile at first, at length
usually long-stipitate ; stigmas peltate; ovule pendulous.
Drupelets oblique or
equilateral, crowned with the long or short-style.
Embryo curved.
[Named
in honor of Heinrich Bernhard Ruppius, a German botanist of the 18th century.]
About three species, of wide distribution.
Type species: Ruppia maritima L.
Stipes of the drupelets free.
1.
R. maritima
Stipes of the drupelets united Into a column.
2.
R. anomala.
1. Ruppia maritima L. Sp. PI. 127.
1753.
Ruppia rostellata
Koch; Reichb. Icon. PI. Crit. 2: 66.
1824.
Stems pale brown or whitish, usually branched, often
1 m. long.
Leaves
linear-capillary, 3-10 cm. long, 0.3-0.8 mm. wide; sheaths with a short free tip;
fruiting peduncles capillary, sometimes 3 dm. long; pedicles 4 or more in a cluster,
0.8--3.5 cm. long; drupes ovoid, 2-3 mm. long, often oblique or gibbous at the
base
, pointed with the long style.
In shallow bays, pools, and lagoons, Porto Rico; Culebra ; Vieques ; St. Thomas; St. Jan;
St. Croix :- Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America, sometimes occuring in saUne pools
in the interior; Bermuda; Bahamas to Trinidad; temperate and tropical regions of the Old
World.
Ditch-Grass.
2. Ruppia anomala Ostenfeld, Bull. Torrey Club 42: 659.
1915.
Stems and leaves similar to the
preceding.
Peduncle short, not becoming
greatly elongated after flowering; stipes united into a column at the top of which
the drupelets are arranged in a star-like manner.
Border of Lake Giianica.
Endemic.
2. POTAMOGETON [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 126.
1753.
Herbs mostly of fresh-water ponds and streams, with submerged or floating
stems.
Leaves
flat, 2-ranked,
alternate or the
uppermost opposite,
often of
^
two kinds, submerged and floating, the submerged leaves mostly thin and narrow,
the floating coriaceous or subcoriaceous and broad.
Stipules either free from
the leaf-bases or closely adnate to them.
Inflorescence spicate, axillary.
Peri-
anth segments 4.
Stamens 4; anthers 2-celled.
Ovaries 4, rarely only
1, with
an ascending campylotropous ovule; stigma sessile or on a short style.
Fruit
of 4 drupelets, the pericarp usually thin and hard or spongy.
Seeds crustaceous,
with a complete or incomplete spiral embryo.
[Greek, in allusion to the aquatic
habit.]
About 85
species,
natives
of temperate and
tropical
regions.
Type
species: Potamogeton natans L.
With
sessile,
submerged
leaves only,
the
blades
linear, without a
coarsely
cellular-reticulate space each
side
of the midrib;
spikes
capitate.
1.
P. foliosus.
With floating and submerged leaves; spikes cylindric.
Submerged leaves sessile, the blades linear, with a coarsely cellular-
reticulate space each side of the midrib.
2. P. epihydrus.
Submerged
leaves
petioled,
the
blades
narrowly
lanceolate
to
elliptic-lanceolate,
without
a
coarsely
cellular-reticulate
space
each side of the midrib.
3.
P. fluitans.
CYMODOCEACEAE
11
1. Potamogeton foliosus Raf. Med. Repos. II. 5: 354.
1808.
Poiamogeton paucifiorus Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 121.
1814.
Stems filiform, flattened.
Leaves all submerged, narrowly linear, 2-6 cm.
long, 0.5-2 mm. broad, acute at the apex, obscurely 3-5-nerved; peduncles 0.5-
1.8 mm. long; spikes capitate, few-flowered, on short, more or less clavate pe-
duncles
; fruit lenticular or nearly orbicular, the back more or less crested
; embryo
an incomplete spiral, the apex pointing towards the base or outside it.
In streams, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispanlola; United States to Brazil; also re-
corded from the Sandwich Islands.
2. Potamogeton epihydrus Raf. Med. Repos.
II. 5: 534.
1808.
Poiamogeton Nultallii Cham. & Schl. Linnaea 2: 226.
1827.
Potamogeton pennsylvanicus Cham. & Schl. Linnaea 2: 227.
1827.
Poiamogeton Clayloni Tuckerm. Am. Jour.
Sci. 45: 38.
1843.
Potamogeton pen7isylvanicus portoricensis Graebner; Urban, Symb. Ant.
4:
73.
1903.
Potamogeton
Nultallii portoricensis Graebner, Pflanzenreich
4^':
56.
1907.
Stem slender, compressed, simple or sometimes branched.
Floating leaves
petioled, the blades oblong-elliptic to
elliptic, occasionally somewhat obovate,
3-8 cm. long, 1-2.5 cm. or more broad, obtuse or acutish at the apex, nari'owed
at the acute base, many-nerved; submerged leaves sessile, the blades linear or
linear-lanceolate, 5-14 cm. long, 2-4 mm. or more broad, with a coarsely cellular-
reticulate space each side of the midrib; peduncles equalling or much longer than
the spike; spikes cylindric, 1.5-3.7 cm. long, occasionally longer, many-flowered;
fruit round-obovoid, 3-keeled, the sides flat and indistinctly impressed; embryo
a complete spiral, the curved apex pointing inside the base and upward.
Porto Rico, according to Graebner :—temperate continental North America.
3. Potamogeton fluitans Roth, Tent. Fl. Germ. 1: 72.
1788.
Potamogeton occidentalis Sieber; Cham. & Schl. Linnaea 2; 224.
1827.
Potamogeton americanus Cham. & Schl. Linnaea 2: 226.
1827.
Stem
terete
or nearly
so,
often branched
below.
Floating leaves long-
petioled, the blades lanceolate to broadly elliptic, 4-13 cm. long, 1-4 cm. broad,
acute or acuminate at the apex, rounded or acute at the base, many-nerved;
submerged leaves petioled, the blades pellucid, narrowly lanceolate to elliptic-
lanceolate,
10-25 cm.
long, 7-27 mm.
broad; peduncles somewhat thickened
upward, usually much longer than the spike
; spikes cylindric, 2-5 cm. long, many-
flowered; fruit obliquely obovoid, 3-4.5 mm. long, 2-3 mm. broad, the back more
or less prominently crested
; embryo a complete spiral, the curved apex pointing
just inside the base.
In streams, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola; Jamaica; Martinique; Trinidad; con-
tinental America;
Europe;
Asia and
Africa.
Recorded by
Bello
as P.
plantagineus
Du Cruz.
P. LeschenauUii Cham & Schl. of Urban's Symb. Ant. 4: 72.
1903, appar-
ently belongs here.
Family 2.
CYMODOCEACEAE Kerner.
Manatee-grass Family.
Submerged perennial herbs
of sandy sea bottoms, with long creeping
rootstocks.
Leaves linear, sheathing at the base.
Flowers monoecious or
dioecious,
solitary or cymose.
Perianth wanting.
Staminate flowers of 2
long-pedicelled
anthers,
the
anthers
2-celled,
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Pistillate flowers of
1 or 2 carpels.
Stigmas
1 or 2, slender.
Fruit nut-like,
1-seeded.
Embryo ovoid or ellipsoid.
Two known genera, as follows:
stigmas 2
; leaf-blades terete or nearly so.
1. Cymodocea.
Stigma
1
; leaf-blades flat.
2. Halodule.
12
NAIADACEAE
1. CYMODOCEA Konig; Konig & Sims, Ann. Bot. 2: 96.
1805.
Sulmierged marine
herbs,
with
slender elongated
rootstocks.
Staminate
flowers consisting of two anthers on the end of a long pedicel, the anthers equally
attached.
Pistillateflowersof 2 carpels.
Stigmas 2, slender.
Fruit indehiscent,
1-seeded.
Seeds
pendulous.
[Named
for
Cymodoce,
one
of
the
Nereids.]
About 7 species, tropical and subtropical.
Type species:
Cymodocea aequorea
Konig.
1. Cymodocea manatorum Aschers. Stiz.-ber. Ges. Nat. Freunde Berlin 1868:
19.
1868.
Phycagrostis manatorum Kuntze, Kev. Gen. 744.
1891.
Rootstock branched, 7 dm. long or longer.
Leaves linear, grass-like, terete
or semi-terete, 0.4-3.2 dm. long, 0.8-1.8 mm. wide, their bases enclosed by mem-
branous sheaths 1-5 cm. long.
Fruit ellipsoid, flattened, 5-6.5 mm. long, 2.5
mm. broad, beaked by the persistent style; seed elliptic, 2.5-3 mm. long.
Shallow
salt water, Porto Rico; Culebra; St. Thomas;
St. Croix; St. Jan:—Florida;
Mississippi; Louisiana ; Jamaica
; Bermuda to Cuba, Martinique and Curacao.
JSIaxatee-
GR.\ss.
2. HALODULE Endl. Gen. 1368.
1841.
Submerged
herbs,
with jointed rootstocks.
Staminate
flowers
consisting
of 2 anthers attached to the end of a long pedicel, the anthers unequally attached.
Pistillate flower a single naked carpel.
Style short, terminated by a slender,
solitary stigma.
Fruit small, globose, somewhat compressed.
[Greek, referring
to the saline
habit.]
About two species of tropical and
subtropical waters.
Type species: Diplanthera tridentata Steinh.
1. Halodule Wrightii Aschers.
Stiz-ber.
Ges. Nat. Freunde 1868:
19.
1868.
Diplanthera Wrightii Aschers. in E. & P. Nat. Pfl. Nacht. 37.
1897.
Rootstocks
jointed,
rooting
at the nodes.
Leaves narrowly
linear,
flat,
4-30 cm. long, occasionally longer, 1 mm. wide or less, acute at the tip, sheathing
at the base, the scarious sheaths 1-3 cm. long; anthers 6 mm. long; fruit black.
Shallow
salt
water,
Porto
Rico;
Culebrita;
St.
Thomas;
St.
Croi.x:—Florida;
Jamaica; Bahamas to Cuba and Martinique; Panama.
Also recorded from Africa.
Family 3.
NAIADACEAE.
(Lindl.) Ascli.
Naias Family.
Slender submerged
aquatics, with
fibrous
roots and branching stems.
Leaves alternate, opposite or whorled, the blades linear, spiny on the margins
or the back, or both, sheathing at the base.
Leaf-sheaths rounded or auricu-
late,
entire
or
toothed.
Flowers monoecious
or
dioecious,
solitary and
axillary.
Staminate
flowers
with
a
double
perianth-like
envelope,
the
inner hyaline, the outer 4-lobed or entire.
Stamen
1.
Anther
1-4-celled.
Pistillate flower of a single
pistil.
Style
short or wanting.
Stigmas 2-4.
Fruit a little drupelet.
Seed solitary.
Embryo straight.
The family comprises only the following genus.
1. NAIAS L. Sp. PI. 1015.
1753.
Characters of the family.
[Greek, water-nymph.]
About 30
species,
of
wide geographic distribution.
Type species: Naias marina L.
ALISMACEAE
13
Leaves flaccid, scarcely toothed; flowers monoecious.
1.
N. guadaiupensis.
Leaves rigid, coarsely tootlied; flowers dioecious.
2.
N. marina.
1. Naias guadaiupensis (Spreng.) Morong, Mem. Torrey Club 3=: 60.
1893.
Caulinia ouadaliipensis Spreng.
Syst.
1: 20.
1825.
Naias microdon A. Br. Sitz.-ber. Ges. Nat. Freunde Berlin 1868:
17.
1868.
Naias microdon guadaiupensis A. Br. loc. cit.
1868.
Naias microdon curassavica A. Br. loc. cit.
1868.
Naias flexilis guadaiupensis A. Br. Jour. Bot. 2: 276.
1864.
Naias flexilis curassavica A. Br. loc. cit. 277.
1864.
Naias guadaiupensis curassavica Mangus & Rendle, Symb. Ant. 4: 74.
1903.
Stems very slender, 2-7 dm. long.
Leaves numerous, opposite or in fascicles,
the blades linear, 10-25 mm. long, 0.5-1.5 mm. broad, acute or obtuse at the apex,
the margin with numerous minute teeth; sheaths rounded, with 5-10 teeth on
each margin;
fruit 2 mm. long; seeds narrowly
ellipsoid,
straw-colored, con-
spicuously reticulate.
[N. major of Bello, not of AUioni.]
In streams, pools and lakes, Porto Rico:—Cuba: Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe:
Curacao; temperate and
tropical continental America.
Recorded by Krebs from
St.
Thomas.
•
2. Naias marina L. Sp. PI. 1015.
1753.
Stems rather stout, much branched, 2-4 dm. long, the internodes spinulos.
Leaves
rigid,
coarsely triangular-dentate, linear,
1-4.5 cm. long;
flowers dioe-
cious;
fruit 3-4 mm. long.
Laguna Tortuguero:—Cuba; temperate and subtropical regions.
Order 3.
ALISMALES.
Aquatic
or
uliginous
herbs,
mostly acaukscent and
with
rootstocks.
Leaves alternate, mostly basal, broad or narrow.
Flowers perfect, monoe-
cious or dioecious, clustered.
Calyx of 3 sepals.
Corolla of 3 thin petals,
or sometimes
wanting.
Stamens
several
or many;
filaments
slender
or
short
; anthers with inconspicuous connectives.
Pistils few to many, distinct
ovary superior; style stout or slender; stigma small.
Fruit a head of achenes
in the following family.
Family
1.
ALISMACEAE DC.
Water-pl.\ntain Family.
Marsh
or aquatic
perennial,
or sometimes annual
herbs, with
fibrous
roots,
scapose stems and basal
leaves.
Inflorescence simple or branched.
Flowers perfect or unisexual, whorled, born in terminal racemes or panicles.
Receptacle
flat,
convex
or
globose.
Sepals
3,
persistent.
Petals
3,
de-
ciduous.
Stamens 6 or more.
Anthers 2-celled.
Ovaries 1-celled, usually
with a single ovule in each cavity.
Fruit a head of flat or turgid achenes.
Seeds curved.
Embryo horseshoe-shaped.
About 13 genera and 75 species,
of wide distribution in fresh water marshes, ponds and streams.
Flowers perfect.
.
,
,
,
Fruiting heads not ecliinate; achenes turgid, beakless or obscurely
beaked.
1-
Ilelianthium.
Fruiting heads echinate; achenes mostly flat, prominently beaked.
2. Echinodorus.
Flowers monoecious or dioecious, the upper flowers of the inflorescence
staminate, the lower pistillate.
3.
Sagitlaria.
1. HELIANTHIUM Engelni.; Britton, Man. ed. 2. 54.
1905.
Annual or perennial marsh or aquatic herbs, sometimes with creeping pro-
14
ALISMACEAE
liferous shoots, and linear or ovate, erect, ascending, or floating leaves.
Scapes
terminating in a few-flowered whorl or a many-flowered panicle,
the pedicels
slender, spreading or recurved in fruit.
Flowers perfect.
Sepals 3, embracing
the fruiting-head or reflexed beneath
it.
Petals 3.
Stamens 6 or 9; filaments
elongate; anthers short.
Achenes
several, borne on
the
elevated
receptacle.
Style not apical, minute.
Achenes forming a globular or depressed head, ribbed,
obscurely beaked or beakless.
[Greek, sunflower.]
About two species, natives
of temperate and tropical regions.
Type species: Echinodorus parvulus Engelm.
1. Helianthium tenellum (Mart.) Britton, Man. ed. 2, 54.
1905.
AHsma tenellum Mart.; R. & S. Syst. Veg. 7: 1600.
1830.
Echinodorus parvulus Engelm. in A. Gray, Man. ed. 2, 438.
1856.
Echinodorus tenellus Buch. Abh. Nat. Ver. Bremen 2: 18.
1868.
Helianthium parvulum Small, N. A. Flora 17: 45.
1909.
A rather delicate stoloniferous herb, 3-15 cm. high.
Leaves erect or ascend-
ing, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 0.8-5 cm. long, 2-6 mm. broad, acute at both
ends, slender petioted, when submersed becoming linear phyllodia; scape often
surpassing the leaves, commonly reclined; umbel 2-8-flowered; bracts lanceolate;
pedicels slender, 1-3.5 cm. long, unequal, reflexed in fruit; flower 6 mm. broad;
sepals ovate, obtuse; petals obovate, emarginate; styles much shorter than the
ovary; fruiting heads globular, 3-4 mm. in diameter; achenes 1-1.5 mm. long.
Submersed
or
In mud,
northern
coastal
plain
of Porto
Rico:—United [States
continental tropical America; Cuba; Jamaica; Santo Domingo.
2. ECHINODORUS Rich.; Engelm. m A. Gray, Man. 460.
1848.
Perennial or annual marsh
herbs,
viith
erect or ascending,
long-petioled
leaves.
Scape often longer than the leaves.
Flowers perfect, mostly in remote
whorled racemes; sepals 3, persistent; petals 3, deciduous; stamens 12-30, rarely
fewer; carpels numerous, inserted on a convex or globose receptacle; style ob-
liquely
apical,
persistent; stigma simple.
Achenes more
or
less compressed,
ribbed and beaked, forming bristly heads.
[Greek,
in allusion
to the
bristly
heads of fruit.]
About 16 species, mostly natives of tropical America.
Type
species: Alisma rostratum Nutt.
1. Echinodorus cordifolius (L.) Griseb. Abh. K. Ges. Wiss. Gott. 7: 257.
1857.
Alisma cordifolia L. Sp. PI. 343.
1753.
Alisma Berteroanum Balbis; R. & S. Syst. Veg. 7: 1605.
1830.
Alisma rostratum Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc.
II. 5: 159.
1837.
Echinodorus rostratus Engelm. in A. Gray, Man. 460.
1848.
Sagittaria rostrata Ktze. Rev. Gen.
3-: 326.
1898.
Perennial,
with
a
short
erect
rootstock and
angled stems and
petioles.
Leaves long-petioled,
the
blades ovate
to broadly ovate,
occasionally ovate-
lanceolate, 5-20 cm. long, 2-18 cm. broad, obtuse or acute at the apex, truncate
or cordate at the base, punctate with pellucid lines, the submersed ones thin and
pellucid
; scapes solitary or several, up to 1.5 m. tall, surpassing the leaves, simple
or verticillately branched; flowers 3-9 in each verticil; pedicels 7-15 mm. long,
nearly erect after flowering; sepals elliptic-ovate to broadly ovate, 4-5 mm. long,
acutish or obtuse; petals white, often about twice as long as the sepals; fruiting
heads bur-like, globose to ovoid, 5-9 mm. long; achenes narrowly obovate, 1.9-
2.5 mm. long, the beak slender, about one half as long as the body.
Marshy places
along fresh water
streams and
borders of ponds, Porto Rico; St.
Thomas;
St. Croix:—United States; Mexico and Central America; Bahamas; Jamaica;
Cuba to'st. Thomas and Barbados; Curacao.
ALISMACEAE
15
3. SAGITTARIA L. Sp. PI. 993.
17.53.
Perennial bog or water plants, with tuber-bearing or irregularly thickened
rootstocks.
Leaves long-petioled, with a sagittate or lanceolate
blade, or the
leaves reduced to bladeless phyllodes.
Flowers monoecious or dioecious, borne
in
verticils of 3's near the top of the scapes, the staminate uppermost.
Sepals 3.
Petals
3.
Stamens numerous,
inserted on
the convex or globose receptacle;
anthers 2-celled, opening by lateral slits.
Pistillate flowers with numerous dis-
tinct carpels, sometimes with imperfect stamens.
Achenes mimerous, densely
crowded in globose or subglobose heads, compressed and often wing-margined.
Seed erect, curved.
[Latin, referring to the arrow-shaped leaves of some species.]
About 40 species, natives of temperature and tropical regions, known as Arrow-
leaf.
Type species: Sagittaria sagittifolia L.
Leaf-blades without basal lobes.
1-
S. lancifolia.
Leaf-blades with basal lobes.
2.
S. intermedia.
1.
Sagittaria lancifolia L. Syst. ed.
10, 1270.
1759.
Sagittaria lancifolia major Micheli, in DC. Monog. Phan. 3: 73.
1881.
Sagittaria lancifolia media Micheli, in DC. Monog. Phan. 3: 73.
1881.
A monoecious, often rather stout, perennial herb, 4-20 dm.
tall.
Leaves
long-petioled, the blades linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate or elliptic, 2-5
dm. long, 2-18 cm. broad, acute or acuminate at both ends; petioles more or less
black-mottled; scape usually taller than the leaves, commonly branched; bracts
linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, 1-3 cm. long, acute or acuminate, striate; pedicels
1.5-3 cm. long, rather slender
; flowers 4-5 cm. broad
; sepals obtuse
; petals obovate
filaments subulate,
pubescent, equalling or longer than
the
anthers;
fruiting
heads 10-14 mm. in diameter; achenes cuneate and somewhat falcate, 2-3 mm.
long, without tuberculate faces, the beak less than one half the length of the body.
Marshy places and borders of ponds, Porto Rico:—southern United States to Ar-
gentina; Bahamas;
Jamaica; Cuba
to Barbados.
Recorded by
Bello
as
Sagittaria
acutifolia L.f.
In the wliite sand areas of the northern coastal plam the plant has nar-
rowly linear leaves; in muddy places the leaves are much broader.
2. Sagittaria intermedia Micheli, in DC. Monog. Phan. 3: 80.
1881.
A perennial herb, 2-6 dm.
tall.
Leaves long-petioled, the blades hastate,
triangular-hastate,
or occasionally
sagittate, 6-18 cm.
long, the terminal lobe
lanceolate to deltoid, acute or obtuse, the basal lobes narrower and usually longer
than the terminal lobe; scapes erect, usually shorter than the leaves, simple or
branched; bracts ovate, obtuse, 3-5 mm. long; pedicels 0.4-1.8 cm. long, those of
the pistillate flowers much thicker than those of the staminate flowers; sepals
ovate to orbicular-ovate, obtuse or acutish; filaments glabrous, anthers about as
long as the filaments; fruiting heads 10-12 mm.
in diameter; achenes obovate-
cuneate, 2-2.5 mm. long, with tuberculate faces, the slender beak short.
Marshes, wet woods and ditches at lower elevations; Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola.
Recorded by
Grisebach
as
Sagittaria
acutifolia
L.f.. and by
Bello
as
Sagittaria lancifolia L.
Order 4.
HYDROCHARITALES.
Mostly submersed
herbs,
perennial by rootstock.s or stolons.
Flowers
monoecious polygamous or dioecious, arising from spathes.
Perianth of 2 d s-
similar series of parts or the corolla wanting.
Stamens 3-12.
Carpels 3-15,
united.
Ovary
inferior,
with
several
parietal
placentae
or
several-celled.
Endosperm none.
16
ELODEACEAE
Gynoecium
2-5-carpellary ;
ovary
1-celled,
with
2-5
parietal placentae; stigmas usually 3.
Fam.
1.
ELODEACEAE.
Gynoecium
6-9-carpellary ;
ovary
6-9-celled
(imper-
fectly so in Hydromystria); stigmas 6-9.
Fam. 2.
Htdrocharitace.4.E.
Family
1.
ELODEACEAE Dumort.
Tape-grass Family.
Perennial marine or fresh-water herbs, with rootstocks or stolons, sub-
merged
or
the
leaves sometimes
floating.
Leaves
opposite,
whorled,
or
fascicled.
Flowers small, monoecious,
dioecious,
or polygamous, enclosed
in a spathe composed of 1-3 bracts.
Calyx of the pistillate flowers with a
tube and 3
lobes or
sepals, that
of the staminate flowers often small or
obsolete.
Petals 3, often rudimentary or wanting.
Stamens 3-12; filaments
short or none.
Pistil
1; ovarj'
1-celled, with 2-5 parietal placentae; ovules
usually numerous, orthotropous or anatropous.
Fruit
small,
indehiscent.
Seeds without endosperm.
About 6 genera and 35 species, natives of tem-
perate and tropical regions.
1. HALOPHILA Thouars; Gaud. Voy. Freyc. Bot. 429.
1829.
Small submerged marine herbs, with slender creeping rootstocks.
Flowers
monoecious or dioecious, solitary or two enclosed in a 2-leaved sheath.
Staminate
flowers peduncled; sepals 3; anthers 3, subsessile, 2- or 4-celled, extrorse.
Pistil-
late flowers sessile, with 3 minute sepals, a 1-celled ovary and a 3-parted style.
Fruit enclosed in the spathe.
Seeds numerous, the embryo with spirally tAvisted
cotyledons.
IGreek,
salt-loving.]
About
7
species
of
tropical
distribution.
Type species: Caulinia ovalis R. Br.
Erect shoots very short, 1-3 mm. long, with only one pair of leaves,
and a pair of scales at the base; leaf-blades nearly entire margined.
1.
II. Baillonis.
Erect shoots 1-4 cm. long, bearing 2 pairs of subverticillate leaves at
the apex, and a pair of scales at or below the middle; leaf-blades
spinulose-serrate.
2. H. Aschersonii.
1. Halophila Baillonis Aschers. Jour. Linn. Soc. 14: 317.
1874.
Rhizome filiform, branched.
Erect shoots very short, 1-3 mm. long, bearing
a pair of erect scales at the base and one pair of leaves at the summit; leaves with
slender petioles 4-10 mm. long, the blades thin, oblong-elliptic or elliptic, 1-3
cm. long, 3-8 mm. wide, rounded at the apex, acute at the base, hispidulous on
both sides, the margin minutely denticulate or almost entire; staminate flower
pedicelled; sepals oval, obtuse; anthers oblong;
pistillate flowers
sessile, with
three minute sepals; stigmas sessile, filiform; cap.sule 3.5-4 mm. long, about 2
mm. broad; seeds globose or subglobose, about 0.3 mm. in diameter.
In shallow or
deep
water, Porto Rico; Culebra; St. Thomas; St. Croix:—Jamaica;
Cuba to Martinique.
2. Halophila Aschersonii Ostenf. Bot. Tidsskr. 24: 239.
1902.
Rhizome
slender, sometimes
1.3 mm. thick.
Erect
shoots 1-4 cm.
long,
bearing a pair of erect scales at or below the middle and 2 pairs of subverticillate
leaves at the summit; leaves short-petioled, the petioles 3-5 mm. long; the blades
elliptic, 0.8-2 cm. long, 4-8 mm. wide, obtuse at both ends, glabrous or nearly
so, spinulose-serrate on the margins; pistillate fiowers sessile in the axils of the
upper pairs of leaves, surrounded by two lanceolate acute bracts; sepals minute;
stigmas 2 or 3; staminate flowers unknown.
Muddy bottoms of bays, Porto Rico; Culebra; St. Croix:—Jamaica.
HYDROCHARITACEAE
17
Family 2.
HYDROCHARITACEAE Aschers.
Frog's-bit Family.
Submersed marine, mud-inhabiting, or floating fresh-water herbs, usually
with rootstocks or stolons.
Leaves clustered on the short crown.
Flowers
monoecious or dioecious, enclosed
in spathes of
distinct or united bracts.
Perianth regular or nearly so, of 3 petaloid sepals, or sepals and petals each
3, rudimentary or wanting in the pistillate flowers.
Stamens 6-12.
Fila-
ments distinct or partly united.
Anthers 2-4-celled.
Gynoecium of 6-15
united
pistils.
Ovary
inferior, 6-15-ceIled.
Styles or stigmas as many as
the cells of the ovary.
Ovules numerous.
Fruit usually indehiscent.
Seeds
without endosperm.
About 8 genera and 30 species, of wide distribution in
warm and temperate regions.
Marine plants; leaves sessile, linear; anthers 4-celled.
1.
Thalassia.
Fresh-water plants; leaves distinctly petioled, the blades ovate to sub-
orbicular; anthers 2-celled.
2. Hydromystria.
1. THALASSIA Solander; Konig & Sims, Ann. Bot. 2: 93, 96.
1805.
Marine herbs, with elongated rootstocks.
Leaves linear, elongate, clustered
at the nodes of the rootstock.
Scape arising from the cluster of leaves; spathes
tubular,
2-cleft.
Flowers
dioecious,
solitary;
staminate
flowers
pedicelled;
perianth of 3 petaloid sepals: stamens 9; filaments very short or obsolete; anthers
opening laterally.
Pistillate flowers nearly sessile in the spathe; ovary 6-12-
celled.
Fruit stalked, mamillate or echinate, opening by valves.
Seeds numer-
ous.
[Greek, referring to
its growth in the ocean.]
Two known species, the
following typical.
1. Thalassia testudinum Konig; Konig & Sims, Ann. Bot. 2: 96.
180.5.
Plant submersed, the base of the short stem covered by the persistent re-
mains of the old leaves.
Leaves 2-5, sheathing the stem,
the blades linear-
strap-shaped, 0..5-3.5 dm. long, 6.5-11 mm. wide, rounded at the apex, withering-
persistent; scapes solitary; lobes of the spathe elliptic, papillose-dentate on the
margins; perianth lobes of both staminate and pistillate flowers oblong, 10-12
mm. long, rounded at the apex; anthers linear, 8 mm. long; stigmas 9-12, linear-
fusiform, pilose, grooved on the inside, about
1 cm. long; fruit elliptic-fusiform,
short-stalked and short-beaked, mammillate.
[?
Zostera oceanea of Krebs.]
In
shallow
salt water, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
St.
Croix:—Bermuda;
Florida;
throughout the West
Indies;
northern South America.
Palmas del mar.
Turtle-grass.
2. HYDROMYSTRIA G. F. W. Meyer, Fl. Esseq.
152.
1818.
Stoloniferous fresh-water plants.
Leaves distinctly petioled; blades ovate
to subortaicular, somewhat spongy beneath.
Flowers monoecious or dioecious,
solitary or the staminate ones 2 or 3, enclosed in a 2-cleft spathe.
Sepals
3.
Petals 3, rudimentary or wanting in the pistillate flowers.
Stamens 6-12,
dis-
tinct
; anthers linear.
Gynoecium of about 6 united pistils
; ovary one-celled with
6 placentae; styles 6; stigmas curved.
Fruit ellipsoid, one-celled, many seeded,
(Greek, "water-spoon," alluding to the aquatic habit of the plant and spoon-
shaped
leaves.)
Two
or
three
species,
natives
of
tropical
America.
Type
species: Hydromystria stolonifera G. F. W. Meyer.
18
POACEAE
1. Hydromystria stolonifera G. F. W. Meyer, FI. Esseq. 153.
1818.
Limnobium stoloniferum Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 506.
1861.
Petioles 3-25 cm. long, usually tapering upwards from the base; leaf-blades
ovate to suborbicular, 2-8 cm. long,
1.5-6.5 cm. broad, entire, fleshy.
Sepals
in the staminate flowers lanceolate, spreading; petals linear- flliform, spreading,
about half as long as the sepals; filaments subulate, shorter than the anthers;
hypanthium in the pistillate flowers tubular; sepals lanceolate.
In ditches and ponds, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Santo Domingo; Martinique; Trinidad;
South America.
Order 5.
POALES.
Grasses
and
sedges.
Monocotyledonous
plants,
mostly
herbaceous,
with
leafy
or
leafless,
usuallj^
simple,
stems
(culms),
the
leaves
usually
narrow and elongated, entire or minutely serrulate.
Flowers mostly perfect,
small, incomplete,
in the
axils
of dry,
chaffy
scales
(glumes) arranged
in
spikes or spikelets.
Fruit a caryopsis (grain); culm mostly hollow.
Fam.
1.
PoACEAE.
Fruit an achene; culm mostly solid.
Fam. 2.
Cyperaceae.
Family
1.
POACEAE R. Br.
Grass Family.
Annual
or
perennial
herbs,
of
various
habit,
rarely
shrubs
or
trees.
Culms
(stems)
generally
hollow, but occasionally
solid,
the nodes
closed.
Leaves sheathing, the sheaths usuall.y open to the base on the side opposite
the blade; a scarious or cartilaginous ring, naked or hairy, rareh' wanting,
called the ligule, is borne at the orifice of the sheath.
Inflorescence spicate,
racemose or paniculate, consisting of spikelets composed
of two
to many,
2-ranked imbricated
bracts,
called
scales
(glumes),
the two lowest
in
the
complete spikelet always empty, one or both of these sometimes wanting.
One or more of the upper scales, except sometimes the terminal ones, contains
in the axil a flower, which
is usually enclosed by a bract-like awnless organ
called the palet, placed opposite the scale and with its back toward the axis
(rachilla) of the spikelet, generally 2-keeled; sometimes the palet
is present
without the flower, and vice versa.
Flowers perfect or staminate, sometimes
monoecious or dioecious, subtended by 1-3 minute hyaline scales called the
lodicules.
Stamens
1-6,
usuall.y
3.
Anthers
2-celled,
versatile.
Ovary
1-celled, 1-ovuled.
Stjdes 1-3, commonly 2 and lateral.
Stigmas hairy or
plumose.
Fruit a seed-like grain (caryopsis)
.
Endosperm starch.y.
About
3500 species widely distributed throughout the world, growing in water and
on
all kinds
of
soil.
Those yielding food-grains are
called
cereals.
The
species are more numerous
in
tropical countries, while the number of
in-
di^'iduals is much greater in temperate regions, often forming extended areas
of turf.
We
gratefuU}^ acknowledge much
assistance
in
the
determination
of
specimens from
Prof.
A.
S. Hitchcock and Mrs. Agnes Chase, as well as
from their publications on American grasses.
A.
Pedicels
jointed below
the
spikelets;
spikelets mostly with
only
1 perfect flower, this terminal.
[See Oryzeae.]
I. Lower scales indurated; fruiting scale and palet hyaline or
membranous.
a.
Inflorescence monoecious [Maydeae].
Fruiting
spikelets
aggregated,
enclosed
in
large
foli-
aceous bracts.
1.
Zea.
Fruiting spikelets enclosed in a globose bony involucre.
2.
Coix.
b.
Inflorescence not monoecious.
POACEAE
19
1.
Spikelets paired, one
sessile
ttie
otlier stalked
(See
Sorghastrum) [Tribe Andropogoneae].
*Axis of the racemes continuous.
**Axis of the racemes articulated.
tSpikelets all perfect.
tttjessile spikelet mostly perfect, the stalked one
staminate or rudimentary.
JFertile spikelet without a callus.
§ Inflorescence
a
dense
silky
brown
panicle.
§§ Inflorescence various, not a dense silky
panicle.
aPedicel of the sterile spikelet thick-
ened.
aaPedicel
of the
sterile
spikelet not
thickened
jSSpikelets in racemes.
^Racemes
sessile
or
short-
stalked.
6 Racemes
l
to
many,
not
forking.
Spikelets
laterally
flat-
tened.
Spikelets
dorsally
flat-
tened.
Raceme
I:
pedicels
clavate
Racemes
usually
more
than
I
pedicels
not
clavate.
Pedicels
filiform.
Awn borne at the
sinus of the
2-
cleft
fertile
scale.
Awn terminating
the fertile scale
of the spikelet.
Pedicels
flat.
55Racemes 2, forking, with
staminate awnless
spike-
let in the fork.
77Racemes long-stalked, verti-
cillate.
/3/3Spikelets in panicles.
Stalked spikelet staminate.
Stalked
spikelet reduced
to a
pedicel.
tJFertile spikelet with a hairy-pointed callus.
2. Spikelets all alike [Tribe Nazie.\e].
Spikelets not prickly.
Spikelets prickly, like little burs.
II.TLower scales membranous; fruiting scale and palet more or
less indurated.
a.
Fruiting scale and palet scarcely more indurated than
the lower scales [Tribe Melinideae]
b.
Fruiting scale and palet definitely firmer than the lower
scales [Tribe Paxiceae].
1. Inflorescence not monoecious.
* Axis of the inflorescence not corky thickened.
tSpikelets not subtended by prickles or bristles.
JFruit cartilaginous, not rigid, papillose
Fruit open at the top
; inflorescence a nar-
row panicle.
Fruit not open at the top
; inflorescence of
digitate or
flabellate
spike-like
ra-
cemes.
S pikelets long-si Iky
; racemes flabellate.
Spikelets glabrous or puberulent;
ra-
cemes digitate.
UFruit rigid, mostly smooth.
§Back of the fruit turned away from the
rachis
of
the
solitary,
subsessile
spikelets.
Inflorescence
of
secund
racemes;
a
ring-like
callus at the base of the
spikelet.
Inflorescence of spike-like racemes; no
callus.
3.
Imperata.
4. Saccharum.
5.
Eriochrysis.
6. Ryiilix
Diectomis.
8
Schizachyrium.
9. Andropogon
10. Dichanthium.
11. Amphilophis.
12.
Cymbopogon.
13. Anatherum.
14.
Holcus.
15. Sorghastrum.
16.
Heteropogon.
17. Anthephora.
18
Nazia.
19. ArundineUa.
20. Leplocoryphium.
21.
Valoia.
22. Syntherisma.
23.
Eriochloa.
24. Axonopus.
20
POACEAE
(scales
3,
spike-like
4):
§§Back
of the
fi'uit
turned toward
the
rachis of the spikelet.
aLower
scale
wanting
rarely
4);
spikelets
in
racemes.
aaLower
scale
present
(scales
spikelets mostly in panicles.
^Scales awnless.
7Lower
flower
of the
spikelet
staminate or neutral; the
upper perfect.
Inflorescence
an
open
or
contracted panicle.
Culms not woody.
Fruiting
scale
with-
out appendages or
excavations.
Frmting
scale
with
basal
appendages
or excavations.
Culms
woody,
half
cUmbing.
Inflorescence a dense spike-
Uke panicle.
Second
scale
saccate;
fruit stipitate.
'
Second scale not saccate;
fruit sessile.
77Lower flower of the spikelet
usually
perfect,
the
upper
perfect.
/3/3Scales, or some of them, awned
or mucronate.
Inflorescence of secimd racemes.
Inflorescence paniculate.
ttSpikelets subtended by prickles or
bristles.
Spikelets deciduous, the bristles persistent.
Bristles
or
prickles
deciduous
with
the
spikelets.
Bristles distinct, often plumose.
Prickles imited into an involucre or nearly
separate.
Prickles
bristle-hke,
united
only
at
base.
Prickles
united,
forming
a
2-valved
bur.
**Axis
of
the
inflorescence
corky
thickened,
the
spikelets sunken in it.
3.
Inflorescence monoecious.
Panicles terminal, bearing pistillate spikelets above
and staminate below.
Panicles axillary, or both axillary and terminal, the
terminal one wholly of staminate spikelets.
Spikelets mostly jointed above the lower empty
persistent
scales, usually several-flowered, sometimes 1-flowered.
I. Culms coriaceous.
a. Lower
scales mostly reduced or wanting;
spikelets
1-
flowered.
[Tribe Oryzeae.]
Inflorescence monoecious.
Inflorescence not monoecious.
Fruiting scales awned; lower scales present.
Scales awnless; lower scales wanting.
b. Lower scales present.
1.
Spikelets 1-flowered; inflorescence paniculate.
[Tribe
Agrostideae.]
Fruiting scales awned.
Awns 3-cleft.
Awns simple.
Fruiting scales awnless.
2.
Spikelets
2-several-flowered
or
1-flowered
in some
genera of Chloi-ideae.
*Lower scales elongated, often as long as the whole
spikelet.
[Tribe Aveneae.]
**Lower scales short.
tSpikelets
sessile
or
very
nearly
so,
forming
narrow spikes.
[Tribe Chloride.\e.]
JSpikelets with only
1 perfect flower.
ISpikes racemose.
§§Spikes
digitate.
aNo empty scales above the flower.
aaOne or more empty scales above the
flower.
25. Paspalum.
26. Panicum.
27.
Ichnanthus.
28.
Lasiacis.
29.
Sacciolepis.
30. Hymenachne.
31.
Isachne.
32.
Oplismenus.
33.
Echinochloa.
34.
Chaeiochloa.
35. Pennisetum.
36.
Cenchropsis.
37.
Cenchrus.
38. Slenotaphrum.
39.
Olyra.
40. Lilhachne
41. Pharus.
42.
Oryza.
43. Homalocenchrus.
44.
Aristida.
45. Muhlenbergia.
46.
Sporobolus.
47. Avena.
48. Spartina.
49.
Capriola.
POACEAE
21
Perfect flower not stipitate.
Flowering scale long-awned.
Flowering
scale
awnless
or
merely tipped.
Perfect flower long-stipitate.
JtSpikelets with 2 or more perfect flowers.
Spikes digitate.
Rachis
not
produced
beyond
the
spikelets.
Rachis produced beyond the spikelets.
Spikes racemose or panicled.
Spikes short, broad.
Spikes long, slender.
Spilces racemose.
Spikes panicled.
ttSpikelets
panicled,
stalked.
[Tribe
Festu-
CEAE.]
JFlowering scale cleft into many awns.
IJFlowermg scale awnless or 1-awned.
§Spikelets,
at
least
the
pistillate,
long-
hairy-
Inflorescence monoecious; only the pis-
,
tillate spikelets long-hairy.
Inflorescence not monoecious.
Flowering
scales
long-hau-y;
ra-
chilla glabrous.
Flowering scales glabrous; rachUla
long-hairy.
§§Spikelets
not
long-hairy;
glabrous
or
cUiate.
Flowering scales 3-nerved.
Flowering scales many-nerved.
II. Culms woody, climbing or erect.
[Tribe B.-vmboseae.]
Ciilms climbing, vine-like.
Spikelets 2-several-flowered, racemose.
Spikelets 1-flowered, panicled.
Culms erect.
50.
Chloris.
51. Eustachys.
52. Gymnopogon.
53.
Eleusine.
54. Dactyloctenium.
55.
Bouteloua.
56. Leptochloa.
57. Diplachne.
58. Pappophorum.
59. Gynerium.
60. Arundo.
61. Phragmites.
62.
Eragrostis.
63.
Uniola.
64. ArlhrostyUdium.
65.
Chusquea.
66. Bambos.
1. ZEA L. Sp. PI. 971.
1753.
Tall, erect, broad-leaved grasse.s, the staminate spikelets in terminal panicles,
the pistillate aggregated, sessile, in several rows on a thick spongy rachis in the
leaf-axils, enclosed in large foliaceous bracts.
Staminate spikelets in
pairs,
2-
flowered; scales 4, the 2 outer membranous, the 2 inner hyaline, flowering.
Pis-
tillate
spikelets with 4 short
scales, the fourth one
flowering;
style
filiform,
greatly elongated, 2-toothed at the apex.
Grain hard, naked except at base or
rarely enclosed by the scales.
[Greek, life, in allusion to its grain.]
A monotypic
genus.
1. Zea Mays L. Sp. PI. 971.
1753.
Roots of thick fibers; culms 2-5 m. high, solid, 2-4 cm. thick.
Leaf-blades
5-10 dm. long, 5-10 cm. wide, the tips usually drooping; staminate inflorescence
1-2.5 dm. long; fruiting pistillate inflorescence 1-3 dm. long, the grains white,
yellow or black, flattened, various in shape and size.
Widely cultivated and occasionally spontaneous after cultivation.
Native of South
America.
The species consists of numerous races developed under cultivation, none of
them known in the wild state.
Indian Corn.
Mais.
2. COIX L. Sp. PI. 972.
17.53.
Perennial, branching grasses with
flat and broad
leaf-blades,
the spicate
inflorescence monoecious.
Pistillate spikelet and 1 or 2 sterile ones enclosed in a
globose involucre which becomes bony and shining; scales 4, hyaline, the 2 outer
empty; styles nearly
distinct,
filiform.
Staminate spikelets in a short spike,
exserted from the involucre; scales 4, the 2 outer ones empty, the 2 inner hyaline,
one or both of them flowering.
[Ancient Greek name, said to have been
first
22
POACEAE
applied to some palm.]
A few species, natives of the Old World tropics, the
following typical.
1. Coix Lachryma-Jobi L. Sp. PI. 972.
1753.
Culms 1.5 m. high or less, usually freely branching, glabrous.
Leaf-blades
1-7 dm. long, 1.5-4 cm. wide, cordate-clasping at the base, the apex attenuate;
inflorescence mostly axillary, 4-6 cm. long or longer; fruiting involucres globose
or ovoid-globose, white or bluish, 6-12 mm. in diameter.
Waste wet and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques; Tortola:—widely distrib-
uted
in
insular and continental tropical America; sometimes cultivated for its fruits,
used as beads.
Native of tropical Asia.
Job's Tears.
C.\mandulas.
3. IMPERATA Cirillo, PI. Ear. Neap. 2: 26.
1792.
Perennial
grasses with elongated
leaves,
the
spikelets
in dense terminal
spike-like,
silvery-hairy
panicles.
Spikelets
1-flowered,
rarely 2-flowered,
un-
equally pedicellate in pairs
; scales 4, thin, hyaline, awnless, the 2 outer ones empty,
pilose,
the
third glabrous,
usually empty,
the fourth glabrous, subtending a
perfect flower and its 2-nerved palet.
Stamens 1 or 2.
Styles distinct, stigmas
plumose.
[Commemorates Ferrante Imperate, Italian naturalist of the sixteenth
century.]
About
5
species
of
tropical
distribution.
Type
species:
Lagurua
cylindricus L.
1. Imperata contracta (H.B.K.) Hitchc. Kep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 4: 146.
1893.
Sacchariirn contractum H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1: 182.
1816.
Anatherum portoricense Spreng.
Syst.
1: 290.
182,5.
Imperata caudata Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. 2: 331.
1832.
Culms rather slender, hollow, smooth, up to
1 m. high.
Leaf-blades 4-6
dm. long, 6—10 mm. wide, hairy on the upper side near the base, long-attenuate,
narrowed at the base; sheaths glabrous, or the lower pubescent; panicle narrow,
2-4 dm. long; spikelets long-hairy, about 3 mm. long.
Banks and hillsides, Porto Rico, ascending to 1000 m. on Monte Gregorio:—Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martinique; Dominica; Tobago; Trinidad; Mexico
to
northern South America.
Guayanilla.
4. SACCHARUM L. Sp. PI. 54.
1753.
A tall annual or perennial grass with flat and broad leaf-i^lades, the spikelets
' in a large terminal panicle of silky racemes, paired, one spikelet sessile, the other
stalked, both 1-flowered, the flowers perfect, the axis of the racemes articulated.
Scales 4, the 3 outer ones empty, the fourth one shorter than the others, flowering.
Stamens 3.
Styles distinct
; stigmas plumose.
[Ancient name of the Sugar Cane.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Saccharum officinarum L. Sp. PI. 54.
1753.
Culms stout, erect, 1.5-5 m.
tall, glabrous.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or pu-
berulent, the blades up to
1 m. long and 6 cm. wide, rough-margined; panicle
4-6 dm.
long, the numerous slender racemes erect-ascending,
.5-12 cm.
long;
spikelets narrow, about 3 mm. long, each with a tuft of long white hairs at the
base.
Widely
cultivated
in many
races and sometimes spontaneous
after
cultivation,
he most important economic plant in Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix:—cultivated in
ropicil and warm temperate regions of both
tiie Old World and the New.
Probably
ative of soLitlisrn Ana,.
Can'e.
Sugar Cane.
Cana.
POACEAE
23
5. ERIOCHRYSIS Beauv. Agrost. 8, 162.
1812.
Erect, perennial grasses, the leaf-blades
flat, the inflorescence a silky,
ter-
minal, dense, spikelike panicle of short, crowded racemes.
S pikelets 1 -flowered,
the pistillate ones short-stalked, the perfect ones sessile; scales 4, awnless, the 3
outer ones empty.
Styles distinct; stigmas plumose.
Grain oblong.
[Greek,
golden wool.]
A few species, natives of tropical America and Africa, the following
typical.
1. Eriochrysis cayennensis Beauv. Agrost. 8.
1812.
Saccharum cayennense Benth. Jour. Linn. Soc. 19: 66.
1881.
Culms stiff, smooth, 2 m. tall or less.
Leaves 8-20 cm. long, or the upper
ones shorter, 6-15 mm. wide, the blades densely pubescent on both
sides, the
sheaths pubescent,
at
least above;
inflorescence
1-2 dm.
long,
usually
inter-
rupted, densely brown-velvety, 1-3 cm. thick; spikelets oblong, enveloped by the
silky brown hairs, the sessile ones 2-2.5 mm. long, the stalked ones a little smaller.
Hillsides near San Juan, Bayamon and Maricao:—Hispaniola; Martinique; Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
6. RYTILIX Raf. in Seringe, Bull. Bot. 1: 219.
1830.
Annual, branched grasses, with flat leaf-blades and small spikelets in terminal
and axillary spike-like racemes.
Spikelets borne in pairs in depressions of the
rachis,
1-flowered, the sterile one short-stalked, larger than the perfect,
sessile
one.
Scales 4, awnless, the
first one of the perfect spikelet globose, pitted, the
second concave, 1-nerved, the third shorter than the second, the fourth flowering,
hyaline.
Styles
distinct.
Stigmas plumose.
First and second
scales
of the
sterile spikelet 5-7-nerved, the third 2-nerved, the fourth nerveless or 1-nerved.
[Derivation not cited.)
A monotypic genus.
1.
Rytilix granulans (L.) Skeels, Bull. U. S. Dept. Agric. 282: 20.
1913.
Cenchrus granularis L. Mant. 575.
1771.
Manisuris granularis Sw. Prodr. 25.
1788.
Hackelochloa granularis Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 776.
1891.
Culms freely branching,
rather weak, 2-10 dm.
long.
Leaves
papillose-
hirsute, the blades 5-15 cm. long, 3-15 mm. wide, ciliate; racemes 1-2.5 cm. long;
sessile spikelets about
1 mm. long, the stalked ones about 2 mm. long.
Banks, roadsides and fields at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—southern
United States; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martinique; St. Vincent; con-
tinental tropical America and Old World tropics.
7. DIECTOMIS H. &. B.
; Beauv. Agrost. 132,
1.50, 160.
1812.
Perennial grasses, with
flat or folded leaf-blades, the spikelets in pairs
in
flattened spike-like racemes, one
sessile, the other stalked.
Internodes of the
rachis with toothed appendages.
First scale of the
sessile spikelet 2-keeled;
second scale awned; third scale hyaline; fourth scale membranous, 2-toothed,
iong-awned,
the
palet subtending
a
perfect
flower.
Stalked
spikelet
broad,
flowerless, concealing the sessile one,
its
first scale awned.
[Greek, two sterile
scales.]
A few species of tropical America, the following typical.
24
POACEAE
1. Diectomis fastigiata (Sw.) Beauv. Agrost. 160.
1812.
Andropogon fastigiatum Sw. Prodr. 26.
1788.
Culms usually branched, slender, glabrous, 1 m. high or less.
Leaf-sheaths
keeled: ligule broad, 5-10 mm. long; blades elongated, 1-4 mm. wide, glabrous, or
ciliate at the base, scabrate; racemes 4-8 cm. long, the internodes ciliate; sessile
spikelet 4-5 mm. long, the first scale pilose above, the awn of the second scale
elongated, that of the fourth scale about 4 mm. long; stalked spikelet larger than
the sessile one.
Fields and banks at lower
elevations, Porto Eico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Grenada; continental tropical America.
8. SCHIZACHYRIUM Nees; Agrost. Bras. 331.
1829.
Annual or perennial grasses, the spikelets in a spike-like raceme, terminating
the culm
or
its branches.
Rachis
articulated,
the internodes cup-shaped
or
appendaged, the basal callus barbed.
Spikelets in pairs at each node of the
rachis, one sessile, the other stalked, the sessile one dorsally compressed, 1-flow-
ered, the flower perfect
; first scale 2-keeled with infolded margins, the second awn-
less or bristle-tipped, the third 2-nerved or nerveless, the fourth usually 2-cleft,
usually bearing a bent awn.
Stalked spikelet usually flowerless.
Stamens mostly
3.
Styles
distinct; stigmas plumose.
[Greek,
cleft-chaff.]
Some 40
species,
or
more,
of
tropical
and
subtropical
America.
Type
species:
Andropogon
brevifolius Sw.
Annual.
1-
^- brevifolium.
Perennials.
„
„ nmHlp
Rachis flexuous.
^-
'^- oracite.
First scale of tlie sessile spikelet villous.
3.
S. domingense.
Scales glabrous or nearly so.
4-
S. semtberbe.
1. Schizachyrium brevifolium (Sw.) Nees; Kunth, Enum. 1: 488.
1833.
Andropogon brevifolius Sw. Prodr. 26.
1788.
Andropogon obtusifolius Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 1: 538.
1810.
Annual, usually much-branched, spreading, glabrous, the culms decumbent,
slender
flattened,
3-5 dm.
long.
Leaf-sheaths compressed,
the
blades
flat,
those of the main culm obtuse, 3-5 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, those of the branches
much narrower; raceme very slender, flliform-peduncled, 1.5-3 cm. long; sessile
spikelet about 4 mm. long, its fourth scale with a filiform awn 7-15 mm. long;
stalked spikelet usually reduced to a single scale 1-1.5 mm. long, bearing an awn
4-5 mm. long.
Banks and meadows at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico :—Jamaica ; Cuba;
Hispaniola
('^);
Martinique;
Dominica;
.St.
Vincent;
Trimdad;
contmental
tropical
America and Old World tropics.
Serillo dulce.
2. Schizachyrium gracile
(Spreng.) Nash
in
Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 60.
1903.
Andropogon gracilis Spreng. Syst. 1: 284.
1825.
Andropogon juncifolius Desv.
; Hamilt. Prodr.
9.
1825.
Perennial
tufted, glabrous, except the inflorescence; culms slender, branched,
2-6 dm
high.
Sheaths striate; leaf-blades 2 dm. long or less, terete, less than 1
mm
in diameter; raceme long-stalked, 3-5 cm. long, the rachis clothed with long
silkv hairs; sessile spikelet 5-6 mm. long, the
first scale chartaceous with his-
pidulous keels, the second scale acute, the fourth 2-cleft, bearing an awn 13-20
mm. long; stalked spikelet of one short-awned scale 1-2.5 mm. long.
Hillsides, Monte Mesa and near Arecibo, Porto Rico; St. Croix:—Florida; Bahamas;
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe.
POACEAE
25
3. Schizachyrium domingense (Spreng.) Nash, N. A. Fl. 17: 103.
1912.
Streptachne domingensis Spreng.; Schultes, Mant. 2: 188.
1824.
Schizachyrium hirtiflorum Nees, Agrost. Bras. 334.
1829.
Andropogon hirtiflorus Kunth, Rev. Gram. 2: 569.
1832.
Perennial; culms branched, glabrous, 12 dm. high or less.
Leaves glabrous
or sparingly pubescent or ciliate, the blades 1-2 dm. long, 3-5 mm. wide; raceme
4-12 cm. long; sessile spikelet lanceolate, about 8 mm. long, its first scale villous,
or hirsute, entire or bifid at the apex, the fourth scale deeply cleft, bearing a
geniculate awn
12-20 mm. long; stalked spikelet 3-5 mm. long, short- awned.
Rio Maricao {Chase 6202)
:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba, Hispaniola.
4. Schizachyrium semiberbe Nees, Agrost. Bras. 336.
1829.
Andropogon semiberbis Kunth, Enum.
1: 489.
1833.
Perennial; culms glabrous, branched, erect, 6-13 dm. high; leaves glabrous;
sheaths compressed, keeled; blades 1-3 dm. long, 2-5 mm. wide; raceme narrow,
5-8 cm. long, the internodes of the rachis as long as the sessile spikelets or shorter,
glabrous or nearly so; sessile spikelets 5-7 mm. long, the
first scale glabrous or
with a few short hairs, its infolded margins touching, the third and fourth scales,
ciliate, the fourth 2-cleft nearly to the base,
its awn 12-15 mm. long; stalked
spilcelet of one hispidulous scale about 3 mm. long, with an awn about as long.
Banks and
field at lower
elevations,
Porto
Cuba; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Rico:—Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica;
9. ANDROPOGON L. Sp. PI. 1045.
1753.
Perennial grasses with usually long narrow leaves, and terminal and axillary
racemes.
Spikelets in pairs at each node of the jointed hairy rachis, one sessile,
and perfect, the other with a pedicel and either staminate, empty or reduced to
a scale, or none.
Perfect spikelet consisting of 4 scales, the outer 2 coriaceous,
the second keeled and acute, the two inner hyaline, the fourth awned or awnless
and subtending a palet and perfect flower.
Stamens 1-3.
Grain free.
[Greek,
in
allusion
to the bearded
rachis.]
About 100
species, widely distributed
in
tropical and temperate regions, known as Beard-ghass and Motojillo.
Type
species: Andropogon virginicus L.
Spikelets awned.
Spikelets awnless.
Inflorescence corymbose, dense.
Inflorescence not dense, paniculate.
Racemes long-pilose.
Racemes glabrous.
1. A. glomeratus.
2. A. bicornis.
3. A. leucostachys.
4. A. virgatus.
1. Andropogon glomeratus (Walt.) B. S. P. Pre!. Cat. N. Y. 67.
1888.
Cinna glomerata Walt. Fl. Car. 59.
1788.
Andropogon macrourus Michx. Fl. Bor. Am- 1: 56.
1803.
Andropogon tenuispatheus Nash, N. A. Fl.
17: 113.
1912.
Culms 1.5 dm. high or less, much branched, the ultimate flowering branches
forming oblong corymbiform
clusters,
the nodes
of the secondary
branches
densely barbed.
Sheaths keeled
; leaf-blades 4 dm. long or less, 3-7 mm. wide
spathes 2.5-3 cm. long, glabrous; racemes in pairs, 1-2 cm. long; sessile spikelet
3-4 mm. long, the awn 10-15 mm. long; pedicellate spikelet a rudimentary scale,
or wanting.
Moist grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; St. Thomas? (ex Hackel) :-
eastern and southeastern United States; Jamaica; Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Kitts
to Martinique; continental tropical America north to Mexico.
26
POACEAE
2. Andropogon bicornis L. Sp. PI.
1046.
1753.
Culms rather stout, stiff, glabrous, 8-15 dm. high, much branched above, the
branches erect-ascending, the inflorescence dense, corymbiform.
Leaf-sheaths
glabrous, the blades elongated, 3-4 mm. wide, those ot the ultimate branches
spathe-like,
small
and narrow; racemes
very numerous,
slender,
long-hairy,
3-4 cm. long; scales all awnless.
[? A. alo-pecuvoides of Kretas.]
Banks and fields at lower and middle altitudes in Porto Rico, ascending to 800 m.;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Cuba to Trinidad; Jamaica; continental tropical America.
3. Andropogon leucostachys H.B.K. Nov. Gen. i: 187.
1816.
Culms usually clustered, slender, erect, 5-8 dm.
high, glabrous, branched
above.
Leaves glabrous;
blades
1-3 dm.
long,
1.5-5 mm.
wide; racemes
in
distant clusters of 2 to
5, 3-6 cm. long, the axis with long white hairs; sessile
spikelet 2.5-4 mm. long, awnless, the fourth scale muticous.
Banks and fields at lower and middle altitudes in Porto Rico, ascending to 800 m.;
St. Thomas:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
4. Andropogon virgatus Desv.
; Hamilt. Prodr. 9.
1825.
Hypogynium spathiflorum Nees, Agrost. Bras. 366.
1829.
Andropogon spathiflorus Kunth, Enum.
1: 496.
18.33.
Perennial; culms
clustered,
usually much-branched
above.
Leaf-sheaths
compressed, the blades 4 dm. long or less, 1.5-2.5 mm. wide, glabrous, or ciliate
at the base; racemes panicled, 6-13 mm. long, the rachis straight; sessile spikelet
about 3 mm. long, narrowly lanceolate, its first scale keeled, nerveless, the second
and third 1-nerved, the fourth 2-toothed, all awnless; stalked spikelet about as
long as the sessile one.
Fields and banks at lower and middle altitudes, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola;
Trinidad; continental tropical America.
10. DICHANTHIUM Willemet in Usteri. Ann. 18: 11.
1796.
Mostly perennial grasses, with branched or simple culms,
flat leaves, and
subdigitate, spike-like racemes.
Spikelets in pairs at the nodes of the jointed
rachis, one sessile and mostly perfect, the other flliform-pedicelled, staminate or
neutral, the two similar in shape and
size.
Perfect spikelet
sessile,
its scales
chartaceous,
the upper one passing
into a slender awn.
Stamens
3.
Grain
oblong.
[Greek, referring to the paired spikelets.]
About 8 species, natives of
the Old World.
Type species: Dichanthium nodosum Willemet.
1. Dichanthium annulatum (Forsk.)
Stapf.
in Prain
Fl.
Brit. Ind. 9:
178.
1917.
Andropogon annulatus Forsk. Fl. AEgypt.-Arab. 173.
1775.
Perennial; culms slender,
tufted, 6-10 dm.
long, glabrous, ascending, the
nodes usually white-bearded.
Leaves glabrous, narrow, 5 mm. wide or
less;
racemes few or several, rather flaccid, 3-6 cm. long, nearly erect, usually purplish;
sessile spikelet about 4 mm.
long, the awn 10-20 mm.
long, almost
filiform;
lower scale of the pedicelled spikelet several-nerved.
Along a ditch, Aguirre
(Britton & Earle
GJfOlf, March
11, 1922):—Cuba;
British
Guiana. A native of the Old World tropics.
11. AMPHILOPHIS Nash in Britton. Man. 71.
1901.
Perennial grasses with usually
flat leaves and showy, often silvery-white,
panicles, the a.xis short, making the panicle appear fan-like, or elongated with the
branches more scattered.
Racemes usually numerous, the internodes with mani-
POACEAE
27
festly thickened margins, the median portion thin and translucent, the pedicels
of the same structure, the margins ciliate with usually long hairs.
Sessile spike-
lets of 4 scales, the first one 2-keeled, the second 1-keeled, the third and fourth
scales hyaline, the latter very narrow, stipe-like, somewhat thickened, gradually
merging into a usually geniculate, contorted or spiral awn, or the awn rarely
wanting.
Stalked spikelets staminate and similar to the sessile, or sterile and
smaller.
Stamens 3.
Styles distinct.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain free, enclosed
in
the
scales.
[Greek, with reference to the hairs surrounding the
spikelets.]
Thirty species or more, natives of temperate and tropical regions.
Type species
Andropogon Torreyanus Steud.
Stalked spikelet much smaller than the
sessile one.
1. A. saccharoides.
Stalked and sessile spikelets about equal in size.
2. A. Ischaemum.
1. Amphilophis saccharoides (Sw.) Nash, N. A. Fl
17: 125.
1912.
Andropogon saccharoides Sw. Prodr. 26.
1788.
Culms erect, 4.5-10.5 dm.
tall, the nodes naked or barbed.
Sheaths more
or less glaucous; blades 7. .5-25 cm. long, glaucous; racemes numerous, 2.5-3.75
cm. long in a terminal long-exserted panicle 4-10 cm. long; outermost scale of
sessile spikelet 3-4 mm. long, about equalling the terminal hairs of the rachis-
joints, lanceolate, acute; awn 8-16 mm. long, spiral; pedicelled spikelet shorter
than the sessile one, reduced to a 7-nerved scale.
Moimtain sides, Monte Mesa and Monte Alegrillo:—southwestern United States to
Mexico and northern South America; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua, Martimque.
2. Amphilophis Ischaemum (L.) Nash, N. A.
Fl. 17: 124.
1912.
Andropogon Ischaemum L. Sp. PI. 1047.
1753.
Andropogon panormitanus Pari. Fl. Ital. 1: 140.
1848.
Culms erect, simple, or branched above, up to about 8 dm. high.
Leaf-
sheaths glabrous, the blades linear, 5-20 cm.
long, 3-6 mm.
wide, sometimes
sparingly
hairy near the
base; racemes
several,
subflabellate, 4-8 cm.
long;
sessile spikelet 3-4 mm. long,
its
first scale 7-9-nerved, the second ciliate, the
fourth bearing an awn 1-2 cm. long; stalked spikelet about the size of the sessile
one.
Very abundant
in
fields and waste grounds, St. Croix, where it has become a per-
nicious weed:—Jamaica; Antigua to Trinidad; naturalized from the Old World. A species
consisting of several races.
[Andropogon saccharoides of Eggers, not of Swartz ;A. Wrighm
of Millspaugh.]
Sour Grass.
12. CYMBOPOGON Spreng. Pug. 2: 14.
1815.
Large,
perennial
grasses,
with
flat
leaf-blades,
the
spikelets
in
panicled
racemes.
Spikelets in pairs, one sessile, the other stalked, the racemes forked,
bearing an awnless, staminate spikelet in the fork, the sessile spikelet of the lower
pair
or
pairs
differing from
those
above.
[Greek,
hollow-beard.]
About
10
species,
natives of the Old World
tropics.
Type
species: Andropogon
Schoe-
nanthus L.
Sessile spikelets lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, the back flat.
1.
C. Nardus.
Sessile spikelets linear to linear-lanceolate, the back concave below.
2.
C. cilratus.
1. Cymbopogon Nardus
(L.) Eendle. Cat. Welw. Afric. PI. 2: 155.
1899.
Andropogon Nardus L. Sp. PI. 1046.
1753.
Culms much branched, 1-2 m.
tall, the aromatic leaves crowded near the
base, the inflorescence decompound, up to 8 dm. long.
Leaves glabrous, glaucous.
28
POACEAE
6-10 dm. long, 1.5-2 cm. wide; spathes cymbiform. 1-2 cm', long: racemes 1-1.5
cm. long; sessile spikelet 4-5 mm. long, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, the back
flat, the fourth scale 2-toothed.
Locally spontaneous after ciiltivation in Porto Rico, as in Florida, Jamaica, Mar-
tinique and Guadeloupe.
Native of tropical Asia.
Citronella Grass.
2. Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf, Kew. Bull. 1906: 357.
1906.
Andropogon citratus DC. Cat. Hort. Monsp. 78.
1813.
Andropogon ceriferus Hack, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2^: 281.
1883.
Similar to the preceding species, and about as large, the nodes of the culm
ceriferous, the branches of the inflorescence elongated and somewhat pendulous.
Spathes lanceolate; racemes like those of
C.
Nardus, but the
sessile spikelet
linear to linear-lanceolate, acuminate, the back concave below.
Banks
at lower
elevations,
Porto
Rico,
escaped from
cultivation;
Vieques;
St.
Thomas:—Florida;
Cuba;
Guadeloupe;
Trinidad;
South
America.
Original
home
unknown , and known only in cultivation or as an escape from cultivation.
Lemox-GRASS.
13. ANATHERUM Beauv. Agrost. 128.
1812.
Tall erect grasses; the culms mostly simple, the leaf-blades narrow and flat,
the narrow spikelets on whorled branches of large terminal panicles.
Spikelets
paired, one sessile, bearing a perfect flower, the other stalked, staminate.
Scales
4.
Sessile spikelet flattened laterally,
its
first scale coriaceous or chartaceous,
the second awned or awnless, the third and fourth hyaline.
Stalked spikelet
usually awnless.
Stamens 3.
Stigmas plumose, much longer than the styles.
[Greek, without awns.]
A few species of the Old World tropics, the following
typical.
1. Anatherum zizanioides
(L.) H. &
C.
Contr.
U.
S. Nat.
Herb.
18:
285.
1917.
Phalaris zizanioides L. Mant. 183.
1771.
Andropogon muricatvs Retz. Obs. 3: 43.
1783.
Anatherum muricatum Beauv. Agrost. 150.
1812.
Andropogon zizanioides Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 79.
1903.
Vetiveria zizanioides Nash in Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 67.
1903.
Perennial,
with
aromatic
roots; culms
2-2.5 m.
tall,
glabrous,
shining.
Leaves glabrous, the blades up to 9 dm. long, 4-10 mm. wide; panicle narrow, 2-3
dm.
long,
its branches readily disarticulating from the nodes;
sessile spikelet
about 4 mm. long, the second scale with a muricate keel, the fourth awnless or
short-awned; stalked spikelet as long as the sessile one or a little shorter.
Banks and roadsides, Porto Rico, escaped from cultivation:—widely cultivated and
locally subspontaneous in tropical and subtropical regions.
Native of the Old World.
Khus-Khus.
Pachuli.
14. HOLCUS L. Sp. PI. 1047.
1753.
Tall
erect
grasses,
Avith
broad
and
flat
leaf-blades.
Spikelets
in
large
terminal panicles, in pairs or in 3's at the ends of its branches, one sessile and with
a perfect flower, the other 1 or 2 stalked and staminate.
Sessile spikelet with the
2 outer scales indurated, the third and fourth hyaline, the fourth awned or awn-
less.
Stalked spikelet
Avith the 2 outer scales firm-membranous.
Stamens
3,
POACEAE
29
Styles distinct; stigmas plumose.
[Greek, taken from Pliny].
About 10 species,
of wide distribution.
Type species: Holcus Sorghum L.
Perennial
; panicle decompound.
1- H. halepensis.
Annual: panicle usually dense.
-i-
•"• borgnum.
1. Holcus halepensis L. Sp. PI. 1047.
1753.
Andropogon halepensis Brot. Fl. Lusit. 1: 89.
1804.
Sorghum halepense Pers. Syn. l: 101.
1805.
Andropogon cernuns Kunth, Enum.
1: 501.
1833.
Perennial by long rootstocks; culms smooth, erect, 2 m. high or less.
Leaf-
blades 4-6 dm. long, 1-3 cm. wide; panicle decompound, open, up to 6 dm. long,
its branches ascending; sessile spikelets about 4 mm. long, the outer scales densely
appressed-pubescent
; first scale 3-toothed at the apex
; fourth scale bearing a bent
awn about 12 mm. long; stalked spikelet about 6 mm. long,
its 2 outer scales
pubescent.
Waste grounds near Rio Piedras:—widely distributed in tropical and warm-tem-
perate America by cultivation for fodder.
Native of the Old World.
Johnson
Gr.^ss.
2. Holcus Sorghum L. Sp. PI. 1047.
1753.
Andropogon Sorghxim Brot. Fl. Lusit.
1: 88.
1804.
Sorghum vulgare Pers. Syn. 1: 101.
1805.
Andropogon
bicolor Koxb.
Hort. Beng. 21.
1814.
Andropogon Sorghum sudanensis Piper, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 28: 33.
1915.
Annual; culms
tall,
stout, up
to 4 m.
high.
Leaf-blades 2-5 cm.
wide,
elongated; panicle dense or decompound,
its branches commonly nearly erect;
stalked spikelet often without flowers;
sessile spikelets similar to those of the
preceding
species, from which
it
is supposed
to have been
derived.
Locally subspontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:—
widely cultivated
in temperate and tropical regions in several races.
Native of the Old
World.
Sorghum.
Guinea Corn.
15. SORGHASTRUM Nash in Britton, Man. 71.
1901.
Generally tall perennial grasses, with long, narrow, flat leaves and terminal
panicles.
Spikelets in pairs, or 3's at the end of the branches, one sessile and
perfect, the lateral pedicelled, empty, or reduced to the pedicel only.
Perfect
spikelet consisting of 4 scales, the two outer indurated and shining, the inner
hyaline, the fourth awned and subtending a palet and perfect flower, or the palet
sometimes
wanting.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct.
Stigmas
plumose.
Grain
free.
[Named with reference to the resemblance of these grasses to sorghum.]
About 15 species, in temperate and tropical regions.
Type species: Andropogon
avenaceus Michx.
1. Sorghastrum parviflorum (Desv.) H. &. C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 287.
1917.
Sorghum parviflorum Desv.; Hamilt. Prodr.
12.
1825.
Andropogon selosus Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 235.
1866.
Sorghastrum seiosum Hitchc. Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 12: 195.
1909.
Sorghastrum agrostoides Hitchc. Bot. Gaz. 51: 300.
1911.
Culms smooth,
erect, often
clustered, up
to
1 m. high or higher.
Leaf-
blades flat or the margins involute in drying, elongated, 4-7 mm. wide; panicle
narrow, 1-3 dm.
long,
its branches nearly
flliform; spikelets 3.5-4 mm.
long,
hirsute, yellowish-brown, the awn 1-4 mm. long.
Open sandy soil, northeastern districts of Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
continental tropical America.
30
POACEAE
16. HETEROPOGON Pers. Syn. 2: 533.
1807.
Annual or perennial grasses, with narrow leaf-blades, the 1-flowerecl spikelets
in spike-like racemes borne singly at the ends of the branches of the inflorescence.
Spikelets in pairs, one sessile, flowerless or with a staminate flower in the lower
pair, and with a pistillate or perfect flower in the pairs above; the other spikelet
stalked, bearing a staminate flower or flowerless.
Sessile spikelet of 4
scales,
with a hairy-pointed callus, the first scale convolute, awnless; the second keeled,
the third hyaline, the fourth flowering and bearing a long twisted awn
; stalked
spikelet
awnless.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct;
stigmas
plumose.
[Greek,
variously bearded.]
About 8 species, natives of warm-temperate and tropical
regions.
Type species: Andropogon Allionii DC.
1. Heteropogon contortus
(L.) Beauv.; R. &
S. Syst. 2: 836.
1817.
Andropogon contortus L. Sp. PI.
104.5.
1753.
Perennial; culms 2-8 dm. high, branched above.
Leaves smooth, the blades
1-2 dm. long, 3-7 mm. wide; racemes 4-7 cm. long, the internodes between the
upper spikelets densely pubescent with long brown
hairs; callus of the
sessile
spikelets brownish-barbed, about 3 mm.
long, the spikelet about 8 mm.
long,
the awn 4-12 cm. long; stalked spikelet about 10 mm. long, its first scale papillose-
hispid with long hairs above and near the margins.
Krumbay,
St. Thomas
(ex Eggers)
; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Antigua; Guadeloupe; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Twisted
Grass.
17. ANTHEPHORA Sclireb. Beschr. Gras. 2: 105.
1810.
Tufted grasses, the culms often branched, erect or prostrate, the leaves mostly
flat, the 1-flowered spikelets in deciduous clusters of 3 or 4, forming elongated
terminal,
slender
spikes.
Empty
scales
of the
spikelets
rigid,
the
first one
indurated,
large,
involucre-like,
the
others acute
or short-awned; upper and
inner scales thin, the innermost enclosing a thin palet and a perfect flower, the
stamens 3, the styles united at the base, the stigmas plumose.
[Greek, flower-
bearing.]
Five known species, of tropical distribution, the following typical
1. Anthephora hermaphrodita (L.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 759.
1891.
Tripsacum hermaphroditum L.
Syst. ed.
10, 1261.
1759.
Cenchrus laevigatus Trin. Fund. Agrost. 172.
1820.
Annual; culms 3-10 dm. long, rooting and branching at the lower nodes.
Leaves
flat, 7-20 cm.
long, 4-10 mm.
wide,
glabrous
or
hirsute, acuminate;
spikes 2-12 cm. long, continuous and dense, or interrupted below, about 4 mm.
thick, the slender rachis flexuous; cluster of spikelets about 7 mm. long; lower
scales ovate to elliptic, acute to acuminate, glabrous or hispidulous.
Fields, sandy and stony soil, northern districts of Porto Rico; St. Croi.x; St. Thomas;
Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
18. NAZIA Adans. Fam.
PI. 2: 31, 581.
1763.
Annual grasses, diffusely branched, with flat leaves and 1-flowered deciduous
spikelets, either solitary or in clusters of 3-5 in a terminal spike.
Scales of
spikelet 2 or 3,. the outermost small or wanting, the second rigid and covered with
POACEAE
31
hooked ijrickles, the third membranous, subtending a palet and perfect flower.
[Name unexplained.]
Two species,
of tropical and temperate regions.
Type
species: Cenchrus racemosus L.
1. Nazia aliena (Spreng.) Scribii. Bull. U.
S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 17: 28.
1899.
Lappago aiicna Spreng. Neue Entdeck. 3:
15.
1822.
Tufted, 13 dm. high, the culms often rooting at the lower nodes, slender,
glabrous.
Sheaths ulabrous; leaf-blades 2-8 cm. long, 4 mm. wide or less, their
margins ciliate.
Inflorescence 4-10 cm. long; spikelets 2-3 mm. long; the second
scale bearing prickles 0.5 mm. long or less, the prickles with swollen opaque ba.ses.
Field.s, rocks and waste grounds,
especially near the .southern coast, Porto Rico;
Culebrita;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
St.
Croix:—southwestern
United
States; Bahamas;
Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Barts;
St.
Eustatius;
St.
Kitts;
Antigua;
Trinidad;
Margarita; Curacao; continental
tropical America.
[Apparently recorded by Hackel
as Tragus raccnwsus from near Coamo; Lappayo rucemosa of Krebs.j
Prickle-grass.
19. ARUNDINELLA Raddi, Agrost. Bras. 36
1823.
Erect, often
tall grasses, with
flat leaf-blades and small spikelets, jointed
below the outer scales, in a large terminal panicle.
Spikelets 1
2- flowered, when
2-flo\vered the lower flower staminate.
Scales
4, the
first awnless, the second
awned or acuminate,
the
third muticous,
the
fourth membranous, awned or
awnless.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct;
stigmas
plumose.
[Diminutive
of
Arundo.]
About 30 species, natives of warm temperate and tropical
regions.
Type species: Amndindla hrasilicnsis Kaddi.
1. Arundinella confinis (Schultes) H. & C. Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 18: 290.
1917.
Piptaiherum confine Schultes, Mant. 2:
1S4.
1824.
Arundinella martinicensis Trin. Gram.
I 'an. 62.
1826.
Culms rather stout, 1.5 m. tall or less, glabrous.
Leaf-sheaths more or less
hispid above,
the blades 2-4 dm.
long,
1-2 cm. wide, usually
hispid; panicle
dense, 2-4 dm. long, its nearly filiform branches erect-ascending; spikelets about
4 mm. long, the fourth scale tipped with an awn about 2 mm. long.
[Recorded
by Hackel as A. hispida.]
Banks, hillsides and cliffs from lower to higher elevations in moist districts of Porto
Rico :—Jamaica ; Cuba Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
20. LEPTOCORYPHIUM Nees, Agrost. Bras. 83.
1829.
lirect, perennial grasses, with narrow leaves and small, silky, panicled spike-
lets, jointed below the scales.
Spikelets lan("eolate,
1-flowered.
Scales
3, the
2 outer ones empty, long-hairy, the fruiting one minutely papillose, cartilaginous,
its summit hyaline,
lacerate, open.
Stamens
3.
Styles distinct; stigmas plu-
mose.
[Greek, thin apex,
refei'ring to the hyaline apex of the fruiting scale.]
A few species of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Leptocoryphium lanatum (H.B.K.) Nees, Agrost. Bras. 84.
1829.
Paspalum lanatum H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1: 94.
1815.
Milium lanatum L. & S. Syst. 2: 322.
1817.
Culms slender, smooth,
1 m. high or less, solitary or clustered, the old leaf-
sheaths persistent.
Leaves glabrous, or nearly so, 2-3 dm. long, 2-4 mm. wide;
32
POAOEAE
panicle terminal, narrow, 1-2 dm. long, with short, nearly
filiform, ascending
branches; spikelets filiform-stalked, 4-5 mm. long, the fruiting scale chestnut-
brown.
Red clay
slopes, Monte Mesa, Mayaguez:—Cuba; Trinidad; continental tropical
America.
21. VALOTA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 495.
1765.
Perennial grasses, with flat leaves and terminal pubescent panicles.
Spike-
lets lanceolate, acute or acuminate
; scales 4, the 3 outer ones membranous, empty,
the first minute or rudimentary, the second silky-pilose and ciliate, the fourth one
shorter, glabrous, shining, chartaceous.
[Perhaps in honor of P. Vallot.]
Several
species, of warm temperate and tropical America, the first following one typical.
Leaves elongated; racemes many.
1-
V. insularis.
Leaves short; racemes few.
^-
>'• hggersti.
1. Valota insularis
(L.) Chase, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 19: 188.
1906.
Andropogon insuJare L. Syst. Nat. ed.
10,
1.304.
17.59.
Panicwm ifMCop/!ae?/7?iH.B.K. Nov. Gen. l: 97.
1815.
Panicum insulare Meyer, Prim.
Fl. Esseq. 60.
1818.
Trichachne insularis Nees, Agrost. Bras. 86.
1829.
Culms erect, slender, 1-1.6 m. high, clustered.
Leaves 3 dm. long or less,
1-2 cm. wide, acuminate, glabrous or their sheaths pubescent; panicle narrow,
often 3 dm. long,
little,
if any more than 3 cm. thick; racemes many; spikelets
4-6 mm. long, acuminate; second and third scale 3-nerved, long-hairy; fruiting
scale chestnut-brown.
Banks and hillsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, mostly in dry dis-
tricts- Desecheo; Mona; Vieques; Culebra;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:
southern
United
States;
Bermuda; West
Indies and
continental
tropical
America.
Silky-grass.
2. Valota Eggersii (Hack.) H. & C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 292.
1917.
Panicum Eggersii Hack. Oest. Bot. Zeits. 51: 292.
1901.
Culms erect, very slender, 2-4 dm. high.
Leaves short, lanceolate, 2.5-4
cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, the sheaths puberulent; inflorescence of 2-4 very slender
racemes; racemes erect, 2-5 cm. long; spikelets about 4 mm. long.
Banks, St. Thomas; Vii-gin Gorda.
Endemic.
22. SYNTHERISMA Walt. Fl. Car. 76.
1788.
Mostly annual grasses, with flat leaves and spikelets borne in pairs or some-
times in 3's, in secund racemes which are digitate or approximate at the summit
of the culm.
Spikelets often purplish.
Scales of the spikelet 4, sometimes 3 by
the suppression of the lowest one; the fourth or innermost scale chartaceous,
subtending a palet of similar texture and a perfect flower.
Stamens 3.
Stigmas
plumose.
[Greek, crop-making,
in allusion
to
its abundance.]
Species about
20, widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions, known as Crab-grass
and Finger-grass.
Type species: Syntherisma praecox Walt.
Rachis of the raceme winged, appearing flat.
Spikelets glabrous or puberulent.
.
Spikelets about 3 mm. long.
1.
S. sangutnahs.
Spikelets not over 2 mm. long.
2.
.S. chinensis.
Spikelets pubescent.
3.
S. Ischaemum.
POACEAE
33
Kacliis of the raceme wingless.
<-.
j-
•,
,
RacMs with long scattered hairs.
4.
.b. digitata.
Rachis without long haks.
.
,.,
.
^
c
i.
Hairs of the spikelet long, forming a brush-like tip.
5.
5. argillacea.
Hairs of the spiicelet short.
6.
S. filiformis.
1. Syntherisma sanguinalis (L.) Dulac,
Fl. Haut. Pyr. 77.
1867.
Panicum sanguinale L. Sp. PI. 57.
1753.
Digitaria sangHinahs Scop. Fl. Carn. ed. 2, 1: 52.
1772.
Digitaria marginata Link, Enum. Hort. Berol. 1: 102.
182 1
Digitaria fimbriala Link, Hort. Berol.
1: 226.
1827.
Panicum fimbriatum Kunth, Rev. 33.
1829.
Syntherisma marginatum Nash, N. A. Fl. 17: 154.
1912.
Culms S dm. long or less, finally branched, prostrate at the base and rooting
at the lower nodes.
Lower leaf sheaths densely
papillose-hirsute; blades 2-8
cm. long,
."^-lO mm. wide, glabrous or more or less pubescent; racemes 2-9, 2-12
cm. long, in pairs or whorls; spikelets 3-3.5 mm. long, about 0.8 mm. wide, lan-
ceolate, very acute, in pairs; first scale small, glabrous, the second one 3-nei-ved,
the third slightly exceeding the flowering scale, 7-nerved, the fourth one lanceo-
late, very acute, yellowish white at maturity.
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions.
2. Syntherisma chinensis (Nees) Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 22: 468.
1922.
Paspalum chinense Nees in H. & A. Bot. Beechey Voy. 231.
1841.
Syntherisma Helleri Nash, Minn. Bot. Stud, l: 798.
1897.
Culms
slender,
glabrous,
erect or reclining,
5 dm.
long or
less.
Leaves
glabrous, the blades
1..5-3 dm. long, 4-6 mm. wide; racemes 3-5 in a terminal
whorl, rarely fewer, sometimes with
1 or 2 additional ones below, 6-10 cm. long;
rachis flattened, narrowly winged; spikelots
in
2's or 3's, about
1.5 mm. long;
first scale wanting; second and third scales about equal, 3-5-nerved, appressed-
pubescent; fruiting scale brown, acute.
Fields and waste grounds, Porto Rico;—Bermuda; Jamaica; Trinidad.
Naturalized
from the Old World tropics.
Formerly confused with S. longiflora (Retz) Sheels.
3. Syntherisma Ischaemum (Schreb.) Nash, N. A. Fl. 17: 151.
1912.
Panicum Ischaemum Schreb.; Schweig. Spec. Fl. Erlang.
16.
1804.
Culms slender, glabrous, branched at the base, becoming prostrate, 2-5 dm.
long, forming mats.
Leaves glabrous, the sheaths compressed, the blades 6-15
cm. long, 2.5-6 mm. wide; racemes 2-5, widely spreading, 2-8 cm. long; rachis
flattened, narrowly winged; spikelets elliptic, about 2 mm.
long, the first scale
rudimentary or wanting, the second and third pubescent, the fruiting scale chest-
nut-Jjrown.
Waste grounds, St. Croix:—eastern United States.
Native of Europe.
4. Syntherisma digitata (Sw.) Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 142.
1908.
Milium digitatum Sw. Prodr. 24.
1788.
Digitaria horizontalis Willd. Enum. 92.
1809.
Panicum horizontale Meyer, Prim. Fl. Esseq. 54.
1818.
Syntherisma setosa Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 25: 300.
1898.
Culms 4-10 dm. long, branched,
tufted,
at length decumbent below and
rooting at the lower nodes.
Leaves more or less densely hirsute, 2-12 cm. long,
2-7 mm. wide; racemes several, 3-14 cm. long, whorled or alternate or approximate
LIBRARY)
<'VAt A n.%'.
34
I'OACEAE
In pairs, widely spreading; rachis very narrow; spikelets in pairs, about 2.5 mm.
lont;, lanceolate, acuminate;
first scale minute, glabrous; second scale 3-nerved.
appressed-pubescent
;
third
scale
7-nerved,
also appressed-pubescent
;
fruiting
scale nearly 2 mm. long, shorter than the third, elliptic, greenish when mature.
Plains, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Icacos; Mona: Vieques; Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas; Tortola:—Florida; West
Indies; continental
tropical America
and Old World tropics.
5. Syntherisma argillacea H. & C. Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 18: 296.
1917.
Perennial; culms usually tufted, ascending from a decumbent base, glabrous,
simple, or branched below, 6 dm. long or less, the nodes loosely pilose.
Leaves
pilose or scabrous, the Ijlades 3-8 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide; racemes
1 or several,
up to 8 cm. long, the rachis very slender, wingless; spikelets about 2 mm. long,
clothed with appressed hairs forming a brush-like tip, the fourth scale brown.
Monte Alegrillo near Maricao, at 8U0 meters elevation, and on Monte Mesa:—Cuba.
6. Syntherisma filiformis (L.) Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 22: 420.
1895.
Panicum filifortne L. Sp. PI. 57.
1753.
Milium paniceum Sav. Prodr. 24.
1788.
Digitaria filiformis Muhl. Gram.
131.
1817.
Syntherisma paniceum Nash, N. A. Fl. 17: 152.
1912.
Cidms
1.5-7 dm.
tall.
Sheaths,
at
least the lower ones,
hirsute; blades
3-20 cm. long, 1-4 mm. wide; racemes 2-5, 2-10 cm. long, erect or ascending;
spikelets about 1.8 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide, elliptic, short-hairy, acute, in pairs,
the first scale wanting, the second ;i-norved, the third 7-nerved, the fourth scale
deep chestnut-brown at maturity.
Sandy soil, northern districts of Porto Kico; Cowell Hill, St. Thomas
(e.\ Eggers):
eastern United States; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Mexico.
23. ERIOCHLOA H.B.K. Nov. Gen. l: 94.
1815.
Perennial
grasses,
with
flat
leaf-blades.
Spikelets
1-flowered,
in
.secund
spike-like racemes, in 2 rows along a flattened rachis, jointed i^elow a basal annular
callus, acute or acuminate.
Scales 3, the 2 outer membranous, empty, the third
indurated, shining, awn-tipped, flowering, the flower perfect.
Stamens 3.
Styles
distinct; stigmas plumose.
[Greek, woolly grass.]
About 10 species, natives of
warm and tropical regions.
Type species: Eriochloa dislachya H.B.K.
Spikelets long-acuminate.
1.
E. punctata.
Spikelets acute.
2. E. subglabra.
1. Eriochloa punctata (L.) Desv.; Hanult. Prodr.
5.
1825.
Milium punclatum L. Syst. ed.
10, 872.
1759.
Monachne punctata Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 374.
1903.
Culms usually clustered, branched, 2-8 dm. high, the nodes puberulent, the
leaves glabrous
or puberulent.
Blades 3 dm.
long or
less, 3-10 mm.
wide;
inflorescence usually long-stalked; racemes erect or ascending, 1.5-4 cm. long,
the rachis short-hairy; spikelets 4-5 mm. long, lanceolate, long-acuminate, the
2 outer scales with long appressed hairs, the thii'd scale short-awned, transversely
rugose.
Banks,
roadsides, waste and cultivated grovmds at lower and middle elevations,
Porto Rico:
St. Croix;
St. Tiioraas; Tortola:—southern United States; Jamaica; Cuba
to Trinidad; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
POACEAE
-
35
2. Eriochloa subglabra (Nash) Hitchc. Contr. U. S.Nat. Herb. 12: 208.
1909.
Monachne subglabra Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 374.
1903.
Eriochloa punctata subglabra Urban, Symb. Ant. 4:
8.").
1903.
Culms branched or simple, glabrous, 8-12 dm. high, the nodes pubescent.
Lower leaf-sheaths hirsute; blades glabrous, 1-3 dm. long, 7-17 mm. wide; in-
florescence stalked; racemes 4-6 cm. long; spikelets elliptic, acute, about 3. .5 mm.
long; empty scales glabrate, the flowering one mucronate,
finely transversely
rugose.
Wet ineadow.s, sandy plains and dunes at lower elevations, in Porto Rico:—Jamaica;
Trinidad; Brazil.
Maix).ulla.
24. AXONOPUS Beauv. Agrost.
12.
1S12.
Annual or perennial grasses, with flat leaves and 1-flowered spikelets, borne
singly in 2 rows in one-sided spike-like racemes.
Spikelets oblong to lanceolate,
convex on the outer surface, flat on the inner.
Scales 3, the outer 2 membranous,
the inner one firm and with its opening turned toward the rachis, subtending a
perfect
flower.
Stamens
3.
Styles separate.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain
free.
[Greek, foot-axis.]
About 12 species, of warm temperate and tropical regions,
the following tjT)ical.
Kacliis of the racemes without hairs.
1. A. compressus.
Rachis of the racemes with stiff brown hairs.
2. A. aureus.
1. Axonopus compressus (Sw.) Beauv. Agrost.
12,
154.
1812.
Milium compressum Sw. Prodr. 24.
1788.
Paspalum tristachyon Lam. Tab. Encycl.
1: 176.
1791.
Anastrophus compressus Schlecht.
; Nash in Small,
Fl. SE. U. S. 79.
1903.
IPaspalum Raunkierii Mez, Repert. 15: 60.
1917.
Perennial; stolons numerous, leafy, sometimes 6 dm. long; culms 1.5-6 dm.
tall, slender, compressed, glabrous; sheaths loose; leaves glabrous, sometimes
sparsely ciliate, obtuse, those of the culm 5-10 cm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, those of
the stolons about 2.5 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide; racemes 2-5, 2.5-5 cm. long, ap-
proximate at 'the summit of the long and slender stalk; spikelets not crowded
nor secund, about 2 mm. long, acute.
Wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St.
Thomas;
St.
Jan:—southeastern
United
States;
West
Indies;
continental
tropical
America.
Flat JorNT-GRASs.
2. Axonopus aureus Beauv. Agrost.
12.
1812.
Perennial; culms slender, smooth, erect, 3-6 dm. high, compressed, slender,
branching.
Leaves more or less pilose with long hairs, the blades 7-15 cm. long,
3-7 mm. wide, rather
stiff; inflorescence long-stalked, of 4-15,
sessile, slender,
pilose, golden-brown racemes 6-10 cm. long
; spikelets about 1.5 mm. long, pointed.
Along road between Rio Piedras and Tnijillo Alto:—Trinidad; continental tropical
America.
Golden Joint-grass.
25. PASPALUM
L. Syst. Nat. ed.
10, 855.
1759.
Perennial grasses, various in habit, with generally flat leaves and i-flowered
spikelets, borne singly or in pairs in 2 rows on 1-sided spikes, which are single,
in pairs or panicled.
Spikelets oblong to orbicular,
flat on the outer surface,
convex on the inner.
Scales 3 (rarely 4) the outer ones membranous, the inner
one indiu'ated and subtending a palet ami perfect flower.
Stamens 3.
Styles
separate.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain ovoid or oblong, free.
(An ancient Greek
36
POACEAE
name for some grass, used by Hippocrates.]
About 160 species, of wide distri-
bution in tropical and temperate regions, most abundant in America.
Type
species: Panicum dissectum L.
A.
Spikelets not lacerate-margined.
1. Racemes 1 to many, not conjugate,
a.
Spikelets with 3 scales.
Culms erect or ascending.
tFruiting scale dark brown, shining.
Perennial.
Annual.
ttFruiting scale not dark brown and shuung.
JRacemes several or many.
Spikelets pubescent.
Spikelets obovate, about 3 mm. long.
Spikelets
nearly
hemispheric,
about
1.5 mm. long.
Spikelets glabrous.
Panicle dense; rachis long-pUose.
Panicle not dense;
racliis glabrous or
sparingly pilose.
Lower leaf-sheaths nodulose.
Lower leaf-sheaths not nodulose.
tJRacemes few, 1 to 5.
§Annual; spikelets minute.
§§Perennials.
Raceme always only one; spikelets 1-
1.5 mm. long.
Leaves subinvolute; racemes 1.5-2
cm. long.
Leaves flat; racemes 3-4 cm. long.
Racemes 2-10, or on some culms soli-
tary; spikelets 1.5-2 mm. long.
Spikelets narrow,
acutish,
slender-
stalked.
Spikelets
broad,
obtuse,
short-
stalked.
Nodes of the cvilm long-pilose.
Culms glabrous.
Racemes 5-1 2 cm. long.
Spikelets glandular-pubes-
cent.
Spikelets
glabrous,
or
minutely pubescent.
Spikelets elliptic-obo-
vate.
Spikelets broadly oval.
Racemes 2-4 cm. long; spike-
lets pubescent.
**Culras creeping; spikelets minute, yellowish
b. Spikelets with 4 scales.
2. Racemes
2, conjugate, rarely a third one below, or on
some culms only one.
Spikelets plano-convex, not ciliate.
Spikelets suborbicxdar; plants not stoloniferous.
Spikelets about 1.2 mm. long.
Spikelets 2-4 mm. long.
Spikelets 2.5-4 mm. long.
Spikelets 2-2.5 mm. long.
Spikelets elliptic to ovate; stoloniferous plants.
Spikelets glabrous, 3-4 mm. long.
Spikelets pubescent, 2.5-3 mm. long.
Spikelets nearly flat, long-ciliate.
CD.
Spikelets lacerate-margined.
1. P. plicatulum.
2. P. melanosperrmim.
3. P. virgatum.
4. P. paniculatum.
5.
P. densum.
6.
P. niillegrana.
7. P. secans.
8. P. parviflorum.
9. P. rupestre.
10. P. Leoninum.
11. P. portoricense.
12. P. Poiretii.
13. P.Slmpsoni.
14. P. glahrum.
15. P. propinquum.
16. P. caespitosum.
17. P. orbiculatum.
18. P. decumbens.
19.
P. clavuliferum.
20. P. notatu7n.
21. P. minus.
22.
P. vaginatum.
23. P. distichum.
24. P. conjugatum.
25. P. fimbriatum.
1. Paspalum plicatulum Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. l: 45.
1803.
Paspalu7n undulatum Poir. in Lam. EncycL 5: 29.
1804.
Perennial; culms commonly clustered,
flattened,
glabrous, 4-10 dm.
tall.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous, compressed, the blades usually folded, 3 dm. long or less,
2-8 mm. wide, nearly erect, sometimes long-hairy above; racemes usually several,
3-7 cm.
long,
short-stalked, ascending or spreading; spikelets 2-3 mm.
long,
obovate to elliptic; first scale wanting; second scale 5-nerved, appressed-pubes-
cent, the third 3-nerved, glabrous, the fruiting one reddish-brown, polished.
Grassy slopes and
fields at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
St.
Croix;
St
Thomas;
Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—southern United
States; Jamaica; Cuba;
His-
paniola; Guadeloupe to Tobago; continental tropical America.
POACEAE
37
2. Paspalum melanospermuin Desv.; Polr. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 315
1816.
Annual; culms
glabrous,
tufted,
erect
or the base decumbent, 2-4 dm.
high,
compressed,
often
purplish.
Leaves
glabrous,
or sparingly
pilose,
the
sheaths compressed, brownish-margined, the blades nearly linear,
flat, whitish-
margined, 6-15 cm. long, 4-6 mm. wide; racemes 2 or 3, or on some culms solitary,
3-6 cm. long, the rachis broad; spikelets plano-convex, broadly elliptic-obovate,
obtuse, about 2 mm. long; first scale wanting, the second 3-nerved, the fruiting
one dark brown, shining.
Shaded slopes at middle and higher
elevations, Porto Rico:—Florida; Brazil.
Re-
ferred by Nash to P. Bosc ianum Fluegge.
3. Paspalum virgatum L. Syst. ed.
lo, 855.
1759.
Perennial, forming clumps; culms stout,
erect, 1-2 m.
high.
Leaves
flat,
4-7 dm. long,
1-2.5 cm. wide, the margins scabrous-ciliate, the lower sheaths
with transverse veinlets between the veins; racemes many, 5-12 cm. long, with a
tuft of long hairs at the base, the whole inflorescence up to 5 dm. long; rachis of
the racemes sparingly long-hairy; spikelets crowded, elliptic-obovate,
ciliate, 3
mm. long, brownish.
Moist and cultivated grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan;—West Indies; continental tropical America.
Cortedero.
4. Paspalum paniculatum L. Syst. ed.
10, 855.
1759.
Paspalum hemisphericum Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 5: 31.
1804.
Perennial; culms erect, rather stout, glabrous, 6-10 dm. high, often branched.
Leaf-blades flat, 2-3 dm. long, 1-2.5 cm. wide, rather densely pilose-pubescent;
racemes many, 3-10 cm. long, forming a dense terminal inflorescence; spikelets
nearly hemispheric, crowded, pubescent, about 1.5 mm. long, obovate to nearly
orbicular;
flrst scale wanting, the second and third 3-nerv^ed, the fruiting one
oval, smooth, shining.
Moist meadows, hillsides and ravines, Porto Rico, ascending to 900 m.
; St. Thomas
(ex
Schlechtendal)
:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
ICitts
to Trinidad;
continental
tropical America.
5. Paspalum densum Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 5: 32.
1804.
Perennial; culms
erect, smooth, very
stout,
1-1.5 m.
high.
Leaves 4-7
dm. long, about
1 cm. wide, roughish-margined, the lower sheaths with many
prominent transverse veinlets between the veins; racemes many, 4-6 cm. long,
with a tuft of long hairs at the base, densely clustered, forming a compact in-
florescence, 1.5-3 dm. long,
the
rachis pilose or
ciliate; spikelets crowded, suli-
orbicular, glabrous, about 2 mm. long.
In shallow water, northern coastal plain of Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Guade-
loupe; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Porto Rico is the type locality.
6. Paspalum millegrana Schrad. in Schultes Mant. 2: 175.
1824.
Paspalum Underwoodii Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 375.
1903.
Culms
stout,
1-1.5
m.
high,
often
clustered,
smooth.
Lower
sheaths
nodulose, overlapping; leaves elongated, roughish, 5-10 mm.
wide, commonly
pubescent above; racemes many,
rather
close
together,
ascending
or
nearly
erect,
4-10
cm.
long;
spikelets
glabrous,
suborbicular
or
obovate-orbicular.
about 2 mm. long, usually purplish; rachis sparingly pilose.
Wet grounds at lower elevations near the northern and western coasts of Porto Rico
Vieques:—Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
Barbados;
Tobago;
Trinidad; Soutli America.
Referred by Hackel to P. lentiginosum Presl.
38
POACEAE
7. Paspalum secans H. & C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 319.
1917.
Perennial, forming clumps; culms simple, erect, glabrous, 1-2 m. tall.
Leaf-
sheaths with a row of white hairs at the mouth, the blades much elongated, some-
times
1 m. long, 5-10 mm. wide,
flat, but in drying more or less involute, their
margins serrulate; racemes 5-20, slender, spreading, 5-15 cm. long; rachis gla-
brous; spikelets glabrous, about 2.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide.
Wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
St.
Croix:—Bahamas;
.Jamaica; Cuba; Antigua.
Included by Hackel in P. elatum L. C. Rich, and by Nash
in P. Schreberianum (Fluegge) Nash.
8. Paspalum parviflorum Rhode; Fluegge, Mon. Pasp. 98.
1810.
Annual; culms up to 1.5 dm. long, freely branching, the nodes pilo.se.
Leaves
flat, linear, narrow, long-pilose; racemes 2 or 3, close together, pilose at the base,
1-2 cm. long; spikelets elliptic, glabrous, obtuse, the first scale wanting, the second
and third equal, the fruiting one yellowish, as long as the spikelet.
Porto Rico (type locality, but not since collected here) :—South America.
9. Paspalum rupestre Trin. Linnaea 10 : 293.
1836.
Perennial; culms very slender, usually tufted, more or less pilose at the nodes,
1-2.5 dm. long.
Leaves mostly basal, ciliate, 2-5 cm. long, 2.5 mm. wide or less,
flat
or becoming
involute; raceme
solitary,
very
slender,
1.5-2.5 cm.
long;
spikelets oval, glabi'ous, about 1 mm. long.
Slopes, Monte Mesa:—Cuba.
10. Paspalum. Leoninum Chase; Hitchc. Bot. Gaz. 51: .300.
1911.
Perennial; commonly tufted and forming dense small mats; culms slender,
glabrous, except the long-hairy nodes, weak, simple,
1.5-3.5 cm. long.
Basal
leaves numerous,
flat, 6-12 cm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, ciliate, somewhat involute
in drying,
those of the culm
1 or
2, smaller, shorter; raceme
1, very slender,
glabrous, 2-4 cm. long; spikelets elliptic, only about
1 mm. long, obtuse;
first
scale wanting, the second 3-nerved.
Serpentine
slopes and shaded
rocks,
Guanajibo, Monte Mesa, Monte
Alegrillo,
Indiera Fria:—Cuba.
11. Paspalum portoricense Nash, Bull. Torr. Club 30: 377.
1903.
IPaspalum Richardii Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 17.
1854.
Culms tufted, glabrous, very slender, spreading, 6 dm. long or less, simple
or rarely branched.
Leaves flat, .5-12 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, with a few long
hairs at the base; racemes 1-3, very slender, 2-6 cm. long, ascending; spikelets
geminate,
oblong-elliptic, acute, about
1.8 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, glabrous,
about as long as the primary pedicel, the scales 3-nerved.
Moist
slopes and
fields
at lower and middle
elevations, Porto
Rico:—Bahamas
(according to Hitchcock and Chase).
12. Paspalum Poiretli R. & S. Syst. Veg. 2: 878.
1817.
Paspahnn oracile Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 313.
1810.
Not Rudge
1805.
Perennial
; culms densely tufted, 5 dm. high or less, slender, glabrous, simple,
or sometimes branched at the base, the nodes pubescent.
Leaves 5-10 cm. long,
3-6 mm. wide, glabrous or sparingly hirsute, or ciliate; racemes
1-3, erect or
ascending, 2-4 cm. long, the rachis about 0.5 mm. wide; spikelets 1.5 mm. long.
POACEAE
39
0.9 mm. wide, elliptic, appressed-pubescent
singly disposed, the scales 3-nerved,
the fruiting one oval.
Slopes, Agiiada and Lares; St. Thoma.s (according to Kreb.s)
:—Jamaica; Bahamas;
Cuba; Hlspaniola.
Included by Nash in P. rupeslre Trin.
Mrs. Chase informs us that
the application of the name Poiretii
is not certainly establi-shed.
13. Paspalum Simpsoni Na.sh Bull. Torr. Club 24: 39.
1897.
Paspalum gracillimuvi Nash, in Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 73.
1903.
Tufted,
similar
to
P.
caespilosum; culms
slender, 4-8 dm.
high.
Basal
sheaths hirsute, the upper glabrous; leaves flat, linear-lanceolate, 4-10 cm. long,
3-10 mm. wide, glabrous on both sides, the margins ciliate
; racemes 3-5. spreading,
2-7 cm. long, the rachis narrow; sinkelets in ])airs, obovoid, about 1.5 mm. long,
and 0.8 mm. thick, the first scale wanting,
t lie second and third 3-nerved, densely
pubescent with sliort glandular hairs.
Sandy
soil. .Toyuda; Mona:—^Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba.
14. Paspalum glabrum Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 5: 30.
1804.
Paspalum milioideum Desv.
; Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 315.
1816.
Paspalum Hclleri Nash, Bull. Torr. Club 30: 370.
1903.
Culms tufted, slender, glabrous, erect or p^scending, simple, 3-10 dm. high.
Leaves 5-20 cm. long, 3-8 mm. wide, roughish-margined, with a few hairs at the
base of the blade: racemes 2-6, narrow, 10 cm. long or less, erect or spreading;
spikelets many, oval, glabrous or pubescent, 1.7-2 mm. long, obtuse.
Sandy and
rocky
soil
at
lower and
middle
elevations, Porto
Rico;
Desecheo;
Mona; Vieques; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda;
Ane-
gada:—Florida; West Indies.
15. Paspalum propinquum Nash, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Card. 1: 291.
1899.
Perennial; culms clustered, slender, glabrous, up to 6 dm. long, ascending or
spreading.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or the lower ones pubescent; blades ,5-15 cm.
long, 8 mm. wide or less, ciliate with long hairs at least near the base; racemes
solitary or 2 together, slender, 5-7 cm. long; spikelets oval, puberulent, a little
less than 2 mm. long.
In dry soil, plains and hillsides of the northern districts, Porto Rico:—southeastern
United States; Cuba; Jamaica.
Probably not distinct from P. ciliatifolium Michx.
16. Paspalum caespitosum Fluegge, Mon. Pasp. 161.
1810.
Paspalum Blodgettii Chapm.
Fl. S. U.
S. 571.
1860.
Tufted; culms slender, 3-0 dm.
high.
Leaves glabrous, narrowly
linear,
flat, 5-20 cm. long, 3-7 mm.
wide, erect or nearly
so, with glabrous sheaths;
racemes 2-6,
erect, 1-5 cm. long, the rachis very narrow; .spikelets in
pairs, a
little less than 2 mm. long and nearly
1 mm. wide, elliptic, the first scale wanting,
the second and third sparingly papillose-pubescent with appressed hairs, 3-nerved,
the fruiting scale yellowish-white.
Woods and
thickets
at lower
elevations
in dry districts, Porto Rico; Mona;
St.
Thomas (according to Krebs)
:— Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
17. Paspalum orbiculatum Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 5: 32.
1804.
Paspalum pusillum Vent.
; Fluegge, IMon. Pasp. 100.
ISIO.
Perennial; glabrous; culms
prostrate, often rooting at the nodes,
slender,
sometimes 4 dm. long or longer, the flowering branches erect, 5-20 cm.
high.
Leaves short, lanceolate, flat, 2-5 cm. long, 7 mm. wide or less, mostly spreading;
40
POACEAE
racemes 2-4, short-exserted from the upper leaf-sheath, 1-3 cm. long; spikelets
orbicular-elliptic, smooth, yellowish, a little less than
1 mm. long.
Wet banks and along shaded streams at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas (type locality of P. pusillum, but not collected there recently);—Hispaniola;
Dominica; Alartiniqiie; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
18. Paspalum decumbens Sw. Prodr. 22.
17SS.
Paspalum pedunculatum Desv.
; Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 31.5.
1810.
Perennial; culm decumbent, rooting at the lower nodes, branched, 2-5 dm.
long.
Leaves glalirou? or more or less pubescent,
ciliate, the blades 5-10 cm.
long, 12 mm. wide or less; racemes solitary,
1..5-4 cm. long; spikelets glabrous,
paired, about 1.5 mm. long, the first scale orbicular, the second and third 3-nerved,
the fruiting one oval, longitudinally papillose.
Shaded banks and woods
in wet
districts, Porto
Rico, ascending
to SOO m.:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental ti'opical America.
19. Paspalum clavuliferum C. Wright; Sauvalle, Anal. Acad. Habana 8: 203.
1871.
Perennial culms tufted, slender, weak, simple or few-branched, 4 dm. long
or less.
Leaves
flat, pilose-pubescent,
1-2 mm. wide; racemes
2, sometimes 3
(rarely only 1), slender, straight or slightly curved, 2-5 cm. long; spikelets elliptic-
obovate, plano-conve.x, pubescent, 1.5 mm. long.
Hillsides and plains at lower elevations
in the northern and western
districts of
Porto Rico:—Cul>a; Mexico to South America.
20. Paspalum notatum Fluegge, Mon. Pasp.
106.
1810.
Perennial by a short, tough rootstock; culms simple, glabrous,
clustered or
solitary, 1..5-4 dm. high, erect or nearly so.
I eaf-sheaths ciliate or glabrous, the
blades
flat,
glabrous or sparingly pubescent,
G-20 cm.
long,
4-8 mm.
wide;
racemes 2, conjugate, straight or becoming somewhat curved, 3-6 cm. long or
sometimes longer; spikelets oval, glabrous, ol)tuse, 2. .5-3 mm. long, the first scale
wanting, the third 3-5-nerved.
Wet meadows,
slopes and along streams at lower and middle
elevations,
Porto
Rico;
St. Thomas (type locality, but not found there by recent collectors):—.Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola; Antigua;
Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
Grenada;
continental
tropical
America.
21. Paspalum minus Fourn. Me.\.
PI. 2: 6.
1886.
Closely resembles Paspalum notatum and may not be specifically distinct
from that species.
The two racemes are more widely divergent than those of
notatrun and the siiikelets are a little less than 2.5 mm. long.
Trujillo Alto (ex Hitchcock & Chase)
:—Jamaica ; Cuba
; continental tropical America-
22. Paspalum vaginatum. Sw. Prodr. 21.
1788.
Culms 2-6 dm. tall, from a long stout rootstock; sheaths compressed, keeled,
usually crowded and overlapping, at least at the
))ase and on the innovations,
glabrous; leaves folded, or involute when dry, 1.5 dm. long or less, 2-4 mm. wide,
glabrous or sparingly hairy; racemes terminal, usually in pairs, rarely more or but
a single one, erect or ascending, 3-7 cm. long; spikelets singly disposed, ovate-
lanceolate, acute, 3-4 mm. long, the 2 outer scales glabrous, thin, the first scale
4-nerved, the lateral nerves appro.ximate at the margin, the midnorve suppressed,
the second scale 5-nerved, the lateral nerves rather near together, the third scale
glabrous at the apex or with 2 or 3 hairs.
Brackish soil aloag the coasts of Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques; St. Croix; Tortola:
southern United States; West Indies; continental tropical America.
POACEAE
41
23. Paspalum distichum L. PI. Jam. Pugil.
5.
1759.
Culms 1-6 dm. tali, from a long stout rootstock; sheaths compressed, keeled,
usually crowded and overlapping, especially at the base and on the innovations,
glabrous, or more or less hairy on the margins; leaves commonly less than 1 dm.
long, 3-6 mm.
wide, usually glabrous; racemes terminal,
in
pairs,
ascending,
2-5 cm. long; spikelets singly disposed, ovate, 2.5-3 mm. long, acute, the 2 outer
scales
firm, 5-nerved, rarely 7-nerved, the
first scale glabrous, the second ap-
pressed-pubescent, the third apiculate, pubescent at the apex.
Wet grounds at low elevations near the coasts of Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix:
United
States; Bermuda; West
Indies;
continental
tropical America and Old World
tropics.
Joint-grass.
24. Paspalum conjugatum Berg. Act. Helv. Phys. Math. 7: 129.
1762.
Smooth and glabrous.
Culms compressed, 2-9 dm.
tall, finally decumbent
at the base and rooting at the lower nodes; leaves 4-16 cm. long, 4-12 mm. wide;
racemes in pairs, slender, often curved, spreading or ascending, 5-12 cm. long,
the rachis straight, or flexuous toward the apex, 0.6-0.8 mm. broad; spikelets
crowded, much compressed dorsally, singly di.spo.sed,
1.5 mm. long, 1-1.2 mm.
broad, apiculate, the 2 outer scales 2-nerved, the nerves marginal, the first scale
ciliate on the margins with very long lax hairs, the third scale smooth, white.
Hillsides and fields at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascending into the
Luquillo Mountains; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—southern United States;
Bermuda;
Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba
to
Trinidad;
Margarita;
continental
tropical
America.
25. Paspalum fimbriatum H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1: 93.
1815.
Annual; culms tufted, glabrous, often branched below, 3-8 dm. high, the
sheaths hirsute or glal3rous.
Leaves 1-2.5 dm. long, 1.5 cm. wide or less, ciliate;
racemes 2-6. erect or ascending, 2.5-7 cm. long; spikelets mostly in pairs, sub-
orbicular, 2.5-3.5 mm. long, the scales papillose, 3-nerved, the lower one with a
broad cleft wing, with ciliate segments, the next with a similar partial wing, the
fruiting scale 7-ridged.
Waste grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix:—West Indies; continental tropical
America.
Paspalum molle Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 5: 34.
1804.
A species described from St. Thomas, not undertsood by modern botanists.
Paspalum spathaceum Desv.; Poir. in Lam. Encyc. Suppl. 4: 314, 1816.
St. Thomas (ex Schlechtendal).
A species not understood by modern bot-
anists.
26. PANICUM L. Sp. PI. 55.
1753.
Annuals or perennials, various in habit, with open or contracted
panicles,
Spikelets 1-2-flowered, when 2-flowered the lower one staminate only.
Scales 4-
the 3 lower membranous, empty, or the third with a staminate flower, varying in
the same species; the inner or fourth scale chartaceous, shining, enclosing a palet
of similar texture and a perfect flower.
Awns none.
Stamens
3.
Styles dis-
tinct.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain free, enclosed in the hardened fruiting scale and
42
POACEAE
palet.
[Old
Latin name
for some
grass,
proba)3ly
the
cultivated
sorghum,
referring to its panicle, taken from Pliny.]
About 500 species, in temperate and
tropical regions, known as Panic-orass.
Type species: Panioim milinceum L.
A.
Panicle-branchlets prolonged as a bristle beyond the upper-
most spikelet.
B.
Panicle-branchlets not prolonged as a bclstle
1.
Basal leaves similar to those of the culm.
a. Fourth scale transversely wrinkled.
Pereiuiial species.
Panicle open, diffusely branched.
Panicle of secund racemes.
Nodes of the culm glabrotis.
Nodes of tlie culm bearded.
Aniuial species.
(^ulms prostrate or spreading,
(^^ulms erect or ascending.
Spikelets glabrovis, reticulate veined.
Spikelets
pubescent,
scarccl.v
i'e(.iculaf(v
veined.
b.
Fourtli scale not transversely wrinkled.
*Fir.st scale trimcate, short.
Spikelets aciite.
Spikelets acuminate.
**First scale not trmicate.
tAnnual, species.
Spikelets about 5 mm. long.
Spikelets about 1.2 mm. long.
ttPerennial species.
JSpikelets in open or contracted panicles.
§Panicle narrow
; spikelets few ; leaves in-
volute.
Spikelets pointed, about 2.5 mm. long.
Spikelets not pointed, about 1.5 mm.
long.
§§Panicles open, mostly
large;
spikelets
several or many; leaf-blades flat.
First scale about one-fifth as long as
the spikelet.
First scale about one-third as long as
the spikelet.
Cidms
erect,
not
rooting
at
the
lower nodes
Leaf-blades 1-3 mm. wide.
Leaf-blades 6-12 mm. wide.
Culms decumbent, rooting at the
lower nodes.
Spikelets viscid.
Spikelets not viscid.
Leaf-blades 10-25 mm. wide.
Leaf-blades 2-6 mm. wide.
tJi^pikelets forming spike-like, more or
less
secund racemes in the panicles.
Culms erect;. panicle dense.
CXdms decumbent ; panicles not dense.
I^eaf-blades narrowed at the base.
Leaf-blades cordate or truncate at the
base.
Spikelets about 2 mm. long; pani-
cle-branches nearly erect.
Spikelets about 1.5 mm. long; pani-
icle-branches spreading.
2.
Basal leaves usually broader and shorter than those of
culm, forming rosettes.
a.
Plants branching from the base.
b. Plants brandling from the nodes.
*Leaf-blades long and
stiff.
Nodes not bearded.
Spikelets 2 mm. long.
Spikelets
.S mm. long.
Nodes bearded.
**Leaf-blades not long and
stiff.
Spikelets turgid, blimt, strongly nerved.
Spikelets not tm-gid nor strongly nerved.
Ligule long-hairy.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or nearly so.
I^eaf-sheaths very pubescent.
Ligule obsolete; plants velvety-pubescent.
1. P. iilowamieum.
2.
P. maximum
3. P. geminatum.
4.
P. harbinode.
5. P. reptans.
ti..
P. fasciculatum.
7.
I'. (idsjUTSiitn.
8
P. oqiiaticum.
9. P. e'.ephantipes.
10. P. miliaceum.
11.
P. irichoides.
12.
P. lenerum.
i;5.
p. stenodes.'
14.
P. Schiffnrri.
15.
P. diffusum.
i<).
P. ClMesfbrcghtii.
17.
P.
(ilitlinnsunt.
IS.
P. Irichanthum.
19. P. parvifoHum.
20.
P. crmdcnsiim.
21.
P.
loj-iiw.
22.
P. Stevensianiim.
2:?.
P. hoHviense.
24.
P. poh/caiilon.
2.5.
P. aciculnif.
26.
P. fusijoriiK'.
27.
P. chrysopsidifolitiin.
28.
P. portoricense.
29.
P. leucothrix.
;M).
p. acuminatum.
'M.
P. scoparium.
POACEAE
43
1. Panicum utowanaeum Scribn.
; Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 25.
1903.
Panicum Sinlenisii Nash, Bull. Torrey Clul) 30: 382.
1903.
Perennial by slender rootstocks; cuims glabrous, rather weak, little branched,
2-6 dm. long.
Leaf-sheaths ciliate above, ligule a few short stiff hairs; blades
2 dm. long or less, 1-4 mm. wide, glabrous, or the upper surface pilose toward
the base; panicles slender, 3-10 cm. long, with nearly erect branches, the branch-
lets prolonged beyond the uppermost spikelet into a bristle 2-4 mm. long; spike-
lets about 2 mm. long, nearly
sessile, ellipsoid, glabrous, the
first scale acute,
1 mm. long, 3-nerved, the second 3-5-nerved, the fruit rugulose.
Hillsides at lower elevations in dry parts of the southwestern districts of Porto Rico;
De.secheo; Mona; Muertos; Anegada:—Cuba; Guadeloupe; Venezuela.
2. Panicum maximum .Jacq.
Ic.
PI. Rar. 1: 2,
pi.
13.
17.s(>.
Pnnirinii jii nieiitoruiii Pers.
S.\ii.
1:
83.
1S0.5.
Perennial; culms
1-2
m.
tall
or
more,
leafy;
ieaf-sheaths
over lapping,
glabrous, or tuberculate-pubescent; blades elongated,
1-4 cm.
wide,
glabrous;
panicle 3-6 dm. k)ng, its branches erect or nearly so, very long; spikelets glabrous,
3-4 mm. long, the fourth scale transversely rugose.
Fields and hanks at lower and middle elevations, Porto Kico; Mona; Icacos; Muertos;
A'ieques;
St.
(^roix;
Si. Thomas;
St.
.Tan: Tortola:—widely naturalized in tropical and
subtropical
regions
after i)laiiting
for
f(Klder.
Native
of
tropical
Africa.
Guinea
Grass.
Yerba Guinea.
3. Panicum geminatum
F'orsk.
Fl. Aegypt.-Arab.
is.
177.1.
Panicum hrhoiden Lam. Tab!. Encyc. 1: 170.
1791.
Not
Tj. 1771,
Paspalum appressuin Lam. Tabl. Encycl.
l: 176.
1791.
Aquatic.
Culms 6-12 dm. long, usually clothed with sheaths below; leaves
glabrous,
2..'> dm. long or
less, 6-10 mm. wide; racemes 10-20, one-sided, the
rachis broadly winged, appressed, 2-4 cm. long; spikelets about
2. .5 mm. long,
ovate, acute, glabrous, singly disposer!
in 2 rows, the
first scale broader than
long and clasping the spikelet at its base, truncate at the apex, the fourth scale
transversely wrinkled.
Banks and
borders of streams and lakes at lower elevations and in coastal salinas,
Porto Rico; Icacos; St. Thomas; St. Jan
; St. Croix; Anegada:—Florida; Texas; Bahamas,
Jamaicta; Cuba to Martinique: Curacao; Aruba; continental tropical America and Old
World Tropics.
[P. paspaloidcs of authors, not of Persoon.]
Water-grass.
4. Panicum barbinode Trin. Mem. Acad.
St.
Petersb.
VI.
Sci. Nat.
1: 256.
1834.
Sterile culms 1-2 m. long, rooting at the iiodes, the fertile ones erect, 6-10
dm.
tall
or more,- the nodes densely
barbed;
leaf-sheaths
often
overlapping,
papillose-hirsute;
l)lacies 1-3 dm. long, glabrous or i)ubescent, 6-16 mm. wide;
panicle
1..5-2 dm. long,
its branches spreading or ascending; spikelets about 3
mm. long, glabrous.
Wet meadows, marshes and in cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower elevations
Mona; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix; Tortola:—southern United States; Bermuda; West
Indies; continental
tropical America.
Native of South America.
A valuable fodder-
grass [Paniram /no/te of authors, not Swartz.]
Para Grass.
Malojillo.
Yerba Para
.
5. Panicum reptans L. Syst. ed.
10, 870.
1759.
Panicum grossarium L. Syst. ed.
10, 871.
17.59.
Panicum prostratum Lam. Tabl. Encycl.
1: 171.
1791.
Panicum caespilosum Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 146.
1797.
P. prostratum pilosum Eggecs, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus. 13: 104.
1879.
44
POACEAE
Annual; culms prostrate or decumbent, usually much-branched, rooting at
the lower nodes, the flowering branches 1-3 dm. high, glabrous, or the nodes
puberulent.
Leaf-sheaths ciliate; ligule a dense row of hairs; blades lanceolate,
ciliate at the base, subcoixlate, 6 cm. long or less, 4-12 mm. wide
; panicle at length
long-stalked, of several secund spikelike racemes 1-3 cm. long; spikelets elliptic,
about 2 mm. long, the first scale very short.
[P. repcns of Krebs, not of Swartz.]
Hillsides and cultivated ground, Porto Rico, in dry parts of the southern districts;
Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—southern United
States; Me.\ico; Jamaica;
Cuba to Tobago; Margarita; Curacao; continental tropical America and Old World.
6. Panicum fasciculatum Sw. Prodr. 22.
1788.
Panicum carthaginense Sw. Prodr. 22.
1788,
Panicum fusctim Sw.
Prodr. 23.
1788.
Panicum flavescens Sw. Prodr. 23.
1788.
P. fuscum fasciculatum Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. .547.
1864.
P. fasciculatum flavescens Doell. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2':
20.'").
1877.
Panicum. paniculaium Nash, Bull. Torr. Club 30: 381.
1903. Not Kuntze 1898.
Perennial; culms glabrous or somewhat pube.scent above, slender or rather
stout, erect, spreading or ascending, 0.3-1 m. long.
Leaves flat, 3 dm. long or
less, 0.6-2 cm. wide, glabrous or niore or less pubescent, the sheaths sometimes
pilose or hispid; panicles
.5-1.') cm. long, the branches raceme-like, ascending;
spikelets commonly approximate, short-stalked, brown, 2-2.5 mm. long, glabrous,
the outer scales reticulate-veined, the fourth scale rugose.
Moist banks, hillsides and woodlands, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations;
Vieques; Culebra;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—southern United States;
West Indies; continental tropical America.
{?UrocMoafasciculata of K.rchs.]
7. Panicum adspersum
'^I'lin.
Cirara. Pan.
146.
1826.
Culms ascending or spreading, rooting at the lower nodes, branched, com-
pressed, glabrous, 3-10 dm. long.
Sheaths ciliate above; leaf-blades 5-20 cm.
long, 8-20 mm.
wide, glabrous, or sometimes
ciliate at the base, rather
stiff,
abruptly acuminate, rough-margined; panicles 6-15 cm. long, composed of maiiy
spike-liko racemes;
spikelets short-stalkeo, 3-4 mm.
long,
1.5-1.8 mm.
wide,
fusiform;
first scale acute, glabrous, 5-nerved, about one-third as long as the
whole spikelet; second and third scales, hispid at least above, rarely glabrous.
Banks and hillsides at lower elevations in dry parts of the southern districts of Porto
Rico, extending north
to Guanajibo on the western
coast; Mona; Muertos;
Vieqiies;
St. Croix;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—southern United States; Bahamas; Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Saija; Guadeloupe.
8. Panicum aquaticum Poir.
in Lam. Encycl.
Sup])l. 4: 2S1.
1816.
Perennial; culms rather stout, glabrous, decumbent below and rooting at the
nodes, simple or branching,
the branches
neai'ly
erect, 2-5 dm.
high.
Leaf-
sheaths glabrous, or pilose above; blades 8-25 cm. long, 5-10 mm. wide, glabrous,
or sparingly pilose above; panicles short-stalked, open, 8-20 cm. long, the filiform
branches spreading, smooth or nearly so; spikelets about 3 mm.
long,
1 mm.
wide, acute, the first scale short, truncate, the second and third strongly nerved.
[Referred by Hackel to P. proUfervm Lam.]
Wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Cuba
; Trinidad ; conti-
nental tropical America.
Recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas.
9. Panicum elephantipes Nees, Agrost. Bras.
165.
1829.
Annual; culms ascending from a decumbent base, rooting at the lower nodes,
somewhat fleshy, up to
1 m. long, stout, sometimes 2 cm. thick, glabrous, the
nodes usually blackish.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous, the blades 1.5-5 dm. long, 7-20
mm. wide, pilose above near the base; panicles open, 2-4 dm. long, their slender
POACEAE
45
branches ascending; spikelets acuminate, 4-5 mm. long;
first scale 1-1.5 mm.
long, subtruncate, the second and third 7-9-nerved.
[Referred by Hackel to
P. chlorolicum pingue Nees.]
Wet grounds at low
elevations, Porto
Rico:—Cuba; Jauiaica; continental tropical
America.
10. Panicum miliaceum L. Sp. PI. 58.
1753.
Culms erect or decumbent, rather stout, 3 dm.
tall or more, glabrous or
hirsute.
Sheaths papillose-hirsute; leaves
1.2.5-2.5 dm.
long, 8-25 mm.
wide,
more or less pubescent; panicle rather dense, 1-2.5 dm. long; branches erect or
ascending; spikelets 5 mm. long, acuminate; first scale about two-thirds as long
as the spikelet, acuminate, 5-7-nerved; second scale acuminate, 13-nerved, some-
what exceeding the 7-13-nerved acuminate third one, which subtends an empty
palet; fourth scale shorter than the third, becoming indurated, obtuse.
Waste grounds, St. Croix
:—United States.
Native of the Old World.
Hog Millet.
11. Panicum trichoides Sw. Prodr. 24.
1788.
Panicum hrcvifolium of authors.
Not L. 1753.
Panicum capillaceum Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 173.
1791.
Animal; culms slender, ascending or erect, 6 dm. high or less, pubescent
Sheaths pubescent and ciliate; leaf-blades membranous, 2
7 cm. long, 1-2 cm.
wide,
ovate-lanceolate, acuminate
at
the apex,
cordate-clasping
at
the
base,
glabrous or sparingly pubescent;
panicles 2 dm.
long or
less,
their branches
filiform, spreading and ascending; spikelets nearly ellipsoid, about 1.2 mm. long,
sparingly hirsute; first scale acute, 1-nerved, aliout one-half as long as the whole
spikelet; second and third scales 3-nerved.
Banks, liillsides, woods and along streams, Porto Rico, ascending to high elevations;
St. Thomas (ex Eggers)
; Tortola
:—West Indies
; continental tropical America.
12. Panicum tenerum Beyr.
; Trin. Mem. Acad.
St. Petersb. VI. Nat. 1: 341.
1834.
Perennial; culms slender,
stiff,
tufted,
glabrous, 4-9 dm.
high.
Sheaths
glabrous, or the lower softly pubescent; leaf-blades 4-15 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide,
or the upper much smaller, erect, somewhat involute in drying, somewhat pu-
bescent, at least toward the base; panicles solitary and terminal, 3-8 cm. long,
or also a few smaller ones lateral; spikelets 2-2.8 mm. long, about
1 mm. wide,
pointed, short-stalked, rather crowded
; first scale about one-half the length of the
whole spikelet, 1-nerved, the second and third 5-7-nerved.
Moist wliite sand near Mauati:—southeastern United States; Bahamas; Cuba.
13. Panicum stenodes Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 547.
1SG4.
Perennial; culms tufted, wiry, glabrous, erect or reclining, 5 dm. high or less,
usually
branched
at
or above
the
middle,
the
branches
elongated.
Leaves
glabrous, the blades 1-4 cm. long, involute, 1-2 mm. wide; panicles small, only
1-2 cm. long, the subracemose spikelets about 1.5 mm. long, elliptic;
first scale
about one-half the length of the spikelet, nerveless or 1-nerved, the second and
third 5-nerved.
Savanna near San Juan on road to TrujUlo Alto:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; con-
tinental tropical America.
14. Panicum Schiffneri Hack. Ergeb. Bot. Exp. Sudbras. 11.
1906.
Perennial; culms slender, decumbent, ascending or clambering, with long
diverging branches, glabrous or more or
less hirsute.
Leaf-sheaths papillose-
46
POACEAB
hispid, at least above, the blades flat, lanceolate, 10-18 cm. Ions;, 1-2.5 cm. wide,
scabrate and sometimes
sparingly
hispid,
the
base narrowed;
panicles
10-15
cm. long, the filiform branches spreading or the lower reflexed, scabrous, pilose
at the base; spikelets clustered on the branchlets, glabrous, about 2 mm. long
and 1 mm. thick, obtuse, first scale very short, the second and third about equal.
[? Panicum coininelinacfolium R. &
S.]
River banks and wet
slopes, Porto Rico:—Martinique;
St.
Vincent; continental
tropical America.
15. Panicum diffusum Sw. I'rodr. 23.
1878.
Perennial; culms tufted, spreading or ascending, simple or little branched,
glabrous
witli pubescent
nodes,
2-.^ dm.
high.
Sheaths
striate,
glabrous
or
pubescent; leaf-blades 2 dm. long or less, 1-3 mm. wide, sparingly pubescent;
panicles 5-10 cm. long, open,
tlie branches filiform; spikelets few, near the ends
of the panicle-branches, short-stalked, about 2 nmi. long and
I mm. wide;
first
scale acute, about one-half as long as the spikelet; second and third scales 7-9-
nerved.
Hillsides near Mie coast, western and northwestern districts of Porto Rico; St. Croix
(ex Grisebach); St. Tliomas; St. .Ian; Tortola:—West Indies, soutli to Martinique.
16. Panicum Ghiesbreghtii Fourn. Me.x. PI. 2: 29.
1886.
Panicum hirlira'jin ii m Ifitchc. Contr.
U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 223.
1909.
I'ereiuiial; culms erect, tufted, rather stout, 6-S dm. higli, the nodes hirsute.
Sheaths hirsute; leaf-blades
flat,
uj) to 6 dm. long and 12 mm. wide, hirsute or
glabrate; panicle 2-3 dm. long, its branches ascending; spikelets numerous, short-
stalked, about 3 mm. long and
1 mm. wide;
first scale acute, one-half to two-
thirds as long as the whole spikelet; second and third scales 7-9-nerved.
[Re-
corded by Hackel as P. diffusum Sw.]
Moist meadows at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—Bahamas; Jamaica; Culja; con-
tinental tropical America.
17.
Panicum glutinosum Sw. Prodr. 24.
17S8.
Perennial; culms erect with a decumbent base, rooting at the lower nodes,
rather stout, glabrous, 1-2 m. high.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or
iiilo.se, bearded
at the mouth, the blades 1.5-5 dm. long, 1-2.5 cm. wide, long-acuminate, ciliate
toward the base; panicles open, 1-3 dm. long, their branches ascending, bearded
at the base, the lower verticillate, the branchlets scabrous and sometimes viscid;
spikelets slendei'-stalked, viscid, aliout 3 mm. long, the
first and second scales
about equal.
Banks, hilLsides and forests at middle anti luglier elevations
iji wet or moist districts,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Croix
(ex
West):—.Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
continental
tropical
America.
18. Panicum trichanthum Nees, Agrost. Bras. 210.
1829.
Perennial; culms often clustered, glabrous, slender, decumbent or ascending,
up
to 2 m.
long.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or
ciliate, sometimes
villous at the
mouth, the blades lanceolate, glabrous or sparingly pubescent, 8-15 cm. long,
1-2.5 cm. wide, the base coi'date, the apex acuminate; panicles diffuse, 1-3 cm.
long, the spreading branches and branchlets capillary; spikelets very numerous,
nearly oblong, acute, about 1.3 mm. long; first scale very short, the second and
third 3-nerved.
Tliickets, woods and
river banks
in wet or moist
districts, Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
Jamaica; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
POACEAE
47
19. Panicum parvifolium Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 173.
1791.
Panicum oplismenoides Nash, Bull. Torr. Club 30: 381.
1903.
Not Hack.
1888.
Perennial; culms
slender,
creeping
or decumbent,
rooting
at
the nodes,
branched, glabrous, or the nodes sometimes pilose, 2-8 dm. long.
Leaf-sheaths
glabrous or sparingly pilose or ciliate, the blades lanceolate, short, 1-3 cm. long,
2-7 mm. wide, sometimes pilose near the rounded or subcordate base; panicles
short-stalked, 2-6 cm. long, the branches filiform, spreading; spikelets glabrous,
about
1..5 mm. long, obtuse; first scale about 0.7 mm. long, the second and third
5-nerved; fruit smooth, shining.
Wet grounds, northern coastal plain of Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Trinidad,
continental tropical America.
20. Panicum condensum Nash in Small, Fl. SE. U.
S. 93.
1903.
Culms tufted, branched, 0.6-1 m.
tall, the basal sheaths compressed and
keeled.
Leaf-blades 2-4 dm. long, 6-8 mm. wide, erect or nearly so; panicles
large, dense, oblong, 1-2.5 dm. long, their branches erect; spikelets numerous,
about 2.3 mm. long, acute, glabrous
;
first scale acuminate, about one-half the
length of the whole spikelet
; second and third scales acuminate.
Swamps and borders of lakes, northern coastal plain of Porto Rico:—southeastern
United States; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Guadeloupe
(?); Mexico.
21. Panicum laxum Sw. Prod. 23.
1788.
Panicum agrostidiforme Lam. Tabl. Encycl,
1: 172.
1791.
Panicum tenuiculmiim Meyer, Prim.
Fl. Esseq. 58.
1818.
Culms simple or little branched, often decumbent and rooting at the lower
nodes, 4-12 dm. high.
Sheaths hirsute above, otherwise glabrous; blades 1-2.5
dm. long, 4-15 mm. wide, glabrous, or sparingly pubescent on the upper side;
panicles 0.5-3 dm. long, with many, slender spike-like branches, the lower branches
spreading, the ultimate branchlets mostly secund
; .spikelets 1-1.5 mm. long, about
0.7 mm. wide, short-stalked; first scale 1-3-nerved, about one-third the length of
the whole spikelet, the second somewhat shorter than the
third.
[?P. pilosum
of Krebs.]
Moist or wet soil, Porto Rico, ascending to at least 900 m.; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
Tortola:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
22. Panicum Stevensianum H. & C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 17: 498.
1915.
Perennial; culms compressed, 3-6 dm. long, prostrate, rooting at the nodes,
the
branches
ascending, about 3 dm.
high.
Leaf-sheaths
ciliate,
keeled,
the
blades
flat, glabrous, 4-10 cm. long, 10 mm. wide or less, the base truncate or
subcordate, sometimes ciliate; panicle short-stalked, 6-10 cm. long, narrow, its
spike-like Vjranches nearly erect and appressed; spikelets crowded, about 2 mm.
long, acute;
first scale about one-fourth the length of the spikelet; the second
and third 3-5-nerved, about equal.
In wet white sand, Laguna de Tortuguero:—Cuba.
23. Panicum boliviense Hack. Repert. 11:
19.
1912.
Perennial; culm creeping or decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes,
rather slender, glabrous, branched,
the branches erect, 5-15 dm.
high.
Leaf-
sheaths glabrous, or hirsute above, with ciliate margins, the blades
flat, 5-16
cm. long, 8-20 mm. wide, the base subcordate, clasping, ciliate; panicle stalked,
7-25 cm. long, its branches spike-like, distant, or the upper approximate; spikelets
nearly sessile, about 1.5 mm. long, and one-half as wide as long, the
first scale
short, the second and third about equal in length, obtuse.
Hillsides, Tortola:—Cuba; St. Kitts
(?); continental tropical America.
48
POACEAE
24. Panicum polycaulon Nash, Bull. Torr. Club 24: 200.
1897.
Densely tufted, forming rosettes or small mats, the basal leaves much larger
than those of the culms; culms glabrous, simple,' or branched at the base, 6-20
cm.
high,
often many
together.
Basal leaf-blades linear-Ianceoiate, 3-7 cm.
long, 2-6 mm. wide,
ciliate, the sheaths ciliate; panicles pilose, 4-7 cm. long;
spikelets filiform-stalked, glabrous,
l..'>-2 mm. long, obovate, obtuse; first scale
about one-third as long as the spikelet, acutish; second and third scales nerved.
Grassy places at lower and middle
elevations
in moist
districts, Porto Rico:
southeastern United States: Jamaica; Cuba.
Referred by Hackel to P. ciliaium EII.
25. Panicum aciculare Desv.;
Poir.
in Lam. Encycl.
Suppl.
4: 274.
1816.
Culms slender, ascending, 1-3 dm. long, pubescent at least above, at length
bushy-branched and forming cushion-like masses.
Leaf-sheaths villous or ciliate,
the blades linear, rather stiff, involute and tapering to a sharp tip, glabrous, or the
lower pilose, 4-7 cm. long, 2-5 mm. wide, or those of the culms much smaller and
narrower; panicles 3-7 cm. long; spikelets about 2 mm. long and
1 mm. thick,
obovoid,
obtuse;
first scale about one-fourth the length of the
spikelet,
the
second and third papillose-pubescent.
Hillsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—southern United States; Cuba.
26. Panicum fusiforme Hitchc. Contr. Nat. Herb. 12: 222.
1909.
Culms tufted, up to 7 dm long, usually shorter, pubescent, ultimately bushy-
branched.
Leaves
stiff, somewhat pubescent, or
ciliate,
their sheaths
villous,
their
blades long-acuminate,
10 cm. long or
less;
panicles exserted;
spikelets
ellipsoid, pubescent, about 3 mm. long, the
fl,.st scale obtuse.
Sunamit of El Yunciue:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; British Honduras.
27. Panicum chrysopsidifolium Nash in Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 100.
1903.
Culms slender or rather stout, 4.5 dm. long or less, densely villous, often
purplish, at length diffusely branched and matted, the nodes bearded.
Leaves
villous, rather stiff, the blades of the lower or basal ones 5-10 cm. long, 3-8 mm.
wide, those of the later branches much smaller and narrower; panicles at length
long-stalked, 4-7 cm. long, with
filiform, flexuous branches; spikelets obovoid,
obtuse, about 2 mm. long
; first scale about one-third the length of the spikelet,
the second and
third
villous.
[Recorded by Hackel as
P.
angustifolium
Ell.
and as P. consanguineum Kunth.]
Slopes and banks at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet districts, Porto
Rico, ascending into the Luqmllo Moimtains:—southeastern United States; Cuba.
28. Panicum portoricense Desv.; Ilamilt. Prodr.
11.
1825.
Panicum pnucicilialinn Ashe, Journ. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 16: 87.
1900.
Culms commonly clustered, ascending or decumbent, puberulent or glabrate,
3 dm. long or less, at length branched from most of the nodes.
Sheaths usually
ciliate,
at least above;
ligules inconspicuous; blades rather
thin,
glabrous or
puberulent, 2-5 cm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, or those of the later branches much
smaller; panicle small, 2-6 cm.
long,
glai^rous; spikelets usually few,
turgid,
obliquely obovoid, blunt, 1.5 mm. long; first scale about one third the length of
the
spikelet,
obtuse,
the second and
third
strongly
7-9-nerved,
puberulent.
[Recorded by Hackel as P. Nashianum Scribn.]
Sandy soU northern coastal plain of Porto Rico:-—southeastern United States; Cuba.
29. Panicum leucothrix Nash, Bull. Torr. Club 24: 41.
1897.
Culms tufted, pubescent or pubervilent at least above, slender, ascending or
erect, the later ones much branched, 2.4-5 dm. long.
Leaf-blades more or less
pubescent, ciliate or puberulent, the hairy ligules about 3 mm. long, rather thin,
POACEAE
49
flat, 2-7 cm. long, 2-7 mm. Avlde, the sheaths often nearly glabrous or with some
long hairs; panicle 2-8 cm. long,
pilose, the branches filiform; spikelets nearly
ellipsoid, about
1..3 mm. long, papillose-pubescent,
first scale ol^tuse, about one-
fourth the length of the spikelet, the second and third about equal, 7-nerved.
Savannas and hillsides, Porto Rico:—southeastern United States; Cuba.
30. Panicum acuminatum Sw. Prodr. 23.
1788.
Panicuvi ornatmn Desv.
; Hamilt. Prodr.
11.
1825.
Panicum comophyllutn Nash, Bull. Torr. Club 30: 380.
1903.
Culms densely villous, ascending, 7 dm. long or less, the later ones usually
branched
at most of the nodes, the ultimate branchlets commonly fascicled.
Leaves villous or pul^escent, or the upper sheaths glabrate, the ligule about 3
mm. long, the blades 4-8 cm. long, 6-13 mm. wide, those of the later branches
much smaller; panicle up to 10 cm. long, villous; spikelets obovoid, nearly 2 mm.
long, pilose,
first scale about one third as long as the spikelet, the second and
third strongly nerved.
[Referred by Hackel to P. dicholomum L.]
Banks
at lower and middle elevations
in moist
districts, Porto Rico:—Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Colombia.
31. Panicum scoparium Lam. Encycl. 4: 744.
1798.
Culms
rather
stout,
densely
velvety,
branched,
erect,
ascending or
de-
cumbent, up to 1 m. long, the base usually decumbent, the nodes villous with a
viscid ring alsove.
Leaf-sheaths velvety or viscid, the blades lanceolate, villous,
2 dm. long or less, 8-15 mm. wide, or those of the branches much smaller; panicle
stalked,
&-15 cm.
long,
viscid,
its
filiform branches spreading
or ascending;
spikelets pedicelled, oblong-obovoid, villous, about 2.5 nmi. long, pointed; first
scale very short, the second and third strongly nerved.
Rocky situations. Sierra de Naguabo:—southeastern United States; Cuba.
Panicum cayennense Lam.
is recorded, by Schlechtendal, with doubt, as
collected on St. Thomas.
We have no evidence of its existence there.
Panicum anceps Michx., of the United States;
P. distachyum L., of Asia
and Australia; and P. oryzoides Sw., of tropical Amei'ica, recorded by Krebs as
formerly found in St. Thomas, are, presumably errors for identification.
27. ICHNANTHUS Beauv. Agrost. 56.
1812.
Mostly perennial, herbaceous
grasses,
with
flat leaf-blades and
panicled,
narrow, 1-2-fiowered spikelets jointed below the scales.
Scales 4, awnless, the
first one often as long as the whole spikelet,
Lower flower of the spikelet com-
monly staminate, sometimes wanting,
the upper one
perfect.
Fruiting
scale
with ))asal appendages, or in our species with excavations, its back turned toward
the rachis of the spikelet.
[Greek, vestigial flower.]
About 25 species, natives
of tropical America.
Type species: Ichnanthus panicoides Beauv.
Lower scales attenuate-acuminate.
1.
/. nemorosus.
Lower scales acute or merely acuminate.
Leaf-blades lanceolate, glabrous.
2.
/. pollens.
Leaf-blades ovate to ovate-lanceolate, often pubescent beneath.
3.
/. axillaris.
1. Ichnanthus nemorosus (Sw.) Doeli in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
2^: 289.
1877.
Panicum nemorosum Sw. Prodr. 22.
1788.
Perennial; culms prostrate, often rooting at the nodes, branched, glabrous.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or sparingly pilose or ciliate; blades ovate to lanceolate,
somewhat inequilateral, acuminate, glabrous or sparingly pilose; panicles 8 m.
long or shorter; lower scales lanceolate, attenuate acuminate.
IVIoimtain forests of Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Kitts to Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
50
POACEAE
2. Ichnanthus pallens (Sw.) Munro; Benth.
Fl. Hongk. 414.
1861.
Panicum pallens Sw. Prodr. 23.
1788.
Similar to /. nemorosus, the culms more slender and more elongated.
Leaf-
blades lanceolate,
glabrous or sparingly
pilose; panicles usually larger; lower
scales acute or acuminate, not attenuate.
Shaded banks, forests, woodlands and along streams, Porto Rico, ascending to higher
elevations:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts
to
Trinidad;
continental
tropical
America.
Caruzo.
3. Ichnanthus axillaris (Nees) H. & C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 334.
1917.
Panicum axiliare Nees Agrost. Bras. 141.
1829,
Culms commonly shorter than those of either of the two preceding species.
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, usually more or less pubescent at least beneath;
lower scales acute or acuminate.
Mountain forests of Porto Rico:—Hispaniola;
Tobago; Trinidad; nortliern South
America.
28. LASIACIS (Griseb.) Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 15: 16.
1910.
Perennial, woody,
often elongated and vine-like grasses, with
flat leaves,
the
inflorescence
of terminal
panicles of large subglobose somewhat oblique
1-flowered spikelets.
Scales 4, somewhat coriaceous or chartaceous, not awned,
bearing an apical tuft of short hairs.
Grain enclosed in the hard fruiting scale
and palet.
[Greek, hairy-tip.]
Ten species or more, of tropical and subtropical
America, known as Cane-grass.
Type species: Panicum divarication L.
Leaf-blades glabroas.
Leaf-blades linear-attenuate, mostly less tlian 5 mm. wide.
1.
L. Harrisn.
Leaf-blades lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, mostly 5-20 mm. wide.
Panicles few-flowered, tlie branches zigzag.
2. L. divaricala.
Panicles many-flowered, the branches straight.
3.
L. Sloanei.
Leaf-blades pubescent or puberiilent, at least beneath.
Ligule brown, about 2 mm. long; leaves puberulent beneath.
4. L. ligulala.
Ligule 1 mm. long or less; leaves velvety-pubescent on both sides.
5.
L. sorghoidea.
1. Lasiacis Harrisii Nash, Torreya 13: 274.
1913.
Culms clambering, glabrous, branched, up to 6 m. long, the branches very
slender.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or sometimes ciliate; ligule scarious,
1 mm. long
or less, blades linear-lanceolate, attenuate, 5-12 cm. long, mostly less than 5 mm.
wide, glabrous, rather thin; panicles narrow, few-flowered, short stalked, 3-7 cm.
long, the branches few and short; spikelets ellipsoid, about 4 mm. long, the first
scale orbicular, about 2 mm. long.
Hillsides, slopes and tliickets in moist districts, Porto Rico; St. Jan:—Jamaica.
2. Lasiacis divaricata (L.) Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 15: 16.
1910.
Panicum, divaricalum L. Syst. Nat. ed.
10, 871.
1759.
Panicujn bambusoidcs Desv.
; Hamilt. Prodr.
10.
1825.
Panicxim divaricalum glabrum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 784.
1891.
Culm glabrous, smooth, much branched, erect or arching, 2-3 m. long, the
branches sometimes pendent.
Sheaths ciliate; leaf-blades glabrous, acuminate,
those of the main culm 8-12 cm. long, 1-2 cm. wide, those of the branches smaller;
panicle 5-10 cm.
long,
its
slender branches spreading
or
deflexed;
spikelets
swollen, 4-5 mm. long.
Thickets and woodlands, Porto Rico, ascending to higher elevations; Mona; Muertos;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St- Jan; Tortola:—West
Indies; continental tropical
America.
POACEAE
51
3. Lasiacis Sloanei (Griseb.) Hitchc. Bot. Gaz. 5i: 302.
1911.
Panicum lalifolium Hamilt. Prodr.
10.
1825.
Not L, 1753.
Panicum Sloanei Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 551.
1864.
Culms arching or clambering, glabrous, 2-4 m. long, the branches slender,
elongated.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or
their margins
ciliate;
ligule very
short;
petiole commonly
pubescent;
blades
lanceolate,
acuminate,
glabrous,
thin,
6-15 cm. long, 8-20 mm. wide; panicles 6-20 cm. long,
their branches rather
widely spreading; spikelets ellipsoid or obovoid, pale, about 4 mm. long.
Dry
liillside,
Arecibo:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Dominica
to Trinidad and
South Amprica.
4. Lasiacis ligulata H. & C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb, 18: 337.
1917.
Panicu7n divaricahtrn puberulum Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 551.
1864.
Culms clambering, sometimes attaining a length of 10 meters, and a dia-
meter of 1 cm. toward the base, the slender, widely spreading branches nearly
straight.
Leaf- sheaths
ciliate, otherwise glabrous; ligule brown, about 2 mm.
long; blades lanceolate, 12 cm. long or less, 3-15 mm. wide, acuminate, glabrous
above, puberulent beneath, roughish-margined ; panicles rather loose, 5-10 cm.
long, the short slender branches at length reflexed
; spikelets obovoid, nearly black
when mature, about 4 mm. long.
Hillsides and thickets at lower and middle elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico
St. Thomas; Tortola:—Tobago; Trinidad; Brazil.
6. Lasiacis sorghoidea (Desv.) H. & C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 338.
1917.
Panicum sorghoideum Desv.; Hamilt. Prodr. 10.
1825.
Panicum Siuartziatnim Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 140.
1908.
Lasiacis Swartziana Hitchc. Bot. Gaz. 51: 302.
1911.
Culms arching or clambering, glabrous, 3-7 m. long, the branches slender.
Leaf-sheaths velvety-pubescent or glabrate; ligule inconspicuous,
1 mm. long or
less; blades lanceolate, velvety-pubescent on both sides, the larger ones 1-2 dm.
long, 1-2.5 cm. wide; panicles usually looosely branched and about as broad as
long, their slender branches spreading or ascending; spikelets pale, subglobose,
about 3 mm.
long.
[Referred by Urban to Panicum maculatum Aubl.
(1775)
but the identity is doubted.]
Wooded slopes and ravines at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico; St. Croix;
St. Thomas; Vhgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Cuba; Antigua to Trinidad and South America.
29. SACCIOLEPIS Nash in Britton, Man. 89.
1901.
Perennial
grasses,
with
flat
leaf-blades and
small
spikelets
in
panicles.
Spikelets 1-flowered, jointed below the scales.
Scales 4, the outer 3 membranous
the second one much larger than the others, .saccate at the base, many-nerved,
the
fourth
one
chartaceous.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct;
stigmas
plumose.
[Greek,
with
reference
to
the saccate second
scale
of the
spikelet.]
A few
American species, the following typical.
1. Sacciolepis striata (L.) Nash. Bull. Torrey Club 30: 383.
1903.
Holcus striatus L. Sp. PI. 1048.
1753.
Panicum striatum Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 172.
1791.
Culms erect, with a creeping or decumbent base, branched below, 0.6-1.8 m.
long.
Lower leaf-sheaths hirsute, the upper usually glabrous; blades 7-18 cm.
52
POACEAE
long, 4-20 mm. wide, pubescent; panicle dense, narrow, 2.5 dm. long or
less;
spikelets elliptic, 3-4 mm. long.
Wetgroundsatlower elevations, Porto Rico;—southeastern United States; Jamaica;
Cuba.
Reported from Bermuda.
30. HYMENACHNE Beauv. Agrost. 48.
1812.
Perennial, mostly marsh or aquatic grasses, with flat leaf-blades, and small
1-flowered acuminate
spilielets in dense or interrupted spikelike panicles,
the
very short pedicels jointed below the scales.
Scales 4, membranous, all awnless,
the second one not inflated, the fruiting one little indurated, open at the summit,
not
stalked.
Styles
distinct; stigmas plumose.
[Greek, membranous
scales.]
A few species of tropical and warm-temperate regions.
Type species: Agrostis
monostachya Poir.
1, Hymenachne amplexicaulis (Rudge) Nees, Agrost. Bras. 276.
1829.
Panicum amplexicaule Rudge, PI. Guian.
1: 21.
1805.
Agrostis monoslachya Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 1: 250.
1810.
Panicum hymenachne Desv. Opus.
82.
1831.
Culm erect from a more or less decumbent base, often rooting at the lower
nodes,
stout,
glabrous,
1-2 m.
high.
Leaf-blades
thin,
glabrous,
lanceolate,
long-acuminate, 1-3 dm. long, 1-5 cm. wide, the base cordate- clasping; spike-
like panicles elongated, 2-5 dm. long, 8-10 mm. thick, sometimes with a few short
branches below; spikelets lanceolate, 4-5 mm. long.
Wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; His-
paniola; Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique,
Trinidad;
continental
tropical America
and Old World tropics.
31. ISACHNE R. Br. Prodr. 196.
1810.
Mostly perennial and branching
grasses, with
flat,
conspicuously nerved
leaf-blades,
the small
spikelets
panicled,
globose
or
obovoid.
Scales
4,
not
awned, the two lower ones unequal, empty, the third and fourth flowering, both
usually with
perfect
flowers, and forming plano-convex grains which usually
remain
attached
to
the minute
rachilla.
[Greek,
similar
scales.]
About 30
species, tropical and subtropical.
Type species: Isachne
australis R. Br.
1. Isachne angustifolia Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 377.
1903.
Culms 1 m. long or less, prostrate and branched, often forming large masses,
glabrous or slightly pubescent.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or somewhat pubescent;
ligule a ring of short hairs; blades 2-10 cm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, rough and green
above, smooth and glaucescent beneath; panicles long-stalked, .5-8 cm. long, the
branches spreading, puberulent; spikelets about 1.5 mm. long.
Slopes and forest borders at higher elevations, Porto Rico:—Guadeloupe.
Referred
by Hackel to
/. arundinacea
(Sw.)
Griseb.
The plant mentioned by Urban under
1.
ngidifolia (Poir.) Urban, is I. angustifolia, the only species known in Porto Rico.
Isachne disperma (Lam.) Doell [I. dubia Kunth], was recorded by Krebs
as formerly found
in St. Thomas
;
it
is now known only from the Lesser Antilles
from St. Kitt's southward.
32. OPLISMENUS Beauv. Fl. Owar. 2: 14.
1807.
Perennial grasses, often decumbent and branched at the base, with broad
flat leaf-blades and inflorescence composed of spikes, bearing on the lower side
scattered clusters of a few spikelets.
Spikelets 1-flowered.
Scales 4, the 3 outer
POACEAE
53
membranous, the first and second empty, awned, the first equalling or somewhat
shorter than the spikelet, the third scale usually awned, empty, or enclosing a
small palet, the fourth one shorter than the others, obtuse, awnless, chartaceous,
finally indurated, enclosing a shorter palet of similar texture and a perfect flower.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct
to
the
base.
Stigmas plumose.
[Greek, armed,
presumably referring to the awns.]
About 4 species, natives of warm regions.
Type species: Oplismenus africanus Beauv.
1. Oplismenus hirtellus (L.) Beauv. Agrost. 54, 168.
1812.
Panicum hirtellum L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 870.
1759.
Oplismemis seiarivs R. & S. Syst. 2: 481.
1817.
Orthopogon loliaceus Spreng. Syst.
1: 306.
1825.
Culms prostrate or neai'ly so, rooting at the nodes, very slender, 6 dm. long
or less.
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 1-6 cm. long,
1 cm. wide
or less, their sheaths often pubescent; panicle 8 cm. long or less, its filiform short
branches erect or spreading; spikelets 3 mm. long, the awns up to 8 mm. long.
Shaded banks, woodlands and forests, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations;
Vieques; Culebra;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—southern
United States; Bermuda; West Indies; continental tropical America.
Wood-grass
33. ECHINOCHLOA Beauv. Agrost. 53, 161.
1812.
Usually tall grasses, commonly annuals, with broad leaves and a terminal
inflorescence consisting of one-sided racemes racemosely or panicxUately arranged.
Spikelets 1-flowered,' singly disposed, or in smaller racemes or clusters on the
ultimate divisions of the inflorescence.
Scales 4, the outer 3 membranous, hispid
on the nerves, the third and usually also the second scale awned, or sometimes
merely awn-pointed, the awn often very long; fourth scale indurated, shining,
frequently pointed, enclosing a palet of similar texture and a perfect flower.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct.
Stigmas
plumose.
Grain
free.
[Greek,
in
ref-
erence
to the stout hispid hairs of the spikelets.]
Species about 12, mostly in
warm and tropical countries.
Type species: Panicum Crus-galli L.
Annuals; ligule wanting.
Spikelets in about 4 rows; third scale merely tipped, none of them
awned.
1. E. colonum.
Spikelets
irregularly
arranged,
not
in
definite rows;
third
scale
awned.
2. E. Crus-galli.
Perennial; ligide a dense line of stiff haii's.
H. E. polystachya.
1. Echinochloa colonum (L.) Link, Hort. Berol. 2: 209.
1833.
Panicum colonum L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 870.
1759.
Oplismenus colonus H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 1;
108.
1816.
Annual: culms tufted, smooth and glabrous, 1.5-7.5 dm.
tall, often decum-
bent and rooting at the lower nodes.
Sheaths compressed,
usually crowded;
leaf-blades 2.5-17 cm.
long, 2-8 mm.
wide;
inflorescence composed
of 3-18,
1-sided, more or less spreading dense racemes 6-.50 mm. long, disposed along a
3-angled rachis and generally somewhat exceeding the length of the internodes;
spikelets single, in pairs, or in 3s in rows on one side of the hispidulous,
tri-
angular rachis, obovate, pomted, the
first scale about one-half as long as the
spikelet, 3-nerved, the second and third scales a little more than 2 mm. long,
awnless, 5-nerved, hispid on the nerves, the fourth scale cuspidate.
Fields,
hillsides,
waste and
cultivated
grounds,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
Culebra;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—West Indies; continental tropical America and
Old World tropics.
Jungle Rice.
54
POAOEAE
2. Echinochloa Crus-galli (L.) Beauv. Agrost. 53, 161.
1812.
Panicum Crus-galli L. Sp. PI. 56.
1753.
Oplismenus Crus-pavonis H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 108.
1815.
Panicum sabulicolum Nees, Agrost. Bras. 258.
1829.
Panicum Crus-galli sabulicolum Doell in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
2^: 142.
1877.
Echinochloa sabulicolum Hitchc Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 17: 257.
1913.
Annual; culms 6-12 dm. tall, often branching at base.
Sheaths smooth and
glabrous; leaf-blades 1.5-6 dm. long, 6-25 mm. wide, glabrous, smooth or sca-
brous; panicle composed of 5-15 sessile, erect or ascending racemes, or the lower
branches spreading or reflexed; spikelefcs ovate, green or purple, densely crowded
on one side of the rachis; second and third scales about 3 mm. long, scabrous or
hispid, the third scale awned, empty, the fourth ovate, abruptly pointed.
Roadsides and wet waste grounds, Porto
Rico:—continental
North and South
America; Bermuda; Jamaica; Cuba; Guadeloupe; Trinidad; Old
World.
Consists
of
several races, differing in length of awns.
Barnyard-grass.
Arrozillo.
3. Echinochloa polystachya (H. B. K.l Hitchc. Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 22:
135.
1920.
Oplismenus polystachyus H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 107.
1815.
Echinochloa spectabilis Link, Hort. Berol. 2: 209.
1833.
Perennial; culms commonly clustered,
stout,
glabrous, 2 m. high or
less,
the nodes with appressed yellowish hairs.
Sheaths glabrous or papillose-hispid
ligule a line of stiff yellow hairs; leaf-blades 7-25 mm. wide, roughish; panicle
1-3 dm. long, scabrous, the racemes several or many, ascending 2-6 cm. long, the
rachis scabrous; spikelets somewhat larger than those of E. Crus-galli, the third
scale with an awn 12 mm. long or less.
Moist or wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaionla; Antigua; Martinique; Tobago; continental tropical America north to Mexico.
34. CHAETOCHLOA
Scribn.
Bull.
U.
S.
Dep.
Agr.
Agrost.
4:
38.
1897.
Mostly annual grasses with erect culms and flat leaves, the inflorescence in
spike-like clusters.
Spikelets 1-flowered, or rarely with a second staminate flower,
the basal bristles single or in clusters below the articulation of the rachilla, and
therefore persistent.
Scales of the spikelet 4, the three outer membranous, the
third often subtending a palet and rarely a staminate flower; the inner or fourth
scale chartaceous, subtending a palet of similar texture and a perfect flower.
Stamens 3.
Styles distinct, elongated.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain free, enclosed
in the scales.
[Greek, in reference to the bristles of the inflorescence.]
Species
about 60, in temperate and tropical regions, known as Foxtail-grass.
Type
species
: Setaria longiseta Beauv.
Leaf-blades narrowly elliptic, plaited.
1. C barbata.
Leaf-blades linear to lanceolate, not plaited.
Bristles subtending the spikelets 5 or more.
2.
C. geniculata.
Bristles under the spikelets 1-3.
Bristles retrorsely scabrous above; culms clambering.
3.
C. tenacissima
Bristles antrorsely scabrous; culms erect.
Annual; very large.
4. C magna.
Perennials.
Panicle elongated, narrow, attenuate.
Leaf-blades 5-10 mm. wide.
5.
C. setosa.
Leaf-blades less than 5 mm. wide.
6.
C. rariflora.
Panicle broader, not attenuate.
7.
C. vulpiseta.
1 . Chaetochloa barbata (Lam.) H. & C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18 : 348.
1917.
Panicum barbatum Lam. Tabl. Encycl.
l: 171.
1791.
Panicum costatum Roxb.
Fl. Ind.
1: 314.
1820.
Annual; culms slender, branched, glabrous or somewhat villous, rather weak,
0.5-2 m. long, the base usually decumbent.
Leaf-sheaths compressed, glabrous
POACEAE
55
or villous, the ligule ciliate, the blades narrowly elliptic, plicate, 0.7-2.5 cm. broad
panicle
long-stalked, 5-20 cm.
long,
its branches ascending,
sessile;
spikelets
densely crowded, about 2.5 mm.
long, subtended by
bristles 5-10 mm.
long;
first scale circular; second scale ovate; fertile scale transversely rugo.se.
Vicinity
of Mayaguez:—Jamaica;
Hispaniola; Antigua
to
Trinidad;
continental
tropical America.
Naturalized from the Old World tropics.
[Recorded by authors as
Panicum flavcscens Sw. Mary Grass.
2. Chaetochloa geniculata (Lam.)
ATillsp. & Chase,
Field. IMus. Bot. 3: 37.
1903.
Panicum geniculatum Lam. Encycl. 4: 727.
1798.
Panicum imberhe Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 272.
1816.
Setaria purpui-ascens H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 110.
1815.
Setaria
Ventenatii Kunth, Rev. Gram.
1: 251.
1829.
Chaetochloa imherhi>i Scribn. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr, Agrost. 4: 39.
1897.
Chaetochloa purpurascens Scribn. & Merr.
Bull.
U.
S.
Dept.
Agric.
Div.
Agrost. 21: 13.
1900.
Chaetochloa Ventenatii Nash; Kearney, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 5: 515.
1901.
Setaria glaitca geniculata Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 96.
1903.
Setaria glauca purpurascens Urban,
loc.
clt.
190.3.
Perennial; culms 0-12 dm. long, ascending.
Sheaths smooth and glabrous,
compressed and
keeled; leaves
1-3.5 dm.
long, 2-6 mm.
wide,
pale green or
glaucous, smooth or nearly so; spike-like panicle long-exserted, rather slender,
2.5-7 cm.
long,
about
1 cm. thick; spikelets u.sually single, about 2.5 mm. long
and 1.25 mm. wide, the first scale ovate, 3-nerved, about one-half a
long as the
spikelet, the second scale acute, 3-nerved, the third scale 5-nerved;
bristles in
two nearly equal clusters of 5 each, very slender, 6-10 mm. long.
[Setaria glauca
of authors, not Panicum glaucum L.
;
?Setaria gracilis of Krebs.]
Banks,
hillsides,
waste and
cultivated
grounds,
Porto
Rico; Mona;
Icacos;
St.
Croix; St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—eastern United States; West Indies; continental
tropical America.
3. Chaetochloa tenacissima (Schrad.) H. & C. Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb
18:
352.
1917.
Setaria tenacissima Schrad.; Schultes, Mant. 2: 279.
1824.
Annual; culms simple or little branched, slender, scabrous above, 0.5-2 m.
long, weak and clambering.
Leaf-sheaths scabrous above; ligule ciliate; blades
1-2 dm. long, 5-9 mm. wide, scabrous on both sides, pubescent, long-attenuate;
panicle narrow, dense, 7-15 cm.
long,
1-2 cm.
thick, the axis pubescent, the
branches short, each ultimate branchlet bearing a bristle about 10 mm. long,
retrorsely scabrous above,
antror.sely scabrous below; spikelets about
1.5 mm.
long; first scale 3-nerved; fertile scale transversely rugose.
[Referred by Nash to
C. scandens and included by Hackel in Setaria sca7idens.]
Slopes near Utuado:—Trinidad; continental tropical America.
4. Chaetochloa magna (Griseb.) Scribn. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agric. Div. Agrost. 4:
39.
1897.
Setaria magna Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 554.
1864.
Annual; culms erect, branched at the ba.se, stout,
tall, 1-4 m. high.
Leaf-
sheaths compressed, glabrous, the blades 3-G dm. long, 1-3 cm. wide, scabrate;
panicle large, up to 3.5 dm. long, 2-5 cm. thick; spikelets elliptic, acute, about 2
mm. long, subtended by 1-3 upwardly barbed bristles 8-12 mm. long; flowering
scale hard, shining, smooth.
On the coast near Humacao and at Laguna de Tortuguero:—southeastern
United
States; Bermuda
(?); Jamaica; Guadeloupe; Panama.
56
POACEAE
5. Chaetochloa setosa (Sw.)
Scribn. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 4: 39.
1897.
Panicum setosum Sw. Prodr. 22.
1788.
Panicum caudatum Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 171.
1791.
Setaria setosa Beauv. Agrost. 51, 178.
1812.
Panicum paractaenoides Trin. Mem. Acad.
St. Peter.sb. VI.
3^: 219.
18.34.
Setaria paractaenoides Urban, Repert. 15: 98.
1917.
Perennial, tufted; culms wiry, slender, 3-9 dm.
high, somewhat
flattened.
Leaf-l)lades 2 dm. long or
less, pubescent or scabrous,
.5-15 mm. wide; inflor-
escence more
or
less branched,
the branches
erect,
or ascending,
the lower
sometimes 3 cm. long; bristles 1-3 at the base of all the spikelets or of some of
them, 6-12 mm. long; spikelets ovoid, about 2 mm. long.
Banks and thickets at lower elevations in dry districts, Porto Rico; Desecheo; Mona;
Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St.
.Ian; Tortola; Virgin
Gorda:—West
Indies;
conti-
nental tropical America; Florida.
The identity of the grass recorded by Hackel as Setaria scabrifolia from Guanica
(Sintenis 3577), "has not been ascertained, but Chaetochlua setosa is abundant there.
6. Chaetochloa rariflora (Mikan)
H. & C. Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 18: 349.
1917.
Setaria rariflora Mikan; Trin. in Spreng. Neue Entd. 2: 78.
1821.
Perennial; culms tufted, very slender,
erect or the base decumbent, 3-6
dm. high.
Leaf-blades very narrow, pubescent, mostly less than 5 mm. wide;
inflorescence very slender and narrow,
1-1.5 dm. long;
bristles usually only
1
at the base of each spikelet, 4-7 mm. long; spikelets about 2 mm. long.
On cliflf facing the sea at Boqiieron, Porto Rico; St. Croix;.—Antigua; Brazil.
7. Chaetochloa vulpiseta (Lam.) H. & C.
Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 18: 350.
1917.
Panicum vulpiseluvi Lam. Encycl. 4: 735.
1798.
Setaria vulpiseta R. &
S. Syst. 2: 495.
1817'.
Panicum amplifolium Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 53.
18.54.
Perennial; culms branched
at the base or simple,
glabrous,
rather stout,
0..5-2 m. high.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous or hispidulous; ligule hispid; blades sca-
brous, 3-5 dm. long, 1.5-3 cm. wide, long-attenuate; panicle dense, narrow, 0.5-
3 dm. long, 2-4 cm. thick, narrowed above but not atteiuiate; bristles
1 or 2 at
the base of each spikelet, antrorsely scabrous, 1-2 cm. long; spikelets about 2.5
mm.
long,
the
flowering scale coarsely transversely wrinkled.
[Recorded
by
Hackel as Setaria macrostachya H.B.K.]
Bank between Rio Piedras and Tnijillo Alto and cultivated at Jayuya:—Tobago;
Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Chaetochloa sulcata
(Aubl.)
Hitchcock, of Tobago, Trinidad and conti-
nental tropical America was recorded by Krebs as found
in St. Thomas prior to
1851, but the determination
is doubted.
[Panicum sulcalvm Aubl.]
35. PENNISETUM Pers. Syn.
1
: 72.
1805.
Annual or perennial grasses, mostly with
flat leaf-blades,
the spikelets in
usually spike-like panicles.
Spikelets lanceolate,
involucrate, the involucre a
fascicle of short
sterile
branchlets
Avith few
or many
antrorsely scabrous or
plumose
bristles;
fascicles
falling away
with
the
spikelets
attached.
First
scale minute or obsolete, the second and third few-several-nerved.
Stamens 3.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain compressed.
[Greek, feather-bristles.]
Eighty species
or more,
natives
of
tropical and
subtropical
regions.
Type
species:
Holcus
spicatus L.
POACEAE
57
1. Pennisetum ciliare (L.) Link, Hort. Berol. i: 213.
1827.
Cenchrus ciliaris L. Mant. 302.
1771.
Pennisetum cenchroides Pers. Syn.
1: 72.
1805.
Perennial; culms tufted or clustered, tough, erect from an ascending base,
scabrate above, slender, simple or little branched,
1-.5 dm. high.
Leaf-sheaths
scabrate, usually pilose on the margins, the blades 2-12 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide,
scabrate above, pilose on the margins near the base; panicle 1.5-10 cm.
long,
purplish; bristles united at the base,
the outer short, scabrous, the inner long,
flat, ciliate; spiklets 1-5 in the fascicles, about 5 mm. long.
Dry limestone lulls near Ponce:—Guatemala.
Naturalized from tropical Africa.
Pennisetum purpureum
Schum.,
Elephant
Grass,
Napier
Grass,
African, grown for fodder in Porto Rico and St. Croix, is a tall perennial grass,
sometimes 4 m
high, th? leaves 2-3 cm.
wide, the spikelets purplish, in
stiff,
dense panicles.
36. CENCHROPSIS Nash in Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 109.
1903.
Perennial grasses, with long rootstocks and flat leaves, the spikelets in ter-
mmal spikes, each spikelet subtended by an involucre of 1 or 2 outer rows of
barbed, thick-based brLstles, and
1 or 2 inner rows of barbed spines longer than
the
bristles, the involucre jointed to the rachis and deciduous.
Spikelets of 4
scales, the
first and second ones empty, the third enclosing a palet one-half its
length or less, the fourth enfolding a similar palet and a perfect flower.
Stamens
3.
[Greek, resembling
Cenchrus.]
A few species, of tropical America.
Type
species: Cenchrus myosnroides H.B.K.
1. Cenchropsis myosuroides (H.B.K.) Nash in Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 109.
1903,
Cenchrus myosuroides H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 115.
1815.
Culms erect, slender, 0.6-1.5 m.
tall, simple or branched above, glabrous.
Leaves 1-3 dm. long, 3-8 mm. wide, glabrous; spikes 5-20 cm. long; involucres
numerous, the barbed spines about 5 mm. long, and about as long as the spikelet.
Waste and
cultivated groimd, Porto
Rico; Mona:—southeastern United
States;
Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; continental tropical America.
Spiked Bur-grass.
37. CENCHRUS L, Sp. PI. 1049.
1753.
Annual or perennial grasses, with usually flat leaves.
Inflorescence spike-
like.
Spikelets subtended by a spiny involucre which is deciduous with them at
maturity.
Scales 4; the
first hyahne; the second and third membranous, the
latter sometimes having a palet and staminate flower in its axil; the fourth char-
taceous, subtending a palet of .similar structure which encloses a perfect flower.
Stamens
3.
Styles united below.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain
free, enclosed in
the scales.
[Ancient Greek name for some grass, probably Millet.]
About 12
species, in tropical and temperate regions, known as Bur-grass.
Type species:
Cenchrus echinatus L.
Involucre 2-spikeleted, armed at the base with commonly shorter
often refle.xed spines, usiially glabrous, or merely puberulent at tlie
base.
1. C carolinianus.
Involucre more than 2-spikeleted, armed at the base with barbed
bristles.
Spines on the usually 3-spikeIeted involucre basal and slender,
rarely any above, erect; bristles very slender.
2. C
viridis.
68
POACEAE
Spines on the usually
4-6-spikeleted
involucre not
basal but
occurring
on
various
parts,
spreading
or
often
reflexed;
bristles stouter and almost spine-like.
3-
C. echinaius.
1. Cenchrus carolinianus Walt.
Fl. Car.
79.
1788.
Culms erect or decumbent from an annual
root, 2-9 dm.
long.
Sheaths
usually loose, compressed, smooth; leaves G-12.5 cm. long; spikes 2.5-6.2.5 cm.
long, sometimes partially included in the upper sheath; involucres crowded on
the scabrous
rachis,
2-spikeIeted,
globose,
pube.scent except
at
the
base,
the
spines stout; spikelets about 6 mm. long.
[Recorded liy Krebs, by Nash and ))y
Hackel as C.
tribtiIoide!i L.]
Coastal sands, Porto Rico; Mona; Muertos; Vieques; St. Thomas:—United States;
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua; Guadeloupe.
2. Cenchrus viridis Spreng. Syst. 1: 301.
1825.
C. echinaitis viridis Spreng.
; Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 550.
1SG4.
Culms erect or ascending, usually 6-8 dm. high, branched or simple, the leaf-
blades flat, 4 dm. long or less.
Spike usually dense and cylindric, 8-12 cm. long
and
often much
exserted;
involucres
usually
3-spikeleted, armed below with
slender spines, the )3ody ai^out 4 mm. in diameter, the barbed bristles slender.
Dry or moist
soil and waste grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Muertos;
Culebra;
VMeques;
St. Thomas:—Florida; West
Indies; continental
tropical America.
3. Cenchrus echinatus L. Sp. PJ. 1050.
17.53.
Cenchrus brcvinctus Fourn. Mex. PI. 2:
.50.
1886.
Culms
finally prostrate and rooting at the nodes, branched;
leaf-sheaths
loose; blades 1-4 dm. long, 5-16 mm. wide, smooth or rough,
flat; spikes 3-12
cm. long, finally more or less exserted; involucres 20-50, containing 4-6 spikelets,
green to purplish, villous at the i)ase, the spines 3-4 mm. long, the bristles at the
base numerous, slender, distinctly barbed for their wlu)le length; spikelets 6-7
mm. long.
[C. echinatus tribuloides of Kuntze.]
Fields and waste grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico: Mona; Muertos; Icacos;
Vieques; Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—southern
United
States; Bermuda; West
Indies; continental
tropical America and Old World
tropics.
Cenchrus parviflorus
Poir.,
described
as from Porto Rico,
is not under-
stood by modern Ijotanists.
38. STENOTAPHRUM Trin. Fund. Agrost. 175.
1820.
Perennial creeping branched grasses, with rather stout flattened culms and
short linear leaves.
Spikelets spicato or panicled, acute, mostly 2-flowered, im-
bedded in depressions on one side of the flattened rachis.
Scales 4;
first scale
small or minute, second about as long as the spikelet, third similar to the second,
subtending a staminate flower, fourth rigid, enclosing a perfect flower.
Stigmas
plumose.
[Greek, a narrow depression.]
A few species of tropical and subtrop-
ical distribution, the following typical.
1. Stenotaphrum secundatum (W alt.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
pi.
794.
1891.
Ischaemiun secundatum AValt.
Fl. Car. 249.
1788.
Rottboellia stolonifera Poir, in Lam. Encycl. 6: 310.
1804.
Stenotaphrum glabrum Trin. Fund. Agrost. 176.
1820.
Stenotavhrum americanum Schrank, Hort. Monac.
pi. 98.
1822.
POACEAE
59
Widely creeping, sometimes 5 m. long, glabrous, rooting at the lower nodes.
Leaf-sheaths keeled, flattened, the blade linear, 3-15 cm. long, 4-10 mm. wide,
blunt and rounded at the apex
; spikelets about 6 mm. long, in spikes 4-13 cm. long.
Moist banks and sandv
soil at lower elevations. Porto Rico; Vieques:
St. Croix;
St
Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tortola:—southeastern United
States; Bermuda; West
Indies;
continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Grama blanca.
Running Crab-
grass.
St. Augustine Grass.
Valuable as a lawn-grass.
A liandsome variegated race
with white banded leaves was seen in cultivation at the Insular Experiment Station, Rio
Piedras, in 1923, and also in St. Croix.
39. OLYRA
L. Syst. ed.
10,
12(Jl.
1759.
Tail,
perennial, monoecious
grasses,
with broad,
flat leaves and terminal
panicles of large, 1-flowered spikelets.
Pistillate-flowered spikelets borne on the
upper branches and at the ends of the lower branches of the panicle.
Staminate-
flowered
spikelets smaller than
the
pistillate,
deciduous, borne on
the lower
branches of the panicle.
First scale of the pistillate spikelet wanting; second
and third scales long-acuminate.
Grain hard.
[Greek, of little value.]
Several
species of tropical distribution, the following typical.
1. Olyra latifolia L. Syst. ed. 10, 1201.
1759.
Olyra arundinacea H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 197.
181().
Culm smooth, rather stout, usually branched below, elongated, sometimes
up to 5 m. long, the lower sheaths bladeless.
Leaf-blades nearly sessile, lanceolate
to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex, rounded or obtuse and oblique at the
base, many-nerved, 2 dm. long or less, 2-5 c-m. wide, the upper ones smaller than
the lower; panicles 1-1.5 dm. long; pistillate spikelets, including the prolongation
of the scales,
1..5-2.5 cm. long; staminate spikelets narrow,
1 cm. long or less, of
but one, usually awned scale.
Woodlands and shaded thickets at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet
districts, Porto
Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas:
St. Jan
(ex Eggers)
;
Tortola:—Florida;
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Kitts to Trinidad; tropical America.
Caruzillo.
40. LITHACHNE Beauv. Agrost. 135.
1812.
Monoecious, perennial grasses, with
flat leaf-blades and small
axillary or
axillary and terminal panicles of rather
large,
1-flowered spikelets.
Terminal
panicle when present, wholly of staminate-flowered spikelets; axillary panicles
with one pistillate-flowered spikelet
at the end, and one or several staminate
ones
below.
First
scale
wanting;
second
and
third
scales
long-acuminate;
fruiting. scale horny.
Staminate spikelets much reduced.
[Greek, hard scales].
Several .species of tropical distribution, the following typical.
1. Lithachne pauciflora (Sw.) Beauv.; Poir Diet. Sci. Nat. 27: 60.
1823.
Olyra pauciflora Sw. Prodr. 21.
1788.
Culms
slender,
glabrous,
usually
clustered,
naked
below,
several-leaved
above,
2-5 dm.
high.
Leaf-blades
obliquely
lanceolate
or
ovate-lanceolate,
nearly
sessile, 3-8 cm.
long, 1-3 cm. wide, the apex acuminate, the base sub-
truncate; panicles small, of few
spikelets,
borne
in the upper
axils;
pistillate
spikelets 1-2 cm. long; staminate spikelets early deciduous, much smaller than
the pistillate; grain white, obliquely obovoid, compressed, shining, about 4 mm.
long.
Woodlands
in moist
or wet
districts, Porto
Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Antigua; Guadeloupe; Martinique; St. Vincent; continental tropical America.
60
POACEAE
41. PHARUS P. Br.; L. Syst. ed.
10. 1269.
1759.
Large
perennial
grasses
with
very
broad,
flat,
petioled
leaf-blades,
the
monoecious spil<elets in a terminal panicle.
Spikelets jointed below the scales
in pairs on the panicle-branches, one sessile, with a i>istillate flower, the other
short-stalked, staminate, much smaller.
Scales 3, the 2 lower ones membranous,
empty, the third in the pistillate spikelet flowering and fruiting, longer than the
empty ones, narrow,
nearly closed by involute margins.
Stamens
6.
Styles
filiform;
stigmas
papillose.
[Greek,
a
cloak.]
About
5
species,
natives
of
tropical America known as Lambedora.
Type species: Pharus latifolius L.
Culms erect or erect-ascending.
Fruit a little longer than the lower scales, pubescent at the tip.
1
P. latifolius.
Fruit much longer than the lower scales, pubescent all over.
2.
P. glaber.
Culms creeping at the base.
3.
P. parvifolius.
1. Pharus latifolius L. Syst. ed.
10, 1269.
1759.
Phanis ovalifolius Desv.; Hamilt. Prodr.
8.
1825.
Erect-ascending, glabrous, up to
1 m. long.
Leaf-sheaths longer than the
internodes; petioles 1-5 cm. long; blades obovate, oblanceolate or elliptic, dark
green, acute, 1-2 dm. long, .3-6 cm. wide; panicle 2 dm. long or less; pistillate
spikelet 8-10 mm. long, the fruiting scale a little longer than the 2 empty ones,
pubescent near the tip, glabrous below; staminate spikelet 3-5 mm. long.
Woodlands at middle altitudes
in moist or wet
districts, Porto Rico:—Jamaica:
Cuba:
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; continental
tropical America.
Recorded
from St. Thomas by Krebs, apparently erroneously.
2. Pharus glaber H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1: 190.
1816.
Pharus brasilicnsis Raddi, Agrost. Bras. 21.
1823.
Pharus lancifolius Desv.; Hamilt. Prodr.
8.
1825.
Similar to
P.
latifolius, about as
large, the leaf-blades averaging a
little
narrower; panicles sometimes smaller; fruiting scale 2 to 3 times as long as the 2
empty ones, pubescent all over.
Woods and forests in moist districts, PortO Rico: Vieques; St.
Croi.x;
St. Thomas;
St.
.Tan; Tortola:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba to Barbados and
St. Vincent; continental
tropical America.
3. Pharus parvifolius Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 35: 301.
1908.
Culms creeping, branching, rooting at the lower nodes, up to
1 m.
long,
pubescent at least above.
Leaves glabrous, the sheaths overlapping;
petioles
1-1.5 cm. long; blades elliptic-lanceolate, 0-12 cm.
long,
1.5-3 cm. wide, acu-
minate; panicle small, usually long-stalked; pistillate spikelet 10-12 mm.
long,
the fruiting scale about twice as long as the empty ones, pubescent.
Woodlands, Jobo near Arecibo:—Cuba; Hispaniola; .Tamaica; Trinidad.
Included
by Hackcl in P. glaber H.B.K.
42. ORYZA [Touni.]
L. Sp. PI. 333.
1753.
Mar.sh grasses, with erect culms, flat leaf-blades and rather large, 1-flowered
spikelets in
terminal
panicles.
Spikelets
flattened,
jointed below
the
scales;
scales 4, the 2 outer ones small, empty, the 2 inner keeled, awned or awnless, the
fourth enclosing a perfect flower without a palet.
Stamens
6.
Styles nearly
distinct; stigmas plumose.
[Greek,
rice.]
About 6 species of warm temperate
and tropical regions.
Type species: Oryza saliva L.
Leaves 5-15 mm. wide.
1.
O. saliva.
Leaves 2-5 cm. wide.
2.
O.
lalifolia.
POACEAE
61
1. Oryza sativa
L. Sp. PI. 333.
1753.
Annual, with coarse fibrous roots; culm simple, 5-12 dm.
high, glabrous.
Leaf-sheaths long, smooth or nearly so, the blades scabrous, elongated,
.5-l.'5 mm.
wide; panicle narrow, 1-3 dm. long, its branches slender and nearly erect; spike-
lets oblong, 8-10 mm. long, the third and fourth scales hispidulous, the fourth
one awned or awnless, the 2 lower empty ones subulate, glabrous.
Waste grounds and spontaneous after cultivation. Porto Rico; St. Thomas:—spon-
taneous
after
cultivation
in
warm-teniperatiu-e and
tropical
regions.
Native of the
East Indies.
Rice.
Arroz.
2. Oryza latifolia Desv. Journ. de.
Bot. 1: 77.
1813.
Perennial; culm stout,
glaljrous, simple, 2-2. .5 m.
tall.
Leaf-sheaths elon-
gated, smooth or scabrate, the blades 3-6 dm.
long, 2-5 cm. wide, scabrous;
panicles large, up to 4 dm. long, with many spikelets on the upper parts of the
elongated ascending branches: spikelets oblong, about G mm. long, the third and
fourth scales hispid, the upper one long-awned, the 2 lower ones subulate.
Along a stream, Mayaguez:—Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental
tropical America.
Native of the Old World tropics.
43. HOMALOCENCHRUS Mieg. in See. Phys.-med. Basil, Act.
Uelv. 4: 307.
1760.
Mostly marsh grasses with flat narrow, generally rough leaves and paniculate
inflorescence.
Spikelets
1-flowered,
perfect,
strongly
flattened
laterally,
and
usually more or less imbricated.
Scales 2, chartaceous, the outer one broad and
strongly conduplicate, the inner much narrower.
Stamens 1-6.
Styles short,
distinct.
Stigmas
plumose.
Grain
ovoid,
free.
[Greek,
in
reference
to
the
supposed resemblance of these grasses to Millet.]
About 5 species, natives of
temperate and tropical countries.
Panicle narrow,
its branches
spikelet-bearing nearly
to
the
base;
spikelets hispidulous.
1.
//• hexandrus.
Panicle open, its branches spreading, naked below; spikelets glabrous.
2.
li. monandrus.
1. Homalocenchrus hexandrus (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 777.
1891.
Lccrsia hexandra Sw. Prodr. 21.
1788.
Perennial; culms slender, weak, 6-20 dm. long, rooting at the lower nodes.
Leaves scabrous, the blades .5-20 cm. long, 8 mm. wide or less.
Panicle narrow,
4-8 cm. knig, its branches ascending, liearing si)ikelets along nearly their whole
length
; spikelets oblong, about 4 mm. long and 1.5 mm. wide, the scales scabrate on
the keel, hispidulous on the sides; stamens 6.
Marshes at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—southern United States; Jamaica; Cuba:
Hispaniola; Martinique; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2. Homalocenchrus monandrus (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 777.
1891.
Leersia monanira Sw. Prodr. 21.
1788.
Perennial; culms tufted,
erect or ascending, 4-6 dm.
high.
Leaf-sheaths
glabrous, smooth, the blades scabrate, 4-16 cm.
long, 2-5 mm.
wide; panicle
open, 7-13 cm. long; spikelets about 2 mm. long and
1 mm. wide,
elliptic, gla-
brous; seamen only
1.
Woodlands in dry parts of the southern and soutiiwesteni districts of Porto Rico:
Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; continental tropical America.
62
POACEAE
44. ARISTIDA L. Sp. PI. 82.
1753.
Grasses varying greatly in habit and inflorescence.
Leaves narrow, often
involute-setaceous.
Spikelets narrow,
1-flowered.
Scales
3,
narrow,
the two
outer carinate; the third
rigid and convolute, bearing three awns occasionally
united at the base, the
lateral awns rarely wanting or reduced to rudiments.
Palet 2-nerved.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain
free,
tightly enclosed in the scale.
[Latin, from arista, an awn.]
About 100 species,
in the warmer regions of both hemispheres, known
as Tkiple-awnbd Grass.
Type species: Aristida adscensionia L.
Annual.
!• A- adscensionis.
Perennials.
.
Panicle dense, spike-like; neck of the fruit long, twisted.
2. A. sptctjormis.
Panicle not spike-like ; neck of the fruit short or wanting.
Awns 2-2.5 cm. long.
3. A. portoricensis.
Awns 1.5 cm. long or less.
Culms spreading; spikelets clustered.
4. A. cognata.
Culms erect or ascending.
5. A. refracta.
1. Aristida adscensionis L. Sp.
PI. 82
1753.
Aristida bromoides H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1:
121.
1815.
Aristida striata Griseb.
Fl.
Brit. W.
I. 534.
1834.
Not Michx. 1803.
Annual, tufted, glabrous; culms slender, erect, or ascending, 3-7 dm. long,
branching from the lower nodes.
Leaf-blades
thin,
flat or involute; panicles
narrow, 1.5 dm. long or less, with short appressed branches or the lower branches
spreading; awns about, equal in length, 12-20 mm. long.
Coastal plains in the drv southwestern districts, Porto Rico; Mona;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas;
St. Jan: - Bahamas;
Jamaica; Hispaniola;
Antigvia; Montserrat; Caudeloupe;
Martinique; Bonaire; Curacao;
A.scension; southern United States and Mexico to con-
tinental tropical America.
lA. dispersa of authors, not of Trinius & Ruprecht;
errone-
ously referred by Pilger to A. americana L. ]
2.
Aristida spiciformis Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. l: 141.
1816.
Perennial,
glabrous; culms
clustered,
simple, 4-10 dm.
high,
stiff,
erect.
Leaf-blades 2-3 mm. wide, involute in drying; panicle dense, narrow, 10-20 cm.
long; central awn 2.5-3.5 cm.
long, the lateral ones a
little shorter, the three
united below into a twisted column
1.5-2.5 cm.
long, forming the neck of the^
fruit.
In white sand, Campo Alegre:—southeastern United States; Isle of Pines.
3. Aristida portoricensis Pilger in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 100.
1903.
Perennial; culms tufted, very slender, erect, glabrous, 3-5 dm. high, simple
or little branched.
Leaf-blades setaceous, 8 cm. long or less, erect or nearly so;
panicle open, its ttliform branches spreading or ascending; awns 2-2.5 cm. long,
the neck of the fruit short.
Red clay slopes, Monte Mesa and serpentine slopes, Guanajibo.
Endemic.
4. Aristida cognata Trin. & Rupr. Mem. Acad.
St. Petersb.
VI.
Sci. Nat. 5*:
127.
1842.
Aristida Swartziana Steud. Syn.
PI. Glum.
1: 137.
18.54.
Perennial; culms slender, tufted, .spreading, 3-6 dm.
tall.
Leaves involute-
filiform, the upper shorter; panicle strict, or the top sometimes nodding, its short
branches ascending; awns
1-2 cm.
long, horizontal when
old, nearly equal in
length.
Rocky soil, Boqueroa, Porto Rico,
(e.^c Hitchcock & Chase); St. Croix; St. Thomas:^
Bahamas; Jamaica.
POACEAE
63
5. Aristida refracta Grisob. Cat. PI. Cub. 228.
1866.
Perennial, densely tufted; culms nearly
filiform but
stiff,
erect, simple or
branched below, 3-.5 dm. high.
Leaves filiform-setaceous, 10 cm. long or less,
erect; panicle rather narrow, its branches ascending; awns 10-12 mm. long.
Serpentine slopes, Guanajibo, and near Boqueron:—Jamaica; Cuba.
Aristida capillacea Lam., East Indian, and A. plumosa. L., Mediterranean,
recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas are, presumably, errors in determination.
4.5. MUHLENBERGIA Schreb.; Gmel. Syst. Nat. 2: 171.
17U1.
ISIostly
perennial
grasses,
with
fiat
or
convolute
leaves and
paniculate
inflorescence.
Rootstocks
often
scaly.
Spikelets
1-flowered,
very
rarely
2-
flowerod.
Scales 3. very rarely 4; the outer ones empty, membranous or hyaline,
acute and sometimes awned
; third scale 3-5-nerved, subtending a palet and perfect
flower, obtuse, acute, or very often produced into a capillary awn; palet 2-keeled.
Stamens
often
3.
Style
distinct.
Stigmas plumose.
Callus minute.
Grain
narrow,
free,
tightly enclosed in the scale.
[In honor of Henry Muhlenberg,
1756-1817, North American
botanist.]
About 60
species,
chiefly
natives
of
America, a few Asiatic.
Type species: Muhlenbergia Schreberi Gmel.
1. Muhlenbergia capillaris (Lam.) Trin. Gram. Unifl. 191.
1824.
Stipa capillaris Lam. Tabl. Encycl.
1: 158.
1791.
Culms 4..5-12 dm. tall, erect, simple, smooth or nearly so.
Sheaths smooth,
the lower short and overlapping, the upper ones much longer; loaves 1.5-3 dm.
long, 2-4 mm. wide, scal)rous; panicle 1.7.5-3 dm. in length or more, diffuse, the
capillary l)ranches 1-2 dm.
long, at length widely spreading; spikelets on long
hair-like pedicels which are clavate-thickened at the apex; outer scales unequal,
acute or short-awned, slightly scabrous; third scale, exclusive of the awn, 4 mm.
long, about twice as long as the first one, the awn 6-18 mm. lon^
^n •
Top of limestone cliiT west of the junction of Rio Arecibo and Rio Limon, and near
the Arecibo-Lares road
:—United States ; Bahamas ; Cuba.
Hair Grass.
Purple Grass.
Muhlenbergia tenuissima Kunth,
of Central America was recorded by
Krebs from St. Thomas, presumably in error.
46. SPOROBOLUS R. Br. Prodr. 169.
1810.
Perennial or rarely annual grasses, with flat or convolute leaves and open or
contracted
panicles.
Spikelets
generally
small,
1-flowered,
occasionally
2-3-
flowered.
Scales in the 1-flowered spikelets 3, membranous; the 2 outer empty,
the
first somewhat shorter; the third scale equalling or longer than the empty
ones;
palet
2-nerved.
Stamens
2-3.
Styles
very
short,
distinct.
Stigmas
plumose.
Grain free, and often early deciduous.
[Greek, referring to the de-
ciduous
grain.]
About
100
species,
in
tropical and temperate
regions,
very
numerous in America.
Type species: Agroslis indica L.
Annual.
1-
-S. muralis.
Perennials.
_,
.
.
.
Plants with long rootstocks.
2.
S. virgimcus.
Plants without rootstocks.
Second scale much shorter than the spikelot.
Panicle loose; second scale about one-fourth as long as the,
spikelet.
3.
S. indicus.
Panicle dense; second scale about one-half as long as the
spikelet.
4.
S. Berteroanus.
Second scale about as long as the spikelet.
Panicle ovoid; spikelets about 1.5 mm. long.
5.
S. argulus.
Panicle elongated, dense; spikelets 2-4 mm. long.
Panicle green; spikelets 2 mm. long.
6.
S. domingensis.
Panicle purple; spikelets 4 mm. long.
7.
S. cubensis.
64
POACEAB
1. Sporobolus muralis (Raddl) H. & C. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 368.
1917.
Ayroslicula muralis Raddi, Agrost. Bras. 33.
1823.
Annual,
glabrous, 3-8 dm.
high; culms very
slender,
flattened,
erect
or
ascending.
Leaf-blades nearly linear, 2-3 mm. wide; panicle large, sometimes
3 dm. long, loose, with capillary ascending branches; spikelets long-stalked, about
1 mm. long, glabrous, the scales acute.
Waste grounds,
St.
Croix; Tortola:—Martinique;
St.
Lucia.
Native
of
Brazil.
[Sporobolus rninutiflorus of Milispaugh, not of Link.]
2. Sporobolus virginicus (L.),Kunth, Rev. Gram. 1: 67.
1829.
Agrostis virginica L. Sp. PI. 63.
17.53.
Agrostis liltoralis Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 161.
1791.
Sporobolus littoralis Kunth, Rev. Gram, 1: 68.
1829.
Culms 1.5-6 dm.
tall, erect or decumbent, from a stout creeping rootstock.
Sheaths numerous, short, overlapping and crowded at the lower part of the culm,
smooth, glabrous or .sometimes pilose on
tlie margins and at the throat; leaves
2.5-20 cm. long, 4 mm. wide or less at tlie base, distichous, involute on the margins
and at the apex, smooth beneath, scaijrous above or sometimes sparingly hairy;
panicle 2.5-7.5 cm. long, 4-10 mm. thick, dense and spike-like; spikelets 2-2.5
mm.
long,
the outer
scales
about
equal,
acute, smooth and glabrous;
third
scale smooth and glabrous
acute,
slightly shorter than the second and about
equalling the oiituse palet.
[?S. Ircmulus of Krobs.j
Saline soil along the coasts, Porto Rico; Desecheo; Mona; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St.
Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Anegada;—eastern
and
southern
United
States; Bermuda; West
Indies; continental tropical America.
Sea-shore Rush-grass.
3. Sporobolus indicus (L.) R. Br. Prodr. 170.
1810.
Agrosiis indica L. Sp. PI. 63.
17.53.
Agrostis tenacissima L.
f. Suppl.
107.
1781.
Sporobolus Jacnuemontii Kunth, Rev. Gram. 2: 427.
1831.
Glabrous.
Culms .3-12 dm. tall, erect, tufted; leaves 2-6 mm. wide, atten-
uate into a long slender tip, the lower 2-3 dm. long, the upper shorter; panicle
1-4 dm. in length,
usually elongated, narrow,
spike-like; spikelets
1..5-2 mm.
long, the outer scales unequal, the second about one-third as long as the third,
obtuse, smooth and glabrous, the lower one shorter, and often erose-truncate.
Dry soil, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations;
Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Tiiomas;
St.
.Ian; Tortola:—West
Indies; Mexico to northern
South America. West Indian Rush-grass.
Serrillo.
4. Sporobolus Berteroanus
(Trin.)
H. & C, Contr.
U.
S.
Nat.
Herb.
18:
370.
1917.
Vilfa Berteroana Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. Sci. Nat. 4': 100.
1840.
Sporobolus angustus Buckley, Proc. Phila. Acad. 1862: 88.
1862.
Slender, wiry, 1 m. tall or less.
Leaves smooth, nearly erect, 1-3 mm. wide,
long-attenuate,
the lower ones
1.5-2.5 dm.
long,
the upper
shorter;
panicle
narrow, often 3 dm. long; spikelets about 3 mm. long, crowded on the short ap-
pressed branches of the panicle; second scale ovate-oblong, about one half as
long as the spikelet.
Wet groimd, and sliaded slopes,
a.sceiKling to 800 m.
in Porto Rico; Vieque.s;
St.
Croix;
St. Jan; Tortola:—southern United States; Bermuda; West
ladies; Mexico to
nortliern South America.
Bull-grass.
5. Sporobolus argutus (Nees) Kunth, Enum. 1: 215.
1833.
Vilfa arguta Nees, Agrost. Bras. 395.
1829.
Perennial
; culms 3 dm. tall or less, erect, or somewhat decumbent at the base.
Sheaths shorter than the internodes, their margins sometimes hirsute at the top;
eaves 2.5-5 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide at the base, acumiuate, smooth and glabrous
POACEAB
65
beneath, scabrous, and often sparingly hairy at the base above; panicle 3.75-7.5
cm. in length, the branches 1.25-2.5 cm.
long,
verticillate,
at
first appressed,
finally widely spreading
; spikelets 1.5 mm. long
; outer scales smooth and glabrous,
the first rounded or obtuse, one-quarter the length of the acute second one; third
scale about equalling the second, acute.
Sandy and saline soil along the coasts and along Lake Guanica, Porto Rico; Mona;
IVIuertos;"st. Croi.x; Anegada:—southwestern United States; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Antigua; Trinidad; Bonaire; Curacao; Mexico to northern South America.
6. Sporobolus domingensis (Trin.) Kunth. Enum. 1: 214.
1833.
Vilfa domingensis Trin.; Spreng. Neue Entdeck. 2:
.59.
1821.
Perennial, similar to S. argutus, but usually larger, the culms up to 4 dm.
long, the panicle densely many-flowered, narrow, 9 cm. long or less, its branches
2-4 cm. long.
Spikelets 2 mm. long; first scale about one-half as long as second.
Sandy
soil, Cabo Rojo;—Florida;
Baliamas; Cuba;
Hispaniola.
The Cabo Rojo
specimen "is immature and the determination doubtful.
7. Sporobolus cubensis Hitchc. Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 12: 237.
1909.
Perennial; culms clustered,
glabrou.«,
erect, slender, 3-6 dm.
high.
Leaf-
sheaths long-ciliate, the blades of the lower ones elongated, sometimes as long as
the culm, flat or involute, 3 mm. wide or less, strongly nerved, long-ciliate at the
base; upper leaves much smaller; panicle 6-10 cm. long,
its short branches op-
posite or whorled; spikelets glabrous, about 4 mm.
long,
short-stalked; lower
scale 1.5-2 mm.
long.
[Referred by Nash and by Hackel to ,S. purpurascens
(Sw.) Hamilt.]
Slopes of Monte Mesa:—Cuba.
CUBAN Drop-seed Grass.
Sporobolus pungens
Kunth, of southern Europe, was recorded from St.
Thomas by Krebs, presumably in error.
47. AVENA [Tourn.]
L. Sp. PI. 79.
1753.
Annual or perennial grasses, with usually flat leaves and panicled spikelets.
Spikelets 2-many-flowerad, or rarely 1-flowered; lower flowers perfect, the upper
often staminate or imperfect.
Scales 4-many (rarely 3)
; the two lower empty,
somewhat unequal, membranous, persistent; flowering scal&s deciduous, rounded
on the back, acute, generally bearing a dorsal awn, the ape.x often 2-toothed.
Palet narrow, 2-toothed.
Stamens 3.
Styles short, distinct.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain oblong, deeply furrowed, enclosed in the scale and palet, free or sometimes
adherent to the latter.
[Old Latin name for the oat.]
About 50 species, widely
distributee? in temperate regions, chiefly in the Old World, th3 following typical.
1. Avena sativa L. Sp. PI. 79.
1753.
Annual, glabrous; culms erect, 1 m. high or less.
Leaf-blades 2-3 dm. long,
7-12 mm. wide, acuminate; panicle 1-2 dm. long,
its very slender branches as-
cending;
spikelets
flhform-stalked,
1..5-2.5 cm.
long,
the empty
scales broad,
acute, the flowering scales awnless or short-awned.
Waste grounds. San Juan:—widely cultivated in temperate regions.
Native of the
Old World.
Oats.
Avena.
48. SPARTINA Schreb.; Qmel. Syst. 123.
1791.
Perennial glabrous grasses, with long horizontal rootstocks,
flat or involute
leaves, and an
inflorescence of one-sided spreading or erect
alternate
spikes.
Spikelets 1-flowered, narrow, deciduous, borne in two rows on the rachis, artic-
66
POACEAE
ulated with the very short pedicels below the scales.
Scales 3; the two outer
empty,
keeled,
very unequal;
the
third subtending a
perfect
flower,
keeled,
equaUing or shorter than the second; palet often longer than its scale, 2-nerved.
Stamens
3.
Styles
fiUform, elongated.
Stigmas
fihform,
papillose or shortly
plumose.
Grain free.
[Greek, referring to the cord-like leaves of some species.]
About 7 species, widely distributed in saline soil, rarely in fresh-water marshes.
Type species: Spartina Schreberi Gmel.
1. Spartina patens (Ait.) Muhl. Gram. 55.
1817.
Dactylis patens Ait. Hort. Kew l: 104.
1789.
Spartina juncea Willd. Enum. 81.
1809.
Culms 3-9 dm.
tall, erect, or decumbent at base, smooth.
Leaves 1.5-3
dm. long, 2-4 mm. broad, involute, attenuate into a long tip, smooth and glabrous
beneath; spikes 2-10, 2.5-5 cm. long, usually ascending, more or less peduncled,
the rachis slightly scabrous; spikelets 6-8 mm. long; outer scales acute, scabrous,
hispid on the keel, the first usually rather less than one-half as long as the second;
third scale somewhat scabrous on the upper part of the keel, emarginate or 2-
toothed at the apex, longer than the first and exceeded by the palet.
Coastal rocks and
banks, Porto
Rico; Icacos;
Vieques;
Virgin Gorda (barren):
eastern United States; Bermuda; Bahamas; Jamaica; Guadeloupe; Martinique.
Salt
Grass.
49. CAPRIOLA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 31.
1763.
Perennial gi'asses with short flat leaves and spicate inflorescence, the spikes
digitate.
Spikelets
1-flowered, secund.
Scales 3; the 2 lower empty, keeled;
flowering scale broader, membranous, compressed; palet a little shorter than the
scale, hyaline, 2-keeled.
Stamens 3.
Styles distinct.
Stigmas short, plumose.
Grain free.
[Name mediaeval Latin for the wild goat, that feeds on this grass in
waste rocky places.]
Four known species, of which three are Australian,
the
following typical one widely distributed.
1. Capriola Dactylon (L.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 764.
1891.
Panicum Dactylon L. Sp. PI. 58.
1753.
Cynodon Dactylon Pers. Syn. 1: 85.
1805.
Culms 1-3 dm. tall, erect, from long creeping and branching stolons, smooth
and glabrous.
Sheaths glabrous or somewhat hairy, crowded at the bases of the
culms and along the stolons; leaves 2. .5 -5 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide,
flat, scabrous
above; spikes 4 or 5, digitate, 1-5 cm. long, the rachis flat; spikelets 2 mm. long;
outer scales hispid on the keel, narrow, the first shorter than the second.
Hillsides and banks at lower
elevations, Porto
Rico,
especially
in dry
districts;
St. Croix: St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola;—southern and central United States; Bermuda;
West Indies; continental tropical America; warm-temperature and tropical regions of the
Old World.
Bermuda Grass.
Grama.
50. CHLORIS Sw. Prod. 25.
1788.
Mostly perennial grasses with flat leaves and spicate inflorescence, the spikes
few or numerous, verticillate or approximate.
Spikelets 1-flowered, arranged in
two rows on one side of the rachis.
Scales 4; the 2 lower empty, unequal, keeled,
acute; third and fourth usually awned, the former subtending a perfect flower;
palet
folded
and
2-keeled.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct.
Stigmas
plumose.
Grain free, enclosed in the scale.
[Greek, greenish-yellow, referring to the color
POACEAE
67
of the herbage.]
About fifty species, mostly natives of warm and tropical regions.
Type species: Agrostis cruciata L.
Hairs on the margins or nerves of the tliird scale short, not mani-
fest, appressecl to and not extending beyond the apex.
Fourth scale of the spikelet at least one third as long as the
second scale and bearing a long awn 4 mm. long or more;
spikes 4-6, widely spreading at maturity.
1.
C. Sagraeana.
Fourth scale of the spikelet rudimentary, bearing an awn less
than 4 mm. long; spikes usually numerous, erect or ascending
at maturity.
2.
C. radiata.
Hairs on the margins or nerves of the third scale long, manifest,
widely spreading or extending much beyond the apex.
Third and fourth scales only awned, the former densely long-
hairy on the midnerve, its awn less than twice the length of the
scale.
3.
C. ciliata.
Tliird, fourth and fifth scales awned, the first glabrous on the
midnerve, its awn about three times the length of the scale.
4. C. paraguaiensis.
1. Chloris Sagraeana A. Rich, in Sagra. Hist. Cub. 11: 315.
1850.
Chloris eleusinoides Griseb.
Fi. Brit. W.
I. 539.
1864.
Perennial; culms ascending,
6 dm. long or
less,
usually branched below.
Leaf-sheaths keeled, the blades narrow, involute; spikes 4-6, slender, 4-8 cm.
long, horizontally spreading when old, not pectinate; spikelets imbricated, the
fourth scale bearing a filiform awn 4-12 mm. long.
Dry soil,
St. Croix:—Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua; Guadeloupe.
This is, perhaps, the grass recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas as C. cruciata.
2. Chloris radiata (L.) Sw. Prodr. 26.
1788.
Agrostis radiata L. PI. Jam. Pugil. 7.
1759.
Annual;
culms decumbent,
ascending
or
erect,
2-4 dm.
long,
usually
branched,
smooth
and
slender.
Leaf-sheaths
compressed,
the
blades
flat,
blunt or short-pointed, 2-15 cm. long; spikes several or many, radiating, slender,
4-8 cm. long, not pectmate
; spikelets densely imbricated, the fourth scale rudi-
mentary, bearing a filiform awn about 3 mm. long.
Hillsides, banks, ditches and waste grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St.
Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
Plush-grass.
HORQUETILLU.
3. Chloris ciliata Sw. Prodr. 25.
1788,
Annual; culms decumbent, ascending or nearly erect, rather stiff, 8 dm. long
or less, smooth, mostly simple.
Leaf-sheaths somewhat compressed, the blades
flat, long-acuminate, 7-20 cm. long; spikes few, stout, radiate, pectinate, 4-7
cm. long, commonly curved; spikelets pale, approximate, the third and fourth
scales short-awned.
Dry and brackish soil near Tallaboa, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas:—southern
United States; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua to Grenada; continental
tropical America.
4. Chloris paraguaiensis Steud. Syn.
PI. Gram. 204.
1854.
Chloris barbata Sw.
Fl. Ind. Occ. 1: 200.
1797.
Not Andropogon barbatum
L.
1759.
Annual; culms decumbent, ascending or erect, 3-6 dm. long, slender, smooth.
Leaf-sheaths compressed, the blades flat or folded, long-acuminate, 4-12 cm. long.
Spikes few or numerous, radiate, pectinate, 4-8 cm. long; spikelets usually purple,
the third, fourth and fifth scales filiform-awned.
Waste and
cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques; Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—West Indies; continental tropical America;
Old World tropics.
68
POACEAE
51. EUSTACHYS Desv. Nouv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 2: 188.
1810.
Perennial grasses, with flat or folded, usually obtuse leaf-blades, and spicate
inflorescence, the spikes single, in pairs or 3-inany and digitate.
Spikelets usu-
ally 1-flowered, rarely 2-flowered, sessile, crowded in 2 rows.
Scales 4, rarely 5,
the 2 lower empty,
persistent, unequal,
keeled, the
first generally acute,
the
second oblong, truncate or 2-lobed at the apex, short-awned, the others awnless,
mucronate, or short-awned, firmer than the empty scales, the third scale enclosing
a perfect flower and a palet, the fourth scale empty, or rarely enclosing a stam-
inate
flower.
[Greek,
beautiful
spikes.]
About 6 species,
natives of tropical
America, the following typical.
1. Eustachys petraea (Sw.) Desv. Nouv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 2: 189.
1810.
Chloris petraea Sw. Prodr. 25.
1788.
Chloris Swartziana Doell, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2^: 68.
1878.
Culms 3-11 dm. tall; leaves 3 dm. long or less, 10 mm. wide or less, smooth
spikes 3-11,
usually 4-6,
erect, 4-11 cm.
long;
spikelets about
2 mm.
long;
scales 4, the second, exclusive of the awn, 1.5-1.75 mm. long, 2-toothed at the
apex, the teeth triangular, acute or obtusish, the awn about 0.5 mm. long; third
scale about 2 mm. long, in side view elliptic and about
1 mm. wide,
tl:(e awn
short or wanting; fourtli scale, in side view, obovate-elliptic, rounded at the apex,
awnless.
Sandy soil along and near the coasts, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques:—Florida; Ber-
muda; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispauiola; Trinidad; coutiuental tropical America.
Finger-grass.
52. GYMNOPOGON Beauv. Agrost. 41.
1812.
Annual or perennial grasses with
flat and usually short rigid leaves, and
numerous
slender
alternate
or
digitate
spikes.
Spikelets
1-flowered,
almost
sessile, the rachilla extended and bearing a small scale which
is usually awned.
Scales 3 or 4; the 2 lower empty, unequal, narrow, acute; third broader,
fertile,
3-nerved, slightly 2-toothed at the apex, bearing an erect awn; the fourth empty,
small, awned; palet 2-keeled.
Stamens
3.
Styles distinct.
Stigmas plumose,
Grain linear, free, enclosed in the rigid scale.
[Greek, naked-beard, referring to
the prolongation of the rachilla.)
Six known species, all but one of them natives
of America.
Type .species; Andrupogon ambiguus Michx.
1. Gymnopogon foliosus (Willd.) Nees, Agrost. Bras. 426.
1829.
Chloris foliosa Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 924.
1806.
Annual; culms branched near the base or tufted, erect or ascending, with
erect
branches, slender, glabrous, 1.5-5 dm. high, the internodes short.
Leaf-
sheaths with a row of long hairs at the mouth, the blades short, tapering from the
base to the apex, glabrous, 1-2.5 cm. long, 1-2 mm. wide; spikes 4-8, digitate at
the end of a long, very slender stalk, 2-4.5 cm.
long, the upper scales of the
spikelets filiform-awned.
In white
.sand, Campo
Alegre,
Porto
Rico;
St. Thomas:—Hispaniola; northern
South America.
The type locality is St. Thomas.
53. ELEUSINE Gaertn. Fruct. & Sem. 1: 7.
1788.
Tufted annual or perennial grasses, with flat leaves and spicate inflorescence,
the spikes digitate or close together at the summit of the culm.
Spikelets several-
flowered, sessile, closely imbricated in two rows on one side of the rachis, which is
POACEAE
69
not extended beyond them;
flowers
perfect or the upper staminate.
Scales
compressed, keeled; the 2 lower empty; the others subtending flowers, or the
upper empty.
Stamens 3.
Styles distinct.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain loosely
enclosed in the scale and palet.
[From the Greek name of the town where Ceres
was worshipped.]
Species 6, natives of the Old World.
Type species: Cynosurua
coracana L.
1. Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn. Fruct. & Sem. 1: 8.
1788.
Cynosuriis indicus L. Sp. PI. 72.
175.3.
Andropogon repens Schoepf, Reise 2: 493.
1788.
Culms 1.5-6 dm.
tall,
tufted,
erect, or decumbent at the base.
Sheaths
loose, overlapping and often short and crowded at the base of the culm, glabrous
or sometimes sparingly villous; leaves 7.5-30 cm. long, 2-6 mm. wide, smooth or
scabrous; spikes 2-10,
2. .5-7. 5 cm. long, whorled or approximate at the summit
of the culm or one or two sometimes distant
; spikelets 3-G-flowered, 3-4 mm. long
scales acute, minutely scabrous on the keel, the first 1-nerved, the second 3-7-
nerved, the others 3-5-nerved.
Waste and cultivated grounds, a troublesome weed. Porto Rico; Mona; Icacos; Vieques:
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—temperate and tropical regions of the Old
World and the New.
Native of the Old World.
Wire-grass.
Yerba dulce.
Pata
DE gallina.
54. DACTYLOCTENIUM Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. 1029.
1809.
An annual
grass, with
flat leaves and spicate inflorescence, the spikes in
pairs or digitate.
Spikelets several-flowered,
sessile, closely imbricated in two
rows on one side of the rachis, which is extended beyond them into a sharp point.
Scales compressed, keeled, the 2 lower and the uppermost ones empty, the others
subtending
flowers.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct,
short.
Stigmas
plumose.
Grain
free, rugose, loosely enclosed in the scale.
[Greek, referring to the
digi-
tately spreading spikes.]
A monotypic genus of the warmer parts of the Old
World.]
1. Dactyloctenium aegyptium
(L.) Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol.
1029.
1809.
Cynosurus aegyptitis L. Sp. PI. 72.
1753.
Culms 1.5-6 dm. long, usually decumbent and extensively creeping at the
base.
Sheaths
loose,
overlapping and
often
crowded, smooth and
glabrous;
leaves
1.5 dm.
in length or
less, 2-6 mm. wide, smooth or rough, sometimes
pubescent,
ciliate toward the base; spikes in pairs, or 3-5 and digitate, 1.25-5
cm. long; spikelets 3-5-flowered; scales compressed, scabrous on the
keel, the
second awned, the flowering ones broader and pointed.
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas:
St. Jan; Tortola; Anegada:—southern United States; West Indies; tropical continental
America; warm-temperate and tropical regions of the Old World.
Egyptian Grass.
55. BOUTELOUA Lag. Varied. Cienc. 2^: 134.
1805.
Annual or perennial grasses with
flat or convolute leaves and numerous
spikelets In few one-sided spikes.
Spikelets 1-2-flowered, arranged in two rows
on one side of a flat rachis, the rachilla extended beyond the base of the flowers,
bearing 1-3 awns and 1-3 rudimentary scales.
Two lower scales empty, acute,
keeled;
flowering
scale
broader,
3-toothed,
the
teeth awn-pointed
or awned;
70
POACEAE
palet
hyaline,
entire
or
2-tootiied.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct.
Stigmas
plumose.
Grain
oblong,
free.
[In
honor
of
Claudian
Boutelou,
a
Spanish
botanist.]
About 36 species, particularly numerous in ]Me.xico and in the south-
western United States, known
as Mesquite-grass.
Type
species:
Bouteloua
racemosa Lag.
Second flower a rudimentary 3-fld awn.
Leaf-blades up to 10 cm. long; spikes 2-3 cm. long.
1.
B. amencana.
Leaf-blades only 2 era. long or le.ss; spikes about 0.5 cm. long.
2. B. juncea.
Second flower well developed.
3. B. heterostega.
1. Bouteloua americana (L.) Scribn. Proc. Phila. Acad. 1891: 306.
1S91.
Aristida americana L. Syst. Nat. ed.
10, 879.
1759.
Bouteloua litigiosa Lag. Gen. & Sp. Nov. 5.
1816.
Perennial,
tufted.
Culms
wiry, compressed, decumbent
or ascending,
7
dm. long or
less, often much branched, glabrous.
Leaves involute-margined,
hairy near the base, 6-10 cm. long, 2 mm. wide or less; raceme open, composed of
several spike-like branches 2-3 cm. long; spikelets a1)out 7 on each spike, ap-
pressed; second flower rudimentary, with 3 awns of about equal length.
Sandy
fields and
roadsides near the southern and western
coasts,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Vii-gin Gorda:—Bahamas; Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua to Tobago; continental tropical America.
2. Bouteloua juncea (Desv.) Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 17: 343.
1913.
Triathera juncea Desv.; Beauv. Agrost. 40.
1812.
Perennial; culms glabrous, very slender, prostrate or ascending, branched,
5-15 cm. long, the branches often fascicled or densely tufted, the flowering ones
flhform, erect, 6-15 cm. high.
Leaf-sheaths pilose at the mouth, the blades 15
mm. long or less, 1-1.5 mm. wide, glabrous, folded, at least in drying; racemes of
few or .several minute spikes; spikelet solitary, pilose at the base, about 4 mm.
long, the scales lanceolate, acuminate, the second flower of 3 slender scabrous
awns.
Red soil, coastal plain near Guanica:—Hispaniola.
3. Bouteloua heterostega (Trin.)
Griffiths, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb.
14: 414.
1912.
Eutriana heterostega Trin. Gram. Unifl. 242.
1824.
Bouteloua Humboldtiana Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad.
II. 8: 532.
1862.
Heterosteca rhadina Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 386.
1903.
Perennial; culms prostrate, ascending or erect, branched, glabrous, slender,
2-6 dm. long.
Leaves more or less pilose, the blades 2-8 cm. long, 1-2.5 mm. wide,
folded, at least when dry; racemes 2-10, ascending or spreading, 1.5-3 cm. long;
spikelets 4-7, about 12 mm. long, the second flower staminate, the other perfect
or pistillate,
its scale long-awned.
Rocky and sandy soU at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, mostly in dry
districts:—Cuba; Hi.spaniola; Martinique.
56. LEPTOCHLOA Beauv. Agrost. 71.
1812.
Usually tall annual or perennial grasses, with flat leaves and numerous spikes
forming a simple
panicle.
Spikelets usually several-flowered,
flattened,
alter-
nating in two roAvs on one side of the rachis.
Scales 4 to many
; the 2 lower empty,
keeled, shorter than the spikelet; the flowering scales keeled, 3-nerved.
Palet
POACEAE
71
2-nerved.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct.
Stigmas
plumose.
Grain
free,
en-
closed in the scale and palet.
[Greek, in allusion to the slender spikes.]
About
12 species, natives of the warmer regions of both hemispheres.
Type species:
Cynosurus virgatus L.
Perennial.
1-
^- virgata.
Annuals.
^
r
^i-r
Sheaths, or the upper ones hispid.
2. L. fihformis.
Sheaths glabrous.
3.
L. scabra.
1. Leptochloa virgata (L.) Beauv. Agrost. 71, 166.
1812.
Cynosurus virgatus L. Syst. Nat. ed.
10, 876.
1759.
Perennial; culms rather
slender, smooth,
erect or decumbent, somewhat
tufted, 2-10 dm. high, little branched or simple.
Leaf-sheaths glabrous, the blade
6-18 cm. long, 4-15 mm. wide; spikes slender, weak, 3-12 cm. long, racemose near
the top of the culm; spikelets about 4 mm. long; flowering scales awnless or very
short-awned.
[?L.
virgata gracilis of Eggers.]
Wet and waste grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St.
Jan; Tortola:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
2. Leptochloa filiformis (Lam.) Beauv. Agrost. 166.
1812.
Festuca filiformis Lam. Tabl. Encycl.
l: 191.
1791.
Eleusine mucronata Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. l: 65.
1803.
Leptochloa mucronata Kunth, Rev. Gram.
1: 91.
1829.
Annual; culms 3-12 dm.
high,
finally
branching.
Leaf-sheaths
usually
hispid or hirsute, the i^lades 6-25 cm. long,
1 cm. wide or less, scabrous; spikes
ascending, 5-15 cm. long; spikelets about 3 mm. long.
[L. mucronata multiflora
of Eggers.]
Fields and
cultivated grounds at lower
elevations, Porto Rico: along ditches,
St.
Croix
(according to Eggers):—southern United
States; Bermuda; West
Indies; conti-
nental tropical America.
3. Leptochloa scabra Nees, Agrost. Bras. 435.
1829.
Annual; culms about
1 m. high, or less, rather stout, usually simple.
Leaf-
sheaths glabrous but scabrate, the blades 6-20 cm. long, mostly less than
1 cm.
wide; spikes 4-8 cm.
long,
ascending or nearly
erect, numerous, forming an
elongated, narrow inflore.scence
; spikelets .secund, 3-4 mm. long.
Wet grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—southern United States;
Tobago;
Trinidad; continental tropical America.
57. DIPLACHNE Beauv. Agrost. 80.
1812.
Tufted grasses, with narrow flat leaves and long slender spikes arranged in
an open panicle, or rarely only one terminal spike.
Spikelets several-flowered,
narrow, sessile or rarely pedicelled, erect.
Two lower scales empty, membranous,
keeled, acute, unequal; flowering scales 1-3-nerved, 2-toothod and mucronate or
short-awned between the teeth.
Palet hyaline, 2-nerved.
Stamens 3.
Styles
distinct.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain free, loosely enclosed in the scale and palet.
[Greek, referring to the 2-toothed flowering scales.]
About 15 species, natives
of the Avarmer regions of both hemispheres, the following typical.
72
POACEAE
1. Diplachne fascicularis (Lam.) Beauv. Agrost. 160.
1812.
Feslitca fascicularis Lam. Tabl. Encycl. l: 189.
1791.
Leptochloa fascicularis A. Gray, Man. 588.
1848.
Culms tufted, finally branching, 3-8 dm.
tall.
Leaves erect, 1-2 dm. long,
3 mm. or less wide, involute when dry, rough; racemes 8 or more, erect or ascend-
ing,
the larger ones 4-8 cm.
long; spikelets 4-8 mm.
long; scales
10-12,
the
flowering scales, exclusive of the awn, 3-4 mm. long, the midnerve extending
into an awn 1 mm. long or less.
In a ditch, St. John's Estate, St. Croix:—United States; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Mexico; South America.
Spike-GRASS.
58. PAPPOPHORUM Schreb.; Vahl, Symb. 3: 10.
1794.
Mostly perennial, tufted, large or small grasses, the narrow leaf-blades often
convolute
in
drying,
the
1-3-flowered
spikelets
in dense
spike-like, simple or
branched panicles.
Spikelets jointed above the 2 lower empty scales, the
1 or 2
lower
flowers
perfect,
the upper one
staminate.
Lower empty
scales mem-
branous, persistent, the flowering ones and the upper barren ones subcoriaceous,
cleft
at the apex into numerous
.slender awns, forming a pappus-like crown,
which falls away with the grain.
[Greek, pappus-bearing.]
Twenty species or
more, mostly tropical, the following typical.
1. Pappophorum alopecuroideum Vahl, Sj-mb. 3: 10.
1794.
Pappophorum laguroideum Schrad.
; Schultes, Mant. 2: 342,
1824.
Culms densely tufted, stiff, erect, glabrous, 6-15 dm. tall.
Leaves elongated,
al^out 4 mm. wide, strongly convolute in drying, glabrous, light green; panicle
1-4 dm.
long,
silvery-bristly,
its branches erect-appressed
; awns
soft,
nearly
filiform, 8-10 mm. long.
On a limestone bench, Punta Aguila, Porto Rico; Desechen; Mona;
St. Thomas;
Cuba; St. Eustatius; Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique; Trinidad; coiitinenfca! tropical
America; Jamaica?
59. GYNERIUM H. &, B. PI. Aequin. 2: 112.
1812.
Tall, perennial, dioecious grasses, the culms stout, somewhat woody below,
the leaf-blades large and flat, the .spikelets in a large terminal panicle.
Spikelets
several-flowered, jointed above the lower scales.
Scales membranous or hyaline,
narrow, the 2 lower ones empty; flowering scales of the pistillate spikelets long-
hairy, those of the staminate spikelets glabrous.
Stamens 3.
Styles distinct;
stigmas
])lumose.
Grain
oblong,
free,
nearly
terete,
not
grooved.
[Greek,
referring to the hairy pistillate scales.]
A few species of tropical America, the
following typical.
1. Gynerium sagittatum (Aubl.) Beauv. Agrost. 138.
1812.
Saccharum sagittatum Aubl.
PI. Guian.
1: 50.
1775.
Gynerium saccharoides H. & B. PI. Aequin. 2: 112.
1812.
An immense grass, sometimes reaching 10 m. in height, the old leaf-sheaths
persistent iielow.
Leaf-blades up to 2 m. long, 4-7 cm. wide, long-acuminate,
serrulate, those of the staminate plant approximate under the panicle which
is
often
1 m. long, its axis erect, the branches drooping, the pistillate panicle very
silky.
River-banks
at
lower
elevations,
Porto
Rico:—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts to Trinidad; contineutal tropical America.
Uva Grass.
Wild Cane.
Cana de
Castilla.
Cana de la India.
The leaves are used in basketry
POACEAE
73
60. ARUNDO [Scheuch.] L. Sp. PI. 81.
1753.
Tall, perennial grasses, with stout somewhat woody culms, broad and
flat
leaf-blades and
large
panicles
of
spikelets.
Spikelets
2-many-flowered,
the
Internodes of the rachilla glabrous
; scales 4 to many, the empty lower ones narrow,
the flowering ones
broader,
hairy on
the back.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct;
stigmas plumose.
[Name said to be derived from the Celtic for water.]
About
6 species, natives of the Old World, the following typical.
1. Arundo Donax L. Sp. PI. 81.
1753.
Culms
erect, 3-8 m.
high.
Leaf-blades up
to
1 m.
long, 5-8 cm.
wide;
panicle terminal, 5
10 dm. long, the .spikelets numerous and crowded.
Wet grounds near Ponce and Guanica; Vieques:—southern United States; Bermuda;
Jamaica; Cuba; Antigua to Barbados.
Much planted for ornament.
Native of the Old
World.
Giant Reed.
Cow Cane.
Cana guana.
61. PHRAGMITES Trin. Fund. Agrost. 134.
1820.
Tall, perennial reed-like grasses, with broad flat leaves and ample panicles.
Spikelets 3-several-flowered, the first flower often staminate, the others perfect;
rachilla articulated between the flowering scales, long-pilose.
Two lower scales
empty, unequal, membranous, lanceolate, acute, shorter than the spikelet; the
third scale empty or subtending a staminate flower; flowering scales glabrous,
narrow, long-acuminate, much exceeding the short palets.
Stamens 3.
Styles
distinct,
short.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain
free,
loosely
enclosed
in
the
scale
and
palet.
[Greek
referring
to
its
hedge-like growth
along
ditches.
Three
known species, the following typical one widely distributed, one in Asia
the third
in South America.
1. Phragmites Phragmites (L.) Karst. Deutsch.
Fl. 379.
1881.
Arundo Phiautnili.'i L. Sp. PI. 81.
17.53.
Phragjniies communis Trin. Fund. Agrost. 134.
1820.
Culms 1.5-5 m.
tall, erect, stout, from long horizontal rootstocks, smooth
and glabrous.
Sheaths overlapping, loose; blades 1.5-3 dm. long or more, 8-50
mm. wide, flat, smooth, glabrous; panicle 1..5-3 dm. long or more, ample; spikelets
crowded on the ascending branches;
first scale 1-nerved, half to two-thirds as
long as the 3-nerved i^econd one; flowering scales 1-1.2 cm. long, 3-nerved, long-
acuminate, equalling the hairs of the rachilla.
River-banks, marshes and lake-borders at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—north tem-
perate zone; Bahamas; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martinique; Tobago; Mexico.
Reed-ghass.
Wild Cane.
62. ERAGROSTIS Host, Ic. Gram. Austr. 4: 14.
1809.
Annual or perennial grasses, rarely dioecious, from a few inches to several
feet in height, the spikelets
in
panicles.
Spikelets 2-many-flowered, more or
less
flattened.
Two lower scales empty,
unequal,
shorter than
the flowering
ones,
keeled,
1-nerved, or the second 3-nerved; flowering scales membranous,
keeled, 3-nerved
; palets shorter than the scales, prominently 2-nerved or 2-keeled,
usually persisting on the rachilla after the fruiting scale has fallen.
Stamens
2 or 3.
Styles distinct, short.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain free, loosely enclosed
in the scale and palet.
[Greek, etymology doubtful, perhaps signifying a low
74
POACEAE
grass, or Love-grass, an occasional English name.]
A genus of about 100 species,
widely
distributed throughout
all warm and temperate
countries, l^nown
as
Love-grass.
Type species: Briza Eragrostis L.
Palets glabrous on the keel, or merely liispidulous.
Spikelets dioecious; creeping grass.
1. E. hypnoides.
.Spikelets all alike; plants not creeping.
Annuals; low.
Spikelets small, about 1.5 mm. wide.
2. E. pilosa.
Spikelets larger, about 2 mm. wide.
Spikelets ovate, 6 mm. long or less.
3. E. tephrosanthos.
Spikelets linear, 7-10 mm. long.
4. E. Barrelieri.
Perennial; tall.
5. E. Elliotlii.
Palets long-ciliate on the keel.
Spikelets 2 mm. long.
6. E. amabilis.
Spikelets 3-4 mm. long.
7. E. ciliaris
1. Eragrostis hypnoides (Lam.) B.
S. P. Pre). Cat. N. Y. 69.
1888.
Poa hypnoides Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 185.
1791.
Poa reptans Michx.
Fl. Bor. Am.
1: 69.
1803.
Eragrostis reptans Nees, Agrost. Bras. 514.
1829.
Culms 2.5-45 cm. long, extensively creeping, branched, the branches erect
or ascending, 2. .5-15 cm. high.
Sheaths villous at the summit; leaf-blades 5 cm.
long or less, 1-2 mm. wide, flat, smooth beneath, rough above; spikelets dioecious,
10-35-flowered, 4-16 mm. long; lower scales unequal, the
first one-half to two-
thirds as long as the second; flowering scales about 2.5 mm.
long, the lateral
nerves prominent; .scales of the pistillate flowers more acute than those of the
staminate.
Banks, roadsides and muddy places at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Martinique;
Trinidad;
temperate and
tropical
continental North
and South America.
2. Eragrostis pilosa
(I^.) Beauv. Agrost.
162.
1812.
Poa pilosa L. Sp. PI. 68.
1753.
Annual; culms 1.5-4.5 dm.
tall,
tufted, erect, slender, branched.
Sheaths
sometimes pilose at the throat; leaf-blades 2.5-12.5 cm. long, 2 mm. wide or less,
smooth beneath, scabrous above; panicle 5-15 cm.
in length, the branches at
first erect, finally widely spreading, 2.5-3.75 cm. long, often hairy in the axils,
spikelets 5-12-flowered, 3-6 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide; lower scales acute,
the first one-half as long as the second; flowering scales acute, the lower 1.5 mm.
long, thin, usually purplish.
Fields, roadsides and waste grounds, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St Thomas:—United
States; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; continental tropical Ameri-
ca; warm-temperate and tropical regions of the Old World.
3. Eragrostis tephrosanthos Schult. Mant. 2: 316.
1824.
Annual; culms tufted, slender, erect or ascending, 1-3 dm. high, glabrous.
Leaf-blades 4-8 cm.
long,
1..5-3 mm. wide, glabrous or nearly
so, the sheath
ciliate at the top; panicle open. 4-8 cm. long, its filifoi'm branches spreading or
ascending; spikelets filiform-peduncled, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 4-7 mm. long,
about 2 mm. wide; scales and palet glabrous.
Banks,
fields, roadsides and in cultivated grounds at lower and middle elevations,
Porto Rico; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas:—West
Indies; northern South America.
Doubtfully referred by Nash to E. Piirshii Schrad.
4. Eragrostis Barrelieri Desv., Journ. de Bot. 8: 289.
1894.
Annual
; culms tufted, glabrous, ascending or erect, 5 dm. high or le.ss.
Leaf-
blades 4-9 cm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, scabrous above; panicle open, 1-2 dm. long
or
shorter,
its
filiform
branches
ascending;
spikelets
linear,
8-12 mm.
long.
[E. minor of Millspaugh, not of Host; E. poaeoides of Eggers, not of Beauvois.]
Dry
soil,
St. Croix;
St. Thomas
(ex Eggers):—Texas.
Native of the Old World.
POACEAE
75
5. Eragrostis Elliottii S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 25: 140.
1890.
Poa nitida Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga.
1: 162.
1817.
Not Lam.
1791.
Eragrostis macropoda Pilger, in Urb. Symb. Ant. 4: 106,
1903.
Perennial; culms
tufted,
glabrous,
rather
slender,
erect, 4-10 dm.
high.
Sheaths glabrous; leaf-blades 1-4 dm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, scabrous above; smooth
beneath; panicle 2-5 dm. long, open,
its nearly filiform branches spreading or
ascending;
pedicels
filiform, much
longer than
the
spikelets;
spikelets 6-13-
flowered, 5-10 mm. long, the flowering scales about 2 mm. long.
Moist sandjr soil near the northern and western coasts of Porto Rico; St. Thomas:
southeastern United States; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
6. Eragrostis amabilis (L.) W. & A.; H. & A. Bot. Beechey Voy. 251.
1841.
Poa amabilis L. Sp.
PI. 68.
1753.
Poa plumosa Retz. Obs.
4: 20.
1786.
Eragrostis plumosa Link, Hort. Berol.
1: 192.
1827.
Annual
; culms slender, densely tufted,
erect or ascending,
1-4 dm.
high.
Sheaths commonly with a tuft of hairs at the top, their margins usually ciliate;
leaf-blades 2-10 cm.
long,
4 mm. wide or
less; panicle-branches spreading or
ascending; spikelets about 2 mm. long, 4-8-flowered, the palets ciliate with very
short hairs.
Waste and cultivated grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Jan:—south-
eastern United States; Bahamas; Jamaica: Cuba;
St. Kitts to Trinidad.
NaturaUzed
from tlae Old World tropics.
7. Eragrostis ciliaris (L.) Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 192.
1827.
Poa ciliaris L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 875.
1759.
Annual; culms densely tufted, slender, erect or ascending, 3 dm. high or less;
leaf-sheaths with a tuft of hairs at the top and usually ciliate, the blades flat,
2-7 cm. long, 2-5 mm. Avide; panicle narrow, dense, 2-10 cm. long, its branches
appressed; spikelets 3-4 mm. long, 6-16-flowered
; palet-nerves long-ciliate.
Sandy
soil, waste and cidtivated grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Mona:
Muertos; Vieques; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Anegada:—southern
United
States; Bermuda; West
Indies;
continental
tropical America and Old World
tropics.
Consists of several
races.
Specimens from Anegada recorded by Britton as
E. Urbaniana Hitchc, a closely related species, now appear l^ettcr referable to E. ciliaris.
Specimens from Morillos de Cabo Rojo, Porto Rico, closely approach E. arabica.
63. UNIOLA L. Sp. PI. 71.
1753.
Erect and often
tall grasses with
flat or convolute leaves and paniculate
inflorescence.
Spikelets 3-many-flowered,
flat, 2-edged, the flowers perfect, or
the upper staminate.
Scales flattened, keeled, sometimes winged, rigid, usually
acute;
the
lower
3-() empty,
unequal;
the
flowering
scale many-nerved,
the
uppermost scales often smaller and empty; palets rigid, 2-keeled.
Stamens 1-3.
Styles distinct.
Stigmas plumose.
Grain compressed,
free, loosely enclosed in
the scale and palet.
[Name diminutive of unus, one, of no obvious application.]
About 8 species, natives of America.
Type species: Uniola paniculata L.
2. Uniola virgata (Poir.) Griseb. Fl. Brit. W.
I. 531.
1864.
Poa virgata Poir, in Lam. Encycl. 5: 78.
1804.
Uniola racemiflora Trin. Bull. Acad. St. Petersb. 1: 68.
1836.
Culms
tufted,
1-2 m.
tall,
rigid.
Leaves 3-5 dm.
long,
rigid,
involute,
usually curved, 2-3 mm. wide; panicle narrow, virgate, 2-5 dm. long, about 2
cm.
thick,
its many short branches
erect,
appressed,
the spikelets racemose-
76
POACEAE
spicate, secuncl, 3-4 mm. long, oval, few-flowered; flowering scales about 2 mm.
long.
Coastal
rocks,
southwestern
districts,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
St. Thomas;
Little
St. James:—Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba.
64. ARTHROSTYLIDIUM Riipr. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. 52; 117. 1839.
Woody, mostly vine-like grasses, the leaves usually borne on short branches
whorled at the nodes, the leaf-blades hnear or lanceolate, jointed with the sheaths.
Spikelets racemose, usually appearing only after long intervals, sometimes only
after many
years.
Spikelets
linear,
few-several-flowered,
stalked
or
nearly
sessile, more or less secund, articulated above the lower 3 or 4 empty scales;
lowest scale small, the others similar to each other, acute or acuminate, many-
nerved, not awned; palets narrow, 2-carinate, scarcely shorter than the scales.
Flowers perfect.
Stamens 3.
Ovary glabrous; styles 2.
Grain oblong.
[Greek
referring to the jointed spikelets.]
About 20 species, natives of tropical America.
Known as Cakoncillas.
Type species: Arthrostylidium Haenkei Rupr.
Leaf-blades nearly capillary, involute in drying, 1-3 mm. wide.
Leaf-blades flat, not involute.
I. A. capiUifoKum.
Young branches retrorse-scabrous ;
leaf-blades 10-15 mm.
wide.
2. A. mulHspicalum.
Young branches smooth; leaf-blades 3-5 mm. wide.
3. A. sarmentosum.
1. Arthrostylidium capillifolium Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad. IL 8: .531.
1862.
Arundinaria capillifolia Hack. Oest. Bot. Zeitschr. 53: 69.
1903.
Glabrous; stem slender, wiry, woody, climbing over shrubs and small trees,
sometimes
.5 m.
long,
often forming
large
colonies.
Branches numerous,
fas-
cicled at the nodes, short; leaves capillary, flexible, 5-15 cm. long; spikelets few,
at the ends of the branches, lanceolate, 8-12 mm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, several-
flowered.
Woods and thickets near Maricao and Sabana Grande, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St.
Thomas;
St. Jan:—Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola.
OLD M.\n'S Beard.
2. Arthrostylidium multispicatum Pilger in Urban, Symta. Ant. 2: 341.
1901.
Arundinaria multispicata Haclv. Oest. Bot. Zeitschr. 53: 69.
1903.
High-climliing; main ])ranches elongated, when young retrorse-scabrous, the
older branches smooth; ultimate branchlets
verticillate, 15-30 cm.
long;
leaf-
blades 6-8 cm. long, 10-15 mm. wide, or larger on strong shoots; racemes ter-
minal and axillary, numerous, the axis straight, the glabrous spikelets appressed.
Mountain forests, central and western districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola.
Forest Climbing Bamboo.
3. Arthrostylidium sarmentosum Pilger in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 108.
1903.
Climbing on trees and .snruos, the culm and branches very slender, smooth,
the ultimate branchlets 10-15 cm. long, in dense, distant verticils.
Leaf-blades
pale green,
flat, 5 cm. long or less, 3-5 mm. wide; racemes many, terminal and
axillary, zigzag, composed of few pubescent spikelets.
Moimtain
forests at higher
elevations, Porto Rico:—Cuba;
Hispaniola.
Forest
Climbing Bamboo.
65. CHUSQUEA Kunth, Syn. PI. Aequin. 1: 254.
1822.
Climbing or clam))enng woody
grasses,
with elongated, branched culms,
small leaves, the blades jointed with the sheaths, the small 1-flowered spikelets
in terminal
panicles, the flowers perfect.
Sc^Jeg
5, the two lower ones small,
POACEAE
77
empty,
persistent,
the
next two
appressed,
the
flowering one membranous.
Stamens
3.
Styles
distinct
or
united.
Grain
oblong.
[Colombian
name.]
About 35 species of tropical America.
Type species: Chusquea scandens Kunth.
1. Chusquea abietifolia Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 529.
1S64.
Arnndinaria
(?) microdada Pilger in Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 289.
1907.
Climbing on trees and shru))s, slender, niuch-liranched, the culms elongated,
often drooping, sometimes 6-7 meters long, the ultimate branchlets verticillate,
immerous, 6-10 cm. long.
Leaves rather rigid, narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-5 cm.
long, spinulose-tipped, the margins scabrate; panicles terminating leafy branch-
lets; spikelets few, lanceolate, pointed, about 6 mm. long, short-stalked.
Hillsides,
Monte
Alegrillo
and
near
Yauco:—Jamaica;
Hispaniola.
The
grass
flowers only after long intervals and dies after flowering.
66. BAMBOS Retz. Obs. 5: 24.
1789.
Woody grasses, with erect, hollow, jointed, branching culms, flat leaf-blades
jointed
with
their
sheaths,
and
several-many-flowered spikelets
clustered
in
narrow or broad panicles, the panicle-branches often verticillate.
Scales several
or numerous, awnless, the lower
1 to 4 empty, shorter than the flowering ones.
Stamens
6.
Style
undivided
or
2-3-cleft.
Grain
olilong.
[Indian
name.]
Forty species or more,
natives of warm-temperate and
tropical parts of the
Old World.
Type species: Bambos arundinacea Retz.
1. Bambos vulgaris Schrad,
; Wendl. Coll. PI. 2: 26.
1810.
Culms stout, 15 m. high or less, about 1 dm. in diameter, the lateral branches
numerous,
slender,
the nodes with a
line of hairs.
Leaf-sheaths loosely pu-
bescent, the blades lanceolate,
1.5-2.5 dm. long, 4 cm. wide or less; flowering
branches clustered; spiklets 1-2 cm. long in bracted
clusters of 3-10, oblong,
pointed, the empty scales ovate, acute, many-nerved.
Moist grounds and along water-courses at lower elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Croix,
St. Thomas:—Widely naturalized in the West Indies and in continental tropical America
from the Old World tropics.
Bamboo.
Bambu.
A low arching slender Bamboo was seen at Agricultural Experiment Station, Maya-
guez, in 1923.
Krebs records the East Indian li. arundinacea Willd., as formerly grown
in St. Thomas.
Melinis minutiflora Beauv., Molasses Grass, South America, grown as a
forage grass in Porto Rico, is a perennial, odorous, velvety, slender species up to
almost a meter in height, with a terminal panicle of numerous awned spikelets.
Polytrias amaura
(Buese)
Kuntze
[P. praemorsa
Hack.], Java
Grass,
experimentally planted for use ag a lawn-grass in Porto Rico, is a low, prostrate,
densely tufted grass, with rather slender, brownish, hairy racemes 2-5 cm. long.
Tripsacum latifolium Hitch., Cayenne Grass, seen growing luxuriantly at
the Agricultural Experiment Station, Mayaguez, in 1923,
is an erect grass 2-2.5
m. high, with broad flat leaves, the spikes 3 together in clusters axillary to leafy
bracts.
Tripsacum laxutn Nash, Guatemala Grass, also seen growing luxuriantly
at the Mayaguez Station, and also at the St. Croix Station
is similar to the pre-
ceding species, but with solitary spikes
Tricholaena rosea
Nees,
Natal
Grass
of
Africa,
cultivated
at
the
Insular Experiment Station, Rio Piedras and tending there in 1922 to
spread
beyond ciUtivation,
is a slender perennial species 6-10 dm. high with panicled,
silky red-purple spikelets, now naturalized in northeiui Cuba and in Florida.
78
CYPERACEAE
Hyparrhenia rufa (Nees) Stapf, African, grown at the Mayaguez Agricul-
tural Experiment
Station,
is a tufted
perennial
tall
grass, with long narrow
leaves, the reddish-pubescent awned spikelets
in
panicles.
[Trachypogon rufus
Nees; Cymbopogon rufum Rendle.]
Stipa tortilis
Desf., of southern Europe was recorded by Krebs from St
Thomas, probably in error.
Family 2.
CYPERACEAE J. St. Hilaire
Sedge Family
Grass-like
or
rush-like
herbs.
Stems
(culms)
slender,
solid
(rarely
hollow),
triangular,
quadrangular,
terete
or
flattened.
Roots
fibrous
(many species perennial by long rootstocks).
Leaves narrow, with closed
sheaths.
Flowers perfect or imperfect, arranged in spikelets, one (rarely 2)
in the axil of each scale (ghmie, bract), the spikelets solitary or clustered,
1-many-flowered.
Scales
2-ranked
or
spirally
imbricated,
persistent
or
deciduous.
Perianth hypogynous, composed of
bristles, or interior scales,
rarely calyx-like, or son'ietimes wanting.
Stamens 1-3, rarely more.
Fila-
ments
slender
or
filiform.
Anthers
2-celled.
Ovary
1-celled.
Ovule
1,
anatropous, erect.
Style 2-3-cleft or rarely simple or minutely 2-toothed.
Fruit a lenticular, plano-convex, or trigonous achene.
Endosperm mealy.
Embryo minute.
About 65 genera and 3000 species, of very wide geographic distribution.
A. Flowers, at least the pistillate ones, perfect.
a
All the spikelet-seales subtending flowers or only
1 or 2 empty.
Scales of the spikelets distichons (See Abildgaardia).
Spikelets with only
1 perfect flower.
1. KulUnga.
Spikelets with 2 to many perfect flowers.
2.
Cyperus.
Scales of the spikelets spirally imbricated.
Base of the style persistent as a tubercle on tlie achene.
.
Spikelet
1. culm leafless; bristles usually present.
3.
Eleocharis.
Spikelets several or many ; leaves present
; bristles none.
4.
Slenophyllus.
Base of the style not persistent as a tubercle.
Flowers without any inner scales (petals).
Base of the style swollen; bristles none.
,..,,.
Spikelets terete.
,.
5. limbnstyhs
Spikelets
compressed,
their
scales
pseudodis-
tichous.
6.
Abildgaardia.
Base of the style not swollen
; bristles usually present.
7.
Scirp'us.
Flowers with 3 expanded inner scales
(sepals)
alter-
.
nating with 3 bristles in our species.
8. t uirena.
b. Three or more of the lower scale.s usually empty.
Style 2-cleft.
, ^
,
Bristles none; spikelets several-flowered.
Spikelets in a terminal invohicrate cluster.
9.
Uicnrnme.na.
Spikelets in umbels or panicles.
.
10.
Psilocarya.
Bristles present, except in a few species; spdielets variously
clustered, the clusters not involucrate.
11. Uynchospora.
Style :^-cleft.
,
.
. „
Pistillate flower axillary; plants tall.
.
Bristles none.
12. Man^cus.
Bristles present.
l-^- Machaenna.
Pistillate flower subterminal; plants low. leafy.
14. Remirea.
B. Flowers all imperfect.
Pistillate flower subtended by scales.
.
^
^,
.
, ...
,
, _
, „„„„„^„,„„o
Lower spikelets of tlie panicles stammate, the upper pistdlate.
15. Lagenocarpus.
Staminate and pistillate spikelets variously intermixed m the
.
panicles.
.
]%
'^^'l^^-
Pistillate flower enclosed in a perigymum.
17.
^arez..
1. KYLLINGA Rottb. Descr. & Ic.
12.
1773.
Annual or perennial sedges, with slender triangular culms, leafy below, and
with 2 or more leaves at the summit forming an involucre to the strictly sessile,
simple or compound dense head of spikelets.
Spikelets numerous, compressed,
CYPERACEAE
79
falling away from the axis of the head at maturity, consisting of only 3 or 4
scales, the
1 or 2 lower ones small and empty, the middle one fertile, the upper
empty or staminate.
Joints of the rachis wingless or narrowly winged.
Scales
2-ranked, keeled.
Perianth none.
Stamens 1-3.
Style 2-cleft, deciduous from
the summit of the achene.
Achene lenticular.
[In honor of Peter Kylling, a
Danish
botanist
of the
seventeenth
century.]
About
45
species,
natives
of
tropical and temperate regions.
Perennials, with rootstocks.
Basal leaves with blades.
Leaves long, the apex gradually acuminate.
1.
{^- orenjoiia.
Leaves short, the ape.x acute.
2. K. pungens.
Basal leaves reduced to sheaths.
o. ^- peruviana.
Annua! or biennial; roots fibrous.
a
t^
,
Fertile scale setulose on the keel, eglandular.
4.
ii. pumiia.
Fertile scale smooth on the keel, glandular.
5. K. oaorata.
1. Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb. Descr. & Icon.
13.
1773.
Perennial by slender rootstocks; culms 6 dm. high or less, slender.
Leaves
2-4 cm. wide, attenuate
at the
apex, the basal ones as long as the culm or much
shorter, those of the involucre 3 or 4, the longer sometimes 12 cm. long; heads
1-3, usually only
1, ovoid to short cylindric, 5-12 mm. long; fertile scale ovate-
lanceolate,
boat-shaped,
submuCronate,
the
keel
rough-setulose,
or
wholly
smooth.
Wet or moist gromids. at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas;
St. Croi.x; St. .Ian; Tortola;—southern United States; West
Indies; tropical contmental
America and Old World tropics.
2. Kyllinga pungens Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 326.
1827.
Perennial by short scaly rootstocks; culms erect or reclining, 3-8 dm. long.
Basal leaves much shorter than the culm, 3-4 mm.
wide,
acute, those of the
involucre 2-4, 6 cm. long or
less; head solitary, subglobose to short-cylindric,
about
1 cm. thick; spikelets lanceolate; fertile scale acute or mucronate, boat-
shaped, keeled, 3-nerved on each side.
[Scirpus mutatus Bello, not L.]
Moist grassy places near Mayaguez. Porto Rico; St. Croix:—Hispaniola; Jamaica;
continental tropical America and Old World
tropics.
3. Kyllinga peruviana Lam. Encycl. 3: 366.
1789.
Kyllinga aphylla Kunth, Enum.
2: 127.
1837.
Perennial by short stout rootstocks covered by ovate scales; culms rather
stout, erect, 7 dm. high or less.
Basal leaves reduced to tubular sheaths 1-5 cm.
long; involucral leaves reduced to triangular acute bracts mostly shorter than
the solitary head of spikelets; head about
1 cm.
in diameter; spikelets many,
brownish, about 4 mm. long, ovate-lanceolate;
fertile scale mucronulate, boat-
shaped, striate.
[Scirpus nodulosus Bello, not Roth.]
In swamps and marshes, rarely on sand dunes, at lower elevations. Porto Rico:—
Jamaica; Hispaniola; Antigua; Trinidad; continental tropical America; tropical Alnca.
4. Kyllinga pumiia Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. l: 28.
1803.
Annual, fibrous-rooted; culms tufted, slender to filiform, 4 dm. long or less.
Leaves 0.7-5 mm. wide, the basal ones mostly shorter than the culm, those of the
involucre 3-5, elongated, spreading; heads 1-3, ovoid to ovoid-oblong, 5-9 mm.
long, or the lateral ones smaller; spikelets brownish; fertile scale ovate to ovate-
lanceolate, acute, not glandular, its keel setose.
Moist grassy
places, Porto
Rico;
St. Thomas
(according to Clarke); Tortola:—
southeastern United States; Me-xico to Brazil; Jamaica; Cuba to Irmidad; Airica.
so
CYPERACEAE
5. Kyllinga odorata Vahl, Enum. 2: 382.
1805.
Annual or biennial, fibrous rooted; culms rather slender, tufted, 4 dm. long
or less.
Leaves grass-like, 2-4 mm. wide, the basal ones shorter than the culm,
those of the involucre 3 or 4, the longer 8-12 cm. long; heads 1-4, cylindric to
ovoid-cylindric,
7-15 mm.
long,
or
the
lateral ones much
smaller;
spikelets
yellowish-brown
; fertile scale ovate-oblong, depressed-glandular, its keel smooth.
Roadsides and sandy places at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; St. Thomas;
St. Jan :^southern United States; Me.xico to Uraguay; Jamaica; Cuba; Trinidad.
2. CYPERUS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 44.
1753.
Annual or perennial sedges.
Culms in our species simple, mostly triangular,
mostly leafy near the base, and with
1 or more leaves at the summit forming an
involucre to the simple or compound, umbellate or capitate inflorescence.
Rays
of the umbel sheathed at the base, usually very unequal, one or more of the heads
or spikes commonly sessile.
Spikelets flat or subterete, the scales falling away
from the rachis as they mature (nos. 1-19), or persistent and the spikelets falling
away from the axis of the head or spike with the scales attached
(nos. 20-34).
Scales concave, conduplicate or keeled, 2-ranked,
all flower-bearing or the lower
ones empty.
Flowers perfect.
Perianth none.
Stamens 1-3.
Style 2-3-cleft,
deciduous from
the summit
of
the
achene.
[Ancient Greek name
for
these
sedges.]
About 600
species,
of wide
distribution
in
tropical and
temperate
regions, called Gai-ingale.
Type species: Cyperus escvlentus L.
A. Style-branches 2; achene lenticular or plano-convex.
Achene laterally compressed [Genus PYCEAEUS Beauv].
Superficial cells of achene oblong.
Superficial cells of achene quadrate.
Achene dorsaUy compressed [Genus JUNCELLUS Clarke].
Style-branches 3; achene trigonous,
a.
Racliis of the spikelet persistent [EucYPEKUS].
*Rachis wingless, or very narrowly winged.
Annuals.
Scales sharply acuminate or awned.
Scales sharply acuminate.
Scales with recurved awns.
Scales obtusish.
Perennials.
Spikelets spicate.
Spikelets digitate.
Stamens 3 or 2.
Scales acute; basal leaves reduced to sheaths;
culms smooth.
Involucral leaves 8-20.
Involucral leaves 1-3.
Scales
mucronate
or
short-awned;
basal
leaves normal; culms viscid-pubescent.
Stamen only
1.
Spikelets linear-oblong
to oblong-lanceolate,
yellow.
Spikelets
ovate;
leaves
not
transversely
nerved.
Spikelets capitate, yeUow to yellow-brown.
Spikelets densely glomerate, red
to red-
dish-brown.
Spikelets ovate, green-brown; leaves strongly
transversely nerved.
**Rachis broadly winged.
Perennials.
Culms leafy below, not pseudoseptate ; plants tuberif-
erous.
Spikelets pm-ple-brown.
Spikelets yellow-brown.
Culms leafless, pseudoseptate.
Annuals, flowering the first season.
Wings of tlie racliis at length separating from it;
no basal leaves.
Wings
of
the
racliis
persistent;
basal
leaves
present.
1.
C. flavescens.
2.
C. odoratus.
3.
C. laevigatus.
4. C compressus.
5.
C. cuspidatus.
6.
C. sphacclatus.
7.
C. distans.
8.
C. alternifolius.
9.
C. Haspan.
10.
C. elegans.
11.
C. ochraceus.
12.
C. surinamensis
13.
C. Luzulae.
14.
C. virens.
15.
C. rotundus.
16.
C. esculentus.
17.
C. arliculatus
.
18.
C. giganleus.
19. C radiatus.
CYPERACEAE
81
b. Rachis of the spikelets deciduous above the 2 lower scales
[Mariscus Clarke, not Zlmi.]
*Achetie more than twice as long as tliick; heads globose.
**Achene not more than twice as long as thick; spikelets
mostly spicate or capitate.
Spikelets with 1-5 achenes.
Umbel simple or head only one.
Spikelets spreading.
Scales of the spikelet imbricated.
Spikelets yellow or yellomsh.
Spikelets 2^ mm. long.
Spikelets
1 mm. long; spike solitary.
Spikelets
dark
brown;
head
sohtary,
globose.
Scales
of
the
spikelet
few,
faintly
nerved, acute.
Scales of the spikelet numerous, strong-
ly nerved, mucronate.
Scales of the spikelets distant.
Spikelets in age reflexed; spike
1, short.
Umbel compound.
Spikes oblong, 8-10 mm. thick.
Spikes long-cylindric, 5-7 mm. thick.
Spikelets with 5-25 achenes.
Scales awned ; spikelets capitate.
Scales acute or acuminate; spikelets spicate.
Umbel capitate or with rays up to 3 cm. long;
spikelets 2-3 mm. wide.
Umbel decompound,
with rays 4-6 cm.
long;
spikelets 1.5 mm. wide.
C. Rachis of the spikelets separating into
1-fruited joints [Genus
TORULINIUM Desv.].
Perennial; culms slender; spikes
1 or 2.
Annual
; culms stout
; spikes numerous.
Spikelets yellow-browTi, loosely spicate.
Spikelets dark brown, densely spicate.
20.
C. globulosus.
21.
C. cayennensis.
22.
C. granularis.
23.
C. calcicola.
24.
C. fuligineus.
25.
C. Urbani.
26.
C. tenuis.
27.
C. ligularis.
28.
C. incompletus.
29.
C. confertus.
30.
C. brunneus.
31.
C. planifolius.
32.
C. filiformis.
33.
C. ferax
34.
C. Vahlii.
1. Cyperus flavescens L. Sp. PI. 46.
17.53.
Pycracus flavescens Beauv.
; Reich. Fl. Germ. Excurs. 72.
1830.
Annual; culms slender, tufted, 3 dm.
tall or
less.
Leaves 2-3 mm. wide,
smooth, mostly shorter than the culm; heads of spikelets solitary, or in a 2-4-
rayed umbel; spikelets hnear, subacute,
yellow,
flat, 8-18 mm.
long, about 3
mm. wide, many-flowered; scales ovate, obtuse, appressed, twice as long as the
black, shining, lenticular achene; stamens 3; style branches 2; superficial cells of
the achene oblong.
Wet groimds near Bayamon and Dorado :-
Hispaniola; Mexico; Europe and Asia.
-eastern United States; Bermuda; Cuba;
2. Cyperus odoratus L. Sp.
PI. 46.
17.53.
Pycracus polystachyos Beauv.
Fl. Owar. 2: 48.
1807.
Cyperus polystachyos R. Br. Prodr. 214.
1810.
Pycracus odoratus Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 164.
1900.
Annual, or perennial with a rootstock up to 5 cm. long; culms slender, tufted,
8 dm. high or less.
Leaves as long as the culms or shorter, 2-5 mm. wide, those
of the involucre spreading; umbel
1-,5-rayed, or sometimes capitate, the rays
5 cm. long or less; spikelets linear to linear-lanceolate, 6-20 mm. long, about 2
mm.
wide,
acute;
scales gray-brown
or yellow-brown,
dull,
acutish,
one-half
longer than the gray, oblong dull achene; style-branches 2
; superficial cells of the
achene quadrate.
Moist grassv places at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; St. Thomas; Tortola;
Vu-gin Gorda:—Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua to Trinidad; Jamaica; contmental tropical
America; southern United States; Old World
tropics.
3. Cyperus laevigatus L. Mant. 179.
1771.
Junccllus laevigatus Clarke, in Hook.
f.
Fl. Brit. Ind. 6: 596.
1893.
Perennial by horizontal rootstocks; culms rather stout, erect, 1-6 dm. high,
trigonous above.
Basal leaves strongly sheathing, usually much shorter than
the culm, sometimes reduced to sheaths, those of the involucre 1 or 2, when only
82
CYPERACEAE
1 erect and much exceeding the spikelets; spikelets 1 to many, capitate, appearing
lateral, 6-12 mm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, compressed, linear-oblong, many-flowered,
scales ovate, obtuse, whitish to brown; style-branches 2; achene plano-convex,
obovoid, brown, 1.5-2 mm. long.
Moist or wet soil, mostly in saline situations near the coasts, Porto Rico; St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;
Virgin Gorda:—southern
United
States; Cuba to Antigua; Jamaica;
con-
tinental tropical America and Old World species.
4. Cyperus compressus L. Sp. PI. 46.
1753.
Annual, fibrous-rooted; culms tufted, spreading or erect, 1-4 dm. long, wiry.
Leaves mostly shorter than the culm, 1-3 mm. wide, those of the involucre 2 or
3, the longer one surpassing the inflorescence; umbel capitate, or with 2 or 3 rays
up to 1.5 cm. long; spikelets 3-10 in the clusters, lanceolate, 8-25 mm. long, 3-5
mm.
wide,
several-many-flowered;
rachis
wingless;
scales
ovate,
acuminate,
firm, keeled, light green with a yellowish band on both sides; stamens 3; achene
obovoid, dull, obtuse, brown to black, sharply 3-angled.
Waste and cultivated grounds at lower and middle altitudes, Porto Rico; Vieques;
Culebra;
St. Thomas;
Virgin Gorda:—southern United
States; West
Indies;
tropical
continental America and Old World tropics.
5. Cyperus cuspidatus H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1: 204.
1816.
Annual,
glabrous; culms tufted, 2-14 cm.
tall,
as long as the
leaves,
or
longer.
Leaves 1-2 mm. wide, those of the umbel usually 3 or 4, sometimes
1
dm. long; umbel 2-5-rayed, rarely capitate; rays 0..5-5 cm. long; spikelets linear,
5-12 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, digitate, many-flowered; scales chestnut-
brown, nearly 2 mm. long, the recurved spreading awn-like tip nearly as long
as the body, strongly 3-.5-nerved, keeled; stamens 1-3; achene broadly obovoid,
0.5 mm. long, trigonous, brown, apiculate; style very short.
On the rocky limestone plain, Anegada:—southern United States; Bahamas; Cuba;
Yucatan; northern South America.
6. Cyperus sphacelatus Rottb. Descr. & Icon. 26.
1773.
Annual,
fibrous-rooted; culms
tufted, somewhat
thickened
at
the
base,
spreading or erect, 6 dm. long or less.
Leaves 1.5-5 mm. wide, mostly shorter
than the culm, those of the involucre 3-6, the longer ones mostly surpassing the
inflorescence; umbel simple or compound, 1-8-rayed, the longer rays up to 15 cm.
long; spikelets rather loosely short-spicate, linear, acute, flat, 1-5 cm. long, 1.5-2
mm. wide; scales ovate, obtusish, light green or with purple margins; rachis nar-
rowly winged; stamens 3; achene narrowly ellipsoid, 3-angled.
Moist grassy situations and waste groimds at lower and middle elevations, Porto
Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas; Tortola:—West Indies (except Bahamas)
; continental tropical
America; tropical Africa.
7. Cyperus distans L.
f. Suppl. 103.
1781.
Perennial by short rootstocks or stolons; culms stout, up to 1.5 m. tall, often
overtopped by the leaves.
Leaves 5-12 mm. wide, those of the involucre about
5, the longer ones surpassing the inflorescence; umbel large, usually compound,
the slender rays 2 dm. long or less; leaves of the involucels mostly shorter than
the raylets; spikelets rather loosely spicate, narrowly linear, 1-3 cm. long, about
1 mm. wide; scales oblong, obtuse, 2 mm. long, distant, reddish-brown; rachis
very narrowly winged; stamens 3; achene oblong or narrowly oblong-obovoid,
3-angled, 1.5 mm. long, brownish-black, obtusely pointed.
Moist woodlands and along streams from lower to higher elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas; St. Croix:—Jamaica; Hispaniola to Trinidad; tropical continental America
and Old World tropics.
CYPERACEAE
83
8. Cyperus alternifolius L. Mant. 28.
1767.
Perennial by short stout rootstocks, glabrous; culms stout, tufted,
1.5 m.
high or less, trigonous, smooth.
Basal leaves reduced to lanceolate acuminate
sheaths
; leaves of the involucre 12-20, spreading,
1-2..'} dm. long, 4-10 mm. wide,
flat, linear, acuminate, longer than the inflorescence; umbel decompound, often
1.5 dm. broad; rays numerous, nearly filiform; heads very numerous, the spikelets
few, digitate,
linear, obtusish, many-flowered,
10 mm. long or less, 1.5-2 mm.
wide; rachis narrowly membranous-winged; scales greenish yellow to brownish,
lanceolate, acute, obscurely nerved, appressed; achene oblong, narrowed at each
end, trigonous, a little shorter than the scale.
Naturalized in swamps and along streams
:—Florida; Bermuda: Cuba; Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
St. Vincent.
Often planted for ornament; many seedlings were seen on an
old wall at Ponce.
Native of Madagascar.
Umbrella Sedge.
9. Cyperus Haspan L. Sp. PI. 45.
1753.
Perennial by short rootstocks, or sometimes annual; culms weak,
tufted,
3-10 dm. long.
Basal leaves reduced to membranous pointed sheaths; involucral
leaves usually
2,
1-3 mm.
wide, shorter than or somewhat exceeding the in-
florescence; umbel compound or simple,
its rays 10 cm. long or less; spikelets
few in the clusters, digitate, linear, many-flowered, flat, G-15 mm. long, 1-2 mm.
wide;
scales
ovate
to
oblong-lanceolate,
reddish
or
greenish-brown,
keeled;
rachis-wings narrow, membranous; stamens 2
or
3; achene obovoid,
obtuse,
3-angled, nearly white, half as long as the scale.
Ditches and
marshes,
northern coastal
plain of
Porto Rico and
in the eastern
mountains.—southeastern United States; Cuba; Hispanlola; Jamaica; Trimdad; conti-
nental tropical America and Old World tropics.
10. Cyperus elegans L. Sp. PI. 45.
1753.
Cyperus viscosus Sw. Prodr. 20.
1788.
Perennial by short rootstocks; culms viscid-pubescent, 8 dm.
tall or
less.
Leaves convolute in drying, the basal ones about as long as the culm, those of
the involucre about 3, the longer ones much surpassing the inflorescence; umbel
usually compound, the rays up to 15 cm. long; spikelets 2-12 in the clusters,
digitate, oblong-lanceolate, 6-15 mm.
long, 3-5 mm. wide, compressed; scales
green-brown, ovate, strongly mucronate, about 3 mm. long; stamens and style-
branches 3; achene obovoid, 3-angled, nearly black, about half as long as the
scale.
Wet saline
soil, Porto Rico; Mona;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
St.
Croix; Anegada:
Florida; West Indies; continental tropical America.
11. Cyperus ochraceus Vahl, Enum. 2: 325.
1805.
Perennial; culms rather stout, 2-7 dm. tall.
Leaves 6 mm. wide or less, the
basal ones mostly shorter than the culm, those of the involucre several, spreading,
2 or more of them much longer than the compound or simple umbel; umbel-rays
15 cm. long or less; spikelets numerous, capitate, flattish, blunt, many-flowered,
5-12 mm.
long, about 2 mm. wide; scales yellow, ovate
to ovate-lanceolate,
obtusish; stamen 1; achene ovoid, 3-angled, narrowed at both ends.
In wet
soil at lower elevations, Porto Rico;
St.
Croix:—southern United States;
Bahamas; Cuba to Guadeloupe; Jamaica; continental tropical America.
12. Cyperus surinamensis Rottb. Descr. & Icon. 35.
1773.
Perennial by short rootstocks; culms slender to stout, longer than the leaves,
3-12 dm.
tall.
Leaves 1.5-4 mm. wide, those of the involucre 5-7, the longer
much surpassing the compound inflorescence; umbel-rays 5-12, slender, 1-15 cm.
84
CYPERACEAE
long; spikelets numerous, capitate, ovate to oblong, flat, 5-12 mm. long, 2-3 mm.
wide, obtusish; scales ovate-lanceolate, keeled, nearly
1.5 mm. long, yellow or
yellow-brown, aplculate; stamen
1; achene oblong or
ellipsoid,
3-angled,
nar-
rowed at both ends, half as long as the scale.
[C. acnminains Bello, not Torr. &
Hook.]
In wet or moist soil at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas-
—southern United States; West Indies; continental tropical America.
13. Cyperus Luzulae (L.) Retz. Obs. 4: ii,
1786.
Scirpus Luzulae L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 75.
1762.
Perennial by short rootstocks; culms stout,
1 m. high or less.
Leaves 3-7
mm.
wide, the basal ones often overtopping the culm, those of the involucre
5-10, much exceeding the inflorescence; umbel usually simple with .short rays;
spikelets densely glomei-ate, numerous, ovate, 3-5 mm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, flat,
6-12-flowered; scales oblong, obtusish, mostly reddish-brown; stamen 1; achene
oblong to oblong-obovoid, 3-angled, half as long as the scale.
Moist grounds, collected on Porto Rico by Bertero, and near Bayamon by
Brotiier
Hioram:—Hispaniola to Trinidad; Mexico and continental tropical America.
14. Cyperus virens Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 28.
1803.
Perennial by short rootstocks.
Culms stout, smooth,
1.5 m.
tall or less;
basal leaves shoi'ter than the culm, strongly transversely lineolate between the
veins, 5-12 mm. wide, those of the involucre several, similar to the basal ones, the
longer much surpassing the inflorescence; umbel compound, its 3-12-rays 2 dm.
long or
less, sometimes quite short; spikelets in capitate
clusters, ovate,
flat,
acutish, several-many-flowered, 6-14 mm.
long, 3-4 mm. wide; scales ovate-
oblong, green, keeled, obtusish, 2-2.5 mm. long; stamen only
1; achene linear,
trigonous, about one-half as long as the scale.
Wet grounds near Bayamon and Pueblo Viejo:—southeastern United States; Cuba;
Mexico.
Recorded from Guadeloupe.
15. Cyperus rotundus L. Sp.
PI. 45.
1753.
Perennial by long tuber-bearing rootstocks; culms rather stout, 8 dm. high
or less, thickened at the base.
Leaves 3-6 mm. wide, the basal ones shorter than
the culm, those of the involucre .3-5, the longer usually exceeding the 3-8-rayed,
simple or compound umbel; rays slender, 3-12 cm. long; spikelets loosely spicate,
linear, acute,
1-4.5 cm. long, 2-3 mm. wide; scales purple-brown or greenish-
purple, ovate, acute or obtusish, scarious-margined
; rachis-wings hyaline
; stamens
3; achene ellipsoid, 3-angled, half as long as the
scale.
[C.
esculentus of Bello,
not of Linnaeus.]
Moist and cultivated grounds and waste places at lower and middle elevations,
often a pernicious weed, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Vii'gin Gorda;
St.
Croix:—southeastern
United
States; West
Indies;
continental
tropical
America;
warm-temperate and tropical parts of the Old World.
NuT-GR.\ss.
CoQUi.
16. Cyperus esculentus L. Sp. PI. 45.
1753.
Perennial by scaly horizontal tuber-bearing rootstocks; culms usually stout,
3-7 dm.
tall, commonly shorter than the
leaves.
Leaves light green, 4-8 mm.
wide, the midvein prominent; those of the involucre 3-6, the longer much ex-
ceeding the inflorescence; umbel 4-10-rayed, often compound
; spikelets numerous
in loose spikes, straw-colored or yellowish-brown, flat, spreading, 12-25 mm. long,
2-3 mm. wide, many-flowered
; scales ovate-oblong, subacute, ;5-5-nerved
; rachis
narrowly winged; stamens 3; style 3-cleft; achene obovoid, obtuse, 3-angled.
Waste grounds, Palo Seco, Porto Rico; St. Thomas (according to Clarke):—temper-
ate and subtropical continental North America; Europe
Eind Asia; Bermuda; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe, Martinique; Bonaire.
CYPERACEAE
85
17. Cj^enis articulatus L. Sp. PI. 44.
1753.
Perennial by thick scaly rootstocks; culms stout, 2 m.
tall or
less, terete,
pseudoseptate at intervals from 8 to 20 mm.
Basal leaves reduced to scarious
bladeless sheaths, those of the involucre usually
3, triangular ovate to linear-
lanceolate, much shorter than the inflorescence; umbel 4-10-rayed, compound;
spikelets few to several in the clusters, narrowly linear, 1..5-5 cm. long, about 1.5
mm. wide; scales ovate, o])tusish, about 3 mm. long, straw-color; rachis-wings
oblong; stamens 3; achene oblong, 3-angled, nearly black, al)out 2/5 as long as
the scale.
In streams and lagoons and in mud, Porto Rico, up to 900 m. elevation; St. Thomas;
St.
Croi.x; Tortola:—southeastern United
States; Cuba to
St. Thomas and Tnmdad;
continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
18. Cyperus giganteus Vahl, Enum. 2: 364.
1805.
Fibrous-rooted; culms stout, 2 m. high or less.
Basal leaves none; leaves
of the involucre numerous, up to 8 dm. long, 1-2.5 cm. wide, those of the involu-
cels also numerous, 2.5 dm. long or less, mostly not over 6 mm. wide, erect or
ascending, much longer than the umbellets; inflorescence large, sometimes 1 m.
broad; spikelets numerous,
spicate, 8-12 mm.
long,
1 mm. wide, compressed,
several-flowered; rachis-wings lanceolate,
deciduous;
scales brown,
ovate,
ob-
tusish; stamens 3; achene oblong-ellipsoid, 3-angled, blackish, about one-fourth
as long as the scale.
Marshes and ditches at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
Trinidad; tropical continental America.
19. Cyperus radiatus Vahl, Enum. 2: 369.
1805.
Fibrous-rooted; culms slender to stout,
1 m. high or less.
Leaves 4-9 mm.
wide, the basal ones shorter than the culm, those of the involucre several, the
longer much exceeding the compound umbel; spikelets spicate, 5-9 mm. long,
about 1 mm. wide, in sessile spikes 5 cm. long or less; rachis-wings oblong, per-
sistent; scales ovate, brown, obtuse or mucronulate; stamens 3; achene oblong,
3-angled, blackish, about half as long as the scale.
River-banks and wet soil
at low
elevations. Porto
Rico:—Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
Trinidad; tropical continental America and Old World tropics.
20. Cyperus globuloSUS Aubl. PI. Guian. 1: 47.
1775.
Cyperus croceus Ya,h\, Enum. 2:
3.57.
180G.
Mariscus globidosus Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 165.
1900.
Perennial by tuber-like corms; culms slender, smooth, erect, mostly longer
than the leaves.
Leaves pale green, 3-4 mm. wide, those of the involucre .5-10,
the longer usually much exceeding the umbel
; umiiel 6-13-rayed
; the rays filiform,
their sheaths short, mucronate; spikelets 4-6 mm. long, linear,
flat, capitate In
globose heads; scales thin, pale green, appressed, ovate-lanceolate, acute, 9-13-
nerved,
with narrow
scarious margins;
joints
of the rachis broadly winged;
stamens 3; style 3-cleft; achene oblong-obovoid, obtuse, one-half as long as the
scale, about twice as long as thick.
Sandy
soil, northern coastal plain of Porto Rico and on the Playa de Humacao:
southeastern United States; Bermuda; Jamaica; continental tropical America.
21. Cyperus
cayennensis
(Lam.)
Britton,
Bull.
Dept.
Agric.
Jamaica
5:
Suppl.
1, 8.
1907.
Kylliaga cayennensis Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 149.
1791.
Mariscus flavus Vahl, Enum. 2: 374.
1805.
Cyperus flavus Nees, Linnaea 19: 698.
1847.
Mariscus cayennensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 165.
1900.
Perennial by short rootstocks; culms slender to stout, sometimes 8 dm. high,
their bases thickened.
Leaves 2-8 mm. wide, the basal ones as long as the culm
86
CYPERACEAE
or
shorter,
those
of
the
involucre much
exceeding
the
inflorescence;
spikes
cylindric, dense, 8-25 mm. long, 5-8 mm. thick, sessile and capitate, or some of
them peduncled: spikelets numerous, oblong, 2-4 mm. long, yellowish, bearing
1 or 2 achenes; fertile scales ovate, striate, nearly twice as long as the achene;
stamens 3; achene oblong to oblong-obovoid. 1.5-2 mm. long, 3-angled.
Grassy places and waste grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
St.
Thomas; St. Croix:—Louisiana; West Indies (except Bahamas); Mexico to Paraguay.
22. Cyperus granulans (Desf.) Britton, Bull. Dept. Agric. Jamaica 5: Suppl. 1.
9.
1907.
Kyllinga gramilaris Desf.; Boeckl. Linnaea 35: 4.32.
1868.
Mariscus gracilis Vahl, Enum. 2: 373.
1805. Not Cyperus gracilis R. Br. 1810.
Cyperus nanus Boeckl. Bot. Jahrb.
1: 363.
1881.
Not Willd. 1798.
Roots fibrous
; rootstocks very short or wanting; culms tufted, weak, filiform,
smooth, 3-25 cm. long.
Basal leaves linear-filiform, shorter than the culm or as
long, those of the involucre 1-3, similar, 6 cm. long or less; spikes solitary (rarely
2),
globose
or globose-oblong, 4-7 mm.
long;
spikelets about
1.5 mm.
long,
bearing
1
or 2 achenes, spreading or reflexed; flowering scales ovate,
obtuse,
striate,
light brown; achene trigonous, obovoid-oblong, brown, a
little shorter
than the scale.
Grassy places in dry districts at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Icacos; Virgin Gorda;
St. Croix:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
23. Cyperus calcicola Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 42: 387.
1915.
Perennial by short rootstocks; culms slender, tufted, smooth, 1-2.5 dm. high.
Leaves shorter than the culm, 0.5-1 mm. wide; bracts of the involucre 2 or 3,
the longer sometimes 4 cm. long, similar to the leaves; head globose, solitary,
5-7 mm. in diameter; spikelets about 3-flowered, 3.5-4.5 mm. long; scales dark
brown, the lowest empty ones persistent on the axis after the fall of the rest of
the
spikelet,
lanceolate,
the
others ovate
to
ovate-lanceolate,
acute,
faintly
striate-nerved.
Limestone rocks, Cayo Muertos.
Endemic.
24. Cyperus fuligineus Chapm. Fl. 8. States 511.
1860.
Mariscus fuligineus Clarke, Kew Bull. Add. Ser. 8: 16.
1908.
Perennial; culms very slender, smooth, tufted, 1-4 dm. high, rather rigid-
Leaves revolute-margined, shorter than the culm, those of the involucre usually 2>
unequal; spikelets linear, 6-10 mm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, densely crowded in a
single terminal head; scales ovate to oval, about 2 mm. long, dark brown, striate,
mucronulate; style 3-cleft; achenes oblong-obovoid,
trigonous, about
1.5 mm.
long, dull brown.
On the rocky limestone plain of Anegada:—Florida; Bahamas; Cuban Cays; Bonaire:
Curagao.
25. Cyperus Urbani Boeckl. Cyp. Nov. 1: 10.
1888.
Mariscus Urbani Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 47.
1900.
Roots fibrous; culms very slender, tufted, 2-5 dm. long.
Leaves 2-4 mm.
wide, the basal ones about as long as the culm, those of the involucre about 3,
up to 6 cm. long; head mostly solitary, subglobose to oblong, 5 mm. thick; spike-
lets about 2 mm. long,
1 mm. thick, densely capitate, bearing 2 or 3 achenes;
scales pale, greenish-brown, ovate, mucronate,
little imbricated, faintly striate-
nerved; achene ellipsoid-obovoid, 3-angled, brown, about H as long as the scale.
Grassy banks and woodlands, Porto Rico, at higher elevations; in woods on Vieques
at 150 m. altitude.
Endemic.
CYPERACEAE
87
26. Cyperus tenuis Sw. Prodr. 20.
1788.
Mariscus tenuis Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 48.
1900.
Roots fibrous; rootstock very short or none; culms tufted, filiform, 1-3 dm-
long.
Leaves mostly shorter than the culm, smooth, 11. .5 mm. wide, those of
the involucre similar to the basal ones; spikes short, usually solitary, 6-10 mm.
long; spikelets linear, 3-5 mm. long, bearing 2 or 3 achenes, at length deflexed;
scales ovate, obtuse, mucronulate,
striate, brown; achene
ellipsoid, trigonous,
a little longer than the scale.
Rocky or sandy
soil at low elevations in the southwestern
districts, Porto Rico;
Mona; St. Croi.x (according to Clarke):—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
27. Cyperus ligularis L. Am. Acad. 5: 391.
1759.
Mariscus rufus H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 216.
1816.
Cyperus Sintenisii Boeckl. Cyp. Nov.
1:
12.
1888.
Cyperus trigonus Boeckl. Cyp. Nov.
1: 11.
1888.
Mariscus ligularis Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 165.
1900.
Perennial; roots fibrous, thick; rootstock short or none; culms stout, 1.2 m.
high or less.
Leaves 8^20 mm. wide, i)ale green, rough-margined, the basal ones
often overtopping the culm, those of the involucre sometimes 7 dm. long; umbel
4-12-rayed, large, comj)ound; spikes ol)long or subglo))ose, 8-10 mm. thick, very
dense; spikelets gray to brown, 4-6 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, bearing 2-4
achenes; fruiting scales oval or ovate,
.striate,
blunt, 2.5-3 mm.
long; achene
narrowly obovoid to ellipsoid, dark brown, dull, 3-angled, about 1.5 mm. long,
half as long as the scale.
[Scirpus ferrugineus Bello, not L.]
Marshes and ditches at low elevations, Porto Rico, near tlie coast: Icacos; Culebra;
Vieques; Mona;
St. Thomas;
.St. Jan;
St.
Croi.v; Tortola:—Florida; West
Indies; con-
tinental tropical America; tropical Africa.
28. Cyperus incompletus (Jacq.) Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 319.
1827.
Kyllinga incompleta Jacq. Coll.
4: 101.
1790.
Mariscus elalus Vahl, Enum. 2: 377.
1805.
Mariscus Mutisii H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 216.
1816.
Cyperus Mutisii Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 567.
1864.
Cyperus compresso-triqueter Boeckl. Cyp. Nov. 1: 10.
1888.
Mariscus incompletus Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:
165.
1900.
Perennial by rootstocks; culms .stout, 3-9 dm. high.
Leaves 6-14 mm. wide,
the basal ones about as long as the culm, those of the involucre 4-7, the longer
much exceeding the inflorescence; umlael compound, its rays 2 dm. long or less;
spikes narrowly cylindric, rather dense, 2-4 cm. long, 7-11 mm. thick, digitate;
spikelets
oblong,
3-0 mm.
long,
bearing
1-3
achenes;
scales
yellow-brown,
ovate, obtuse; achene oblong to ellipsoid, 3-angled, about % as long as the scale.
Banks and
hillsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico :—Jamaica
;
His-
paniola; Martinique; continental tropical America
29. Cyperus confertus Sw. Prodr. 20.
1788.
Mariscus confertus Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 50.
1900.
Perennial by .short rootstocks; culms rather slender, 1-4 dm. high, clustered.
Leaves 3-5 mm. wide, the iiasal ones as long as the culm or shorter, those of the
involucre 2 dm. long or less, the longer much surpassing the inflorescence; umbel
simple,
1-7-rayed;
heads
subglobo.se,
about
1
cm.
thick;
spikelets
greenish-
yellow, 5-7 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide, flat, bearing 5-9 achenes; fertile scales
ovate,
keeled,
strongly
striate,
tipped
with
short,
somewhat
curved
awns;
stamens 3 or sometimes 2; achene oblong-obovoid, 3-angled,
1-1.5 mm.
long,
about half as long as the scale.
Sandy or gravelly soil at lower elevations, Porto Rico; St. Thomas; St. Croix; Virgin
Gorda:—Jamaica; Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts to Martinique; northern South America; Ga-
lapagos.
88
CYPERACEAE
30. Cyperus brunneus Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. l: 116.
1797.
Cyperus Krugii Boeckl. Cyp. Nov. 1: 8.
1888.
Mariscus brunneus Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:
.'51.
1900.
Cyperus discolor Boeckl. Cyp. Nov.
1: 7.
1888.
Perennial by stout rootstocks; culms stout,
7 dm. high or
less.
Leaves
4-10 mm. wide, pale green, the basal often overtopping the culm,
tho.se of the
involucre 3-5, the longer much sur])assing the inflorescence; umbel few-rayed,
or glomerate, simple or
little compound, the rays up to 3 cm. long; spikelets
short-spicate, 1-2 cm. long, about 3 mm. wide, with
.'i
10 achenes; scales brown,
ovate, apiculate, strongly striate-nerved
; achene oljovoid, 3-angle(L
aliout half
as long as the scale.
Coa.stal sands,
Porto
Rico; Mona; Icacos;
Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;
St.
Jan- Anegada—Florida; West Indies south to St. Vincent; Central America; l<ernando
Noronha.
The species consists of several slightly differing races.
31. Cyperus planifolius L. C. Richard, Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: lOG.
1792
Cyperus purpiirascens Vahl, Enum. 2: 3.'S9.
180.^.
Mariscus purpnrascens Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:
.^)1.
IHOO.
Mariscus plainfolius Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:
10.5.
1900.
Perennial by short rootstocks; culms
stout,
8 dm.
high or
le.ss.
Leaves
5-12 mm. wide, pale green, the basal ones often overtopping the culm, the longer
ones of the involucre up to 6 dm. long, much surpassing the compound or de-
compound
inflorescence; umbel-rays
slender,
.S-12 cm.
long;
spikelets loosely
spicate, about
1 cm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, Ijearing 8-12 achenes
; scales red-brown,
ovate, obtuse, twice as long as the obovoid 3-angled achene.
Pimta de la Tuna near Maunabo; slopes of Mt. Yimque; border of mangrove swamp,
Culebra; Vieques; St. Thomas: St. Croix; Tortola; Vij-gin Gorda:— St. Kitts to Irmmaa
and
tlie Dutch
Islands.
32. Cyperus filiformis Sw. Prodr. 20.
1788.
Cyperus unifolius Boeckl. Linnaea 36: 374.
1869.
Torulinium filifurme Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 57.
1900.
Perennial by slender or short rootstocks
; culms slender, wiry, spreading or
erect,
1-7 dm.
long.
Leaves about 2 mm. wide, the basal ones usually much
shorter than the culm, sometimes as long, those of the involucre
1 or 2, 1-15 cm.
long; spikes usually solitary, rarely 2, of 2-10, nearly digitate, terete spikelets
0.5-2.5 cm. long, about
1 mm. thick; scales yellowish with a green keel, shinmg,
acutish, inroUed; ovate in outline, the successive ones on each side of the spikelet
not overlapping; achene ellipsoid, pointed at both ends, 3-angle
1, shorter than
the scale.
Moist sandy and rocky
places
at lower and middle
elevations,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Thomas; St. Croix:-—Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola.
33. Cyperus ferax L. C. Richard, Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 106.
1792.
Torulinium confertum Hamilt. Prodr.
15.
1825.
Cyperus fastuosus Hamilt. Prodr.
12.
1825.
Cyperus poeoides Hamilt. Prodr.
12.
1825.
Cyperus Ehrenbergii Kunth, Enum. 2;
.89.
1837.
Torulinium ferax Urban, Symb. Ant.
2: 165.
1900.
Annual,
fibrous-rooted; culms
stout,
solitary,
erect,
12 dm.
tall or
less.
Leaves 5-15 mm. wide, soft, the basal ones mostly shoiter than the culm, those
of the involucre 4-7, the longer much surpassing the inflorescence; umbel com-
pound,
its ravs sometimes 2 dm.
long, sometimes quite short; spikelets linear,
subterete,
1-2 cm.
long,
1-1.5 mm.
thick,
loosely
or rather densely
spicate;
CYPERACEAE
89
yellowish or brownish; scales elliptic, convex, 2-3 mm. long, the successive ones
on each side the spikelet somewhat overlapping; achene oblong to oblong-obovoid,
3-angled, nearly black.
Wet
.soil at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;—southeastern and
.soutliern
United
States; West
Indies;
tropical
continental
America.
In his original description of C'yperns Eggersii Boeckeler (Cyp. Nov.
1: 53)
includes a specimen collected in Porto Rico lay Sintenis (No. 4477)
; this species
is otherwise unknown from Porto Rico or the Virgin Islands.
Mr. C. B. Clarke
subsequently
(in Urban, Symb. Ant.
2: 55)
refers this number of Sintensis to
Cyperus ferax L. C. Richard (Toruliniurn confertuni Hamilt.).
34. Cyperus Vahlii (Nees) Steud. Syn. PI. Cyp. 48.
1855.
Diclidium Vahlii Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2': 53.
1842.
Toruliniurn Vahlii Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 50.
1900.
Annual with
flljrous roots; culms rather stout, smooth, trigonous, 2-8 dm.
high.
Leaves smooth, 5-12 mm. wide, the
l^asal ones as long as the culm or
shorter, those of the involucre similar ijut shorter; umbel compound or simple, its
rays 2-10 cm. long; spikes short, dense; spikelets linear, red-brown, 8-16 mm.
long, bearing few or several achenes, at length i^reaking up into 1-fruited joints;
scales ovate-oblong, obtuse, few-nerved, achene oblong, trigonous.
Moist or wet grounds,
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:^—Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua; Guade-
loupe; Martinique; South America; recorded from Mexico.
Cyperus ferrugineus Poir., recorded from St. Thomas by
Clarke, from a
specimen in the herbarium uf the British Museum, is proiiably an error in locality,
as the plant is otherwise unknown in the West Indies.
Cyperus strigosusL., recorded by Schlechtendal as found in a garden on St.
Thomas,
is probably an
eiTor
in determination.
The
species
is
confined
to
temperate North America.
3. ELEOCHARIS R. Br. Prodr. 1: 224.
1810.
Annual
or
perennial
sedges.
Culms
simple,
triangular,
quadrangular,
terete, flattened or grooved, the leaves reduced to sheaths or the lowest very
rarely blade-bearing.
Spikelets solitary, terminal, erect, several-many-flowered,
not subtended i^y an involucre.
Scales concave, spirally imbricated all around.
Perianth of 1-12
ijristles, usually retrorsely barbed, or wanting in some species.
Stamens 2-3.
Style 2-cleft and achene lenticular or biconvex, or 3-cleft and
achene 3-angled, but sometimes with very obtuse angles and appearing turgid.
Base of the style persistent on the summit of the achene, forming a terminal
tubercle.
[Greek,
referring
to
the growth of most of the species
in marshy
ground.]
About 140 species, widely distributed, known as Spike-rush.
Type
species; Scirpus palustris L.
A. Spikelet mostly not thicker than the
tall stout culm;
scales
rigid, not keeled.
Culm terete.
Culm nodose-septate.
1.
E. interstincta.
Culm continuous.
2. E. cellulosa.
Culm 3-4-augled, contmuous.
3.
E. mutata.
B.
Spikelet mostly thicker than the usually slender culm ; scales
membranous, keeled.
a.
Style-branches usually
2; achene lenticular or biconvex.
Upper
sheath hyaline and scarious at the summit;
peren-
nials.
90
CYPEKACEAE
Bristles about as long as the achene or longer.
4. E. flaccida.
Bristles shorter than the achene.
5.
E. flavescens.
Upper sheath truncate, oblique, or 1-toothed, not scarious.
Annuals with fibrous roots; achenes black.
Bristles pale or white: achene 0.5 mm. long.
6. E. atropurpurea
Bristles brown; achene
1 mm. long.
7. E. caribaea.
Perennials with rootstocks.
Culms stout, nodose-septate.
8. E. nodulosa.
Culms filiform, continuous.
9. E. yunquensis.
b. Style-branches 3; achene trigonous.
Spikelet oblong, linear or ovoid.
Culms filiform or capillary, continuous.
Achene cancellate.
10.
E. relroflexa.
Achene smooth.
11.
E. microcarpa.
Culms stout, pseudoseptate.
12.
E. geniculata.
Spikelet obovoid.
13. E. pachystyla.
1. Eleocharis interstincta (Vahl) R. &
S. Syst. 2: 149.
1817.
Scirpus intersti actus Vahl, Enum. 2: 251.
1805.
Perennial by stout rootstocks; culms stout, terete, 4-10 dm. high, hollow,
nodose-septate.
Basal sheaths membranous, obUque; spikelet terete, cylindric,
4 cm. long or less, not thicker than the culm, many-flowered; scales ovate to obo-
vate, faintly nerved, narrowly scarlous-margined, rigid, not keeled; bristles rigid,
retrorsely barbed, as long as the acliene, or shorter; style 3-cleft, or rarely 2-cleft;
achene obovoid, brown, shining, many-striate and with many transverse ridges,
about half as long as the scale; tubercle conic, acute.
In water and wet soil at low altitudes, Porto Rico; St. Thomas; St. Croix:—eastern
and southern United States; West Indies; tropical continental America.
2. Eleocharis cellulosa Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 3: 298.
1836.
Perennial by long rootstocks; culms obscurely 3-angled below, terete above,
7 dm.
tall or
less, not nodose.
Sheaths membranous, oblique; spikelet
1..5-3
cm. long, 2.5-4 mm.
thick, cylindric, somewhat thicker than the culm; scales
coriaceous, obtuse, membranous-margined, many-striate; bristles 6 or 7, nearly
or quite smooth, about as long as the achene; style 3-cleft; achene broadly obo-
void, trigonous, striate, copiously pitted; tubercle deltoid, about one-half as witie
as the achene.
Wet
grounds,
San Juan and
Condado,
Porto
Rico;
Tortola:—southern
United
States; Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; Jamaica; Yucatan.
3. Eleocharis mutata (L.) R. & S. Syst. 2:
1-55.
1817.
Scirpus mutatus L.
Pi. Jam. Pug.
6.
1759.
Perennial by
stout
rootstocks; culms rather
stout,
1.3 m.
high
or
less,
sharply 3-4-angled, continuous.
Basal sheaths membranous, oblique; spikelet
cylindric,
terete, 2-5 cm.
long,
many-flowered, about
as
thick
as the culm;
scales firm in texture, obovate or broadly ovate, scarious-margined, faintly many-
nerved, not keeled; bristles rigid, retror.sely barbed, about as long as the achene;
achene obovoid, brownish, minutely cancellate, about twice as long as the conic
acute tubercle.
In swamps and pools at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix;
St. Jan (according to Eggers); Tortola:—eastern United States; Jamaica; Cuba to Trini-
dad; continental tropical America.
4. Eleocharis flaccida (Rchb.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:
165.
1900.
Scirpus flaccidus Rchb.
; Spreng. Tent. Suppl. 3.
1828.
Eleocharis ochreata Steud. Syn.
PI. Cyp. 79.
1855.
Eleocharis ochreata flaccida Boeckl.
; Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 63.
1900.
Perennial by very slender rootstocks; culms very slender, or filiform, some-
what 3-angled, 0.5-3 dm. long.
Upper sheath with a hyaline membranous limb;
CYPERACEAE
91
spikelet oblong or ovoid, 6 mm. long or
less, 2-3-times as thick as the culm;
scales elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, thin, pale green, with a faint midvein; style
2-cleft, achene plano-convex, obovate, smooth, dark brown, about 0.5 mm. long,
2-4 times as long as the conic acute tubercle; l)ristles about as long as the achene
or longer, retrorsely barbed, sometimes wanting.
Wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascending into the Luquillo
Mountains;
St. Thomas;—soutlieastern
United
States; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba
to
Trinidad; continental tropical America; Pliilippine Islands.
5. Eleocharis flavescens (Poir.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 116.
1903.
Scirpus flavescens Poir. in Lam. Encycl.
6: 756.
1804.
Perennial by very slender rootstocks; culms very slender, 2-12 cm.
long,
striate.
Upper sheath with a white membranous limb; spikelet ovoid to ovoid-
cylindric, 2-4 mm. long; scales ovate,
1 mm. long, pale green or with a brownish
band on each side of the niidvein, somewhat spreading when mature; achene
obovate, a little more than 0.5 mm. long, dull, greenish- brown, the conic-mitra-
form tubercle about one-sixth as long; bristles white, shorter than the achene or
as long.
Wet mud near Santurce and Dorado
(Porto Rico
is the type
locality):—Cuba;
San Luis Potosi to Guatemala; Australasia.
6. Eleocharis atropurpurea (Retz.) Kunth. Enum. 2: 151.
1837.
- Scirpus atropurpurcHs Retz. Obs.
5:
14.
1789.
Heleocharis Sinlenisii Boeckl. Cyp. Nov.
1:
16.
1888.
Heleocharis hahamensis Boeckl. Cyp. Nov.
2:
11.
1890.
Annual;
roots
fibrous; culms
tufted, very
slender, 2-9 cm.
high.
Upper
sheath 1-toothed; spikelets ovoid, many-flowered, subacute, .3-4 mm. long, 2 mm.
in diameter or
less; scales
minute, ovate-oblong,
persistent, green or purple-
brown with green midvein and very narrow scarious margins; stamens 2 or 3;
style 2-3-cleft; bristles 2-4,
fragile, white, mimitely downwardly hispid, about
as long as the achene; achene jet black, shining, 0.5 mm. long, smooth, lenticular;
tubercle conic, minute, depressed but rather acute, constricted at the base.
Wet grounds, Porto Rico:—United States; Bahamas; Cuba; Europe.
7. Eleocharis caribaea (Rottb.) Blake, Rhodora 20: 24.
1918.
Scirpus caribaeus Rottb. Descr. 24.
1772.
Annual with fibrous roots; culms slender, tufted, striate, 0..5-3 dm. long, the
upper sheath 1-toothed.
Spikelet ovoid to ellipsoid, 3-6 mm. long, much thicker
than
the culm;
scales ovate
to
elliptic,
obtuse,
yellowish-brown
or
whitish;
bristles retrorsely barbed, about as long as the achene; style 2-cleft; achene obo-
vate, plano-convex, black, shining,
1 mm. long; tubercle depressed- conic, much
shorter than the achene.
Wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;
St.
.Jan;
Tortola:—soutlieastern United States; West
Indies; California to
Paraguay; Old World tropics and .subtropics.
The name capitaia has long been erroneously applied to this species.
8. Eleocharis nodulosa (Roth) Schultes, Mant. 2: 87.
1824.
Scirpus nodulosus Roth, Nov. PI. Sp. 29.
1821.
Perennial by stout rootstocks; culms rather stout, 6 dm. high or less, terete
or nearly so, pseudoseptate, upper sheath truncate or 1-toothed; spikelet 1-2.5
cm.
long, 5 mm.
thick or
less, ovoid-cylindric, acute, densely many-flowered;
92
CYPERACEAE
scales ovate-oblong, obtuse, brown or purple-brown, scarious margined
; bristles
brown, about as lont? as the achene; style 2 cleft; achene ovate, piano convex,
1 mm. long, brown, much longer than the black, acute tubercle.
Lake Guanica (Sintenis 3833, ex Clarke); St. Croix
(ex Eggers) :—southern United
States; Cuha;
Hispaniola;
Antigua; Mexiro and
continental
tropical
America.
ISlr.
N
E. Brown informs us that the Kew specimen of Sintenis 3S33
is not this species; its
occurrence in Porto Rico is therefore in doubt; we failed to find it at Lake Guamca.
9.
Eleocharis yunquensis
Britton, sp. nov.
Perennial by
filiform rootstocks 7 cm. long or
less; culms
filiform, weak,
15 cm. long or
less, very numerous, forming dense light green mats up to 2.5
dm. in diameter or patches
1 m. broad or more; spikelet oblong, acute,
terete,
5-7 mm. long, much thicker than the culm; scales several, oblong, acute, keeled,
dark brown; bristles about 6, white, unequal, the longer ones nearly as long as
the achene and tubercle; achene obovoid, turgid, black, shining, the conic tub-
ercle sharply
acute, about one-third as long as the achene; style-branches
2.
Catalina-El Yunque Trail, Sierra deLuquillo, about 1,000 m.
altitude (Bn«on and
Bruner 7619).
Endemic.
10. Eleocharis retroflexa (Poir.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 165.
1900.
Scirpus retroficxus Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 6: 753.
1804.
Eleocharis Chaetaria R. &
S. Syst. 2: 154,
1817.
Rootstock
filiform,
short
or
none;
culms
filiform-setaceous,
weak,
2-20
cm. long, sometimes proliferous and rooting at the tip, the upper sheath oblique,
somewhat inflated.
Spikelet oblong, 2-4 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. thick, few-
flowered;
scales
pale, sometimes
purplish,
oblong-lanceolate,
1..5-2 mm.
long;
bristles as long as the achene, or shorter, or wanting; style 3-cleft; achene obo-
void.
trigonous,
nearly
white,
cancellate;
tubercle
brown,
pyramidal,
acute,
nearly half as long as the achene.
Wet banks,
rills and
in mud, Porto
Rico, ascending into the
loigher mountains;
St
Thomas:—southeastern
United
States;
Cuba
to
Trinidad;
contmental
tropical
America and Old World tropics.
Porto Rico is the type locaUty.
11. Eleocharis microcarpa Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 3: 312.
1836.
Eleocharis miniina Kunth, Enum. 2: 139.
1837.
Annual,
with
fibrous
roots, culms
capillary,
tufted,
.5-20 cm.
long,
the
upper sheath with a triangular-lanceolate tooth.
Spikelet ovoid to ovoid-oblong,
2-3 mm. long, 1.5 mm. thick, several-flowered, obtuse or bluntly pointed; scales
pale, ovate to oblong, obtuse or acutish; bristles 3-5, somewhat shorter than the
achene or wanting; style 3-cleft; achene grayish-white, trigonous, obovoid, about
0.5 mm. long, smooth or nearly so; tubercle conic, acute, much shorter than the
achene.
Krunibay,
St. Thomas (according to Clarke):—southeastern United States; Cuba;
continental tropical America.
12. Eleocharis geniculata (L.) R. &
S. Syst. 2:
1.50.
1817.
Scirpus geniciilatns L. Sp. PI. 48.
1753.
Perennial by short stout rootstocks; culms stout, 3-10 dm. high, 4-10 mm.
thick, transversely pseudo.septate, constricted under the spikelet.
Upper sheath
truncate, often dark-margined; spikelet 1-3 cm. long, 4-9 mm. thick, consider-
ably thicker than the upper part of the culm, densely many-flowered
; scales blunt,
ovate; bristles 7 or 8, reddish, retrorsely barbed, longer than the achene; style
3-cleft; achene
1-1.5 mm.
long,
ellipsoid,
yelloAvish-brown, trigonous; tubercle
conic, acute, about half as long as the achene.
Wet groimds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; His-
paniola; Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique; Mexico to Paraguay.
CYPERACEAE
93
«
13. Eleocharis pachystyla
(C. Wright) Clarke
in Urban, Symb. Ant.
2: 72.
1900.
Scirpus pachystylus C. Wright; Sauv. Ann. Acad. Habana 8: 79.
1871.
Perennial by stout rootstocks; culms rather slender, 4-6 dm.
tall; upper
sheath
oblique
at
the
herbaceous
apex.
Spikelet
obovoid,
densely
several-
flowered, obtuse, 6—7 mm. long, 3-4 mm. thick; scales elliptic, obtuse, brown with
whitish margins, the lower one larger than the others;
l?ristles 6, retrorsely scab-
rous,
brown,
longer than
the achene;
style
3-cleft; achene
obovoid, sharply
trigonous, brown, about
1 mm. long, one-half to two-thirds as long as the scale;
tubercle long-conic, nearly half as long as the achene.
Wet wliite sand near Dorado, March, 1922, collected in flower only:—Cuba; Trini-
dad; Costa Rica to Venezuela.
4. STENOPHYLLUS Kaf. Neog. 4.
1825.
Mostly annual
sedges, with
slender erect culms,
leafy
below,
the leaves
narrowly
linear or
filiform,
with
ciliate or pubescent
sheaths.
Spikelets um-
bellate,
capitate or
.solitary, subtended by a
1 -several-leaved
involucre,
their
scales
spirally
imbricated
all
around,
mostly
deciduous.
Flowers
perfect.
Perianth none.
Stamens 2 or 3.
Style 2-3-cleft, glabrous, its base much swollen
and persistent as a tubercle on the achene as in
Eleocharis.
Achene 3-angled,
turgid or lenticular.
[Greek, referring to the narrow leaves.]
A genus of some
20 species,
natives
of temperate and warm
regions.
Type
species:
Scirpus
stenophyllus Ell.
Spikelets in umbellate heads.
1.
S. vestitus.
Spikelet solitary, subtended by a filiform bract.
2.
S. porloricensis.
1. Stenophyllus vestitus (Kunth) Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 446.
1916.
Isolepis vestita Kunth, Enum. 2: 210.
1837.
Bulbostylis vestita Kunth; Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 87.
1900.
Annual, with fibrous roots; culms tufted, very slender, 2-3 dm. long, erect,
finely
pilose.
Leaves
setaceous,
shorter
than
the
culm,
densely
pilose;
in-
florescence umbellate or capitate; rays of the lunbel filiform, 2 cm. long or less;
spikelets sessile, fascicled in 3-1;^, oblong, 5-8 mm. long; scales ovate, dark brown,
keeled, mucronate-aristate
;
style
3-cleft; achene obovoid,
brownish,
finely
re-
ticulated.
Mountain woods and slopes near Mayaguez:—Cuba; continental tropical America.
Erroneously recorded by Urban as Bulbostylis
hirlella, a species with stalked spikelets,
from continental tropical America.
2. Stenophyllus portoricensis Britton, Torreya 13: 216.
1913.
Densely
tufted,
perennial.
Culms
setaceous,
slightly
roughened,
weak,
spreading,
glabrous,
2 dm.
high or
less,
longer than the
similar
leaves;
leaf-
sheaths loosely pilose; spikelet solitary,
linear, 5-8 mm.. long, subtended by a
filiform or setaceous bract 1-3 cm. long; lowest scale ovate, acute,
1 mm. long,
the
others
lanceolate,
acuminate,
2. .5-3 mm.
long;
achene narrowly
oblong-
obovate, bluntly 3-angled with faces somewhat sunken, thickest a little above the
middle,
1.3 mm. long, 0.5 mm. thick, irregularly roughened, tipped by a broad
tubercle about 1.5 mm. high and wide.
Rocky coastal thicket near Guanica.
Endemic.
5. FIMBRISTYLIS Vahl, Enum. 2: 285.
1805.
Annual or perennial
sedges.
Culms leafy below.
Spikelets umbellate or
capitate,
terete, several to many-flowered, subtended by a 1-many-leaved
in-
volucre, their scales spirally imbricated all around, mostly deciduous, all fertile.
94
CYPERACEAE
Perianth none.
Stamenfe 1-3.
Style 2-3-cleft, pubescent or glabrous,
its base
much enlarged, falling away from the summit of the achene at maturity.
Achene
lenticular, biconvex, or 3-angled, reticulated, cancellate or longitudinally ribbed
or striate in our species.
[Greek, in allusion to the fringed style of some species.]
A large genus, the species widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions.
Type species: Fimhristylis acuminata Vahl.
A.
Style-branches 2; acheue lenticular.
Achene smooth, or cancellate, not ribbed.
Leaves long, mostly half as long as the culm or more.
Leaves involute.
1.
F. spadicea.
Leaves flat.
2.
F. inaguensis.
Leaves much shorter than the culm.
Scales of the spikelet puberulent.
3. F
ferruginea.
Scales of the spikelet glabrous.
4.
F. spathacea.
Achene longitudinally ribbed and reticulated.
5.
F. diphylla.
B. Style-branches 3; achene trigonous.
Spikelets linear to linear-oblong.
6.
F. complanata
Spikeiets globose or subglobose.
7.
F. miliacea.
1. Fimbristylis spadicea (L.) Vahl, Enum. 2:294.
1806.
Scirpus spadiceus L. Sp.
PI. 51.
1753,
Perennial; culms rather slender,
stiff and
wiry,
erect,
1 m.
high or
less.
Basal leaves elongated, involute-margined,
half as long as the culm or more,
their bases broadened, brown and shining, subdistichous, those of the involucre
3 or 4, the longer ones mostly surpassing the simple or compound umbel; spikelets
oblong or oblong-cylindric, 8-15 mm.
long, about 4 mm.
thick;
scales ovate,
brown, smooth, shining, apiculate; style 2-cleft; achene obovate, half as long as
the scale, biconvex, cancellate.
Coastal sands and marshes, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas; St. Croix:—Jamaica; Cuba:
Hispaniola; Anguilla; Martinique; Grenada; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2. Fimbristylis inaguensis Britton, Torreya 13: 216.
1913.
Perennial
by
short
stout
rootstocks;
culms
rather
stout,
stiff,
smooth,
compressed, 3-5 dm.
tall.
Basal leaves one-third to two-thirds as long as the
culm,
flat, rather stiff, smooth, 1-2.5 mm. wide, obtuse; leaves of the involucre
2-4, the longer one usually a little exceeding the inflorescence; umljel compound,
5-7 cm. broad, the rays 2-4 cm. long, ascendintr, the raylets slender, 0.5-2 cm.
long;
spikelets narrowly oblong, 8-12 mm.
long, about 2.5 mm.
thick,
acute,
many-flowered, solitary at the ends of the rays and raylets; scales brown, glabrous,
dull,
ovate,
carinate, mucronate or the lower short-awned: achene
elliptic or
obovate-eUiptic,
flat,
blunt,
finely
reticulated,
nearly
1.5 mm.
long;
style-
branches 2.
On the .sandy plain, Anegada:—Bahamas; Cuban Cays.
3. Fimbristylis ferruginea
(L.) Vahl, Enum.
2: 291.
1805.
Scirpus fcrrugineus L. Sp.
PI. 50.
1753.
Perennial; culms rather slender, clustered, 2-8 dm. long.
Basal leaves very
much shorter than the culm, those of the involucre 2-4, short, the longer ones
sometimes exceeding the small compact umbel, but usually shorter; spikelets
few, rarely solitary, ovoid-olilong, ,S-20 mm. long, 3-4 mm. thick; scales ovate,
acutish
or
mucronulate,
brownish,
dull,
pilose-puberulent
toward
the
apex;
style
2-cleft; achene about
one-half as long
as
the
scale, obovate,
biconvex,
brownish, smooth.
Coastal marshes and sands, Porto Rico; Icacos; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Tiiomas;
St.
Jan
Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—West
Indies; tropical
continental
America;
Old World
tropics and subtropics.
CYPERACEAE
95
4.
Fimbristylis spathacea Roth, Nov.
PI. Sp. 24.
1821.
Scirpus glomeratus Retz. Obs. 4:
11.
1786.
Scirpus ohtusifolius Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. .571.
1864.
Fimhristylis Sintinisii Boeckl. Bot. Jahrb. 7: 276.
1886.
Fimbristylis glomerata Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 166.
1900.
Not F. glomerata
Nees.
18.34.
Perennial; culms tufted,
stiff,
erect, rather slender, 1-4 dm.
high.
Basal
leaves flat,
stiff, much shorter than the culm,
1..5-3 mm. wide, spreading or as-
cending, the apex bluntish and mucronate
; involucral leaves few, mostly shorter
than the compound small dense umbel;
spikelets
ellipsoid
to
short-cylindric,
3-6 mm. long, about 2 mm. thick; scales ovate, brownish, glabrous, emarginate,
scarious-margined ;
style
2-cleft; achene about one-half as long
as the
scale,
biconvex, obovate, brown, granular or subtuberculate.
Moist
or wet
soil
at lowor
elevations,
Porto
Rico; Mona:—Baliaraas; Jamaica:
Cuba; Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts; Antigua; Guadeloupe; continental tropical America and
Old World tropics.
5. Fimbristylis diphylla (Retz.) Vahl, Enum. 2: 289.
180.5.
Scirpus diphyllus Retz. Obs. 5:
1.5.
1789.
Fimbristylis polymorpha Boeckl. Linnaea 37: 14.
1871.
Perennial; glabrous or more or
le.ss pubescent; culms tufted
slender, 1-6
dm.
high.
Leaves 1-3 mm. wide,
flat, the basal ones shorter than the culm,
those of the involucre 3 or 4, not elongated; umbel simple or compound, loose,
sometimes 6 cm. broad, the rays very slender; spikelets oblong to ovoid,
.5-10
mm. long,
2. .5-4 mm. thick; scales ovate, glabrous, acute; style 2-cleft; achene
obovate, biconvex, about one-third as long as the scale, strongly longitudinally
riljbed and reticulated, the ribs more or less tubercled.
[Not Fimbristylis annua
(All.) R. & 8. of the Old World.]
Grassy
places at lower and middle
elevations,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—southern United
States; West
Indies;
continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
6. Fimbristylis complanata (Retz.) Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 292.
1827.
Scirpus complanatus Retz. Obs. 5:
14.
1789.
Glabrous; culms
slender,
tufted, 2-6 dm.
high, somewhat angled above.
Leaves 2-6 mm. wide, the basal ones shorter than the culm, those of the invo-
lucre mostly 2 and shorter than the inflorescence; umbel compound or decom-
pound, the spikelets in small umbellets, the central one
ses.'iile, the others ped-
uncled,
hnear
or
linear-oblong, 5-10 mm.
long, 1-2 mm. wide; scales brown,
ovate
to
lanceolate,
keeled; style-branches 3;
style glabrous; achene obovoid,
trigonous, yellow-brown, transversely striate and minutely tubercled.
In moist or wet gra.ssy places, Porto Rico, ascending into the eastern mountains:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Dominica to Trinidad; continental tropical America and
Old World tropics.
7. Fimbristylis miliacea (L.) Vahl, Enum. 2: 287.
1805.
Scirpus miliaceus L. Syst. ed.
10, 868.
1759.
Annual with
fibrous roots; culms weak, tufted, 7 dm. long or
less, angled
above.
Leaves soft, 1.5-4 mm. wide, the basal ones usually about half as long
as the culm, long attenuate at the apex, those of the involucre similar, but much
shorter and narrower, shorter than the loose, large, decompound umbel; spikelets
subglobose, 2-4 mm. long, their lower scales early deciduous; scales ovate, the
midvein broad; style-branches 3; style villous; achene obovoid, trigonous, brown-
ish, minutely tuberculate, less than 1 mm. long.
Sandy shore, Yabucoa:—Florida; California; Cuba; tropical continental America;
Old World tropics.
96
CYPERACEAE
Fimbristylis divaricata Hamilt. Prodr. 14.
1825.
A species described as from Porto Rico, the specimen in the herbarium of
Desvaux, witli pilose culms and divaricate brandies;
it has not been identified
by modern botanists; the published description
is incomplete.
Fimbristylis hirtella Hamilt. Prodr.
14.
1825.
Fimbristylis Hamiltonii Steud. Syn.
PI. Cyp. 119.
1855.
A species also described from Porto Rico, the specimen in the herbarium of
Desvaux, not identified by modern botanists, the description being incomplete.
6. ABILDGAARDIA Vahl. Enum. 2: 296.
1805.
Low, perennial or annual sedges, with slender culms, narrow or setaceous
basal leaves, the involucre usually of 1 small bract, the flattened spikelets soli-
tary
or
few
together,
several-many-flowered.
Scales
imbricated
in
2
rows
keeled, deciduous.
Bristles none.
Stamens 1-3.
Style pubescent, deciduous,
its ba§e swollen.
Stigmas 3.
Achene trigonous.
[Commemorates P.
S. Abild-
gaard, Danish
l)otanist.]
About 15 species of tropical and subtropical
distri-
bution, the following typical.
1. Abildgaardia monostachya (L.) Vahl, Enum. 2: 296.
1805.
Cypcrus monostachyos L. Mant.
180.
1771.
Fimbristylis monostachya Hassk. PI. Jav. Rar. 61.
1848.
Perennial, glabrous; culms very slender, smooth, tufted, 4 dm. high or less.
I-eaves setaceous, 0.5 mm. wide, about one-half as long as the culms, the
in-
volucral one rarely as long as the spikelet; spikelet ovate or ovate-lanceolate,
many-flowered,
1-1.5 cm.
long, about 5 mm. wide;
scales ovate,
keeled, mu-
cronate,
pale greenish-brown with white margins;
style
villous,
with
3 short
branches; achenes 2-2.5 mm. long, constricted near the base, yellowish, tuber-
culate.
Sterile grassy situations and in mud at lower elevations, Porto Rico
; St. Jan ; Anegada
—Florida; West Indies; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
7. SCIRPUS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 47.
1753.
Annual or perennial very small, or very large sedges, with leafy culms or
the leaves reduced to basal sheaths.
Spikelets terete
or somewhat
flattened,
solitary,
capitate,
spicate or umbellate, subtended by a
1-several-leaved
in-
volucre or the involucre wanting in some species.
Scales spirally imbricated all
around,
usually
all
fertile, the 1-3 lower sometimes empty.
Flowers
perfect.
Perianth of 1-6, slender or rigid, short or elongated, barbed, pubescent or smooth
bristles, or none in some species.
Stamens 2-3.
Style 2-3-cleft, not swollen
at the base, wholly deciduous from the achene, or its base persistent as a subulate
tip.
Achene triangular, lenticular or plano-convex.
[Latin name of the Bulrush,
said to be from sirs, the Celtic word for rushes.]
About 200 species of very wide
geographic
distribution,
known
as Bulrush.
Type
species:
Scirpus
lacus-
Iris L.
Spikelets umbellate, terminal; culm terete.
1.
.S. validus.
Spikelets glomerate, appearing as
if lateral; culm trigonous.
2.
S. Olneyi.
CYPERACEAE
97
1. Scirpus validus Vahl. Enum. 2: 268.
1805.
Perennial by stout rootstocks; culms stout, smooth,
terete,
erect,
1-3 m.
tall, sheathed at the base.
Involucral-bract
1,
erect, shorter than the umbel,
appearing as if continuing the culm; umbel compoimd, its primary rays slender,
1-6 cm. long; spikelets several or many, oblong-conic, 1 to 5 together, 5-12 mm.
long, .3-4 mm. thick; scales ovate, short-tipped; Ijristles 4-6, downwardly barbed,
as long as the achene or longer; stamens 3; style 2-cleft; achene obovate, plano-
convex,
mucronate.
[Included by authors
in
the Old World
species
Scirpus
lucustris L.]
Banks of streams in the vicinity of Guanica'—continental North America; Bermuda;
Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; Jamaica.
2. Scirpus Olneyi A. Gray, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. 5: 238.
1845.
I'eronnial by long rootstocks; culms stout, or rather sleruler, erect, smooth,
sharply 3-angled with concave sides, 2-7 dm.
tall.
Leaves 1-3, 2-13 cm. long, or
sheaths sometimes leafless; spikelets capitate in dense clusters of .5-12, oblong or
ovoid-oblong, obtuse, 5-8 mm. long, the solitary involucral leaf short, stout, erect,
1-3 cm. long; scales oval or orbicular, dark brown with a green midvein, emar-
ginate
or mucronulate,
glabrous;
bristles
usually
6,
slightly
shorter than
or
equalling the achene, downwardly
barljed; stamens 2-3;
style
2-cleft; achene
obovate, plano-convex, brown, mucronate.
Wet
grounds,
Santurce:—coasts
of
continental
temperate
and
tropical
North
America; Bermuda; Cuba; Hispaniola.
Scirpus subdistichus Boeckl. Linnaea 36: 490.
1869.
Isolepis disticha Boeckl. Flora 41: 415.
1858.
A species recorded as collected by Bertero on St. Thomas and not otherwise
known.
After an examination of scanty material, Mr. C. B. Clarke thought it
might, perhaps, represent Scirpus cernuus Vahl, a plant not known to occur in
the West Indies.
Scirpus articulatus
( Kunth) Gri.seb. , an Old World species, is recorded from
St. Croix by Kunth, and by Krebs from St. Thomas, presumably erroneously.
[Isolepis
arliculata
Nees.]
8. FUIRENA Rottb. Descr. & Icon. 70.
1773.
Perennial sedges, with leafy triangular culms (in a Florida species the leaves
reduced to inflated sheaths), and many-flowered terete spikelets in terminal and
axillary clusters, or rarely solitary.
Scales spirally imbricated, awned, the
1 or 2
lower commonly empty.
Flowers perfect.
Perianth of 3 ovate oblong or cor-
date-ovate, stalked, often awned sepals, usually alternating with as many down-
wardly barbed
bristles.
Stamens 3.
Style 3-cleft, not swollen at the base, de-
ciduous.
Achene stalked or nearly sessile, sharply 3-angled, acute or mucronate,
smooth.
[In honor
of Georg
Fuiren,
1581-1628,
Danish
physician.]
About
20
species,
natives
of warm-temperate
and
tropical
regions.
Type
species:
Fuirena umbellata Rottb.
Spikelets la 1-5 heads; plant with fibrous roots.
1.
F. sqitarrosa.
Heads of spikelets numerous, panicled
; plants perennial by rootstocks.
2.
F. umbellala.
1. Fuirena squarrosa IMichx. Fl. Bor. Am. i: 37.
1803.
Roots fibrous; culms tufted, glabrous or nearly
.so, 5-20 cm.
tall.
I^eaves
flat, nearly or quite glabrous or the lower sheaths pubescent; spikelets
.sessile,
1-10 together in capitate clusters, ovoid or ovoid-oblong, 6-12 mm. long, about
98
CYPERACEAE
5 mm. in diameter; scales ovate or oblong, brown, pubescent, mostly obtuse, 3-
nerved, tipped with a stout spreading or recurved awn of nearly their own length
sepals oblong, long-stalked, usually narrowed at both ends, the awn downwardly
barbed or sometimes smooth; bristles mostly longer than the achene.
[Ptcros-
cleria longifolia Bello, not Griseb.l
Western Porto Rico.
Deterinined by Clarke from a drawing by Consul King; other-
wise unknown from the island:—eastern United States; Cuba; recorded from Jamaica.
2. Fuirena umbellata Kottb. Descr. et Icon. 70.
1773.
Perennial by
rootstocks; culms stout or rather
slender,
erect,
trigonous,
glabrous, or pilose above, 5-1.5 dm. high.
Leaves flat, 7-16 cm. long,
.'>-2.5 mm.
wide, glabrous or sparingly pilose, the lower ones often much shorter; panicles
1-4, terminal or also in the upper axils, rather dense, pilose; spikelets commonly
numerous, oblong
to
linear-oblong, 6-10 mm.
long,
clustered,
acutish;
scales
green-brown, pubescent, aristate, the awns spreading or recurved; sepals obovate,
mucronate, nearly sessile, about as long as the smooth, trigonous, beaked achene.
Meadows and marshes at lower and middle altitudes, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; Margarita; continental tropical America and Old
World tropics.
9. DICHROMENA IMich.x. Fl. Bor. Am.
1: 37.
1803.
Leafy-stemmed sedges, perennial by I'ootstocks, the spikelets crowded in a
terminal head involucrate by the upper leaves, which
are often white at the
base.
Spikelets compressed, several-many-flowered.
Scales spirally imbricated
all around, several of them with imperfect flowers, or empty.
Perianth none.
Stamens
3.
Stylo
2-cleft,
its
branches
subulate.
Achene
lenticular,
trans-
versely rugose, crowned with the broad persistent
Jjase of 'the style
(tubercle).
[Greek, alluding to the two-colored involucral leaves.]
About 8 species, natives
of America.
Type species: Dichromena leucocephala Michx.
Involucral leaves glabrous.
1. D. colorata.
Involucral leaves pubescent or ciliate toward the base.
Spikelets mostly subspicate; scales wliite.
2. D. ciliata.
Spikelets 1-5, digitate; scales brownish.
3. D. radicans.
1. Dichromena colorata (L.) Hitchc. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 4: 141.
1893.
Schoenus coloratus L. Sp. PI. 43.
1753,
Dichromena leucocephala Michx.
Fl. Bor. Am.
1: 37.
1803.
Glabrous; culm
slender,
erect,
rather sharply
triangular, 0.3-0.6 m.
tall.
Leaves distant, narrowly linear, about 2 mm. wide, much shorter than the culm,
those of the involucre 4-6, reflexed when mature, yellowish white at the base;
head globose, 1-2 cm. iu diameter; spikelets narrowly oblong, acute; scales mem-
branous, lanceolate, nearly white, 1-nerved, subacute at the apex; achene obovate,
brown,
nearly truncate at the summit,
compressed, covered by
the
tubercle
which is not decurrent on its edges.
Wet grassy places at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—eastern and southern United
States to Mexico; Bermuda; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe and
Martinique.
2. Dichromena ciliata Vahl, Enum. 2: 240.
1805.
Dichromena piira Nees, Linnaea 9: 291.
1834.
Rynchospora pura Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 577.
1864.
Perennial by short rootstocks; culms slender, 7 dm.
tall or
less, 3-angled.
Leaves pubescent or glabrate, mostly shorter than
the culm,
flat,
grass-like,
2-4 mm. wide, those of the involucre 4-6, similar to the lower ones, but ciliate-
CYPERACEAE
09
pilose towards the usually whitened base; spikelets 3-15, subspicate or capitate,
6-7 mm. long; scales white, keeled, obtusish; achene broadly obovate to suborbic-
ular,
1-1.5 mm.
long,
transversely undulate; tubercle ovoid-lanceolate or de-
pressed, one-fourth to two-thirds as long as the achene.
Grassy places at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascending into the Lu-
qnillo Moimtains;
Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan:—West
Indies,
(except Bahamas);
continental tropical America.
Spikelets sometimes proliferous.
3. Dichromena radicans Schl. & Cham. Linnaea 6: 28.
1831.
Somewhat pidiescent
; rootstock slender, or very short; roots fibrous.
Culms
slender, !!>-(> dm. long; leaves narrowly linear, 1.5-4 mm. wide, shorter than the
culm, those of the involucre 2-5, similar to the lower ones but shorter, spreading,
ciUate-pilose at the base, green throughout or sometimes a
little whitish below;
spikelets 1-3, cinnamon-brown, acute or obtusish, 7-12 mm. long; culm often
prohferous at the summit, reclining and radicant; achene obovate,
1-1.5 mm.
long, Ijrown, delicately transversely undulate, the low tubercle decurrent on its
edges.
Forests, shaded banks and
hillsides at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
10. PSILOCARYA Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 3: 359.
1836.
Annual sedges, with fdirous roots, slender leafy stems and ovoid or oblong,
many-flowered terete spikelets in terminal and axillary, mcstly compound umbels,
the rays and raylets bracted at the base.
Scales of the spikelets .spirally imbri-
cated
all
around,
deciduous.
Flowers
perfect.
Perianth
or
bristles
none.
Stamens
1
or
2.
Style
2-cleft,
enlarged
at
the
base.
Achene
lenticular
or
biconvex, smooth or transversely wrinkled, gapped by the persistent base of the
style
(tubercle),
or nearly the whgle style
persistent as a beak.
[Greek,
re-
ferring to the absence of perianth-bristles.]
About 10 species, natives of tem-
perate and tropical America.
Type species: Psilocarya scirpoides Torr.
1. Psilocarya portoricensis Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 42: 387.
1915.
Annual, with fibrous roots; culm rather slender, about 4 dm. high; leaves
shorter than the culm, 2-3 mm. wide; umbels several, slender-stalked; spikelets
3-5
in the umbels, ovoid,
acutish, 4-6 mm.
long, 2 mm.
thick; scales ovate,
dark brown, sharply acute; style rather deeply 2-cleft; achene oblong, 1 mm. long,
transversely wrinkled; tubercle triangular, acute, one-third to one-half as long
as the achene, and distinctly decurrent upon
it.
Shore of Laguna Tortuguero.
Endemic.
11. RYNCHOSPORA Vahl. Eniim. 2: 229.
1805.
Leafy sedges, mostly perennial by rootstocks, with erect 3-angled or terete
culms, narrow
flat or involute leaves, and ovoid oblong or fusiform, variously
clustered spikelets.
Scales thin,
1-nerved, imbricated
all around, usually mu-
cronate by the excurrent midvein, the lower empty.
Upper flowers imperfect,
the lower perfect.
Perianth of 1-20 (mostly 6) upwardly or downwardly barbed
or scabrous
bristles, wanting
in some
species.
Stamens commonly
3.
Style
2-cleft, 2-toothed or rarely entire.
Achene lenticular or swollen, not 3-angled,
smooth
or transversely wrinkled, capped by
the
persistent base of the
style
(tubercle), or in some species by the whole style.
[Greek, referring to the beak-
100
CYPERACEAE
like tubercle.]
About 200 species, of wide distribution, most abundant in warm
regions, known as Beaked-rush.
Type species
: Rynchospora aurea Vahl.
A.
Style long, its branches much shorter than the undivided part.
Spikelets densely capitate, the heads corymbose-paniculate.
Spikelets not densely capitate.
(See No. 3.)
Bristles as long as the achene or longer.
Spikelets fascicled in
2'.s-6's; achene not sulcate.
Spikelets
fascicled
in
12's-20's;
achene
1-2-sulcate.
Bristles obsolete or none.
Spikelets fascicled; sheaths glabrous.
Spikelets loosely clustei-ed; sheaths pubescent.
B.
Style short, its brandies mostly as long as the imdivided part.
(See No.
14.)
a.
Perianth-bristles none.
*Achene transversely wrinkled.
Plant pilose; spikelets with 3 achenes.
Plants glabrous; spikelets with only
1 or 2 achenes.
Plant tall, stout,
1 m. high or less.
Plants low or slender, 5 dm. liigh or less.
Spikelets only 1-2 mm. long.
Spikelets 3-6 mm. long.
Achene 3-toothed at the top.
Achene not 3-toothed.
Plant low
; spikelets clu.stered in 2's-G's.
Plants slender; spikelets pedunclcd, mosly
panicled.
Spikelets about 4 mm. long.
Spikelets about 2 mm. long.
**Achene smooth.
Spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 8-12 mm. long.
Spikelets oblong, abotit 3 mm. long.
b.
Perianth-bristles present.
*Perianth-bristles retrorsely barbed.
**Perianth-bristles upwardly barbed,
tAchene smooth.
Leaves flat, grass-like, 1-3 mm. wide.
Leaves setaceous, about 0.5 mm. wide.
ttAchene transversely wrmkled.
tAchene not stipitate; bristles not plumose at base.
Bristles shorter than the achene.
Bristles as long as the achene or longer.
Leaves 2-4 nrai. wide.
Spikelets 3 mm. long; tubercle half as long
as the achene or less.
Spikelets 5 mm.
long; tubercle nearly as
long as the achene.
Leaves only
1 mm. wide or less.
ttAchene stipitate; bristles plumose at base.
1. R. cyperoides.
2.
R. corymbosa.
3.
R. gigantea.
4.
jB. elongata.
5. R. jamaicensis.
6.
R. trichodes.
7.
R. rufa.
8.
R. micrantha.
9.
R. setacea.
10.
R. Berlerii.
11.
R. tenuis.
12. R. Bruneri.
13.
R. filiformis.
14.
R. Blauneri.
15.
R. hiquillensis.
IG.
R. distans.
17.
R.
Wrightiana.
18.
R. cymosa.
19.
R. glauca.
20.
R. borinquensis.
21.
R. bahamensis.
22.
R. Marisculus.
1. Rynchospora cyperoides (Sw.) Mart. Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Muench. 6: 149.
1816-17.
Schoenus cyperoides Sw. Prodr.
19.
1788.
Rynchospora polycephala Wydler; Kunth, Enum.
2: 291.
1837.
Rootstocks short; culms clustered, sharply trigonous, rather stout, glabrous,
4-8 dm. tall.
Leaves 3-,5 mm. wide; heads of spikelets dense, globose, 8-12 mm.
In diameter, corymbose-paniculate, sometimes few; spikelets with about 7 scales,
only one of them achene-bearing
; bristles 6, rigid, upwardly barbed, longer than
the achene; style long, 2-cleft above; achene obovoid, narrowed below, about
1
mm. long, faintly transversely undulate;
tubei'cle subulate, ciliate.
Wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascending into the Luquillo
Moiuitains;—West Indies; continental tropical America; tropical Africa.
2. Rynchospora corymbosa (L.) Britton, Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 11 : 84.
1892.
Scirpus corymbosus L. Cent. 2:
7:
1756.
Rynchospora aurea Vahl, Enum. 2: 229.
1805.
Rootstocks stout; culms stout, glabrous, trigonous, roughish, 8-12 dm.
tall.
Leaves elongated, rough-margined, 8-15 mm. wide; inflorescence large, often 3
dm.
long,
corymbo.se-paniculate,
the
lower corymbs
often
distant;
spikelets
clustered in 2's-6's, or solitary, 6-10 mm. long, bearing but one achene; scales
bright
brown,
ovate,
obtuse,
mucronate;
bristles
6,
rough,
longer
than
the
CYPERACEAE
101
achene; style nearly undivided
; achene oblong-obovate, about 3 mm. long, smooth
or somewhat wrinkled; tubercle long-conic, sulcata on both sides.
Wet grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guade-
loupe; Martinique; Trinidad; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
3. Rynchospora gigantea Link, Jahrb. 3: 70.
1820.
Culms very stout, smooth, sharply trigonous, 1-2 m. high or more.
Leaves
elongated, roughish-margined, 1-2 cm. wide; inflorescence corymbose-paniculate,
the corymbs approximate,
or the lower distant;
spikelets about 8 nmi.
long,
glomerate, bearing but one achene; scales bright brown, ovate;
bristles 6, rough-
ish above, about as long as the achene and tubercle; aChene oblong-obovate,
1-2-sulcate, somewhat rugose, 2-3 mm. long; tubercle conic, sulcate, about as
long as the achene
; style long.
Wet grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—Cuba; South America.
4. Rynchospora elongata Boeckl. Cyp. Nov.
1: 26.
1888.
Culms slender, smooth, 6 dm. long or less, weak, bluntly 3-angled.
Leaves
smooth, 2-3 mm. wide, elongated, but mostly shorter than the culm
; inflorescence
of 2-5 small, distant, lateral, rather dense corymbs; spikelets lanceolate, clustered,
about 4 mm. long, bearing but one achene; scales brown, ovate, acutish, or the
lower ones mucronate;
bristles none; style elongated, shortly 2-cleft near the
summit; achene oblong-obovate, smooth, about as long as the conic tubercle.
Top of Mt. Yunque, Sierra de Luquillo:—Cuba; Jamaica.
5. Rynchospora jamaicensis Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 41:
i.
1914.
Rootstocks short; culms clustered, slender ,6-8 dm. long, recUning.
Leaves
2-3 mm. wide, rather stiff, the lower 2-5 cm. long, the middle ones 12-15 cm.
long, those subtending the. clusters of spikelets 6-10 cm. long; sheaths of all the
leaves densely short-pubescent; spikelets loosely panicled in several distant axil-
lary clusters and in a terminal one, short-pedicelled, the axis of the inflorescence
loosely pubescent; spikelets narrowly conie, 4-5 mm. long, maturing 2 achenes;
lower empty scales broadly ovate, the others lanceolate, acuminate; bristles none;
achenes obovate-orbicular,
1 mm.
long, pale brown, shining,
finely cancellate;
tubercle triangular-lanceolate, acuminate,
flat, about one-third longer than the
achene. its base nearly truncate
; style long.
Alta de la Bandera, collected by F. L. Stevens in 1915:—Jamaica.
6. Rynchospora trichodes Clarke in Urban. Symb. Ant. 2: 116.
1900.
Schoenus hispidulua Vahl. Enum. 2: 219.
1805.
Fimbriistylis hirsulaUochst.
: Steud. Hyn. PI. Cyp.
116.
1855.
Not R. hir-
suta Vahl.
Rynchuspora hispidula Boeckl. Linnaea 37: 004.
1873.
Not Griseb. 1806.
Roots fibrous; culm and leaves loosely
pilose.
Culm 4 dm. long or
lesst
slender; leaves about 3 mm. wide, sometimes exceeding the culm; inflorescence
of terminal and lateral corymbs 3-8 cm. in diameter; spikelets slender-peduncled,
mostly solitary, ovoid, 4 mm. long, bearing about 3 achenes; scales ovate, brown,
glabrous, obtuse;
bristles none;
style deeply
2-cleft; achene broadly obovoid,
about one-third as long as the .scale, biconvex, brownish, transversely wrinkled,
the tubercle broad, depres.sed, decurrent.
Represented in the Delessert Herbarium, (ieneva, Switzerland, by a specimen in-
dicated in the haiidwriting of Salzmann as from Porto Rico.
The species is otherwise
known from northern South America.
7. Rynchospora rufa (Nees) Boeckl. Vidensk. Medd. Kjob. 1869: 149.
1870.
Psilocarya rufa Nees in Mart.
Fl. Bras. 2': 117.
1842.
Perennial by
rootstocks;
culms
rather
stout,
glabrous,
5-10 dm.
high.
Leaves long,
flat, about 3 mm.
wide; inflorescence corymbose-paniculate,
the
spikelets luimerous; bracts linear, often pilose
; spikelets 6-7 mm. long, containing
only
1 achene or rarely 2, often barren, mostly sessile in clusters of 2-4; scales
102
CYPERACEAE
brown, the lower ovate, cuspidate, the upper lanceolate, acute;
bristles none;
style-branches
long,
filiform; achene
broadly
obovate,
transversely
wrinkled,
about 1.5 mm. long; tubercle about as long as the achene, with a broad base.
Marsh, Martin Pena:—Cuba; continental tropical America.
8. Rynchospora micrantha Valil, Enum. 2: 231.
1805.
Juncus parviftorus Poir, in Lam. Encycl. Suppl.
3: 160.
1813.
Dichromena micrantha Kunth, Enum. 2: 278.
1837.
Annual, with fibrous roots; culms slender, glabrous, tufted, weak, 1-4 dm.
long.
Leaves 2-3 mm.
wide,
thin,
shorter than the culm; corymbs
several,
loose,
flliform-rayed
; spikelets ovoid,
1-2 mm.
long,
bearing a single achene;
scales ovate-lanceolate, acute; bristles none; style deeply 2-cleft; achene obovoid,
less
than
1 mm.
long,
biconvex,
transversely
wrinkled;
tubercle
depressed.
Wet grassy places at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Antigua to Grenada; continental tropical America; west tropical Africa.
9. Rynchospora
setacea
(Berg.)
Boeckl.
Vidensk.
Medd.
Kjob.
1869:
159.
1870.
Schoenus setaceus Berg. Act. Helv. 7: 130.
1772.
Rynchospora tenerrima Spreng. Syst. Cur. Post. 26.
1827.
Rynchospora spermodon Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 570.
1864.
Annual with
fibrous roots,
glabrous; culms slender, mostly
erect,
tufted,
1-5 dm.
high.
Leaves only 1-1.5 mm.
wide,
usually shorter than the culm;
corymbs several; distant, small; spikelets clustered, about 4 mm. long, narrowly
lanceolate, bearing
1 or 2 achenes; .scales ovate-lanceolate, acute or mucronate;
bristles none; style deeply 2-cleft; achene obovoid, biconvex, aiiout
1 mm. long,
much shorter than the subtending scale, transvei'sely rugose, 3-toothed at the
apex, the tubercle conic, forming the central tooth.
Wet sandy and grassy places at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:-—Jamaica;
Cuba; Guadeloupe to Grenada; continental tropical America.
10. Rynchospora Berterii (Spreng.) Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 119.
1900.
Hypolytrum Berterii Spreng. Neue Entd. 1: 241.
1820.
Schoenus pusillus Sw. Prodr. 20.
1788.
Rynchospora pusilla Griseb. Kar. 123.
1857.
Not Curtis, 1849.
Perennial by short stolons and a slender rootstock; culms nearly
filiform,
glabrous, weak, 2
10 cm. long.
Leaves
1 mm. wide or less, often exceeding the
culm, glabrous, or with pilose sheaths; spikelets 2-6 together in a usually solitary
terminal clu.ster, lanceolate, 2-4 mm. long, bearing
1 or 2 achenes; scales lanceo-
late, acute, nearly white; bristles none; style-branches long; achene brown, or-
bicular-obovoid, about 1 mm. long, transversely wrinkled, the low tubercle conic.
Shaded grassy banks and hillsides at lower and middle altitudes, Porto Rico;
St.
Thomas (according to Eggers):—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe.
11. Rynchospora tenuis Link, Jahrli. 3: 76.
1820.
Rootstocks short, slender; culms very slender, tufted,
1..5-4 dm. long, gla-
brous and smooth, erect or reclining.
Leaves 0.5-2 mm. wide, as long as the
culm or shorter; corymbs of spikelets 1-3, filiform-stalked; spikelets usually rather
loosely clustered, about 4 mm. long, narrowly lanceolate, acute, *i)ale, bearing a
single achene; scales acute, the lower ovate, the upper lanceolate; bristles none;
style deeply
2-cleft; achene obovate or nearly
orbicular,
sessile,
transversely
rugose, about
1 mm. broad; tubercle acute, one-fourth to one-half as long as the
achene and decurrent on its margins.
Moist grounds near Dorado:—Bahamas; Cuba; Dominica; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
St. Vincent; continental tropical America.
CYPERACEAE
103
12. Rynchospora Bruneri Britten, sp. nov.
Glabrous, culms densely tufted,
filiform,
erect,
stiff,
16 cm. high or
less.
Leaves filiform, much
shorter than the culm; spikelets few in a terminal loose
cluster and
often
in 2
or 8 distant
lower clusters, brownish, narrowly oblong,
2-2.5 mm. long, liearing
1 achene; scales lanceolate, acute;
bristles none; achene
oblong,
transversely striate, about 1 nnn. long;
tubercle broad, minutely tipped.
Rocky summit of El Yuiif|U(>,
Liifiiiillo Moimlains {Britlim iind Bruner, 7630.)
13. Rynchospora filiformis Vahl, Enum. 2: 232.
1805.
Rynchospora podosperma C. Wright; Sauvalle, Anales Acad. Habana 8: 87.
1871.
Rynchoapora longispicata Boeckl. Linnaea 37: 600.
1873.
Perennial by slender i-ootstocks
; culms glabrous, slender or nearly filiform,
4 dm. long or less.
Leaves smooth, about
1 mm. wide, shorter than the culm;
corymbs distant,
loose,
filiform-rayed; spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 8-12 mm.
long, bearing I or 2 achenes; .scales oblong-lanceolate or the lower ovate, cuspidate
or
acute,
yellowish-brown;
liristles none; style-branches
long; achene
brown,
smooth, obovoid, truncate, stipitate, 1.5 mm. long, the short tubercle conic.
Porto
Rico,
collected by
Ledru;
St. Tliomas:—Cuba; Trinidad; South America.
14. Rynchospora Blauneri Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 50: 56.
1923.
Perennial by
short
rootstocks; cidms
filiform,
Aveak,
clustered,
glabrous,
3-5 dm. long; leaves filiform, glabrous, shorter than the culms; spikelets narrowly
oblong, 3 mm. long, few together in 2 or 3 distant compact clusters subtended by a
filiform bract 3-5 cm. long; scales ovate-oblong, acute, light brown; bristles none;
achene obovate, light brown with darker brown margins, smooth, about
1 mm.
long; tubercle conic, acute, about one-third as long as the achene.
•Sierra de Luqiiillo (Blauner SJ/T, in herbarium of Columbia University, collected in
1852-5.3).
Referred by Clarke to R. diveryens.
Endemic.
Rynchospora alba (L.) Vahl, recorded from Porto Rico by Clarke, as illus-
trated by a specimen collected by Blauner (no. 247) preserved in the Candollean
herbarium at (ieneva, Switzerland,
is manifestly an error in record or determin-
ation, the plant being restricted to the north temperate zone.
15. Rynchospora luquillensis Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 50: 56.
1923.
Perennial by rootstocks; culms very slender, smooth, erect, about 2 dm. high.
Leaves narrowly linear, about
1 mm. wide,
flat, smooth, shorter than the culm;
inflorescence a small terminal cluster of few spikelets; spikelets narrowly oblong,
about 4 mm.
long; scales olilong, brownish, acute;
bristles about
6, retrorsely
barbed, a little longer than the achene; style elongated; achene narrowly obovate,
smooth, brown, 1.6 mm.
long; tubercle subulate, about as long as the achene.
Rocky summit of EI Yunque, Sierra de Luquillo.
Endemic.
16. Rynchospora distans (Michx.) Vahl, Enum. 2: 235.
1805.
Schoenus distans Michx. Fl. Bor. Am.
1: 36.
1803.
Roots
of thick
fibers; culms
clustered,
slender,
glabrous, 3-8 dm.
high.
Leaves 1-3 mm. wide, smooth,
flat, mostly shorter than the culm; corymbs 1-4,
dense, distant, 0.5-1.5 cm. thick; spikelets about 4 mm. long, ovoid-lanceolate,
usually bearing but
1 achene; .scales brown, ovate, acute or cuspidate; bristles
5 or 6, upwardly barbed, as long as the achene and tubercle, or shorter, sometimes
104
CYPERACEAE
only one-third as long as the achene; style-branches long; achenes smooth, brown,
obovold, biconvex, about one-half as long as the scale; tubercle sharply conic,
one-third to one-half as long as the achene.
Wet sandy
soil
at
lower
elevations,
Porto
Rico:—southeastern
United
States;
Bermuda; Hispaniola; Cuba; Jamaica; continental tropical America.
Porto Rican specimens cited by Clarice under R. fascicularis are better referred to
R. distans.
17. Rynchospora Wrightiana Boeclvi. Flora 64: 7S.
1881.
Roots of nearly capillary fibres; culms tufted, nearly filiform, 2-4 dm. long,
weak; leaves flUform, half as long as the culm or longer; corym1)s solitary or some-
times 2, dense,
1 cm. broad or less; spikelets 3-10, ovoid, 4-.5 mm. long, usually
with but
1 achene; scales dark brown, acute, ovate; bristles upwardly barbed,
short, or sometimes two-thirds as long as the achene; achene lenticular, brown,
smooth, ol)ovoid
to obovoid-orbicular, about 2 mm.
long, the triangular-conic
tubercle short.
[R. pallida Clarke, not Curtis.]
Sierra de Luquillo:—southeastern United States and Cuba.
18. Rynchospora cymosa Ell. Bot.
S. C. & Ga. 1:
r>8.
1816.
Schoemis cymosus Muhl. Gram. 8.
1817.
Root.stock short, rather stout; culms slender, few or several together, 8 dm.
tall or less.
Leaves grass-like, smooth, 3-5 mm. wide, nearly
flat, shorter than
the culm; corymbs usually 2-4, slender-stalked, distant, filiform-rayed, 2-8 cm.
broad; spikelets ovoid-oljlong,
sessile or nearly so, about 3 mm. broad, usually
with
but one achene;
scales ovate, brown, acute or short-acuminate;
bristles
about 6, upwardly barlied, shorter than the achene; achene lenticular or nearly
flat,
ot)ovoid,
transversely wrinkled,
1.5 mm.
long, tipped by the short conic
tubercle.
Moist grassy places at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascending to 800
m.:—southeastern United States; Hispaniola; Cuba; Jamaica; Martinique; continental
tropical America.
19. Rynchospora glauca Vahl, Enum. 2: 233.
1805.
Rootstocks short and
thick; culms slender to rather stout, 3-9 dm.
tall.
Leaves flat, shorter than the culm, 2-4 mm. wide; corymi^s 1-3, distant, loose,
1.5-3 cm. broad, slender-stalked; spikelets ovoid, about 3 mm. long, bearing
1
or 2 achenes; scales ovate, dark brown, acuminate;
bristles about
0, upwardly
barbed, as long as the achene or somewhat exceeding it; achene obovoid, lentic-
ular, about
1.5 mm. long, transversely wrinkled, the conic acute tubercle one-
third to one-half its length.
[R. gracilis R. & S.]
Moist grounds and along streams, Porto Rico, ascending into moimtain woodlands:
Hispaniola; Cuba; Jamaica;
Trinidad;
continental
tropical America and
Old World
tropics.
Rynchospora miliacea (Lam.) A. Gray. [R. sparsa Vahl] of the southeastern
United States and Cul)a, with larger looser corymbs, the tubercle of the achene
depressed and rounded, recorded as Porto Rican by Schultes, has not been found
there by recent collectors.
20. Rynchospora borinquensis Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 42: 387.
1915.
Perennial by short rootstocks; culms slender, trigonous, about
dm. high.
Leaves flat, about 2 mm. wide, shorter than the culm; corymbs 2 or 3, distant,
filiform-stalked, compound, narrow, 2-7 cm. long; spikelets clustered, fusiform,
5 mm. long, narrowed at both ends, bearing only 1 achene;
scales lanceolate or
CYPERACEAE
105
oblong-lanceolate, dark brown, acute; bristles about 6, upwardly barbed, longer
than the achene and tubercle; style-branches about one-third as long as the un-
divided part; achene oblong-oljovate, faintly transversely wrinkled, 1.5 mm. long,
a little longer than the smooth, conic, acute tubercle.
Open wet ])laces in the forest, Rio leaco and adjacent
hill.s, Sierra de Naguabo:
Cuba.
21. Rynchospora bahamensis Britton, Torreya 13: 217.
1913.
Densely tufted, rootstocks short.
(Julnis nearly filiform, roughish, spreading
or reclining, 2-3.5 dm. long; leaves setaceous-fiattened,
less than
1 mm.
Avide,
roughish-margined, the basal ones about one-fourth
as long as the culm,
the
upper 3-5 cm. long; spikelets oblong, 1.5-2 mm. long in 2 to 4 distant slender-
peduncled clusters, each with a single achene; scales dark brown, ovate-oblong,
mucronulate; achene
elliptic-obovate,
faintly
transversely
wrinkled,
1.5 mm.
long; tubercle flattened, conic, one-third to one-half as long as the achene; bristles
upwardly barbed, as long as the achene.
Rocky slopes and valleys, western Porto Rico:—Bahamas; Cuba.
22. Rynchospora Marisculus Lindl. & Nees; Mart.
Fl. Bras.
2': 142.
1S42.
Perennial by
rootstoclvs,
glalM'ous.
Culm
rather
slender,
0.5-1 m.
long.
Leaves 2-5 dm. long, 7 mm. wide or less; corymbs usually several, distant, or the
upper ones approximate,
dense,
the lower slender-stalked,
nodding;
spikelets
numerous,
clustered,
narrowly
ellipsoid,
acute,
5-7 mm.
long;
scales brown,
lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, from
1
to 3 of them subtending achenes;
bristles G or 7, longer than
tlie achene, scabrous above,
i)ilose at the base; style
2-cleft; achene
short-stipitate, nan-owly obovate, transversely undulate,
1.5-2
mm. long; tubercle flat-conic, acute, about one-half as long as the achene.
Moist ground, back of C'atano (Heller 6JflO) —Bahamas; (''u!)a; Hlspaniola; Jamaica;
continental tropical Americ-a.
12. MARISCUS (Hall.) Zinn, Tat. Hort. Goett. 79.
1757.
Perennial
leafj'
.sedges,
similar to some
Ri/nchosporas, the spikelets oblong
or
fusiform,
few-flowereil,
variously
clustered.
Scales
imbricated
all around,
the lower empty, the middle ones mostly subtending imperfect flowers, the upper
usually
fertile.
Perianth
none.
Stamens 2 or sometimes
3.
Style
2-3-cleft,
deciduous from the summit of the achene,
its branches sometimes 2-3-parted.
Achene
ovoitl
to
globose,
smooth
or
longitudinally
striate.
Tubercle
none.
[Latin, referring to the marsh habitat of some of the species.]
About 40 species,
natives of temperate and tropical regions.
Type species: Schoenus Mariscns L.
1. Mariscus jamaicensis (Crantz) Britton. in Britton & Brown,
111.
Fl. ed. 2,
1: 348.
1913.
Cladium jamaicense Crantz, Tnst.
1: 302.
1760.
Cladium occidenlale Schi'ad.
Kl. Germ
1: 70.
180G.
Culm stout, 1.5-3 m. high, obtusely 3-angled.
Leaves very long, glabrous,
6-20 mm. wide,
the margins spinulose-serrulate; umbels several or numerous,
decompound, forming a large panicle; spikelets mostly 2-5 together at the ends
of the raylets, narrowly ovoid, acute, 4-5 mm. long; uppermost scale subtending a
perfect flower; stamens 2; achene ovoid, abruptly sharp-pointed, wrinkled, nar-
rowed to the base, 2 mm. long, brown, shining.
[Inchuled by Urban in Cladiiun
Mariscus (L.)
K. Br. of Europe.]
Coastal marshes, Porto Rico:—southeastern and southern United States; Bermuda;
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe
to Grenada;
continental
tropical
America.
S.\w-GRass.
106
CYPERACEAE
13. MACHAERINA Vahl, Enum. 2: 238.
1805.
Tall, perennial, smooth and glabrous sedges with xiphioid or subterete leaves,
and numerous small spikelets in elongated panicles.
Lower scales of the spikelet
empty,
the upper 1-4 subtending perfect
flowers.
Stamens
3.
Style
3-cleft,
its branches elongated, its base pilose.
Bristles mostly 6, very slender, smooth.
Achene
stipitate
or
subscssilo,
tipped by
the
persistent
style
base.
[Greek,
referring to the sabre-like leaves of the type species.]
Two species, natives of
the West Indies, the following typical.
1. Machaerina restioides (Sw.) Vahl. Enum. 2: 238.
isofi.
Schoenus restioides Sw. Prodr.
19.
1788.
Cladium restioides Benth.; Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2:
13,5.
1900.
Culm compressed, rather stout, 1 m. high or less.
Leaves xiphioid, equitant,
flat, numerous, .5-12 mm. wide, the l^asal ones often exceeding the culm; panicle
narrow, 3
dm. long, sometimes much
branched, its branches somewhat flexuous,
subtended by short leaves; spikelets clustered, 4-5 mm. long, ovoid, bearing 2-4
achenes; scales dark red-brown, ovate; bristles as long as the achene or longer;
achene oblong,
1 mm. long, stipitate, brown, narrowed at both entls.
Wet rocky places at high elevations in the Luquillo Mountains:—Cuba; Hispaniola;
—Saba and St. Kitts to St. Vincent.
14. REMIREA Aubl.
PI. Guian. 1: 44.
1775.
A perennial, densely leafy sedge, the leaves linear-lanceolate, rigid, spinulose-
tipped, their sheaths imbricated, the 1-flowered spikelets in short dense terminal
spikes, their lower scales empty.
Flower perfect; bristles none; stamens 3; style
3-cleft, linear, continuous with the ovary.
Achene smooth, sessile.
[Guiana name].
A monotypic genus of tropical and subtropical sand-dunes and beaches.
1. Remirea maritima Aubl.
PI. Guian. 1: 45.
1775.
Rootstocks slender, elongated; culms solitary or clustered, erect, ascending
or nearly prostrate, 2-30 cm. long, leafy to the top.
Leaves flat, 2-8 cm. long,
2-7 mm. wide; spikes solitary or digitate, 1-2 cm.
long, subtended by bracts
similar to the upper leaves; spikelets many, brownish, 3-5 mm.
long; achene
somewhat shorter than the upper scale.
Coastal sands, Arecibo, Loiza:—Florida; Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental tropical
South America and Old World tropics.
Beach Sedge.
15. LAGENOCARPUS Nees, Linnaea 9: 304.
1834.
Large, perennial sedges, with long terminal panicles of imperfect flowers,
the upper part of the panicles with pistillate, the lower with staminate.
Pistillate
spikelets
1-flowered, the staminate .several-flowered.
Bristles none.
Pistillate
flower
with
3
linear
style-branches,
subtended by
3
scales.
Achene
terete,
smooth, fused with
its conic beak.
[Greek,
flask-fruit, from the shape of the
achene.]
About 15 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Lageno-
carpus guianensis Nees.
1. Lagenocarpus portoricensis Britton, Bull. Torrey Chili 50: .55.
1923.
Culm stout, erect, trigonous, glabrous, about 8 dm. high.
Leaves 8-12 mm.
wide, nearly as long as the culm, smooth, long-attenuate, with numerous
trans-
verse veinlets; panicle narrow, puberulent, about 3 dm. long and 5 cm. thick, the
CYPERACEAE
107
lower
half
of staminate spikelets, on nearly erect branches, the upper half of
pistillate; bractlets arista te; staminate spikelets about 4 mm. long, short-stalked;
scales subtending the achene obovate, subtriincate, ciliolate, mucronate; achene,
with
its beak, ovoid, 3 mm. long, brown with three darker blotches, the beak
about as long as the body.
[Recorded by C.
B. Clarke and by Urban as
L.
tremidus Nees.]
Wet sandy situations between
JNIanati and Vega Baja (Underwood & Griggs
9.'i6,
type)
; collected also by Sintensis near Dorado.
Endemic.
IG. SCLERIA Berg.. Vet. Acad. Handl. 26: 142.
1765.
Leafy sedges, mostly perennial, the spikelets small, clustered in terminal,
or terminal and axillary fascicles, or sometimes interruptedly spicate.
Flowers
monoecious.
Fertile spikelets
1 -flowered.
Staminate spikelets many-flowered.
Scales imbricated, the 1-3 lower and sometimes also the upper ones of the fertile
spikelets empty.
Perianth none.
Style
3-cleft, slender or sometimes swollen
at the base, deciduous.
Ovary supported on a disk (hypogynium), or this want-
ing.
Stamens
1-3.
Achene
globose
or
ovoid,
obtuse,
crustaceous
or
bony,
white in most species.
[Greek, in allusion to the hard fruit.]
About 100 species,
natives of tropical and temperate regions, known as Nut-rush.
Type species:
Scleria Flagellum-nigrorum Berg.
A.
Hypogynium present
a. Margin of (he hypogyniinn neither ciliale nor flinbriate.
*Roots fibrous or root stocks .short; culms slender.
Achene ridged-reticulated, pilose
1.
S. setacea.
Achene faintly reticulated, ;i-banded.
2.
S. Stevensiana.
**Perennials, with long or stout rootstocks.
Culms spreading or climbing, branched.
.3.
S. secans.
Culms erect, simple.
Plants relatively slender, not very rough.
4.
S. plerota.
Plants stout, very rough.
Panicle elongated.
5.
S. cancsccns.
Panicle short, dense.
6.
S. scindens.
b. Margin of the hypogynium ciliate or ciliolate.
Achene 1-1.5 mm. long.
7.
S. microcarpa.
Achene 2-3 ram. long.
Style-base black, i)ersistent.
8.
S. mitis.
Style-base pale, at length deciduous.
Hypogynium margin pul)erulent or finely ciliolate.
9.
S. cubcnsis.
Hypogynium margin densely long-ciliate.
10.
S. Grisebachii.
B.
Hypogynium none
a. Achene smooth.
Annual, with fibrous roots.
11.
S. dislans.
Perennials, with rootstocks.
Inflorescence interruptedly spicate, ciliate.
12.
S. hirtella.
Inflorescence of several loose panicles, glabrous.
13.
S. lithosprnna-
b. Achene verrucose; inflorescence glomerate-spicate.
14.
S. doradocnsis.
1.
Scleria setacea Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 7: 4.
1806.
Scleria micrantha Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl.
5: 108.
1817.
Scleria hemilaphra Steud. Syn. PI. Cyp. 169.
1855.
Scleria Torreyana Walp. Ann. 3: 696.
1852.
Scleria reticularis pubescens Britton, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 3: 232.
1885.
Fibrous rooted, or with short rootstock, annual or perennial; culms tufted,
slender, smooth, 8 dm. long or less.
Leaves
1..5-5 mm. wide; panicles axillary,
stalked, 3-6 cm. long; spikelets several to numerous; achene irregularly ridged-
reticulated,
white, subglobose to ellipsoid,
l..')^2 mm.
long,
its ridges minutely
pilo.se; hypogynium-lobes triangular-ovate, smooth.
Grassy places near Hato Grande and
Lares:—southeastern United States; Cuba;
continental tropical America.
Porto Rico is the type locality of the species.
108
CYPERACEAE
2.
Scleria Stevensiana Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 50: 55. 1923.
Perennial? rootstocks short or none; culms very
slender,
tufted,
slightly
scabrous above, weak, 4-5 dm.
long.
Leaves
soft, scabrous-margined, 4 mm.
wide or less; panicles 2 or 3,
axillary, the lower stalked, the upper one nearly
sessile, about 3 cm. long; bracts narrowly Unear-subulate, 2.5 cm. long or less;
spikelets several or numerous; achene depressed-globose, about
1.5 mm.
in
di-
ameter,
apiculate,
glabrous,
shining,
faintly
reticulated,
nearly
white, with 3
vertical brown bands; hypogynium lobes lanceolate, acuminate,
glabrous.
Lares (Stevens & Hess, ^OJ/Jf).
Endemic.
3.
Scleria secans (L.) Urban, Sumb. Ant. 2: 169.
1900.
Schoenus secans L. Syst. ed. 10, 865.
1759.
Scleria reflexa H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 232.
1816.
Perennial by
rootstocks;
culms
roughish-puberulent,
spreading
or
high-
climbing, 3-6 m. long.
Leaves roughish, 2 dm. long or less, 3-5 mm. wide, the
ligule scarious-appendaged; panicles 2-3,
axillary to the upper leaves, slender-
stalked, loosely branched, 3-8 cm. long, the rachis villous; achene smooth, white,
shining', ellipsoid, 3-4 mm. long; hypogynium flat, orbicular.
Wet
or
moist
mountain
woodlands,
Porto
Rico:—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispamola;
MoDtserrat to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
This is, perhaps, the species re-
corded by Krebs as found in St. Thomas prior to 1851, under the name Selena fiagellum.
4.
Scleria pterota Presl, in Oken Isis 21: 268.
1828.
Scleria commttnis Kunth, Enum. 2:
340.
1837.
Scleria pratensis Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2*: 179.
1842.
Perennial by stout rootstocks; culms slightly rough, rather slender,
1 m.
high
or
less.
Leaves 6-12 mm.
wide,
1.5-3 dm.
long,
the sheath somewhat
3-winged,
the
ligule about 4 mm.
long; panicles 2-4, narrow, 5-15 cm.
long,
greenish-brown or purplish; achene globose, white, smooth, about 2 mm. in diam-
eter; hypogynium 3-lobed.
[S.
initis of Bello, not of Berg.]
Moist shaded situations at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:
St. Thomas;
St. Croix; St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba to Barliados; continental tropical America.
5.
Scleria canescens Boeckl. Cyp. Nov.
1: 37.
1888.
Perennial by rootstocks; culms stout, erect or ascending,
1 m. long or less,
roughish.
Leaves 6-10 mm. wide, elongated, very rough-margined, the sheaths
wingless, pilose above, the hgule short-triangular; panicles 2-4, stalked, dense,
5-18 cm.
long,
brown-purple; achene
ellipsoid
to
subglobose, 3-4 mm.
long,
smooth, white; hypogynium 3-lobed, the lobes reflexed.
In wet woodlands at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
6.
Scleria scindens Nees, Linnaea 9: 303.
1834.
Scleria scaberrima Boeckl. Cyp. Nov. 2: 41.
1890.
Perennial, elongated and vine-like, the culms trigonous, scabrous, 1-3.5 m.
long, often forming large colonies.
Leaves 8 dm. long or less, flat, 6-1 1 mm. wide,
their margins scabrous-ciliolate, their sheaths margined or narrowly winged, the
ligule short, rounded; pani.de dense, short, terminal, 5-\0 cm. long, its branches
and branchlets puberulent. occasionally accompanied by 1 or 2 much smaller ones
in the upper axils
; spikelets short-stalked or ses.sile; achene globose, white, smooth.
2-2.5 mm. in diameter; hypogynium 3-Iobed, the lobes rounded, reflexed.
Mountain
forests,
St. Thomas; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Cuba;
St.
Kitts; Guade-
loupe; Uominica; Martinique; St. Lucia; St. Vincent.
CYPERACEAE
109
7.
Scleria microcarpa Nees, Linnaea 9: 302.
1834.
Scleria foliosa C. Wright;
Sauvalle, Anales Acad. Habana
8:
1.54.
1871.
Not A. Rich.
18.51.
Scleria microcarpa foliosa Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 149.
1900.
Perennial by rather stout
rootstoclcs: culms slender, smooth,
erect,
1 m.
high or less.
Leaves 6-12 mm. Avide, 1-3 dm. long, smooth, the ligule 4-S mm.
long,
the
sheaths narrowly
3-winged;
panicles
usually
several,
very
narrow,
erect,
stalked or the upper
sessile,
loosely
flowered, 4-12 cm.
long;
spikelets
sessile, often 2 or 3 together; achene ellipsoid, white, smooth, 1-1.5 mm. long;
hypogynium-margin ciliate or ciliolate.
In wet grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascending into the
Luquillo Mountains:—Jamaica; Cuba; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
8.
Scleria mitis Berg. Vet. Akad. Handl. 26: 145.
1765.
Perennial by
rootstocks, sometimes forming colonies; culms stout smooth,
1-2.5 m. long, trigonous.
Leaves
flat, 6 dm. lone or less,
1-2.5 cm. wide, the
sheaths 3-winged; panicle 2-6 dm. long, its branches glabrous or pilose, ascending
or nearly erect; spikelets many, 2-3 mm. long, the pistillate sessile, some of the
staminate stalked; achene ellipsoid, about 3 mm. long, smooth, white and lustrou.s
when mature, the small
conic
black
tubercle persistent; hypogynium truncate,
fringed with brown or red-brown hairs.
Wet
groiuids, Porto
Rico, near Bayamon and
in
the- eastern mountains:—Cuba;
Guadeloupe; RIartiuique; St. Vincent; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
9.
Scleria cubensis Boeckl. Cyp. Nov. 2: 42.
1890.
Scleria microcarpa snbciliala Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 149.
1900.
Perennial by rootstocks; culms rather stout, erect,
1 m. high or le.ss, smooth.
Leaves 1-2 cm. wide, nearly or quite smooth, often 3 dm. long or more; panicles
3 or 4, with erect branches, the terminal one 1-3 dm. long; spilcelets sessile, some-
what clustered; achene ovoid to ellipsoid, smooth, white, or yellowish, about 3
mm. long; hypogynium-margin entire, puberulent, not ciliate.
Marshes, wooded banks and tliickets, Porto Rico, ascending to the liigher elevations:
—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
10.
Scleria Grisebachii Clarke in Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 150.
1900.
Scleria microcarpa latifolia Boeckl. Linnaea 38: 517.
1874.
Perennial by rootstocks; culms stout, erect, nearly smooth, 8-12 dm. high.
Leaves elongated, smooth, 8-20 mm. wide, their sheaths narrowly winged, the
ligule 6-10 mm. long; panicles 3-5, narrow, the terminal one 2-3 dm. long, the
branches ascending; spikelets ses.sile, clustered; achene subgloi>ose, smooth, white,
about 2.5 mm. in diameter; margin of the hypogynium densely brown-ciliate.
Forests at
liiglier elevations, Porto Rico,
collected by
Sintenis:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Antigxia; Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique.
11. Scleriadistans Poir. in Lam. Eiicycl. 7: 4.
1806.
Annual, with fibrous roots; culms very slender, smooth, erect, 4 dm. high or
less.
Leaves smooth,
grass-like,
1..5-3 mm.
wide;
inflorescence
interruptedly
spicate, of 4-7 sessile, nearly erect fascicles; bracts long-ciliate, not exceeding the
spikelets; achene globose with a trigonous stipe-like base, white, smooth, shining,
about
1 mm.
in
diameter,
9-porose beneath just above the base; hypogynium
none.
Moist
soil at lower and middle altitudes, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas
(according to
Clarke):—Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe.
110
CYPERACEAE
12.
Scleria hirtella Sw. Prodr. 19: 1788.
Perennial by rather stout
horizontal
rootstocks; culms slender,
glabrous,
2-7 dm. long.
Leaves gras.s-like, often pubescent, at least on the sheaths, 1.5-4
mm.
wide;
inflorescence interruptedly
spicate,
of 5-9
sessile,
long-ciliate and
hispid, nodding fascicles; achene globose, white, shining, smooth, about 1 mm. in
diameter, 9-12 porose underneath above the trigonous base
; hypogynium none.
Sandy
soil and grassy places at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—south-
eastern ITnited States; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental tropical Amer-
ica; tropical Africa.
The record of tliis from St. Thomas by Krebs may apply to the pre-
ceding species.
13.
Scleria lithosperma (L.) Sw. Prodr.
18.
1788.
Scirpus lithospermus L. Sp. PI. 51.
1753.
Scleria filiformis Sw. Prodr. 19.
1788.
Scleria Kru(jiana Boeckl. Cyp. Nov.
l: 35.
1888.
Perennial by rather short rootstocks, the culms often clustered, slender, weak,
glabrous,
2-6 dm.
long.
Leaves
0.5-3 mm.
wide,
the upper
elongated,
the
lowest reduced
to pubescent or puberulent sheaths; panicles 1-3,
distant, gla-
brous, small, stalked or the upper sessile; bracts filiform, glabrous; achene obo-
void-ellipsoid, white, smooth, shiniTig, about 2 mm.
long, its base trigonous.
Woods and shaded hillsides, Porto Rico, especially on limestones, at lower elevations;
Mnertos; Mona; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Croix; Virgin Gorda:—Florida; West Indies;
continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
14.
Scleria doradoensis Brittoii, Bull. Torrey CUub50: .55.
1923.
Perennial?
Culms
slender,
rather
stiff,
glabrous,
erect,
tufted, 3-4 dm.
high.
Leaves glabrous, scabrate, shorter than the culm, about 2 mm. wide, the
apex attenuate;
inflore.scence terminal, glomerate-spicate, 5-7 cm.
long; glom-
erules 6-8, few-flowered, not nodding; bracts about 3 mm. long, brown-ciliate;
achene white, subglol)ose-obovoid, very obtu.sely trigonous,
verrucose-tubercu-
late,
1.5 mm. long, 12-porose underneath just above the trigonous base; hypo-
gynium none.
White sand near Dorado {Britlon, Britton and Brown 706lf).
Endemic.
Scleria latifolia Sw. recorded by Krebs as formerly found
in St. Thomas,
is not known to occur nortii of St. Kitt's.
17. CAREX [Dill.] L. Sp. PI. 972.
17.53.
Grass-like sedges, perennial by rootstocks.
Culms mostly 3-angled.
Leaves
3-ranked, the upper elongated or very short (bracts) and subtending the spikes of
flowers, or wanting.
Flowers monoecious or dioecious,
solitary
in the
axils of
bracts (scales).
Spikes either wholly pistillate, wholly staminate, or bearing both
gtaminate
and
pistillate
flowers
(androgynous).
Perianth
none.
Staminate
flowers of 3 stamens, the filaments filiform.
Pistillate flowers of a single pistil
with a style and 2 or 3 stigmas, borne on a very short axis in the axil of a sac-like
bractlet or second bract called
tiie perigynium
(utricle), which completely en-
closes the achene.
Achene 3-angled, lenticular or plano-convex.
A vast genus,
of more than 1000 species, widely distributed, most abundant in the temperate
zones, known as Sedge.
Type species; Carex. puHcaris L.
1. Carex polystachya Sw.; Wahlenb. Vet.-Akad. Nya Handl. 24: 149.
1803
Carex cladostachya Wahlenb. Vet.-Akad. Nya Ilandl. 24: 149.
1803.
Rootstocks short; culms clustered,
slender, glabrous, 3-8 dm. long; leaves
glabrous,
equalling
the culm
or
shorter,
roughish-margined,
3-6 mm.
wide;
panicle narrow, elongated, the lower clusters of spikes filiform-stalked; spikes
ARECACEAE
111
usually numerous, 7-11 mm. long, greenish-brown, oblong, mostly staminate at
apex and
pistillate below; scales ovate, the lower awned
; perlgynium
ellipsoid,
3-4 mm. long, glabrous, striate-beaked
; style 3-cleft.
Mountain woodlands at high altitudes, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Kitts; Martinique; Mexico to Colombia and Bolivia.
Isolepis pallidifiora DC
, recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas,
is an un-
published species, not otherwise known.
Order 6.
ARECALES.
Mostly trees with unbranched, erect trunks and a terminal bud, the large
leaves pinnately or palmately divided, forming a
crovi^n, the small perfect
or imperfect flowers usually panicled, sessile or pedicelled, the panicle sub-
tended by spathf s and
usually bracted.
Sepals and petals each
'S, distinct
or connate.
Stamens commonly
6, sometimes 9-12; filaments
distinct or
connate below; anthers inirorse; pistillate flowers sometimes with staminodia.
Ovary various,
1-celled, 3-celled, or of 3 distinct carpels; style usually short
or wanting: ovules
1 in each carpel, anatropous.
Fruit drupaceous, 1-seeded.
Seed with horny or cartilaginous endosperm, the embryo near the surface.
Family
1.
ARECACEAE Rchb.
Palm Family
Characters
of the
order. About
150 genera and
1200
species, mostly
tropical.
A. Leaves pinnate.
1. Endocaro membranous, fibrous or woody, without pores.
Petals or corolla-lobes of the pistillate flowers valvate.
Flowers
in
3's, the middle one
pistillate, at least on the
lower branchlets of the inflorescence.
1.
Roystonea.
Flowers
superimposed
in
2's-5's,
the
lowest
usually
pistillate.
2.
Gaussia.
Petals of the pistillate flowers imbricated.
Filaments of the staminate flowers distinct.
3.
Euterpe.
FUaments of the staminate flowers united below, radiating
above.
4.
Calyptrogyne.
2. Endocarp bony, with 3 pores.
Pores at about the middle of the fruit; spiny palms.
Flowers in 3's, the middle one
pistillate, at least on
the
lower branchlets of the
inflorescence,
its
corolla gamo-
petalous.
5.
Baclris.
Pistillate flowers on the lower parts of the branchlets
of
the inflorescence, their petals imbricate.
6. Acrocomia.
Pores near the apex of the large fruit; unarmed palms.
7.
Cocos.
B. Leaves palmate or flabellate.
Ovary 3-carpellary
; leaves flabellate.
8.
Sabal.
Ovary monocarpellary
; leaves palmate.
Seed not grooved.
9-
Thrinax.
Seed grooved and fissured.
10. Coccothrinax.
1. ROYSTONEA Cook, Science II 12: 479,
1900.
Tall, unarmed palms, with
large, regularly pinnate leaves, stout,
solitary,
nearly cylindric trunks, and monoecious flowers in drooping panicles subtended
by two
spathes,
the lower spathe very
large.
Flowers
in
3's, the middle one
pistillate, at least on the lower branches of the panicle.
Staminate flowers with
small ovate sepals, ovate valvate petals, usually 6 stamens andj a rudimentary
ovary.
Pistillate
flowers with broad
imbricated
entire
sepals,
an
urceolate
corolla with valvate segments, 6 staminodes united into a cup and a globose,
1-3-celled
ovary.
Fruit
subglobose
or
oblong,
the
pericarp
thin, somewhat
fleshy,
the endocarp woody without pores.
[In honor of General Roy Stone,
112
ARECACEAE
United States engineer, beloved by Porto Ricans.J
Four known species of the
West Indies.
Type species: Oreodoxa regia H.B.K.
Fruit veUowish brown, about
13 mm.
long, nearly
10 mm.
thick;
trunk relatively low.
.i,.
,
.
, w
„,
^- "" "onnquena.
Fruit purpUsh, about 10 mm. long. 8-9 mm. thick; trunk relatively
taU.
^-
^-
'^^fl'"-
1. Roystonea borinquena Cook, Bull. Torr. Club. 28: 552.
1901.
Oreodoxa caribaea Dammer & Urban in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 129.
1903.
Roystonea caribaea P. Wilson, Bull. N. Y, Bot. Gard. 8: 385.
1917.
Trunk stout,
fusiform-cylindric, up
to
18 m.
high, 5-6 dm.
in diameter,
annulate by the leaf-scars, becoming smooth.
Leaves 2-3 m. long, the petiole
stout and short, the segments numerous, linear, acuminate, 5-8 dm. long, 2-4.5
cm. wide,
the base narrowed; panicle twice branched, much shorter than the
leaves; lower spathe nearly as long as the panicle; flowers about 5 mm. long;
fruit oval. veUowish brown, about 13 mm. long and 10 mm. thick.
[Oreodoxa
regia of Bello, not H.B.K.
; the name Euterpe caribaea Spreng.
is based on Areca
oleracea Jacq.
This is the plant recorded as of undetermined genus in Urban,
Symb. Ant. 4: 131.
Areca oleracea of West.]
HiUsidesand forests, Porto Rico, in moist or wet districts and in valleys of the south-
ern
districts;
Vieques;
St.
Croix.
Endemic.
Royal Palm.
Palma real.
Palma
DE YAGU \s
The leaves are userl for thatching houses and barns nearly throughout Porto
Rico and their broad bases for the sides of huts and other structures.
It is much planted
for ornament.
The fruit is eaten by pigs.
Sometimes called Cabbage Falm.
2. Roystonea regia (H.B.K.) Cook, Science II. 12: 479.
1900.
Oreodoxa regia H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 305.
1816.
Trunk up to 25 m.
tall, 5-6 dm.
in diameter, nearly cylindric or slightly
fusiform.
Leaves and
inflorescence similar to those of the preceding species;
fruit short-oblong, purplish, about 10 mm. long and 9 mm.
thick.
[lOreodoxa
oleracea of Kuntze.]
Valleys,
St. Thomas;
St. Jan
(ex Eggers); St. Croix (ex Beccari)
; probably planted
or spontaneous after planting on all tliree islands; occasionally planted for ornament in
Porto Rico;
a fine group about 20 years old was seen at the Agricultural Experiment
Station, Mayaguez, in 1923.
Florida; Cuba; Hispanlola.
Cuban Royal Palm.
2. GAUSSIA Wendl. Goett. Nachr. 1865: 327.
1865.
Unarmed palms, with
tall, flexible, tapering, slender trunks enlarged at the
base, coarse woody rock-clasping roots, few, pinnate leaves with narrow segments,
and small, monoecious panicled flowers, the panicles stalked, drooping.
Flowers
superimposed in 2's-5's, the lowest usually pistillate.
Staminate flowers obovoid.
the sepals
distinct, imbricated;
petals much longer than
the
sepals, concave,
spreading ; stamens 6 with distinct filaments
; rudimentary ovary conic.
Pistillate
flowers rather smaller than the staminate
; sepals small, broad
; petals longer than
the sepals, valvate, staminodes minute; ovary trigonous.
Fruit obovoid-oblong,
the epicai'p fleshy, the endocarp membranous, the seed rounded above, narrowed
to the base.
[In honor of Gauss, a German scientist.]
Two known species, the
following and G. princeps Wendl, the generic type, of western Cuba.
1. Gaussia attenuata (Cook) Beccari, Pomona Coll. Journ. Econ. Bot. 2: 275.
1912.
Aeria attenuata Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: 548.
1901.
Gaussia portoricensis Wendl. in Kerch. Palm, 245, hyponym.
1878.
Trunk up to 25 m. high, or perhaps higher, the basal enlargement up to 2.5
dm.
in diameter, tapering upward and 7-10 cm.
in diameter at the summit.
Leaves usually 4-6, about
1 m. Ipng. the petiole 2-3 dm. long; rachis angled;
ARECACEAE
113
segments many, close together, the longer ones 3-4 dm. long, about 3 cm. wide,
the upper ones much smaller and narrower,
all acute or acuminate; panicles
shorter than the leaves, the numerous slender simple or forked branches 2.5 dm.
long or less; flowei's ses.sile; corolla orange-yellow, about 3 mm. long; fruit broadly
obovoid, orange-red,
nearly
1 cm. in diameter.
The large roots bear long dis-
tant spinulate projections.
Rocky limestone hills and ridges in moist and dry districts, Porto Rico, abimdant on
crags of the Arecibo limestone and in limestone crags near Ponce, Juana Diaz, and ViUalba
and observed near Cabo Rojo and San German.
Endemic.
Llumb.
3. EUTERPE Gaertn. Fr. & Sem.
1: 24.
1788.
Unarmed
palms,
with
tall,
nearly
cylindric
trunks,
pinnate
leaves with
narrow segments, the inflorescence with elongated slender, mostly simple branches
the spathes 2, the outer one short, the inner elongated, the small white flowers
sessile, monoecious, solitary or 2 or 3 together, when 3, the middle one pistillate.
Staminate flowers with broad imbricated sepals, oblong valvate petals, 6 distinct
stamens and a rudimentary ovary.
Pistillate flowers with imbricated obtuse
sepals, imbricated suborbicular petals and an oblong ovary; staminodes none.
Fruit
globo.se,
small,
the
epicarp
thin, smooth,
slightly
fleshy,
the endocarp
fibrous-reticulated.
Seed globose, the endosperm ruminated.
[Greek, pleasing.]
Perhaps 10 species of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Euterpe globosa Gaertn. Fr. & Sem. 1: 24.
1788.
Acrisla monlicola Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: .557.
1901.
Trunk nearly cylindric, up to 15 m.
high,
al)out
1.5 dm. in diameter, ridged
by the
leaf-scars.
Leaves
several,
about 2 m.
long
or
longer,
the segments
numerous, linear-lanceolate, long-acuminate, the longer ones 5-9 dm. long, 3-5
cm. wide;
inflorescence up
to
1 m.
long;
flowers numerous on
the elongated
branches, the sepals striate, the white petals about 5 mm. long; fruit about 12
mm.
in diameter, black, shining; pericarp
1 mm. thick, the fibres
of the endo-
carp few; perianth more or less persistent after the friuts have fallen, cupulate;
seed brown and hard.
[Oreodoxa oleracea of Bello, not of Martins.]
Momitain forests at middle and lugher elevations, Porto Rico, descending to about
600 m.
:—Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba to Grenada.
Palma de Sierra.
Mountain Palm.
Its leaves are used for thatciiing in the mountains, its fruits are eaten by wild doves.
4. CALYPTROGYNE Wendl. Bot. Zeit. 17: 72.
1859.
Unarmed
tall erect palms, with large, pinnate leaves; the monoecious small
flowers in drooping, peduncled panicles subtended by 2 narrow spathes, borne in
depressions of the panicle-branches,
solitary or 3-together.
Staminate flowers
with 3, distinct, narrow, scarious sepals, a deeply 3-lobed corolla with valvate
segments, 6 stamens with partially united filaments and a rudimentary ovary.
Pistillate
flowers with 3 lanceolate, scarious, imbricated sepals, 3 petals imbri-
cated at least at the base and a 3-angled ovary.
Fruit oval or obovoid,
the
epicarp
fleshy fibrous,
the endocarp
thin,
fibrous.
[Greek, hooded
pistil
(?).]
A few species of tropical America.
Type species: Calyptrogyne spicigera (Koch)
Wendl.
1. Calyptrogyne occidentalis (Sw.) Maza, Noc. Bot.
Sist. 50.
1893.
Elais
(?) occidentalis Sw.
Fl. Ind. Occ. 619.
1797.
Geonoma Swartzii Griseb. Cal.
PI. Cub. 222.
1866.
Cocops rivalis Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: 568.
1901.
Trunk rather stout, 5-10 m. high, bearing annular leaf-scars.
Leaves 3-6
m. long, the sheaths short, broad, the short petioles stout, the rachis stout, gla-
114
ARECACEAE
brous. 2-edged, the very numerous segments linear, long-acuminate, 5-8-costate,
glabrous, the larger middle ones up to 8 dm. long and 6 cm. wide, those of young
leaves much
smaller;
inflorescence
pendulous,
3-5 dm.
long,
glabrous,
twice
branched, the flower-bearing branches cylindric,
1..5-2.5 cm. long, about 5 mm.
thick, alveolate; flowers ternate at the alveoles, 4-6 mm. long; fruit oval, 8-12
mm. long, smooth, rounded at both ends, the epicarp thin; seed nearly orbicular.
Banks of streams,
vicinity of San
Sebastian, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; His-
paniola.
5. BACTRIS Jacq. Sel. Stirp. Am. 279.
1763.
Erect prickly palms, with regularly
or
irregularly pinnatisect leaves, the
small monoecious flowers
in dropping panicles subtended by 2 prickly spathes.
Staminate flowers with an annular or 3-parted calyx, 3 ovate or lanceolate valvate
petals and 6-12 stamens,
the ovary none or rudimentary.
Pistillate
flowers
borne on the lower parts of the panicle-branches, the calyx various, the gamo-
petalous
corolla
urceolate
or
cylindric,
3-toothed,
the ovary
3-celled.
Fruit
drupaceous,
1-celled,
the endocarp
bony,
3-porose
at
or above
the
middle.
[Greek, a staff.]
A large genus, the species, perhaps, as many as 100, natives of
tropical America.
Type species: Bactris minor Jacq.
1. Bactris acanthophylla Mart. Palm.
Orl^ig.
70.
1847.
Curima calophyLla Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: 561.
1901.
Trunk slender, up to 18 m
high and 2 dm.
in diameter, armed with
stiff,
nearly black prickles 4-7 cm. long
or becoming spineless.
Leaves up to 2.5 m.
long,
pinnatisect into many,
thin,
nearly
linear segments below, the terminal
segment large, pinnately veined, deeply notched, irregularly short-lacerate,
the
linear
lower segments 3-6 cm.
wide,
olMiquely
subtruncate-lacerate;
petiole,
rachis and segments armed with nearly black prickles or mature leaves spineless;
inner spathe up to 1 m. long, densely prickly; peduncle densely prickly; inflores-
cence 6 dm. long or longer; flowers greenish-white, about 3 mm. long; fruit globose,
red, about 1.5 cm. in diameter.
Forests, and woodlands in wet or moist districts at lower and middle elevations, Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
Pauma de coyor.
Coyuhe.
Bactris Pavoniana Mart, is credited to Porto Rico by Martius (Palm. Orbig.
70).
We have been unable to find more than one species on the island.
Both
it and
B.
acanthophylla were described from
leaf-specimens only,
collected
in
Porto Rico and, presumably, represent only one species.
6. ACROCOMIA ]\Iart. Hist. Nat. Palm. 2: 66.
1823.
Erect
tall prickly palms, with stout, cylindric or fusiform trunks, regularly
pinnatisect leaves with numerous, narrow segments, and monoecious flowers in
drooping panicles subtended by 2 hairy or prickly spathes.
Staminate flowers
luimerous, densely spicate on the panicle-branches, with 3 small ovate sepals, a
3-lobed corolla with valvate segments, 6 stamens with filiform filaments, a rudi-
mentary ovary present or wanting.
Pistillate flowers few, large, borne on the
lower part of the panicle-branches, the 3 small sepals imbricated, the 3 petals
nuich larger, imbricated, the ovary 3-celled.
Fruit subglobose, the exocarp thin,
mucilaginous, the bony endocarp with 3 pores near the middle.
Seed with white,
oily endosperm.
[Greek, referring to the armament.]
About 15 species, natives
of tropical Ameiica, the following typical-
ARECACEAE
115
1. Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd.; Mart. Hist. Nat. Palm, 3: 286. 1845.
Cocos aculeatus Jacq.
Sel. Amer. 278.
1763.
Acrocomia media Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: 566.
1901.
Trunk cylindric or somewhat fusiform, up to about 15 m.
high, 2-3 dm.
thick, armed, often to the base, with rings of long black
acicular
prickles,
or
these at length deciduous.
Leaves 3-4 m.
long, the segments
linear, shining
above, acuminate, the larger ones 6-7 dm. long, 6-20 nun. wide; the rachis prickly;
inner spathe densely pubescent and somewhat prickly, up to 6 dm. long: panicles
1.5 m. long or less, the peduncle prickly, the parts bearing staminate flowers 1-2
dm. long, the pistillate flowers only 2-5, distant; .staminate flowers about 8 mm.
long, the stamens borne at the top of the coroila-tube
; pistillate flowers subglobose,
about 10 mm. long, their petals suborbicular; fruit depressed-globose, about 4.5
cm.
in diameter, smooth, yellowish, the seed edible.
[Acrocumia sclerocarpa of
Bello, not of Martins;
A. fuslformis of Krebs.]
Plains and
hillsides at lower -and middle elevations, Porto Rico, in moist and dry
districts, rare or absent in the wet eastern parts of the island; St. Thomas:—Jamaica; His-
paniola; St. Kitts; Antigua: (iuadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique; Grenada; Trinidad.
Its
wood is cut into walking-sticks.
COROZO.
Grugru.
7. COCOS L. Sp.
PI. 118S.
1753.
Unarmed palms, with pinnate leaves, their numerous segments narrow, their
petioles concave above, the monoecious, bracted flowers mostly densely clustered
among the
petioles, the staminate uppermost in the clusters, smaller than the
pistillate.
Staminate flowers with 3 small valvate sepals, 3 oblong valvate petals,
and 6 stamens with subulate
filaments, the anthers
linear.
Pistillate
flowers
ovoid, the 3 thick sepals imbricated, the 3 coriaceous petals valvate, the ovary
3-celled, with 2 of the cells usually empty, the ovule ascending.
Fruit l-seeded-
often
large,
the pericarp
fibrous,
the bony endocarp 3-porose near the
base.
Seed with a hollow or solid endo.sperm, the embryo opposite one of the pores of
the endocarp.
[The
coco-mit.]
Perhaps 30
species, of tropical America and
subtropical South America, the following typical one widely distributed also in
the Old World tropics, its original home unknown.
1. Cocos nucifera L. Sp. PI. 1188.
1753.
Trunk up to
.30 m.
high, usually 10-20 m.
lieaves 3-6 m. long, somewhat
drooping,
short-petioled,
the numerous
linear-lanceolate,
acuniinate segments
shining above, 5-7 dm. long, about 5 cm. wide; staminate flowers 10-12 mm. long;
pistillate flowers about 2.5 cm. long; fruit ovoid or ellipsoid, bluntly 3-angled,
2-3 dm. long, the fibrous husk 2-4 cm. thick, the bony endocarp 3-5 mm. thick,
the hollow endosperm about 1 cm. thick, filled with a clear saccharine liquid, which
ultimately disappears.
Locally spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan;
Tortola:—All tropical insular and coastal regions.
The tree is luiknown anywhere in a
wild state, but presumably is of American origin.
Its fruits are one of the most important
products of Porto Rico; the wood is used for posts and piles and cut into walking sticks.
Besides planting for its fruit the tree is highly ornamental and the suburbs of Hau
Juan in i)articular have many houses surrounded by the Coco-nut.
A striking example
of its use may be seen at P^nsedada, \n a very dry climate, where on an unproiiusing
rocky point on Guanica Harbor many young trees were planted a few years ago, and by
irrigation soon formed a beautiful grove, the shade ofwhich has made the charming garden
of Mrs. F. T. Maxwell possible.
Coco-NUT.
Palma de Coco.
Cocos plumosa Hook,.
Brazilian,
occasionally planted
for ornament
in
Porto Rico, has rather flaccid leaves up to 5 m. in length, somewhat recurved,
the narrowly linear, numerous segments 2-4 together along the rachis.
116
ARECACEAE
8. SABAL Adans.; Guersent. Bull. Soc. Philom. 3: 206.
1803.
Unarmed palms, the stems erect, creeping or subterranean, the leaves pal-
mately cleft, with a long petiole and a short rachis, the narrow segments bearing
marginal fibres, 1-cleft or 2-cleft, the petiole concave above.
Panicles spreading
or drooping.
Flowers
small,
perfect,
white
or
greenish.
Sepals
3,
unequal.
Petals 3, imbricated.
Stamens 6; filaments subulate or lanceolate, united at the
base.
Ovary 3-celIed; style 3-angled; stigma truncate.
Drupes solitary, with a
thin epicarp and a fleshy pericarp.
Seed depressed-globose, hard, the endosperm
bony.
[Name not explained.]
About 18 species, of the southern United States'
Bermuda, West Indies, Mexico, and northern South America.
Type species:
Sabal Adansonii Guersent.
]. Sabal causiarum (Cook) Beccari, Webbia 2: 71.
1907.
Inodes causiarum Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: 531.
1901.
Inodes glauca Dammer in Urban, Symb. 4: 127.
1903.
Trunk up to about 16 m. high, usually lower, gray, up to 4 dm. in diameter.
Petiole stout, 3-4 cm. wide, about as long as the blade; blade 2-3 m. in diameter,
deeply cleft into long-attenuate segments 4-6 cm. wide, rather rigid, pale and
glaucous beneath, Ught green above, the marginal
fibres few,
filiform; panicle
much branched, as long as the petioles or longer, the numerous spathes 2-4 cm.
long,
the branchlets
slender,
spreading;
flowers white,
sessile, 3-4 mm.
long;
calyx 3-4-dentate; fruit globose, brown, smooth, about
1 cm.
in diameter; seed
brown.
[Sabal umhraculifera of BeUo, not of Martins.]
Valleys, liillsides and coastal plains, Porto Rico, most abundant in the southwestern
districts.
Endemic.
Paijua de Sombrbro.
Yaray.
The leaves furnish the material
for the very important hat
industry and
for making,
basltets, mats and hammocks,
and the palm has been planted locally.
Sabal Blackburnianum Glazebrook, Bermuda Palmetto, Bull Teyer,
endemic in Bermuda, has been quite commonly planted on
St. Croix and
St.
Thomas where its leaves are used for making hats and in basketry and where it
may, perhaps, sometimes be spontaneous from seed.
It has a stout trunk often
sheathed nearly or quite to the base by the persistent petiole-bases; its green leaves
are about 2 m. broad, not at all glaucous; its panicles of flowers are as long as the
petioles or shorter; the globose-obovoid fruit becomes about 1.5 cm. in diameter
when mature and nearly black.
This is perhaps, the palm recorded by Krebs as
Corypha umhraculifera.
A species of Sahal inhabits the sandy plain, West End, Anegada; neither
flowers nor fruit have been obtained and the species remains undetermined.
It
has the appearance there of being indigenous.
9. THRINAX Sw. Prodr. 57.
1788.
Unarmed, mostly
tall and slender palms with nearly orbicular, palmately
cleft, long-petioled leaves, the narrow segments mostly 2-cleft at the apex, the
petioles flat, the inflorescence sheathed, paniculately branched, the small, perfect
flowers white.
Calyx and corolla more or less united into a lobed or truncate cup.
Stamens mostly
6, the filaments connate at the base.
Ovary
10-celled; style
terminal, slender; stigma flat or concave.
Drupes small, globose.
Seed erect;
endosperm horny, not grooved; embryo lateral.
[Greek, fan.]
About 8 species
of Florida, the West Indies and Central America.
Type species: Thrinax parvi-
ftora Sw.
Matm-e leaves silvery beneath.
I:
%:
^j'^'^*'??!!-^"'
Leaves green on both sides, or faintly glaucescent beneath.
2.
l. Mornsii.
ARECACEAE
117
1. Thrinax microcarpa Sargent, Gard. & For. 9: 162,
1896.
Thrinax keyenais Sargent, Bot. Gaz. 27: 86.
1899.
Thrinax praeceps Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: 536.
1901.
Thrinax ponceana Cook, BuU. Torr. Club 28: 536.
1901.
Thringis laxa Cook. Bull. Torr. Club. 28: .'545. 1901.
Coccothrinax laxa Beccari, Webbia 2: 333. 1907.
A tree up to 12 m. high, with a trunk 1.5 dm. in diameter, usually much
smaller.
Leaves 1.5 m. in diameter or less, deeply cleft into many narrow seg-
ments, green and shining above, bluish or silvery-white beneath, the Ugule blunt
or acute, 1.5-2.5 cm. wide; inflorescence 2 m. long or less, as long as the leaves or
shorter;
pedicels very
short,
disk-like; perianth about 3 mm.
long;
filaments
nearly triangular; drupes 4-6 mm. in diameter, white, very nearly sessile.
Limestone hillsides and
cliffs, Porto Rico, and most abundant
in
the dry south
western districts,
wliere
it forms extensive colonies; locally abundant on cliffs of the
Arecibo limestone; Mona:—Florida; Bahamas; Cuba.
Occasionally planted for or-
nament in Porto Rico.
The leaves are used in making brooms.
2. Thrinax Morrisii Wendl. Gard. Chron. 11: 104.
1892.
A low palm, often flowering when the trunk
is
1 m. high or less
(said by
natives of Anegada to become 6 m. high).
Leaves 1 m. in diameter or less, green
on both
.sides or faintly
glaucescent beneath, deeply
cleft into many narrow
segments; ligule ovate, obtuse, 1-2 cm. wide; inflorescence less than
1 m. long,
about as long as the leaves; flowers sessile; perianth about 3 mm.
long;
fruit
about 5 mm. in diameter, white.
Sandy plain. West End, Anegada:—Angullla.
A solitary tree of a species of this genus or the next was observed, with foliage only
on Icacos Island, Porto Rico, in 1923.
10. COCCOTHRINAX Sargent, Bot. Gaz. 27: 87.
1899.
Unarmed,
tall or low palms, with nearly orbicular, palmately cleft, petioled
leaves, the petioles flat, the segments usually 2-cleft at the apex, the sheathed
inflorescence paiuculately branched, the small perfect pedicelled flowers white.
Calyx and
corolla united
into
a 6-lobed
perianth.
Stamens 9-12;
filaments
subulate.
Ovary
1-celled;
style
terminal; stigma funnelform.
Drupes small,
globose.
Seed
erect;
endosperm
grooved;
embryo
lateral.
[Greek,
berry-
Thrinax.]
About 10
species, of Florida and the West
Indies.
Type
species:
Coccothrinax jucunda Sargent.
1. Coccothrinax argentea (Lodd.) Sargent, Silva N. A. 14: 85.
1902.
Thrinax argentea Lodd.
; R. & S. Syst. 7: 1300.
1830.
Coccotrhinax jucunda Sargent, Bot. Gaz. 27: 89.
1899.
Thrincoma alta Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: 540.
1901.
Thringis latifrons Cook, Bull. Torr. Club 28: 545.
1901.
Coccothrinax alta Beccari, Webbia 2: 331.
1907.
Coccothrinax latifrons Beccari, Webbia 2: 326.
1907.
Coccothrinax Eggersiana Beccari, Webbia 2: 321.
1907.
Coccothrinax Eggersiana sanctae-crucis Beccari, Webbia 2: 323.
1907.
Coccothrinax sancti-thomae Beccari, Webbia 2: 303.
1907.
Trunk sometimes 10 m. high, usually not more than 6 m., sometimes very
short,
1.5-2 dm.
in diameter.
Leaves nearly
orbicular,
7 dm.
broad or
less,
cleft to beyond the middle into narrowly lanceolate, acuminate segments, bright
green and shining above, silvery-white beneath, at least when yoiuig, the slender
118
ARECACEAE
petioles about as long as the blades, their bases expanded into persistent fibrous
sheaths; panicles short-stalked, mostly shorter than the petioles; pedicels 1-3
mm.
long, thickened in
fruit; flowers about 3 mm. broad; stamens usually 9;
fruit globose, black, 8-12 mm. in diameter.
[?Thrinax parviflora Krebs and of
Eggers.]
Hillsides, at lower elevations, Porto Rico, local in dry and moist districts; Vieques;
Culebra; St. Thomas; St. Jan; St. Croix:—Florida; Baiiamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; Tobago;
Trinidad.
Only one tree was known on St. Croix by Eggers in 1876, and we could And
only one in 1923.
Silver Palm.
Teyer Tree.
Broom Teyer.
Fan Palm.
Phoenix dactylifera L., Datil, Date Palm,
African,
planted
in
Porto
Rico and the Virgin Islands, forms a stout, rough trunk up to 10 m. high, with
many
stiff pinnate leaves 2-4 m.
long, the very
numerous
linear
pale
green
glaucous segments 2-4 dm. long, the lower ones spine-like; the inflorescence is a
drooping panicle much shorter than the leaves, the plum-like fruit yellow to black,
the linear-oblong seed grooved.
Date cultivation has not been
successful
in
our area.
In Porto Rico and on Vieques trees have been observed apparently
spontaneous from seed of planted ones.
Phoenix canariensis Chabaud, of the Canary Islands, was seen as seedlings
at the St. C'roi.x Agricultural Experiment Station in 1923, as also those of a hybrid
between this species and the date palm.
Phoenix reclinata Jacq., with a very stout, erect trunk up to 5 m. high or
higher, the
stitt" bright green leaves 3-4 m. long, with many linear segments, the
lower segments very rigid and spinelike, the yellowish flowers in large panicles,
is occasional in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens; it is native of Africa.
Phoenix rupicola T.
Anders., East Indian,
occasionally planted
for
or-
nament in Porto Rico, and St. Thomas, is a low species with bright green leaves,
the segments not very rigid, the oblong, small fruit yellow, shining.
Butia capitata (Mart.) Becc, Brazihan, grown at the Mayaguez Agricultural
Experiment Station, has recurving pinnate pi'ickly-petioled leaves 1 m. long, witli
many narrowly linear, dull green segments; the inflorescence
is shorter than the
leaves, the yellow globose fruit about 1.5 cm. in diameter.
[Cocos capitata Mart.]
Actinophloeus
Macarthurii (Wendl.)
Beccari,
Australian,
luxuriant in
Porto Rico gai'dens, is a very slender, unarmed, pinnate-leaved palm
.5 m. high or
higher, the linear leaf-segments 2-5 cm. broad, subtruncateand lacerate at the apex,
the rather large greenish
flowers
sessile on long
branches of the
panicle,
the
fruiting panicles drooping, dense, the ovoid pointed, slightly fleshy fruit about
1 cm. long.
[Ptychosperma Macarthurii Wendl.]
Corypha elata Roxb., native of India, or a related species, was represented
in the collection at the Agricultural Experiment Station, Mayaguez, in 1923, by
a splendid specimen, with a trunk about 6 m. high and
1 m.
in diameter,
its
palmate leaves about 2 m.
in diameter,
the many segments narrow,
the long
petioles prickly.
The tree was then about 20 years old, and had not yet flowered
its actual botanical determination
is therefore uncertain.
Livistona chinensis R. Br., BouRBO^f Palm,
Chinese,
planted
for orna-
ment in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, becomes 6 m. high or higher, with
reniform-orbicular, palmately divided leaves 1-1.5 m. broad, their stout petioles
spiny, about as long as the blade, the narrowly lanceolate segments with drooping
ends and with marginal
fibers; the inflorescence
is a
large
stalked
drooping
panicle, the small smooth globose fruits nearly black.
ARECACEAE
119
Pritchardia pacifica Seem. & Wendl., Fijian, planted for ornament in Porto
Rico gardens,
is a low palm with bright green, petioled, nearly orbicular, incised
leaves 1-1.5 m. broad.
Licuola grandis Wendl., native of New Britain Island, occasionally grown
for ornament in Porto Rico gardens,
is a low erect palm with nearly orljicular,
slender-petioled, rather thin leaves 4
(J dm. in diameter, their margins with many
short lobes.
Neowashingtonia robusta
(Wendl.)
Britton,
Desert Palm,
native of
Southern California, occasicmally planted in I\)rto Rico, is unarmed, the palmate
leaves up to 1.3 m. broad, slender-petioled, their numerous linear segments with
marginal fibers; its inflorescence is paniculately branched, the small flowers white.
Fine specimens, about 10 meters high, bearing the characteristic drooping with-
ered leaves were seen in Mrs. Maxwell's garden, Ensenada, in
192.3.
[Washing-
lonia rohiista Wendl.]
Neowashingtonia
filifera
(Linden) Sudworth, Weeping Palm, of Lower
California,
was
seen
as
seedlings
at
the
St.
Croix
Agricultural Experiment
Station in 1923.
Borassus fiabellifer L.,
an
East
Indian palm, was recorded by West as
found on
St. Croix
iJi'ior to 1793 and by Krebs on
St. Thomas prior to 1851;
it
is not known there at the present time.
Caryota urens L., Toddy Palm, Wine Palm, Asiatic, occasionally planted
for ornament and
interest
in Porto Rico, is an unarmed palm, reaching at least
16 m. in height but usually lower, with pinnate leaves 2-4 m. long, their segments
obliquely wedge-shaped and toothed;
its flowers are borne
in
large pendulous
clusters in the axils and at the nodes; the tree dies after flowering.
Caryota mitis
Lour.,
Malayan,
was seen
as
seedlings
at
the
St.
Croix
Agricultural HLxperiment Station in 1923.
Arenga saccharifera Labill., Sugar Palm, East Indian, occasionally planted
for ornament in Porto Rico,
is unarmed, has a stout trunk about 6 m. high, im-
mense pinnate leaves up to 7 m. long, with many, dark green, linear-lanceolate
alternate segments, the petiole-bases with black matted
fibre-masses 6-7 dm.
long; the pendulous inflorescence
is 1-1.5 m.
long, the depressed-globose fruit
about 4 cm. thick.
Rhopadostylis
Baueri
(Hook.)
Wendl. &
Drude,
of
the Norfolk and
Chatham
Islands,
seetljiiigs of which were seen
at the
St.
Croix Agricultural
Experiment Station in 1923,
is a pinnate-leaved palm with a slender trunk, the
very numerous segments
linear, the flowers in short panicles, the fruit in long
drooping
clusters,
subglol)ose,
red, about S mm.
in
diameter.
[Areca
Baueri
Hook.]
Chrysalidocarpus lutescens Wendl., Golden-fruited
Palm,
Madagas-
can, planted for ornament in Porto Rico,
forms smooth
clustered
slender
yel-
lowish trunks up to about 7 m. high; its light green, unarmed, pinnately divided
leaves are 2-3 m. long with very numerous
linear narrow segments,
its
fruits
small, yellow*
Howea Belmoreana (F. Muell.) Becc, Curly Palm, nativeof Lord Howe's
Island in the Pacific Ocean, occasionally planted in Porto Rico,
is unarmed and
120
ARECAGEAE
becomes 6 m. high or higher, with pinnate leaves up to 4 m. long; the flowers are
borne in elongated panicles, the fruit partly enclosed in notches.
[Kentia Bel-
moreana P. Muell.J
Dictyosperma rubrum Wendl. & Drude, East Indian, also in the IVIayaguez
coUectioji, has a crown of pinnate leaves about 2 ni. long and a rather slender
cylindric trunk; the plant had not flowered up to 1923.
Hyophorbe Verschaflfeltii
Wendl., of the Mascarene Islands, occasionally
planted for oi'nameiU
in the Virgin Islands and luxuriant
there,
is an unarmed,
pinnate-leaved palm 2-3 meters high, the numerous linear acute leaf-segments
rather
stiff, with recurved ends; the minute flowers are sessile on long slender
panicle-branches; the oblong fleshy
fruit
is black, about
1 cm. long.
Areca Catechu L., Betel-ndt, Asiatic, planted in Porto Rico, and St. Thom-
as is an unarmed palm with a slender trunk up to about 15 m. in height
; the pinnate
leaves are about 2 m. long or less with many, narrowly lanceolate, plicate seg-
ments; the drooping, much branched inflorescence is siiorter than the leaves, the
flowers small, white, the orange or scarlet ovoid fruit about 5 cm. long.
Areca madagascariensis Mart.,
native of Madagascar, of which
a
flne
specimen some
10 m.
high, was seen at the Mayaguez Agricultural Station in
1923,
is unarmed and has the basal part of the trunk enlarged; the leaves are
pinnate, nearly 2 m. long, with many narrow segments diverging in several planes;
the inflorescence
is much shorter than the leaves.
Elaeis guineensis .lacq.. Oil Palm, African, seen at the Agricultural Experi-
ment Station, Mayaguez, in 1923, has pinnate, prickly petloled leaves about 3 m.
long,
with many
linear-alternate
segments,
the
petiole- bases
flbrous-matted.
The
plant had not yet flowered.
Young
plants were
.seen
at
the
St. Croix
Agricultiu'al Station.
Martinezia caryotaefolia H.B.K.,
Gri-gri, South American, seen in 1923,
at the Agricultural Experiment Station, Mayaguez,
is a slender palm, the trunk
armed with acicular spines, the spiny pinnate leaves 1-2 m. long, with oblanceo-
late segments, the flowers in short clusters, the fruit edible.
Rhapis flabelliformis L'Her., native of western Asia, frequently grown for
ornament in Porto Rico gardens, is a very slender palm up to 3 m. high, forming
colonies;
its slender-petioled, palmately divided leaves are 2-3 dm.
broad, the
3-10, linear segments incLsed at the apex, with spinulo.se margins; its flowers are
in panicled spikes.
The fruits of the South American palm Manicaria saccifera Gaertn,
are
occasionaly washed up on sea beaches of Porto
Rico.
Carludovica palmata R.
«& P.,
Panama-h.\t Plant,
Peruvian,
occasion-
ally planted
for ornament
in Porto Rico,
is acaulescent, with
flabellate,
long-
petioled, glabrous leaves, about 1 m. broad, cleft into many linearspreading and
drooping segments; the monoecious, apetalous
flowers are
in dense pedimcled
spikes, the staminate ones with many stamens, the
pistillate maturing into
a
fleshy syncarp.
This genus
belongs
to the Order
Cydanthales,
Avhich
differs
from the Arecales in being herbaceous plants with no perianth, or the perianth
nearly rudimentary.
ARACEAE
121
Order 7.
ARALES.
Perennial herbs,
vines
or
rarely
trees.
Inflorescence
in the Araceae a
fleshy spadix, subtended t)y a spathe, or naked.
The Lemnaceae are minute
floating thalloid plants with few or solitary flowers on the margin or back of
the thallus.
Large plants, the inflorescence a spadix.
Fam.
1.
Araceae.
Minute floating thalloid plants witli solitary or few flowers.
Fam.
2.
Lemnaceae.
Family
1
ARACEAE Neck.
Arum Family
Terrestrial, epiphytic, oi- aquatic herbs, sometimes with an acrid or pungent
juice,
with
thick
fleshy
tuberous
rootstocks,
conns,
or
erect creeping or
climbing stems.
Leaves alternate, radical or cauline, often with sheathing
petioles, the blade simple or compound.
Spathe green
or colored, open to
the base or the lower part convolute or tubular, wholly deciduous or per-
sistent, or only the tubular part persistent.
Spadix densely flowered, the
staminate flowers al)ove, the jMstillate l)elow, or the plants wholly dioecious,
or with perfect
flcjwers in some
species.
Perianth, when
present,
of 4-6,
sometimes
more,
free
or connate
segments.
Stamens
4-6,
rarely more;
filaments none, or broad and
flat, rarely
filiform; anthers opening
bj^
ter-
minal pores, or by short or long loiigitutlinal slits.
Ovary 1-several-celled;
ovules 1-several in each
cell, orthotropous, campylotropous or anatropous;
stigma entire or lobed.
Fruit a l-many-seeded berry.
Seeds with fleshy
endosperm, or iKjne.
About 105 genera and 900 species, mostl}' of tropical
regions, a few in the temperate zone.
Flowers monoecious; perianth none.
Floating stoloniferous stemless herbs.
1.
Pistia.
Terrestrial, sometimes hygrophytic or epiphytic.
Pistillate portion of the
spadi.x adnate to the spathe, the
staminate portion free.
2.
Dieffenbachia.
Spadix free.
Vines,
often
high
climbing,
frequently rooting
at
the
nodes.
3.
Philodendron.
Stems erect, or inclining, or acaulescent.
Spadix
covered
wholly
by
flowers,
the staminate
above,
the
pistillate
below,
devoid
of
sterile
organs.
4.
Montrichardia.
Spadix
with
sterile organs between
the staminate
and pistillate parts.
Ovary with parietal placenta; leaves peltate.
5.
Caladium.
Ovary with central placenta.
Leaves peltate; style none.
6.
Cyrlospadix.
Leaves not peltate; style annular.
7. Xanthosoma.
Flowers perfect, all fertile; perianth segments 4-8.
Leaf-blades entire; flowers borne on leafy plants; spathe
flat
or concave.
8. Anthurium.
Leaf-blades and segments parted; flowers and fully developed
leaves appearing at different times; spathe hooded.
9.
Dracontium.
1. PISTIA L. Sp. Pi. 963.
1753.
Floating
stoloniferous
stemless
herbs with
fibrous
roots and monoecious
flowers.
Leaves
in
a
rosette,
with
parallel
veins
raised
beneath.
Spathe
small, tubular below, s])readinK above.
Spadix adnate to the back of the tube
of the .spathe,
free above.
Pistillate flowers solitary on the lower part of the
spadix.
Ovary
1-celled.
Style
obliquely
erect.
Stigma
capitate.
Ovules
numerous, orthotropous.
Staminate flowers above the pistillate, in whorls, each
122
ARACEAE
flower composed of 2 connate,
2-cellecl anthers, opening by short
slits.
Fruit
with a thin pericarp, many-seeded.
Seeds rugulose; testa thiclc; embryo minute.
[Greek,
watery,
refennng
to
the
aquatic
habitat.]
A
single
variable
species
found throughout the tropical and su1)tropical regions of the globe.
1. Pistia Stratiotes L. Sp.
PI.
90.3.
17.53.
Pistia uccidenialis Blume, Rumphia l: 79.
ISS.'i.
An aquatic herb with numerous hair-like rootlets.
Leaves sessile, occasion-
ally narrowed into a i>etiole-like base, cuneate-obovate to oval, 3-12 cm. long.
l.r>-5..5 cm.
broad, arranged in a lettuce-like rosette, notched or entire at the
broadly rounded or subtruncate apex, more or
less scurfy pubescent on both
surfaces, tomentose with long matted hairs at the base; veins prominent beneath,
converging within the margin; spathes pale green or whitish,
1.2-1.4 cm. long,
more or
less
vilk)us
on
the
outside;
ovary
pubescent;
fruit
ellipsoid;
seeds
numerous, oblong.
In fresh water ponds and streams, Porto Rico; .St. Thomas (cultivated and natural-
ized in gardens)
:—West Indies (except Bahamas)
; subtropical and tropical continental
America; Asia; Africa; East Indies.
Le<huguill.\ del rig.
Watkk-letttice.
2. DIEFFENBACHIA Schott, Melet. 1: 20.
1832.
Perennial herbs with rather thick cylindric, erect or inclined stems and pois-
onous acrid juice.
Leaves borne mostly at or near the top of the stem, the long,
half-cylindric petioles sheathed to above the middle.
Leaf-blades often varie-
gated, lanceolate to oblong, ovate or obovate-oblong.
Spathe narrow with an
elongate fleshy persistent tuJje, the blade a little longer; spadix erect, the pistillate
portion adnate to the spathe.
Flowers monoecious.
Staminate flowers with 4
or 5 stamens; anther-sacs shorter than the connective.
Pistillate flowers with
4 or 5 staminodes; ovary 2- or 3-lobed,
1-3-celled; stigma
sessile,
depressed-
globose, 2- or 3-lobed; ovules solitary
in each
cell,
erect, anatropous.
Berries
included in the tube of the spathe which at length ruptures.
Seeds globose or
ovoid; testa smooth; endosperm none.
[Named in honor of J. F. Diefi"enbach, a
German botanist, 1794-1847.]
About 27 species, natives of tropical America,
the following typical.
1. Dieffenbachia seguine (Jacq.) Schott. Melet. 1: 20.
1832.
Arum seguine .Jacq. Enum. 31.
1760.
Arum seguinum L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2.
1371.
1763.
Caladium seguinum Vent. Hort. Cels. 30.
1800.
Stems 9 dm.
or more long, the lower portion often inclined.
Leaf-blade
elliptic-oblong to ovate-oljlong, 22 40 cm. long, 12-19 cm. broad, rounded, slightly
cordate or subacute at the base, acute or acuminate at the apex, green or with
white, more or
less confluent stripes and spots; petiples up to 30 cm. or more
long; spathe 18-30 cm. long; spadix white, as long as or shorter than the spathe;
berries orange-red.
Wet places
Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas; Tortola:—Jamica; Hispaniola to
Grenada; continental
tropical America.
R.\baNO.
Rabano cimarron.
Dumb Cane.
Ornamental races of tins or related species are commonly cultivated in Porto Rico
and Virgin Island gardens.
The sap
is irritating to the skin and highly inflammatory
to the tongue whence the name Dumb Cane.
3. PHILODENDRON Schott, Wiener Zeitschr. 3: 780.
1829.
Stout
or
slender, often
high climbing
vines, rarely arborescent
or subac-
aulescent.
Leaf-blades
entire,
lobed,
tripartite, pinnatifid
or 1-2-pinnatisect,
ARACEAE
123
coriaceous or herbaceous.
Spathe thick, fleshy, its tul)e convoUite, cylindric or
swollen,
its
blade
ovate,
oblong
or
lanceolate,
usually
erect.
Spadix
erect,
sessile
or
short-stipitate.
Flowers monoecious.
Perianth
wanting.
Stamens
2-6, united into a sessile obpyramidal body.
Ovary 2-many-ceIled
; ovules few
or numerous, orthotropous; stigma
sessile,
entire or lobed.
Berry enclosed
in
the
spathe,
1-10-celled,
1-10-seeded.
Seeds ovoid, oblong or
ellipsoid;
testa
thick, smooth or striate.
Endosperm copious.
Embryo axile.
[Greek, tree-lover.]
About 220 species, natives of tropical America, known as Bejuco de Calabaza.
Type species: Caladium grandifolium Willd.
Leaf-blades 0..3-3.6 dm. long, 1.5-20 cm. broad, usually not con-
spicuously
ribbed
beneath,
the
lowest
pair
of
ribs
not
exposed along the edge next to the sinu.s.
Leaf-blades 3-12 cm. long,
1..5-7 cm. broad.
Leaves variegated copper and green above,
greenish-red
changing to brownish-red beneath.
1.
P. rnicans.
Leaves green on both sides.
Petioles with a dilated sheath extending to the apex;
leaf-blades 3-7 cm. long,
1..5-3 cm. broad.
2.
P. marginatum.
Petioles nearlv terete; leaf-blades 8-12 cm. long, 4.5-7
cm. broad.
3.
P. scandens.
Leaf-blades 1.4-3.6 dm. long, 0.8-2 dm. broad.
Petiole,s with a dilated .sheath extending to the apex or just
below; leaf-blade rounded or shallowly cordate.
4.
P. lingulatum.
Petioles not sheatlied, or .sheathed to the middle or below;
leaf-blades usually deeply cordate.
Leaf-blades ol)Iong-ovate.
5.
P. Krebsii.
Leaf-blades broadly cordate-ovate.
6.
P. oxycardium..
Leaf-blade 5-10 dm.
long. 4-8 dm.
broad,
occasionally
larger,
con.5picuouslv ribbed beneath, the lowest pair of ribs exposed
near the base along the edge next to the sinus.
7.
P. giganleum.
1. Philodendron micans
(Klotzsch)
C. Koch,
Ind.
Sem.
Hort.
Berol.
1854:
App.
7.
l.S.'}4.
Solenosterigma micans Klotzsch; Urban, Symb.
Ant.
4:
134,
as synonym.
1903.
Philodendron micans hrevipes Engler, Bot. Jahrb. 26: 528.
1899.
Stems very
slender,
greenish,
the internodes
0.4
1..5 dm.
long.
Petioles
2-8 cm. long, slender, fleshy; leaf-blades herbaceous, oblong to oblong-lanceolate
or ovate-lanceolate, 5-8 cm. long, 3.5-5 cm. broad, gradually tapering toward the
apex,
the base
slightly cordate, above
shining,
variegated copper and
green,
beneath greenish-red changing to brownish-red. the margin red; midrib slendeir,
white-punctulate toward the base; flowers and fruit unknown.
In forests, Porto Rico:— Dominica; Tobago; Central America.
2. Philodendron marginatum Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 135.
1903.
Stem slender, terete, i:5-2.5 mm. thick, rooting at the nodes, the internodes
1..5-5 cm. long.
Petioles 1.5-5 cm. long, with a dilated sheath extending to the
apex; leaf-blade ovate-oblong, .3-7 cm. long, 1.5-3 cm. broad, more or less acu-
minate at the apex, rounded or slightly cordate at the base, herbaceous, above
with minute, rounded,
whitish points; nerves more conspicuous beneath than
above; inflore.scence unknown.
Movnitain forests, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
3. Philodendron scandens C. Koch &
If.
Sello,
Ind. Sem.
Hort. Berol. 1853:
App.
4.
1.S53
A vine with slender terete or nearly terete stems.
Petioles slender, 4 era.
or more long; leaf-blades ovate, 8-12 cm.
long, 4.5-7 cm.
broad, occasionally
longer and broader, long-acuminate at the apex, cordate at the base; veinlets
slender, ascending; inflorescence unknown.
On cliUs and rocky
liillsides, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Trinidad?
124
ARACEAE
4. Philodendron lingulatum
(L.) C. Koch,
Ind. Sem. Hort.
Berol. App.
2.
1855.
Arum lingulatum h. Sp.
PI. ed 2, 1371.
1763.
Philodendron dispar Schott, Syn. Aroid. 79.
18.56.
Philodendron Karstenianum dispar Engl, in DC. Mon. Phan. 2: 362.
1879.
A high-climbing
vine.
Petioles
1..5-3.5 dm.
long,
conspicuously winged-
vaginate nearly
to the
base of the
blade;
leaf-blades oblong-ovate
to ovate,
1.8-3.5 dm. long, 1-2 dm. broad, often rather abruptly-acuminate at the apex,
rounded or slightly cordate at the base; peduncles 2-5 cm. long; spathe green
without,
whitish
within,
1.5-1.8 dm.
long,
long-acuminate; spadix
cylindric.
short-stipitate.
Mountain woodlands
and
shaded
ravines,
Porto
Rico:—Saba;
St.
Eustatius;
8t. Kitts; fluadeloupe; Martinique; St. Vincent.
Recorded by Krebs as formerly found
in St. Tliomas.
5. Philodendron Krebsii Schott, Bonplandia 7: 164.
18.59.
Philodendron Wrighlii Griseb. Cat.
PI. Cub. 219.
1866.
A high-cUmbing
vine, sometimes
16 m.
long,
with
rather slender stems.
Petioles 0.8-2 dm. long, terete or nearly so, vaginate to the middle or slightly
beyond on the upper leaves; leaf-blades oblong-ovate to ovate, 1.4-3.6 dm. long,
0.8-2 dm. broad, acute to acuminate at the apex, cordate at the base, the ribs
rather inconspicuous, the veinlets slender, numerous; peduncle 1-1.5 dm. long,
often rather slender; spathe convolute, cylindric, 9-13 cm. long, 2 cm. or more in
diameter; spadix sessile.
[Arum hederaceum of Krelis, P. hederaceum, of Eggers,
not of Schott.]
Tliickets, wooded
hillsides: mountain forests and limestone
cliffs,
at lower and
higher elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas :-Cuba; Hispaniola.
6. Philodendron oxycardium Schott, Syn. Aroid. 82.
1856.
A high-climbing
vine.
Petioles 1-2 dm. long; leaf-blade broadly cordate-
ovate,
1..5-3 dm. long, 1.2-2 dm. broad, rather abruptly acuminate at the apex,
cordate at the base; veinlets numerous, slender, peduncles 2-3 cm. long; spathe
thick, 10-12 cm. long; spadix cylindric.
[? P. hederaceum of Bello, not of Schott.]
Hillside
forests,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Thomas;
Tortola:—Jamaica,
Guadeloupe;
Dominica; Martinique; St. Vincent; Guatemala;
? Venezuela.
7. Philodendron giganteum Schott, Syn. Aroid. 89.
1856.
A robust, more or less sprawling or ascending vine, the thick caudex pro-
vided with numerous
long coarse aerial roots.
Petioles stout, 6-10 dm. or more
long, nearly
terete,
often
flattened on the anterior side above the base;
leaf-
blades cordate-ovate,
.5-10 dm.
long, 4-8 dm.
broad, sometimes
larger, dark
green and histrous above, the midrib and lateral ribs impressed, paler beneath,
the ribs prominent, the
veinlets slender, inconspicuous; peduncle short, stout;
tube of the spathe oblong-ellipsoid, 6-8 cm. or more long, purphsh without when
in flower, in fruit yellowish, dark red within, the blade sublanceolate, 1-1.4 dm.
long, 4-5 cm. broad, convolute, acuminate at the apex, pale-green or yellowish;
spadix sessile; flowers fragrant.
Wooded limestone hills and forests, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas (according
to Eggers); Tortola:—St.
Kitts:
Mont.serrat; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
St. Vincent;
Trinidad.
Occasionally planted for ornament in Porto Rico.
Yautia cimarrona.
4. MONTRICHARDIA Crueger, Bot. Zeit. 12: 25.
1854.
Arborescent plants of swamps or coastal marshes, with unarmed or prickly
stems.
Leaves rosulate at the summit of the stem, the petioles vaginate to the
ARACEAE
125
middle or beyond,
clasping
at
the
base,
the blades sagittate.
Spathe
thick,
sheathing,
at length deciduous.
Spadix
free, covered wholly by
flowers,
the
staminate above, the pistillate below, devoid of sterile organs.
Stamens 3-6.
Anthers subsessile.
Ovary 1-celled.
Ovules 1 or 2, anatropous.
Style wanting.
Stigma
4-lobed.
Seeds
without
endosperm.
[Commemorates
Gabriel
de
Montrichard, of Trinidad.]
About 2 or 3 species of tropical America.
Type
species: Caladium aculeaturn Meyer.
1. Montrichardia arborescens (L.) Schott, Araceen Betreff.
l: 4.
1854.
Arum arborescens L. Sp. PI. 967.
1753.
Stem erect, 1-2.5 m. high, unarmed, or armed with short, often somewhat
flattened prickles.
Petioles 1.8-3 dm. long; leaf-blades sagittate-ovate, the basal
lobes often equalling or longer than the terminal one; lateral ribs rather prominent
beneath, the veinlets slender; spathe 10-12 cm. long, or sometimes longer, ex-
ternally green, whitish within, the base purplish.
Porto
Rico
(according
to
Bello):—Guadeloupe
to
Trinidad;
South
America;
not found in Porto Rico by recent collectors.
Yautia madera.
5. CALADIUM Vent. Mag. Encyc. 6^: 463.
1801.
[CoLOCAsiA Schott. Melet.
1:
18.
1832.
Not Link,
1795.]
Coarse perennial herbs, tuberous or with a short erect caudex.
Leaf-blades
ovate-cordate or sagittate-cordate, peltately petioled.
Spathe stout-peduncled,
persistent.
Spadix shorter than
the
spathe.
Flowers monoecious.
Perianth
wanting.
Staminate and
pistillate
flowers
distant,
the staminate above
the
pistillate with
interpo.sed
flat
neutral
ones.
Stamens
3-5.
Ovaries
1-celled,
stigma .sessile or subsessile, depres.sed-capitate; ovules numerous, orthotropous.
Berries obconic or oblong.
Seeds oblong, sulcate; endosperm copious; embryo
axile.
[From Kelady, an East Indian name.]
About 7 species, natives of tropical
Asia.
Type species: Arum esculentum L.
1. Caladium Colocasia (L.) AV. F. AVight, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 9: 206.
1905.
Aru7n Colocasia L. Sp. PI. 965.
1753.
Arum esculentum L. Sp. PI. 965.
1753.
Caladium esculentum Vent., Jard. Cels 30.
1800.
Colocasia Antiquorum Schott, Melet. l: IS.
1832.
Colocasia esculenta Schott, Melet.
1:
18.
1832.
Colocasia Colocasia Lyons, Plant Names 111.
1900.
A succulent plant with an
edil)le,
starchy, tuberous rootstock,
the stout
petioles often
1 m. long or more.
Leaf-blades ovate-cordate with a triangular
basal sinus, 3-4 dm. long, 2-3 dm. broad, sometimes longer and broader, acute or
short-acuminate at the apex, cordate at the base; spathe pale yellow,
1.5-3.5
dm.
long,
stout-peduncled,
the
tube
greenish;
.spadix
shorter than
spathe,
stipitate.
Naturalized
after cultivation
in Porto
Rico.
Native of
India.
Cultivated
in
tropical and subtropical regions.
Mamnga.
Yautia Malanga.
Caladium arborescens Vent.,
an
East
Indian
species was
recorded
by
Krebs as formerly grown on St. Thomas.
6. CYRTOSPADIX C. Koch, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. 1853: App. 3,
1853.
Acaulescent herbaceous perennials often with beautifully variegated foliage.
Leaf-blades usually peltately-petioled.
Flowers monoecious, the staminate ones
126
ARACEAE
separated
from
the
pistillate
by
numerous
abortive
ones.
Perianth
none.
Stamens 3-5; anther cells dehiscent by apical
slits.
Ovary 2-3-celled; stigma
sessile, entire or 2-4-lobed; ovules numerous, anatropous.
Berries pyriform or
clavate, included in the persistent tube of the spathe.
Seeds ovoid or subglobose
testa thick, grooved; endosperm copious; embryo axile.
[Greek, curved spadix.]
About 16 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Philodendron
striatipes Kunth.
1. Cyrtospadix bicolor (Ait.) Britton & Wilson.
Arum bicolor Ait. Hort. Kew 3: 316.
1789.
Caladium bicolor Vent. Mag. Enc. 6^: 464.
1801.
Xanthosoma sylvestre Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 114.
1883.
Rhizome depressed-globose.
Petioles slender, 2 dm. or more long.
Leaf-
blades peltate, ovate or triangular-ovate, 1.2-4 dm. long, 0.7-3 dm. broad, acu-
minate at the apex, cordate at the base, often beautifully colored above, glaucous
beneath; spathe 7-14 cm.
long.
[?Caladium smaragdinum of Eggers,
not
of
C. Koch & Bouche.]
Peristent after cultivation for ornament, Porto Rico; St. Thomas; St. Croix:—Dom-
inica- Martinique; Guadeloupe; St. Vincent; Barbados; Trinidad; South America.
Many
ornamental varieties are under cultivation.
Paleta del Pintor.
7. XANTHOSOMA Schott, Melet. l: 19.
1832.
Herbs with thick erect stems, or acaulescent.
Leaf-blades sagittate, hastate
or pedately parted.
Flowers monoecious,
the staminate ones separated from
the
pistillate by numerous abortive
ones.
Stamens
4-6.
Ovary ovoid,
2-4-
celled; ovules anatropous, numerous
in each
cell of the ovary;
style annular;
stigma
discoid.
Berry
3-
or
4-cellod,
the
cells
many-seeded.
Seeds
ovoid;
testa sulcate; endosperm copious; embryo axile.
[Greek, yellow-body, referring
to the stigma.]
About 37 species, natives of tropical America, known as Yautia.
Tanier and Malanga, much cultivated
for
their edible corms.
Type species:
Xanthosoma Jacquinii Schott.
Leaf-blades simple.
.
,
.
.,
Leaf-blades
sagittate;
margnial
venis
almost
equally
distant from the margin at all points.
Stem of mature plants erect, up to
1 m.
tall.
Lowest pair of ribs exposed near the base along the
edge next to sinus.
1.
A. Jacquinn.
Lowest
pair
of
ribs separated from
the smus by
.
,
^
,.
leaf-tissue nearly to the base.
2.
X. sagittaefolium.
Stem tuber-like, not developed above ground.
Basal lobes of the
leaf subtriangular; blade of the
spathe yellowish white.
3.
X. vwlaceum.
Basal lobes of the
leaf subrhomboid or semiovate,
obtuse; blade of the spathe dull green.
4. A. atrovirens.
Leaf-blades
hastate,
marginal
veins
varying
from
the
.
margin at different points.
5.
A. brasutense
Leaf-blades pedately-divided into 5-12 segments.
6.
A. licHebonjoltum.
1. Xanthosoma Jacquinii Schott, Melet. 1:
19.
1832.
An ill-smelling herb, with an acrid juice, and tall thick stem sometimes
1 m.
long.
Petiole
4..'>-8 dm.
long;
leaf-blade
broadly
cordate-sagittate,
3.8 dm.
or more long, 3 dm. or more inroad; peduncles 1-3 dm. or more long; tube of the
spathe ovoid, green on the outside, purplish within, 5.5-7 cm. long.
2. .5-3. 5 cm.
in diameter, the blade 1-2.5 dm.
long, 6-8 cm. broad, pale yellowish-green on
the back, whitish within.
Spontaneous
after
cultivation,
Porto Rico:—Lesser
Antilles;
South
America.
ARACEAE
127
2. Xanthosoma sagittaefolium
(I..) Schott, Melet. 1: 19.
1832.
Arum saoittaefolium L. Sp.
PI. 966.
1753.
Mature plants with thick erectstems 1 m. long or more.
Petioles up to 1 m.
long.
Leaf-blades sagittate-ovate. 4-7 dm. long, 4-6 dm. broad, short acuminate
at the apex, cordate at the base
; peduncles 2 dm. long or more; tube of the spathe
oblong-ovoid, 6-7 cm.
long,
3..'>-4 cm.
in diameter,
the blade greenish white,
1..5 dm. long, .5-6 cm. broad, acuminate; spadix Shorter than the spathe; ovary
ovoid.
Cultivatod on Porto Rico; naturalized after cultivation on St. Thomas; St. Croix
(according to Eggers):—Cuba to Barbados; South America.
«
3. Xanthosoma violaceum Schott, Oe.sterr. Bot. Wochenbl. 3: 370.
18.53.
Rhizome short.
Petioles 3-7 dm. long, brownish violet
; leaf-blade sagittate-
ovate, 2-5 dm. long.
1..5-4 dm. broad, pruinose, becoming green, paler beneath;
peduncle 1..5-2 dm. long,
1..5-2 cm. thick; tube of tlie spathe
1 dm. long, 3. .5-4
cm. in diameter, purplish on the outside, the oblong-lanceolate blade yellowish
white, 1.5 2 dm. long, 6-7 cm. broad.
[Aconlia cubcnsis of Bello, not of Schott.]
Naturalized after cultivation in Porto Rico.
Cultivatad in the West Indies and
South America,
its native home unknown.
4. Xanthosoma atrovirens C. Koch & Bouche, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. 1854:
App. 3. 18.54.
Xanthosoma atrovirens Kochii Engl.
Pflanzejireich
4=^ E: 50.
1920.
Rhizome and tuber cylindric, yellow within.
Petiole 3-6 dm. long, thick,
blackish-green
; leaf-blades sagittate-ovate, 7-8 dm. long, 6 dm. broad, i)lackish-
green above, grayish-green and pruinose beneath, the margin green; peduncle
1-1.5 dm. long,
1..5-2.5 cm. thick; tulje of the .spatlie oblong-ovoid, 8 cm. long,
4 cm.
in diameter, green, the ovate-lanceolate blade 2 dm. long,
1 dm. broad,
green, the apex purplish.
Cultivated on Porto Rico (according to Engler); cultivated and naturalized on
St. Thomas and
St. Croix (according to Eggers): —cultivated in Cuba and Jamaica;
native of nortliern South America.
5. Xanthosoma brasiliense
(Desf.)
Engl.
Pfianzenreich
4^^ E:5S.
1920.
Caladiam hrasiliensc Desf. Cat. PI. Hort. Paris ed. 3. 386. 1829.
Xanthosoma hastifolium C. Koch,
Ind.
Sem.
Hort.
Berol.
1854:
App.
2.
18.54.
Acontias hastifolius Schott. Prodr.
194.
1860.
Petioles 2-4 dm. long.
Leaf-blades ovate-sagittate or ovate-hastate.
2. .5-4
dm.
long, with spreading oblong basal lobes; peduncles 1.5 dm. long or more;
tube of the spathe oblong-ovoid, 5 cm. long, the blade oblong-lanceolate, 1-1.2
dm. long, 3-4 cm. broad, yellowish-green; ovary short-cylindric.
Ravines, Porto Rico; Vieques:—Guadeloupe; Martinique; St. Vincent; Panama;
Southern Brazil.
6. Xanthosoma helleborifolium
(Jacq.)
Schott,
Oesterr.
Bot.
Zeitschr.
15:
33.
1865.
Arum helleborifolium Jacq. Ic. 3: 18.
1793.
Caladium helleborifolium Vent. Mag. Encyc.
6^: 471.
1801.
Acontias helleborifulius Schott. Melet.
1:
19.
1832.
Xanthosoma helleborifolium angustisectum Engl. Pflanzenriech 4'^^ E
: 61.
1920.
Leaves one or more, the petioles 3-5 dm. long, mottled; leaf-blades 1-2.9
dm. long, 1.5-3.5 dm. broad, pedately divided into 5-12 .segments, the segments
oblong, lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 5-28 cm. long, 2-7 cm. broad, acuminate at
128
ARACEAE
the apex, narrowed to a sessile base; peduncle
1 dm. long or more; tube of the
spathe
elliptic-ovold, 3-4 cm.
long,
green,
the oblong-ovate
blade
yellowish-
green, 6-7 cm. long, ovoid.
Naturalized after cultivation in a ravine at IMayaguez:— Dominica; Martinique;
St. Vincent; Trinidad; Central and Soutii America.
Xanthosoma Caracu C. Koch & Bouche, has been cultivated on Porto
Rico, according
to
Engler;
it has cordate-sagittate
leaves, green and shining
above, pale beneath, 3-5 dm. long.
Xanthosoma hastatum Eggers,
Bull.
U.
S.
Nat. Mus.
13:
99.
1879.
This
is an incompletely described plant, known only from
its hastate
leaves,
recorded by Eggers as cultivated and spontaneous in forests in the Virgin Islands,
used as spinach.
It may not be a Xanthosoma.
8. ANTHURIUM Schott, Wiener Zeitschr. 3: 828.
1829.
Terrestrial or epiphytic perennials, with creeping, climbing or arborescent
stems.
Leaves various, entire, lobed or parted.
Flowers perfect.
Spathe ovate,
elliptic or lanceolate, thick-coriaceous.
Spadix sessile or stipitate, cylindric or
conic.
Perianth-segments
4.
Stamens
4, the filaments compressed, the longi-
tudinally dehiscent anthers extrose.
Ovary eUipsoid, ovoid or obovoid, 2-celled.
Ovules 1 or 2, anatropous or campylotropous; style short or wanting; stigma disc-
like or oblong, somewhat 2-lobed.
Berry fleshy, red, greenish, orange or purple,
2-celled, the cells 1-seeded, rarely 2-seeded.
Seeds oblong; testa striate, granular
or minutely
punctate; endosperm
fleshy; embryo
axile.
[Greek,
tail-flower.)
About 480 species natives of tropical America.
Type species
: Pothos acaulis Jacq
Scandent sliriib, with slender stems and alternate leaves.
Caudex slaort; leaves rosulate.
Leaves palmately-ribbed at the base.
Leaves broadly cordate-ovate or broadly triangular-ovate.
Leaves broadly oblong-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, rounded
or subcordate at tlie base.
Leaves
coarsely
reticulate-veined;
spadix
1.5-3
dm.
long, usually long-acuminate.
Leaves not coarsely reticulate-veined; spadix 4-10 cm.
long; spathe often abruptly acuminate.
Leaves pinnately ribbed throughout.
1. Anthurium scandens (Aubl.) Engl, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 3-: 78.
1878,
Dracontium scandens Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 836.
1775.
Pothos violacea Sw. Prodr. 32.
1788.
Anth^irnim violaceum Schott, Melet.
1: 22.
1832.
Anthurium leucocarpum Schott, Oesterr. Bot. Wochenbl. 7: 53.
1857.
Anthurium scandens violaceum Engl, in Mart.
Fl. Bras. 3-: 78.
1878.
Anthurium scandens leucocarpum Engl, in DC. Monog. Phan. 2: 107.
1879.
A
rather
slender scandent
vine,
with
alternate
leaves and
conspicuous
fibrous sheaths surrounding the internodes.
Petioles
1.5-9 cm.
long,
slender;
leaf-blades narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate or somewhat oval, 5-14 cm.
long, 2-7 cm. broad, acute to acuminate, rarely obtuse at the apex, narrowed or
occasionally somewhat rounded at the base; spathe oblong-lanceolate or lanceo-
late, 1-2 cm. long, 2.5-5 mm. broad, green, pointed; berry globose or subglobose,
white or violet; seeds about 2.5 mm. long,
1.5 mm.
in diameter.
Commonly epiphytic on trees in mountain forests, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; His-
paniola; Antigua; Trinidad; Margarita; continental tropical America.
Guinda.
1.
ARACEAE
129
2. Anthurium cordatum
(Willd.) G. Don
in Sweet,
Hoi-t.
Brit.
ed.
3. 633.
1839.
Pothos cordata Willd. Enum. PI. 168.
1809.
Anthurium cordifolium Kunth, Enum.
PI. 3: 76.
1841.
Caudex erect, stout, 1-3 dm. high
; petioles 2-6 dm. long, channelled on the
face, rounded on the liack
; leaf-blades broadly triangular-ovate, 3-4 dm. long, 2-3
dm. broad at the deeply cordate base, the sinus open; upper surface bright dark
green, the lower paler; peduncles as long as or longer than the leaves; spathe
linear-lanceolate,
1-2 dm.
long,
long-acuminate,
green; spadix
short-stipitate,
2-2.5 dm. long, brownish-green.
On rocks in forests, St. Thomas; St. Croix; St. Jan; Tortola: — St. Kitts; Martin-
ique.
Sometimes
confused
with Anthurium
grandifolium
(Jacq.)
Kimth,
apparently
recorded by Krebs as Pothos macrophyllus Sw.
Occasionally grown for ornament in the
Vii-gin Islands.
Abmidant in the forest on Mt. Eagle, St. Croix, in 1923.
3. Anthurium Selloum C. Koch, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. App. 8.
1855.
Anthurium macro phijlluni Schott, Prodr. 516.
1860.
Caudex short.
Petioles somewhat angled, channelled, 3 dm. or more long;
leaf-blade broadly oijlong-lanceolate, 5-7 dm. long,
1.8-3 dm. broad, subcoria-
ceous, acuminate at the apex, with a broad open sinus at the base, coarsely retic-
ulate-vei!ied, light green; peduncle chaimelled and more or less grooved, 6-7 dm.
long; spathe
linear-lanceolate,
pale-green, about
13 cm.
long,
1.5 cm.
broad,
acuminate; spadix 1.5-3 dm. long, short-stipitate.
On trees and rocks in forests,
St. Jan.
Endemic.
Erroneously cited by Engler
as from San Juan, Porto Rico.
4. Anthurium dominicense Schott, Oesterr. Hot. Zeitschr. 8: 350.
1858.
Anthurium dominicense Sintenisii Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 25: 418.
1898.
Terrestrial
or
epiphytic.
Petioles
1.5-3.5 dm.
or more
long,
chanelled;
leaf-blades, oblong-lanceolate to ol)long-ovate, 2-4 dm.
long, 6-16 cm.
broad,
acuminate at the apex, subcordate or rounded at the base; peduncle 1.5-4 dm.
long; .spathe oblong or lanceolate, 2. .5-5.5 cm. long, 0.8-1.2 cm. broad, acuminate;
spadix 4-10 cm. long; berry subglobose, apiculate, reddish.
Mountain forests, Porto Rico:—Dominica; Martinique.
Lengua de vaca.
5. Anthurium acaule (Jacq.) Schott, Melet. 1: 22.
1832.
Pothos acaulis Jacq. Enum. 31.
1760.
Anthurium acaule portoricense Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 739.
1891.
Anthurium acaule brevipes Engl. Bot. Johrb. 25: 362.
1898.
Caudex short; petioles 5-25 cm.
long,
1 cm. or more thick, grooved;
leaf-
blades oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate or oblanceolate, 4-8 dm. long, 6-27 cm.
broad, acuminate at the apex, sometimes abruptly narrowed below the middle
and
rounded
or cuneate
at
the
base,
coriaceous,
coarsely
reticulate-veined;
peduncle 2.5-8 dm. long; spathe linear-lanceolate, 6-12 cm. long, long-acuminate
at the apex, rufescent on the inside; spadix slender, 10-30 cm. long; " Ijerry bright
red "
; seeds ellipsoid to somewhat ellipsoid-ovoid, aljout 4 mm. long, 2 mm. broad
te.sta verrucose.
[Recorded lay Bello as Anthurium Hucgelii Schott and A. lanceo-
latuni Kunth.]
Epiphytic or terrestrial on shaded hillsides, cliffs or ravines, Porto Rico, ascending to
at least O.'JO m.; Cidebra; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; St. Crobc:—Hispaniola;
Martinique; Tobago; Trinidad.
Flor de culebra, Moca de pavo, Hoj.\ de costado.
Anthurium crassinervium (Jacq.)
Schott,
Panamanian,
recorded
by
Krebs as formerly found in St. Thomas, was iVresumably an error in determina-
tion.
[Pothos crassinervia Jacq.]
130
LEMNACEAE
9. DRACONTIUM L. Sp. PI. 967.
17.53.
Tuberous herbs with long-petioled leaves, 3-parted leaf-blades, and perfect
ill-scented
flowers.
Perianth segments 4-8.
Stamens 4-6,
in 2
series, rarely
9-12 and
in 3 or 4
series.
Filiments
dilated.
Anther-sacs narrowly
elliptic,
dehiscent at the apex.
Ovary incompletely
2-.5-celled; ovules solitary
in the
cells, anatropous or campylotropous; stigma 2-5-parted.
Fruit baccate, indis-
tinctly 2-5-lobed,
2-5-celled, the
cells 1-seeded.
Seeds round-reniform, some-
what compressed
; embryo curved.
[Derived from the Greek for dragon.)
About
10 species, natives of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Dracontium polyphyllum L. Sp. PI. 967.
1753.
Acaulescent.
Petioles 1 m. or more long, the base 2-3 cm. thick, more or
less mottled
; blade 7-8 dm. long and about as wide, 3-parted, the middle segment
usually 3-parted from
the middle,
the
two
lateral often 2-parted below the
middle,
the secondary
division
irregularly
pinnately-parted
;
peduncle
of the
flower-bearing spathe very short, about
1..5 cm. long, smooth below, verrucose
toward the apex; spathe oblong, deep violet, 1.5 dm. long, 7 dm. broad, cuspidate-
acuminate; spadix short-stipitate, purpUsh; berry subglobose, 8-10 mm.
long,
crowned with a short stigma.
In
fields, Porto Rico:—Hispaniola; Guiana.
Gu.\PA.
Monstera deliciosa Liebm., a native of Mexico and Central America,
is
occasionally planted
iTi Porto Rican gardens.
It is a high climbing vine, some-
times 7 m. or more long, the thick cylindric stems provided with long rope-like
aerial
roots,
the broad
pinnatifid and
perforated coriaceous evergreen
leaves
3-6 dm. or more long, the broad boat-Uke spathes 2-2.5 dm. long, the mature
cylindric spadix edible.
Aglaeonema pictum Kunth,
of Sumatra, grown
for ornament
in Porto
Rico gardens has slender stems about 6 dm. long, ovate blotched leaves 10-15
cm. long, the spathe about 5 cm. long.
Spathiphyllum lanceifolium
(.Jacq)
Schott,
Venezuelan,
recorded
by
Krobs as growing in
St. Thomas prior to 1851, has elliptic lanceolate leaves 3-5
dm. long and a white spathe about 1.5 dm. long.
[Dracontium lanceifolium Jacq.]
Arum pictum L.,
of
Corsica and
Sardinia,
also
recorded by
Krebs
as
grown on St. Thomas prior to 1851, is a tuberous plant, with long-petioled ovate
cordate leaves about 1.5 dm. long, the short-peduncled spathe 7-9 cm. long.
Alocasia metallica Schott, Malayan, grown
in Virgin
Island and
Porto
Rican gardens, is an ornamental
aroid, acaulescent, with
i)urple petioled ovate
sagittate leaves up to 1.5 meters
long, the scapes 2-3 dm. long, the white spathe
1-1.5 dm. long.
Family 2.
LEMNACEAE Duniort.
Duck-weed Family.
Small or minute floating herbaceous perennial stemless plants, consisting
of
disc-like,
elongated
or
irregular
fronds,
with sometimes one
or more
rootlets
Inflorescence
consisting
of
1
pistillate
and
1
or
2
staminate
flowers, born on the edge on the upper surface of the frond.
Staminate
flower of a single stamen, with 2-4 pollen-sacs.
Pistillate flowers of a single
flask-like pistil
with 1-several ovules.
Fruit a 1-7-seeded utricle.
The family comprises the smallest of the flowering plants and contains
4 genera and about 26 species of wide distribution.
Rootlet soUtary.
,
.
,
.
1- ^^^tZela
Rootlets several, fascicled.
2.
bptroaeia.
XYRIDACEAE
131
1. LEMNA L. Sp. PI. 970.
1753.
Fronds
1-5-nerved.
Rootlets
solitary,
without
fibro-vascular
bundles.
Anthers bilocollate, dehiscing transversely.
Ovary
1-celled; style and truncate
or funnel-shaped stigma simple.
Fruit more or less ribbed.
Endosperm of the
seed
in one or three
layers.
(An old Greek name, probably
referring to the
swampy habitat.]
About 10 species of temperate and tropical regions.
Known
as Dock-Weed.
Types pecies: Lemna trisiilca
Li.
1. Lemna perpusilla Torr.
Fl. N. Y. 2:
24.').
1S43.
Lemna paucicoslata Hegelm.; Engelm. in A. Gray, Man. ed.
5, G81.
1868.
Fronds oblong to obovate, 2-3.5 mm. long.
1.2-2.5 mm.
broad, obscurely
3-nerved, solitary or coherent; rootcap pointed; fruit ovoid to oblong-ellipsoid,
ending in a rather prominent eccentric style; .seed ellipsoid or ovoid, somewhat
compressed; seed-coat thick, ribs prominent.
In still fresh water, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Jan (according to Eggers)
:—West
Indies; continental America; also reported from the Old World.
2. SPIRODELA Schleid. Linnaea 13: 391.
1839.
Fronds
.5-15-nerved.
Rootlets
several,
fascicled,
provided with a
single
bundle of vascular tissue.
Anthers bilocellate, dehiscing longitudinally.
Fruit
rounded, lenticular, with winged margins.
[Greek, in
allusion
to the cluster of
rootlets.]
Two or three species, the following typical.
1. Spirodela polyrhiza (L.) Schleid. Linnaea 13: 392.
1839.
Lemna polyrhiza L, Sp. Pi. 970.
1753.
Fronds eUiptic-obovate to orbicular-obovate, .3-8 mm. long, 1.8-G mm. l)road,
dark green above, slightly convex and purple beneath,
thick, palmately .5-15-
nerved.
Ditches, rivers and lakes, Porto Rico:—Almost cosmopolitan.
Orders.
XYRIDALES.
Terrestrial, bog-inhalMting,
or
epipliytic
i)lants.
Flowers usually com-
plete, their parts mostly in 3's or 6 s.
Corolla regular or nearly so (except
ill some Commelinaceae) .
Ovary superior or inferior.
Fruit
a
capsule or
utricle, or baccate.
Seed with mealy endosperm.
Ovary 1-celled.
l^am.
1.
Xyridaceae.
Ovary 2-3-celled.
Sepals 3; petals 3.
Epiphytic
or
terrestrial
plants;
leaves
scurfy;
inflorescence
usually
spicate
or
paniculate,
often with conspicuous bracts.
Fam.
2.
Bromeuaceae.
Terrestrial herbs; leaves not scurfy; inflorescence
cymose or umbellate, commonly subtended by
a' spathe-like or leaf-like involucre.
Fam.
3. Commelinaceae.
Perianth 0-lobed.
Fam. 4. Pontederiaceae.
Family
1.
XYRIDACEAE
Lindl.
Yellow-eyeu
(jiiASS Family.
Annual or perennial herbs, with narrow leaves sheathing the base of a
naked scape.
Flowers
perfect,
single
in
the
axils of coriaceous scale-like
bracts,
whi(;li are densely imbricated in a head.
Sepals 3, the two lateral
ones small, boat-shaped," persistent, the third one
larger, membranous
(or
132
BROMELIACEAE
wanting).
Petals 3, yellow or sometimes white, with claws, which cohere
more or less.
Fertile stamens 3, inserted on the claws of the petals, usually
alternating with 3 ])lumose or bearded staminodia.
Ovary
1-celled or
in-
completely
3-celled, with 3
parietal
jjlacentae.
Ovules numerous,
ortho-
tropous.
Stigmas
3,
terminal.
Fruit an oblong 3-valved
capsule.
Em-
bryo apical.
Endosperm fleshy.
The family comprises 2 genera and about 50 species, natives of temperate
and tropical regions of both the Old World and the New.
1. XYRIS [Gronov.l L. Sp. PI. 42.
1753.
Characters of the family.
[Greek name for some plant with 2-edged leaves.
About 40 species, widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions, known
as Yellow-eyed Grass.
Type species: Xyris indica L.
Lateral sepals included; leaf-blades 2.5-5.5 mm. broad.
1. X. Jupicai.
Lateral sepal.s exserted; leaf-blades 1.5-2.5 mm. broad.
2.
X. Elliottii.
1. Xyris Jupicai L. C. Rich, in Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris l: 106.
1792.
Xyris communis Kunth, Enum. 4: 12.
1843.
Leaves linear,
2. .5-5.5 mm.
broad.
Scapes solitary or clustered, 2-6 dm.
tall,
often somewhat
flattened,
the edges minutely roughened; sheath shorter
than the leaves; mature spikes ellipsoid or ovoid, 10-20 mm. long, 6-8 mm. broad
lateral
sepals 4-5 mm.
long,
included; wing narrower than
the
sepal-body,
fimbriate to below the middle.
[Xyris americana of Bello, not of Aublet.]
Moist
sandy
soil,
northern
coastal
plain,
Porto
Rico:—southeastern
United
States; Cuba; Hispaniola; Jamaica; Trinidad; Central and South America.
2. Xyris Elliottii Chapm. Fl. S. States 500.
1860.
Xyris brevifolia Ell; Bot.
S. C. & Ga.
1: 52.
1816.
Not Michx. 1803.
Leaves
narrowly
linear,
grass-like,
1-2.5 mm.
broad,
often
somewhat
twisted.
Scapes 2-5 dm.
tall,
twisted,
flattened, 2-edged throughout or only
1-edged below, roughish on
the edges; sheath shorter than the leaves; spikes
ellipsoid, or somewhat ovoid, 8-18 mm. long, 5-7 mm. broad; bracts with thin
eroded edges; lateral sepals 4.5-5 mm. long, exserted; wing incised-lacerate above
the middle.
In moist sandy places, Porto Rico:—southeastern United States; Cuba.
Family
2.
BROMELIACEAE J. St. Hil.
Pine-Apple Family.
Mostly epiphytic herbs, some species terrestrial, mostly scurfy or lepi-
dote, with elongated,
entire
or spinulose-serrate
leaves.
Flowers spiked,
panicled,
or
solitary,
regular and
perfect,
usually conspicuously
bracted.
Perianth of 3 thin distinct or somewhat united sepals, and 3 clawed distinct
or united petals.
Stamens
6, usually inserted on the base of the corolla.
Ovary inferior or superior, 3-celled; ovules numerous in each cavity, ana-
tropous;
style short or elongated; stigmas
3.
Fruit capsular or baccate,
sometimes fleshy.
Seeds numerous, naked, winged or plumose,
the testa
luembranous.
Embryo small, situated at the base of the copious endosperm.
About 45 genera and 900 species,
all natives of
tropical and subtropical
America.
1.
134
•
BROMELIACEAE
mucronate or spinulose-tipped.
Petals distinct or nearly so, flat, acute, eligulate.
Filaments flliform or somewhat dilated; anthers nearly linear; pollen-grains with
4 pores.
Ovary inferior, 3-celled; style rather stout; ovules numerous, caudate
or naked.
Fruit indehiscent, not fleshy, crowned by the persistent sepals.
Seeds
curved, unappendagod.
[Commemorates Hohenberg, an obscure botanist.]
About 30 species, natives of the West Indies, northern South America and
Brazil.
Type species: Hohenhergia slellala Schultes
f.
Bracteoles 1-1.5 cm. long; spikes 2-3 cm. long.
Leaves
abruptly
acute; inflorescence
floccose; lower
spikes
stalked.
1- H. porioricensis.
Leaves
gradually
attenuate:
inflorescence
glabrous;
spikes
sessile or the lower ones short-stalked.
2. H. atlenuala.
Bracteoles about 2.5 cm. long; spikes 4-0 cm. long, short-stalked
or sessile.
3. H. anhllana.
1. Hohenbergia portoricensis Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 136.
189G.
Leaves subchartaceous, little dilated at the base, minutely lepidote at least
beneath, 4-6 dm.
long, 3-6 cm.
wide,
the spinulose
tip abruptly
acute,
the
margins armed with spinules about
1 mm. long.
Scape slender, glabrous, more
or less shorter than the leaves, its sheaths lanceolate, long-acuminate, sometimes
spinulose-margined
; inflorescence 2-3 dm. long, loosely floccose; bracts similar to
the sheaths of the scape; spikes several, rather distant, ellipsoid, 2-3 cm. long,
the lower ones on stalks about 2 cm. long, the stalks of the upper ones shorter;
bracteoles broadly ovate, strongly veined, 1-1.5 cm. long, tipped with a rather
stout spine; sepals &-7 mm. long, sjnne-tipped
; fruit shorter than the bractlets.
On trees and rocks in the eastern mountains of Porto Rico. Endemic.
2
Hohenbergia attenuata Britton, sp. nov.
Leaves subcoriaceous,
little dilated at the base, minutely lepidote beneath,
2-4 cm.
wide, the apex gradually attenuate into a spine
1-1..5 cm.
long,
the
margins armed with curved
spinules
1-1.5 mm.
long.
Scape rather
slender,
glabrous, much shorter than the leaves, its narrowly lanceolate sheaths spinulose-
margined; inflorescence 1-3 dm. long, glabrous; bracts similar to the sheaths of
the scape; spikes several, approximate, 2-3 cm. long,
all short-stalked or sessile;
bracteoles ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 1-1.3 cm. long, attenuate into a rather weak
spine.
On rocks.
Sierra de Naguabo.
Endemic.
Type from
hillsides near Rio
Icaco
(Shafer 3567); a\so on homa.
lca.co (Shafer SJ/Ol.)
„
^
„
,„„„.
A leaf of a barren plant at Hato Arriba near Arecibo
{Britton &
Cornell
7 98/)
may be referable to this species.
3. Hohenbergia antillana Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 137.
1896.
Leaves coriaceous,
stiff, slightly dilated at the base, den.sely minutely lepi-
dote beneath, 5-12 cm. wide, often
1.5 m.
long, the apex
gradually or rather
abruptly acute, and spine-tipped, the marginal spinules of the upper part minute,
those of the lower part curved, 1-2.5 mm. long, or some leaves nearly unarmed
marginally.
Scape
stout,
white-farinose, much
shorter
than
the
leaves,
its
chartaceous
sheaths
lanceolate,
spine-tipped and
usually
spinulose-margined,
appressed; inflorescence dense, 1-3 dm. long, floccose,
tlie spikes 4-6 cm. long,
approximate, sometimes as many as 24, the lower ones on stalks 1.5-2.5 cm. long;
bracts .similar to the sheaths of the scape; bracteoles 2-2.5 cm. long, broadly
ovate, striate-veined, acute, tipped with short stout .spines; sepals about
1 cm.
long; petals about 1.5 cm. long; fruit 2-winged, about 8 mm. in diameter.
On shaded limestone rocks and also on trees, northern districts of Porto Rico and
near Guanica.
Endemic.
BROMELIACEAE
135
3. WITTMACKIA Mez, in Mart.
Fl. Bras. 3': 274.
1891.
Large epiphytic or terrestrial herbs, with nearly linear spinulose-margined
leaves, the scapose inflorescence paniculate.
Flowers
perfect.
Sepals distinct
or nearly so, laterally membranous, winged, the apex spinulose.
Petals linear,
acute, distinct, eligulate, recurved at ant-hesis.
Stamens
0, not as long as the
petals; filaments slender, dilated at the base; anthers ellipsoid; pollen-grains 2-
porose.
Ovary inferior, compressed, 3-celled; style
filiform; stigma lobes elon-
gated; ovules numerous.
Fruit indehiscent, not fleshy: seeds curved, unappend-
aged.
[In honor of Marx Carl Ludwig Wittmack, German botanist, born 1839.]
Four known species, of the West Indies and Brazil, the following typical.
1. Wittmackia lingulata (L.) Mez, in Mart.
Fl. Bras. 3^: 275.
1891.
Bromelia lingulata
L. Sp. PI. 285.
1753.
Chevalliera HnauhUa Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 591.
1864.
Leaves rosulate, rigid, .5-10 dm. long, 4-6 cm. wide, the base concave some-
what broader, the apex rather abruptly acutely tipped, the margins closely armed
with slightly curved prickles 1-2 mm. long, the under surface somewhat lepidote.
Scape elongated,
floccose when
young,
bearing
lanceolate, acuminate
bracts;
branches of the inflorescence several, suberect, somewhat curved, 1-2 dm. long,
flowers .sessile; bractlets linear-lanceolate, long-attenuate; sepals 5-6 mm. long;
petals acute, 10 mm. long, much larger than the stamens; fruit 8-10 mm. long.
Rocky
thickets,
6
kilometers from
Rio
Piedras towards Caguas,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
Culebra;
St.
Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola;
Virgin
Gorda:— Martinique
to
Trinidad.
4. ANANAS Mill. Ciard. Dist. Abr. cd.
4.
17.54.
A
terrestrial herb,
with many,
rosulate,
linear,
stifl" leaves,
their margins
densely armed with hooked prickles, the perfect flowers densely spicate at the
summit of a short or elongated scape.
Sepals distinct,
erect, obtuse.
Petals
distinct, convolute. ligulate.
Stamens shorter than the petals; filaments filiform
anthers linear, acute, sagittate; pollen-grains 2-porose.
Ovary inferior, 3-celled;
style
filiform.
Fruit
aggregate,
syncarpous,
fleshy and
watery,
the connate
berries tipped by the withering-persistent perianth; seeds
(usually wanting in
cultivated races) unappendaged.
[Name Brazilian. 1
A monotypic genus.
1. Ananas Ananas
(L.) Cockerel!, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 19; 776.
1897.
Bromelia Ananas L. Sp.
PI. 285.
1753.
Aiianas satmis Schultes f.; R. & S. Syst. 7: 1283.
1830.
Leaves
1 m. long or less, 1-1.5 cm. wide, lepidote on both sides at sheathing
base, the apex spiny, the marginal prickles horny, about 2 mm.
long.
Scape
erect, mostly shorter than the leaves, its sheaths with si)inulose margins; spikes
4-10 cm. long; flowers erect-ascending; sepals 5-7 mm. long; petals violet, about
15 mm. long, clawed, dilated at the apex; syncarpous fruit in the wild plant usually
not over 10 cm. long, in culture much longer.
Sparingly established after cultivation in Porto Rico.
Native of Brazil.
Widely
cultivated for its fruit in troiiical and warm-temperate regions.
PiNA.
Pine-apple.
Pine-apples are one of the most important products of Porto Rico,
especially on the
northern coastal plain and among the haystack hills of the Arecilio limestone.
5. AECHMEA R. & P.
Fl.
Per. 3: 37.
1802.
Acaulescent, mostly epiphytic herbs, with narrow, rosulate, usually spinulose-
margined leaves and perfect flowers in simple or panicled spikes, or rarely race-
136
BROMELIACEAE
mose:
Sepals distinct or more or
less connate, convolute.
Petals convolute,
connivent above, ligulate.
Stamens shorter than the petals
; pollen-grains porose.
Ovary
inferior,
3 celled;
style shorter than
the stamens; stigma-lobes
linear.
Fruit
baccate
or
coriaceous,
indehiscent,
crowned
by
the
persistent
sepals.
Seeds roughened, unappendaged.
[Greek, pointed, referring to the armament.]
About 120 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Aechmea panicu-
lata R. & P.
1. Aechmea nudicaulis (L.) Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 593.
1864.
Bromelia nudicaulis L. Sp. PI. 286.
1753.
Leaves
linear, 3-5 dm. long 2-7 cm. wide, densely lepidote beneath, the
apex more or less abruptly spinulose-mucronate, the margins armed with brown
spinules 1.5-3 mm. long.
Scape slender, nodding, often as long as the leaves,
its sheaths narrow, unarmed; flowers in a simple dense spike 5-10 cm.
long;
bracteoles minute or none;
sepals unsymmetric,
distinct,
the apex
spinulose;
petals yellow, acute, about 12 mm. long
; pollen-grains 2-porose; berry subglobose;
seeds 2 mm. long, brown.
On
trees at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola; Trinidad; conti-
nental tropical America.
Aechmea paniculata R.
«& P., recorded by Krebs as found on St. Thomas,
is an error in record or in determination.
6. PITCAIRNIA ITRer. Sert. Angl. 7.
1788.
Herbs, mostly
terrestrial or saxicolous,
the tufted
linear leaves often
di-
morphous,
spinulose-margined
or
entire,
the
flowers
perfect,
showy,
the
in-
flore.scence
usually
scapose.
Sepals
distinct,
convolute,
acute
or mucronate-
Petals distinct, mostly red or yellow, ligulate or eligulate, narrow.
Stamens as
long as the petals or shorter; filaments
slender, linear; anthers narrowly linear
pollen-grains ellipsoid.
Ovary partly superior; style filiform; stigma obliquely
capitate;
ovules
numerous.
Fruit
capsular,
septicidally
3-valved;
seeds
nu-
merous, variously winged.
[Commemorates Dr. William
Pitcairn, 1711-1791.)
About 140 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species; Pitcairnia
bromeliifolia T/Her.
Bractlets short, mostly shorter than the pedicels.
1. P
anqustifolin.
Bractlets equalling the pedicels or longer.
2.
P.
latifolia.
1. Pitcairnia angustifolia (Sw.) Redoute,
Lil. 2:
pi.
76.
1805.
Hepetis angustifolia Sw. Prodr. 56.
1788.
Pitcairnia alta Hassk. in Verh. Naturk. Ver. Ned. Ind.
l:
5.
1856.
Leaves linear, sometimes 1 m. or more long,
1..5-2.4 cm. broad at the middle,
glabrous above, white-furfuraceous beneath or glabrous, the margin distantly
serrate throughout with small spine-like teeth
; peduncle slender, sometimes 6 dm.
or more
long;
inflorescence many-flowered,
branched,
rarely
simple;
bractlet
lanceolate
to
ovate-lanceolate, 3-8 mm.
long, acuminate;
pedicels ascending,
4-10 mm.
long;
.sepals oblong-lanceolate,
1.5-23 mm.
long; petals bright
red,
4.5-5 cm. long, acute; stamens nearly as long as the petals; capsule angled, 13-15
mm. long.
On rocks at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas,
St.
Croix; St. Jan; Tortola:—Cuba; St. Kitts to Grenada.
BROMELIACEAE
137
2. Pitcaimia latifolia Soland.; Ait. Hort. Kew. l: 401.
1789.
Hepetis latifolia Raeusch. Nom. ed. 3, 91.
1797.
Pitcairnia ramosa Jacq. Eclog. 1:
1.54.
1811-1816,
Pitcaimia latifolia furfuracea Baker, Brom. 92.
1889.
Hepetis ramosa Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 974.
1896.
Leaves linear, 6-10 dm. long, 2-2..5 cm. broad, glabrous above, more or less
white-furfuraceoiis beneath, armed on the margin near the base with few, small,
dark brown spine-like teeth, occasionally also armed toward the apex; peduncles
4-6 dm. long; inflorescence branched or simple; bractlets lanceolate, 12-17 mm.
long, acuminate; pedicels arachnoid-pubescent, 5-11 mm.
long; sepals oblong-
lanceolate, 16-20 mm. long; petals bright red, 4.5-5 cm. long, the apex acutish;
capsule shorter than the calyx, 14 mm. long, 9 mm. broad.
On rocks in forests, Porto Rico;
St. Croix:—Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Eustatius to
St. Vincent.
Recorded by Krebs as formerly found in
St. Thomas;
it is not known to
occur there at present.
Pitcaimia bromeliaefolia
Ait.,
Jamaican,
Avas
recorded
by
Krebs
as
found in St. Thomas prior to 1S51, the record presumably erroneous.
7. CATOPSIS Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 599.
1864.
Epiphytic herbs, the basal leaves tufted, lepidote, entire, the flowering stem
scapose, usually longer than the leaves, the inflorescence spicate or paniculate,
the white or yellow flowers sessile.
Flowers perfect or nearly so.
Petals distinct.
Stamens shorter than the petals, those of pistillate flowers very short, with sterile
anthers,
tho.se of staminate or perfect flowers with slender filaments and ovate
or elliptic anthers.
Ovary of pistillate or perfect flowers ovoid or ellipsoid; style
shorter than the ovary or none.
Capsule septicidally dehiscent above the middle.
Seeds thick, comose.
[Greek, a view, the significance not evident.]
About 16
species,
of tropical and
subtropical America.
Type
species;
C.
nutans
(Sw.)
Griseb.
Leaves long-attenuate from a broad base; inflorescence paniculate.
1.
C. nutans.
Leaves lingulate, blunt or mucronate.
Inflorescence paniculate; style very siiort.
2.
C. nitida.
Inflorescence simply spicate or of 2 or 3 branches; style about
2 mm. long.
3.
C. sessiliflora.
1. Catopsis nutans (Sw.) Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 599.
1864.
Tillandsia nutans Sw. Prodr. 56.
1788.
Scape slender, 6 dm. long or less.
Leaves light green, 1-3 dm. long, tapering
from a base 2. .5-5 cm. broad to a long-attenuate tip; sheaths of the scape erect,
ascending or nodding; inflorescence large, paniculate, sometimes 2 dm. long, or
sometimes reduced to a few branches, its branches naked below, densely several-
many-flowered above; bracts of the inflorescence attenuate, 2-5 cm. long;brac-
teoles broadly ovate, rounded, brownish, about 6 mm. wide, shorter than the
sepals; flowers 6-7 mm. long; sepals elliptic, obtuse; petals white, elliptic, rounded,
a Uttle longer than the .sepals; style very short; capsule pointed, about 8 mm. long.
On trees in forests, Porto Rico; St. Thomas, St. Jan, Tortola:—Florida; Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua to Trinidad; Central America.
2. Catopsis nitida (Hook.) Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 599.
1864.
Tillandsia nitida Hook. Exotic Fl. 3:
pi. 218.
1826.
Scape slender, about as long as the leaves or shorter.
Leaves 1.5-3 dm.
long or the outer ones shorter, 2-4 cm. wide, lingulate, narrowed upward to the
138
BROMELIACEAE
rounded, mucronulate apex; sheaths of the scape and bracts of the inflorescence
short; inflorescence paniculate, sometimes with but few branches, the branches
naked below, densely several-flowered above; bracteoles broadly ovate, rounded,
shorter than the sepals, about 5 mm. long; sepals unsynunetric, elliptic, shorter
than the yellowish white elliptic petals; style scarcely any; capsule pointed, aliout
8 mm. long.
On trees in mountain
forests, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Mar-
tinique; Guadeloujje; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
3. Catopsis sessiliflora (R. & P.) Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 625.
1896.
TiUandsia sessiliflora R. & P.
Fl.
I'er. 3: 42.
1802.
Scape slender,
l..'>-3 dm. long,
its sheaths short.
Leaves Ungulate, 2 dm.
long or less. 1.5-2.2 cm. wide, the apex rounded or obtuse and mucronate.
In-
florescence
a
simple spike 5-10 cm. long
or
with two
or
three nearly erect
branches; rachis straight; bracteoles about one-half as long as the Ijroad sepals;
petals ovate or ovate-lanceolate, white, about as long as the .sepals ; style manifest;
capsule 10-12 mm. long.
On
trees.
Sierra de Naguabo:—Cuba; Guadeloupe,
Martinique; Tobago; con-
tinental tropical America.
S. DENDROPOGON Raf. Neog. 3.
1825.
Pendulous,
nuich-branched
plants,
with
thread-like stems and
branches,
very narrow entire
leaves and yellow or greenish flowers.
Sepals distinct or
very nearly
so.
Petals distinct.
Stamens long, the 3 inner ones borne on the
bases of the
petals;
filaments
filiform; anthers
linear.
Ovary
superior;
style
coliminai-; stigmas short.
c:'apsule septicidally 3-valved.
Seeds erect, narrow,
supported on
a long
funiculus which
splits
into
fine
threads.
[Greek,
tree-
beard.]
About 3 species, the following typical.
1. Dendropogon usneoides (L.) Raf. Neog. 3.
1825.
Renealmia usneoides L. Sp. PI. 287.
1753.
Tillandsia usneoides
Ij. Sp.
PI. ed.
2, 411.
1702.
Stems flexuous, hanging clustered
in festoons from the branches of trees,
1-8 m. long, gray and,
like the filiform leaves, densely silvery-scurfy
all over.
Leaves scattered, 2 8 cm. long, scarcely
1 mm. thick, their bases somewhat di-
lated; flowers sessile and solitary or rarely 2 together in the axils of the leaves;
sepals about 6 mm. long, pale green; petals yellow; stamens about as long as the
calyx; capsule linear, 2
3 cm. long, at length .splitting into 3 linear valves.
At lower elevations in dry districts, Porto Rico; St. Thomas, St. Jan, St. Croix:
Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Martin; Antigua
to Trmidad;
continental tropical America, south to Argentina.
Barb.\sde Uc.\R.
Sp.\nish Moss.
Old Man's Beard.
9. TILLANDSIA L. Sp. PI. 286.
1753.
Epiphytic plants with narrow
entire leaves and
white,
yellow or purple
flowers.
Sepals
distinct
and
separate
or
very
nearly
so.
Petals
distinct.
Stamens hypogynous or the thi-ee iiuier ones inserted on the bases of the petals;
filaments filiform; anthers linear or linear-oblong.
Ovary superior; style subu-
late; stigmas short.
Capsule
septicidally
3-valved.
Seeds
erect, narrow, sup-
ported on a long funiculus which splits ui) into fine threads.
[Dedicated to Ellas
Tillands.
1640-1693,
Swedish
botanist.]
About 350 species,
natives
of warm
and tropical America, known as Wild Pines or Pinon.
Type species
: Tillandsia
utriculata L.
BROMELIACEAE
139
1. Flowering stems
leafy,
their
leaves smaller than
the
basal
ones; stamens longer than the petals.
a.
Branches of the inflorescence loosely flowered.
Flowers appressed.
Flowers widely spreading.
b.
Branches of the inflorescence densely flowered.
Leaves filiform.
Inflorescence
mostly
not
longer
than
the
leaves;
bractlets silvery-lepidote; spikes few.
Inflorescence usually longer tlian
tlie leaves; bractlets
nearly glabrous; spikes several.
Leaves flat or subterete, elongated, not Hliform.
Bractlet.5 stiff, rigid.
Inflorescence-branches subdigitate.
Inflorescence-branclies pinnate.
Sepals shorter tlian the lineate bractlet.s.
Sepals as long as the bractlets or longer.
Bractlets membranous or coriaceous.
Plant.s
without
bulb-like
bases;
leaves
gradually
tapering from the base.
Plants with distinct bulb-like bases; leaves abruptly
enlarged at the base.
2.
Flowering stems
scajje-like;
basal
leaves
setaceous-filiform;
stamens shorter than the petals.
1.
T. utriculnla.
2.
T. aloifolia.
3.
T. tenuifolia.
4.
T. festiicoides.
.5.
T. fasciculata.
6.
T.
lincutispica.
7.
T. poiystacliya.
8. T
sublaia.
9.
T. bulbosa.
10.
T. recurvata.
1. Tillandsia utriculata
\j. Sp.
PI. 2S(>.
1753.
Tillaii.ilsia ramuaa Swoot, Hort, Brit.
42ri.
1S27.
Tillandsia Sintenisii Baker, Journ. Bot. 26: 12.
1888.
I'laiits solitai-y or clustered on trees or .shrub.s, large, .soraetime.s 4 m. high.
Basal
leaves numerous,
densely
appressed-sealy, 3-7 dm.
long,
lanceolate-at-
tentuate with bases gradually expanded, and .'V-10 cm. wide, the lower ones of the
flowering stem similar, but smaller, the ui)per reduced to acute sheathing scales
2-4 cm. long; inflorescence usually much branched, the branches long, ascending
or nearly erect; spikes lew-flowered; bractlets oblong, appressed,
l..'>-3 cm. long;
sepals oblong.
2-2..''> cm. long; petals white or nearly white, shorter than the sta-
mens; capsules subcylindric, 4-5 cm. long.
On trees, Porto Kico, in dry and moist liistricts;
St. Tlionias,
St. Croix;—Florida:
West
Indies; continental tropical America.
2. Tillandsia aloifolia Hook. Exotic Fl. 3:
id. 205.
1S26.
TillaiKhla Jlr.xuosa Lindl. Bot. Reg.
pi.
7J,9.
1823.
Not Sw. 1788.
Plants usually solitary on trees or shrubs, 3-10 dm. long, the flow^ering stem
much longer than the densely appressed-scurfy
leaves.
Lowest leaves ovate,
acute, 8 cm. long or
less, the next lanceolate, attenuate-acuminate, 10-20 cm.
long, 3-5 cm. wide near the
ba.se, those of the stem sheathing, acute, 2-5 cm.
long;
inflorescence
panicidate;
bractlets
linear-lanceolate,
concave,
spreading,
2-3 cm. long; sepals ol>long, 2-2.5 cm. long; petals white to purple, about 2 cm.
long; stamens longer than
the
petals; capsule
cylindric,
pointed,
al)out twice
as long as the bractlets.
On l)uslies, Santurcc, Porto Kico:— Florida, Bahamas; Culja; Jamaica; Hispaniola
to Trinidad and (Hn-acao; continental tropical America.
3. Tillandsia tenuifolia L. Sp.
PI. ed 2, 410.
1762.
Tillandsia setacca Svv. Fl. Ind. Occ.
l: 593.
1797.
Plants usually tufted on trees; leaves numerous, filiform-setaceous with a
broader base, ratherstiff, 1-2 dm. long, grayish green andglabrate above, brownish
lepidote toward the base; scape slender,
ere(-t, usuaUy not longer than the lower
leaves,
its sheaths bearing filiform-setaceous blades; inflorescence stout, usually
of 3-6, few-flowered spikes; bractlets coriaceous, concave, acute, silvery-lepidote
on the back, somewhat longer than the sepals
; sepals coriaceous, 10-12 mm. long;
petals nearly 3 cm. long; capsule cylindric, acute, about 2 cm. long; coma of the
seeds white, about 15 mm. long.
On trees in forests and plantations, Porto Kico:
paniola; continental tropical America.
-Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; His-
140
BKOMELIACEAE
4. Tillandsia festucoides Brongn.; Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 678.
1896.
Similar to
T. tenuifolia, but larger, the numerous leaves up to 5 dm. long,
filiform-setaceous with a broad base, brownish-lepidote below.
Scape
slender,
often drooping, usually as long as the lower leaves or longer,
its sheaths with
filiform-setaceous blades; inflorescence of several or many, several-flowered spikes
3-4 cm. long; bractlets coriaceous, ovate-lanceolate, concave, acute, longer than
the sepals, glabrous or sparingly lepidote on the back; sepals about 17 mm. long;
petals about 4 cm.
long; capsule 2-3.5 cm.
long,
fusiform-cylindric,
pointed;
coma of the seeds white, about 17 mm. long.
On trees especially in mountain forests, Porto Rico:— Florida; Cuba; Hispaniola;
Jamaica.
5. Tillandsia fasciculata Sw. Prodr. 56.
1788.
Vriesia glaiicophylla Hook. Bot. Mag.
pi. 4415.
1848.
T. fasciculata venosispica Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 683.
1896.
Plants usually clustered on trees, the flowering stems stout, 2-6 dm. long.
Leaves densely appressed-scurfy, lanceolate-attenuate, their bases 5 cm. wide or
less,
the lower ones often
as long as the flowering stems,
the upper smaller;
spikes subdigitate, compressed, 5-15 cm. long, 1-3 cm. wide, acute, many-flowered;
bractlets oblong,
acute,
appressed,
rigid, 2-3 cm.
long,
red or reddish; sepals
lanceolate, about as long as the bractlets; petals blue, nearly twice as long as the
sepals; capsules as long as the bractlets or somewhat longer, long-pointed; coma
of the seeds white, about 17 mm. long.
On trees in woodlands and forests, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Jan:
Florida; West Indies; continental tropical America.
A Porto Rico specimen was er-
roneously referred by Baker to
T. anceps Lodd.
6. Tillandsia lineatispica Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 699.
1896.
Leaves
linear above a dilated
base, densely
lepidote below, about 6 dm.
long, 2.5 cm. wide with long, rather
stiff,
thick,
filiform incurved
tips.
Scape
1.3 in. high, stout, erect, glabrous,
its sheaths with l)lades smaller; inflore.scence
compact,
about
3 dm.
long,
surpassing
the
leaves,
paniculate;
spikes
erect,
about 1.5 dm. long, 10 mm. wide, linear, the lower sometimes digitately branched
bracts
red,
lepidote,
erect,
long-acuminate;
bractlets marginally and
apically
violet-purple,
coriaceous,
carinate,
ovate-elliptic,
acute,
about
2.7
cm.
long,
prominently lineate; sepals glabrous, lineate, about 2 cm. long; petals longer than
the sepals.
On
rocks,
St. Jan
(Eggers
SlOlf. according to Mez).
Endemic.
Tliis
is
pre-
sumably the undetermined species recorded by Eggers as growing at Adrian, St. Jan.
7. Tillandsia polystachya L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 410.
1762.
Renealmia polystachya L. Sp. PI. 286.
1753.
Tillandsia angustifolia Sw. Prodr. 57.
1788.
Plants solitary or clustered on trees or shrubs, the flowering stem 2. .5-4 dm.
or more
tall.
Leaves linear or linear
filiform, and often recurving above the
dilated
bases,
the lower ones
shorter than
the
flowering stem;
spikes
erect,
5-25 cm. or more long, many-flowered; bractlets ovate-oblong, erect or appres.sed,
rigid;
sepals
leathery,
elliptic or
linear-elliptic,
14-15 mm.
long;
petals
blue,
nearly twice as long as the sepals; capsules cylindric-prismatic, 2.5-3.4 cm. long,
acute.
On trees In woodlands and
forests. Porto Rico:—Florida: Jamaica; Cuba; Hia-
paniola; Guadeloupe to St. Vincent; continental tropical America.
BROMELIACEAE
141
8. Tillandsia sublaxa Baker, Journ. Bot. 25: 280.
1887.
Plants
solitary
or
clustered;
leaves
lanceolate,
lepidote,
12-25 cm.
long
gradually tapering from
the broadened
base.
Flowering stem
as
long
as or
longer than the leaves; spilve unbranched, compressed, 4-14 cm. long; bracteoles
subcoriaceous, oblong-lanceolate,
1..5-2 cm.
long; sepals oblong, obtuse; petals
lilac, much longer than the sepals; capsule 2-2.5 cm. long; seeds 2.5 mm. long,
their coma white,
1.5 cm. long.
On
trees or shrubs in forests, Porto
Rico; Vieques:—Florida; Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola.
9. Tillandsia bulbosa Hook. Exot. Fl. 3:
pi. 173.
1826.
Bases of the lower leaves bulbous-imbricated, suborbicular, 4-5 cm. broad,
abruptly narrowed
into a narrowly
linear,
subterete-involute blade 7-25 cm.
long, appressed lepidote, spreading, the upper leaves with similar erect blades,
but with narrow clasping bases.
Scape shorter than the leaves or about equalling
them; spikes 1-6, often 2, digitate, compressed, rather densely flowered, 4-7 cm.
long, subtended by
leaf-like
bracts;
bracteoles ovate-lanceolate,
conduplicate,
1-1.5 cm. long, usually red; sepals oval, about 12 mm. long; petals about 2.5 cm.
long; capsule cylindric, 3-4 cm. long; seeds 3 mm. long, their coma white, 2-2.5
cm. long.
On a
tree, Mayaguez,
1913
(IV.
E.
Hess,
58S):—Jamaica, Cuba; Martinique;
Tobago; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
10. Tillandsia recurvata L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 410.
1762.
Renealmia recurvata L. Sp. PI. 287.
1753.
Stems clustered on
the branches of trees or shrubs, sometimes on other
objects, even on telegraph
wires, often forming large masses, the leaf-bearing
part 3-8 cm. long, terminated by a scajie-Uke, l-.5-flowered (mostly 2-flowered)
very slender peduncle 5-12 cm. long.
Leaves filiform-setaceous, al)out as long
as the peduncle or shorter, densely covered with
soft, spreading
scales,
their
bases a little dilated; l^racts lanceolate, 1-1.5 cm. long; sepals lanceolate, acute,
shorter than the bracts; petals blue, narrow, about as long as the bracts; capsule
linear, prismatic, 2-2.5 cm. long.
On trees, shrubs and telegraph wires at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas,
St. Jan,
St. Croix:—West Indies, south to Martinique; Florida and Texas;
tropical continental America.
NiDOS de gungulen.
Tillandsia canescens Sw., recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas,
is an error
in determination.
10. NEOVRIESIA Britton.
[Vriesia Lindl. Bot. Reg. 1843: pi. 10.
1843.
Not Hassk. 1842.]
Large,
epiphytic Bromeliads,
the
leaves mostly
tufted,
lepidote
at
least
beneath, the scapose inflorescence subspicate or paniculate, the perfect flowers
often
distichous.
Sepals
distinct,
convolute, mostly
obtuse.
Petals
distinct,
convolute, ligulate, the ligules mostly emarginate.
Stamens in 2 series; anthers
elongated, dorsi-flxed.
Ovary superior or partly inferior; style elongated.
Cap-
sule
septicidally
dehiscent.
Seeds many,
fusiform,
comose.
[Commemorates
VV. H. de Vries, Professor of Botany in Amsterdam.]
About 90 species, natives
of tropical America.
Type species: Tillandsia psitlacina Hook.
142
BROMELIACEAE
1. Neovriesia macrostachya (Bello) Britton
Caraguafa inacroslachya Bello, Ann. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 122.
1883.
Vriesea macrostachya Mez, in DC. Mon. Than. 9: 601.
1896.
Leaves
thin,
flexil>le,
linear above a somewhat broader base,
5..'>-7..5 dm.
loiif?, 5-8 cm. broad, often soiiKnvhat roinided and acute at the apex, Klabrous
above, minutely lepidote beneath; flowering stem 4.5-S dm. or more
tall; pe-
duncle stout, stiffly erect; bract-leaves appressed, imbricat(;d; spike simple, 7..S-9
cm. broad; flower-bracts ovate-triangular, 3-5 cm. long; sepals elliptic, 2.6-3 cm.
long, obtuse; petals broadly Ungulate; capsule-valves 4-5 cm. long,
1..5-1.6 cm.
broad.
On
trees
in
niouutaiu
forests,
Porto
Kico:—Cuba; Jamaica;
South America.
PiRIGALLO.
10. GUZMANIA R. & P.
Fl. Tor. 3: 37.
1802.
Epiphytic herbs with the basal leaves usually less attenuate than in species
of Tillandsia, the sides above the dilated bases nearly parallel up to the abruptly
narrowed
apex.
Inflorescence simple;
flowers
.solitary
in
the
axils of bracts;
sepals oblong, shortly connate at the base; corolla gamopetalous, the segments
shorter than the cylindrical tube
; stamens inserted at the throat of the corolla-
tube; anthers linear-oblong, united
in a ring around the style by their edges;
ovary 3-celled; style elongated; stigma short; capsule and seeds similar to Til-
landsia.
[Named
in honor of Anastasio tJuzman, a Spanish naturalist.]
About
20 species or more, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Guzmania tricolor
R. & P.
Inflorescence short, rorymbiform.
1.
(1. lingulata.
Inflorescence elongateri, spicatc.
Upper bracts
of
the inflorescence subtending barren flowers
or without flowers.
Bracts much sliorter tlaan the flowers; coroUa yellow, 5-6
cm. long.
2.
G. Berteroniana.
Bracts about as long as
tlie flowers; corolla
wliite, about
3 cm. long.
3.
G. monostachi/a.
All bracts subtending fertile flowers.
4.
G. erylhrolepis.
1. Guzmania lingulata (L.) Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 899.
1896.
Tillandsia lingulata L. Sp. PI. 286.
1753.
Caraynata lingulata Lindl. Bot. Reg. under pi. 1068.
1827.
Lower leaves nearly linear above a liroader, lepidote l)ase, 3-5 dm. long, the
apex acuminate, the upper ones much shorter, forming a cup-shaped involucre.
Scape stout, usually not longer than the involucre-leaves; inflorescence dense,
several-many-flowered, corymbiform; bracts linear, usually red, longer than the
sepals; sepals linear, 15
18 mm. long; petals white, linear, connate, rounded and
hooded at the apex; capsule oljlong, short-beaked, about 3 cm. long; coma of the
seeds red-brown.
On trees in moxnitain forests. Porto Rico; Tortola:—.Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
Antigua to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2. Guzmania Berteroniana (R. & S.) Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 904.
1896.
Caraguata Berteroniana R. & S. Syst. 7: 1229.
1830.
Tillandsia Caraguata Dietr. Syn. 2: 1059.
1840.
Caraguata grandiflora Baker, Brom.
145.
1889.
Leaves linear above a slightly broader base, rosulate, 3-4 dm. long, 4-5 cm.
wide, densely and minutely Icpidote-punctate toward the
base, otherwise gla-
brous, the apex acute or acuminate.
Scape much shorter than the leaves, stout
BROMELIACEAE
143
inflorescence a simple dense spike 2-3 dm. long; bracts scarlet, cuspidate, the
lower acuminate or acute, subtending flowers, the uppermost lanceolate, acute,
barren; sepals 2 cm. long, broadly elliptic, rounded; petals yellow, 5-6 cm. long,
coherent above into a tube; capsule pointed, about 3 cm. long; coma of the seeds
white.
On trees and banks in mountain forests, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
3. Guzmania monostachya
(L.)
Rusby; Mez
in DC. Mon. Phan.
9:
905.
1895.
Rencalmia monostachya L. Sp.
PI. 287.
1753.
Tillandsia monostachya L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 410.
1762.
Guzmania tricolor R. & P. Fl. Per. 3: 38.
1802.
Leaves linear above a somewhat broadened base, densely rosulate, 2-4 dm.
long,
1..5-2.5 cm. wide, minutely lepidote-punctate, or becoming lepidote in age.
the apex acuminate.
Scape rather stout, much shorter than the leaves; inflores-
cence a simple rather dense spike about as long as the scax)e, shorter than the
leaves; bracts pale green, sometimes brownish-veined, broadly ovate, acuminate
or acute, the lower subtending perfect flowers, the upper barren; sepals obovate,
nearly 2 cm. long, connate below; petals about 3 cm. long, white, partly coherent
into a tube, their apices rounded; capsule 2-2.5 cm. long; coma of seeds white.
On trees in coffee plantations and in forests, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; His-
paniola; Tobago; Trinidad; Florida and continental tropical America.
4. Guzmania erythrolepis Brongn.
; Planch. Fl. Serres II. 1: 25, pi. 1089.
1856.
Leaves nearly or quite lepidote when mature, linear above an oval base,
4 dm. long or
less, 3-4 cm.
wide, the apex acute or acuminate.
Scape short
and stout; inflorescence a dense many-flowered spike 1-3 dm. long; bracts scarlet,
membranous, broadly ovate, the lower acuminate or acute, the upper acute,
obtuse
or rounded,
all subtending
perfect
flowers;
sepals about 2 cm.
long,
elliptic rounded; petals 3. .5-4 cm. long, connate, white.
Forest on Monte Alegrillo:—Jamaica; Cuba.
11. THECOPHYLLUM E. Andre, Bromel. Andreanae 107.
1889.
Acaulescent epiphytic herbs resembling species of Guzmania.
Inflorescence
mostly paniculate, with 2 or more flowers in the axils of tlie bracts; sepals erect,
imbricated, shortly connate at the base; corolla gamopetalous; stamens inserted
at the throat of the corolla-tube; filaments short; anthers free; ovary 3-celled;
style
long;
stigmas
linear;
capsule
oblong-trigonous,
septicidally
dehiscent;
seeds numerous.
[Greek,
pouch-leaf.]
About
12
species,
natives
of
tropical
America.
Type species, Thccophyllum Witlmackii E. Andre.
1. Thecophyllum Sintenisii (Baker) Mez, Bull. Herb. Bolss. II. 3: 131.
1903.
Caraguata Sintenisii Baker, Brom. 145.
1889.
Guzmania Sintenisii Mez, in DC. Mon. Phan. 9: 920.
1896.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 2-3 dm. long, 3-4 cm. broad, lepidote-punctate;
flowering stem 4-6 dm.
long; bract-leaves
large,
lanceolate;
inflorescence
lax;
bracts ovate, bright red, 4-9 cm. long; flowers sessile, usually 2 in the axils of each
bract; sepals oblong, 2-2.5 cm.
long, obtuse; corolla-tube cylindric,
the lobes
oblong; capsule valves 2.5-3 cm. long.
On trees in mountain woodlands, Porto Kico:—Jamaica; Cuba,
144
COMMELINACEAE
Dyckia sulphurea K. Koch, Argentinian, establislied by Mr. Arthur S. Fair-
chilrl at Louisenhoj,
St. Thomas, has
stiff lanceolate spine-tipped leaves 10-12
cm. long in a dense rosette, the racemose inflorescence 4-6 dm.
tall, the sulphur-
yellow flowers about 1.5 cm. long.
Family 3.
COMMELINACEAE Reichenb.
Spiderwort Family.
Perennial or annual succulent herbs, with regular or irregular perfect and
often showy flowers in cymes or umbels, commonly subtended by spathe-
like or leafy bracts.
Perianth of 2
series; a calyx of mostly 3 persistent
sepals and a corolla of mostly 3 membranous and deciduous or fugacious
petals.
Stamens mostly
6,
usually hypogynous,
rarely fewer,
all
similar
and perfect or 2 or 3 of them different from the others and sterile; filaments
filiform or somewhat flattened; anthers 2-celled, mostly longitudinally de-
hiscent.
Ovarv superior, 2- or 3-celled; ovules solitary or several in each
cell, orthotropous; style simple; stigmas terminal, entire or obscurely 2- or
3-lobed.
Seeds solitary or several in each
cell of the capsule.
Capsule 2-
or 3-celled, loculicidally 2- or 3-valved, or the fruit indehiscent.
Embryo
small.
Endosperm
copious.
About
25
genera and 350
species,
mostly
natives of tropical regions, a few in the temperate zones.
Fruit indehiscent.
1-
Athyrocarpus.
Capsule loculicidally 2- or 3-valved.
r^„^^„,j^„
Fertile stamens 2 or
.3, with 1-4 sterile ones.
2.
Commelina.
Stamens 1-6,
all fertile.
Stamens
.5 or 6.
Petals distinct or nearly so.
Ovary-cavities 2-ovuIed.
Peduncles exserted from the mouths of the leaf-
sheaths; sepals herbaceous.
3. Tradescanlia.
Pedimcles
perforating
the
bases
of
the
leaf-
sheaths; sepals fleshy in friut.
4. Campeha.
Ovarv-cavities 1-ovided.
5.
Rhoeo.
Petals partly united into a tube.
6. Zcbnna.
Stamens 1-3.
7.
Calhsia.
1. ATHYROCARPUS Schlecht. Linnaea 26: 454.
1853.
Branching herbs with creeping stems,
the few-flowered inflorescence sub-
tended by spathe-Iike bracts.
Sepals 3, persistent, the exterior one boat-like,
the two interior ones flat or somewhat concave.
Petals 3, the exterior one equi-
lateral,
the two
interior ones
inequilateral.
Fertile stamens
3,
the
filaments
filiform, the anthers oblong; sterile stamens 2 or 3, the anthers hastate-triangular.
Ovary 3-celled, the anterior cells 2-ovuled, the posterior cell 1-ovuled.
Fruit
indehiscent, 5-seeded.
[Greek, referring to the valveless fruit.]
About 4 species,
natives of tropical America.
Type species
: Commelina pallida Willd.
1. Athyrocarpus persicariaefolius (DC.) Hemsl. Biol. Centr. Am. Bot. 3: 386.
1885.
Commelina persicariacfolia DC. in Redoute Lil. 8:
pi. 472.
1816.
Phaeospherion persicariaefolium C.
B. Clarke in DC. Mon. Phan.
3:
137.
1881.
Tradescanlia portoricensis Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 122.
1883.
Stems branching, prostrate or ascending, rooting at the lower nodes.
Leaves
lanceolate, 6-12 cm. long, 1..5-3.9 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, inequilateral
at the base, glabrous, the sheaths closed, often more or less rusty-cihate
; peduncles
short; spathes conduplicate, the valves semi-orbicular, 2-2.5 cm. long; interior
COMMELINACEAE
145
sepals 5 mm. long, 2-3 mm. broad; interior petals clawed; fruit ellipsoid or sub-
globose, 5.5-6 mm. long, 4.5-5 mm. broad, crustaceous, grayish-wtiite, shining;
anterior cells of the capsule 2-seeded, the seeds superposed, truncate, the posterior
cell with
1 large seed.
Woods,
in wet or moist
districts,
Porto
Rico,
ascending
to middle
or
liigher
elevations:—Cuba
(according
to
Clarke),
Grenada;
Trinidad;
Central
America;
nortiiern South America.
Cojite blanco.
2. COMMELINA [riumierj L. Sp.
PI. 40.
1753.
Somewhat succulent, perennial or annual, branching herbs,
Avith sessile or
short-petioled leaves, and irregular mostly blue flowers in cymes subtended by
spathe-like bracts.
Sepals 3, unequal, the larger ones sometimes slightly united.
Petals unequal, 2 of them larger than the third.
Perfect stamens
3, rarely 2,
one of them incurved and its anther commonly larger.
Sterile stamens usually 3,
smaller than the
fertile.
Filaments glabrous.
Capsule 3-celled.
Seeds
1 or 2
in each
cavity,
the
testa roughened, smooth
or
reticulated.
[Dedicated
to
Kaspar Commelin, 1667-1731, Dutch botanist.]
About 90 species of wide dis-
tribution in warm and temperate regions known as Cojite, P^rench-weed and
Day-flower.
Type species; Comvielina communis L.
Spathes not united at the base.
1.
C. longicaulis.
Spatbes united at the base.
2.
C. elegans.
1. Commelina longicaulis Jacq. Coll. 3: 234.
1789.
Commelina gracilis R. & P. Fl. Per. 1: 44.
1798.
Commelina caycnncnsis L. C. Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 106.
1792.
Glabrous or very nearly so; stems procumbent or creeping, 3-8 dm.
long.
Leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 2. .5^8 cm. long, acute or acuminate at the
apex,
the sheaths usually
ciliate on the margin; spathes acute
to acuminate,
1-2.5 cm. long, not united at the base; petals blue, the anterior slightly smaller;
ventral cavities of the ovary 2-ovuled, the dorsal 1-ovnled; capsule commonly
5-seeded
(2 seeds in each of the ventral cells,
1 in the dorsal)
; seeds oblong, 2-3
mm.
long,
I'eticulated.
[Coniniclina
nudijlora of authors,
not of Linnaeus;
C.
communis of Krebs. not of Linnaeus.
Fields, banks, woods and cxdtivatod and waste grounds, Porto Rico, ascending
to higher
elevations; Culebra;
Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
.Fan;
St.
Croix:—Florida;
Bermuda; West Indies; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
?. Commelina elegans H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 1: 2.59.
1816.
Stems branching at the base, the branches decimibent, rooting at the lower
nodes.
Leaves lanceolate to elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 4-10 cm. long, acute
or acuminate at the apex, rounded or acutish at the base, the sheaths often spar-
ingly ciliate on the margin; s])athes acute,
1..5^2 cm.
long, united at the base,
pubescent, or sometimes glabrous; petals blue or pale bluisli-white
; capsule 4-5
mm.
long; seeds
3,
ellipsoid, sUghtly
flattened, 3-3.5 mm.
long, smooth.
[C.
virginica of authors, not of Linnaeus.]
Banks,
fields and woods at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Desecheo;
Mona;
Vieques;
St. Thomas;
Tortola;
Anegada;
St.
Croix:—Southeastern United
States; Bermuda, West Indies; continental tropical America.
3. TRADESCANTIA L. Sp. PI. 288.
1753.
Perennial herbs, with simple or branched stems and showy or sometimes in-
conspicuous regular flowers in terminal or terminal and axillary umbel-like cymes
146
COMMELINACEAE
subtended by
leaf-like
or
scarlous
bracts.
Sepals
3,
herbaceous.
Petals
3,
sessile.
Stamens
6,
all alike and
fertile, or those opposite the petals shorter;
filaments bearded
or
glabrous.
Ovary
3-celled,
the
cells 2-ovuled.
Capsule
3-celled,
loculicidally
3-valved,
3-12-seeded.
[In
honor of John
Tradescant,
gardener of Charles
I, died
1(538.]
About
3.5 species, natives of tropical and
temperate America.
Type species: Tradescantia virginiana L,
Pedicels 0.7-2 cm. long; filaments equal or nearly so.
1.
T. (jcniculata.
Pedicels 0-3 mm. long; filaments unequal.
2.
T. elongata.
1. Tradescantia geniculata Jacq. Enum.
18.
1760.
Stems more
or
loss
diffusely branched,
the branches spreading.
Loaves
lanceolate to ovate, 3-14 cm. long,
1..5-4.2 cm. broad, acute to long-acimiinate
at the apex, rounded and occasionally somewhat cordate at the base, glabrous or
sparingly
villous on
both
surfaces,
the
sheaths
ciliate; umbels
few-flowered,
cymose or paniculate; pedicels slender, 0.7-2 cm. long; sepals lanceolate, 2. .5-3.
mm.
long,
1-1.3 mm.
broad,
acute,
glabrous or slightly
pilose;
petals white;
filaments equal or nearly so, villous, the anthers all alike; capsule 2-3 mm. long;
seeds obscurely rugose,
1 mm. long, gray.
Woods, ravines and
tliiclvets in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending to
higher elevations in
tlie mountains; Vieques:— Hispaniola; Antigua and Dominica to
Trinidad; continental tropical America; recorded from the Sandwich Islands.
2. Tradescantia elongata G. F. W. Meyer, Fl. Esseq. 146.
1S18.
Tradescantia Ballnsii Kunth., Enum. 4: 97.
1843.
Stems slender,
creeping, 3-6 dm.
long.
Leaves lanceolate
to
lanceolate-
ovate, 3-8 cm. long,
1..5-2.3 cm. broad, acute or acuminate at the apex, narrowed
or rounded at the base, usually glabrous beneath, the sheaths
ciliate; umbels
contracted; flowers subsessile or with pedicels up to 3 mm. long; sepals elliptic,
3-3.5 mm. long, 2-2.5 mm. broad, obtuse; petals pink; filaments unequal, villous,
the anthers of the two sets dissimilar; capsule 3 mm. long; seeds 1.2-1.4 mm.
broad, gray, the surface pitted.
Stream-banks and sliaded limestone rocks in the northern and central districts
of Porto Rico:—Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique; St. Vincent; RIexico to Argentina.
4. CAMPELIA L. C. Rich. Anal. Fruit. 46.
1808.
Robust herbs with leafy stems, the small white flowers in contracted umbels,
subtended by leafy bracts, the long axillary peduncles perforating the laases of
the large tube-like leaf-sheaths.
Sepals 3, fleshy
in
fruit.
Petals
3,
persistent.
Stamens
6.
Ovary
3-celled,
the
cells
2-ovuled.
Capsule
3-valved,
included
within the calyx.
Seeds
1 or 2 in each cavity.
[Greek,
bending.]
A mono-
typic genus.
1. Campelia Zanonia (L.) H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 1: 264.
1816.
Commelina Zanonia L. Sp.
PI. 41.
1753.
Tradescantia Zanonia Sw. Prodr. 57.
1788.
Stems 5-12 dm.
long,
erect
or
ascending.
Leaves oblong lanceolate
to
broadly lanceolate, 12-25 cm. long, 3-7 cm. broad, long-acuminate at the apex,
tapering at the base, glaljrous or somewhat sparingly pilose above, pilose or oc-
casionally
glabrous
beneath,
the
sheaths
hirsute;
peduncles
7-18 cm.
long;
involucral bracts lanceolate to ovate, acuminate at the apex, subcordate at the
base; pedicels 0-6 mm. long; sepals elliptic to oval, 4.5-5 mm. long, 2.5-3.5 mm.
broad, obtuse or acutish at the apex; petals white; capsule 3-5 mm. long; seeds
ellipsoid or orbicular, somewhat compressed, 2 mm. long, grayish-brown.
Woods and sliaded banks in wet or moist parts of the central districts of Porto
Rico,
ascending
to
higher
elevations :^-Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Jamaica;
continental
tropical America,
Cojite bianco,
COMMELINACEAE
147
5. RHOEO Hance; Walp, Ann. 3: 659.
1852.
A somewhat fleshy, short-stemmed, low herb, glabrous throughout or the
mouth of the leaf-sheaths pilose, the leaves much longer than the large-bracted
inflorescence, the axillary peduncles simple or forked, the umbellod flowers almost
concealed within the bracts.
Sepals 3, petal-Uke, distinct.
Petals 3.
Stamens
6. nearly equal; filaments pilose.
Ovary 3-celled, sessile; ovules solitary in each
cavity.
Fruit
a
loculicidially
3-valved
capsule.
Seeds
rugose,
eUipsoid.
[Name unexplained.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Rhoeo discolor (L'Her.) Hance; Walp. Ann. 3: 600.
1852.
Tradescantia discolor L'Her. Sert. Angl. 8.
1788.
Stems stout, 0.7-2 dm. high, about
l.r> cm. thick, often clustered and some-
times forming large colonies.
Leaves few, nearly erect, oblong-lanceolate, 2-3.5
dm.
long, 3.5 cm. wide, acuminate, dark-green above, purple beneath, rather
fleshy
; peduncles 2-4 cm. long
; bracts compressed-condupUcate, broader than high,
2-3 cm.
high, acute; umbel many-flowered; pedicels about
1 cm. long; petals
white, .5-8 mm. long; capsule ovoid, obtuse, 3-angled, 4-4.5 mm. long; seeds 3-4
mm. long.
[Tradescantia bicolor of Bello, not of Kunth.]
Walls and rocky woods at lower elevations, Porto Rico, much planted in gardens;
St
Thomas-
St.
Jan;
St.
Croix:—Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispamola;
Guadeloupe to Barbados: recorded from Mexico.
Recorded by
Bello as Tradescantta
bicolor "ti-w."
Sangria.
Sanguinaria.
Oyster Plant.
G. ZEBRINA Schnizl, Bot. Zeit. 7: 870.
1849.
Trailing perennial herbs, with showy variegated leaves, the small pinkish
flowers scarcely exserted from the unequal
bracts.
Calyx 3-parted.
Corolla
tubular, 3-lobed.
Stamens G, all perfect, the filaments adnate to the corolla-tube.
Ovary 3-celled; ovules
1
or 2
in
each
cell.
Capsule
loculicidally dehiscent.
[From -Zebra, a word of African origin.]
A monotypic genus of warm temperate
and tropical America.
I. Zebrina pendula Schnizl, Bot. Zeit. 7: 870.
1849.
Cyanolis vitlala Lindl. Journ. Hort. Soc. 5: 139.
1850.
Leaves ovate, 3-7 cm. long, 1.5-3.2 cm. broad, acute or acuminate at the
apex,
inequilaterally rounded
at the
base,
the upper surface silvery-green or
silvery-white,
the central part and margins
purple-striped,
the lower surface
red-purple; sheaths villous; calyx-lobes oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, 5 mm.
long, 1.5 mm. broad; corolla-tube 6 mm. long, the lobes ovate, 4.5-5 mm. long,
2.7-3 mm. broad; ovary glabrous.
Mountain woods, slopes and banks, Porto Rico, at middle and higher elevations
in wet or moist districts: St. Thomas; St. Croix:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispamola;
Saba; Moutserrat; Barbados; Mexico; Central America.
Natiuahzed m Bermuda.
Wandering Jew.
7. CALLISIA Loefl.
; L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 62.
1762.
Creeping
or
ascending,
often
delicate,
herbs,
the
small
axillary
flowers
glomerate, scarcely exserted from the leaf-sheath, or uniljellate on filiform ex-
serted peduncles.
Sepals 3 or 2, persistent.
Petals 3 or 2.
Stamens 3 or 2,
occasionally
1
; filaments glabrous.
Ovary 2- or 3-celled, compressed or some-
what angled; stigma penicillate or 3-lobed; ovules 2 in each cell.
Capsule mem-
branous, 2- or 3-valved.
[Greek, beauty.]
About 4 species, natives of tropical
America.
Type species: Calliaia repens L.
Flowers glomerate, scarcely exserted from the leaf-sheaths.
1.
C. repens.
Flowers umbellate on flliform exserted peduncles.
2.
C. rnonanara.
148
PONTEDERIACEAE
1.
Callisia repens L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2. 62.
1762.
Stems slender, glabrous.
Leaves cordate-ovate,
1.5-3.5 cm.
long, 0.6-J.3
cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, clasping at the base, the margin ciUate, some-
times
purplish;
flowers
glomerate,
scarcely
exserted
from
the
leaf-sheaths;
sepals
oblong-linear
to
linear-lanceolate,
3-4 mm.
long,
0.7-0.9 mm.
broad,
pilose on the back; petals 3, oblong, shorter than the sepals; ovary oblong-ellip-
soid, pilose at the apex; style filiform, glabrous
; stigma penicillate
; capsule oblong,
1.5 mm. long, compressed; .seeds
1 mm. long, 0.8-0.9 mm. broad, dark-brown,
wrinkled.
On rocks and in gravelly
soil, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations in dry
parts of the southern districts; Mona; Culebra; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola;
St.
Croi.x:—Jamaica; Cuba to Trinidad; continental tropical Ameiica.
2.
Callisia monandra (Sw.) Schultes in R. &
S. Syst. 7: 1179.
1830.
Tradescantia monandra Sw. Prodr. 57.
1788.
Callisia umbellidata Lam.
111.
l: 130.
1791.
Stems weak, usually glandular-pilose above.
Leaves ovate, 2-4 cm. long,
1-2 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base, sessile or nearly so,
the margin ciliate; flowers umbellate, the filiform peduncles 1-3 cm. long, long-
exserted from the leaf-sheaths; sepals elliptic-oblong, 1.6-2 mm. long, 0.9-1 mm.
broad,
concave,
glandular-pilose or glabrous on
the
back;
petals
lanceolate;
ovary
oblong-ellipsoid, compressed
or somewhat
angled,
glabrous
or
slightly
pilose at the apex; style shorter than the capsule; stigma 3-lol)ed; capsule 1-1.3
mm. long; .seeds 0.6-0.8 mm. broad, brownish white,
finely striate.
[C. repens
of Bello, not of Linnaeus.]
Woods, banks, rocks and in cultivated grounds in moist or wet districts, Porto
Rico,
ascending
to
higher
elevations;
St. Thomas
(according
to
Eggers)
:—Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martiniqjie; continental tropical America.
Cojite morado.
Family 4.
PONTEDERIACEAE Dum.
Pickerel-weed Family.
Perennial, aquatic
or bog
plants.
Leaves
often
clustered, sometimes
mainly basal, the blades broad or grass-like.
Flowers perfect, more or less
irregular,
solitary
or
in
sjiikes subtended by
leaf-like
spathes.
Perianth
free from the ovary, corolla-like, 6-parted.
Stamens 3 or 6, inserted on the
tube or the base of the perianth; filaments filiform, or dilated at the base, or
thickened about the middle; anthers
2-celled.
Ovary 3-celled with
axile
placentae, or
1 -celled by suppression; style filiform or columnar; stigma ter-
minal, entire or minutely toothed; ovules anatropous, numerous, sometimes
only
1 of them perfecting.
Fruit a many-seeded capsule, or a
1-celled,
1-
seeded
utricle.
Endosperm
mealy,
copious;
embryo
central,
cylindric.
About
.5 genera and 25 species, in temperate and tropical regions.
1. PIAROPUS Raf.
Fl. Tell. 2: 81.
1837.
Herbs, often with floating rootstocks.
Leaves with stout or slender some-
times inflated petioles and broad blades, or of two kinds, the submerged ones
narrow and
grass-like.
Flowers
solitary,
or
in
terminal
spikes,
racemes
or
panicles.
Perianth showy,
its 6 parts in 2 series, united into a tube below, the
limb obhque.
Stamens 6, irregularly adnate to the perianth, 3 included, 3 ex-
serted; filaments sometimes flattened at the base.
Ovary 3-celled; stigma ter-
minal
; ovules numerous.
Capsule included in the withering-persistent perianth.
PONTEDERIACEAE
149
loculicidal.
[Greek, referring to the swollen petiole of P.
crassipes.]
About 5
species, natives of tropical America.
Type species
: Pontederia azurea Sw.
Leaves in a basal tuft, the petioles often inflated; spathe 2-valved.
1.
P. crassipes.
Leaves
alternate,
of two
kinds,
the submei-ged
grass-like,
the
emersed ovate; spathe 1-valved.
2.
P. diversijolhts.
1. Piaropus crassipes (Mart.) Britton, Ann. N. Y. Acad.
Sci. 7: 241.
1893.
Pontederia crassipes Mart. Nov. Gen. 1: 9.
1824.
Piaropus mesomelas Raf.
Fl. Tell. 2: 81.
1837.
Eichhornia speciosa Kunth, Enum. 4: 131.
1843.
Eichhornia crassipes Solms; DC. IMonogr. Phan. 4: 527.
1883.
Plant floating, or rooting in mud.
Leaves in a basal tuft, erect or ascending,
glabrous, the stout petioles fusiform-inflated below or sometimes gradually taper-
ing from the
base, 0.5-4 dm.
long, the leathery blades ovate to orbicular or
somewhat
reniform,
3.5-16 cm.
long, 4-14 cm.
broad,
faintly many-nerved;
scape 1-3.5 dm. long, simple; flowers showy, in a loose spike, the perianth-tube
curved, 1.5-2 cm. long, glandular-pubescent, the segments pale violet, obovate
to oval, 3.5^4 cm. long, 1.5-2.7 cm. broad, the upper lobe longer than the others
and having a patch of blue with an oblong or pear-shaped spot of bright yellow
in the middle.
[Eichhornia azurea of Bello and of Millspaugh, not of Kunth.]
In ponds and streams. Porto Rico;
St. Croix:—Bermuda; Cuba; Jamaica; His-
paniola;
Lesser
Antilles;
Barbados;
Florida and continental
tropical America; Old
World tropics.
Occasionally grown
for ornament in Porto Rico garden pools.
Some-
times forms large masses, impeding navigation.
Flor de .\<iUA.
Water Hyacinth.
2. Piaropus diversifolius (Vahl) P. Wilson.
Heteranlhera diversifolia Vahl, Enum. 2: 44.
1806.
Eichhornia pauciflora Seub.
; Mart.
Fl. Bras.
3: 91.
1847.
Eichhornia natans pauciflora Solms, in DC. Monogr. 4: 526.
1883.
Eichhornia diversifolia Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 147.
1903.
Stem
elongate,
slender,
floating.
Leaves
alternate,
of two
kinds,
the
emersed leaves with ovate to ovate-oval blades, 1.5-3.5 cm. long, 0.7-3 cm. broad,
acute or rounded at the apex, usually cordate at the base, the slender petioles
2-7 cm. long, the submerged leaves with narrow grass-like blades 3-7 cm. long,
2-4 mm.
broad; spathes few-flowered; perianth small; ovary
ellipsoid, 4 mm.
long, 3 mm. broad, the filiform style 1.5 cm. long; seeds cylindric, brown, 0.8-
0.9 mm. long, 0.4 mm. broad, faintly ribbed.
In streams, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola; South America.
Order 9.
LILIALES.
More or less fleshy herbs, sometimes grass-like or sedge-hke, occasionally
vines
or
trees, mostly
with well-developed
perianth,
the
flowers
usually
regular and complete, and their parts in 3's or
6's.
Ovary superior or in-
ferior, compound.
Fruit various, commonly a capsule or a beny.
Endo-
sperm fleshy or horny.
Ovary
superior.
Fruit a capsule; our species fleshy herbs.
Fam.
1.
Liliaceae.
Fruit a fleshy berry
; dioecious vines.
Fam.
2.
Smilacaceae.
Ovary inferior.
Stamens 6.
Fleshy herbs; flowers perfect.
Fam
;?.
Amaryllidaceae.
Twining vines; flowers dioecious.
Fam.
4.
Dioscoreaceae.
Stamens opposite the inner corolla-segments.
Fam. 5.
Haemodoraceae.
Stamens opposite the outer corolla-segments.
Fam.
6.
Iridaceae.
150
LiLIACEAE
Family
1.
LILIACEAE Adans.
Lily Family
Scapose or leafy-stemmed herbs from bulbs or corms, or with rootstocks
or a woody caudex, the leaves various.
Perianth parted into 6 distinct or
nearly distinct segments, or these more or less united into a tube inferior or
partly superior.
Stamens 6, hypogynous or borne on the perianth or at the
bases
of
its
segments;
anthers
2-ceIled.
Ovary
3-celled;
ovules few
or
numerous in each cavity, anatropous or amphitropous; styles united; stigma
3-lobed or capitate.
J'ruit a usually loculicidal capsule, occasionally fleshy
and indehiscent.
Seeds various, winged or wingless.
Embryo
in copious
endosperm.
About 125 gejiera and 1300 species, widely distributed.
Ovules solitary in each cavity of the ovary; leaves arising from a creep-
ing rootstocli.
1-
Cordyline.
Ovules numerous in each cavity of the ovary; leaves borne on a short
caudex.
2.
Aloe.
1. CORDYLINE Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 54, 543.
17G3.
[Sansevieria Thunb. Prodr. Fl. Cap. 65.
1794.]
Perennial' herbs, with flat or terete coriaceous fibrous leaves in clusters from
a creeping rootstock, the greenish-white flowers in a raceme or panicle on a simple
scape.
Perianth-tube
slender,
its
lobes
narrow,
spreading.
Stamens
6,
the
filiform filaments inserted at the base of the lobes, the anthers oblong or linear.
Ovary 3-colled; ovules solitary in each cavity, erect; style long, filiform; stigma
capitate.
Fruit with a thin pericarp.
Seeds 1-3, subglobose. fieshy.
[Greek, a
club.]
About
50
species,
natives
of
Asia
and
Africa.
Type
species:
Aloe
hyacinthuides L.
The plants yield valuaJjle fibers.
1. Cordyline guineensis (L.) Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. 1: 35.
1918.
Aletris hyacintholdes guineensis L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 456.
1762.
Aletris yuineensis Jacq. Hort.
Viiid.
l: 36.
1771.
Sansevieria guineensis Willd. Sp. PI. 2: 159.
1799.
Acyntha guianensis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL 699.
1891.
Leaves lanceolate, nearly flat above the base, 7-14 dm. long, 5-9 cm. wide,
narrowed
at both ends, dark green and more or
less distinctly mottled with
white, sometimes bordered with a thin line of red within the white edge.
Scape
about
as long
as
the
leaves;
panicle uuiny-flowered;
pedicels
.5-8 mm.
long;
perianth greenish-white, its lobes linear or linear-spatulate, about 1.5 cm. long,
recurved, about as long as the tube.
Waste grounds and ravines, Porto Rico, spontaneous after cultivation; Vieques;
St.
Thomas;
St.
Croix
:^—Florida;
Bahamas;
Cuba;
Jamaica.
Native
of
tropical
Africa.
CocuisA.
African Bowstring-Hemp.
Guana-tail.
Cordyline cylindrica (Bojer)
Britton,
African,
successfully
grown
by
Mr.
Fail-child at Louisenhoj,
St. Thomas, has cylindric longitudinally grooved
leaves about 8 dm. long.
[.Sansevieria cylindrica Bojes.]
2. ALOE h. Sp. PI. 319.
17.'>3.
Succulent plants with a short or elongated caudex, the thick tufted leaves with
spiny-toothed margins, the racemose flowers nodding.
Periant subcyhndric, the
segments connivent or coherent,
their
tips somewhat spreading.
Stamens
6,
with slender filaments and oblong anthers.
Ovary sessile, 3-angled and 3-celled
LILIACEAE
'
151
style subulate, tipped by the small stigma; ovules many in each cavity of the
ovary.
Capsule
leathery,
loculiciclally
dehiscent.
Seeds
numerous,
black.
[Name
ancient.]
Over SO
species,
mostly
African.
Type
species:
Aloe
per-
foliata L.
]. Aloe vulgaris Lam. Encycl.
1: 86.
1783.
Aloe perfoliala vera L. Sp.
PI. 320.
1753.
Aloe vera L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 458, hyponym. 1702; Webb. & Berth. Phyt. Canar.
3: 348.
1836-50.
Not A. vera Mill.
1768.
Acaulescent, or usually so, stoloniferous.
Leaves narrowly lanceolate, 3-6
dm.
long,
long-acuminate,
turgid,
pale
glaucous-green,
watery
within,
the
marginal spiny teeth 2 cm. apart or less; scape stout, 6-12 dm. high, bearing dis-
tant broad acute scales; raceme dense, 1-3 dm. long; bracts lanceolate to ovate,
acute, longer than the short pedicels; flowers yellow, about 2.5 cm. long; stamens
about as long as the perianth, the style longer.
[A.
perfoliala of West, not of
Linnaeus.]
Coastal
rooks
and
dry
hillsides,
Porto
Rico,
spontaneous
after
cultivation;
Vi«5ques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Virgin
Gorda;
St.
Croix:—Bermuda; West
Indies;
Central America; Florida.
Native of the Mediterranean Kegion.
Zabila.
Aloes.
Semper Vive.
The following species of Aloe mostly from southern Africa, among others
sent from the New York Botanical Garden to Loui.serdioj,
St. Thomas, in 1921,
were doing well there in 1923
Aloe arborescens Mill.
Aloe ciliaris Haw.
Aloe ferox Mill.
Aloe grandidentata Salm-Dyck
Aloe Greenii Baker.
Aloe obscura Mill.
Asparagus officinalis L., Aspagarus,
European,
is
occasionally
planted
for food in Porto Rico, and in the V^ii-gin Islands, but the climate is too warm for
its succe.ssful development and continuance.
Asparagus Sprengeri Kegel, African, is grown for ornament in Porto Rico
and the Virgin Islands.
The slender branches are 2 m. long or less, the flat linear
leaf-like phyllodes 2-4 cm.
long,
the pinkish-white
flowers fragrant, the
coral-
red berries often slightly 3-lobed.
An excellent plant for hanging baskets.
Asparagus plumosus Bakei-,
native of South
Africa,
also grown
for or-
nament in Virgin Island and Porto Rico gardens, and on porches, is an herbaceous
climber, with very small leaves and white blossoms.
Allium Cepa
L., Onion, Cebolla, Persian,
is sometimes grown for food
in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
It is a rather tall herb with terete hollow
leaves; the long glaucous scapes are swollen near the middle, the white or bluish
flowers borne in a large globular umbel, the bulbs large, with few off'sets.
Allium fistulosum L.,
Welsh Onion,
Siberian,
is
very
similar
to
the
preceding and sometimes cultivated in the Virgin Islands.
It
difl'ers, however,
in having no distinct bulb, but only an enlarged base
Allium scorodoprasum L., Rocambole, European,
is recorded by Krebs
as grown in St. Thomas prior to 1851.
162
LILIACEAE
Allium Porrum L., Leek, European, is planted for food
in Porto Rico and
Virgin Islands gardens.
It is a rather stout herb, sometimes 2 feet or more in
height; the leaves are broad and not hollow, the bulb simple and
little larger
than the stalk.
Allium sativum
L., Garlic, European,
is also cultivated for food.
It is
a fleshy herb a foot or less in height; the narrow leaves keeled, and not hollow,
the bulbs are small, separating into many bulblets cov^ered with dry scales.
Allium ascalonium Shallot, of Syrian origin, occasionally gi'own in the
Virgin Islands, has lilac flowers and elongated pointed
])ul))s, the leaves hollow.
Aspidistra lurida Ker., Chinese, occasionally grown for ornament in Porto
Rico gardens has many oblong-lanceolate basal leaves 3-6 dm. long, and purplish
flowers on short scapes, the perianth-segments and stamens 8.
Gloriosa superba L.
Climbing Lily, of the Old World
tropics, seen
in
Miss Quin's garden at Christiansted,
St. Croix, forms an herbaceous vine
1 m.
long or longer, with lanceolate thin leaves 7-10 cm. long, their tips tapering into a
coiled
tendril; the long-peduncled solitary flowers are reddish-yellow, about 10
cm. broad, with G wavy crisped segments.
Dracaena terminalis L., of tropical Asia,
is commonly grown for ornament
in Porto Ricaii gardens.
The slender stems are 1-2 m. or more high, the green
or rarely colored, oblong, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate leaves 3-5 dm. long, the
slender chamieled petioles i^-lG cm.
long, the pedicels very short or none, the
white or colored perianth 10-13 mm. long, the segments short, the ripe berries
red.,
[Asparagus terminalis L.
; Cordyline terminalis Kunth.]
Dracaena Draco L., Dragon's-blood Tree, of the Canary Islands seen as
seedlings at the St. Croix Agricultural Experiment Station, becomes in its native
home a large branching tree up to about 18 meters high and attains great age.
Dracaena fragrans Ker., African, planted for ornament in Porto Rico and
Virgin
Island
gardens, Ijecomes 4-6 m. high,
usually simple, with oblanceolate
leaves 6-9 dm.
long, and a large panicle of yellow
flowers.
[D. Massangeana
of gardeners.]
IVlany horticultural varieties and hybrids of Dracaenas are grown for orna-
ment in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
The Porto Rico Nursery Company
exports them as canes to northern florists.
Yucca aloifolia L., Spanish B.wonet of the southeastern
United
States,
grown
in Porto Rico gardens and occasionally seen on roadsides, has slender
stems occasionally up to 4 m.
tall,
the
dagger-like scabrous-margined leaves
3-9 dm.
long,
the white flowers 4-0 cul
long, sometimes tinged with
purple,
the nodding indehiscent pulpy capsule 7-9 cm.
long.
Some people have the
curious taste of sticking empty egg-shells on the tips of the leaves and accumu-
lating these until every leaf is thus appendaged.
Yucca gloriosa L., Spanish Bayonet, native
of the southeastern United
States,
is occasionally planted in gardens and near dwellings on
St. Croix and
St. Thomas.
The
tall stems
are
usually
simple,
tlie
linear-lanceolate
leaves
3-5 dm. long, the showy white flowers sometimes tinged with red, the dry oblong-
ellipsoid indehiscent leathery capsule 5-6 cm.
long.
[Yucca acuminata Sweet.]
Several species of the South African genus Gasteria, sent from the New York
Botanical Garden to Louisenhoj, St. Thomas, in 1921, were Ijecoming established
there in 1923.
These curious plants have thick, often mottled, and roughened
SMILACEAE
153
short basal leaves arranged In a flattened spiral, and appearing as if 2-ranked, the
small tubular ventricose flowers in a raceme.
Haworthia tessellata Haw., African, sent to Louisenhoj from the New York
Botanical Garden in 1921, apparently established there in
1923, has basal
stiff',
spirally arranged, toothed thick fleshy leaves 3-4 cm. long, and a simple raceme
of small
t uljular, greenish white flowers.
Dasylirion glaucophyllum
Hook.,
Mexican,
successfully established
at
LouLsenhoj, St. Thomas, has a sliort trunk bearing very many densely crowded,
stiff linear prickly-margined glaucous leaves about
1 cm. wide; the small whitish
dioecious flowers are borne
in a panicle on
a
terminal peduncle 4 m. high or
higher.
Family 2.
SMILACACEAE
Vent.
Smilax Family.
Vines, sometimes shrubs or lierbaceous perennials, with smooth or prickl}'
stems.
Leaves
alternate,
the
blades
netted-veined,
usually
punctate
or
lineolate, articulated to the peti(jles.
Petioles sheathing, commonly bearing
a
pair
of slender
tendril-like appendages.
Flowers
dioecious,
in
axillary
peduncled umbels.
Perianth-segments
6.
Stamens mostly
6.
Filaments
distinct, inserted at the bases of the perianth-segments.
Anthers
2-celled,
introrse, attached at the base.
Ovary 3-celled,
rarely
1-celled, the ovules
1 or 2 in each cavity, pendulous, orthotropous.
Style very short or none.
Stigmas 3, rarely only one.
Fruit a small l>erry.
Seeds 1-6.
Endosperm
bony.
Em!)ryo small, remote from the hilum.
About 3 genera and over
225 species, natives of temperate and tropical regions.
1. SMILAX [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 1028.
1753.
Mostly vines with unarmed or prickle-armed stems, woody or fleshy tubers,
or long creeping rootstocks, and annual or perennial stems.
Leaf-blades often
leathery, entire or lobed.
Petioles furnished with coiling appendages.
Flowers
regular.
Perianth-segments
distinct.
Pedicels
born
on
a
globose
or
conic
receptacle,
In.serted
in small
pits, usually among minute
bractlets.
Staminate
flowers without or with an abortive ovary.
Pistillate flowers usually smaller
than the staminate, with an ovary and usually with several abortive stamens.
Berry red, blue or black.
Embryo lying under a tubercle at the upper end of
the seed.
[An ancient Greek name of obscure meaning.]
Over 200 species of
wide geographic distribution.
Type species: Smilax aspera L.
Prickly armed or sometimes unarmed
vine:
leaf-blades usually
rigid-coriaceous,
often
rounded
and
cordate
at
the
base;
perianth-segments 2-3 mm. long.
1.
S. coriacea.
Unarmed
vines;
leaf-blades
tliin,
often
pointed
at both
ends;
perianth-segments ;i.2-4 mm. long.
2.
S. domingensis.
1. Smilax coriacea Spreng. Syst. Veg. 2: 103.
1825.
Smilax ilicifolia Desv. in Hamilt. Prodr. 58.
1825.
Smilax havanenssis portoricensis A. DC. Monog. Phan. 1: 124.
1878.
Smilax guianensis suharmata O. E. Schulz in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 149.
1903.
Smilax coriacea
ilicifolia O.
B>. Schulz in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4:
1.50.
1903.
Smilax suharmata O. E. Schulz in Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 28.
1904.
A glabrous woody vine, 3-6 m. long, the stems and branches unarmed or
armed with rather stout brownish prickles, 1-7 mm. long.
Petioles 5-12 mm. or
154
AMARYLLIDACEAE
more long
; leaf-blades coriaceous, oblong-ovate to oval-ovate, or linear-lanceolate,
5-17 cm. long, 1-12 cm. broad, 5-7-nerved, acute or sometimes rounded at the
apex, cordate at the base, more or less reticulate-veined, entire or spiny-toothed
on the margins; peduncles 2-5 mm. long; pedicels slender; perianth segments
oblong, 2-3 mm.
long; anthers oblong; ovary subglobose;
berries dark red or
black, subglobose, 5-8 mm. in diameter; seeds reddish brown, 4-4.5 mm. long,
3.5-4 mm.
broad, the surface more or
less
pitted.
[S. havanensis of Cook &
Collins, not of Jacquin.]
Coastal
hillsides, sandy plains, wooded valleys and mountain woodlands, Porto
Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
St.
Croi.\; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:— Hi.spaniola.
Smilax lappacea
Willd.,
a Venezuelan
species,
is recorded from
Porto
Rico by O. E. Schulz, but we have been unaiile to verify this record; the leaves
of
>S'. coriacea are very varialjle in shape and size; his records of S.
ilicifolia sub-
lappacea from Porto Rico and
St.
Croix, presumably
refer also
to specimens
of S. coriacea.
2. Smilax domingensis AVilld. Sp.
PI. 4:
7.S3.
isofi.
A glabrous unarmed high-climbing
vine,
often
m.
long or
longer,
the
slender liranches more or less zigzag, terete or somewhat angled, striate.
Petioles
slender, 10-15 mm. long; leaf-blades subcoriaceous, lanceolate to ovate, 5..5-13
cm. long, 3-7 cm. broad, 3-5-nerved, with an additional marginal pair of nerves,
long-acumi7iate at the apex, acute or sometimes rounded at the base, entire, rather
indistinctly reticulate-veined; peduncles usually nuich .shorter than the petioles;
pedicels slender, 5-9 mm. long; periantli-segments lanceolate or oblong-elliptic,
3.2-4 mm. long; anthers linear; ovary ovoid; berries black, 1-3-seeded, O.S-1 cm.
in diameter; seed brown, 6 mm. long, 5-5.5 mm. broad, rugulose.
Hillsides and mountain woodlands,
Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
.Tamaica;
Hispaniola;
Me.xico.
Bejuco de MEMBRILLO.
Dunuuez blanco.
Erroneously recorded from
Carolina and I.iOuisiana, and apparently, also from St. Thomas.
Smilax rotundifolia
L., a plant of eastern and southern United States,
has been recorded by Bello from Porto Rico, and is cited by O. E. Schulz from
St. Croix.
Neither of the.se records have been verified by the writers, but they
are apparently either errors in locality, or detei'mination, as the species is other-
wise unknown from the West Indies.
Family 3.
AMARYLLIDACEAE Lindl.
Amaryllis F'amily.
Mostly perennial herbs (some tropical species woody or even arboreous),
mostly with bulbs or corms, scapose or sometimes leafy stems and usualh'
narrow and entire leaves.
Flowers, perfect, regular or nearly so.
Perianth
6-parted or fi-lobed, the segments or lobes distinct, or united below into a
tube which
is adnate
to the surface of the ovary.
Stamens
6, one oppo-
.site
each segment
of the perianth,
rarely numerous or only
3;
tilanients
filiform, free or united in a cup; anthers long or short, basifixed or versatile,
dehiscing usually by
introrse longitudinal
slits.
Ovary
inferior,
3-celled;
style
entire; stigmas
3;
ovules
usually numerous and
superposetl.
Fruit
usually a three valved capsule with
loculicidal dehiscence, sometimes
in-
dehiscent.
Seeds
usually
numerous;
endosperm
fleshy,
rarely
horny;
embryo small.
About 70 genera and over 800 species, principally natives of
tropical and warm regions, some in the temperate zones.
AMARYLLIDACEAE
155
Plants with rootstocks or corms.
.
.
Small herbs with
thin,
grass-like leaves; capsule cirumscissile,
or fruit indehiscent.
Perianth with a tube; fruit indehiscent.
1-
Curcutigo.
Perianth without a tube; fruit a capsule with circumscissile
deliiscence.
,
,
-• HVPOiis.
Large mostly fleshv-loavcd herbs, the leaf margins often armed
with straight or cm-ved teeth; capsule
.S valved.
Perianth funnel-shaped; flowers greenish-yellow or yellow;
filaments filiform.
,
.
,.,
„
3.
Agave.
Perianth
whitisli, rotate; filaments. with cushion-like swell-
ings at the base.
4.
h urcraea.
Bulbous plants.
Filaments distinct.
,
,,
„
,.,
^
a.
Hpathe tubular-sheathing in the lower half; flowers solitary.
5.
Aiamosco.
Spathe 2-4-valved; flowers usually 2 or more in an umbel.
Perianth-tube provided with
scales or a corona at the
throat; seeds black.
6. Htppcastrut7i.
Perianth-tube without scales or a corona at the throat;
seeds green.
'•
Crinum.
Filaments connate below into a cup-like or funnelform crown;
ovules 2 in each cell of the ovary.
8. Hymenucauis.
1. CURCULIGO Gaertn. Vv. & Sem. l: 03.
1788.
Annual or perennial stemless herbs with sessile, narrow basal leaves.
Flowers
yellow, solitary, subtended
l:)y a sheathliiK bract.
Perianth 6-parted, persistent
or at length withering away, the tulje much elongated above the ovary.
Stamens
6, inserted at the bases of the perianth-segments; filaments short; anthers lan-
ceolate or linear.
Ovary 3-celled, with numerous ovules in two rows hi each cell;
style columnar,
short,
stigmas
3,
erect; ovules anatropous;
funicle
elongate.
Fruit somewhat fleshy, indehiscent, inore or less beaked.
Seeds black, crusta-
ceous, shortly beaked.
[Latin, weevil, referring to the beak on the seed.]
A few
species, natives of tropical regions.
Type species: Curculigo orchioides Gaertn.
1. Curculigo scorzoneraefolia (Lam.) Benth.
; Baker, Jour. Linn. Soc. 17: 124.
1878.
Hypoxis scorzoneraefolia Lam. Encycl. 3: 183.
1789.
Corm oblong-cylindric, 2-4.5 cm.
long.
Leaves linear or lanceolate, 1-3.4
dm. long,
L.'i-ll mm. wide, acuminate at the apex, tapering to the base, pilose
or
glabrous;
scape
short,
1 flowered,
pilose;
bract
lanceolate, membranous;
perianth-tube 2-4 cm. long, the segments oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 9-12
mm.
long,
1.(5-3.5 mm.
))road,
yellow, often loosely pilose on the back; ovary
oblong-ellipsoid;
style
filiform;
stigma
small;
capsule
ellipsoid,
indehiscent;
seeds ellipsoid, 2.5 mm. long, black, shining.
i
In red clay, Monte Mesa, Mayague/, and ui cultivateil groiuid, Kio Piedras, Porto
Rico:—Cuba; Jainica, Dominica to Trinidad; Central and South America.
2. HYPOXIS L. Syst. ed.
10, 986.
1759.
Low, often pubescent herbs, with a corm or short rootstock, linear grass-Uke
leaves and .slender few-flowered scapes.
Perianth 6-parted, the segments equal
or nearly so, separate to the summit of the ovary, withering-persistent.
Stamens
inserted on the bases of the perianth-segments; filaments short; anthers erect,
sagittate or entire.
Ovary 3-celled
; style short
; stigmas 3, erect
; ovules numerous,
in 2 rows
in each cavity.
Capsule thin-walled, usually opening with circum-
scissile dehiscence below the apex.
Seeds globular,
black.
[Greek,
originally
given to some plant with sour leaves.]
About 50 species, widely distributed in
temperate and tropical regions.
Type species: Hypoxis decumbens L.
156
AMARYLLIDACEAE
1. Hypoxis decumbens L. Syst. ed. 10, 986.
1759.
A more or
less
pilose herb,
1-6 dm.
tall.
Corm
siibglobose or broadly
ellipsoid, 8-13 cm.
in diameter; leaves
linear, 8-50 cm.
long, 2-9 mm.
wide,
loosely
pilose; scapes
filiform, shorter than the leaves,
usually more
than
1-
flowered;
bracts
small,
linear-subulate;
pedicels
pilose;
perianth-segments
narrowly lanceolate or lanceolate, 5-6 mm. long, 1.2-1.5 mm. wide; greenish and
pilose outside, yellow within; filaments filiform; anthers sagittate; style subulate;
capsule clavate, 7-12 mm. long.
Moist hillsides, ravines, roadsides and grassy places, Porto Rico;
St. Jan, Tortola;
Virgin Gorda;—Cuba to Trinidad; Jamaica; continental tropical America.
3. AGAVE L. Sp. PI. 323.
1753.
Large herbs, often fleshy, the stem short or wanting.
Leaves mostly in a
close rosette, usually stiff, persistent, the margins mostly armed with straight or
curved teeth and the apex tipped with a usually pungent spine.
Flowers in
spikes or panicles on tall scapes.
Perianth 6-parted, more or less funnel-shaped.
Stamens
6,
usually
long-exserted.
Ovary 3-celled;
style
1; stigma capitately
3-lobed
; ovules numerous, in 2 rows in each cavity of the ovary.
Capsule thick-
walled,
many-seeded.
Seeds numerous,
flat,
thin,
black.
[Greek,
signifying
noble.]
Over 250 species, natives mostly of the tablelands of Mexico, known as
Century-plants, Karata, and Corita.
Type species: Agave americana L.
Leaves fleshy, usually cvn-ved; plants not suckoring.
Leaves 10-15 cm. broad; prickles
1 mm. long or
less, nearly
straight.
1-
A. Eggersiana.
Leaves
1.5-23 cm. broad;
prickles 2-6 mm.
long,
straight or
retrorsely tinned.
2. A. missionum.
Leaves hard and straight; plants freely suckering.
3. A. sisalana.
1. Agave Eggersiana Trel. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 11: 28.
1913.
Acaulescent,
not cespitose.
Leaves narrowly lanceolate, 12-20 dm.
long,
10-15 cm.
broad,
dull green and somewhat glaucous when young; spine conic
awl-shaped, brown, smooth, rather glossy, 10-15 mm.
long, 3 mm. broad, de-
current for its length or more and dorsally intruded into the green tissue; prickles
brown, usually
1 mm. long, nearly straight, narrowly triangular from lenticular
bases; inflorescence 5 m. high or more; pedicels 20-25 mm. long; perianth yellow,
5-6 cm. long, the segments 2-2.5 cm. long; filaments 4.5-5 cm. long; capsule un-
known; bulbils produced abundantly.
[Recorded by West,
Grisebach, Eggers
(in part) and Millspaugh
as Agave americana
L.]
Hillsides and
plains, eastern dry districts of St. Croix.
Endemic.
Cultivated on
St. Croix and St. Thomas for ornament.
The leaves are nearly straight.
2. Agave missionum Trel. Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. 11: 37.
1913.
Agave portoricensis Trel. loc. cit. 38.
1913.
Acaulescent, not cespitose.
Leaves lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 15-25
dm. long, 1.5-23 cm. broad, dark green and glossy, slightly glaucous when young;
spine awl-shaped, l>rown or gray in age, smooth, somewhat glossy, 10-20 mm. long,
3.5-5 mm. broad, decurrent and dorsally produced into the green tissue; prickles
brown or blackish, 2-6 mm. long, straightly or retrorsely turned, heavily triangu-
lar from lenticular bases; inflorescence 5-7 m. high; pedicels 1-2 cm. long; peri-
anth greenish-yellow,
4. .5-5.2 cm. long, the segments 15^20 mm. long; filaments
3-3.5 cm.
long; capsule broadly elliptic or subglobo.se,
2. .5-3. 8 cm.
long, 2-2.5
cm. in diameter; seeds 6-8.5 mm. long, 5-6 mm. broad.
[Recorded by Eggers as
A. americana, A. sobolifcra and A. Morrisii, by Bello and by Urban as A. ameri-
cana.]
Coastal rocks, limestone
cliffs, and rocky
hillsides; southern and southwestern
dry districts of Porto Rico; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin
Gorda: Anegada.
Endemic.
AMARYLLIDACEAE
157
3. Agave sisalana rerrine, House Rep. Document 564: 8.
1838.
Agave rigida sisalana Engelm. Trans. Acad.
St. Louis 3: 316.
1876.
Subacaulescent.
Leaves linear-lanceolate, 10 dm. or more long, 7-10 cm.
broad, green and somewhat glossy; spine dark brown, 18-30 cm. long, 4 or 5 mm.
wide, somewhat pitted and
glossy, shallow-round-grooved near the
base, not
decurrent;
prickles often
nearly
black, 2-4 mm.
long, mostly upcurved, very
slender- cuspid from deltoid bases or usually
entirely suppressed; inflorescence
.5-6 m. high; pedicels .5-10 mm. long; perianth yellowish green,
4..'>-6 cm. long;
filaments 4-8 mm. long; capsule elliptic-oblong, 5. .5-6 cm. long, 2-2.5 mm. wide,
stipitate and beaked
; seeds 9-10 mm. long, 6-7 mm. wide.
Established
from
abandoned
trial
fields,
St.
Croix;
cultivated
for
fiber
in
Porto Rico and the Virgin
Islands:—Naturalized in Florida and the West Indies and
widely cultivated.
Native of Yucatan.
Sisal.
Agave fourcroydes
Lemaire, Hennequen,
of Yucatan, also
planted
for
fiber in
I'orto Rico and the Virgin
Islands
differs from
A.
sisalana in having
bluish-gray prickly leaves and a definite trunk up to 2 m. high.
Agave americana L., Century Plant, probably of Mexican origin, planted
in Porto Rico and the Virgin
Islands, has large grey leaves, commonly white-
margined, or white-banded, with large prickles on the teeth, the flowers 6-7 cm.
long in a very large dense panicle.
Agave evadens Trelease, native of Trinidad sent from the New York Botan-
ical Garden to LouiseTdioj,
St. Thomas, in 1921 and reported by Mr. Fairchild
to have done very well there,
is a green-leaved species, the large leaves with a
stout terminal spine, the yellow flowers about 4.5 cm. long, in an open panicle.
Agave Jacquiniana
Schultes, sent to Louisenhoj from the New York Bo-
tanical Carden in 1921 was also well established in 1923.
It has a short trunk,
gray-green prickly leaves about 6 dm. long, the greenish flowers about 5 cm. long.
Agave neglecta Small, Floridian, also sent to Louisenhoj from the New York
«
Botanical (iarden in 1921, ajid reported as doing well, has glaucous leaves over
2 meters long, their margins armed with many minute teeth
; the yellowish green
flowers are about 5.5 cm. long.
Agave mexicana Haw. and Agave vivipara
L.
are recorded by Krebs as
formerly grown on
St. Thomas, but
it
is not known to which species the plants
he observed would
l)e referred at the present time.
Other species, not certainly
determined for want of flowers, have been seen in cultivation.
4. FURCRAEA Vent. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1: 65.
1793.
Succulent herbs, often large and Agave-like, with tall scapes, the inflorescence
terminal,
paniculate.
Leaves with spiny or minutely toothed margins.
Peri-
anth wheel-shaped, of 6 spreading segments.
Stamens borne on the bases of the
perianth-segments, the fllaments with a cushion-like swelling at the base; anthers
linear-oblong.
Ovary 3-celled, with many ovules in two rows in each cavity;
style rather stout,
3-angled and thickened
below,
tipped by a small stigma,
Capsule oblong.
3-sided, 3-valved.
Seeds numerous,
flat.
[Dedicated
to An-
toine
Francois' de Fourcray.]
About 20
species,
natives of tropical America,
many of them yielding fiber.
Type species; Furcraca cubcnsis Vent.
158
AISIARYLLIDACEAE
1. Furcraea tuberosa Ait.
f. Hort. Kew. Ed. 2. 2: 303.
1811.
Agave campanulata Sesse & Moc.
Fl. Mex. ed.
2, S7.
1894.
Trunkless, or with a short caudex.
Leaves broadly lanceolate,
12 dm. or
more long, 13-18 cm. broad at the middle
; teeth 2-4 mm. long, straight or curved
sometimes absent near the apex; inflorescence, 6-7 m. high; perianth greenish-
white, outer perianth segments oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 2.4-2.7 (;m. long,
7-10 mm. wide, the inner segments broader; capsule unknown
; freely bulbiferous,
the bulbs elongated.
[Recorded by Eggers and by Millspaugh as
F. cubensis,
by Cook and Collins as F. gigantea, and by Urban as F. hcxaiyctala.]
Coastal cliflfs, rocky plains, dry thickets and hillsides, Porto Rico; Mona; Culebra,
Vieques-
St. Thomas: Tortola; Anegada;
St. Croix:—Hispamola to Grenada.
MA-
GUEY.
CucuiSA.
Female Karata.
The leaves are straight, somewhat plicate.
Furcraea elegans Todaro, native of Ctuiana, sent to LouLsenhoj, St. Thomas
from the United States Department of Agriculture in 1921, had made slow growth
up to March, 1923, but appeared to be established.
Furcraea andina Trelease, Peruvian, grown at the Agricultural Experiment
Station,
ISIayaguez,
Porto
Rico,
has
narrowly
lanceolate
leaves,
with
small
approximate marginal prickles; its bulbils are ovoid-conic.
Furcraea macrophylla Baker, Bahamian, also grown at Mayaguez, resembles
F. tuberosa, but has much shorter bulbils.
5. ATAMOSCO Adans. Fam.
PI. 2: 57. 522.
1763.
[Zephyranthes Herb. App. 36.
1S21.]
Acaulescent herbs, with coated bulbs and glabrous foliage.
Leaves basal,
the blades narrowly linear, flat, channeled.
Scape 1-flowered.
I'erianth funnel-
shaped, white, red, pink, purplish or yellow, erect or slightly inclined, the lobes 6,
subequal.
Stamens 6, equal or nearly so; filaments adnate to the throat of the
perianth-tube; anthers versatile.
Ovary 3-celled; style
filiform, 3-lobed at the
top. or the stigma nearly capitate; ovules numerous, in two rows in each cavity.
Capsule 3-celled, more or less 3-lobed,
loculicidally 3-valved.
Seeds blacldsh,
usually flattened.
(Aboriginal name.]
About 35 species, natives of the warmer
regions of America.
Type species: Amaryllis Atamasco L.
Perianth white.
i-
-'^- H'bi'^patha.
Pprititit'li
rc(i
Perianth Z-.i.b cm. long; pedicels longer than the spathe.
2. A. rosea.
Perianth 6-7.5 cm. long: pedicels shorter than the spathe.
3. A. carinala.
1. Atamosco tubispatha (L'Herit.) Maza. Rev. Fac. Let.
Ci. Univ. Habana
19: 227.
1914.
Amaryllis tubispatha L'Herit. Sert. Aug. 9.
1788.
Zephyranthes tubispatha Herb. App. 36.
1821.
Bulb subglobose, 2-2.5 cm.
in diameter,
its neck short.
Leaves narrowly
linear,
1.6-3 dm. long; scape slender,
1 dm. long or more; spathe
2. .5-3. 5 cm.
long; pedicels longer than the spathe; perianth white, .slightly tinged with green,
4-5 cm. long, the tube short, the segments obovate, 8-10 mm. broad; stamens
about as long as the perianth; style deeply trifid, overtopping the anthers; capsule
about 11 mm. in diameter.
Grassy places, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas.
St. Croix:
St. Jan: Tortola :—Cuba and
.Tamaica to Tobago; northern South America.
Grown for ornament in Porto Kico and
Virgin Island gaidens.
AMARYLLIDACEAE
159
2. Atamosco rosea
(Lindl.) Greene, Pittonia 3: 188.
1897.
Zephyranthes rosea Lindl. Bot. Reg.
pi. 821.
1824.
Amaryllis rosea Spreng. Syst. 4: Cur. Post. 133.
1827.
Bulb subglobose, 2-2.2 cm.
in diameter, short-necked.
Leaves
linear, 2-
5.5 mm. wide; scape 10-25 cm. long, often longer than the leaves; pedicels longer
than the spathe; perianth bright red, 3-3.5 cm. long, the tube short, greenish,
the segments obovate; stamens much shorter than the perianth;
style nearly as
long as the perianth.
Escaped from
cultivation,
for orDament Porto
Rico:—Cuba.
Naturalized
in
Bermuda and
the Bahamas.
3, Atamosco carinata (Herb.) P. Wilson.
Zephyranthes carinata Herb. Bot. Mag. 52:
pi. 259 ^.
1825.
Amaryllis carinata Spreng. Syst. 4: Cur. Post.
132.
1827.
Bulbs ovoid, about 2.5 cm. in diameter, short-necked.
Leaves linear, 1.5-3
dm.
long, 5-9 mm. wide; scape slender,
1.7-2.5 dm. high; spathe 3.5-4.5 cm.
long, the valves lanceolate; pedicels shorter than the spathe; perianth bright rose-
red, 6-7.5 cm. long, the tube 1.4-2 cm. long, the segments obovate,
1.3 cm. or
more broad
; stamens about half as long as the perianth
; ovary stalked
; style over-
topping the stamens, deeply trifid.
[Ainaryllis Atamasco of West, and of Krebs,
not of Linnaeus.]
Porto Rico and St. Croix, according to Urban-—Guadeloupe, Martinique; Mexico;
Central America.
Duende rosado.
6. HIPPEASTRUM Herb. App. 31.
1821.
Bulbous plants with linear or strap-shaped leaves.
Flowers large, showy,
usually two or more, borne on a stout, hollow, leafless scape.
Perianth funnel-
shaped, often more or less nodding, the tube short or long, provided with scales
or a corona at the throat, the segments nearly equal.
Stamens inserted at the
throat of the tube; filaments filiform; anthers linear or linear-oblong, versatile.
Ovary 3-celled; ovules many, superposed; style long; stigma capitate or trifid.
Capsule globose,
loculicidally 3-valved.
Seeds usually
flattened, with a thick
black testa.
[Greek,
knight's-star.]
About 60 species, natives of tropical Amer-
ica.
Type species: Hippeastrum crocatum, Herh.
1. Hippeastrum puniceum (Lam.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 151.
1903.
Amaryllis punicea Lam. Encycl. 1: 122.
1783.
Amaryllis equestris Ait. Hort. Kew. 1: 417.
1789.
Tl-
j_
..j_. XT„«U
\ ^-^
Ol
1001
Jimaryuis equesiris n.ii. nuiu. r^.ew. x. tii.
x<c
Hippeastrum equestre Herb. App. 31.
1821.
Hippeastrum purpureum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 703.
1891.
Amaryllis biflora Sess6 & Moc. Fl. Mex. ed. 2. 87.
1894.
Bulb globose or globose-ovoid, stoloniferous, 4-5 cm. long, with brown coats.
Leaves strap-shaped
or oblong-lanceolate,
2.8-6.5 dm.
long,
2.5-5 cm.
wide,
gradually narrowed
to the apex; scape
terete, glaucous, 4-6 dm.
high; umbel
2-4-flowered; spathe-Valves lanceolate; pedicels 3.5-7 cm. long; perianth 9-12
cm. wide when expanded, the segments elliptic-obovate or obovate, bright red
with green at the iSase
; stamens shorter than the segments.
Fields,
hillsides, and
roadsides, Porto
Rico;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix:
St.
Jan;
Tortola:—Cuba and Jamaica to Trinidad; continental tropica! America.
Consists of
several races, some of these planted for ornament.
Am.\pola.
Barbados Lily.
160
AMARYLLIDACEAE
7. CRINUM L. Sp. PI. 291.
1753.
Bulbous acaulescent herbs, with showy flowers.
Leaves linear or somewhat
broadened upward, spreading or arching.
Scape
solid,
erect.
Flowers
large,
umbelled.
Spathe
2-valved.
Perianth
funnel-
or
salver-shaped,
the
tube
straight or curved, the lobes linear or oblong.
Stamens 6, the filaments filiform,
the anthers linear, versatUe.
Ovary 3-celled
; ovules few
; style slender, elongated
stigma entire.
Fruit subglobose, membranous or coriaceous, bursting irregularly.
Seeds few, large, round, testa thick; albumen copious.
[Greek name for a lily.}
Over 80 species, natives of warm and tropical Asia, Africa, Australia and America.
Type species: Crinum americanum L.
1. Crinum zeylanicum L. Syst. ed.
12, 236.
1767.
Amaryllis zeylanica L. Sp. PI. 293.
1753.
Bulb subglobose, 10-15 cm.
in diameter, the neck short.
Leaves sword-
shaped
6-9 cm.
long, 6-10 cm. wide; peduncles stout, often tinged with red;
flowers' 10
or more
in an umbel,
short-pedicelled,
the perianth-tube curved,
7-15 cm
long, green or tinged with red, the lobes oblong-lanceolate, 7.5-10 cm.
long, 2-2.5 cm. wide, white with a broad red keel; stamens shorter than the
perianth-lobes.
Escaped from cultivation near Utuado, Porto Rico; St. Croix: St. Thomas:—Native
of tropical
Asia and
Africa.
Recorded by MiUspaugh
as
C.
longiflorum Herb, and
C. erubescens Ait., and by Krebs and by Eggers as C. erubescens Ait.
Crinum amabile Donn., of Sumatra, is planted in Porto Rico and St. Thomas.
It is a large fleshy herb with green strap-shaped leaves 9-12 dm. long and 7-ia
cm
wide
the fragrant flowers are 20 or more in an umbel, the erect perianth-
tulJe is sometimes 10 cm. long, bright red, the linear perianth-segments are 9-13
cm. long, red on the outside.
Crinum giganteum Andr., African, recorded by Eggsrs as cultivated in
the Vir-in Islands, has large globose bulbs 10-15 cm. in diameter, the lanceolate
leaves are 6^9 dm.
long,
with
distinct cross
veinlets,
the flowers
are usually
about 8 on a stout compressed peduncle, the slender perianth-tube is 11-17 cm.
long, the perianth-segments pure white.
8. HYMENOCALLIS Salisb. Trans. Hort. Soc. 1: 338.
1812.
Mostly tall acaulescent herbs, with coated bulbs, sessile or petioled linear or
lanceolate basal leaves, and large white sessile or pedicelled, umbelled flowers on
solid
scapes, each
flower subtended by 2 membranous bracts.
Perianth of 6
spreading or recurved lobes, united below into a long cyUndric tube.
Stamens 6.
the filaments free above but webbed and united into a membranous cup below;,
anthers linear, versatile.
Ovary 3-celled; ovules 2 in each cavity; style filiform,
long-exserted; stigma small, entire or nearly so.
Capsule rather fieshy.
Seeds,
usually 1 or 2, large, green, fleshy.
[Greek, beautiful membrane, referring to the
st^minal-cup.i
About 30 species, natives of America.
Type species: Hymeno-
callis littoralis SaUsb.
1. Hymenocallis declinata (Jacq.) M. Roem. Fam. Nat. 4: 171.
1847.
Pancratium declinatum Jacq.
Sel. Am. 99.
1763.
Pancratium expansum Sims, Bot. Mag.
pi.
1941.
1817.
Hymenocallis expansa Herb. App. 44.
1821.
Bulb subglobose,
often 8 cm.
in diameter.
Leaves
fleshy,
sessile,
linear-
oblong, 4-7 dm. long, 3.5-6.5 cm. wide, acute or rounded at the apex, gradually
AMARYLLIDACEAE
161
narrowed to the base, dark green; scape stout, as long as the leaves or shorter;
flowers 5 or more, sessile, fragrant; bracts ovate to lanceolate, 3-6 cm. long, acute
or acuminate; ovary oblong, 1-1.5 cm. long; perianth-tube slender, 5-10 cm. long;
perianth-segments
linear, 8-12 cm.
long,
longer than
the
tube; staminal-cup
3-4 cm. long, about one third as long as the stamens.
[Eecorded by Eggers as
Pancratium carihaeum and by Millspaugh and by Urban as Hymenocallis caribaea.
Bello recorded Pancratium carihaeum and also P. carolinianum as Porto Rican,
but we have been able to identify only one species of Hymenocallis within our area.]
Coastal sands,
hillsides, and along streams, Porto Rico; Culebra,
St. Thomas;
St. Croix; St. Jan
:—Bermuda; Bahamas to St. Kitts and Montserrat.
LiRiO.
Spider
Lily.
Hymenocallis undulata Herb.
[Pancratium
undulatuvi
Kunth],
Vene-
zuelan,
is recorded by Krebs as observed in St. Thomas, prior to 1851, perhaps
In cultivation, perhaps an erroneous record.
Molineria hortensis Britton,
sp. nov.
Similar to M.
recurvata (Dryand)
Herb., [Curculigo recurvata Dryand.]
Leaves about
1 m. long, 12-15 cm. wide,
long-acuminate, the petiole about one-half as long as the blade
; peduncles stout,
tomentose, about 1.5 cm. long; heads nodding, densely many-flowered, 5-6 cm.
in diameter; Isracts lanceolate, long-acuminate,
villous, the lower ones 4-5 cm.
long, the others shorter; perianth yellow, much shorter than the bracts.
Cultivated
in Porto Rico gardens,
its
origin unknown, presumably from
tropical India, or Malaya.
Tji^e from a garden near La Muda (Britton 7892);
in flower ]March, 1923.
Polianthes tuberosa L., Tuberose, ]\Iexican, grown in Porto Rico and Vir-
gin Island gardens, has a tuberous rootstock, erect stems 6-9 dm. high bearing
several narrowly linear leaves and a terminal spike of pure white fragrant waxy
flowers, the perianth-segments about 2-2.5 cm. long, the tube bent near the base.
Eucharis grandiflora Planch. [E. amazonica Lindl.], Amazon Lily, South
American, grown
in Porto Rican and Virgin Island gardens,
is bulbous, with
elliptic or elliptic-oblong leaves 2-3 dm. long, and 11-15 cm. wide on petioles 15
cm. or more long, the umbelled white flowers with a cylindric, often curved,
tube, an expanded throat and 6 spreading starlike segments about 3 or 4 cm.
long, the staminal cup of six connate segments.
Also known
as Annunciation
Lily.
Sprekelia formosissima
(L.)
Herb.,
Mexican,
occasionally grown
for
ornament in Virgin Island gardens,
is bulbous, with linear leaves and a hollow
scape bearing one large red declined flower with nearly equal segments,
the
lower ones concave and partly enclosing the stamens and
pistil.
[Amaryllis
formosissim,a L.]
Amaryllis Belladonna L., Belladonna Lily, South African, planted for
ornament in Virgin Island gardens, has scapes 6-12 dm. high, bearing an umbel
of
large,
short-pedicelled,
rose-red,
fragrant
flowers which bloom
before
the
narrow strap-shaped leaves appear.
Cyrtanthus uniflorus Ker., South African, recorded by Krebs as formerly
grown in St. Thomas, has a small globose bulb, narrow linear leaves, the scape
bearing one to three nearly erect and nearly white flowers about 5 cm. long
[Amaryllis pumilio Ait.]
162
DIOSCOREACEAE
Family 4.
DIOSCOREACEAE lindl.
Yam Family
Perennial herbaceous or somewhat woody vines, with ribbed and netted-
veined
petioled
leaves and
small
inconspicuous
dioecious or monoecious
(in some exotic genera perfect) regular flowers.
Perianth 6-parted, adherent
in the pistillate flowers to the ovary.
Staminate flowers with 6 or 3 stamens,
sometimes with a rudimentary ovary.
Pistillate flowers with an inferior
3-celled ovary, 3 styles and 3 terminal stigmas, sometimes also with 3 or 6
staminodia; ovules 2 or rarely one in each cavity of the ovary, pendulous,
anatropous or amphitropous.
Fruit a 3-valved, 3-angled capsule or sama-
roid.
Endosperm of the seed fleshy or cartilaginous, enclosing the small
embryo.
About 9 genera and 175 species, mostly natives of America, a few
in the Old World.
Fruit a 3-celled, 3-winged or 3-angled capsule.
1-
Dioscorea.
Fruit a 1-seeded samara.
2. Rajama.
1. DIOSCOREA [Plum.] L. Sp. PI. 1032.
1753.
Twining
\ines, mostly
with
large
edible
tuberous
rootstocks,
the stems
occasionally armed
^vith prickles near the base.
Leaves alternate, opposite or
whorled, often bearing bulbs in their a.xils.
Flowers
in
axillary spikes, racemes
or panicles.
Fruit locuUcidaUy 3-valved by spUtting through the winged angles.
Seeds
flat, with a membranous wing.
[Name in honor of the Greek NaturaUst
Dioscorides.]
About 160 species, natives of tropical regions, a few in the tem-
perate zones.
Known as Yam and Name.
Type species: Dioscorea saliva L.
T
f*fi,f—V)l3jd6s GJitirc
Leaf-blades long-pilose on the veins beneath; leaves alternate;
.
stems slender, terete, unarmed.
1- D. pilosiuscula.
Leaf-blades glabrous.
Perfect stamens 3; leaves alternate; stems terete or nearly
^
,
so, unarmed.
2. D. polygonmdes.
Perfect stamens 6.
Leaves mostly opposite.
Stems acutely
4-angled
or 4-winged; racms
of the
staminate inflorescence flexuous.
3. D. alata.
Stems
terete
or
nearly
so.
sometimes armed
with
small sharp
prickles;
rachis
of the staminate
in-
florescence straight.
4. D. cayennensis.
Leaves mostlv alternate; stems
sharply
angled,
armed
with large flat prickles; staminate spikes simple.
5. D. altissjma.
Leaf-blades 3-6-lobed; leaves alternate; stem 4-angled or 4-winged;
perfect stamens 6.
6.
JJ. tnhda.
1. Dioscorea pilosiuscula Bertero; Spreng. Syst. 2: 152.
1825.
•
Helmia pilosiuscula Kunth, Enum. 5: 434.
1850.
Dioscorea bulbifera Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 587.
1864.
Not. L.
1753.
A rather slender \ine, sometimes 15 m. long, the subcylhidric stems glabrous
or sparingly pilose, striate.
Leaves alternate, often bearing bulbils in their axils,
the blades "ovate, 8-14 cm. long, 4-7.5 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, cordate
at the base, 7-11-nerved, the sinus broad; petioles 2.5-3.5 cm.
long,
pilose or
glabrous;
pistillate flowers in long smaple spikes, the perianth-segments oblong
or elliptic, 1.5 nmi. long; capsule oblong-elliptic, 2 cm. long,
1 cm. broad; seeds
about 8 mm. long, winged at the base.
Thickets and
hillsides, Porto Eico;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica
(ac-
cording to Grisebach), Hispaniola; Antigua to Tobago; GuiEina.
DrNGUEY.
DIOSCOREACEAE
163
2. Dioscorea polygonoides H. & B.; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 795.
1808.
Dioscorea polygonoides scorpioidea UUne; R. Knuth, Notizblatt 7: 208.
1917.
A glabrous vine with slender subterete stems.
Leaves alternate, ovate to
ovate-oval, 6-15 cm. long, 5-12 cm. broad, long-acuminate at the apex, deeply
cordate at the base, 7-11-nerved, punctate with pellucid lines; staminate flowers
interruptedly spicate, single or glomerate, the spike simple or sparingly branched
bracts
linear or
linear-lanceolate,
2-3 mm.
long;
perianth-segments ovate
or
elliptic, about 1.5 mm. long,
1 mm. wide, obtuse or acutish; perfect stamens
.3;
sterile stamens
3;
pistillate
flowers
in
sunple
or
slightly compound racemes;
capsule oblong-oval or oval,
2. .5-3 cm. long, 2-2.7 cm. broad chartaceous; seeds
surrounded by a wing.
[D. alata of Bello, not of Linnaeus; D. multiflora of Cook
and ColUns.]
Thickets and hillsides, Porto Rico:—Hispaniola: Antigua to Trinidad; continental
tropical America.
Gunda.
Hicamo.
Mata gallina.
3. Dioscorea alata L. Sp. PI. 1033.
1753,
Rajania flexuosa Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 124.
1883.
A glabrous vine, the stems 4-angled or 4-winged.
Leaves usually opposite,
the blades hastate-ovate to broadly ovate or suborbicular, 7-20 cm.
long, 4-12
cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, often deeply cordate at the base, 5-7-nerved,
membranous;
petioles rather slender, 5-14 cm.
long,
often winged; staminate
flowers in whorled, often panicled spikes, the rachis flexuous; perianth-segments
about
1 mm.
long,
the outer oval to
orbicular,
the inner somewhat obovate;
fertile stamens 6; pistillate flowers distant in sunple spikes, hypanthium glabrous;
capsule coriaceous, glabrous, broader than long, with 3 large wings, 2.2-3 cm. in
diameter; seeds orbicular, broadly winged all around.
Spontaneous after cultivation; Porto Rico; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; St. Croix:
—Bahamas; Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Saba to Trinidad; northern South America.
Generally cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries.
Probably native of southern
Asia.
White Yam.
Water Yam.
4. Dioscorea cayennensis Lam. Encyc. 3: 233.
1789.
A glabrous vine, the stems terete or nearly so, often armed below with small
sharp
prickles.
Leaves mostly
opposite,
the
blades
usually
cordate-hastate,
6-14 cm.
long, 5-10 cm.
broad, rather
abruptly long-acimiinate
at
the apex,
7-9
nerved,
punctate with
pellucid
lines;
petioles 4.5-9 cm.
long; staminate
flowers spicate; bracts triangular-ovate,
acuminate, about
1 mm.
long; outer
perianth-segments oval, 2-2.5 mm. long,
1.2-1.5 mm. broad, the inner slightly
smaller; perfect stamens 6;
pistillate flowers in simple spikes; capsule
elliptic-
oblong, coriaceous; seeds winged at the base.
Spontaneous
after
cultivation
in Porto
Rico:—Jamaica; Guadeloupe;
St.
Lucia;
Grenada; Tobago; Trinidad.
Name de Guinea.
Guinea Yam.
Yellow Yam.
Dioscorea rotundata Poir.
[D.
cayennensis
rotundata
Griseb.],
White
Guinea
Yam,
originally
described
from
(probably
cultivated)
Porto
Rican
specimens,
is very similar to the preceedmg.
It differs, however, in the cordate
leaf-blades which have rounded lobes, and in a usually more sunple inflorescence.
5. Dioscorea altissima Lam. Encyc. 3: 231.
1789.
Dioscorea chondrocarpa Griseb. in Mart.
Fl. Bras. 3*: 34.
1842.
A large vine, the brownish stems sharply angled below and often more or
less winged, armed with
large
flat
prickles.
Leaves usually
alternate,
rarely
subopposite, the blades ovate to orbicular, 8-15 cm. long, 7-16 cm. broad, acu-
minate at the apex, cordate at the base, 7-9-nerved, punctate beneath with pel-
lucid
lines and
dots;
petioles
5-7.5 cm.
long,
occasionally armed
with
small
164
DIOSCOREACEAE
scattered
prickles;
staminate
spikes
"simple,
the
perianth-segments
oblong,
obtuse";
pistillate flowers in long simple spikes, the perianth-segments oblong,
1.5-2 mm. long.
Spontaneous
after cultivation; Porto
Rico:—Cuba; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
St.
Vincent; Tobago; BrazU.
Dunguey.
6. Dioscorea trifida L.
f. Suppl. 427.
1781.
A pubescent vine, the stems 4-angled or 4-winged.
Leaves alternate, 9-20
cm.
long, 8-19 cm.
broad,
3-.5-lobed,
often short-pilose on the veins beneath,
punctate with pellucid
lines, 9-11-nerved, the lobes ovate-lanceolate to elliptic
or oval, acuminate; petioles 5-12 cm.
long; staminate flowers
in long slender,
sometimes whorled,
panicled
spikes,
the branches
pilose, the lanceolate bracts
about 2 mm. long, acuminate; perianth-segments oblong, 2.5-3 mm. long; stamens
6,
all perfect, the filaments longer than the anthers;
pistillate flowers
in long
slender simple racemes, the rachis often pilose; hypanthium pilose, the perianth-
segments oblong to oblong-lanceolate; capsule oblong-elliptic, 2.5-3.4 cm. long,
1.4-1.6 cm. broad, coriaceous.
Spontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico:—.Jamaica; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
St. Vincent. Tobago and Trinidad.
Native of Southi America.
Mapuey.
CusH-ctrSH
Yam.
Indian Yam.
Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.)
Prain, Potato Yam,
is cultivated
in Porto
Rico for food.
It
is a rather large vine, the broadly ovate, glabrous alternate,
9-13-nerved leaves are cordate at the
liase, acuminate at the apex, the stems
terete, the staminate spikes fasciculate-paniculate, the pistillate simple.
[Oncua
esculentus Lour; D.
sativa of Kunth, not of Linnaeus.]
Dioscorea latifolia Benth., Akam,
of west
tropical
Africa,
is sometimes
planted in Porto Rico and has been confused with D.
sativa L.
The alternate,
long-petioled, glabrous, 7-9-nerved leaves are cordate at the base, the staminate
spikes about as long as the leaves, the stamens shorter than the narrow perianth-
lobes,
the rudimentary ovary
small,
the
pistillate
spikes sometimes 20 cm.
long or more.
Dioscorea sagittata
Poir, native of Guiana,
is recorded as formerly ob-
served on St. Thomas
l:)y Krebs.
2. RAJANIA L. Sp. PI. 1032.
1753.
Twining vines, with alternate petioled leaves, and small greenish dioecious
racemose
flowers, the staminate ones commonly clustered
in the racemes, the
pistillate solitary.
Staminate flowers with a 6-cleft perianth and 6 stamens with
short filaments, the pistil rudimentary or none.
Pistillate flowers witli 6 distinct
perianth-segments, the styles 2-cleft; staminodia minute ox' wanting.
Fruit sam-
aroid,
1-seeded,
indehiscent,
the wing
terminal.
Commemorates John
Ray,
1628-1705, famous English botanist.]
Twenty species or more, natives of the
West Indies, Central and South America.
Type species: Rajania hastata L.
1. Rajania cordata L. Sp. PI. 1032.
1753.
Rajania pleioneura Griseb.
Fl. Br. "W.
I. 588.
1864.
Rajania Sinienisii Uline; Urban. Symb. Ant. 3: 281.
1902.
Rajania venosa R. Knuth, Notizblatt 7: 219.
1917.
Rajania cordata microcarpa LHine; R. Knuth, Notizljlatt 7: 219.
1917.
Rajania cordata cymulifera UUne; R. Knuth, Notizblatt 7: 220.
1917.
A
vine, 3-9 m.
long or
longer, with
slender glabrous branches.
Leaves
alternate,
chartaceous,
oblong-ovate,
triangular-ovate
or broadly
ovate, 4-19
HAEMODORACEAE
165
cm. long, 2-11.5 cm. broad, acute to long-acuminate at the apex, cordate or sub-
cordate at the ba.se, glabrous on both sides, 7-9 nerved, the petioles 1-5 cm. long;
staminate inflorescence 6-30 cm. long,
its branches slender, glabrous or slightly
pubescent; perianth-segments oblong,
1 mm. long or less; pistillate inflorescence
7-30 cm. long, usually glabrous; samara narrowly to broadly semiobovate-oblong,
1-2.6 cm. long, its wing thin and lustrous.
Thickets, woodlands and mountain forests ascending to higher elevations in moist
districts
Porto
Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:—Cuba; Jamaica; Guadeloupe;
Dominica;
Martinique;
Trinidad.
Guayaro.
Bejuco
de
Gu.\bagxjao.
Name
GULUMBO.
GtTN'DA.
Family 5.
HAEMODORACEAE
R. Br.
Bloodwort Family
Perennial herbs with erect stems, narrowly or broadly linear leaves, and
regular or somewhat irregular perfect flowers.
Perianth 6-parted or 6-lobed,
persistent.
Stamens 3.
Ovary inferior or superior, 3-ceUed; ovules few or
numerous in each cavitv; styles mostly slender; stigma small, entire or 3-
grooved.
Fruit a
loculicidally 3-valved capsule.
Seeds few or numerous;
embryo small in fleshy endosperm.
About 9 genera and 35 species, mostly
natives of South Africa and Australia, a few in tropical America and the
north temperate zone.
1. XIPHIDIUM Aubl. PI. Guian. l: 33.
1775.
Rather
stout
stoloniferous
herbs,
with
creeping
rootstocks and
broadly
linear equitant
leaves.
Perianth
6-parted.
Stamens opposite the 3 inner per-
ianth-segments; filaments short; anthers erect.
Ovary superior; ovules numer-
ous in each cavity.
Capsule globose; seeds numerous.
(Greek, a
little sword.)
Two or three
species,
natives
of the We.5t Indies and tropical America.
Type
species: Xiphidium coeruleum Aubl.
1. Xiphidium coeruleum. Aubl. PI. Guian. 1: 33.
1775.
Xiphidium florihundum Sw. Prodr.
17.
1788.
Stems 2-6 dm.
high.
Leaves
linear-lanceolate,
3.5-4 dm.
long, 2-5 cm.
wide, long-acuminate at the apex, glabrous, the margins often muricate
; panicle
1-3 dm. high, the branches more or less villous; pedicels 2-5 nmi. long; perianth-
segments
oblong-lanceolate,
about
5 mm.
long,
1.5-2 mm.
broad,
obtuse
or
acutish, glabrescent; capsule 5-6 mm. in diameter.
Moist shadv places, Rosario, Porto Rico:—Cuba; .Jamaica;
St. Kitts to Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
Occasionally planted in Virgin Island flower gardens.
Family 6.
IRIDACEAE Lindl.
Iris Family
Perennial
herbs, with elongated
or
bulb-like rootstocks and equitant
2-ranked leaves.
Flowers perfect, regular or irregular, solitary or in clusters
from spathe-like bracts.
Perianth of 6 segments or 6-lobed, the tube adnate
to the ovary, the segments or lobes in 2 series, convolute in the bud, withering-
persistent.
Stamens 3, inserted on the perianth opposite the outer series of
segments
or
lobes.
Filaments
distinct
or
partially
united.
Anthers
2-
celled,
extrorse.
Ovary
inferior,
3-celled.
0\ailes numerous, anatropous.
Styles distinct, entire or parted, sometimes petal-like.
Fruit a loculicidally
3-valved capsule.
Seeds numerous in
1 or 2 rows in each cavity of the
166
HAEMODORACEAE
capsule; embryo straight in fleshy or horny endosperm.
About 57 genera
and 800 or more
species of wide
distribution,
in temperate and
tropical
regions of both hemispheres.
Caulescent
herbs,
with
short,
stout
rootstocks;
style
subulate,
its
branches flattened and emarginate.
1. Belamcanda.
Acaulescent herbs, with coated bulbs; style very short, with three sub-
ulate branches.
2.
Galatea.
1. BELAMCANDA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 60.
1763.
[Gemmingia Heister; Fabr. Enum.
PI. Hort. Helm. ed.
2. 27.
1763.]
Perennial caulescent herbs, with short stout rootstocks and alternate Iris-
like
leaves.
Flowers
in
terminal
small
bracted
clusters.
Perianth
mottled.
Stamens
3;
filaments
distinct, adnate
to
the base of the perianth-segments;
anthers linear-oblong.
Ovary 3-celled.
Style slender, the branches flattened.
Capsule
fig-shaped,
loculicidally 3-valved
to the
base,
the valves
recurving,
finally falling away, leaving the central column covered with the globose black
and fleshy-coated seeds, resembling a blackberry.
[The East
Indian
name.]
A monotyplc genus of eastern Asia.
1. Belamcanda chinensis
(L.) DC. in Red.
Lil. 3:
pi.
121.
1807.
Ixia chinensis L. Sp. PI. 36.
1753.
Pardanthus chinensis Ker in Konig & Sims, Ann. Bot. l: 247.
1805.
Gemmingia chinensis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 701.
1891.
Stems rather stout, 4.5-12 dm.
tall or more.
Leaves nearly erect, bright
green, often more or less glaucescent, equitant, folded,
1 .5-5 dm. long, the two
sides united above the middle; bracts similar to the leaves but much shorter;
flowers several or numerous; perianth 3-5 cm. broad, the segments nearly alike,
oblong, obtuse at the apex, narrowed
at
the base, orange-yellow mottled with
crimson-purple spots; capsule 2-2.5 cm. long; seeds shining.
Roadsides and open hillsides, naturalized in Porto Rico; following cultivation for
ornament;—eastern United States; Cuba; Jamaica; Martinique.
M.\hiposa.
Black-
berry Lily.
2. GALATEA Salisb. Trans. Hort. Soc. l: 310.
1812.
[Eleutherine Herb. Bot. Reg. 29:
pi. 67.
1843.]
Acaulescent herbs, with tunicated bulbs and lanceolate acuminate leaves.
Inflorescence of several peduncled
clusters, subtended
at the base by a large
leaf-Uke
bract.
Spathes several-flowered,
about
1.5 cm.
long.
Perianth-tube
none, the segments subequal, spreading.
Filaments short, free.
Anthers Unear.
Ovary 3-celled.
Ovules many, superposed.
Style very short, with 3 subulate
branches
stigmatic
at
the
tip.
Capsule
loculicidally
3-valved.
Seeds
small,
angled by
pressure.
[Greek,
a sea-nymph.]
Two known
species,
natives
of
tropical America.
Type species
: Galatea vespertina Salisb.
1. Galatea bulbosa (Mill.) Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. l: 37.
1918.
Sisyrinchium bidbosum Mill. Gard. Diet. ed.
8.
No.
3.
1768.
Sisyrinchium palmifolium Cav. Diss 6: 348.
1788.
Not. L. 1767.
Eleutherine plicata Herb.; Klatt, in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
S^: 514.
1871.
Cipura plicata Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 589.
1864.
Eleutherine bulbosa Urban, Repert. 15: 305.
1918.
Bulb ovoid, 3 cm. or more in diameter, with rather hard red-brown coats.
Leaves
1 or 2, basal, linear-lanceolate, 1.4-4.5 dm. long, the slender scape up to
MUSACEAE
1«7
3.5 dm.
tall; spathes oblong,
1.5 cm.
long,
or
less; flowers slender-pedicelled
perianth white, 2-2.5 cm. broad; the segments obovate, spreading; style-branches
as long as the anthers
; filaments short
; anthers linear
; capsule about 2 cm. long.
Roadsides and fields, Porto Rico; St. Thomas; St. Jan; St. Croi.x:—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola to Grenada; South America.
Order 10.
SCITAMINALES.
Herbs, often large and
perennial, or sometimes arborescent.
Flowers
very irregular.
Ovary inferior, composed of several united carpels.
Fruit
a capsule or utricle.
Seeds with endosperm.
Pollen-bearing stamens 5.
Fam.
1.
Musaceae.
Pollen-bearing stamen
1.
Ovules many in each cavity of the ovary.
/-. . ,.ttvt . rt » t^
Anthers 1-celled.
Fam. 2.
Cannaceae
Anthers 2-celled
Fam. 3.
Alpiniaceae.
Ov\de soUtary in each cavity of the ovary.
Fam. 4.
Marantac eae
Family
1.
MUSACEAE J. St. Hill.
Banana Family.
Caulescent
or
occasionally
acaulescent,
often
stoloniferous
perennial
herbs, with subarborescent stems composed
of convolute
leaf-sheaths,
or
sometimes
arborescent.
Leaves
distichous
or
spiral,
the
blades
large,
pinnately parallel-veined.
Inflorescence simple, bracteate, forming a dense
spiral spike, or compound and forming a loose distichous panicle.
Flowers
perfect or unisexual.
Corolla a convex membranous petal placed opposite
the
slit in the calyx, or the 3 petals united into a tube 3-toothed at the
apex, or free.
Calyx-tube
slit down one side to the base, 3-5-toothed at
the apex, or of 3 equal sepals, all free, or one free and the other two more or
less adnate to the base of the corolla.
Ovary 3-celled, the ovules solitary
or often several in each cell, anatropous, erect or horizontal; style simple
stigma simple or lobed.
Fruit indehiscent, pulpy or dry, or capsular and
dehiscent.
Seeds with or without an
arill.
Embryo
short.
The family
contains 6 genera and about 80 species of wide geographic distribution.
Flowers perfect; ovule solitary in each ceU of the ovary.
.
1- Bihai.
Flowers unisexual, the loWer female, the upper male; ovules many m eacn
cell of the »vary.
,
^-
J*^"sa.
1. BIHAI Adans. Fam. PI. 525.
1753.
[Heliconia L. Mant. 2: 147.
1771.]
Herbs,
the
inflorescence
terminal,
erect
or
recurved-pendulous.
Flowers
perfect, glomerate or fascicled in the axils of distichous bracts.
Sepals
3, lan-
ceolate, equal, one free, the two others more or less adnate at the base to the cor-
olla.
Petals
united
into
a tube,
3-toothed
at
the
apex.
Perfect stamens
5;
filaments short
; anthers linear, the sixth stamen represented by a small petaloid
staminodium.
Ovary
inferior,
3-celled;
ovules
solitary,
erect;
style
fihform;
stigma
capitate.
Capsule
drupaceous,
often
blue.
[An
aboriginal
name.]
Thirty or more species, native of tropical America.
Type species
: Musa Bihai L.
1. Bihai Bihai (L.) Griggs. Bull. Torr. Club 31:
445.
1904.
Musa Bihai L. Sp. PI. 1043.
17.53.
Heliconia Bihai L. Mant.
2:
211.
1771.
Heliconia horinquena Griggs, Bull. Torr. Club 30: G5S.
1903.
Bihai horinquena Griggs, Bull. Torr. Club 31: 445.
1904.
Plant 3-6 m.
tall.
Leaves
long-petioled, the oblong or elliptic blade often
1 m. or more long, 2-3.5 dm. broad, abruptly short-acuminate at the apex, acute
168
MUSACEAE
or rounded at the base, glabrous, green, or glaucous beneath: inflorescence 4-6
dm. long; bracts deeply boat-shaped, acute to long-acuminate, 6-12 cm.
long,
overlapping each other at their bases, crimson with a yellow edge, yellow or scar-
let
; flowers greenish or greenish-yellow.
Moist liillside forests and damp ravines, Porto Rico; Tortola:—West Indies (except
Bahamas)
; continental tropical America.
Races differ in
sliape, size and color of ttie
bracts.
P.VMPANO.
Platano de Indio.
Wild Plantain.
2. MUSA L. Sp. PI. 1043.
1753.
Herbs,
often
large
and
tree-lilve.
Leaves
usually
very
large.
Flowers
unisexual,
in half whorl-like clusters in a termhial, erect or recurved-pendulous
spike, the lower flowers female, the upper male
; bracts large, spathaceous, colored.
Calyx-tube slit down one side to the base, 3-5-toothed at the apex.
Corolla a
convex membranous petal placed opposite the slit in the calyx.
Perfect stamens
5, the sixth rudimentary or none; filaments erect, free; anthers linear, erect, 2-
celled.
Ovary inferior, 3-celled; ovules many, superposed; style erect,
filiform;
stigma
subglobose,
6-lobed.
Fruit
oblong
or
fusiform,
indehiscent,
usually
fleshy,
many-seeded
when
seed
is
produced;
testa
crustaceous;
endosperm
mealy
; embryo small.
[Named in honor of Antonio Musa, physician to Octavius
Augustus,
first Emperor of Eome.]
Forty or more species, natives of tropical
Asia, Africa, Australia and adjacent islands.
Type species; Musa paradisiaca L.
1. Musa paradisiaca L. Sp. PI. 1043.
1753.
Plant 6-10 m.
tall, stoloniferous.
Leaves petioled, the blade oblong, 12-20
dm. long, 3.5-6 dm. wide, usually rounded at the l^ase, light green above, paler
beneath;
inflorescence
recurved-pendulous,
10-15
dm.
long;
bracts
mostly
persistent, oblong-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, duU
violet, more or less glaucous
outside, the lower longer than the upper: flowers yellowish-white, 3-3.8 cm. long;
calyx 5-toothed;
free petal oval,
half as long as the calyx;
fruit cylindric 1.5-
3 dm.
long, usually yellow or greenish-yellow when
ripe, the pulp Arm, eaten
when cooked.
Persistent
after
cultivation
in
Porto
Rico.
Cultivated
in
all
tropical
countries,
and the most important food-fruit in Porto Rico.
Native of India, Platano.
PL.\.NTArN.
Musa sapientum
L. Guineos,
Edible
Banana, Yellow
Banana,
is
sometimes regarded as a subspecies, or variety of the preceeding, or as a species
and M. paradisiaca L. a variety of it.
There are many races of this in cultivation
in
tropical
regions.
Cook and
Collins
recorded
over 40 named
varieties
of
plantains and bananas under cultivation in Porto Eico.
Musa Cavendishii Lamb., Dwarf Banana, Fig Banana, Asiatic, locally
grown in Porto Rico, is usually not more than 2.5 m. high, with spreading leaves
about
1 m. long, the numerous yeUow fruits 1-1.5 dm. long.
Ravenela madagascariensis
J.
P. Gmelin, Travelers' Tree, native
of
Madagascar,
is occasionally planted for ornament in moist parts of Porto Rico.
The unbranched trunk
is rather stout up to 7 m. high
; the large, long-petioled,
distichous leaves arranged in a fan-like crown, the large flowers white, the fruit a
loculicidally dehiscent
capsule.
The densely imbricated
petiole-bases contain
a watery sap which is drinkable.
CANNACEAE
169
Family 2.
CANNACEAE Link.
Canna Family.
Erect caulescent herbs, with leafy stems.
Flowers irregular, often showy,
usually in a terminal raceme or panicle, occasionally spicate.
Calyx of 3
erect, more or less imbricate, persistent sepals.
Corolla of 3 partially united
petals.
Staminal tube connate below with the corolla tube, the segments
petaloid, unequal, the exterior staminodes 2 or 3, rarely wanting, the interior
staminodes 2, one of which bears a one-celled anther on its margin.
Ovary
inferior, 3-celled, the cells many-ovuled.
Style flattened, adnate to the base
of the staminal tube, free above.
Fruit capsular, loculicidal, with a papillose
or bristly coat.
Seeds large, globose.
Endosperm horny.
Embryo straight.
Only the following genus.
1. CANNA L. Sp. PL
1.
1753.
Characters of the family.
[Latin, a cane or reed.]
About 50 species, natives
mostly of tropical and subtropical regions, known as Maraca and Indian Shot.
Type species
: Canna indica L.
Flowers yellow.
1-
C. glauca.
Flowers red.
Leaves not perforated.
Staminodia unequal; lip yellow spotted with red.
2.
C. coccinea.
Staminodia subequal; entire corolla red.
.3.
C. sylvestris.
Leaves with foramina between the mid-vein and the margin.
4.
C. pertusa.
1. Canna glauca L. Sp. PI.
i.
1753.
Stem glaucous, 1-2 m.
tall.
Leaf-blades oblong-lanceolate, the lower 3.5-5
dm. long, 8-13 cm. wide at the middle, acuminate at the apex, gradually tapering
to the base, glaucous; racemes
lax, simple or forlced; sepals lanceolate,
L.5-1.7
cm. long, glaucous; corolla-tube 1.5-2 cm.
long, the linear-lanceolate segments
erect, 4-4.5 cm. long, greenish-yellow; upper staminodia 3, pale yellow, unspotted,
6-7 cm. long, 1.4-2 cm. broad; lip narrowly obovate-oblong, pale yellow, emar-
ginate; style linear; capsule ellipsoid or oval, 3.5-4.5 cm. long, about 2.5 cm. in
diameter.
Marshy places and ditches. Porto Rico:—Bermuda; Cuba; Jamaica; Guadeloupe to
Trinidad, South America; recorded from the Philippine Islands.
A glaucous Canna, perhaps a hybrid of
C. glauca with some other species,
was well established and abundant in the old moat at Fort Geronimo, near San
Juan in 1922, but the moat had been filled up and the colony of plants destroyed
in 1923.
2. Canna coccinea Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8.
1768.
Canna coccinea bicolor Kranzl., Pflanzenreich 4^^: 61.
1912.
Stem slender, green, 1.5-2 m. tall.
Leaf-blades oblong-lanceolate to oblong-
ovate, 2.5-5 dm. long, 8-16 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, acute at the base;
racemes mostly simple; sepals oblong-lanceolate,
1.2-1.5 cm.
long, tinged with
red; corolla-tube short, the segments lanceolate, 3.2-3.8 cm.
long, tinged with
red
; upper staminodia unequal, two of them oblong-spatulate, emarginate at the
apex, rarely entire, the third one much smaller, linear-lanceolate
; lip red-yellow,
distinctly emarginate; capsule 2-3 cm. long, 1.5-2 cm. in diameter.
Fields, banks and borders of woods, Porto Rico, ascending to 800 m.; St. Thomas:
West Indies (except Bahamas)
; Central and South America.
170
ALPINIACEAE
3. Canna sylvestris Rose. Monandr.
PI. 10.
1828.
Canna coccinea silvestris Kegel, Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop.
8.5.
1866.
Canna portoricensis P.C. Bouche, Linnaea 12:
147.
1838.
Stems erect,
green, about 2 m.
tall.
Leaf-blade- oblong-lanceolate or
el-
liptic, up to 7 dm. long and 2.5 dm. broad; racemes slender, usually branched;
sepals lanceolate, 0.9-1 cm. long, tinged with red
; perianth-segments lanceolate,
4 cm. long, acuminate at the apex; staminodia 3, equal or nearly so; lip revolute;
capsule ellipsoid, 3.5-4 cm. long,
1.8 cm. in diameter.
Banks of stream, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Panama.
4. Canna pertusa Urban, Repert. 15: 101.
1917.
Plant 3 m. tall, with glabrous stems.
Leaf-blades oval, about 3.5 dm. long,
2 dm. broad, short-acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base, pale green, gla-
brous
above, cobwebby-pubescent on
the midvein
beneath,
at
least some of
them with oblong perforations between the margin and midrib;
inflorescence
paniculate, about 2.5 dm. long; bracts cobwebby-pubescent; ovary oblong-ellip-
soid or obovoid-oblong, densely papillose; sepals lanceolate, 5-6 mm
long, obtuse
at the apex; corolla-tube short, the segments 3.5 cm. long, 7-8 mm. broad, erect;
staminodia 3, united to above the middle; lip lanceolate, punctate above; capsule
oval-elUpsoid or ellipsoid, 4.5-5.5 cm. long, about 2.5 cm. in diameter, echinate.
Banks and along streams, in the central and western mountains
of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Canna lutea Mill., of continental tropical America, has escaped in gardens
on St. Croix, according to Millspaugh.
It
is a medium-sized herb, the slender
green stems sometunes a meter or more high,
the broad lanceolate or oblong
leaves
acute, the oblong sepals white-margined,
the
lanceolate
petals
yellow-
ish white, 2.5 cm. long, the pale yellow staminodia often emarginate, 3.5-5 cm.
long, the linear lip pale yellow.
Canna edulis Ker., West Indian and South American, is recorded by Eggers
as naturalized and cultivated along rivulets in the Virgin Islands.
It
is a tall
herb, the stout purplish stems sometunes 3 m. high, the oblong or ovate-oblong
green or bronze leaves 6 dm. or more long, the oblong-lanceolate sepals, 2 cm.
long, the narrowly lanceolate petals up to 4 cm. long, the bright red or orange
staminodia entire or emarginate, 5 cm. or more long, the lip bright red or yellowish
red, the rootstock edible, thick.
Canna Lambertii Lindl., native of the West Indies and South America,
is recorded by Eggers as cultivated in the Virgin Islands, and by Millspaugh as
naturahzed on
St.
Croix.
It
is a
tall herb, the rather stout stems green, the
oblong-lanceolate or
elliptic
leaves
acute,
the
lanceolate,
pale
purple or
lilac
sepals about 1 or 1.2 cm. long, the lanceolate purple petals 3.5 cm. long, the ob-
ovate, bright crimson staminodia connate at the base, the lip crimson-purple.
Canna indica L., of the West Indies and continental tropical America,
is
recorded bv Krebs as found in St. Thomas and by Eggers as found in moist places
and near dwelUngs in the Virgin Islands
; the records probably apply to C. coccinea
Mill.
,,
,
^
Selected cannas are grown in Porto Rican gardens with moderate success.
Family 3.
ALPINIACEAE Link.
Ginger Family.
Mostly
perennial aromatic herbs,
often
large, with cauline
or
basal
leaves,
the
blades
pinnately
veined.
Inflorescence
terminating
a
leafy
stem, or on a leafless scape arising from the base of the sterile shoot.
Flowers
ALPINIACEAE
171
bracteate
and
often
bracteolate,
solitary,
spicate, racemose or panicled,
irregular,
perfect.
Calyx superior, tubular or spathaceous, often 3-lobed.
Corolla
funnelform,
3-lobed.
Lateral
staminodia
petaloid,
tooth-like
or
none.
Lip often large,
2- or 3-lobed.
Stamen
1; filament short or long;
anther
2-celled, the
cells longitudinally dehiscent.
Style
filiform; stigma
funnelform, the apex often
ciliate.
Ovary 3-celled,
rarely
1- or
2-celled;
ovules anatropous.
Fruit capsular, more or less fleshy, tardily dehiscent.
Style filiform; stigma funnelform, the apex often
ciliate.
Ovary 3-celled,
rarely 1- or 2-celled; ovules anatropous.
Fruit capsular, more or less fleshy.
Seeds eUipsoid; embryo
straight,
cylindric or
clavate.
About 38 genera
and over 800 species, of wide tropical distribution.
Inflorescence lax-flowered, racemose, raceme-like or paniculate; lateral
staminodia rudimentary.
Lip horizontal or declined, sessile or short-clawed.
1. Languas.
Lip erect, long-clawed.
2.
Alpinia.
Inflorescence dense, spike-like, often cone-like.
Lateral staminodia rudimentary.
Spikes
terminating
leafless
scapes;
filament
short;
connective
usually produced into a long appendage.
3.
Zingiber.
Spikes terminating
leafy
stems;
filament
petaloid,
the anther
adnate to its middle.
4.
Costus.
Lateral staminodia large and petal-like.
Staminodia united below with the petal-like filament.
5. Curcuma.
Staminodia distinct or nearly so; filament slender, not petal-like.
6. Hedychium.
1. LANGUAS Koenig in Retz, Obs. 3: 64.
1783.
Herbs with stout rootstocks, and often tall leafy stems.
Flowers mostly in
terminal
panicles
or
racemes.
Calyx
loosely
tubular
or subcampanulate,
3-
toothed.
Corolla-tube cylindric, about as long as the calyx, the lobes spreading.
Lateral staminodia small
; lip large, spreading
; filament broad
; anther-cells linear
»
separated by a broad or narrow connective.
Ovary 3-celled
; ovules few or many
in each
cell; style filiform; stigma subglobose.
Fruit subglobose, many-seeded.
Seeds globose or angled, with a fleshy or spongy aril.
[Malayan name.]
About
135 species, natives of southeastern Asia, the East Indian Islands, New Guinea
and Polynesia.
Type species
: Languas vulgare Koenig.
1. Languas speciosa (Wendl.) Small,
Fl. SE. U.
S. 307, 1375.
1913.
Zerumhet speciosum Wendl.
Sert. Hann.
4:
3.
1798.
Globba nutans Redoute,
Liliac.
1:
pi.
60.
1802.
Not. L. 1771.
Renealmia nutans Andr. Bot. Rep.
5:
pi. 360.
1802-3.
Alpinia nutans Rose; Smith. Exot.
Fl. 2: 93.
1805.
Alpinia speciosa K. Schum.
Fl. Kaiser-Wilhehnsl. 29.
1887.
A robust herb with leafy stems 2-3 m. or more high and showy orchid-like
flowers.
Leaves oblong to
oblong-lanceolate, 3-7 dm.
long, 6-14 cm.
broad,
petioled or subsessile, the margin usually conspicuously ciliate
; ligule coriaceous,
about 1 cm. long, obtuse, often densely pubescent with appressed brownish hairs;
panicle raceme-like, nodding; rachis stout, often densely pubescent; bracts 2-2.8
cm.
long, enveloping the buds, deciduous; calyx subcampanulate,
1.8-2.5 cm.
long,
lobed;
corolla-tube shorter than the
calyx,
the
oblong-elliptic segments
2.5-3 cm.
long, white, tipped with pink
;
lip ovate,
3. .5-4 cm. long, the margins
pale, incurved, the center variegated with red and yellow
; filament linear
; lateral
staminodia subulate, 2 mm. long; capsule subglobose, 2 cm.
in diameter.
Persistent
after
cultivation
in Porto
Rico;—southern
Florida; Bermuda;
Cuba;
Hispaniola; Mont.serrat; Guadeloupe.
Commonly planted for ornament in Porto Rico
and the Virgin
Islands.
Native of the islands of eastern Asia.
Dragon.
Boca de
DRAGON.
Shell-plant.
Shell-flower.
172
ALPINIACEAE
2. ALPINIA L. Sp. PI. 2.
1753.
[Renealmia L.f. Suppl.
7.
1781.
Not L.,
1753.]
Perennial aromatic herbs with fleshy rootstocks.
Inflorescence paniculate
or racemose, terminating a leafy stem, or borne on a lateral scape arismg from
the base of the
sterile
shoot.
Calyx coriaceous, narrowly or broadly
funnel-
shaped, 3-toothed at the apex.
Corolla-tube often shorter than the calyx, the
lobes subequal
or
longer,
rarely
shorter.
Lip more or
less
3-lobed.
Lateral
staminodia
rudimentary.
Anther
2-celled,
sessile
or
with
a
short
filament.
Capsule globose or ellipsoid, rather fleshy,
finally dehiscing irregularly.
Seeds
few,
arillate.
[Commemorates Prosper Alpino,
1553-1617, an ItaUan botanist]
About 50 species, of tropical distribution.
Type species
: Alpinia racemosa L.
•
Inflorescence terminating a leafy stem; corolla white.
1. A. antillarum.
Inflorescence terminating a leafless scape ajising from the base of the
sterile shoot; corolla yellow.
Stems rather slender; calyx 5-6 mm.
long; capsule 8-9 mm. m
diameter.
^
^
2. ^. aromatica.
Stems robust; calyx 1.5-1.8 cm. long; capside 1.4-1.8 cm. broad.
3. A. exaltala.
1. Alpinia antillarum R. & S. Syst. 1: 20.
1817.
Alpinia racemosa Sw. Obs.
5.
1791.
Not.
L.,
17.53.
Renealmia racemosa Rose.
; Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 601.
1864.
Not A. Rich.
1850.
Renealmia antillarum Gagnepain, Bull. Soc. Bot. France IV. 3: 200.
1903.
Renealmia antillarum puberula Gagnepain, loc.
cit. 203.
1903.
Stems 1.5-2 m. high, occasionally taller.
Leaves narrowly lanceolate, 1-3
dm. long, 3.5-7.5 cm. broad, acimiinate at the apex, acute at the base, glabrous^
short-petioled or sessile; inflorescence
6.5 cm.
long,
erect, terminatmg a leafy
stem, with one or more sterile bracts at the base, usually exceeded by the upper-
most' leaves;
rachis,
bracts and
pedicels crimson; flowermg bracts lanceolate^
3.5-4 cm. long; bracteoles broadly fumielform; pedicels slender, 5-12 mm. long;
ovary globose, glabrous
; calyx crimson, 7 rmn. long, 3-toothed, the teeth obtuse
corolla white, the tube 11-12 mim. long, the lip 3-lobed; capsule subglobose, 7-8
mm. or more in diameter; seeds angled, 2-2.5 nun. in diameter, brown, shining.
[Renealmia bracteosa of Bello, not of Grisebach.]
Shaded
hillsides, moist mountain woodlands and
river
valleys, ascending to the
higher elevations, Porto Rico;—Jamaica; Hispaniola.
2. Alpinia aromatica Aubl.
PI. Guian.
i:
3.
1775.
Alpinia occidentalis Sw. Prodr.
11.
1788.
Renealmia occidentalis Sweet, Hort. Brit. Ed. 2, 493.
1830.
Renealmia aromatica Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 601.
1864.
Ethanium aromatica Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 689.
1891.
Ethanium jamaicense Kuntze, loc.
cit.
1891.
Stems 2-2.5 m. tall.
Leaves sessile or subsessile, narrowly oblong-lanceolate
to lanceolate, 2-5 dm. long, 4-12 cm. broad, acumhiate at the apex, acute at the
base,
glabrous,
sessile or nearly so; inflorescence 1-3 dm.
long, terminating a
leafless scape about 6 dm. long, arismg from the base of the stem
; rachis more or
less hirsute
; scape 4-12 dm. long, the membranous sheaths 9-15 cm. long
; lower
bracts 3-6 cm.
long,
occasionaUy
longer,
the upper ones
smaller;
bracteoles
funnelform
; pedicels 4 mm. or more long
; ovary subglobose, pilose or subglabrous
calyx 5-6 mm. long, scarlet
; corolla yeUow
; capsule subglobose or ellipsoid, deep
red, 8-9 mm. in diameter; seeds angled, 3 mm. m diameter, hght gray, shming.
[Amomum
sylvestre of West, and of Krebs, not of Swartz, Renealmia
sylvestri^
of Eggers.]
Damp shaded hillsides, woods and ravines, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas; St.
Croix; Tortola:—Cuba and Jamaica to St. Vincent; continental tropical America.
BUAO.
Narciso.
ALPINIACEAE
173
3. Alpinia exaltata (L.f.) R. & S. Syst. l: 21.
1817.
Renealmia exaltata L.f. Suppl. 79.
1781.
Ethanium exaltatum Kiintze, Rev. Gen. 2: 689.
1891.
Renealmia exaltata
gracilis K. Schum. in Urban,
SjTiib. Ant. 4: 158.
1903.
Stem robust, up to 4 m. high.
Leaves lanceolate or oblanceolate, 3.5-9 dm.
long, 8-18 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, acute at the base, sessile or short-
petioled, glabrous
; inflorescence terminating a leafless scape arising from the base
of the stem
; rachis, peduncles, pedicels, bracts and bracteoles more or less hirsute
bracts
linear-lanceolate 4-8 cm.
long, membranous;
bracteoles
1.5 cm.
long;
calyx red, 1.5-1.8 cm. long, appressed-pubescent
; corolla yellow, the lobes oblong,
8-10 mm. long, the lip somewhat lobed
; capsule ellipsoid, 2.3-3 cm. long, purpUsh-
black
; seeds 3-4 mm. in diameter, angled.
In damp ra\'lnes, moi.st shaded forests and banks of streams Porto Rico:—Lesser An-
tilles; northern South America.
Urban
records
Renealmia
hracteosa
Griseb.
(of the
Ijcsser
Antilles)
from
Porto
Rico, but
Stahl's number 685, on which
this record
is based has been
referred by Schumann
in
his monograph of Zingiberaceae
(Pflanzenreich
4^^:
296.
1904) to Renealmia exaltata L.f.
The species are very doul)tfully distinct.
3. ZINGIBER Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 66.
1763.
Leafy-stemmed herbs with horizontal aromatic branchmg rootstocks. Leaves
distichous;
petioles
sheathing.
Spikes
usuaUy
radical.
Bracts
persistent,
usuafly 1-flowered.
Calyx-tube cylindric, shortly 3-lobed.
Corolla-tube cylin-
dric, slender, the segments lanceolate, the upper concave.
Lateral stamhiodia
none, or adnate to the lip;
lip cuneiform or oblong, entire or 3-lobed; filament
short; anther-sacs contiguous,
parallel,
the cormective ending
in a long erect
slender incurved beak as long as the sacs.
Ovary 3-celled, the cells many-ovuled
style filiform; stigma small,
ciliate.
Capsule subglobose or ellipsoid, at length
dehiscing.
Seeds
globose,
arillate.
[The
Latin
or Greek
name.]
About
55
species,
natives
mostly
of the
Old World
tropics.
Type
species: Amomum
Zingiber L.
Bracts of the inflorescence green.
Leaves mostly 1.5-2.5 cm. broad; lip purple with yellow dots.
1.
Z. Zingiber.
Leaves mostly 4-6 cm. broad; lip yellow.
2.
Z. Zermnbel.
Bracts of the inflorescence bright red "or reddish-green.
3.
Z. cassumunar.
1. Zingiber Zingiber (L.) Karst. Deutsche Fl. 471.
1881.
Amomum Zingiber L. Sp. PI.
1.
17.5.3.
Zingiber officinale Rose. Trans. Linn. Soc. 8: 348.
1807.
Stems 6-9 dm.
high.
Leaves
linear-lanceolate
or
lanceolate,
18-28 cm.
long, 1.2-2.5 cm. broad, sessile, gradually tapering to an acurmnate apex, narrow-
ing to the base; peduncles 1.5-25 cm. long; spikes ellipsoid, 4-6 cm. long; bracts
suborbicular or somewhat obovate, 2-2.5 cm.
long,
greenish, the margin often
yellow; calyx 0.8-1 cm. long; corolla yellowish green, the tube about 2 cm. long,
the lobes lanceolate, subequal, acute
; lip oblong-ovate, shorter than the corolla-
lobes, purple with yellow spots; lateral lobes ovate, about 6 mm. long; filament
dark purple, as long as the Up.
Spontaneous after cultivation,
St. Thomas; St. Croix:—widely cultivated and more
or
less spontaneous in the West
Indies,
tropical
continental America and Old World
tropics.
Native of the Old World.
Jengibre dulce.
Ginger.
174
ALPINIACEAE
2. Zingiber Zerumbet (L.) Rose; Smith. Exot. Bot. 2: 105.
1806.
Amomum Zerumbet L. Sp.
PI.
1.
1753.
Stem 4-10 dm. high
or higher. Leaves
oblong-lanceolate or
oblanceolate,
1.3-2.8 dm. long, 4.5-7 cm. broad, sessile, acuminate at the apex, narrowed at the
base; peduncle 20-45 cm. long; spike ellipsoid, 6-10 cm.
long, 4-5 cm. broad,
obtuse; bracts broadly ovate to orbicular, 2.5-3.5 cm.
long,
closely imbricate,
obtuse, green with a pale edge, the margin pubescent
; corolla-tube slender, 2-2.5
cm. long, the lobes ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, white
; lip 3-fld, shorter than the
corolla-segments;
anther
glabrous;
style
glabrous;
stigma
funnel-shaped,
the
mouth
ciliate;
fruit
ellipsoid,
about
2.5 cm.
long.
[Costus
glabratus of Bello,
not of Swartz.]
Spontaneous
after cultivation in Porto Rico:—cultivated
in
all
tropical regions
Native of tlie Old World.
Jengibre am.\rgo.
Bitter ginger.
3. Zingiber cassumunar Roxb. Asiat. Res. 11: 348.
1810.
Stems 1-2 m.
high.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-4 dm.
long, 4-6.5 cm.
broad, acuminate at the apex, somewhat rounded at the base, glabrous above,
pubescent beneath; peduncle 12-20 cm. long; spike 8-15 cm.
long, 4-5 cm.
in
diameter; bracts ovate, bright red or reddish-green, 3-3.5 cm. long; calyx-tube
about 2 cm. long; corolla-tube slender, about as long as the bracts, the lobes
lanceolate, about 2.2 cm. long, whitish
; lip suborbicular, 2.5 cm. broad, retuse or
2-lobed, the margins erose and wrinkled; anther large,
yellow; style glabrous;
stigma
obconic,
ciliate;
capsule
subglobose,
about
2 cm.
long, membranous.
[Costus spicatus of Bello, not of Swartz.]
Naturalized after cultivation in Porto Rico:—^Cuba; Hispaniola.
Native of eastern
India and Malaysia.
4. COSTUS L. Sp. PI. 2.
1753.
Perennial tropical herbs with leafy stems, rarely acaulescent.
Inflorescence
dense,
often
cone-hke.
Calyx-tube
short.
Corolla-tube
equalling
or
longer
than the calyx, the segments subequal.
Lateral staminodia wanting or minute.
Lip large.
Filament petaloid, the anther adnate to its middle.
Ovary 3-celled
ovules many, superposed;
style
filiform; stigma more or less cihate.
Capsule
globose,
ovoid or obovoid,
finally dehiscing between the
ribs.
Seeds
angled.
[The ancient Greek name.]
About 100 species of wide tropical distribution. Tj^e
species
: Costus arabicus L.
Bracts red, unappendaged, 2.5-3.8 cm. long
; lip 4-5 cm long, entire.
1
.
C. cylindricus
Bracts green, appendaged, 7 cm. long; Up 8 cm. long, 3-lobed.
2.
C. macrostrolnlus
1. Costus cylindricus Jacq. Fragm. Bot. 54.
1809.
Stems 1-4 m.
high.
Leaf-blades narrowly to broadly oblanceolate, 15-27
cm. long, 4-11 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, acutish or rounded at the base,
glabrous or somewhat pilose beneath, subsessile or short-petioled
; spikes cylindric,
7-20 cm.
long, 4-6 cm.
in diameter, the broadly ovate, oval or suborbicular,
rigid-coriaceous bracts red,
striate, 2.5-3.8 cm. long, 2.3-3.2 cm. broad, obtuse
or somewhat acutish, glabrous, or the lower ones appressed-pubescent
; bracteoles
lanceolate, 1.8-3 cm. long, compUcate; ovary glabrous, 5-7 mm. long; calyx 9-12
mm. long, glabrous or short-pilose, red; corolla yellow, the tube
1 cm. or more
long;
lobes
lanceolate,
acute, membraneous; hp
yellow, 4-5 cm.
long,
entire;
filament lanceolate, 3-4 cm. long; capsule triangular, 1.5 cm. long; seeds
angled.
;i-3.5 mm. long.
In damp shaded valleys, Porto Rico:—Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; also in
South America.
ALPINIACEAE
175
2. Costus macrostrobilus K. Schum.
; Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 159.
190.3.
Stem robust, 4 m. high.
Leaf-blades oblanceolate or somewhat lanceolate,
30-40 cm. long, 10-14 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, narrowed or rounded
at the base, puberulent and scabrous on both surfaces; spikes dense,
1.5 cm. long;
bracts green, oblong, 7 cm. long, acute, glabrous; ovary pubescent
; caly.x glabrous,
1 cm. long; corolla white, the tube 2 cm. long, the oblong lobes 5.5 cm.
long,
membranaceous, obtuse; lip 8 cm. long, 3-lobed, the middle lobe short, lacerate,
the lateral ones obtuse.
Mountain woodlands, Porto Rico:—Trinidad.
Cana de India.
5. CURCUMA L. Sp. PI. 2.
1753.
Erect, often acaulescent herbs, with petioled leaves, the rootstock bearing
sessile and long-stipitate tubers.
Leaves appearing with or after the
flowers.
Inflorescence spicate, usually born on a scape.
Spike large, of concave or saccate,
persistent bracts, the upper of which are often elongated, empty and colored,
forming a crown
to
the
spike.
Flowers
bracteolate.
Calyx
short,
cylindric,
minutely toothed.
Corolla-tube funnel-shaped, the segments ovate or oblong.
Lateral staminodia petal- like;
lip broad; filament short, adnate to the
lateral
staminodia;
anther-cells spurred
at
the
base.
Ovary
3-celled, many-ovuled;
style fiUform ; stigma 2-lipped.
Capsule globose
; pericarp membranous, at length
3-valved.
Seeds ovoid or oblong, usually arillate.
[From Kerkum, an Indian
name for a yellow coloring matter.]
About 40 species, natives of southeastern
Asia.
Type species: Curcuma longa L.
1. Curcuma longa L. Sp. PI. 2.
1753.
An acaulescent herb 6-9 dm. or more tall, the thick sessile tubers cyUndric
or
ellipsoid,
bright yellow
inside.
Leaves
long-petioled,
the blade oblong or
elliptic, 3-5 dm. long, 8-18 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, narrowed to the
base, green and glabrous on both surfaces; flower-bracts pale green, the upper
ones tinged with pink; scape 12 cm. or more high; spikes cylindric, 10-20 cm. long;
bracts ovate, 3.5-4 cm. long; flowers pale yellow.
Persistent
after
cultivation
in
Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
Jamaica;
Santo
Domingo.
Native of the East Indies,
Its rootstocks yield the yellow dye turmeric.
6. HEDYCHIUM Koenig in Retz. Obs. 3: 73.
1783.
Leafy-stemmed herbs with stout horizontal rootstocks.
Flowers showy, in
terminal bracteate spikes
or
paniculate.
Calyx
tubular,
3-toothed.
Corolla-
tube slender, equalling or longer than the calyx, often half concealed by the
bracts; lobes linear.
Exterior staminodia 2, petal-Hke, often beautifully colored;
lip often marked with a spot.
Stamen
1; filament slender; anther oblong or
linear.
Ovary
3-celled; ovules many, superposed;
style
filiform; stigma sub-
globose.
Capsule subglobose or oblong-ellipsoid,
3-valved.
Seeds many;
aril
lacerate.
[Greek,
sweet snow.]
About 38
species,
natives
of southern
Asia
and the East Indies.
Type species: Hedychium coronarium Koenig.
1. Hedychium coronarium Koenig in Retz. Obs. 3: 73.
1783.
An ornamental herb with stout erect leafy stems 1-2 m. tall, and fragrant
pure
white
fiowers.
Leaves
oblong-lanceolate
or
lanceolate,
mostly
sessile,
2.5-5 dm.
long, 4-9 cm. broad, tapering to a long-acuminate tip, acute at the
176
MARANTACEAE
base, glabrous, or pubescent beneath; ligule membranous, 1.7-3 cm. long; spike
7-15 cm. long, 4-7 cm. in diameter, the bracts 3.5-5.5 cm. long, 2-3 cm. broad,
coriaceous, turning brown
in
age;
bracteoles
3, membranous; calyx
cylindric,
2.5-4 cm. long; corolla-tube slender, 7.5-9 cm. long, the segments linear, 3-3.5
cm.
long,
reflexed;
lateral staminodia oblong or oblong-lanceolate,
3.5-5 cm.
long;
lip
3.6-4.8 cm. broad,
constricted into a short claw,
entire or 2-fld, lobes
rounded; filament about as long as the
lip, the anther
1.1-1.4 cm. long; fruit
oblong, glabrous, valves orange-yellow within
; seeds many, with a crimson aril.
River bottoms and moist places, spontaneous after cultivation
in Porto Rico:
Cuba; Jamaica; Lesser Antilles.
Commonly planted for ornament.
Native of southern
Asia.
Jasmin cimarron.
Jasmin del rig.
Narciso.
Family 4.
MARANTACEAE Lindl.
Arrowroot Family
Perennial herbs, with rootstocks and coriaceous oi- membranous pinnately
veined
leaf-blades.
Petioles
sheathing.
Flowers
irregular,
in
sessile
or
peduncled large-bracted spikes, racemes or panicles, two commonly arising
from a 2-valved spathe-like organ of 2 bracts.
Sepi^ks 3, mostly free, equal.
Petals 3, more or less united at the base.
Lobes of the androecium petaloid,
irregular, one
fertile.
Ovary
1-3-celled,
inferior.
Ovule
solitary in each
cavity, anatropous.
Fruit a 1-3-celled utricle or utricle-like capsule.
Seed
solitary in each cavity.
About 26 genera and over 150 species, mostly of
tropical distribution.
Ovary 1-celled.
Exterior staminodium
one;
flowers
purplish,
panicled,
sessile
in
2-
valved spathes.
1.
Thalia.
Exterior
staminodia
two;
flowers
wliite,
the
terminal
one
long-
pedicelled, the lower one often sessile.
2.
ATaranta.
Ovary 3-celled; flowers borne in large bracted spikes.
3.
Calalhea.
1. THALIA L. Sp. PI. 1193.
1753.
Marsh
or
aquatic
herbs,
with
long-petioled
leaves.
Panicles
terminal.
Flowers in pairs, sessile in 2-valved bract-like spathes, borne along the straight or
zigzag branches of the inflorescence
Sepals 3, small,
free, equal, membranous.
Petals 3, free or very shortly connate.
Lobes of the androecium petaloid, very
irregular;
lip
crested
within; anther
1-celled.
Ovary globose
or oblong-oval,
with only one perfect cell; ovule solitary; style adnate to the base of the staminal
tube; stigma 2-lipped, appendaged on the
back.
Capsule globose or oblong
obovoid.
Seed sohtary, erect.
Embryo hooked.
[Named in honor of Johann
Thalius, a German naturalist who died in
1588.]
About 7 species, natives of
tropical and warm temperate America and Africa.
Type species: Thalia genic-
ulata L.
1. Thalia geniculata L. Sp. PI. 1193.
1753.
Maranta (jeniculata Lam. Tabl. Encyc. 1: 9.
1791.
Thalia angustifolia C. Wright; Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 256.
1866.
Thalia divaricata Chapm. Fl.
S. U. S. ed.
1, 465.
1860.
A glabrous or somewhat pubescent perennial herb,
1-2 m.
or more
tall.
Leaves 2-ranked;
petioles sheathing at the base,
at the apex with a glabrous
cylindric callus 1.5-2.4 cm. long, the blades lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3-6
dm. long, 1-2.5 dm. broad, acute or acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base;
panicle very large and lax, the lower branches sometimes subtended by reduced
leaves; rachis flexuous,
often bearded
at
the nodes; flower- bracts lanceolate or
MARANTACEAE
177
oblong-ovate,
scarious,
glabrous,
or pubescent with long scattered
hairs,
the
outer 2-2.5 cm.
long, the inner
smaller; sepals elliptic or oblong, ovate, 2 mm.
long; petals oblong,
obtuse, 7 mm. long, 5 mm. broad; staminodia much larger
than the petals, capsule oblong-oval or somewhat obovate, 7-10 mm. long.
Marshes
and
ditches,
Porto
Rico:—Florida;
Hispaniola;
Trinidad;
contiaental
tropical America; tropical Africa.
(Recorded by Sesse & Mociiio as Maranta Galanga.
Pampano.
2. MARANTA L. Sp. PI. 2.
1753.
Perennial herbs, with basal and cauline leaves and sheathing petioles.
In-
florescence racemose or paniculate.
Bracts of the inflorescence clasping at the
base, caducous.
Flowers in pairs, long-peduncled from the bracts, the terminal
one long-pedicelled, the lower one sessile or short-pedicelled.
Sepals
3, equal.
Corolla tubular, usually enlarged or gibbous at the base, the three lobes subequal
and somewhat hooded at the apex; two exterior staminodia petal-like, usually
obovate, showy; anther free from the petaloid filament, 1-celled.
Ovary 1-celled
by abortion; ovule solitary; style incurved; stigma lobed.
Seed 3-angled, trans-
versely or longitudinally ridged.
Embryo curved.
[Named in honor of B. Mar-
anta, a Venetian physician and botanist who
died in 1754.]
About 23 species,
natives of tropical America.
Type species: Maranta arundinacea L.
1. Maranta arundinacea L. Sp. PI.
2.
1753.
Maranta indica Tuss.
Fl. Ant. 1: 183.
1808.
A glabrous or somewhat pubescent herb, 1-2 m.
tall, with scaly tuberous
rootstocks and branched stems.
Leaf-blades ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate,
6-28 cm. long, 3-10 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded or truncate at the
base; bracts of the inflorescence linear or linear-lanceolate, the outer 3. .5-5 cm.
long; ovary glabrous or pilose; sepals lanceolate, 10-13 mm. long; corolla white,
about 2 cm. long; outer staminodia obovate, emarginate, the interior shorter;
fruit about
1 cm. long; seed transversely ridged, 8-9 mm. long.
Spontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico:—Florida; West Indies; widely cultivated
in tropical America and in the Old World tropics.
Native of South America. Maranta.
Arrowroot.
.
3. CALATHEA G. F. W. Meyer, Prim.
Fl. Esseq.
6. 1818.
Perennial herbs with creeping or tuberous rootstocks and often long-petioled,
Canno-like leaves.
Flowers in bracted spikes, the bracts distichous or spirally
arranged.
Sepals 3, free.
Corolla-lobes 3, more or less spreading.
Androecium
of 3 petal-like stamens, 2 sterile and 1 bearing a 1-celled anther on its side.
Ovary
3-celled,
the
cells
1-ovuled.
Style adnate
to the base
of the staminal
tube.
Capsule 3-celled.
Seed 3-angled.
[Name derived from the Greek for basket.]
About 100 species, natives of the West Indies and continental tropical America.
Type species: Maranta Casupo Jacq.
Bracts distichous, coriaceous.
1-
C.
l^tea.
Bracts spirally arranged, membranous.
2.
C. Alluma.
1. Calathea lutea (Aubl.) G. F. W. Meyer;
Koern. Bull. Soc.
Nat. Mosc. 35:
114.
1862
.
Maranta lutea Aubl.
PI. Guian. 1: 4.
1775.
Maranta Casupo Jacq. Fragm. 51.
1809.
Calathea discolor G. F. W. Meyer, Prim. Fl. Esseq. 7.
1818.
Phyllodes luteum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 695.
1891.
A rather stout herb, 2-3 m. high.
Leaf-blades eUiptic to broadly oval, 3.5-
10 dm. long, 2.4-4.5 dm. broad, obtuse or apiculate at the apex, rounded and
178
BURMANNIACEAE
often acute
at the
base,
coriaceous, pruinose beneath; spikes 8-16 cm.
long,
borne on rather stout peduncles;
bracts 8-12,
distichous, broadly obovate or
orbicular-obovate, 3.5-4 cm. broad, dark-red or purple, imbricated, coriaceous,
glabrous or minutely appressed-pilose
; rachis sericeous; flowers in pairs; sepals
linear,
1 cm. long, obtuse, corolla-lobes eUiptic; capsule 1-seeded.
Moist mountain woocUancls and swampy places, Porto Rico:—Guadeloupe to Triui-
dad; Central and South America.
Pampano.
2. Calathea Allouia (Aubl.) Lindl. Bot. Reg. 14: under pi. 1210.
1829.
Maranta Allouia Aubl. PL Guian. 1: 3.
1775,
Curcuma americana Lam. Enc. 2: 228.
1786.
Phyllodes Allouia Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 696.
1891.
A more or less pubescent herb, 8-12 dm. high.
Leaf-blades oblong, lanceo-
late or oblanceolate, 3-5 dm. long, 8-15 cm. broad, short-acuminate at the apex,
acutish or somewhat rounded at the base, dark green and glabrous or with few
scattered hairs above, paler beneath, membranous; spikes solitary,
ellipsoid or
oval, 6-9 cm. long, the peduncle 5-8 cm. long, usually pilose; bracts ovate, 1.5-
3.5 cm. long, obtuse, membranous, glabrous or minutely pubescent; sepals lan-
ceolate, obtuse, 8 mm. long, pubescent; corolla white, the tube 2.5 cm. long, hir-
sute.
River
valleys, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe
(cult.); Dominica;
Martinique; St. Vincent; Trinidad; South America.
Llerenes.
Calathea ornata (Linden) Koern., of northern South America, grown for
ornament in Porto Rico gardens, has nearly erect, long-petioled, oblong-elliptic
leaves purplish beneath, pinnately banded with pink or white stripes.
[Maranta
ornata Linden.]
Order 11.
ORCHIDALES.
Terrestrial,
epiphytic
or
aquatic
herbs.
Flowers mostly
perfect and
complete, very irregular, except in Burmanniaceae.
Caljof
of 3
sepals.
Corolla
of
3
petals.
Ovary
inferior,
compound.
Seeds
very numerous
and minute; endosperm wanting.
Flowers regular; stamens and pistil distinct.
Fam.
1.
Burmanniaceae.
Flowers
irregular;
stamens and
pistil
united
into
a
column.
Fam. 2.
Orchidaceae.
Family
1.
BURMANNIACEAE Blume.
BuRMANNiA Family.
Small often delicate herbs, with slender stems.
Leaves mostly
basal
or reduced to cauline
scales.
Flowers regular,
perfect, the perianth per-
sistent or the upper part deciduous, 6-lobed or with the inner segments
sometimes minute or wanting.
Stamens 3-6, included, inserted on the tube
of the perianth; filaments with or without appendages; anthers
2-celled,
the sacs transversely dehiscent.
Ovary inferior, 3-celled, or 1-celled with 3
parietal placentae; style often short; stigmas various; ovules many.
Capsule
many-seeded.
Seeds minute, sometimes suspended on a long slender fun-
iculus; testa thin, endosperm none.
About
12
or 13 genera and over 70
species, widely distributed mostly in tropical regions.
Ovary 1-celled.
Upper part of the perianth deciduous ; filaments without appendages
flowers in loose cymes.
1.
Ptychomeria,
Perianth wholly persistent on the fruit; filaments with prominent
wing-like appendages; flowers racemose.
2.
Apteria.
Ovary 3-celled; flowers in a dense head-Uke cyme.
3. Burmannia.
BURMANNIACEAE
179
1. PTYCHOMERIA Benth. Jour. Hot. Kew. Misc. 7: 14.
1855.
Small
herbs,
with
simple
or
occasionally
branched
stems and scale-like
leaves.
Inflorescence cymose.
Upper part of perianth deciduous.
Filaments
very short, without appendages, inserted on the corolla-tube.
Ovary
1-celled,
with three parietal placentae.
Capsule dehiscent by three lateral valves.
Seeds
subglobose,
ovoid,
or
obovoid,
without
a
funiculus.
[Greek,
folded
part.]
About 20 species, natives of the West Indies and South America, two in tropical
Africa.
Type species: Plychomeria fimbriata Benth.
1. Ptychomeria portoricensis (Urban) Schltr. Repert. 17: 257.
1921.
Gymnosiphon portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 445.
1902.
Plant 7-15 cm.
tall, the slender pale straw-colored stems usually
simple.
Stem leaves ovate to broadly ovate, about
1 mm. long, obtuse at the apex;
in-
florescence about 2-2.5 cm. long, usually few-flowered: perianth-tube cylindric,
3 mm. long, the three outer perianth segments narrowly ovate or oblong, entire,
as long or shorter than the tube, the interior segments minute; filaments very
short, inserted on the upper part of the perianth-tube; ovary turbinate, somewhat
angled, about 2 mm. long; capsule obovoid, 3 mm. long; seeds oval or ovate, 0.2-0.3
mm. long, pale yellow.
Mountaia forests, Porto Rico, Endemic.
2. APTERIA Nutt. Jour. Acad. Phila. 7: 64.
1834.
Small erect herbs with subulate scale-like leaves and long-pedicelled, racemose*
or sometimes solitary nodding flowers.
Perianth
6-cleft, wholly persistent on
the
fruit, the 3 inner segments smaller.
Filaments with prominent wing-like-
appendages, inserted
in sacks
in the corolla-tube.
Ovary
1-celled, with
three'
parietal placentae,
free at the apex; ovules numerous.
Capsule many-seeded,
septicidally dehiscent.
Seeds minute; testa
reticulate.
[Greek,
not
winged.]
About 5 species of subtropical and
tropical America.
Type
species:
Apteria
setacea Nutt.
1. Apteria hymenanthera Miq. Stirp. Sur. 216.
1850.
Apteria setacea Hook. Ic. II. 3: pi. 660.
1844.
Not Nutt., 1834.
Voyria tenella Griseb. Kar. 94.
1857.
Not Guild., 1830.
Plant 3-16 cm.
tall, the slender purple stems erect or ascending, mostly
simple.
Leaves
scale-like, 2-3 mm.
long, acuminate;
flowers few,
distant on
slender nodding pedicels 2-9 mm. long; corolla purplish to violet-blue, together
with the ovary 8-10 mm. long; capsule oval-obovoid or obovoid; seeds brown,
obovoid-oblong, striate.
In
leaf-mould,
mountain
forests
of Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
Jamaica;
Guadeloupe;
Dominica; Trinidad; Central and South America.
3. BURMANNIA L. Sp. PI. 287.
1753.
Erect herbs, with simple or forked stems and scale-like or linear, subulate
leaves.
Tube of the perianth 3-angled or 3-winged, the 3 outer lobes longer
than the inner.
Filaments very short
; connective of the anthers prolonged be-
yond
the
sacs.
Ovary
3-celled;
style
short,
stigmas
often
lobed.
Capsule
crowned by the
perianth, opening by
irregular
lateral
ruptures.
Seeds very
minute; testa thin, striate or reticulate.
[In honor of Johann Burmann, Dutch
180
ORCHIDACEAE
botanist of the eighteenth century]
.
Over thirty species, natives mostly of warm
regions.
Type species: Burmannia disticha'L.
1. Burmannia capitata (Walt.) Mart. Nov. Gen. l: 12.
1824.
Anonymos capitatus Walt. Fl. Car. 69.
1788.
Vogelia capitata J.
F. Gmel. Syst. 107.
1791
Plant
5-27
cm.
tall,
the
Aliform
stems
usually
simple.
Leaves
linear-
subulate, scattered, 2-6 mm. long; flowers several or many, in a dense terminal
head-like cyme; perianth together with the ovary 3-5 mm. long, whitish or bluish,
the tube angled
; seeds linear-oblong, spirally striate.
On a clay-wall along the road to Las Marias, tliree miles from Mayaguez:—south-
eastern United States; Jamaica; Trinidad; South America.
Family 2.
ORCHIDACEAE Lindl.
Orchid Family
Perennial herbs, with sheathing entire leaves, sometimes reduced to scales
flowers perfect,
irregular,
bracted,
solitary, spiked or racemed.
Perianth
superior, of 6 segments, the 3 outer (sepals) similar or nearly so, 2 of the inner
ones (petals) lateral, alike; the third inner one (lip) dissimilar, often markedly
so, usually larger, often spurred, sometimes inferior by torsion of the ovary
or pedicel.
Stamens variously united with the style into an unsymmetrical
column; anther
1 or in Cypripedium 2, 2-celled; pollen in 2-8, pear-shaped,
usually stalked masses (pollinia), united by elastic threads, the masses waxy
or powdery, attached at the base to a viscid disk
(gland).
Style
often
terminating in a beak (rostellum) at the base of the anther or between its
sacs.
Stigma a viscid surface, facing the lip beneath the rostellum, or m
a cavity between the anther-sacs
(clinandrium).
Ovary mferior, usually
long and
twisted,
3-angled,
1-celled;
ovules numerous,
anatropous, on
3
parietal
placentae.
Capsule
3-valved.
Seeds
very
numerous,
minute,
mostly spindle-shaped, the loose coat hyaline, reticulated; endosperm none;
embryo fleshy.
About 410 genera and 5000 species, of wide distribution,
most abundant in the tropics, called Orchids, many of those of warm regions
epiphytes.
A
Antherpersistent on a short, broad filament; pollinia caudate;
terrestrial orchids.
1- Habenana.
B. Anther deciduous
; pollinia mostly ecaudate.
1.
Inflorescence terminal.
a. Leaves convolute in the bud; terrestrial orchids.
*Anther much exceeding the rostellum.
Low herbs.
,
,
„
^
•
i.
Flowers a.xillary; anther not articulated.
2.
2 nphora.
Flowers racemose; anther
articulated with the
„.,,.,
column.
3.
Pplochilus.
Long, climbing vines.
4.
Vanilla.
**Anther about as lopg as the rostellum.
t Leaves fleshv, not plica,te-nerved.
JLip turned outward, usually pendulous.
§Poninia powdery or waxy, not in masses.
7Rostellum prolonged, 2-lobed.
Inflorescence
spiral
;
lateral
sepals
free.
5.
Ibidtum.
Inflorescence not spiral; lateral sepals
,
,
.
more Or less connate.
6.
Hapalorchis.
77Rostellum not 2-lobed.
Rostellum
scarcely
produced,
the
,,
,
gland in a cavity at its tip.
7. Mesadenus.
Rostelhmi distinctly produced.
Gland suspended by a membrane
from
the apex
of
the
ros-
rostellum.
Lateral sepals distinct.
8.
Beaalea.
ORCHIDACEAE
181
Lateral sepals connate.
Gland sessile on the rostellum apex;
sepals spurred.
Lip not clawed.
Lip clawed,
sectile,
in
several
masses;
lip
adnate
to the
than
the
§§Pollinia
spurred.
JJLip turned inward.
§Lip free.
Sepals distinct.
Sepals united at the base.
§§Lip and petals with claws
column.
ttLeaves hard, firm, plicate-nerved.
Leaves duplicate in the bud.
*Inner
perianth-parts
more
conspicuous
outer.
tLeaves not plicate.
tLeaves
not
articulated:
polhnia
not
appen-
aged; terrestrial l^ulbous orcliids.
Column short; anther erect.
Column long; anther incumbent.
ttLeaves articulated; pollinia mostly caudiculate
or stipitate; mostly epiphytic orcliids.
§Pollinia stipitate.
55Pollinia caudiculate or unappendaged.
7Colunin with a foot (See Tctragmnestes).
Lip flexuoiis, elongated; plants many-
leaved, simple.
Lip 3-lobed or entire; plants branched,
few-leaved.
Pollinia 4.
PoUiaia 8.
77Colunui without a foot.
rfPoUinia 4.
7 {Pollinia
ovoid,
scarcely
com-
pressed.
77Poninia compressed.
Column
free
from
the
lip;
small-leaved
plants without
pseudobulbs.
Column partly or wholly adnate
to the lip.
Column
partly
adnate
to
the
lip;
plants
w'ith
pseudobulbs.
Lip 3-lobed, longitudin-
ally
crested
or
ap-
pendaged.
Lip entire, neither crest-
ed
nor
append-
aged.
Lip
concave,
shell-
like.
Lip nearly linear.
Column
wholly
adnate
to
the lip; plants mostly
without pseudobulbs.
Flowers
in
a
terminal
panicle
or raceme
or solitary.
Plants with
psetido-
bulbs.
Plants
without
pseudobulbs.
Flowers
axillary
to
bracts borne along a
rachis.
fliSPollinia 8.
Lip flat, sessile, 3-lobed.
Lip
narrow
below,
abruptly
ex-
panded into a broad lamina.
ttLeaves plicate.
.
**Outer
perianth
parts
more
conspicuous
than
tne
inner, epiphytic orcliids; pollinia 2.
Sepals all connate, free at apex.
At least the dorsal sepal free.
Petals narrow, free.
,
.
,
j
.t
<-„
Petals transversely oblong, their claws adnate to
the column.
9.
Pelexia.
10.
Stenorhynchus.
11.
Eltroplectis.
12. Physurus.
13.
Cranichis.
14.
Prescotlia.
15.
Ponihieva.
16.
Corymborchis.
17. Malaxis.
18.
Liparis.
19.
Polystachya.
20.
Isochilus.
21.
Telragamesies.
22.
Octadesmia.
23. Hormidium.
24.
Jacquiniella.
25.
Encyclia.
26. Anacheilium.
27. Nidema.
28.
Auliza.
29.
Amphiglottis.
30.
Spathiger.
31.
Tetramicra.
32. Epidendrum.
33.
Elleanthus.
34.
Stelis.
35.
Pleurothallis.
36.
Lepanthes.
182
ORCHIDACEAE
Inflorescence lateral (See Govenia).
a. Leaves convolute in the bud.
*Internodes of the stem not tuberous-thickened.
Pollinia
caudiculate,
not
stipitate;
terrestrial
orcliids.
Pollinia ecaudiculate, stipitate.
Lip 3-lobed.
Lip not saccate; epiphytic orchids with fusi-
form pseudobulbs.
Lip
saccate:
terrestrial orchids with tuber-
like pseudobulbs.
Lip entire; terrestrial orchids; raceme terminal.
**Stem with tuberous-thickened internodes.
Flowers on a scape from the base of a pseudobulb.
Raceme terniinating a leafy shoot,
b. Leaves duplicate in the bud.
*Steras sympodial.
Inflorescence normally several-many-flowered.
Lip jointed with the foot of the column.
Flowers many, in a long spike.
Flowers few among the leaves.
Lip not jointed with the foot of the column.
Flowers spurred or saccate.
Lateral
sepals connate,
saccate: Up not
spurred.
Lateral sepals and lip spurred.
Flowers neither spurred nor saccate.
Anthers not appendaged.
Anthers with a membranous appendage.
. .Inflorescence
1 -flowered.
**Stems monopodia!.
.Leaf-blades persistent: flowers solitary.
..Leaf-blades, when
present,
separating from the
sheaths: flowers spicate or racemose.
Capsiile dehiscent by 3 apical valves.
Capsule dehiscent by 6 apical valves.
37.
Bletia.
38.
Cyrtopodium.
39.
Platypus.
40.
Govenia.
41. Xylobium.
42.
Koellensleinia.
43.
Bolbophyllaria.
44.
Ornithidium.
4.5.
lonopsis.
46.
Comparettia.
47.
Oncidium.
48.
Leochilus.
49.
Warszewiczella.
50.
Dichaea.
51.
Campylncentrum.
52.
Harrisiella.
1. HABENARIA WUld. Sp. PI. 4: 44.
1806.
Terrestrial orchids, with tuberous or coarsely fibrous roots, erect stems, broad
or narrow flat, alternate or basal leaves, and large or small flowers in a terminal
spike or spike-like raceme.
Sepals
distinct,
or cohering at the
base.
Petals
2-parted or entire.
Lip drooping or spreading, 3-parted or entire, spurred at the
base, the spur mostly elongated.
Column short, without a foot.
Anther per-
sistent, 2-celled ; pollinia granular, caudate or caudiculate. Capsule oblong.
[Latin,
thong-like, referring to the spur.]
Fifty species or more, of warm-temperate and
tropical regions.
Type species: Orchis Habenaria L.
Petals 2-parted: lip 3-parted.
Stigmatic processes elongated
; leaves mostly basal.
Stigmatic processes short: stem leafy.
Sheaths of the leaves mottled.
Sheaths not mottled.
Petals simple; lip imdivided.
Leaves acute; ovary wingless.
Leaves acuminate; ovary 6-winged.
1. H. distans.
2. H. monorrhiza.
3. H. repens.
4. H. eustachya.
5. H. alata.
1. Habenaria distans Griseb. Cat. PL Cub. 270.
1866.
Roots bearing small subglobose tubers; stem scapose, slender, 2-4 dm. high,
bearing 2-4 narrow scales 1-3 cm. long.
Leaves 4-6, basal, or 1 or 2 of them on
the lower part of the stem,
thin, oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, 4-16 cm.
long,
the apex acute, the base narrowed and sheathing; raceme spike-like, few-flowered,
6-12 cm. long, the flowers greenish; bracts lanceolate, acuminate, 1-2 cm. long;
sepals oblong
to. ovate, 5-6 mm. long; petals 2-parted, the segments unequal;
lip deeply 3-parted, 6-8 mm long, the spur narrowly clavate, about 1.5 cm.
long,
about as long as the ovary; stigmatic processes elongated.
Woodlands, Monte Mesa, Mayaguez :—Florida
; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
ORCHIDACEAE
183
2. Habenaria monorrhiza
(Sw.) Rchb.
f. Ber. Deutsch. Bot.
Gesell. 3: 274.
1885.
Orchis monorrhiza Sw.
Proclr.
118.
1788.
Habenaria maculosa Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 309.
1835.
Tuber obovoid; stems
leafy, 3-12 dm.
high,
rather
stout.
Leaf-sheaths
brown-mottled, the blades lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 5-10 cm. long, or the
upper smaller, the apex acute or acuminate, the base cordate-clasping; raceme
densely many-flowered,
18 cm.
long or
less;
flowers white
or greeni.sh-white;
bracts lanceolate, 1-2.5 cm. long; dorsal sepal ovate-orbicular, obtuse, hooded,
6-8 mm. long, the lateral ones about as long, oblong, acute; petals 2-parted, the
segments unequal;
lip deeply 3-parted, 7-10 mm.
long, the segments narrow;
spur slender, about 2 cm. long; stigmatic processes short; capsule oblong, about
13 mm. long.
Hillsides, banks and
cliffs at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola to Trinidad; northern South America.
3. Habenaria repens Nutt. Gen. 2: 190.
1818.
Roots coarsely fibrous; stems slender or rather stout, leafy, 2-6 dm. high.
Leaf-sheaths green, the blades lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 6-20 cm. long, 1-2
cm. wide, acute or acuminate, or the upper much smaller; raceme several-many-
flowered 5-18 cm. long; flowers greenish; bracts lanceolate, 8-12 mm. long; sepals
membranous, the dorsal one broadly ovate, about 5 mm. long, the
lateral ones
oblong; petals 2-parted, the segments unequal;
lip 3-parted nearly to the base;
spur filiform, about
1 cm. long; stigmatic processes short; capsule about 1 cm.
long.
In wet sand between Manati and Vega Baja, Porto Rico;—southeastern United
States; Cuba; Jamaica.
4. Habenaria eustachya Rchb.
f. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell. 3: 274.
1885.
Tubers
small,
ellipsoid; stems
rather
stout,
leafy,
pale,
5-10 dm.
high.
Leaves thin, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, up to 15 cm. long,
1..5-5 cm. wide,
the apex acute, the narrowed base sheathing, the upper ones reduced to scales
1..5-2 cm. long; raceme densely many-flowered, 6-30 cm. long; flowers greenish;
bracts narrow, acuminate,
1-2 cm.
long; sepals about 5 mm.
long, the dorsal
one broad, obtuse, the lateral ones elliptic, apiculate; petals oblong-quadrangular,
simple, subtruncate, 3-denticulate, a little shorter than the dorsal sepal; lip linear,
angled below, about 8 mm. long; spur about 9 mm. long.
Woodlands and grassy slopes in the western hiUs and mountains of Porto Rico:
Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
5. Habenaria alata Hook. Exot. Fl.
vl- 169.
1826.
Tuber obovoid
; stems rather stout, leafy, 3-8 dm. high.
Leaves lanceolate,
close together, 12 cm. long or less, 8-18 mm. wide, the apex acuminate, the base
rather broad,
sheathing,
the uppermost much smaller; raceme several-many-
flowered, 8-18 cm. long; bracts narrow, acuminate, about as long as the greenish
flowers; ovary 6-winged; sepals 6-7 mm. long, the dorsal one ovate, acute, the
lateral
ones
ovate-oblong,
short-acuminate;
petals
linear-lanceolate,
entire,
acuminate; lip linear, undivided, about as long as the lateral sepals; spur linear,
10-12 mm. long; stigmatic processes short.
[H. monorrhiza of Cogniaux, not of
Relchenbach.]
Hillsides
near Maricao,
Porto
Rico;
St. Thomas :^Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Antigua to Tobago; Central America.
184
OKCHIDACEAE
2. TRIPHORA Nutt. Gen. 2: 192.
1818.
Low terrestrial orchids with fleshy tubers and axillary flowers.
Sepals and
petals separate, ascending, subequal.
Lip erect, slightly clawed, and more or less
3-lobed, not crested, spurless.
Column elongated, club-shaped at the entire or
lobed summit.
Anther terminal,
longer than
the
rostellum,
stalked,
rigidly
attached to the back of the column,
it.s sacs parallel; pollinia 2,
1 in each sac,
powdery-granular,
without
caudicles,
the
pollen-grains compound,
the
extine
pitted
or
reticulated.
Stigma
a
flattened
disk
below
the
anther.
Capsule
oblong or oval.
[Greek, bearing three, in allusion to the usual 3 flowers of the
type species.]
About 10 species, natives of America.
Type species:
Triphora
pendula Nutt.
1. Triphora surinamensis (Lindl.) Britton.
Pogonia surinamensis Lindl. Lond. Journ. Bot. 2: 674.
1843.
Stem
erect from an
obliquely
horizontal
base,
slender,
1-2.5 dm.
high,
bearing a few leaves above and 2 or 3 sheathing scales below.
Leaf-blades ovate,
5-nerved, 1.5-3 cm. long, the apex acute or short-acuminate, the base rounded
or subcordate; flowers few, rose-colored, solitary in the upper axils; the nearly
erect peduncles 2 cm. long or less; sepals linear, 10-12 mm. long; petals narrowly
spatulate, a little shorter than the sepals; lip obovate, about as long as-the petals,
3-lobed at the apex; capsule oblong, 10-20 mm. long.
Woodlands,
Liiqiiillo Mountains, and on Monte
Helechal, Porto
Rico:—Guade-
loupe; Dominica; Trinidad and Guiana.
3. PSILOCHILUS Rodrig. Orch. Nov. 2: 272.
1882.
Terrestrial orchids, with fleshy roots and leafy stems, the flowers racemose
in the Porto Rico species.
Sepals and petals nearly alike.
Lip clawed, 3-lobed,
without a spur.
Column elongated, the apex entire or lobed.
Anther terminal,
erect, articulated. with the top of the column,
its sacs facing outward; pollen-
grains compound, the extine
pitted or reticulated.
Capsule oblong.
[Greek,
naked lip.]
A few species of tropical America.
Type species
: Psilochilus modestus
Rodrig.
1. Psilochilus macrophyllus (Lindl.) Ames, Orchidaceae 7: 45.
1922.
Pogonia macrophylla Lindl. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. III. 1: 335.
1858.
Pogonia physurifolia Rchb.
f. Nederl. Kruidk. Arch. 4: 324.
1859.
Stem erect, rather stout and fleshy, often forked, 2-3 dm. high, the roots
long, thick and fleshy.
Leaves few, the sheaths 1-2.5 cm. long, the blades rather
fleshy,
ovate,
5-7-nerved, 5-7 cm.
long,
the apex acute
or obtuse,
the base
rounded or cordate; raceme several-many-flowered, .5-10 cm. long; bracts broadly
ovate,
spreading,
sessile, subcordate, 8-12 mm.
long; flowers short-pedicelled,
greenish
or
greenish-yellow;
sepals
linear-oblong,
about
15 mm.
long;
petals
ligulate, a
little shorter than the sepals
;
lip
narrowly obovate,
as long as the
petals, clawed, 3-lobed.
Woodlands and forests in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending to 900 meters
in the western mountains, not observed
in
tlie eastern mountains:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
4. VANILLA Juss. Gen. 66.
1789.
Fleshy climbing orchids, the leaves
broad or reduced to mere
scales, the
stems giving off aerial roots, the mostly large flowers in axillary spikes or racemes.
Sepals
nearly
alike,
distinct,
spreading.
Petals
resembling
the
sepals.
Lip
ORCHIDACEAE
185
clawed, the claw adnate to and embracing the long column.
Stigma borne under
the
rostellum.
Anther convex,
its sacs separate;
pollinia powdery.
Capsule
elongated,
fleshy, indehiscent or tardily partly dehiscent.
[From the Spanish
name for the fruit.]
About 20 species, of tropical and subtropical regions.
Type
species: Epidendrum Vanilla L.
Leaves broad, ample, 10-20 cm. long.
1-
Y-
^J}°<^°^(^-,
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 8 cm. long or less.
2.
V. Kggersn.
1. Vanilla inodora Schiede, Linnaea 4: 474.
1829.
Vanilla anaromatica Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 638.
1864.
Stem terete, elongated, often 10 m. long or longer, climbing on trees or clam-
bering on banks or in thickets; aerial roots few.
Leaves firm, becoming thin
in drying, broadly elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 10-20 cm. long, 4-10 cm. wide,
the ape.x acuminate, the l)ase obtuse or rounded, the petiole very short; racemes
few-flowered, short-peduncled; bracts ovate-lanceolate,
acute,
1.5-3 cm.
long;
sepals and petals similar,
lanceolate, 5-6 cm.
long,
green,
bluntly acuminate;
lip
broad,
white, somewhat
3-lobed,
a
little shorter than the
sepals; capsule
cylindric,
pendulous,
slender,
10-25 cm.
long,
indehiscent.
[V.
aromatica
of
Urban's Symbolae, not of Swartz.]
On trees and banks in forests of the eastern moimtains of Porto Rico:—.Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; Mexico; Gtiiana.
2. Vanilla Eggersii Rolfe, Journ. Linn. Soc. 32: 472.
1896.
Elongated, described as sometimes 30 m. in length and often 10 m. long or
longer, the stems terete, 1-grooved, 1-1.5 cm. thick, the aerial roots 5-8 cm. long.
tendril-Uke.
Leaves sessile, oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 2-8 cm. long.
8-15 mm. wide; peduncle stout, geniculate, 5-10 cm. long, bearing an ovate or
oblong, acute bract at each node; spike several-flowered, 6-14 cm. long; bracts
triangular-ovate, about 5 mm. long; sepals and petals oblong-lanceolate, obtuse
or acutish,
4r-6 cm. long;
lip about as long as the sepals, rounded, crenate or
undulate, not lobed; capsule indehiscent, cylindric or subclavate, 5-12 cm. long.
8-10 mm. thick.
[V. aphylla of Eggers, not of Blume.]
Tliickets and rocky woodlands at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, mostly
in dry districts: Vieques;
St. Thomas; Virgin Gorda:—Florida; Bahamas; Cuba; His-
paniola.
Included by Fawcett and Rendle in
V. claviculata Sw.
Gungule.
Vanilla Vanilla (L.) Britton [£'pirfe?idrum
Vanilla
L.
;
Vanilla
planifolia
Andr.] Vanilla Bean,
occasionally cultivated
in Porto Rico
for
its fragrant
fruit, has large lanceolate leaves, large yellowish flowers, the fleshy capsules up
to 2 dm. long.
It is native of South America.
5. IBIDIUM Salisb. Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. l: 291.
1812.
Erect terrestrial orchids, with fleshy-flbfous or tuberous roots and slender
stems or scapes,
leaf-bearing below or at the
base.
Flowers smaU,
spurless,
spiked.
1-3-rowed,
the
spikes more
or
less
twisted.
Sepals
distinct.
Petals
Ungulate, oblique.
Lip concave, erect, embracing the column and often adherent
to
it. spreading and crisped at the apex, bearing minute callosities at the base.
Column arched below, obliquely attached to the top of the ovary.
Rostellum
2-lobed.
Anther without a Ud, borne on the back of the column, erect.
Stigma
ovate, prolonged into an acuminate beak, at length bifid.
Pollinia 2,
1 in each
sac. powdery.
Capsule ovoid
or oblong,
erect.
[Latin,
like the beak of an
Ibis.]
About
35
species,
natives
of temperate and
tropical
regions.
Type
186
ORCHIDACEAE
species: Ophrys spiralis J. E. Smith.
This genus has formerly been regarded as
containing many species now referred to other genera.
1. Ibidium tortile (Sw.) House, Muhlenbergia 1: 129.
1906.
Neottia iortilis Sw. Vet. Akad. Handl. 1800: 226.
1800.
Spiranthes tortilis L. C. Rich. Mem. Mus. Par. 4: 59.
1818.
Stem slender, erect, 3-6 dm. high, glabrous below, pubescent above, bearing
2-4 bladeless acute sheaths above, and sometimes a narrowly
linear
leaf 2-7
cm.
long, below the middle.
Basal
leaves 2 or
3,
present at flowering time,
linear, 8-30 cm. long, 1.5-2.5 mm. wide; spike erect, 6-13 cm. long, pubescent,
the approximate flowers in a single spiral; flowers white; bracts ovate or ovate-
lanceolate, pubescent, acute or acuminate, 6-7 mm. long, about as long as the
ovary; sepals 5-6 mm.
long, the median one
elliptic, obtuse, the
lateral ones
oblong, oblique
; petals oblong, about as long as the sepals
; lip 4-6 mm. long, ovate-
elUptic, emarginate,
the
callosities
short; capsule about 5 mm.
long.
[Gyro-
stachys peruviana of Kuntze.]
Grassy slopes and fields, at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascending to
900
meters;
St. Thomas;—Florida; Bahamas;
Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Antigua;
Guadeloupe; Martinique.
6. HAPALORCHIS Schlechter, Beihefte Hot. Centr. 37: 362.
1920.
Terrestrial orchids with thick fascicled roots and broad flat petioled basal
and lower leaves, those of the scape reduced to sheathing scales.
Flowers rather
large,
few
in
a
terminal
bracted
raceme.
Sepals
narrowly
oblong,
obtuse.
Petals narrow, oblique.
Lip oblong,
se.ssile.
Column slender, without a foot;
rostellum 2-lobed.
Anther ovate-lanceolate, hooded;
pollinia
viscid.
[Greek,
tender orchid.]
Four known species of the West Indies and South America.
Type species: Sauroglossum candidum Kraentzlein.
1. Hapalorchis tenuis (Lindl.) Schlechter, Beihefte Bot. Centr. 37: 363.
1920.
Sauroglossum tenue Lindl. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. III. 1: 334.
1838.
^
Spiranthes Fawcetiii Cogn. Repert. 7: 123.
1909.
Leaves about
5, thin, the slender petioles 2-3.5 cm. long, the blades ovate
or ovate-lanceolate, about as long as the petioles, the apex acute, the base rounded
or subtruncate.
Scape
slender,
rather weak, 8-20 cm.
long,
bearing
several
nearly linear, acuminate scales
; raceme 2-7-flowered
; flowers white
: bracts linear-
lanceolate, acuminate, 1-1.5 cm. long; sepals 7-8 mm. long; petals linear, a little
shorter than the lateral sepals
; lip 3-lobed.
Primaeval forests
of the central and western mountains, Porto Rico:—Jamaica;
Cuba.
7. MEASDENUS Schlechter, Beihefte Bot. Centr. 37: 368.
1920.
Terrestrial orchids, with fascicled fleshy roots, mostly basal lanceolate leaves
and small, green or yellowish flowers in a terminal raceme.
Sepals narrow, dis-
tinct.
Petals ligulate, a
little shorter than the sepals.
Lip subsessile, oblong
to lanceolate, about as long as the petals, spurless.
Column slender, with a very
short
foot.
Rostellum
not
produced,
emarginate.
Anther
short,
obtuse;
pollinia oblong, viscid.
[Greek, middle gland.]
Five known species, of Mexico,
the West Indies and Brazil.
Type species: Spiranthes Galeottiana A. Rich.
ORCHIDACEAE
187
I. Mesadenus lucayanus (Britton)
Schlechter, Beihefte Bot. Centr. 37: 368.
1920.
Ibidium litcayanum Britton, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 5: 312
1907.
Spiranthes lucayana Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 6: 338.
1909.
Spiranthes Stahlii Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 6: 341.
1909.
Root of cylindric fleshy tubers 2-6 cm. long, 8-10 mm. thick.
Basal leaves
present at flowering time, oblong-lanceolate, oblanceolate to
elhptic, thin but
somewhat fleshy, spreading, 5-nerved, reticulate-veined, at least when dry, 5-17
cm. long, 1-3 cm. wide, acute at the apex, narrowed at the base into a rather
slender petiole; scape slender, 2-4 dm.
high,
its several leaves linear or linear-
lanceolate, acute or acuminate, appressed,
1-3 cm. long; spike 5-25 cm. long,
about
1 cm. thick, usually many-flowered; bracts lanceolate, acuminate, erect,
as long as the ovary or longer; flowers green, or bro^vnish green, spreading; sepals
linear-lanceolate, acutish, 3-4.5 mm. long; petals linear; lip ovate-oblong, obtus-
ish, concave, 3-5 mm. long, about one third as wide as long, with two minute
callosities at the base; capsule oblong, blunt, about 5 mm. long.
Rocky liillsides, near Ponce and Guanica and sandy soil near Cangrejos, Porto Rico;
Mona; coastal plain of Aiiegada:—Florida; Bahamas; Trinidad
(?).
8. BEADLEA Small, Fl. S.E. U.
S. 319, 1329.
1903.
[? Cyclopogon Presl, Rel. Haenk. 93.
1827.]
Terrestrial orchids, with thick fleshy-flbrous roots, the leaves broad, mostly
basal and petioled, the flowers medium-sized or small, spicate or subracemose on
a slender sheathed scape.
Sepals distinct, the middle one adnate to the lateral
petals.
Lip folded around the column and more or less adnate to
it, entire or
3-lobed.
Column terete.
Anther ovoid, erect; pollinia granulose, caudiculate.
Capsule oblong.
In honor of C. D. Beadle, Curator of the Biltmore Herbarium.
Numerous species of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species
: Spiranthes
Storeri Chapm.
Lip entire, narrowly oblong.
L
^- ^Ma.
Lip 3-lobed; leaves ovate.
.
2. B. cramchotdes.
1. Beadlea elata (Sw.) SmaU; Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. 1: 38.
1918.
Satyrium elatum Sw. Prodr. 119.
1788.
Spiranthes elata L. C. Rich. Mem. Mus. Paris 4: 59.
1818.
Sauroglossum Richardi Ames, Orch.
1: 44.
1905.
Cyclopogon elatum Schlechter, Beihefte Bot. Centr. 37: 387.
1920.
Roots fleshy, fascicled, 8 cm. long or less; scape slender, 6 dm. high or less,
glandular-pubescent above.
Leaves 3-5,
the blade oblong to elliptic, 7-12 cm.
long, 2.5-5 cm. wide, the apex acute, the base narrowed or rounded, the
flat
petiole 4-7 cm. long; scales of the scape several, 2-4 cm. long, narrow; raceme
spike-like, several-flowered, 7-12 cm. long; flowers greenish; sepals about 4 mm.
long, obtuse, the dorsal one broader than the lateral ones; petals linear-spatulate,
obtuse; lip narrowly oblong, about as long as the lateral sepals, white, dilated
above.
Forests in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, mostly at higher elevations: St. Thomas!
St. Croix; St. Jan:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Martin to Trinidad; tropical South
America.
Spiranthes bico'or
Lindl.,
recorded by Cogniaux
as
found
by
Sintenis
near
Utuado,
described
as
differing fiom the preceding species by
narrower
leaves, does not appear to be specifically distinct.
Its type locality
is Trinidad.
188
ORCHIDACEAE
2. Beadlea cranichoides (Griseb.) Small, Fl. SE. U. S. ed. 2, 320, 1375.
1913.
Pelexia cranichoides Gri.seb. Cat. PI. Cub. 269.
1866.
Sauroolossum cranichoides Ames, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash.
17: 117.
1904.
Spiranthes cranichoides Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 338.
1909.
Beadlea Storeri Small, Fl. SE. U.
S. 319, 1329.
1903.
Roots few, about 6 mm. thick; scape slender, weak, 1.5-3.5 dm. high, bearing
several sheathing narrow acuminate scales 1-2 cm. long, glabrous below, puber-
ulent above.
Leaves several,
basal, 3-7 cm.
long,
the blade ovate, acute or
acuminate, the base rounded, the petiole 1-2 cm. long; spike 3-8 cm. long, loosely
several-flowered; bracts narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, 7-10 mm. long; sepals
oblong obtuse or acutish, about 4 mm. long; petals narrowly spatulate, about as
long as the sepals; lip about 4 mm. long, 3-lobed, white, nearly truncate.
Mountain forest near Las Marias, Poi-to Rico:—Florida; Cuba.
9. PELEXIA Poit.; L. C. Rich. Mem. Mus. Paris 4: 59.
1818.
•
Terrestrial orchids, with thick clustered
roots,
petioled
basal
leaves,
the
flowers spicate at the summit of a sheathed scape.
Sepals narrow, the median
one adnate to the petals, the lateral ones united below and prolonged into a sac-
Lip concave, elongated, embracing. the short column.
Column without a foot.
Rostellum
subulate.
Anther
narrowly
oblong;
poUinia
powdery.
Capsule
ellipsoid.
[Greek, from the fancied resemblance of the lip to a hatchet.]
About
50 species, of tropical and subtropical America, the following typical.
1. Pelexia adnata (Sw.) Spreng. Syst. 3: 704.
1826.
Neotiia adnata Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 3: 1409.
1806.
Pelexia spiranthoides Lindl. Bot. Reg.
12:
pi. 985.
1826.
Scape pubescent above, 2.5-4 dm.
high.
Basal leaves 2-5,
glabrous, the
blades elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 5-12 cm. long, 3-nerved, acute at the apex, rounded
at the base, the slender, nearly erect petioles 7-14 cm. long, reddish; sheaths of
the scape acuminate, 2-5 cm. long; spike pubescent, many-flowered, 6-12 cm.
long; bracts narrowly lanceolate, about as long as the whitish
flowers; sepals
about 6 mm.
long, the median one
elliptic, obtuse, concave, the
lateral ones
linear, acut?; petals linear, nearly as long as the sepals: lip tubular below, 5-6 mm.
long; capsule about 1.5 cm. long, 6-ribbed.
Mountain forests of Porto Rico:—Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Guadeloupe; St. Vincent;
Grenada; Margarita; Venezuela.
Recorded by Krebs as formerly found in St. Thomas.
10. STENORRHYNCHUS L. C. Rich. Mem. Mus. Paris 4: 59.
1818.
Erect terrestrial orchids, with clustered fleshy roots, lanceolate to
elliptic
basal leaves often wanting at flowering time, the sheathed scape terminated by a
spike of rather large, often showy, mostly red or yellow flowers.
Sepals nearly
equal, the median one adnate to the petals, the lateral ones united below and
produced into a sac or spur.
Petals mostly shorter than the sepals.
Lip entire
or nearly so, concave, without callosities.
Column with a foot; stigma under the
beaked
rostellum.
Anther
oblong
or
lanceolate;
poUinia
powdery.
[Greek,
narrow beak.]
About 40 species, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type
species; Neottia speciosa Jacq.
,
Leaves present at flowering time: lip 3-lobed; scape glabrous.
1.
S. speciosus.
Leaves absent at flowering time; lip entire; scape scurfy or glandular.
2.
S. lanceolatus.
OECHIDACEAE
189
1. Stenorrhynchus speciosus (Jacq.) L. C. Eich. Mem. Mus. Paris 4: 59.
1818.
Neottia speciosa Jacq. Icon. Rar. 3:
pi. 600.
1786-93.
Scape
stout,
glabrous, 3-6 dm.
high,
bearing
a few
short
scales;
leaves
several, present at flowering time, oblong or narrowly
elliptic, firm in texture,
10-30 cm. long, 3-6 cm. wide, the apex acute, the base gradually narrowed into a
short, broad petiole.
Flowers many, scarlet, in a dense spike 10 cm. long or less;
bracts scarlet, lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous, as long as the flowers or the lower
longer; sepals about
1.5 mm. long; sac small and rounded; petals nearly linear,
acute; lip 3-lobed, the middle lobe lanceolate, acute.
Primeval
forest
near
Lares,
Porto
Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
continental
tropical
America.
2. Stenorrhynchus lanceolatus (Aubl.) Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 642.
1864.
Limodorum lanceolatnm Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 821.
1775.
Satyrium orchioides Sw. Prodr. 118.
1788.
Stenorrhynchus orchioides L. C. Rich. Mem. Mus. Paris 5: 59.
1818.
Leaves 1-3, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, bright green, glabrous, 1-3 dm. long,
2-5 cm. wide, acute at the apex, narrowed at the base mto margined petioles,
wanting at flowering time.
Scape rather stout, 3-6 dm. high, erect, scurfy or
somewhat
glandular-pubescent,
bearmg
several
acuminate
sheathing
scales
2-4
cm.
long; spike several-many-flowered, 5-10 cm.
long; bracts lanceolate,
acuminate, shorter than the flowers; flowers red or yellow, 2-3 cm. long; ovary
oblong,
oblique
at the
apex;
sepals
glandular,
lanceolate,
acute,
5-7-nerved;
petals oblong-lanceolate, acute, 5-7-nerved; lip lanceolate, acute or acuminate,
saccate at about the middle
; capsule about 1 cm. long.
Grassy slopes
in wet
or moist districts, Porto
Rico, ascending into the Luquillo
Mountains;
St. Thomas:—Florida; Bahamas;
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua to
Trinidad;
continental
tropical America.
Races
differ
in pubescence and m
color
or
flowers.
11. ELTROPLECTRIS Raf.
Fl. Tell. 2: 51.
1837.
[Centrogonium Schlechter, Beihefte Hot. Centr. 37: 451.
1920.]
Terrestrial orchids, with thick fleshy clustered roots, basal broad leaves, and
rather large flowers, racemose at the summit of a slender scape.
Sepals oblong
to lanceolate, unequal, prolonged and connate at the base and adnate to the
base of the lip.
Petals narrow, obh que.
Lip long-clawed.
Rostellum subulate.
Anther hooded.
[Greek, referring to the spur.]
Seven known species, natives of
tropical America.
Type species: Neottia calcarata Hook.
f.
1. Eltroplectris acuminata Raf. Fl. Tell. 2: 51.
1837.
Neottia calcarata Hook.
f. Bot. Mag.
pi. 3403.
1835.
Not Sw., 1806.
Pelexia setacea Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 482.
1840.
Centrogonium setaceum Schlechter, Beihefte Bot. Centr. 37: 453.
1920.
Scape 3-6 dm. high, puberulent above, bearing several acmninate sheaths
2-4 cm. long.
Basal leaves 1-3, the blades elliptic or oval, 8-15 cm. long, acute
at the apex, obtuse or rounded at the base, several-nerved, the slender petioles
10-18 cm.
long;
spike
few-several-flow^ered,
pubescent,
15 cm.
long
or
less;
bracts
ovate-lanceolate,
2-2.5 cm.
long,
long-acuminate
into
a
fiUform
tip;
ovary fusiform, about 2 cm.
long; perianth purplish-green or greenish-white;
sepals narrowly lanceolate, 2.5-3 cm. long, the spur 8-10 mm. long; petals nar-
rowly lanceolate, about 2 cm. long; lip white; capsule about 2 cm. long, 6-ribbed.
Primeval
forest. Sierra de Lares and at Indiera Fria near Maricao, Porto Rico:—
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Trinidad; northern South America.
190
ORCHIDACEAE
12. PHYSURUS L. C. Rich. Mem. Mus. Paris 4: 55.
1818.
[Erythrodes Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind. 410.
1825.]
Leafy-stemmed,
terrestrial orchids, with thick clustered
roots, the leaves
broad, petioled, parallel-nerved and reticulate-veined, convolute in the bud, the
small flowers in a terminal spike.
Sepals distinct, nearly equal, the small petals
cohering with the median one.
Lip erect, 3-lobed, embracing the short column,
produced below into a blunt pouch-like spur.
Anther about as long as the ros-
tellum.
Pollinia
granular,
pendent.
Capsule
ellipsoid
to
oblong.
[Greek,
referring
to the pouch-like
spur.]
About 60
species,
natives of tropical and
subtropical regions.
Type species: Orchis plantaginea Willd.
Sepals about 6 mm. long; spur narrowly obovoid.
1.
P. planlagineus.
Sepals about 3 mm. long; spui- linear-cyiindric.
2.
P. hirtellus.
1. Physurus plantagineus (L.) Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 503.
1840.
Satyrium plantagineum L. Syst. ed.
10, 1244.
1759.
Stem stout,
fleshy, decumbent,
erect or ascending,
1 m.
long or
less,
or,
exceptionally up to 2 m.
long, often rooting at the lower nodes, glabrous and
leafy below, hirsute and bearing a few scales above.
Leaves elliptic to oblong-
lanceolate, 7-15 cm. long, the apex acute or short-acuminate, the base narrowed
into a flat sheathing petiole 2-5 cm. long; spike 6-15 cm. long, densely many-
flowered;
bracts lanceolate, acuminate,
pilose, mostly
shorter than
the white
flowers; sepals oblong, obtuse, 6 mm. long; petals spatulate, obtuse;
lip linear-
spatulate,
its middle lobe recurved, the spur obovoid, rounded, about 4 mm.
long; capsule about 8 mm. long.
Forests, in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending
high
into
the
Luquillo
Mountains:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba and Guadeloupe to Trinidad.
2. Physurus hirtellus (Sw.) Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 501.
1840.
Satyrium hirtellum Sw. Prodr. 118.
1788.
Stem slender, rooting at the lower nodes, 2.5-4 dm. high, glabrous and leafy
below, pilose and bearing a few acute scales above.
Leaves 3-8, ovate or the
upper' lanceolate, the blade 3-6 cm.
long, the apex acute, the base narrowed,
the slender sheathing petiole 1-2 cm. long; spike densely many-flowered, 3-10
cm. long; bracts small,
lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than the white
flowers;
sepals and petals similar,
linear, obtuse, about 3 mm. long; Up oblong, a httle
longer than the sepals, its middle lobe short, recurved; spur linear, obtuse, about
2 mm. long; capsule about 6 mm. long.
In forests at middle and higher elevations
in wet or moist
districts, Porto Rico:
Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba; Guadeloupe to Trinidad.
A specknen collected by Mrs. Britton and Miss Marble near Mayaguez in
March, 1906, may represent another species of Physurus, related to P. hirtellus,
but glabrous throughout and with smaller leaves and flowers.
13. CRANICHIS Sw. Prodr. 8.
1788.
Terrestrial orchids, with coarsely fibrous roots, broad basal leaves, slender
scapes bearing small or fohaceous scales and small flowers in a terminal spike or
spike-like
raceme.
Sepals
distinct,
nearly
equal.
Petals
narrow.
Lip
un-
divided, free, turned inward. Column short
; rostellum often as long as the column.
Anther
erect;
pollinia
granular.
Capsule ovoid
or
oblong.
[Greek,
helmet.]
About 20 species, natives of tropical America, the following typical.
ORCHIDACEAE
191
1. Cranichis muscosa Sw. Prodr. 120.
1788.
Glabrous; basal leaves 3-6, tufted, the blades elliptic to ovate, 2.5-6 cm.
long,
the apex acute
or obtuse, the base narrowed or rounded;
petioles
flat,
margined, somewhat
shorter than
the
blades.
Scape
1..5-4 dm.
high,
erect,
bearing below
1 or 2 sessile, suborbicular foliaceous scales
1 cm. broad or less,
and several small narrow scales above; spike densely many-flowered, 8 cm. long
or less; bracts lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than the white flowers; sepals about
2 mm. long, acute; petals narrowly spatulate; lip a little shorter than the sepals,
broadly ovate, obtuse, hooded; capsule 7-8 mm. long.
Forests and shaded banks, Porto Rico, in wet or moist districts at lower and middle
elevations;
St. Thomas:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Montserrat; Guadeloupe, Dominica;
Martinique; St. Vincent; Grenada; Trinidad; Venezuela.
14. PRESCOTTIA Lindl. in Hook. Exot. Fl.
pi. 115.
1825.
Terrestrial orchids, with clustered roots, erect scape -like stems, broad tufted
basal leaves convolute in the bud and small flowers in a terminal spike.
Sepals
broad, connate at the base.
Petals narrow, thin, mostly shorter than the sepals.
Lip broad, concave, 2-auricled at the base of the blade,
free,
erect.
Column
short;
rostellum
retuse,
as long as the anther or
longer.
Pollinia powdery.
Capsule
small,
oblong or ovoid.
[Commemorates John D.
Prescott,
English
botanist, died
1837.]
About 30
species, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species: Prescottia plantaginifolia Lindl.
Leaf-blades 6-25 cm.
long;
sepals about 4 mm.
long.
1. P. stachyoides.
Leaf-blades 6 cm. long or less; sepals 1-2 mm. long.
2. P. oUgantha.
1. Prescottia stachyoides (Sw.) Lindl. Bot. Reg. sub pi. 1915.
1834.
Cranichis stachyoides Sw. Prodr. 120.
1788.
Glabrous; scape rather stout, 3-8 dm. high, bearing several narrow sheathing
scales.
Basal leaves 2 or 3, erect, the blades elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 6-25 cm.
long,
acute, short-acuminate or obtuse at the apex, rounded or obtuse at the
base, about as long as the slender petioles; spike slender, densely many-flowered,
3 dm. long or less; flowers green; bracts ovate, acuminate, 5-9 mm. long; sepals
about 4 mm. long, oblong; petals linear, obtuse; lip ovate, obtuse, hooded, about
6 mm. long; capsule nearly 10 mm. long.
Primaeval mountain forests, Porto Rico, at liigher elevations;
St. Jan:—Jamaica
Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Grenada; continental tropical America.
2. Prescottia oligantha (Sw.) Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 454.
1840.
Cranichis oligantha Sw. Prodr. 120.
1788.
Scape slender, glabrous, 2-4 dm. high.
Basal leaves few, ovate to elliptic,
2-7.5 cm.
long, acute or obtuse at the apex, obtuse or narrowed at the base,
about 13-nerved, the petioles 1.5-3 cm. long; scape with several narrow acute
bladeless sheaths 1-3 cm. long; spike slender, densely flowered, 2-7 cm. long;
bracts
ovate-lanceolate,
acuminate,
2-3 mm.
long;
sepals
1-nerved,
pinkish,
rounded, about
1 mm. long; petals narrowly obovate or oblong, obtuse, a little
shorter than the sepals, white or pink; lip 3-nerved, 1-1.5 mm. long, the blade
roundish, minutely auricled; capsule about 4 mm. long.
Forests and shaded banks in wet or moist districts, ascending to 900 m., Porto Rico;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Montserrat; Guade-
loupe; Dominica.
192
OKCHIDACEAE
15. PONTHIEVA R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, 5: 199.
1813.
Terrestrial orchids witii fibrous roots, tufted basal leaves, and small, loosely
racemose flowers, on sheathed erect scapes.
Sepals spreading, the lateral ones
slightly
inequilateral.
Petals clawed,
spreading, nearly
triangular, adnate to
the short column, unsymmetrical.
Lip adnate to the column, clawed, concave,
ascending,
spurless.
Anther shorter than the rostellum;
pollinia
4,
in
pairs,
powdery,
pendulous.
Capsule
ellipsoid.
[Commemorates
de
Ponthieu, who
sent American plants to Sir Joseph Banks.]
About 20 species, of tropical and
warm temperate America.
TjT)e species
: Neottia glandulosa Sims.
Petals ciliate.
1. P. racemosa.
Petals glabrous.
2. P. ventricosa.
1. Ponthieva racemosa (Walt.) Mohr, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 6: 460.
1901.
Arethusa racemosa Walt. Fl. Car. 222.
1788.
Neottia glandulosa Sims, Bot. Mag.
pi. 842.
1804.
Ponthieva glandulosa R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, 5: 200.
1813.
Scape rather slender, glabrous below, densely glandular-pubescent above,
1.5-6 dm. high, bearing several sheathing scales, the lower ones foUaceous, some-
times 3-4 cm. long.
Basal leaves 2-6, the blades oblong or oblong-lanceolate,
6-15 cm. long; the apex acute, the base narrowed into a petiole 7 cm. long or less;
raceme loosely several-many-flowered, sometimes 2 dm.
long, usually shorter;
bracts
linear-lanceolate,
shorter than
the
green
flowers;
pedicels and ovary
glandular-pubescent, together 1-2 cm. long; sepals glandular-pubescent, about
7 mm.
long;
petals
cUiate, obUque,
obtuse;
lip long-clawed,
white,
rounded,
apiculate; capsule about 1.5 cm. long.
Forests and thickets in wet or moist
districts, Porto Rico,
at lower and middle
elevations; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Southeastern United States; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaaiola; Guadeloupe; Dominica; Grenada.
2. Ponthieva ventricosa (Griseb.) Fawcett & Rendle,
Fl. Jam.
1: 39.
1910.
Cranichis ventricosa Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 639.
1864.
Scape slender, 2-4.5 dm. high, glabrous below, glandular-pubescent above,
bearing a few small acute scales.
Leaves 3-6,
all basal,
elliptic, sessile or very
nearly so, obtuse or acutish, 2-8 cm. long; raceme 4-8 cm.
long, few-several-
flowered;
flowers white;
bracts ovate,
acute, much shorter than the
flowers;
sepals about 6 mm. long; petals obovate-oblong, clawed, 2-lobed; lip sessile, 3-
denticulate; capsule about 7 mm.
long.
[Cranichis panciflora of Bello, not of
Swartz.]
Shaded banks and cliffs at lower and middle elevations in wet parts of the central
and western districts, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
16. CORYMBORCHIS Thou. Orch. lies Afr. Tabl.
pi. 37.
1822.
Terrestrial orchids with fibrous roots, leafy stems, and large fiowers in axillary
or terminal corymbs or panicles, the leaves phcate-nerved, convolute m the bud.
Sepals and petals similar, narrow, more or less connivent or coherent.
Lip free,
erect, linear, undivided.
Column erect, terete, clavate, 2-lobed.
Anther narrow,
erect, acuminate, about
as long as the rosteUum;
pollinia granular.
Capsule
linear or oblong.
[Greek, corj-mbed-orchid.]
About a dozen species, natives of
tropical regions.
Type species: Corymborchis corymbosa Thou.
ORCHIDACEAE
193
1. Corymborchis flava (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 658.
1891.
Serapius flava Sw. Prodr. 119.
1788.
Chloidia flava Rchb.
f. in Walp. Ann. 6: 644.
1863.
Corymbis flava Hems!. Biol. Cent. Amer. 3: 297.
1884.
Glabrous; stem stout,
stiff, erect, 2 m. high or less, densely leafy, at least
above.
Leaves oblong, strongly 7-9-nerved, subsessile,
1..S-4 dm. long, 3-6 cm.
wide,
the apex long-acuminate,
the
base narrowed;
panicles
axillary,
nearly
sessile, 4-10 cm. long; bracts ovate, 4-10 mm. long; flowers nearly sessile, yellow;
sepals linear, 2-2.5 cm. long; petals narrowly spatulate, a little shorter than the
dorsal sepal; lip about as long as the petals, linear below, dilated above, acute.
Primaeval forests of the central mountains of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hls-
paniola; Guadeloupe; Central America.
17. MALAXIS Sw. Prodr. 119.
1788.
Low terrestrial orchids with a
solid bulb,
1-leaved or 2-leaved.
Flowers
small, white or green,
in a terminal raceme.
Sepals spreading,
separate, the
lateral ones equal at the base.
Petals filiform or linear, spreading.
Lip cordate
or
auricled
at
the
base,
embracing
the column.
Anther
erect between
the
auricles, 2-celled; pollinia 4, smooth and waxy, 2 in each sac, the pairs cohering
at the summit, without caudicles or glands.
Capsule oval, sometimes nearly
globular, bealdess.
[Greek, in allusion to the soft tissues.]
About 140 species,
widely distributed, the following typical.
1. Malaxis spicata Sw. Prodr. 119.
1788.
Microstylis spicata Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch.
19.
1830.
Glabrous, 1-3 dm. high, 2-leaved near the base, and with 1 or 2 sheaths below
the leaves.
Leaves ovate or elliptic-ovate, .5-10 cm. long, acute, the lower one
the larger, the sheathing petioles 1-5 cm. long; raceme narrow, 8 cm. long or less,
many-flowered; bracts ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, 2-4 mm. long; pedicels
5-9 mm. long; middle sepal about 3 mm. long, ovate-lanceolate, acute or bluntish,
the lateral ones about as long, obtuse; petals linear, 2 mm. long; lip about 4 mm.
long, its terminal lobe linear-oblong; capsule about 8 mm. long.
Wet woods and river banks at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Martinique.
18. LIPARIS L. C. Rich. Mem. Mus. Paris 4: 43, 60.
1817.
Low terrestrial orchids with solid bulbs, the base of the stem sheathed by
several scales, and one or more fleshy broad shining leaves.
Flowers in a terminal
raceme.
Sepals and
petals nearly equal, linear, spreading, petals usually very
narrow.
Colunm elongated, incurved, thickened and margined above.
Pollinia
2 in each sac of the anther, smooth and waxy, the pairs slightly united, without
stalk, threads or glands.
Lip nearly
flat, often bearing 2 tubercles above the
base.
[Greek, fat, referring to the texture of the leaves.]
One hundred species
or more,
natives
of temperate and
tropical
regions.
Type
species;
Ophrys
Loeselii L.
Leaves 2 or several; lip emarginate.
Sepals obtuse; leaves several.
i-
y- %1„ °v„-,-
Sepals acute; leaves 2 or 3.
2.
I., ^ogersu.
Leaf only
1
; lip obtuse.
3.
L. vexitnjera.
194
ORCHIDACEAE
1. Liparis elata Lindl. Bot. Reg. 14:
pi. 1173.
1828.
Glabrous; bulb narrowly
ovoid- conic, about 3 cm.
long.
Scape
slender,
rather
stiff, erect, 2-5 dm.
high, bearing a few small scales; leaves elliptic to
oblong, 7-20 cm. long, 2-7 cm. wide, the apex acute, the base sheathing: raceme
several-many-flowered,
15 cm. long or less; bracts lanceolate, shorter than the
purplish flowers; pedicels 2-6 mm. long; sepals oblong, obtuse, 5-7 mm. long, the
dorsal one a
little longer and narrower than the lateral ones; petals narrowly
linear, obtuse, as long as the dorsal sepal; lip obovate, emarginate, about 5 mm.
long, 2-callous at the base; capsule oblong-obovoid, 10-15 mm. long.
Woodlands, thickets and shaded hillsides, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations
in moist
districts;
St. Thomas:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to
Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2.
Liparis Eggersii Rchb.
f. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell. 3: 278.
1885.
Similar to L.
elata, about as large, but with fewer and somewhat narrower
leaves, the raceme with fewer flowers, their bracts longer; sepals acute, the dorsal
one 6 mm. long.
Woods
on Monte Mesa, Mayaguez
(according
to
Reichenbach)
;
St.
Thomas.
Endemic.
Perhaps not distinct from the preceding species.
St. Thomas
is the type
locality.
3. Liparis vexillifera (LI.
k. Lex.) Cogn. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 3^: 289.
1895.
Cymbidium vexilliferum LI. & Lex. Nov. Yeg. Descr. 2: 11.
1825.
Liparis elliptica Rchb.
f. in Walp. Ann. 6: 218.
1861.
Glabrous; bulb ovoid, 1-2 cm. long.
Scape slender, angular, 2.5 dm. high
or less.
Leaf solitary, basal, erect, oblong-lanceolate, 7-13 cm. long, 2.5 cm. wide
or
less, the base sheathing; raceme rather densely several-many-flowered, 2-8
cm.
long,
the
rachis narrowly 3-winged;
bracts
lanceolate,
shorter than
the
yellowish flowers; sepals acute, the dorsal one about 8 mm. long, the lateral ones
about 6 mm. long; petals narrowly linear, obtuse, about 7 mm. long; lip ovate,
obtuse, 7-10 mm. long.
Grassy banks at higher elevations in the central and western mountains, of Porto
Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
19. POLYSTACHYA Hook. Exot. Fl.
pi. 103.
1825.
Epiphytic, leafy-stemmed orchids, the stems usually clustered, sheathed at
the base, the roots thick-fibrous, the many-nerved leaves conduplicate in the bud,
the upper reduced to long narrow scales, the small flowers in terminal panicles
or spike-like racemes.
Median sepal narrower than the
lateral ones.
Petals
narrower than the lateral sepals.
Lip jointed with the base of the column, spur-
less, sessile, bent below, 3-lobed, the lateral lobes small.
Column short, with a
distinct foot.
Anther terminal, lid-like, convex, usually 1-celled
; poUinla 4, waxy,
broadly ovate or nearly hemispheric, not appendaged.
[Greek, many
spikes.]
About 170 species, mostly of tropical regions.
Type species; Cranichis luteola
Sw.
Flowers about 4 mm. long; capsule 10-12 ram. long.
1.
P. minuta.
Flowers about .3 mm. long; capsule 6-8 mm. long.
2. P. minor.
1. Polystachya minuta (Aubl.) Britton; Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 328, 1329.
1903.
Epidendrum minutnm Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 824.
1775.
Dendrohium polystachyum Sw. Act. Holm. 21: 247.
1800.
Cranichis luteola Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 3: 1433.
1806.
Polystachya luteola Hook. Exot. Fl.
pi. 103.
1825.
Stems rather slender, 2-6 dm. long.
Sheaths many-striate, 2-4 cm. long;
leaves oblong or linear-oblong, 6-30 cm.
long, 1-3 cm. wide, acute or obtuse,
ORCHIDACEAE
195
shorter than the stem: panicle 3 dm. long or less, sometimes reduced to a single
raceme; racemes rather densely several-many-flowered: bracts acute, about
2
mm. long; flowers greenish-yellow; buds obliquely 3-angled; median sepal ovate,
3-4 mm. long, the lateral ones oblique, a Uttle longer: petals narrowly spatulate,
shorter than the sepals
; lip about 4 mm. long, glandular-hairy within, the median
lobe emarginate, the lateral lobes incurved
; capsule 10-12 mm. long.
On trees, in moist districts, Porto Kico, mostly at middle and higher elevations:
St. Thomas:—Florida:
Bahamas;
Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts and Mont-
serrat to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2. Polystachya minor Fawcett & Rendle, Journ. Bot. 48: 106.
1910.
Similar to the preceding si)ecies, but usually smaller, and with smaller leaver.
Flowers smaller, the median sepal rather less than 3 mm. long; lip with a conic
callus at the base; capsule 6-8 mm. long.
Base of a mango tree. Sierra de Xaguabo (Shafer SkZl):—Jamaica; Cuba; British
Guiana.
Perhaps better regarded as a race of P. minuta.
20. ISOCHILUS R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, 5: 209.
1813.
Leafy epiphj-tic orchids, with creeping rootstocks and rather large flowers
in terminal
racemes,
the
leaves
narrow,
distichous.
Sepals
distinct,
equal.
Petals as long as the sepals.
Lip flexuous, about as long as the petals.
Column
elongated, wingless, with a short foot.
Anther incumbent, operculate, 2-celled;
pollinia 4, waxy, ovoid-oblong, flattened, appendaged or caudiculate.
Capsule
ovoid or subglobose.
[Greek, equal lip.]
About 5 species, of tropical America,
the following tji^ical.
1. Isochilus linearis (Jacq.) R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, 5: 209.
1813.
Epidendrum lineare Jacq. Enum. 29, 1760.
Glabrous; stems commonly clustered, straight, densely leafy, slender, simple,
2-4.5 dm. long.
Leaves linear, nearly erect, 2-5 cm. long. 2-4 mm. wide, sessile,
obtuse or emarginate; raceme sessile, densely few-flowered, 2-3 cm. long; bracts
obovate, 6-10 mm. long, acute; flowers rose or purple, nearly sessile; sepals 7-10
mm. long, acute, the dorsal one free, the lateral ones connate, carinate; petals
oblong-spatulate, acute; lip lanceolate-spatulate, narrowed to the base.
On trees and rocks in forests of the central and western districts of Porto Rico,
mostly
at
higher
elevations;—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
iMontserrat
to
Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
21. TETRAGAMESTUS Rchb.
f. Bonplandia 2: 21.
1854.
Epiphj-tic
orchids,
with
jointed
branched
stems,
the
branches
mostly
2-foliolate, the small fleshy bracted flowers glomerate or geminate at the bases of
the narrow
coriaceous leaves.
Pseudobulbs slender.
Sepals distinct.
Petals
similar to the sepals.
Lip entire or 3-lobed.
Column short.
Anther terminal,
operculate, 2-celled; poUinia 4, waxy, ovoid, flattened, appendiculate.
Capsule
fusiform.
[Greek, referring to the four pollinia. ]
A few species, natives of tropical
America, the following tjTpical.
1. Tetragamestus modestus Rchb.
f. Bonplandia 2: 21.
1854.
Glabrous; stems stout, clustered, 5 dm. long or less, the joints 5-20 cm. long.
Leaves narrowly oblong-lanceolate, sessile, acute, 6-15 cm. long, 2 cm. wide or
196
ORCHIDACEAE
less: flowers 2-several in the fascicles, greenigh white; bracts thin, acute, 5-10
mm. long; sepals about 5 mm. long, the dorsal one obtuse, the lateral ones acute;
petals oblong, obtuse; lip ovate, clawed, 3-lobed.
On trees
Luquillo Mountains and near Arecibo, Porto Eico
:—Hispaniola; Martin-
ique; Grenada.
Recorded from Brazil.
22. OCTADESMIA Benth. Journ. Linn. Soc. 18: .311.
1881.
Epiphytic orchids, with simple leafy stems, and rather large flowers in a
terminal raceme;
pseudobulbs none.
Leaves
articulated
at the
base
of the
blade.
Sepals equal in length, the middle one
free, the lateral ones coherent
below.
Petals similar to the sepals.
Lip 3-lobed, free, crenulate, about as long
as the sepals.
Column wingless, with a short foot.
Anther operculate, 2-celled;
poUinia
8.
Capsule
oblong.
[Greek,
referring
to
the
eight
poUinia.]
Two
known species, natives of the West Indies.
Type species: Octomeria serratifolia
Hook
.f.
1. Octadesmia montana (Sw.) Benth. Journ. Linn. Soc.
18: 311.
1881.
Epidendrum montanum Sw. Prodr. 121.
1788.
Octomeria serratifolia Hook.
f. Bot. Mag.
pZ. 2823.
1828.
Stems solitary or few together, rather stout, stiff, somewhat flattened, 4 dm.
high or less, leafy above.
Leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, entire, or the
upper ones denticulate, firm in texture, 4-8 cm. long, 6-12 mm. wide; peduncle
slender, elongated; raceme few-flowered, 10 cm. long or less; pedicels about 1 cm.
long; bracts narrow, acuminate, 6-12 mm. long; sepals and petals narrowly lan-
ceolate, yellowish, 12-1.5 mm. long; lip oblong-obovate, white, about 9 mm. long;
capsule nearly 2 cm. long.
On trees, shrubs and loss at liigh elevations in the eastern mountains of Porto Rico,
ascending to the summit of El Yunque:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
23. HORMIDIUM Lindl.
; Heynh. Nom.
1: 880.
1840.
Small
epiphytic
orchids,
with
creeping,
freely
rooting,
scaly
stems, and
short terete or flattened pseudobulbs bearing
1 or 2 leaves and few or solitary,
small terminal flowers.
Sepals equal, the lateral ones adnate at the base, the
middle one free.
Petals similar to the middle sepal, or narrower.
Lip undivided
or
3-lobed.
Column
short,
adnate
to
the
lip.
Anther
terminal,
operculate,
4-celled
; poUinia 4, waxy, unappendaged.
Capsule ovoid or subglobose, strongly
ribbed
or narrowly
winged.
[Greek,
necklace.!
About
7
species,
natives
of
tropical America.
Type species: Epidendrum uniflorum Lindl.
1. Hormidium tripterum (Brongn.) Cogn. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
3=: 29.
1898.
Coelogyne triptera Brongn. Voy. Coquile 201.
1829.
Glabrous; stems rather
stout,
creeping, up to 3 dm.
long.
Pseudobulbs
1-3 cm. apart, terete, subfusiform, 3-4 cm. long, 2-leaved at the summit; leaves
oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 2-5 cm. long,
sessile, acute, entire, fleshy; flowers
few or solitary, greenish, nearly sessile; sepals lanceolate, acute, about 5 mm.
long; petals linear-lanceolate, acute, a httle shorter than the sepals; lip reniform,
white, 3-lobed, the lateral lobes rounded.
On rocks among mosses, Porto Rico, at middle and higher elevations in the central
mountains:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
ORCHIDACEAE
197
24. JACQUINIELLA Schlechter, Repert. Beihefte 7: 124.
1920.
Leafy,
relatively
small, epiphytic orchids, the
leaves
linear or suVjterete;
pseudobulbs
none;
flowers
solitary,
fascicled,
racemose
or
spicate,
terminal.
Sepals linear to ovate, distinct or the lateral ones connate at the base, more or
less fleshy.
Petals filiform to ovate, about as long as the sepals.
Lip entire
or 3-lobed.
Column free from the lip, without a foot.
Pollinia 4, waxy, caudic-
ulate.
Fruit a small
capsule.
[Diminutive of Jacquinia.]
A few
species
of
tropical America, the following typical.
1. Jacquiniella globosa (Jacq.) Schlechter, Repert. Beihefte 7: 124.
1920.
Epidendrum glohosum Jacq. Enum. 29.
1760.
Isochilus globosum Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 112.
1831.
Glabrous; stems clustered, often numerous, slender, several -leaved, 5-15 cm.
long.
Leaves
distichous,
hnear,
fleshy,
semiterete,
channelled
above,
sessile,
1.5-2 cm.
long,
1-1.5 mm.
thick;
flowers
solitary or few,
terminal,
deflexed,
nearly sessile; bracts 1-1.5 mm. long; sepals
elliptic, about 3 mm. long; petals
subrliomboid, obtusely angled, a Uttle shorter than the sepals; Up rhomboid,
entire, obtuse, about 2.5 mm. long; capsule globose-ellipsoid, about 6 mm. long.
On trees in mountain forests, Porto Rico, at Wgher elevations:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Saba and St. Kitts to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
25. ENCYCLIA Hook. Bot. Mag.
vl- 2831.
1828.
[Larnandra Raf. Neog. 4.
Hyponym.
1825.]
Epiphytic or rarely terrestrial orchids, with mostly terete, short or elongated
pseudobulbs,
flat, mostly
stiff, elongated narrow leaves duplicate in the bud,
and rather large, racemose or panicled bracted flowers on a long terminal scape.
Lateral sepals broad or narrow, about as wide as the similar median one; petals
spatulate
to
linear.
Lip
longitudinally
crested
or appendaged,
3-lobed,
the
middle lobe much wider than the lateral ones, often emarginate.
Column usually
adnate to the
lip at
its base and sometimes enclosed by
it.
Capsule ribbed.
[Greek, wrapped around.]
Perhaps 75 species, of tropical and subtropical Amer-
ica.
Type species: Encyclia viridiflora Hook.
Middle lobe of the lip acute or tipped.
Panicle several-many-flowered; ovary smootli.
1.
E. fucata.
Panicle few-flowered; ovary warty.
2.
E. Smtemsii.
Middle lobe of the lip 2-lobed.
3.
E. papihonacea.
1. Encyclia fucata (Lindl.) Britton & Millspaugh, Bahama Fl. 91.
1920.
Epidendrum fucatum Lindl. Bot. Reg. 24: Misc. 15.
1838.
Pseudobulbs slender, ovoid to oblong, 2-5 cm. long.
Leaves 1 or 2, linear,
1-3 dm. long,
1-2.5 cm. wide; scape slender, usually branched, 3-7 dm. long;
pedicels slender or
filiform,
1-2 cm.
long;
sepals yellow or brownish
yellow,
oblong or oblong-oblanceolate, obtuse, 1.5-2 cm. long; petals oblanceolate, similar
to the sepals but a little shorter;
lip yellow, 3-lobed, the lateral lobes oblong,
obtuse, about 1 cm. long, the middle lobe suborbicular, tipped; column wingless;
capsule oblong, 1..5-2.5 cm. long.
On trees in coffee plantations near Adjimtas and Lares, Porto Rico (accorduig to
Cogniaux): Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola.
2. Encyclia Sintenisii (Rchb.
f.) Britton.
Epidendrum Sintenisii Rchb.
f. Ber. Deutsche Bot. Gesell. 3: 277.
1885.
Pseudobulbs ovoid, narrowed above, 3-4.5 cm. long.
Leaves 2 or 3, linear.
2.5-3.5 dm. long, 10-13 mm. wide, obtuse or emarginate; scape slender, branched
198
ORCHIDACEAE
above. 2-3 dm. long, bearing a few scarious sheaths; pedicels very slender, 1-1.5
cm. long; ovary verrucose; sepals and petals lanceolate, acute, about
1 cm. long;
middle lobe of the lip triangular, acuminate.
On
trees, near Maricao, collected only by
Sintenis, flowering in December.
En-
demic.
3. Encyclia papilionacea (Vahl) Schlechter, Repert. Beihefte 6:
74.
1919.
Epidendrum papilionaceum Vahl; West,
St. Croix 303.
1793.
Epidendrum bifidnm Sw.
Fl. Ind. Occ. 1489.
1806.
Not Aubl., 1779.
Epidendrum Kraenzlinii Bello, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 116.
1883.
Epidendrum Krugii Bello, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 117.
1883.
E. papilionaceum orandiflorum Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 6: 505.
1910.
Pseudobulbs narrowly oblong, solitary or clustered, 6-12 cm. long.
Leaves
2 or 3, hnear or linear-lanceolate, stiff, 2.5 dm. long or less, 7-25 mm. wide; scape
slender or rather stout, 0.5-2 m. long, simple, or forked above, bearing several
scarious sheaths; racemes several-many-flowered,
short or elongated;
pedicels
filiform, 1-3 cm. long; bracts triangular-lanceolate, 3-8 mm. long; flowers light
purple; sepals narrow, 10-15 mm. long; petals a little narrower than the sepals;
lip
l.,5-3 cm. long, deeply 3-Iobed, the middle lobe deeply emarginate; capsule
oval, about 2 cm. long.
On shrubs and in sandy or rocky gi-ound at lower elevations, Porto Riro, mostly
near the coasts; Mona; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croi.x: St. Thomas: St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin
Gorda;—Hispaniola;
St.
Barts and
St.
Kitts.
Recorded
by
Millspaugh
as
Laclia
domingensis.
26. ANACHEILIUM Hoffmg. Linnaea 16: Litt. Ber. 229.
1842.
Epiphytic orchids, with elongated, somewhat flattened pseudobulbs, long
flat leaves duplicate
in the bud, and nodding racemose bracted flowers on a
simple terminal scape.
Sepals
all nearly
alike, elongated, narrow, acuminate.
Petals similar to the sepals, but somewhat shorter;
lip concave,
entire, much
shorter than the sepals.
Column partly adnate to the
lip,
footless.
Capsules
winged, drooping.
[Greek, upturned
lip.]
The genus
is probably monotypic.
1. Anacheilium cochleatum (L.) Hoffmg. Linnaea 16: Litt. Ber. 229.
1842.
Epidendrum cochleatum L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 1351.
1763.
Pseudobulbs
lanceolate
to
ovate,
compressed,
8-12
cm.
long,
clustered.
Leaves 2 or 3, linear or linear-oblong, acute, 1-4 dm. long; scape simple,
1..5-6
dm. long, bearing several linear-lanceolate scarious scales 1-3 cm. long and sub-
tended by a larger, scarious, spathelike scale 5-S cm. long; flowers few-several,
racemose;
bracts
small;
lateral
sepals
Unear-lanceolate,
greenish
yellow,
2-3
cm. long, similar to the petals; lip purple or variegated, about 2 cm. long, abruptly
acute, entire; capsule 2-3 cm. long.
On
trees and rocks
in moist
districts, Porto Rico: Vieques;
St.
Croix:-—Florida;
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Central America; northern South America.
27. NIDEMA Britton & Millspaugh, Bahama Fl. 94.
1920.
Epiphytic orchids, with flattened 1-leaved pseudobulbs subtended by narrow
scales, the leaves narrowly linear, the slender scapes bearing several, rather small,
racemose
flowers,
or but
one.
Lateral
sepals
lanceolate
or
linear-lanceolate,
3-5-nerved, acute or acuminate; petals Hnear to lanceolate, somewhat shorter
than the sepals; lip linear or ligulate, somewhat fleshy, entire or undulate; column
free from the lip or but slightly adnate at the base, footless.
Capsule oblong.
[Anagram of Dinema, a related genus.]
Two species or more, natives of the
West Indies, the following typical.
ORCHIDACEAE
199
1. Nidema Ottonis (Rchb.
f.) Britton & Millspaugh, Bahama
Fl.
94.
1920.
Epidendrum Ottonis Rchb.
f.; Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. G13.
1864.
Pseudobulbs narrowly
oblong,
clustered,
compressed,
2-3.5 cm.
long,
1-
leaved.
Leaf thin in texture,
linear, 6-13 cm. long, 5-8 mm. wide, obtuse or
acutish; scape very slender,
little,
if any, longer than the
leaf, bearing several
linear scales and 3-6 bracted whitish flowers; ovary shorter than the linear bract;
sepals lanceolate, acuminate, about 8 mm. long; petals linear, acute, about 6 mm.
long; lip linear, acute, undivided, about 5 mm. long; column free, claviform, 4 mm.
long, 5-toothed
; capsule oblong, about 1 cm. long.
On palm trunks near Utuado and Arecibo, Porto Rico :—Jamaica ; Cuba: Hispaniola;
Trinidad and Venezuela.
28. AULIZA Salisb. Trans. Hort. Soc. 1: 294.
1812.
Epiphytic or
terrestrial
orchids,
with
erect
or ascending,
often clustered
stems, subcoriaceous sessile leaves and rather large pedicelled flowers on scapes;
pseudobulbs
elongated.
Sepals
often
elongated.
Petals
linear
to
spatulate.
Lip
various.
Column
adnate
to
the
lip.
PoUinia
4,
appendaged.
[Greek,
perching.]
A few species of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species:
Epidendrum ciliare L.
i
1. Auliza ciliaris (L.) Salisb. Trans. Hort. Soc. 1: 294.
1812.
Epidendrum ciliare L. Syst. ed.
10, 1246.
1759.
Epidendrujn cuspidatum Lodd. Bot. Cab. 1818:
pi.
10.
E. ciliare cuspidatum Lindl. Fol. Orch. Epid. 30.
1853.
Pseudobulbs 8-20 cm.
long,
slender, thickened upward, usually clustered,
1-2 cm. thick at the top.
Leaves 1-3, usually 2, thick, narrowly oblong, obtuse,
1-2 dm. long, 2-5 cm. wide; scape rather stout, 3 dm. long or less, bearing large,
linear-lanceolate, imbricated scales below, few-several-flowered; bracts lanceolate,
2.5-5 cm. long; pedicels 1-2 cm. long; ovary slender, 4-5 cm. long; sepals linear-
lanceolate, yellowish-green, acuminate, 4-5 cm. long; petals similar to the sepals;
lip deeply 3-cleft, white, 3-4 cm.
long, the outer segments
ciliate, the middle
one subulate, entire.
On shaded rocks and on trees in both dry and moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending
to 750 meters in the western mountains; Culebra: Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St.
Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:— St. Martin to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
29. AMPHIGLOTTIS Sahsb. Trans. Hort. Soc. l: 294.
1812.
[Nyctosma Raf. Fl. Tell. 2: 9.
1837.]
Epiphytic or rarely saxicolous orchids, without pseudobulbs, the stems leafy,
the
flowers
umbellate,
racemose
or
panicled.
Sepals
nearly
alike,
distinct.
Petals similar to the sepals.
Lip 3-lobed or entire.
Column wholly adnate to the
lip.
Anther 2-celled,
operculate;
pollinia
4, waxy.
Capsule oblong.
[Greek,
encircling a tongue.]
Seventy-five species or more, natives of tropical and sub-
tropical America.
Type species: Epidendrum elongatum Jacq.
Flowers umbellate, subumbellate or solitary.
Flowers subumbellate.
Lip 4-lobed.
1.
^4. difformis.
Lip undulate, subtnmcate.
2. A. corymhnsa.
Flowers only
1 or 2; lip ;5-lobed.
3.
A. nocturna.
Flowers racemose or paniculate.
Flowers racemose; lip 3-lobed.
Lobes of the lip entire.
4. A. anceps.
Lobes of the lip lacerate or denticulate.
Petals oblong; stem terete.
.5.
A. srcunda.
Petals linear-ligulate; stem flattened.
6.
A. lacera
Flowers paniculate; lip 3-lobed. the lobes rounded.
7.
A. pallidiflora
200
ORCHIDACEAE
1. Amphiglottis difformis (Jacq.) Britton.
Epidendrum difforme Jacq. Enum. 29.
1760.
Epidendrum umhellatum Sw. Prodr. 121.
1788.
Stems commonly clustered,
leafy nearly to the base, 4 dm. long or
less,
flattened and winged above.
Leaves oblong or linear-oblong, obtuse or retuse,
3-7 cm.
long:
flowers greenish-white to
yellow,
fragrant,
few
or several
in a
sessUe terminal umbel; pedicels 1-2 cm.
long, slender; ovary slender, about as
long as its pedicel; sepals oblong, 1-2.5 cm. long; petals linear, acute, about as
long as the sepals;
lip reniform,
1.5-3 cm.
broad,
4-lobed,
the
lobes
entire-
margined
; capsule about 2 cm. long and
1 cm. thick.
Ou trees and rocks in mountain forests, Porto Rico, at middle and liigher elevations:
—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Eustatius to Trinidad; continental tropical
America.
2. Amphiglottis corymbosa (Lindl.) Britton,
Epidendrum corymbosum Lindl.
Fol. Orch. Epid. 61.
1853.
Stems
clustered, sometimes branched,
1.5-3 dm.
long,
few-leaved above.
Leaves thin, oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, acute, 10 cm. long or less, 7-18 mm.
wide; peduncle
slender,
terminal, 2-5
cm.
long,
subumbellately
few-several-
flowered;
flowers greenish;
bracts
lanceolate, 3-6 mm.
long;
pedicels
slender,
about
1 cm. long; ovary rather longer than its pedicel; sepals lanceolate, acute,
about
12 mm.
long;
petals
linear, about
as long as the
sepals;
lip reniform,-
undulate, subtruncate, about 10 mm. broad; capsule oblong, nearly 2 cm. long.
On trees in forests of the eastern moimtains at liigher elevations and near Adjimtas,
Porto Rico:—Hisi^aniola; northern South America.
3. Amphiglottis nocturna (Jacq.) Britton.
Epidendrum nociurnum Jacq. Enum. 29.
1760.
Epidendrum tridens Poepp. & Endl. Nov. Gen. 2: 2.
1838.
E. nocturnum tridens Cogn. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 3*: 136.
1898.
Auliza nocturna Small, Fl. Miami 56.
1913.
Epiphytic or sa.xicolous; stems stiff, clustered, rather slender, usually erect,
3-11 dm.
high.
Leaves oblong to
elliptic, oblong-lanceolate or linear-oblong,
7-16 cm. long, acute at the apex, partly clasping at the base, the sheaths cylindric,
the lower ones bladeless; flowers solitary or two together, peduncled, the peduncle
2-10 cm. long; bracts ovate or lanceolate, 3-6 mm. long; lateral sepals green,
linear-attenuate, 3-6 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide; petals yellow, similar to the sepals,
but a little narrower; lip white, 3-cleft, the 2 lateral lobes ovate or ovate-oblong,
10-15 mm. long, the middle lobe setaceous, 3-5 cm. long; capsule oblong, nar-
rowed at both ends, 2.5-4 cm. long.
On trees, rocks and on the ground in mountain forests, Porto Rico, at middle and
higher
elevations:—Florida;
Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe
to
Trinidad; Margarita and continental tropical America.
Races differ in shape and size
of leaves and in size of the floral parts.
4
Amphiglottis anceps (Jacq.) Britton.
Epidendrum anceps Jacq. Stirp. Amer. 224.
1763.
Stems solitary or few together, compressed, 2-edged,
6 dm.
long or
less,
sheathed below, leafy above.
Leaves few or several, oblong or oblong-lanceolate,
acute, 5-12 cm.
long; peduncle slender, sheathed below, the several or many
greenish brown flowers in a short, usually dense raceme; pedicels slender, 3-6
mm. long; ovary about as long as the pedicel; bracts ovate, acuminate, 2-5 mm.
long; sepals oblong, about 8 mm. long; petals linear-spatulate, a little shorter than
the sepals; lip cordate-reniform, about 5 mm. long, 3-lobed, the lobes entire.
On trees and on shaded rocks, Porto Rico, mostly at higher elevations in wet or
moist districts:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba and St. Kitts to Barbados
and Grenada; continental tropical America.
OKCHIDACEAE
201
5. Amphiglottis secunda (Jacq.) Britton.
Epidendrum secundum Jacq. Enum. 29.
1760.
Epidendrum eloiiaatum Jacq. Icon. Rar. 3: 17.
1786-93.
Stems few together or solitary, slender, naked below,
leafy above,
terete.
2-9 dm.
long.
Leaves firm in texture, oblong or lanceolate,
acute,
4r-12 cm,
long, 1-3 cm. wide; peduncle 3 dm. long or less, bearing several sheaths; racemes
several-many-flowered; bracts acuminate, 3-8 mm. long; pedicels slender, about
1 cm. long; ovary about 1 cm. long; sepals acute, 7-10 mm. long; petals oblong,
about as long as the sepals, rose or purple;
lip whitish, broadly reniform, 6-7
mm.
wide, deeply
3-loy3ed, the lobes denticulate, the middle one emarginate;
capsule broadly oblong, 2 cm. long.
On trees
rocks and wet banks at higher elevations in moist or wet districts, Porto
Rico; St. Thomas (according to Krebs)
:—Antigua to Trinidad, Margarita and contmental
South America.
6. Amphiglottis lacera (Lindl.) Britton.
Epidendrum lacerum Lindl. Bot. Reg. 24: Misc. no. 18.
1838.
Stem rather stout, flattened, leafy nearly to the base, 2-8 dm. long.
Leaves
thm, Unear to lanceolate, acutish, 5-8 cm. long, 4-15 mm. wide
; peduncle slender,
bearing several sheaths 2-4 cm. long; raceme rather densely several-flowered;
flowers pale rose; bracts linear-subulate, 3-10 mm. long; pedicels about 1 cm. long;
ovary about as long as its pedicel; sepals oblong-lanceolate, about 7 mm. long;
petals a little longer and narrower than the sepals; lip deeply 3-lobed, 4-5 mm.
long, the lobes nearly equal, lacerate, obovate.
Mountain thickets of Monte Cedro near Adjuntas:—Cuba.
7. Amphiglottis pallidiflora (Hook.) Britton.
Epidendrum pallidiflorum Hook. Bot. Mag.
pi. 29S0.
1830.
Stem terete and naked below, flattened and several-leaved above, 2-3 dm*
long.
Leaves thin, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 5-14 cm. long, 1-2.8 cm. wide;
peduncle slender, bearing a few sheaths below, branched above, the inflorescence
paniculate, several-flowered; pedicels and ovary together about
1.5 cm. long;
bracts acuminate, 8 mm. long or less; flowers pale yellow; sepals lanceolate, 12-14
mm. long; petals lanceolate-spatulate, about as long as the sepals;
lip deeply
3-lobed, 7-8 mm. wide, the lobes rounded, nearly equal.
[? Epidendrum nutans
of Bello, not of Swartz.]
On Mount Jimenes, LuquiUo Mountains:—Guadeloupe; Dominica; St. Vincent.
Epidendrum patens Sw., a species characterized by a nodding raceme of
yellowish flowers, was recorded from Signal Hill,
St. Thomas, by Eggers;
it has
not been found there by subsequent collectors
; in the West Indies it is otherwise
known only from Jamaica and Trinidad.
The record may be erroneous.
30. SPATHIGER Small, Fl. Miami 55.
1913.
Epiphytic,
usually branched,
creeping or pendent glabrous
orchids, with
slender leafy stems, narrow sessile leaves and small flowers in the axils of spathe-
like bracts, forming terminal spikes; pseudobulbs none.
Leaves dupUcate in the
bud, the blades not plaited, jointed at the base.
Lateral sepals broader than
the median
one.
Petals
scarcely broader than
the
sepals.
Lip reniform
or
nearly orbicular, concave.
Column adnate to the hp.
Pollinia 4, appendaged.
[Greek, spathe-bearing.]
About 10 species of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species: Epidendrum, rigidum Jacq.
Leaves oblong; Up obtuse.
1- f
• [i^lf^J-
Leaves linear; Up acute.
z.
b. ramosus.
202
ORCHIDACEAE
1. Spathiger rigidus (Jacq.) Small,
Fl. Miami 55.
1913.
Epidendrum rigidum Jacq. Enum. 29.
1760.
Often much branched, 5 dm. long or less.
Leaves oblong or linear- oblong,
subcoriaceous, 3-8 cm. long; flowers greeniah-white
; lateral sepals ovate, about 6
mm. long; petals narrowly spatulate or oblong; blade of the Up about 3 mm. long,
suborbicular, obtuse, with callosities near the base; capsule about 1.5 cm. long.
On trees and on rocks, Porto Rico, mostly at middle and higher elevations in wet or
moist
districts:—Florida;
Bahamas;
Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad and
Margarita: continental tropical America.
2. Spathiger ramosus (Jacq.) Britton.
Epidendrum ramosum Jacq. Enum. 29.
1760.
E. ramosum lanceolatum Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 618.
1864.
Branched, sometimes up to
1 m. in length.
Leaves linear, coriaceous, those
of the stem 6-11 cm. long, about 1 cm. wide or less, those of the branches usually
much smaller; flowers greenish or yellowish; sepals .5-7 mm. long; petals linear,
about as long as the sepals; Up cordate-ovate, acute, about 4 mm. long; capsule
about 1 cm. long.
On trees and rocks, in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, mostly at higher elevations
—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Grenada; continental tropical America.
31. TETRAMICRA Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 119.
1831.
Mostly terrestrial orchid.s, without pseudobulbs, the roots thick
fibers, the
few subterete fleshy leaves basal, the pink to purple flowers in a simple raceme
at the end of a slender sheathed scape or peduncle.
Bracts very small.
Sepals
about
equal,
distinct,
spreading.
Petals
similar
to
the
sepals.
Lip
3-lobed,
spreading, the lobes entire or nearly
so.
Column 2-winged.
Anther convex.
Imperfectly 4-celled; pollinia
4, waxy, appendaged.
Capsule oblong,
beakless.
[Greek,
small
four.]
About
8
species,
of
tropical
America.
Type
species.
Cymhidiurn rigidum, Willd.
1. Tetramicra elegans (Hamilt.) Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant.
6: 549.
1910.
Cyrtopodium elegans Hamilt. Prodr.
.53.
1825.
Epidendrum subaequale Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus. 13: 113.
1870.
Bletia subaequalis Rechb.
f. Flora 69: 553.
1886.
Stem short,
scaly; peduncle
stiff,
erect or nearly
so,
straight or slightly
flexuous, 6 dm. Ions or less, simple, bearing numerous striate sheaths; leaves 1-4,
linear-subulate, coriaceous, half-cylindric, pointed. 7-18 cm. long, 2-3 mm. thick;
raceme several-flowered, 3-10 cm. long; bracts ovate, striate, acute or acuminate,
3-6 mm. long, the lower ones often flowerless; pedicels filiform, about 1 cm. long;
sepals lanceolate-acute, brownish, about
1 cm. long; petals about as long as the
sepals but narrower; lip 12-15 mm. long, deeply 3-lobed, rose-colored, the middle
lobe obovate, violet-veined.
Indiera Fria near Maricao, Porto Rico (barren); St. Thomas; St. Jan; Anegada; St.
Croix:—St. Eustatius; Antigua; Desirade; Guadeloupe.
32. EPIDENDRUM L. Sp. PI. 952.
1753.
Epiphytic or saxicolous orchids, without pseudobulbs, the few leaves fleshy,
linear or subterete, the large showy peduncled flowers solitary, geminate or race-
mose.
Sepals distinct, narrow, elongated, the petals similar, the lip very broad,
narrowed below or clawed, entire or fimbriate.
Column erect, 2-winged.
Anther
ORCHIDACEAE
203
operculate,
2-celled; poUinia
8, compressed.
Capsule mostly oblong.
[Greek,
on
trees.]
A
few
species,
of
tropical
America.
Type
species:
Epidendrum
nodosum L.
Peduncle 2-3-flo\vered; lip long-clawed, not fimbriate.
1.
E. nodosum.
Peduncle l-flowered; lip short-clawed, fimbriate.
2.
E. cucullalum.
1. Epidendrum nodosum L. Sp. PI. 953.
1753.
Brassavola nodosa Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 114.
1831.
Roots of thick fibers; stems usually clustered, rather stout, 3-8 cm.
long,
nearly
terete.
Leaf solitary, thick, linear, half-cylindric, acute, channeled, 6-15
cm. long, about
1 cm. wide; peduncle slender, as long as the leaves or shorter,
2-3-flowered
; pedicels about 2 cm. long; bracts lanceolate. 4-6 mm. long; ovary
2-3 cm.
long;
sepals and petals linear, acuminate,
light green, 5-7 cm. long;
lip white, long-clawed, the claw about 2 cm. long, the flat, broadly ovate, acute
or acuminate limb entire or slightly undulate, 3-4 cm. long; column 4-6 mm. long.
Porto
Rico,
collected by Otto Kuntze
in
1874:—Jamaica;
Curacao;
continental
tropical America.
2. Epidendrum cucullatum L. Sp. PI. ed. 2,
13.50.
1763.
Brassavola cucullata R. Br. in Act. Hort. Kew ed. 2, 5: 216.
1813.
Roots fibrous; stems clustered, slender, 8-12 cm. long.
Leaf subcylindric,
linear, channeled, 8-25 cm. long; peduncle slender,
l-flowered, 2.5 cm. long or
less, with a few scarious scales at the base; ovary prolonged into a slender beak
7-12 cm.
long;
sepals and
petals
linear-lanceolate,
acuminate,
yellowish, 5-8
cm. long; lip short-clawed, about 2 cm. broad, fimbriate, narrowed above into an
entire slender tip 2-3 cm. long; column about 10 mm. long.
On rocks and trees,
St. Thomas:—St. Martin; Saba;
St. Eustatius; Guadeloupe to
Trinidad; Mexico; northern South America.
Epidendrum carinatum
Vahl,
of
St.
Croi.x, has not been identified by
modern botanists;
it is evidently not the same as E. carinatum of Linnaeus.
The orchid recorded from St. Thomas by Krebs as Epidendrum bicornutum
Swartz, has not been identified; Swartz did not publish any species under that
name.
There
is a published Epidendrum bicornutum Hooker {Diacrium
bicor-
nutum Benth.) of Tobago, Trinidad and northern South America.
33. ELLEANTHUS Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 97.
1827.
Epiphytic orchids, the leaves various, plicate, the flowers in terminal spikes
or heads, distichous in the following species.
Sepals distinct.
Petals about as
long as the sepals but narrower.
Lip as long as the sepals or longer, concave at
the
base.
Column
without
a
foot.
Anther
operculate,
2-celled;
pollinia
8,
ovoid, waxy.
Capsule oblong.
[Greek, clustered flowers.]
About 50 species or
more, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Elleanthus lancifalius Presl.
1. Elleanthus linifolius Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 197.
1827.
Stems simple, usually clustered, slender, smooth. 2-3.5 dm. long.
Leaves
narrowly Unear, thin, 1-nerved, 12 cm. long or less, 1.5-3 mm. wide, sessile, the
sheaths "about 2 cm. long; spike densely several-flowered, 1-2 cm. long, the white
flowers distichous; bracts ovate-oblong, obtuse, 6-10 mm. long; sepals about 3
mm. long, the middle one narrower than the oblique lateral ones; petals narrowly
spatulate, the apex rounded; lip obovate, ciliate-denticulate, about 3 mm. broad;
column about 2 mm. long.
On trees in forests, Porto Rico, mostly at higher elevations in the central and western
moimtains:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; South America.
204
ORCHIDACEAE
34. STELIS Sw. in Schrad. Journ. 2: 239.
1799,
Small epiphytic orchids, with
clustered or creeping,
1-leaved stems, and
small or minute flowers in racemes, the leaf petioled; pseudobulbs none.
Sepals
nearly equal, spreading, broad, more or less connate.
Petals much shorter than
the sepals.
Lip sessile, similar to the petals.
Column as long as the lip or shorter,
without a foot.
Anther 2-celled, operculate; pollinia 2, waxy.
Capsule ovoid or
oblong.
[Ancient Greek name
for some
plant
parasite.]
Over
150
species,
natives of tropical America.
Type species: Epidendrum ophioglossoides Jacq.
1.
Stelis perpusilliflora Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 6: 386.
1909.
Stems clustered,
erect, jointed below the middle, 6-12 cm.
long, with an
appressed sheath 3-5 cm. long.
Leaf oblong, obtuse, erect, firm in texture, flat,
6-11 cm. long; racemes 1-4, densely several-many-flowered, much shorter than
the leaf; pedicels about 1 mm. long; bracts scarious, 1.5-2 mm. long; sepals about
1.5 mm. long; petals about half as long as the sepals; lip concave, as long as the
petals.
On
trees
in the
forests
of the eastern mountains
of Porto
Rico:—Guadeloupe;
Dominica.
35. PLEUROTHALLIS R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew ed. 2, 5: 213.
1813.
Epiphytic orchids, large, small or minute, with tufted or creeping 1-leaved
stems, sheathed below, and small flowers in racemes borne at the base of the leaf
and subt^ided by a spathe.
Sepals nearly equal, the dorsal one free, the lateral
ones usuaUy connate.
Petals narrow, free, mostly shorter than the sepals.
Lip
mostly shorter than the petals, 3-lobed.
Anther operculate, 1-2-celled
; pollinia 2,
waxy.
Capsule oblong to globose.
[Greek, side frond; the inflorescence is borne
by the side of the leaf.]
Many species, perhaps 500, natives of tropical America.
TjT)e species: Epidendrum ruscifolius Jacq.
Raceme subtended by a large spathe.
Lip entire.
1-
P- Qelida.
Lip 3-lobed.
^-
-P- crassipes.
Spathe inconspicuous, scarious.
Sepals membranous.
Secondary stems elongated.
Flowers racemose.
3. P. prmnosa.
Flowers fascicled.
4.
P. rusctfoha.
Flowers soUtary, rarely 2.
5.
P. Wilsom.
Stems very short
; plants caespitose.
6. P. Urbantana.
Sepals fleshy.
7.
P. coriacea.
1. Pleurothallis gelida Lindl. Bot. Reg. 27: Misc. 186.
1841.
Pleurothallis univaginata Lindl. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. III. 1; 326.
1858.
Stems several together, stout, subterete, 1-2.5 dm. long, jointed at or below
the middle.
Leaf oblong, coriaceous, 1-2 dm. long, 3-8 cm. wide, obtuse at the
apex, narrowed at the base into a petiole 1-3 cm. long; spathe coriaceous, 1-4
cm. long; racemes 2 or 3, slender, as long as the leaves or shorter, many-flowered;
bracts obtuse, 2-3 mm. long; flowers yellowish; pedicels very short; sepals linear,
about 7 mm. long; petals ligulate, subtruncate, about 3 mm. long; lip oblong,
obtuse, entire, a Uttle shorter than the petals; capsule oblong, about 8 mm. long.
On trees in forests at middle and higher elevations in the central and western moun-
tains of Porto Rico:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispamola.
ORCHIDACEAE
205
2.
Pleurothallis crassipes Lindl. Fol. Orch. Pleurothallis 29.
1859.
Stems tufted, rather stout, jointed at or below the middle, 8-25 cm. long.
Leaf oblong or oblong-obovate, coriaceous, 6-15 cm. long, 2-4 cm. wide, the apex
obtuse, the base cuneate, the petiole
1..5-3 cm.
long; spathe coriaceous, 7-12
mm. long; racemes 1-3, shorter than the leaves, many-flowered; bracts 2-3 mm.
long; pedicels very short; flowers yellow; sepals ovate, acute, about 3 mm. long,
the lateral ones connate to the middle; petals oblong, obtuse, 2 mm. long;
lip
obovate, 3-lobed, 1.5 mm. long, the lobes roimded; capsule oblong, about 8 mm.
long.
On trees and rocks in forests, Porto Rico, mostly at higher elevations:—Hispaniola;
northern South America.
3. Pleurothallis pruinosa Lindl. Bot. Reg. 28: Misc. 75.
1842.
Stems tufted,
slender or nearly
filiform,
1-2-jointed,
7 cm.
long or
less.
Leaf oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 2-4 cm. long,
sessile, the apex 2-denticulate,
the base narrowed; racemes 1 or 2, very slender, about as long as the leaf, 2-4-
flowered; spathe inconspicuous; bracts obtuse, about 2 mm. long; pedicels 2-4
mm. long; flowers yellowish-green; sepals ovate, acute, pruinose, 2-3 mm. long;
petals linear, acute, nearly as long as the sepals; lip ovate, entire, about 1.5 mm.
long; capsule oblong, about 6 mm. long.
On trees at higher elevations m the Luquillo Mountains and near Maricao, Porto
Rico:—Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martinique; Grenada; Trinidad; Guiana.
4. Pleurothallis ruscifolia (Jacq.) R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew ed. 2, 5: 211.
1813.
Epidendrum ruscifolium Jacq. Enum. 29.
1760.
Stems
clustered,
slender,
terete,
jointed near the middle,
1-3 dm.
long.
Leaf rather thin, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 6-15 cm. long, 1.5-3.5 cm. wide, the
apex acuminate and 3-denticulate, the base narrowed
into a
petiole 1-2 cm.
long; spathe ovate, short; flowers yellow or yellowish-green, fascicled at the base
of the leaf; pedicels filiform, 5-10 mm. long; sepals linear-lanceolate, acuminate,
about 7 mm. long; petals narrowly linear, about half as long as the sepals; lip
ovate-oblong, entire, only 1-1.5 mm. long; capsule linear-oblong, 10-12 mm. long.
On
trees, rarely on rocks,
in
forests, mostly at higher elevations, Porto Rico:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
5. Pleurothallis Wilsoni Lindl. Ann. & Mag. Nat.
Hist.
III.
1: 326.
1858.
Stems nearly
filiform, scattered along a very slender, creeping rootstock,
1-jointed, 2-5 cm. long.
Leaf rather thin, narrowly oblong to oblong-lanceolate,
sessile, acute or acuminate at the apex and 3-denticulate, narrowed at the base;
peduncle filiform, 1-flowered, 6-15 mm. long; flower greenish-yellow; sepals about
4 mm.
long,
the dorsal one obtuse,
the
lateral
ones triangular-ovate,
acute,
connate; petals narrowly ovate, about 1.5 mm. long; Up ovate, obtuse and 2.5 mm.
long; capsule oblong-obovoid, about 8 mm. long.
On trees
in
forests,
at middle and higher elevations in the central and western
districts of Porto Rico;—Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe.
6. Pleurothallis Urbaniana Rchb.
f. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell. 3: 279.
1885.
Diminutive; stems tufted, fihform, only 3 mm. long or less.
Leaf oblong,
1-2 cm.
long, 3-5 mm. wide, obtuse and minutely 3-denticulate at the apex,
narrowed at the base into a slender petiole; peduncle capillary, much longer than
the leaf, loosely several-flowered; pedicels 3-8 mm. long; bracts 1-2 mm. long,
acuminate; flowers distichous, white with red veins; sepals caudate-acuminate,
206
ORCHIDACEAE
ciliate, about 7 mm. Ions?; petals lanceolate, acuminate, fimbriate, about half as
lonf? as the sepals;
lip triangular, about 3 mm. long, 3-lobed, the middle lobe
ligulate, muriculate.
On trees or primaeval forests in the central and western mountains of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
7. Pleurothallis coriacea Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 116.
1883.
Stems scattered or clustered on a rather stout rootstock,
slender,
terete,
2-jointed,
.5-14 cm.
long.
Leaf oblong,
thick, 4-8 cm.
long,
1-2.5 cm.
wide,
sessile, obtuse and denticulate at the apex, obtuse at the base; .spathe small;
raceme several-flowered, mostly shorter than the leaf; bracts scarious, acute, 2-3
mm. long: pedicels very short; flowers violet, distichous or secund: sepals fleshy,
triangular, acute, about 4 mm. long, the lateral ones connate to about the middle;
petals lanceolate, subspatulate, 3 mm. long;
lips 3-lobed, about as long as the
petals; capsule oblong, hirtellous, about
1 cm. long.
On trees in woods and forests of the central mountains of Porto Kico.
Endemic.
A barren specimen of an orchid collected by Prof.
F. L. Stevens, Nov.
11,
1913, on Monte
Alegrillo near Maricao
(4493),
represents another
species of
Pleurothallis: Mr. Oakes Ames suggests relationship with P. prostrata Lindl.
36. LEPANTHES Sw. Nov. Act. Acad. Upsal.
6: 85.
1799.
Small epiphytic orchids, with slender, several-sheathed and 1-leaved stems,
the leaf inroad, flat, sessile or nearly so
the minute flowers in one or more racemes
at its ba.se; pseudobulbs none.
Sepals broad, nearly equal, the lateral ones more
or less connate.
Petals transversely oblong, much shorter than the
sepals, the
short claw adnate to the base of the column.
Lip 2-lobed, the lobes various.
Anther operculate; polHnia
2, waxy.
Capsule ovoid,
obovoid or subglobose.
[Greek,
bark-flower.]
Perhaps 50
.species, natives of tropical America.
Type
species: Lepanthes concinna Sw.
1. Lepanthes se enipetala Rchb.
f. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell. 3: 279.
1885.
Stems tufted, very slender, jointed at the nodes, .3-12 cm. long, the sheaths
about
1 cm
long, appressed, striate, muriculate, their mouths obliquely dilated,
acute, ciliolate.
Leaf thin, ovate or ovate-oblong, 2-3.5 cm. long, the apex acute
and 3-denticulate, the base rounded, the petiole only 1 or 2 mm. long; peduncles
several, capillary, 8-20 mm. long, several-flowered; pedicels about 1.5 mm. long;
bracts acute, shorter than the pedicels; sepals ovate, about 3.5 mm
long, yellow;
petals half-lunate, 2 mm. broad, saffron, the lobes divaricate; lip acute, 1.5 mm.
long; capsule subglobose, about 4 mm. thick.
On trees in moontain forests at middle and higher elevations of Porto Rico.
En-
demic.
37. BLETIA R. & P. Syst. 229.
1798.
Terrestrial orchids, with globose or ovoid corms, narrow, elongated linear or
lanceolate leaves, the slender sheathed scape arising from the side of the corm,
the large piu'ple or pink flowers in simple or branched racemes.
Sepals nearly
alike, ovate or oblong.
Petals similar to the sepals.
Lip broad,
5-7- crested,
3-lobed.
Column elongated.
Anther 2-celled;
pollinia obovate, waxy.
Cap-
sules oblong, erect.
[Commemorates L. Blet, a Spanish apothecary.]
About 45
species mostly of tropical America.
Type species: Bletia catenulata R. & P.
ORCHIDACEAE
207
1.
Bletia patula Hook. Bot. Mag.
pi. 3518.
1836.
Corm (pseudobulb) globose, transversely annulate, 5 cm. in diameter or less,
covered with membranous
sheatlis.
Leaves linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate,
3-6 dm. long, 2-.5 cm. wide, long-acuminate, the base narrowed into a chaimeled
petiole; scape slender, mostly longer than the leaves, simple or little-branched,
bearing a few pointed sheaths, few-several-flowered
; bracts acute or acuminate,
5 mm. long or less; flowers spreading, s lender- pedicelled, purple; sepals lanceolate,
acute, narrowed below, 3-3.5 cm. long; petals narrowly spatulate, about
1 cm.
wide, obtuse; column without a foot;
lip deeply 3-lobed, about as long as the
petals.
Oa
cliffs, bxnks and rocks at lower and middle altitudes, Porto Rico, in moist or
wet districts:—Cuba; Hi.spaniola.
Bletia purpurea (Lam.) DC, of the Bahamas, Florida, Jamaica, Cuba and
Hispaniola was recorded by Krebs as found
in
St. Thomas prior to 1851
;
it
resembles B. patula, but the column of the flower is produced into a foot.
[Li-
modorum purpureum Lam.; Bletia verecunda R. Br.]
38. CYRTOPODIUM R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew ed. 2, 5: 216.
1813.
Epiphytic orchids (or some species terrestrial), with large fusiform pseudo-
bulbs, long plicate leaves, and large flowers in racemes or panicles on lateral
scapes.
Sepals
distinct,
nearly
equal.
Petals
similar
to
the median
sepal.
Lip 3-lobed, adnate to the foot of the column.
Anther terminal, operculate,
imperfectly 2-celled; pollinia 2 or 4, ovoid or globose, waxy, not appendaged.
Capsule oblong, reflexed.
[Greek, arched foot.]
Perhaps 20 species, natives of
tropical regions.
Type species: Cymhidium Andersonii Lambert.
1. Cyrtopodium punctatum (L.) Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 188.
1833.
Epidendnnn punctatum L. Syst. Ed. 10, 1246.
1013.
Pseudobulbs very
large,
6-10 dm.
long, 3-5 cm.
thick.
Leaves
linear-
oblong or linear-lanceolate, 3-6 dm. long, 2-5 cm. wide, long-acuminate, narrowed
to the base; scape up to 1.5 m. long, rather stout, branched above the middle,
bearing large, membranous, acute bracts sometimes
1 dm. long, the bracts sub-
tending flowers 2-5 cm. long; sepals oblong, acute, vmdulate, at)out 2 cm. long,
yellowish with transverse brown bands; petals obovate, yellow, al)out as long as
the sepals;
lip red, variegated with yellow, long-clawed, cordate, broader than
long, the terminal lobe reniform, emarginate; capsule about
1 cm. long.
On trees near Utuado and on calcareous rocks near Cayuco, Porto Rico:—Florida
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Trinidad;
tropical
continental
America.
Occasionally
grown
in
Porto Rico gardens.
Cow-horn.
Pinuelas.
39. PLATYPUS Small & Nash; Small,
Fl. SE. U.
S. 329, 1329.
1903.
Terrestrial orchids with subgloljose corms, long narrow
flat leaves, and a
lateral sheathed scape terminated by a raceme of rather large flowers.
Sepals
distinct, the median one somewhat narrower than the lateral ones, which are
adnate to the base of the column.
Petals a little shorter and broader than the
sepals.
Lip papillose-crested, slightly 3-lobed, concave at the base, the middle
lobe
drooping.
Column with
a
flat,
dilated
foot.
Capsule
oblong.
[Greek,
flat foot.]
A monotypic genus.
208
ORCHIDACEAE
1. Platypus altus (L.) Small, Fl. SE. U. S. ed. 2, 329.
1913.
Limodorum altum L. Syst. ed. 12, 2: 594.
1767.
Dendrobium longifolium H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1: 360.
1815.
Cyrtopodium Woodfordii Sims, Bot. Mag.
pi. I8I4.
1816.
Cyrtopera longifolia Rchb.
f. in Walp. Ann.
6: 668.
1863.
Eulophia alta Fawcett & Rendle,
Fl. Jam.
1: 112.
1910.
Platypus papilliferus Small & Nash; Small,
Fl. SE. U.
S. 329, 1339.
1903.
Corms 4-7 cm. in diameter, bearing several leaves 2-10 dm. long, 2-7 cm.
wide, appearing before the scape and withering after it develops.
Scape stout,
glabrous, 1.5 m. long or less; raceme several-many-flowered; bracts linear-subu-
late, 7-25 ram.
long; flowers brownish purple; sepals 1.5-2 cm.
long; oblong,
acute; petals oblong, 1.4-1.7 cm. long; lip 14-18 mm. long.
Hillsides and
forests at high elevations, Porto Rico; Tortola:—Florida; Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; northern South America; West Africa.
40. GOVENIA Lindl. in Lodd. Bot. Cab.
pi. 1709.
1831.
Terrestrial orchids with rootstocks, the leaves few, plaited, the stem erect,
the rather small flowers in a simple terminal spike-like raceme.
Sepals connivent,
nearly equal, the median one erect, incurved.
Petals similar to the sepals.
Lip
concave, simple.
Column winged, incurved, its foot short.
Anther incumbent,
convex,
1-celled; poUinia
4, waxy, not appendaged.
Capsule oblong.
[Com-
memorates James Robert Gowen, an English botanist, who died in 1862.]
About
17 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species; Govenia superba Lindl.
1. Govenia utriculata (Sw.) Lindl. Bot. Reg. 25: Misc. 47.
1839.
Cymbidium utriculatum Sw. Nov. Act. Ups. 6: 75.
1799.
Plant 3-7 dm. high, the stem rather stout, bearing large basal inflated blade-
less sheaths and
1 or 2 broad leaves.
Basal sheaths usually
2, membranous,
4-20 cm. long; leaves usually 2, elliptic, 1-2.7 dm. long, 5-9 cm. wide, acute or
acuminate at the apex, narrowed at the base, finely many-nerved; cauline sheaths
1 or 2, obtuse, about 5 cm. long; raceme few-several- flowered, 1.5 dm. longer less;
pedicels 3-5 mm. long; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 1-2 cm. long; flowers whitish;
sepals about 1.5 cm. long, the lateral lanceolate, the median oblong; petals about
as long as the sepals; hp ovate, acute, about 9 mm. long; capsules deflexed, 2.5-3
cm. long.
Woods and forests, Porto Rico, at lower and middle altitudes in moist districts:
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
41. XYLOBIUM Lindl. Bot. Reg. under pi. 897.
1825.
Epiphytic orchids, with pseudobulbs, the leaves elongated, venose-pUcate.
the rather large flowers racemose on a scape borne at the base of the pseudobulb,
Sepals about equal, the lateral ones adnate to the base of the column.
Petals
similar to the median sepal.
Lip articulated with the foot of the column,
its
lateral lobes erect, the middle lobe short, broad and spreading.
Anther 1-celled;
pollinia 4, ovoid, unappendaged.
Capsule oblong.
[Greek, growing on wood.]
About 20 species, of tropical America.
Type species : Dendrobium squalens Lindl.
1. Xylobium palmifolium (Sw.) Benth.; Fawcett, Flow.
PI. Jam. 39.
1893.
Epidendrum palmifolium Sw. Prodr. 123.
1788.
Pseudobulbs narrowly ovoid, clustered, 5-7 cm. long.
Leaf oblong-lance-
olate, 3-4 dm. long, 8 cm. wide or less, the apex aciuninate, the base narrowed into
ORCHIDACEAE
209
a petiole; scape few-several-flowered, much shorter than the leaves, the bracts
linear, 2-3 cm. long; flowers odorous, yellowish-white; sepals about 2 cm. long;
petals ovate-lanceolate, shorter than the petals; lip obovate, about as long as the
petals.
Maricao,
(Stevens and Hess,
Jf87^, barren)
:—Jamaica.
When flowers
of
the Porto
Rico plant are obtaLaed it raiy be referable to some other species.
52. KOELLENSTEINIA Rchb.
f. Bonplandia 2: 17.
1854.
Epiphytic orchids, the internodes of the stems tuberous-thickened, the few
and narrow leaves pUcate-venose,
the
flowers
in a terminal raceme.
Sepals
distinct.
Petals similar to the sepals but a
little smaller.
Lip short-clawed,
narrow, adnate to the base of the column,
3-lobed.
Column
short.
Anther
1-celled;
pollinia
2, waxy,
oblong, not appendaged.
[Commemorates
Kellner
von Koellenstein, a plant collector.]
A few species, natives of tropical America.
Tyi>e species: Koellensteinia Kellneriana Rchb.
f.
1. Koellensteinia graminea (Lindl.) Rchb.
f. Bonplandia 4: 323.
1856.
Maxillariq. graminea Lindl. Bot. Reg. 21: under pi. 1802.
1835.
Leaves 2 or 3, linear, acuminate, 8-20 cm. long, 2-7 mm. wide.
Scape 2-4-
flowered,
slender, usually about as long as the leaves;
pedicels short; flowers
yellonish,
sepals ovate-oblong,
acute 6-7 mm.
long;
petals oblong,
obtuse, a
little shorter than the sepals;
lip broadly deltoid, 5-6 mm. broad, cordate,
its
lobes obtuse or rounded.
On trees, near Utuado:—Guiana, Brazil.
43. BOLBOPHYLLARIA G. Reichb. Bot. Zeit. 10: 934.
18.52.
Epiphytic or saxicolous orchids, with creeping rootstocks and 1-leaved or
2-leaved pseudol^ulbs, the leaves duplicate in bud, the small flowers spicate or
racemose on
lateral sheathed
scapes.
Lower
sepal
distinct,
the
lateral
ones
oblique, adnate to the base of the column.
Petals shorter than the sepals.
Lip
entire or 3-lobed, jointed with the foot of the column.
Column short, produced
into a foot.
Anther 2-celled
; pollinia 4, waxy, not appendaged.
Capsule oblong,
beakless.
[Greek, like Bolbophylium.]
A few species, of tropical America.
Type
species: Bolbophylium hracteolatum Lindl.
1. Bolbophyllaria pachyrrhachis
(A.
Rich.) Rchb.
f. in Walp. Ann.
6: 241.
1861.
Pleurothallis
? pachyrrhachis A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cub. 11: 234.
1850.
Bolbophylium pachyrrhachis Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 613.
1864.
Stem creeping and freely rooting, slender, bearing several pseudobulbs 2-3
cm.
apart.
Pseudobulbs narrowly
ovoid,
flattened, 2-4 cm.
long,
bearing
2,
linear to oblanceolate, acute leaves 7-16 cm. long, 10-16 mm. wide, narrowed to
the base; scape slender, simple, spreading or drooping, 2-4 dm.
long, bearing
several sheaths below and a many-flowered spike of yellowish purple flowers above;
bracts ovate, acuminate, 2-4 mm. long; sepals long-acuminate, about 5 mm. long;
petals oblong, 2 mm. long; lip oblong, short-clawed, about 3 mm. long.
On cliffs near Utuado:—Jamaica; Cuba; Trinidad.
210
ORCHIDACEAE
44. ORNITHIDIUM Salisb. Trans. Hort. Soc. 1: 293.
1812.
Epiphytic orchids, the stems short or elongated, bearing few or many 1-2-
leaved pseudobulbs, the rather large flowers sohtary on short or long peduncles,
which
are sohtary,
fascicled or glomerate
in the
axils.
Sepals
acute,
nearly
distinct.
Petals similar to the sepals, but somewhat shorter.
Lip 3-lobed, the
lateral lobes erect, the middle one spreading.
Column short.
Anther imperfectly
2-celled; pollinia 4, ovoid, waxy.
Capsule mostly oblong.
[Greek, a little bird.]
About 20 species, of tropical America and Mexico.
Type species: Ornithidium
coccineum (Jacq.)
Salisb.
Peduncles fascicled, 4-7 cm. long.
1.
o. coccineum.
Flowers subsessile, glomerate.
2.
O. confertum.
1. Ornithidium coccineum
(Jacq.)
Salisb. Trans. Hort.
Soc.
1: 293.
1812.
Epidendrum coccineum Jacq. Enum. 29.
1760.
Ornithidium
vestitum Rchb.
f.
Ber.
Deutsch.
Bot.
Gesell.
3:
276.
1886.
Not Rchb.
f.
1863.
Stems usually short,
stout, covered with old persistent sheaths.
Pseudo-
bulbs ovoid, flattened, 1-leaved, 2-4 cm. long; leaf linear, acute or acutish, 1-3.5
dm. long, 1-2.5 cm. wide, attenuate to the base; peduncles very slender, fascicled,
4-7 cm. long; bracts obtuse, 8-12 mm. long; flowers bright red, nodding; sepals
ovate, acuminate, about
1 cm. long; petals ovate, acuminate, about 8 mm. long;
Up short-clawed, somewhat 3-Iobed, 6-7 mm. long, the lobes entire, the lateral
ones rounded, the middle one acute.
On trees in forests at higher elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico:—Jamaica?;
Hispaiuola; St. Kitts to Trinidad; nortliern South America.
2. Ornithidium confertum Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 626.
1864.
Stems creeping, up to 4 cm. long, covered toward the base with imbricated
scales, the pseudobulbs 1-3 cm. apart, narrowly oblong, 1-leaved, flattened, 1.5-
2.5 cm.
long.
Leaf linear to linear-lanceolate,
thin, obtusish, 6-13 cm.
long,
6-10 mm. wide; peduncles only 2 or 3 mm. long, glomerate; flowers white with
purple veins; bracts acute, 3-5 mm. long; sepals ovate-lanceolate, about 3 mm.
long; petals lanceolate, nearly as long as the sepals; lip long-clawed, deltoid, ob-
tuse, about as long as the petals.
On trees near Utuado and Cayuco, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Grenada; Tobago, Trinidad.
45. lONOPSIS H.B.K. Nov. Gen. l: 348.
1815.
Epiphytic or saxicolous orchids, with
flat or terete leaves, slender lateral
scapes, and small slender-pedicelled flowers in racemes or panicles; pseudobulbs
none.
Sepals about equal, the middle one free, the lateral ones connate, saccate.
Petals similar to the middle sepal.
Lip 3-lobed, adnate to the l)ase of the short
column, clawed, the middle lobe the largest.
Anther 1-celled; pollinia 2, waxy,
unappendaged.
Capsule oval or oblong.
[Greek,
like a
little
violet.]
A few
species, of tropical America and Mexico.
Type species ;7onop.s?s pulchella H.B.K.
Leaves linear or linear-oblong, flat.
1.
I. ulricularioidrs.
Leaves terete, subulate.
2.
/. satyroidcs.
1. lonopsis utricularioides (Sw.) Lindl.
Coll.
pi. 39A.
1825.
Ejridr/idrtivi vtricniarioidcs Sw. Prodr. 122.
1788.
lonopsis vtrictdarioides latifolia Cogn. in Urban, Syml:). Ant. 4: 180.
1903.
Stem rather short
; leaves linear or linear-oblong, flat, subcoriaceous, carinate,
acuminate, narrowed to the base, 5-15 cm. long, 5-30 mm. wide; scape slender.
OKCHIDACEAE
211
rather
stiff, 2-4 dm. long; flowers several or numerous, racemose or panicled,
white, pink or lavender striped with purple; bracts about 2 mm. long; pedicels
nearly filiform, 5-10 mm. long; sepals oblong, acute, about 6 mm. long, the sac
blunt; petals oblong, abruptly acute;
lip 10-13 mm. long and about as wide as
long, its lobes rounded.
On shrubs, trees and banks in moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending into tlie higher
central mountains;
St. Thomas
(ex Cogniaux)
:^— Florida;
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola
Martinique:
St. Vincent; Trinidad; tropical continental America.
2. lonopsis satyroides (Sw.) Rchb.
f. in Walp. Ann. 6: 633.
1861.
Epidendrum satyroides Sw. Prodr. 123.
1788.
lonopsis teres Lindl. Bot. Reg. 24: Misc. 95.
1838.
Leaves rather fleshy, terete, 5-11 cm. long, 2-3 mm. thick, sulcate above.
Scape slender, 5-25 cm. long, few-several-flowered; bracts 2-3 mm. long, acu-
minate; pedicels 4-6 mm. long; flowers white or yellowish; sepals about 7 mm.
long, acute; the sac short, rounded; petals narrowly oljlong, acute;
lip about 9
mm. long and 4 mm. wide, cuneate below, undulate, somewhat 3-lobed; capsule
oval, about 12 mm. long.
On low trees at middle elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico:-—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; northern Soutli America.
46. COMPARETTIA Poepp. & Endl. Nov. Gen. 1: 42.
1836.
Epiphytic orchids, wuth small fleshy, 1-leaved pseudobulbs, the leaves flat,
the simple or Uttle-branched, slender scape arising from the base of the pseudo-
bulb, the flowers rather large, racemose.
Sepals nearly equal, the middle one
distinct, the lateral ones connate and produced into a long spur.
Petals similar
to the middle sepal.
Lip 3-lol3ed, continuous with the base of the column,
its
base
with
2
long
spurs.
Anther
1-celled;
pollinia
2,
waxy,
unappendaged.
[Commemorates A. Comparetti, 1746-1801, Professor in Padua.]
Two or three
species, of tropical America.
Type species: Comparettia saccata Poepp. & Endl.
1. Comparettia falcata Poepp. & Endl. Nov. Gen.
1: 42.
1836.
Pseudobulbs oblong, somewhat flattened, about 2 cm. long or
less.
Leaf
oblong, 5-12 cm. long, 2-4 cm. wide, obtuse or acutish
; scape slender, drooping,
few-several-flowered,
1.5-4 dm.
long;
pedicels
slender,
short;
flowers
rose
to
purple; dorsal sepal about 6 mm.
long,
acute,
the spur about twice as long;
petals obovate, about 9 mm. long; lip sessile, obcordate, about 12 mm. long and
nearly as broad as long; capsule oblong, laeaked, 2-3 cm. long.
On trees in mountain forests near Adjuntas:—Jamaica; Cuba; continental tropical
America.
47. ONCIDIUM Sw. Vet. Akad. Handl. 21: 239.
1800.
Mostly epiphytic orchids, with or without pseudobulbs, the leaves
flat or
3-edged, elongated or short, the stems short, the peduncles or scapes lateral, the
flowers in loose racemes or panicles.
Sepals nearly equal, spreading or reflexed,
the
lateral ones connate in some species.
Petals similar to the median
sepal.
Lip clawed or sessile, 3-lobed, crested or tubercled, the middle lobe broad, notched
or 2-cleft.
Column short, winged, without a foot.
Anther inclined, convex or
semiglobose,
1-celled or imperfectly 2-celled; pollinia 2, waxy, not appendaged.
212
ORCHIDACEAE
Capsule
ovoid
to
fusiform,
beaked.
[Greek,
referring
to
the
tubercled
lip.]
More than 400
species,
natives
of tropical and
subtropical America.
Type
species: Oncidium. carthaginense (Jacq.) Sw.
Leaves flat; pseudobiilbs present.
Lip triangular-cordate, entire; scapes flattened.
1.
O. alatum.
Lip auricled
; scape terete.
2.
O. altissimum.
Leaves equltant, distichous; no pseudobulbs.
Flowers yellow.
3.
O. intermedium.
Flowers wliite or rose.
Leaf-margins serrulate or entire; isthmus of lip short.
4.
O. variegatum.
Leaf-margins serrulate; istlunus of lip elongated, toothed.
5.
O. Leiboldi.
1. Oncidium alatum Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 6: 642.
1910.
Pseudobulbs ovoid,
flattened,
1-leaved, 1-2 cm.
long, often subtended by
several leaves.
Leaves thin, oblong, 4-8 cm. long, acute at the apex, narrowed
to the base; scape slender, 2.5 dm. long or less, flattened and narrowly 2-winged,
branched or simple, racemosely few-several-flowered
; bracts ovate, acute, cordate-
clasping, 3-4 mm. long; pedicels 4-8 mm. long; sepals oblanceolate, acute, yellow
with a brown base, 8-10 mm. long; petals a little shorter than the sepals, yellow,
oblong-spatulate, obtusish; lip yellow, sessile, triangular-cordate, entire, crested,
as long as the middle sepal
; capsule oblong, about 2 cm. long, 6-winged, beaked.
On trees in moimtain forests, Porto Rico
:—Guadeloupe.
2. Oncidium altissimum (Jacq.) Sw. Vet. Akad. Handl. 21: 240.
1800.
Epidendrum altissimum Jacq. Enum. 30.
1760.
Oncidium Baueri Lindl. in Bauer,
111. Orch.
pi.
7.
1830.
Oncidium Wydleri Rchb.
f. Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Ges. 3: 276.
1885.
Pseudobulbs oblong, much flattened, 2-edged, 7-15 cm.
long,
1-2-leaved.
Leaves
linear-ligulate,
elongated,
acute, 2.5-6 dm.
long, 2-7 cm.
wide; scape
much longer than the leaves, 3.5 m. long or less,
terete, branched above, the
branches few-several-flowered; bracts triangular-ovate to triangular-lanceolate,
acute, 5-20 mm. long; pedicels 1-1.5 cm. long; flowers yellow or yellow-brown,
variously mottled with brown; sepals oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute, 10-18
mm. long, undulate, petals narrowly oblong, as long as or a little shorter than the
sepals;
lip quadrangular-obovate, about
1.5 cm.
long, the terminal lobe much
larger than the lateral on'es.
On trees and rocks at lower and middle elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico;
Guadeloupe to Grenada; continental tropical America.
Races differ in color, mottling
and size of the flowers.
Occasionally grown in Porto Rico gardens.
3. Oncidium intermedium Bert.; Spreng. Syst. 3: 728.
1826.
Oncidium Lemonianum Lindl. Bot. Reg. 21:
pi. 1789.
1835.
Pseudobulbs none; leaves equitant,
distichous,
conduplicate,
linear-lance-
olate,
subcoriaceous,
5-10 cm.
long,
the margin
denticulate.
Scape
.slender,
simple, or branched above, loosely few-several-flowered, 7 dm. long or less; bracts
triangular, 3-5 mm. long; pedicels 6-10 mm. long; flowers golden yellow; sepals
about 5 mm. long, the lateral ones connate; petals obovate, 7-8 mm. long;
lip
deeply 3-lobed, about 12 mm. long, the lateral lobes small, oblong, obtuse, the
terminal one large, reniform, cordate, emarginate, 10-13 mm. wide.
Picaro Peninsula and Fortima,
St. Thomas
(according to Eggers):—Cuba;
His-
paniola; Antigua; Guadeloupe; Martinique.
4. Oncidium variegatum Sw. Nov. Act. Holm. 21: 240.
1800.
Epidendrum variegatum Sw. Prodr. 122.
1788.
Oncidium velutinum Lindl. in Paxton, Flower Garden
1: 166.
1851.
Oncidium sylvestre Lindl. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. III. 1: 332.
1858.
Pseudobulbs none; leaves usually several, equitant, distichous,
lanceolate,
4-10
cm.
long,
the margin denticulate
Scape
slender,
simple
or with
few
ORCHIDACEAE
213
branches, 1-4 dm. long, several-many-flowered; bracts acuminate, 2-4 mm. long;
pedicels nearly
filiform, about
1 cm. long; flowers glabrous or velvety, white,
pink or variegated; sepals obtuse, about 6 mm.
long; petals obovate, a
little
longer than the sepals;
lip deeply
S-lobed,
its isthmus short, scarcely
toothed,
the terminal
lobe
reniform,
10-15 mm.
broad, much
larger than the oblong
lateral ones.
[0. pulchellum of Bello, not of Hooker.]
On small trees, at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; St. Thomas; Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—Florida; Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba.
5. Oncidium Leiboldii Rchb.
f. in Walp. Ann. 6: 718.
1863.
Pseudobulbs none; leaves few, equitant, short, curved, 1.5-4 cm. long, con-
duplicate,
the margins
denticulate.
Scape
slender,
simple
or
rarely
a
little
branched, 2.5 dm. long or less, few-flowered; flowers white or pinkish, velvety or
glabrous; bracts ovate, 2-3 mm. long; sepals oblong, obtuse, 4-5 mm. long, the
lateral ones connate; petals cuneate-obovate, undulate. 6-7 mm. long; lip 11-14
mm. long, sessile, subcordate, deeply 3-lobed, the lateral lobes small, obtuse, the
terminal one reniform, 12-15 mm. broad, emarginate, the isthmus elongated,
toothed.
On slirubs and trees at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; Ciilebra;
St.
Thomas:—Cuba;
Hispaniola.
Erroneously
recorded
from
the
Bahamas.
Not
very different from the preceding species.
Oncidium Papilio Lindl., Butterfly Orchid, of Trinidad and South Amer-
ica, occasionally grown
in Porto Rico and Virgin
Island gardens has suborbic-
ular pseudobulbs about 5 cm. broad, lanceolate flat leaves 1.5-2 dm. long, the
long scape bearing one or several yellowish brown flowers with linear sepals up
to 12 cm. long, the lip 3.5-5 cm. long.
Oncidium Cebolleta
(Jacq.)
Sw., of the southern West Indies and con-
tinental tropical America, occasionally grown in Porto Rico and Virgin Island
gardens, has oblong flattened pseudobulbs about
1 cm.
long,
nearly cyUndric
leaves 4 dm. long or less and about 1 cm. thick; its numerous yellow and purple-
mottled flowers are about 2 cm. broad, borne on a long scape.
[Epidendrum
Cebolleta Jacq.]
48. LEOCHILUS Knowles & Westc. Fl. Cab. 2: 143.
1838.
Small epiphytic orchids, with short stems and
1-leaved pseudobulbs, the
leaves
flat, the slender scapes racemosely few-flowered, usually simple.
Sepals
nearly
equal.
Petals similar to the sepals.
Lip attached to the base of the
column, 3-lobed
or nearly
entire.
Column short, without a
foot.
Anther
1-
celled, with a long membranous appendage; pollinia
2, waxy, unappendaged.
Capsule oblong, beaked.
[Greek, smooth lip.]
A few species, of tropical Amer-
ica.
Type species; Leochilus oncidioides Knowles & Westcott.
1. Leochilus labiatus (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 656.
1891.
Epidendrum labiatum Sw. Prodr. 124.
1788.
Liparis labiata Spreng. Syst. 3: 741.
1826.
Pseudobulbs
ovoid,
flattened, 7-10 mm.
long, subtended by
1-4
leaves.
Leaves oblong, coriaceous, 2-5 cm. long, 5-13 mm. wide, acute, carinate; scape
10 cm. long or less, 2-6-flowered; flowers yellow; bracts acute, 2-4 mm. long;
pedicels short
; sepals oblong, about 5 mm. long, the lateral ones connate to about
the middle; petals narrowly oblong, about as long as the sepals; lip obovate, 7-8
mm. long, narrowed below, the apex rounded or retuse.
On
trees, near Utuado and Mayaguez, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe; Dominica; St. Vincent; Tobago; Trinidad.
Recorded by Krebs as formerly
foimd in St. Thomas.
214
ORCHIDACEAE
49. WARSZEWICZELLA Rchb.
f. Bot. Zeit. 10: 635.
1852.
Epiphytic orchids, without pseudobulbs, the leaves
flat,
distichoii':
; flower
large, solitary, on a short slender scape.
Sepals nearly alike, distinct, the lateral
ones attached to the short foot of the incurved column.
Petals similar to the
sepals.
Lip
jointed with
the
foot of the column,
broad, somewhat
3-lobed.
Anther imperfectly
2-celled;
pollinia
4,
compressed, unappendaged.
Capsule
fusiform,
beakless.
[Diminutive of Warszewiczia.]
A few species, of tropical
America. Type species
: Warrea discolor Lindl.
1. Warszewiczella flabelliformis (Sw.) Cogn. in Urban, Symb. 4: 182.
1903.
Epidcndrurn flabelliforme Sw. Prodr. 123.
1788.
lieaves thin, oblanceolate, 3 dm. long or less, 2-5 cm. wide, abruptly acute,
tapering to the narrow base.
Scape 8-12 cm. long, with a basal sheath 1-2.5
cm. long, a terminal ovate acute or acuminate bract 1-2 cm. long, and a terminal
white or bluish flower .5-6 cm. broad; sepals ovate to oblong, acute, 3-3.5 cm.
long; petals oblong, acute; lip about 3 cm. long, somewhat quadrangular, the base
subcordate, the margins undulate, the disc crested.
On rocks and on bases of trees, Porto Rico, in mountain forests at higher elevations
—Jamaica; Cuba
(?)
; Hispaniola; Trinidad; tropical South America.
50. DICHAEA Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 208.
1833.
Leafy epiphytic orchids, the stems tufted or pendulous, monopodial, the
leaves small, persistent, sessile, distichous with approximate or imbricated sheaths,
the small flowers solitary on axillary peduncles.
Sepals distinct, nearly equal.
Petals
similar
to
the
sepals.
Lip
usually
clawed,
concave,
entire.
Column
wingless; clinandrium oblique.
Anther terminal, operculate; pollinia
4, waxy,
ovoid, unappendaged.
Capsule ovoid
to oblong.
[Greek,
referring to the
2-
ranked leaves.]
About 10 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species:
Epidendrum echinocarpum Sw.
Leaves smooth; lip sessile or short-clawed.
Leaves acute at apex; petals obovate, acute.
1. D. echinocarpa.
Leaves rovinded at apex; petals linear, acuminate.
2. D. muricata.
Leaves denticulate, ciliate; lip long-clawed.
3. D. hystricina.
1. Dichaea echinocarpa CSw.) Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 208.
1833.
Epidcndrurn echinocarpum Sw. Prodr. 124.
1788.
Stems pendulous, compressed. 2-edged, densely leafy, 2-6 dm. long.
Leaves
soft, the blades oblong to oblong-lanceolate,
entire, the apex sharply acute or
acuminate,
2.5 cm. long or
less, 3.5-8 cm. wide; peduncles filiform,
.5-15 mm.
long, 1-2-bracted at the summit, the Ijracts ovate, 2-3 mm. long; sepals ovate,
acute, yellowish, about 8 mm. long; petals narrowly obovate, a little shorter than
the sepals; lip with a very short claw, and a rhomboidal limb 6-7 mm. long, its
angles and apex acuminate; capsule ovoid or subglobose, densely echinate, 10-16
mm. long.
[D. pendula of Cogniaux.]
On trees and rocks in forests of the central and western mountains of Porto Rico
:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martinique; continental tropical America.
2. Dichaea muricata (Sw.) Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 209.
1833.
Cymbidium muricatnm Sw. Act. Upsal. 1799: 71.
1799.
Dichaea latifolia Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. 208.
1833.
Stems pendulous, much compressed, 2-edged, densely leafy, 5 dm. long or
less.
Leaves rather firm in texture, oblong, entire, 1-2 cm. long, 6-9 mm. wide,
ORCHIDACEAE
215
rounded at the apex; peduncles about as long as the leaves,
filiform, 2-bracted
at the summit, the bracts ovate,
1-2.5 mm.
long; sepals lanceolate, 7-8 mm.
long, yellowish, acuminate: petals linear, acuminate, 5-6.5 mm. long; lip sessile,
obovate-rhomboid, the apex rounded, apiculate; capsule oblong-obovoid, densely
muricate, 10-18 mm. long.
On trees and rocks in mountain forests, Porto Kico:—Jamaica: Cuba; Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe and Dominica to Grenada; Margarita; continental tropical America.
3. Dichaea hystricina Rchb.
f. Flora 48: 279.
1865.
Stems tufted, densely leafy, pendulous, compressed, slender, 7-18 cm. long.
Leaves soft, nearly linear, more or less echinulate, ciliate, acuminate, 6-10 mm.
long, about 2 mm. wide, somewhat twisted; peduncles filiform, 6-9 mm.
long,
1-bracted at the sunmiit, the bract ovate, apiculate, about 1.5 mm. long; sepals
nearly linear, acuminate, about 7 mm. long; petals lanceolate, about as long as the
sepals;
lip long-clawed, about 5 mm.
long, the limb triangular-hastate, acute;
capsule obovoid, pilose-muricate, 8-9 mm. long.
On
trees
in
forests
of the Luquillo Moimtalns:—Cuba;
Guadeloupe;
Dominica;
Grenada.
51. CAMPYLOCENTRUM Benth. Journ. Linn. Soc. 18: 337.
1881.
Epiphytic orchids, leaf-bearing or leafless, without pseudobulbs, the leaves,
when
pre.sent,
di.stichous,
the small
flowers
in small
lateral
or
basal
spikes.
Sepals
free,
narrow,
connivent.
Petals similar to
the sepals, narrower.
Lip
sessile, spurred at the base, ovate or oblong, 3-lobed, about as long as the sepals.
Column short, without a foot.
Anther 2-celled; pollinia
2, waxy, globose, not
appendaged.
Capsule small, dehiscent by 3 apical valv^es.
[Greek, bent spur.]
About 20 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Todarea micrantha
A. Rich. & Gal.
Plants leaf-bearing: leaves oblong: spikes lateral, solitary or geminate.
Spikes much shorter than the deeply eniarginate leaves.
1
.
C. jamaiccnse
Spikes about as long as the obtuse or retuse leaves.
2.
C. pygmaeum
Plants leafless; spikes fascicled, basal.
Bracts cordate; lip entire.
3.
C. pachyrrhizum.
Bracts ovate; lip 3-lobed.
4.
C. Sullivanii.
1. 'Campylocentrum jamaicense (Rchb.
f.) Benth.; Fawcett. Flow.
PI. Jam.
40.
1893.
Aeranthus jamaicensia Rchb.
f. in Walp. Ann. 6: 901.
1864.
Stem
rather stout,
flattened, up to 4 dm.
long.
Leaves oblong,
sessile,
spreading, 5-8 cm.
long, firm in texture, the apex obliquely 2-lobed, the base
narrowed
; spikes solitary or geminate, densely several-flowered, nearly
sessile,
1-2.5 cm. long; bracts triariigular, about
1 mm. long; flowers green; sepals linear,
acute, 4 mm. long; petals Unear-lanceolate, acute, 4 mm. long:
lip 4 mm. long,
slightly 3-lobed, the lateral lobes rounded, the terminal one linear-lanceolate, the
spur linear, obtuse, 2 mm. long; capsule narrowly oblong, 8-11 mm. long.
On small trees, especiaUy on coffee, in moist parts of the western districts of Porto
Rico:—Jamaica; Tobago.
2. Campylocentrum pygmaeum Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 183.
1903.
Stem slender, short.
5 cm. long or
less, flattened.
Leaves
oblon-.^,
fleshy,
small, 6-12 mm. long, obtuse or obliquely subretuse. the base rounded; spikes
several-flowered, 1-2 cm. long, the short peduncle angled; bracts acute, about 1
mm.
long; sepals triangular-ovate,
acute, about
1 mm.
long; petals narrowly
216
ORCHIDACEAE
linear; lip ovate, acute, entire, a little longer than the petals; spur obovoid,
1 mm.
long; capsule oblong-obovoid, about 3 mm. long.
On trees in forests of the Nagnabo Mountains near Los Rabanos, Porto Rico:
Guadeloupe.
3. Campylocentrum pachyrrhizum (Rchb.
f.)
Rolfe, Orch.
Rev.
11:
246.
1903.
Aeranthus pachyrrhizus Rchb.
f. Flora 48: 279.
1865.
Acaulescent;
leafless;
roots
fascicled,
elongated, 2-4 dm.
long,
3-4 mm.
thick.
Spikes
several,
fascicled,
short-peduncled,
several-many-flowered, 2-4
cm. long; bracts rounded, cordate, apiculate, 3-4 mm. long; sepals linear-lanceo-
late, entire, acuminate, 4-5 mm. long; spur cylindric, obtuse, 2 mm. long; capsule
ovoid, 7-8 mm. long.
On coffee trees near Mayaguez
:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Tobago; Trinidad; British
Guiana.
4. Campylocentrum Sullivanii Fawcett & Rendle, Journ. Bot. 47: 128.
1909.
Acaulescent;
leafless; roots fascicled, elongated,
2 dm. long or
less, about
2 mm. thick.
Spikes several, fascicled, peduncled, rather densely many-flowered,
6 cm. long or less, the axis nearly filiform; bracts ovate, acute, nearly 2 mm.
long; sepals ovate,
acute, nearly 2 mm.
long;
petals ovate-oblong, somewhat
shorter than the sepals;
lip 3-lobed, about
1.5 mm. long and wide, the lateral
lobes rounded, the terminal one acute; spur obtuse,
1 mm. long; capsule oblong,
about 4 mm. long.
[C. filiforme of Urban's Flora.]
On trees at lower and middle elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico:—Jamaica.
Recorded from Trinidad.
52. HARRISIELLA Fawcett & Rendle, Journ. Bot. 47: 265.
1909.
Small
acaulescent
leafless epiphytes,
with
basal
few-flowered racemes or
spikes of minute flowers, the roots elongated, clustered.
Sepals distinct, nearly
equal.
Petals similar to the sepals, but narrower.
Lip sessile, about as long as
the sepals or longer, its base contracted into a globose spur, its limb keeled, sub-
orbicular,
entire
or
slightly
3-lobed.
Column
short;
clinandrium
truncate.
Anther
terminal,
operculate;
pollinia
globose,
waxy.
Capsule
ellipsoid,
de-
hiscent by 6
apical
valves.
[In honor of William
Harris,
1860-1920,
Super-
intendent of Public Gardens and Plantations of Jamaica.]
Four known species,
of Florida and the West Indies.
Type species: Aeranthus porrectus Rchb.
f.
1. Harrisiella filiformis
(Sw.) Cogn. in Urban, Symb. Ant.
6: 687.
1910.
Epidendrum filiforme Sw. Prodr. 126.
1788.
Roots
filiform,
fascicled, 10 cm. long or
less.
Racemes several,
fascicled,
flexuous, 2-4.5 cm. long; bracts 1-1.5 mm. long, obtuse; ovary with 6
lines of
glands; sepals oblong, the lateral ones acutish, about 2.5 mm. long, the median
one obtuse, a little shorter; petals narrowly ololong, obtuse or apiculate. 2 mm.
long;
lip ovate-orbicular,
entire, about 2.5 mm. long and about as broad, the
spur 1.5 nmi. long; capsule 5-6 mm. long.
On trees near Yauco and Mayaguez:—Jamaica; Hispaniola.
Cattleya
labiata
Lindl.,
a showy
flowered,
often
cultivated.
Central
American orchid, is recorded as found by Sintenis on trees near Coamo, and near
Ponce, and by Krebs as formerly grown in St. Thomas.
ORCHIDACEAE
217
Catasetum macrocarpum L. C. Rich., occasionally grown
in Porto Rico
and Vn'Xm
Island «ard«Mis, native of Trinidad and northern South America has
fusiform pseudobulbs up to 2 dm. long, obiong-lanceolate leaves and .arge showy
flowers.
[C. Inidenlatum Hook.]
A
barren orchid found by Sintenis on palm-trunks
at Maton-arriba, near
Cayey, was recorded bj Urban as perhaps a species ol Catasetum.
Sub-class 2.
DICOTYLEDONES.
Embryo of the seed with two cotyledons
(in a few genera one
only), the first leaves of the germinating plantlet opposite.
Stem
exogenous,
of
pith, wood and bark (endogenous
in structure
in
Nymphaeaceae), the wood in one or more layers, surrounding the
pith, traversed by medullary rays and covered by the bark.
Leaves
usually
pinnately
or
palmately
veined,
the
veinlets
forming
a
network.
Parts of the flower rarely in 3's or 6's,
Dicotyledonous plants are
first definitely known in Cretaceous
time.
They
constitute between two-thirds and three-fourths
of
the living angiospermous flora.
Series
1.
CHORIPETALAE.
Petals separate and distinct from each other, or wanting.
The series is also known as Archichlamideae, and comprises most
of the families formerly grouped under Apetalae (without petals)
and Polypetalae (with separate petals).
Exceptions to the typical
feature of separate petals are found in the Fabaceae, in which the
two lower petals are more or
less united,
in some Crassulaceae,
the Poilygalaceae, in which the three petals are united with each
other, and with the stamens,
Oxalidaceae and
Ilicaceae, whose
five petals are sometimes joined at the base.
X Petals none (except
in family Portulacaceae and in most Alsinaceae which are
herbs with the leaves nearly always opposite, the seeds with endosperm, and m some or
the Santalales).
Calyx none (except sometimes in Ca.suarinaceae).
Loosely jointed trees, the leaves reduced to verticillate
scales.
Plants not loosely jointed; leaves normal.
Herbs, slu-ubs or trees, with small perfect flowers in
SDlkGS
Trees or shrubs; staminate flowers, and sometimes
also the pistillate, in aments.
Leaves simple.
Fruit many-seeded.
Fruit 1-seeded.
Leaves
odd-pinnate
or
trifoliolate ;
fruit
a
nut enclosed in a husk, or drupe-like.
Calyx present.
Flowers monoecious, dioecious or polygamous, ovary
superior,
1-celled.
Flowers dioecious or perfect; ovary inferior, at least in
part.
Ovarv 1-celled.
Ovary
several-celled
(usually
6-celled);
flowers
perfect.
Flowers mostly perfect; ovary siiperior.
Embryo straight or nearly so; fruit an achene.
•
Embryo
coiled, curved
or annular;
friiit not an
achene.
Order
218
CASUARINACEAE
Order 11. Ranales.
Order 12. Papaverales.
Order 13. Rosales.
tt Petals present (wanting in Ceratophyllaceae, aquatic herbs with whorled dissected
leaves
; in many Ranunculaceae
; in Laiiraceae, alternate-leaved aromatic trees and shrubs
in Cassythaceae
; in some Flacourtiaceae, and Thymeleaceae; in Xanthoxylum, pinnate-
leaved trees of the Rutaceae; in many Euphorbiaceae; in some Tiliaceae and Rhamnaceae.
A.
Ovary superior, free from the calyx.
Carpels
solitary,
or
several and
distinct
(united
in
some Nymphaeaceae)
: stamens mostly hypogynous
and more numerous than the sepals; sepals mostly
distinct.
Carpels
2 or more, united
into a compound ovary;
stamens hypogynous; sepals mostly distinct.
Carpels
solitary,
or
several
and
distinct,
or some-
times
united; stamens
mostly
perigynous
or
epl-
gynoiis;
sepals
mainly
imited
or
confluent
with
the concave receptacle (hypanthium).
Carpels united into a compoimd ovary; sepals mostly
distinct.
Stamens few, rarely more than twice as many as
the petals.
Stamens as many
as the sepals or fewer and
opposite them, or more numerous.
Ovules
pendulous,
the
raphe
toward
the
a.xis of the ovary.
Ovules pendulous, the raphe away from the
axis of the ovary, or erect, or ascending.
Stamens as many as the sepals and
alternate
with them, opposite the petals when these
are present; ovules erect.
Stamens
usually
very numerovis
(except
in Vio-
laceae and Passifloraceae).
Sepals valvate; placentae united in the axis.
Sepals or calyx-segments imbricated or con-
volute;
placentae
naainly
parietal,
sometimes united in the axis.
Leaves bilaterally symmetrical
Sepals separate.
Sepals imited.
Leaves oblique
B.
Ovary
inferior,
adnale
to
the
calyx,
wholly
or
in
part
(except
in Lythraceae where
it
is usually merely
enclo.sed by it.)
Herbs with barbed or stinging hairs.
Plants without barbed or stinging hairs.
Fleshy spiny plants, with jointed stems, the leaves
mostly very small or none; calyx-segments and
petals several or nimierous.
Herbs, slu-ubs or
trees not
fleshy or spiny; calyx-
segments rarely more than 5.
Petals none in our species
Petals present.
Ovules several or niimerous in each cavity of
the ovary.
OwUe
1 in each cavity of the ovary.
Order 14. Geraniales.
Order 15.
Sapindales.
Order 16. R'hamnales.
Order 17. Malvales.
Order 18.
Order 19.
Order 20.
Hypericales.
Passiflorales.
Begoxi.vles.
Order 21. LoASALES.
Order 22.
Opuntiales.
Order 23. Thymeleales.
Order 24.
Order 25
Myrtales.
Ammi.\les.
Order 1.
CASUARINALES.
Trees or shrubs, with very slender jointed angled branches and twigs,
the
leaves reduced
to minute
verticillate
scales
at
the
nodes,
the
scales
sometimes connate, the small imperfect bracted flowers in terminal spikes or
cone-like heads.
Staminate flowers with
1 or 2 sepals and
1 stamen with a
large anther.
Pistillate flowers without a perianth; ovary small,
1-celled;
style short, with, 2 slender branches; ovules 1 or 2, ascending.
Fruit a cone-
like mass
of accrescent bracts, subtending winged achenes.
Seed with a
membranous testa and no endosperm, the embryo straight.
Family
1.
CASUARINACEAE Lindl.
Beef-wood Family.
Only one genus, with about 25 species, most abundant in Australasia.
1. CASUARINA Forst. Char. Gen.
PI. 104.
1776.
Characters of the
order.
[From
the
zoological name
of the Cassowary.]
The following species
is typical.
PIPERACEAE
219
_. Casuarina equisetifolia Forst. Char. Gen.
PI.
104.
1776.
A rapidly growing tree, reaching in the American tropics a maximum height
•of about 20 m., with a trunk up to
1 m. in diameter, much larger in Australia,
with long and slender branches, the upper ones erect or nearly so, the dark brown
bark furrowed.
Twigs angular, very slender, drooping; leaves 6-8 in each whorl,
only 1-3 mm. long, acute, appressed,
ciliate, decurrent on the twigs; staminate
flowers in slender terminal cylindric spikes 1-4 cm. long, the bracts imbricated,
the anthers exserted; pistillate flowers in lateral dense subglobose heads wliich
become about 2 cm. in diameter in fruit.
Locally spontaneous after planting along the coasts,
St. Thomas; Porto Rico;
St.
Croix:—more or less naturalized in Florida, the West Indies and Yucatan.
Native of
Australia.
Much planted
for ornament and
for hedges and
wind-breaks, and valued
for
its wood; often clipped into decorative forms.
Beef-wood.
Australl\n Pine.
Casuarina glauca Sieber and C. stricta Dryand., were seen as seedlings
at the St. Croix Agricultural Experiment Station in 1923; both are Australian.
Order 2.
PIPERALES.
Herbs,
shrubs
or
rarely
trees.
Leaves with
simple
blades.
Flowers
spicate, bracteolate.
Perianth wanting.
Stamens 2-8 or rarely 10.
Gynoe-
cium of
1, or of several distinct or united carpels.
Fruit drupaceous.
Ovary superior.
Fam.
1.
PiPER.\rEAE.
Ovary inferior.
Fam.
2.
Chlgranth.^ceae.
Family
1.
PIPERACEAE H.B.K.
Pepper Family.
Herbs or shrubs, often climbing, or small trees, with alternate opposite
or whorled leaves,
usuallj^ entire-margined, palmately or jiinnatcly veined.
Flowers minute, bracteolate, without a perianth, in catkin-like spikes which
are terminal or opposite the leaves, or sometimes axillary or several together
on a common peduncle.
Stamens mostly 2-6, hypogynous; anthers erect,
terminal, their sacs distinct or confluent, longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary
superior,
sessile or rarely stipitate,
1-celled, 1-ovuled; style
1; ovule erect,
orthotropous.
Fruit small, indehiscent.
Seed solitary, the testa membran-
ous,
the endosperm
copious,
the embryo
minute.
About
6 genera with
over 1000 species, mostly of tropical distribution.
Spikes solitary, rarely 2 together.
Shrubs or trees.
1.
Piper.
Herbs.
2.
Peperomia.
Spikes umbellate; large shrub-like herbs.
3.
Pothornorphe.
1. PIPER L. Sp. PI. 28.
1753.
Shrubs or woody vines, occasionally small trees, often more or less aromatic,
the branches
frequently
jointed
at
the
nodes.
Leaves
alternate,
the
blades
usually
entire,
often
unequal-sided
and
pellucid-dotted.
Flowers
minute.
Spikes opposite the leaves.
Bracts peltate or cucuUate.
Stamens 2-6; filaments
short;
anthers 2-celled.
Ovary
sessile;
stigmas
2-5.
Fruit
small,
ellipsoid,
ovoid or subglobose.
[Classical Latin name for pepper.]
Over 700 species of
wide geographic distribution in warm regions, most abundant in tropical America,
known
as
Higuelo, Pepper Elder and Joint-wood.
Type
species;
Piper
nigrum L.
220
PIPERACEAE
«
Flowers not borne in a distinct ring or spiral ; friiits distinct in the
spikes.
Leaf-blades mostly acute at the base, pinnately veined; fruits
globose.
1.
P. blattarum.
Leaf-blades usually rounded at the
base, palmately veined;
fruits ovoid.
2. P. Amalago.
Flowers borne in distinct spirals or rings;
fruits in dense spikes.
Leaf-blades pinnately veined.
Leaf-blades pinnately veined to the apex; the veins spread-
ing often nearly at right angles to the midvein.
3.
P. Swartzianum.
Leaf-blades pinnately veined to the middle or a Uttle above,
the veins ascending.
Leaf-blades roimded or oblique at the base, not deeply
cordate; petioles not winged.
Spikes strongly curved; leaves scabrous.
4. P. aduncum.
Spikes straight or nearly so.
Spikes slender, 6-15 cm. long.
Leaf-blades
membranous,
nearly
smooth
above.
5.
P. dilatatum.
Leaf-blades chartaceous, scabrous above.
6. P. scabrum.
Spikes short, usually less than 6.5 cm. long.
Leaf-blades long-acuminate.
7.
P. citrifolium.
Leaf-blades acute.
8.
P. Treleaseanum.
Leaf-blades deeply cordate at the base; petioles winged.
9.
P. auritum.
Leaf-blades palmately veined, usually deeply cordate at the
base; petioles winged.
10. P. marginatum.
1. Piper blattarum Spreng. Neue Entd. 2: 100.
1821.
Peperomia blattarum A. Dietr. Sp. 1: 150.
1831.
Enckea blattarum Kunth, Linnaea 13: 600.
1839.
Piper blattarum magnifoliujn C. DC. Prodr. 16: 329.
1869.
A shrub 2-4 m.
tall,
with
glabrous
branches.
Leaf-blades
chartaceous,
pellucid-dotted, elliptic or somewhat ovate, 6-13 cm. long, 3-5.7 cm. broad, acute
or acuminate at the apex, the tip sometimes obtuse, usually somewhat inequi-
lateral and acute or somewhat rounded at the base, pinnately 3-5-veined below
the middle, usually near the base, glabrous on both surfaces; spikes opposite
to and as long as or longer than the leaves, straight or shghtly curved; peduncles
longer than the petioles.
Moimtain woodlands and moist wooded valleys, Porto Rico; St. Thomas (according
to Eggers).
Recorded by Bello as Stcffcnsia Jacquemonliana Kunth.
Endemic.
2. Piper Amalago L. Sp. PI. 29.
1753.
Piper medium Jacq. Icon. Rar.
1: 2.
1781.
? Piper discolor Sw. Prodr. 15.
1788.
Enckea Sieberi Miq. Syst. 358.
1843.
Enckea Amalago Griseb. Fl. Brit. W.
I. 169, in part.
1859.
Piper Sieberi DC. Prodr. 16^: 248.
1869.
A shrub 1.5-4 m.
tall, or a small tree up to 6 m., the branches glabrous or
pubescent.
Leaf-blades chartaceous, minutely pellucid-dotted, various in form,
lanceolate to elliptic or broadly ovate, 5-15 cm. long, 2-9.5 cm. broad, acuminate
at the apex, rounded and
occasionally somewhat subcordate
at the
base,
or
acutish,
palmately
veined, glabrous
above, puberulent
or
glabrous
beneath,
spikes shorter than the leaves or occasionally as long, straight; peduncle as long
as or longer than the petiole.
Hillsides, woods, river-banks and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto
Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas;
St. Croix; St. Jan; Tortola:—Cuba to Trinidad; continental
tropical America.
Recorded by Bello as Enckea smilacifolia Kunth.
SooT-sooT.
3. Piper Swartzianum (Miq.) C. DC. Prodr. 16: 265.
1869.
Artanthe Swartziana Miq. Syst. 490.
1844.
A
shrub,
3-5
m.
high,
with
puberulent
twigs.
Leaf-blades
coriaceous,
oblong-lanceolate,
11-14 cm.
long,
3-4 cm.
broad,
acuminate
or somewhat
PIPERACEAE
221
rounded at the apex, very inequilateral at the base, pinnately veined to the apex,
glabrous above, puberulent on the veins beneath, the pellucid glands obscure;
spikes as long as the leaves or scmetinies longer; peduncle puterulent.
Primeval forests near Penueleis and Utuado:—Hispaniola.
4. Piper aduncum L. Sp. PI. 29.
1753.
Artanthe adunca Aliq. Comm. Phyt. 49.
1838.
A shrub 2-6 m.
tall with puberulent or glabrate branches.
Leaf-blades
chartaceous, pellucid-dotted, oblong-elliptic to lanceolate, 12-21 cm.
long, 3-8
cm.
broad,
long-acuminate
at the apex,
inequilaterally rounded
at the
base,
pinnately
veined,
scabrous above and
often more
or
less
hirtellous
beneath,
especially on the veins; spikes opposite to and shorter than the
leaves, curved;
peduncles puberulent, several times as long as the short petioles.
Thickets and hillsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques:—Cuba;
Jamaica; Hispaniola; St. Vincent to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
5. Piper dilatatum L. C. Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 105.
1792.
Artanthe Bredemeyeri Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 170.
1859.
Piper Bredemeyeri Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus. 13: 9G.
1879.
A shrub, 2-3 m.
tall, the young twigs
pilose, sometimes glabrous in age.
Leaf-blades membranous, pellucid-dotted, narrowly to broadly elliptic-ovate or
elhptic-obovate, 13-26 cm. long, 6-13 cm. broad, long-acuminate at the apex,
rounded and very inequilateral at the base, pinnately veined to the middle or
below, somewhat scabrous above and pubescent with scattered hairs or glabrous,
more or less pilose on the veins beneath
; spikes often less than half the length of
the leaves, the peduncles equalling or longer or shorter than the short petioles.
Shaded valleys, St. Croix:—Antigua to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
6. Piper scabrum Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 59.
1797.
Artanthe scabra Miq. Syst. 446.
1844.
Piper hispidum C. DC. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 187.
1902.
Not Sw. 1788.
Piper hispidum albescens C. DC. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 188.
1902.
A shrub, 1.5-3 m.
tall, the branches often densely pubescent with rather
short
stiff
hairs.
Leaf-blades
chartaceous,
minutely
pellucid-dotted,
elliptic-
lanceolate to broadly elliptic-ovate, 10-22 cm. long, 4-11 cm. broad, acuminate
at the apex, rounded or obtuse at the base, scabrous on both sides, hirtellous on
the veins beneath,
spikes opposite
to and
shorter than
the
leaves,
straight;
peduncles as long as or shorter than the petioles.
Woodlands, ravines and shaded hillsides in moist districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba;
Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Tobago; continental tropical America.
7. Piper citrifolium Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 80.
1791.
Artanthe Wydleriana Miq. Syst. 487.
1844.
Piper Wydlerianum C. DC. Prodr. 16: 280.
1869.
A shrub, 1.5-3 m.
tall, the branches often hirsute, more or less verrucose.
Leaf-blades chartaceous, pellucid-dotted, narrowly to broadly lanceolate, 12-25
cm. long, 4-9 cm. broad, long-acuminate at the apex, inequilaterally roimded or
acutish at the base, pinnately veined, glabrous above, pilose on the veins beneath;
spikes opposite to and usually less than half the length of the leaves, straight;
peduncles pilose, often equalUng the short petioles.
Tluckets, ravines, river-bants and
liillsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto
Rico:—Hispaniola;
continental
tropical
America.
[?
Recorded
by
Bello as
Ottonia
Vahlii Kunlh.l
222
PIPERACEAE
8. Piper Treleaseanum Britton & Wilson.
Piper macrophyllum H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1. 46.
1815.
Not S\v. 1788.
Schilleria macrophylla Kiinth, Linnaea 1?: 715.
1839.
Artanthe macrophylla Miq. Syst. 423.
1844.
A shrub, 1-3 m.
tall with smooth, glabrous branches.
Leaf-blades charta-
ceous, minutely pellucid-dotted, elliptic-oblong to elliptic, 1.5-24 cm. long, 7.5-
12.5 cm. broad, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, more or less inequilaterally
rounded and often somewhat subcordate at the base, pinnately veined to beyond
the middle, smooth above,
finely appressed-pilose on the veins beneath; spikes
opposite to and shorter than the leaves, dense, straight; peduncles glabrous, as
long as or shorter than the petioles.
Hillsides,
ravines and
mountain
forests,
Porto
Rico:—Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
St. Vincent; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
9. Piper auritum H.B.K. Nov. Gen. l: 54.
1816.
Schilleria aurita Kuntli, Linnaea 13: 713.
1839.
Artanthe aurita Miq. Syst. 400.
1844.
An herbaceous shrub 2-5.5 m.
tall, with thick stems.
Leaf-blades charta-
ceous, pellucid-dotted, elliptic-ovate to ovate,
1.5-50 cm. long, 8-31 cm. broad,
acute to acuminate at the apex, very inequilateral and deeply cordate at the base,
pinnately veined to beyond the middle, more or less pubescent above with short
hairs, the pubescence especially conspicuous along the margin of the young leaves,
pubescent beneath especially on the veins, or sometimes velvety; spikes slender,
opposite to and shorter than the leaves
; peduncles usually shorter than the winged-
petioles.
A specimen
ui
the herbarium at Kew and another at the New York Botanical
Garden are labeled
St. Tliomas, collected by Friedriclisthal; they are probably from a
cultivated
plant,
as
tlie species
is otherwise known
in the wild state only from con-
tinental tropical America.
10. Piper marginatum Jacq.
Ic. Rar. 2: 2.
1786.
Schilleria caudata Kunth, Linnaea 13: 716.
1839.
Piper marginatum firmum DC. Prodr.
16: 246.
1869.
A shrub
1-3 m.
tall
with
glabrous
branches.
Leaf-blades
chartaceous,
pellucid-dotted,
cordate-lanceolate
to
broadly
cordate-ovate,
11-20 cm.
long,
6.5-16 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, palmately veined, glabrous or some,
what pilose on both surfaces, the margin ciliate
; petioles 2.5-5.5 cm. long, glabrous
or pilose, winged; spikes opposite to and usually much shorter than the leaves-
often somewhat curved; peduncles 5-17 mm. long.
Moist
forests
at lower and middle altitudes
in Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Saba; Trmidad; Panama; contmental tropical America.
Piper incur\rutn
Si 3b.. recorded from
St.
Croix by West in
1794,
is not
otherwise known within the limits of this Flora;
it may have been planted on
that island.
It
is a glabrous, somewhat fleshy,
trailing or climbing vine, with
cordate suborbicular leaves up to 9 cm. broad,
the apex short-acuminate, the
axillary spikes about 10 cm. Ion;.
It inhabits the Lesser Antilles from Guade-
loupe to St. Vincent.
Piper retrofractum Vahl, cultivated on St. Thomas,
is a climbing woody
vine, native of the East Indies, with elliptic subcoriaceous glabrous acuminate
leaves 8-16 cm. long, the stout fruiting spikes 4-5 cm. long, about
1 cm. thick,
short-stalked.
Piper reticulatum
L.
of the Lesser Antilles, ranging from
St. Eustatius
and St. Kitts to Trinidad, was recorded from St. Croix by West in 1794, and may
PIPERACEAE
223
have been there at that time but nothing is known of it on that island now.
It
is an erect, glabrous shrub up to 4 m. high, with ovate, 7-9-nerved leaves, the
curved spikes 10-15 cm. long.
Piper aequale Vahl, recorded by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas prior to
1852, has not been observed there by subsequent botanists; it ranges from Mont-
serrat to Trinidad and northern South America.
Piper asperifolium R. &
P., a Peruvian species, was recorded by Krebs
from St. Thomas, apparently in error.
1.
P. emarginella.
rolundifolia.
Cogniauxii.
2. PEPEROMIA
R. &
P.
Prodr.
8. hyponym.
1794;
Fl.
Per.
l:
29.
1798,
Mostly
succulent, annual
or perennial
herbs, with
alternate,
opposite or
verticillate leaves, the flowers in slender, solitary or clustered spikes, subtended
by circular or elliptic bracts.
Stamens 2
; filaments short.
Ovary mostly sessile,
sometimes stalked, sometimes beaked; stigma terminal or lateral.
Fruit minute,
ellipsoid to globose,
sessile or stalked, smooth or verruculose,
viscid.
[Greek,
pepper.]
Six hundred
species
or
more,
mostly
of
tropical
America.
Type
species: Peperomia scutellaefolia R. & P.
A. Leaves all alternate.
1. Small leaved species, the leaf-blades 2-20 mm. long, the
stems slender or filiform (See P. serpens).
Fruit stipitate; small delicate vine with orbicular leaves
2-4 mm. long.
Fruit sessile; leaves 4-20 mm. long.
Stem glabrous;
leaves orbicular to oval,
setulose or
glabrate.
Stem pubescent; leaves ovate to obovate, pubescent,
at least above.
2. Leaves larger, in some species very large.
a.
Prostrate or creeping species, rooting at the nodes.
* Spikes solitary.
Leaves not peltate, orbicular or ovate-orbicular.
Leaves 1-2.5 cm. broad, rounded; spikes 2 cm.
long or less.
Leaves 2.5-5 cm. broad, acutish; spikes 3-5 cm.
long.
Leaves
nearly
centrally
peltate,
broadly
ovate,
3-9 cm. long.
** Spikes 2, sometimes 3; leaves ovate, subpeltate.
b.
Erect, ascending or tufted species, not rooting at the
nodes, or rooting only at lower nodes.
* Plant very
stout,
the ovate
peltate
leaves
12-19
cm. long, the
1 or 2 spikes 10-30 cm. long.
** Plants slender or relatively so, the leaves and spikes
shorter.
t Leaves, thick, very fleshy, obovate or oblanceolate.
Leaves narrowly obovate
or
oblanceolate; beak
of the
berries hooked at the apex.
Leaves broadly obovate or obovate-orbicular; beak of the
berries straight,
t Leaves thmner, somewhat fleshy, ovate to ovate-orbicular.
t Leaves thin, flaccid, broadly deltoid-ovate, cordate.
t Leaves flrm, ovate, narrowed or roxmded at the base.
§ Leaves black-punctate.
Upper joints with a line of hairs
; petioles ciliate.
Plants glabrous.
Leaves broadly ovate.
Leaves oblong to oval.
§§ Leaves not black-punctate.
Plants glabrous.
Leaves
oblong
to narrowly
elliptic, long-acu-
minate.
Leaves broadly elliptic, acute.
Stem pilose-puberulent.
B. Leaves opposite or verticillate.
Leaves 1.5 cm. long or less.
Leaves opposite or ternate, ciliate.
Leaves quaternate, glabrous.
Leaves 2-5 cm. long.
Leaves opposite or ternate, pubescent on both sides.
Leaves quaternate, glabrous.
4.
224
PIPERACEAE
1. Peperomia emarginella (Sw.) DC. Prodr.
IG^: 437.
1869.
Piper emarginellum Sw. Vet. Handl. Stockh. 1827: 56.
1828.
Acrocarpidium exile Miq. Syst. 56.
1843.
Peperomia exilis Griseb. Fl. Brit. W.
I. 164.
1859.
A delicate herb, the filiform stems creeping or pendent, much branched and
often matted, up to 4 dm. long, freely rooting at the nodes.
Leaf-blades oval ta
orbicular, 2-4 mm. long, 2-5.5 mm. broad, truncate or emarginate at the apex,
rounded, truncate or sometimes slightly cordate at the base, glabrous or pubescent
with few long hairs above and on the margin; petioles slender, 1-3 mm. long;
spikes terminal, 0.6-12 mm. long, 0.5 mm. thick, rather loosely flowered; fruit
oblong-obovoid or ellipsoid, about 0.9 mm. long, 0.3-0.4 mm. broad, the slender
stalk nearly half as long as the berry.
On trees, rocks and logs in wet mountain forests of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica;.
Hispaniola; Saba to Trinidad.
2. Peperomia rotundifolia (L.) H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 1: 65.
1815.
Piper rotundifolia L. Sp. PI. 30.
1753.
Piper nummulariaefolium Sw. Prodr. 16.
1788.
Peperomia niimmulariaefolia H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
It 66.
1815.
Peperomia rotundifolia pilosior C. DC. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 188.
1903^
A prostrate vine, the slender stems rooting at the nodes.
Leaf-blades oval
to obovate or suborbicular, 4-12 mm. long, 3.8-12 mm. broad, rounded at the
apex, acute or rounded at the base, pubescent with long hairs on both sides or
glabrous, the margin sometimes ciliate; petioles 1-7 mm.
long, slender; spikes
terminal, 7-20 mm. long, 0.6-1.1 mm. thick, rather densely flowered; peduncles
2-6 mm. long; fruit glolDOse-ellipsoid, 0.6-0.7 mm. long, 0.5-0.6 mm. broad.
On trees in forests at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica;.
Hispaniola
; Antigua to Trinidad
; continental tropical America.
Yerba de medio real.
YERBA LINDA.
3. Peperomia Cogniauxii Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 292.
1899.
Peperomia portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 292.
1899.
Stems slender,
creeping,
rooting at the nodes,
pilose, the branches often
ascending, 3-6 cm. long.
Leaf-blades elhptic to oval, orbicular or obovate, 5-20'
mm.
long, 3-10 mm. broad, obtuse, subtruncate or slightly emarginate at the
apex, acute, obtuse or sometimes rounded at the base, pilose on both surfaces
or nearly glabrous, short-petioled
; spikes terminal, 2-4 cm. long, 0.6-1 mm. thick;,
fruit globose-ovoid, 0.5 mm. long, brown.
On trees and logs in movmtain forests of Porto Rico
:—Hispaniola.
4. Peperomia serpens (Sw.) Loud. Hort. Brit.
13.
1830.
Piper serpens Sw. Prodr.
16.
1788.
Peperomia scandens R. & P. Fl. Per.
1: 32.
1798.
Piper scandens Vahl, Enum. 1: 346.
1804.
Piper repens H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 65.
1816.
Stem
creeping,
often much branched,
rooting
at the
nodes,
puberulent.
Leaf-blades broadly ovate to deltoid-rountUsh, 1-2.5 cm. long, 0.8-2.5 cm. broad,
obtuse or acutish at the apex, rounded or subtruncate and often somewhat cordate
at the base, puberulent; petioles 0..5-2.5 cm.
long,
slender, puberulent; spikes
slender, rather densely-flowered, 7-20 mm. long, long-peduncled
; fruit narrowly
ellipsoid, 0.7-0.8 mm. long, about 0.4 mm. in diameter, the slender beak more or
less curved.
In forests at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet
districts, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas
(according
to de CandoUe)
:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St. EustatiusL
St.
Kitts;
St. Vincent; Grenada; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
PIPERACEAE
225
5. Peperomia urocarpa Fisch. & Mey. Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 4:
42.
1837.
Peperomia ionophylla Griseb. Mem. Amer. Acad. II. 8: 175.
1860.
Peperomia major DC. Prodr. 16»: 432.
1869.
Stem creeping, rooting at the nodes.
Leaf-blades broadly ovate to deltoid,
roundi.sh or orbicular-reniform, 2.5-5 cm.
long, 2-4.7 cm. broad, acute at the
apex, rounded, truncate or sometimes subcordate at the base, pubescent on both
sides when young; petioles 1.5-4.5 cm. long, pubescent; spike 3-5 cm. long, 1.1-
1.5 mm. thick, long-peduncled
; fruit 0.7-0.8 mm. long, 0.4 mm. in diameter, the
slender beak usually curved.
In forests and on shaded rocks in the central and western districts of Porto Rico:
Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba; Guadeloupe; continental tropical America.
6. Peperomia hernandifolia (Vahl) A. Dietr. Sp. PI. 1: 157.
1831.
Piper hernandifolium Vahl, Enum. 1: 344.
1804.
Stems creeping, rooting at the nodes.
Leaf-blades ovate to broadly ovate,
3-9 cm. long, 2.5-6.7 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded or sometimes
cordate at the base, peltate at about
l-i or
}/i of the length from the base, more
or less minutely puberulent and pale beneath; petioles 3-10 cm. long, puberulent;
spike 2-5 cm. long, about 2 mm. broad; long-peduncled; fruit ellipsoid or ovoid-
ellipsoid, 0.8-0.9 mm. long, with a slender curved beak.
Moxmtain forests at middle and higher elevations in Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Saba to Trinidad; central and South America.
7. Peperomia distachya (L.) A. Dietr. Sp. PI. 1: 156.
1831.
Piper distachyon L. Sp. PI. 30.
1753.
Peperomia producta Griseb.
Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 166.
1859.
Stems climbing or creeping, rooting at the nodes, glabrous or puberulent.
Leaf-blades membranous, narrowly to broadly elliptic or ovate, 4-13 cm. long,
2-6 cm. broad, acuminate to long-acuminate at the apex, rounded, often subcor-
date and usually very shortly peltate at the base, often puberulent beneath when
young especially near the base and along the midrib
; petioles 2-8.5 cm. long
; spikes
often 2, densely flowered, 2-4.5 cm. long, 1-1.2 mm. thick; fruit narrowly ellipsoid,
0.8-0.9 mm. long, 0.3-0.4 mm. in diameter, the subulate beak nearly as long as
the berry, often sUghtly curved.
On trees, logs and rocks in mountain forests at middle and higher elevations, Porto
Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola.
_
8. Peperomia maculosa (L.) W. Hook. Exot. Fl.
pi. 92.
1825.
Piper rnacidosum L. Sp. PI. 30.
1753.
Stem
sparingly
puberulent
or
glabrous,
5 mm.
thick
or
thicker,
green,
mottled with brownish-crimson blotches.
Leaf-blades ovate-elliptic to broadly
ovate, 12-19 cm. long, 7-10.8 cm. broad, short-acuminate at the apex, rounded
or subcordate at the base, shortly peltate, pubescent beneath;
petioles stout,
7-17 cm.
long, pubescent;
spikes 10-30 cm.
long, about 5 mm. thick below,
densely-flowered;
fruit elUpsoid, 0.9-1 mm.
long,
0.5 mm.
in diameter with a
slender curved beak.
Primeval forests at high elevations in the central moimtains of Porto Rico
:—Cuba
Jamaica; Hispaniola.
9. Peperomia obtusifolia (L.) A. Dietr. Sp. PI. 1: 154.
1831.
Piper obtusifolium L. Sp. PI. 30.
1753.
Peperomia emarginata R. & P. Fl. Per.
1: 33.
1798.
Peperomia macropoda Miq. Linnaea 20: 128.
1827.
Peperomia obtusifolia genuina Dalilst. Vet. Akad. Handl. 33: 64.
1900.
Peperomia obtusifolia macropoda Dahlst. loc.
cit.
6.5.
1900.
Peperomia obtusifolia emarginata Dahlst. loc. cit. 66.
1900.
226
PIPERACEAE
Stems glabrous, erect or decumbent, rooting at the lower nodes, simple or
branched.
Leaves thick and fleshy, oblanceolate or obovate, 4.5-11 cm. long,
3-6 cm.
broad,
rounded and
occasionally
retuse
or emarginate
at the apex,
acute or cuneate at the base, glabrous; petioles 1.5-4 cm. long; spikes densely
flowered, soUtary
or geminate,
terminal;
fruit
ellipsoid,
0.9-1 mm.
long, the
slender beak about 0.5 mm. long, hooked at the apex.
Mountain forests and cliffs at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica;-
Cuba; Hispaniola; Martinique;
St. Vincent; Florida; continental tropical America.
10. Peperomia magnoliaefolia (Jacq.) A. Dietr. Sp. PI. 1: 153.
1831.
Piper magnoliaefolium Jacq. Coll. 3: 210.
1789.
Peperomia amplexicaulis magnoliaefolia Griseb.
Fl.
Brit. W.
I. 167.
1859.
Peperomia magnoliaefolia Sintenisiana Dahlst. Vet. Akad. Handl.
33:
59.
1900.
Peperomia magnoliaefolia hrevirostrata Dahlst. loc.
cit. 61.
1900.
Peperomia magnoliaefolia microphylla Dahlst.
loc.
cit. 61.
1900.
Stem glabrous, erector decimibent, rooting at the lower nod6s, often simple.
Leaves thick and fleshy, broadly obovate or obovate-orbicular,
.5-13 cm.
long,
3-7 cm. broad, obtuse or rounded at the apex, cuneately narrowed at the base,
glabrous, the petioles 1-4 cm. long; spikes solitary or several, densely flowered;
fruit ellipsoid, 0.7-0.8 mm. long, the beak straight, often rather stout, half the
length of the berry.
[Piper obtusifolium of Krebs, not of Linnaeus.]
On trees and rocks in woodlands and forests in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico;
Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola
; Antigua to Trinidad
continental tropical America.
11. Peperomia pellucida (L.) H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
i: 64.
1815.
Piper pellucidum L. Sp. PI. 30.
1753.
A glabrous herb, 1-3.5 dm.
tall, with erect branching stems.
Leaf-blades
membranous, deltoid-ovate, 1.4-3.5 cm. long, 1.3-3 cm. broad, acuminate at the
apex, subtruncate or rounded and usually cordate at the base; petioles 6-12 mm.
long,
clasping; spikes lax-flowered,
slender,
1..5-5 cm.
long,
0.6-1 mm.
thick;
peduncles 4-7 mm. long; fruit subglobose, 0.5-0.6 mm. in diameter.
On walls and on the groimd, rarely in ravines,
at lower elevations, Porto Rico;
Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
St.
Croix;
Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba to Trinidad; con-
tinental tropical America.
Also recorded from western Africa and the East Indies.
12. Peperomia glabella (Sw.) A. Dietr. Sp. PI.
1: 156.
1831.
Piper glahellum Sw. Prodr. 16.
1788.
Peperomia caulibarbis Miq. Syst. 98.
1843.
Stem creeping and rooting, terete, the branches ascending, with two incon-
spicuous ridges decurrent from the petioles and sometimes ciliate.
Leaf-blades
ovate-lanceolate to ovate, 2.5-4 cm. long, 1.2-2.5 cm. broad, acute or acuminate
and occasionally ciliate at the apex, cuneate at the base, black-dotted, 3-nerved,
occasionally with two accessory nerves;
the
petioles
0.5-1
cm.
long,
usually
ciliate; spikes filiform, usually densely flowered, 5-12 cm. long; fruit ovoid, 0.5-
0.7 mm. long, slightly curved upward and attached laterally at the base.
On trees and rocks in forests and ravines, Porto Rico, ascending to high altitudes;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St. Martin; Central and
South America.
Races differ in size and shape of leaves
13. Peperomia Wheeleri Britton, sp. nov.
Stems erect, branched, glabrous, 2.5 dm. or more high.
Leaves alternate,
subcoriaceous, elliptic-ovate to broadly ovate, 3-5.5 cm. long, 2-3.5 cm. broad,
obtuse at the apex, acute or somewhat rounded at the base, rather inconsplcu-
PIPERACEAE
227
ously black-dotted, the petioles 4-9 mm. long; spikes slender, 9 cm, long, 2 mm.
thick; peduncles about as long as the petioles; fruit subglobose, 0,9 mm. long,
0,7 mm, in diameter.
On rocks. Signal Hill, Culebra (Britton & Wheeler 130).
14. Peperomia myrtifolia (Vahl) A. Dietr. Sp. PI. 1: 147.
1831.
Piper myrtifolium Vahl, Enum.
It 341.
1804.
(?) P. Hamiltoniana emarginulata C. DC. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 238,
1902.
Plant
glabrous, the stems
erect,
3 dm,
high
or more.
Leaves rhombic-
oblong to oval, 3.3-5 cm, long, 1,5-2,3 cm. broad, obtuse at the apex, acute at the
base,
black-dotted;
petiole about 4 mm.
long,
equalling the peduncle; spikes
densely flowered.
On rocks, Vieques; St. Croix; Virgin Gorda
(?).
Endemic.
Doubtfully recorded in
"Vegetation of Vieques Island" as P. Hamiltoniana Miq., a Jamaican species, which is
also attributed to St. Croix by Fawcett and Rendle.
15. Peperomia alata R. & P. Fl, Per. 1: 31.
1798.
Peperomia dendrophila Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 165, in part.
1859.
Not Schl.
1830.
Glabrous, the erect or decumbent stems with three narrow wings, of which
two
are
decurrent
from
the
petioles.
Leaves
alternate,
elliptic-lanceolate,
4..5-10 cm. long, 2-3.5 cm. broad, long-acuminate at the apex, acute at the base,
without black dots; petioles 4-8 mm. long; spikes slender, 6-18 cm. long, 1-1.3
mm. broad; fruit ovoid, 0.5-0.7 mm. long, 0.4-0.5 mm. in diameter.
^Joimtain forests at middle and higher elevations in Porto Rico; St. Croix:—Cuba;
Jamaica; Hispaniola; Grenada; South America,
16. Peperomia dendrophila Schl, Linnaea 5: 74.
1830.
Peperomia Sintenisii C. DC. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 240.
1902.
Glabrous,
the stem
erect
or decumbent,
branched,
rooting
at the lower
nodes, with two inconspicuous ribs decurrent from the petioles.
Leaves alternate,
broadly elliptic, 2.8-7 cm. long,
l;.5-3.5 cm. broad, acute at the apex, acute or
somewhat rounded at the base, without black dots;
petioles
4. .5-8 mm,
long;
spikes 5-10. cm. long,
1.8-2 mm. thick; fruit globose-ovoid, 0.7-0.8 mm.
long,
0.5-0.6 mm. in diameter.
'
\
.
.'
Mountain forests, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Mexico.
17. Peperomia yabucoana Urban & C. DC. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3 : 232.
1902.
Peperomia
velutina
Urban,
Symb.
Ant.
1:
293.
1899.
Not
Linden &
Andre, 1872.
Stems rooting below at the nodes, pilose, the branches erect or ascending.
Lower leaf-blades suborljicular, 1-2 cm. in diameter, the upper ones ovate, 2-3
cm. long, 1.5-2 cm. broad, obtuse at the apex, rounded at the base, puberulent
on both sides, 5-nerved, the margin ciliate; spikes terminal, 5.5 cm. long,
1 nmi.
thick, long-peduncled
; fruit ovoid, sessile, glabrous.
On rocks, near Yabucoa.
Endemic.
18. Peperomia robustior Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 191.
1903.
Peperomia Swartziana Griseb.
Fl. Br. W. Ind. 167, in part.
1859.
Peperomia tenerrima
f. robustior Dahlst. Vet. Akad. Handl. 33: 185.
1900.
Peperomia Grisehachii C. DC. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 259, in part.
1902.
228
PIPERACEAE
Stem creeping, rooting at the nodes, the branches erect or ascending.
Leaves
opposite,
or
ternate,
the
blades narrowly-obovate or obovate, 5-9 mm.
long,
3-5 mm. broad, rounded and sometimes sUghtly emarginate at the apex, 3-nerved
at the base, impressed-punctate beneath, the margin short-ciliate
; spikes solitary,
terminal, 1.5-2 cm. long.
Creeping on trees or logs at high elevations in forests of the eastern mountains of
Porto Rico.
Endemic.
19. Peperomia quadrifolia (L.) H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
1: 69.
1816.
Piper quadrifolium L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 43.
1762.
Stem rooting below at the nodes, the branches erect or ascending, 6-12 cm.
long.
Leaves 4 or 5 in a whorl, the blades obovate, 8-16 mm. long, 4.5-10 mm.
broad, rounded and emarginate at the apex, cuneate at the base, glabrous, short-
petioled; spikes slender, solitary, terminal, densely flowered, 1-3.5 cm. long, 1.5-
1.9 mm. thick, the slender peduncle 1-2 cm. long; fruit ovoid, 0.6-0.7 mm. long.
On
trees in woodlands of the western mountains of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola; continental tropical America.
20. Peperomia humilis (Vahl) A. Dietr. Sp.
PI. 1: 168.
1831.
Piper humile Vahl, Enum.
1: 349.
1804.
Peperomia Langsdorffii Miq. Syst. 116.
1843.
Stems
erect,
1-3 dm.
or more
tall,
simple
or branched,
pilose.
Leaves
opposite or ternate, obovate or occasionally somewhat
elliptic, 1-5 cm. long,
0.6-2.3 cm. broad, rounded, obtuse or acutish at the apex, cuneate at the base,
more or less densely pilose on both
sides, ciliate, 3-nerved; the slender petioles
4-15 mm.
long,
pilose; spikes
slender, 4-12 cm.
long,
1-1.5 mm.
thick,
lax-
flowered; fruit elliptic-ovoid, 0.6 mm. long, 0.4-0.5 mm. in diameter.
Hillsides at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; Mona; Desecheo;
St. Thomas;
St. Croix;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; Hispaniola; Antigua; continental tropical Amer-
ica.
Recorded by de CandoUe as P. ciliata H.B.K.
21. Peperomia Myrtillus Miq. Syst. 154.
1843.
Peperomia rhombea C. DC.
in Urban, Symb. Ant.
3: 268, in part.
1902.
Not R. & P. 1798.
Plant erect, 7-30 cm.
high.
Leaves 3
or 4
in a whorl, occasionally only
2,
opposite,
oblong-lanceolate
to
elliptic-lanceolate,
1-3 cm.
long,
5-11 mm.
broad, more or less acuminate at the apex, the tip obtuse, acute or cuneate at the
base,
glabrous,
indistinctly
3-5-nerved,
short-petioled
;
spikes
terminal
and
axillary, densely flowered, 3-6.5 cm. long, about 2 mm. thick
; fruit mucronate with
an apical appendage.
On rocks and
trees
in
forests
of the
central moimtains
of Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
Jamaica; Hispaniola.
Peperomia guadalupensis C. DC, recorded by de Candolle and by Faw-
cett and Rendle from
St.
Croix, collected by West prior to
1793,
is unknown
there at the present time.
It is a glabrous plant, with elliptic-lanceolate, black
punctate leaves, similar to P. myrtifoUa, in which it was included by Dahlstadt,
and from which the St. Croix specimen may not be distinct.
[Piper tenuiflorum
Vahl; Piper acuminatum of West, and perhaps of Krebs, not of Linnaeus; Pepero-
mia acuminata of Eggers, in part.]
Peperomia polystachya
(L.) Hook., recorded from
St. Croix by Hooker
and by subsequent authors, is unknown there at the present time, and no speci-
mens to illustrate its occurrence there appear to have been preserved.
It is a
CHLORANTHACEAE
229
pubescent species with opposite or ternate obovate-rhombic leaves, apparently
occcurring only in Jamaica.
Eggers recorded it from St. Croix. St. Thomas and
St. Jan.
[Piper polystachya L.]
Peperomia Rupertiana C. DC, of the Lesser Antilles, perhaps occurs on
St. Jan; we have doubtfully referred a barren specimen from Rosenberg, St. Jan,
to this species.
Peperomia arifolia Miquel, Brazilian, grown for ornament in Porto Rican
gardens, has broadly ovate
peltate, acute or acuminate,
long-petioled, white-
veined leaves 5-10 cm. long, its spikes up to 18 cm. long.
Peperomia incana
(Spreng.)
A.
Dietr.,
Brazilian, grown by Mr.
A.
S.
Fairchild at Louisenhoj,
St. Thomas, the plants brought from the Copenhagen
Botanical Garden,
is a white-tomentose species with surborbicular leaves and
long spikes.
[Piper incanum Spreng.]
Peperomia amplexicaulis
(Sw.) A.
Dietr., endemic in Jamaica, was
re-
corded by Krebs as found in St. Thomas, evidently in error.
[Piper amplexicaule
Sw.]
3. POTHOMORPHE Miq. Comm. Phyt. 36.
1840.
[Heckeria Kunth, Linnaea 13: 564.
1839.
Not Raf. 1838.]
Large
herbs
with
alternate
broad
entire
pellucid-dotted
leaves.
Spikes
umbellate on axillary peduncles.
Bracts peltate, the margin villose-fimbriate.
Flowers sessile, perfect.
Stamens 2; filaments filiform, short; anthers reniform,
1-celled.
Ovary
sessile;
stigmas
3,
sessile,
recurved.
Fruit minute,
angled.
Seed 3-angled.
[Greek, simulating the genus
Pothos.]
A few
species, mostly
natives of tropical America.
Type species: Piper umbellatum L.
1. Pothomorphe peltata (L.) Miq. Comm. Phyt. 37.
1840.
Piper peltatum L. Sp. PI. 30.
1753.
Piper umbellatum L. Sp.
PI. 30.
1753.
Heckeria peltata Kunth, Linnaea 13: 565.
1839.
Heckeria umbilata Kunth, loc. cit. 569.
1839.
Pothomorphe umbellata Miq. Comm. Phyt. 36.
1840.
Piper peltatum hirtellum C. DC. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 210.
1902.
Sometimes 2 m.
tall, with glabrous or pubescent branches.
Leaves sub-
orbicular, flaccid, 16-35 cm. long, 14-34 cm. broad, often
peltate, acute at the
apex, cordate at the base, glabrous, or puberulent on the nerves on both sides,
finely
pellucid-dotted, palmately
veined, the
central
nerve
with
one
or two
pinnate nerves on each side; petioles glabrous or puberulent, 0.8-2 dm.
long;
common peduncle shorter than the leaf-stalk, 1-7 cm. long, glabrous or puberu-
lent; spikes 4-10; individual peduncles 7-12 mm. long;
fruit 0.5-0.6 mm. long.
Forests,
shaded banks and
along
streams,
Porto
Rico;
St. Thomas;
St.
Crojx;
Tortola:—West
Indies
(except Bahamas);
continental
tropical America.
Basquina.
MONKEY'S-HAND.
Family 2.
CHLORANTHACEAE Blume.
Chloranthus Family.
Aromatic shrubs
or
trees.
Leaves opposite,
the bases
of the
petioles
connately united by a stipular sheath.
Inflorescence terminal and axillary.
Flowers
perfect
or
unisexual.
Staminate
flowers
in
catkin-like
spikes,
230
SALICACEAE
without a perianth; anthers 2-celled.
Pistillate flowers in panicles or some-
times
cone-like
spikes;
perianth
superior,
inconspicuous;
ovary
inferior,
1-celled; ovule
solitary, orthotropous, pendulous.
Fruit drupe-like.
Em-
bryo minute at the
base of copious endosperm.
About 3 genera and 40
species, American, Asiatic and Australasian.
1. HEDYOSMUM Sw. Prodr. 84.
1788.
Shrubs or
trees
with
pinnately veined
leaves.
Flowers monoecious
or
dioecious.
Staminate flowers without bracts.
Anther single, oblong, the
cells
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Pistillate
flowers
with
a
short
3-lobed
perianth.
Drupe 3-angled.
[Greek,
referring to the aromatic odor.]
About 22 species,
natives
of the West
Indies and
South America.
Type
species: Hedyosmum
nutans Sw.
1. Hedyosmum arborescens Sw. Prodr. 84.
1788.
Tafallaea arborescens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 2: 566.
1891.
A glabrous dioecious shrub, or a small tree .5-6 m. tall.
Leaf-blades narrowly
oblong-elliptic to
elliptic, 4-18 cm.
long,
2-5..5 cm.
broad, abruptly short-acu-
minate at the apex, acute at the base, serrate; staminate spikes nearly cylindric,
1.5-2.4 cm. long, about 5 or 6 mm. thick; pistillate flowers paniculate, in clusters
of two or three enclosed by bracts; drupe 3-3.5 mm. long.
Forests
of the
eastern mountains
of Porto
Rico;—Jamaica;
Guadeloupe
to
St.
Vmcent.
The wood and the roots are fragrant.
Orders.
SALICALES.
Trees or shrubs, with imperfect small flowers in aments.
Sepals and
petals none.
Leaves simple.
Fruit a many-seeded capsule.
Seeds with a
tuft of hairs at one end.
Only one family.
Family
1.
SALICACEAE
Lindl.
Willow Family.
Dioecious trees or shrubs with light wood, bitter bark, brittle twigs, and
alternate stipulate leaves, the stipules often minute and caducous.
Flowers
solitary in the axil of each bract.
Staminate flowers consisting of from one
to numerous stamens inserted on the receptacle, subtended by a gland-like
or
cup-shaped
disk;
anthers
2-celled,
the
sacs
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Pistillate aments sometimes raceme-like;
pistillate flowers a
1-celled ovary
subtended by a minute disk
; placentae 2-4, parietal; ovules usually numerous,
anatropous; stigmas 2-4, simple or 2-4
cleft.
Seeds small or minute, pro-
vided with a dense coma
of
long, mostly white
silky hairs.
Endosperm
none.
Cotyledons plano-convex.
Radicle short.
Two genera and upward
of 250 species, mostly natives of the north temperate and arctic zones.
2. SALIX [Tourn.] L. Sp. PL 1015.
1753.
Trees or shrubs, with single-scaled buds, the scales with an adherent mem-
brane within, mostly narrow and short-petioled leaves and persistent or early
deciduous broad or minute stipules.
Bracts of the aments entire.
Disk gland-
MYRICACEAE
231
like, small or minute.
Staminate aments dense,
erect, spreading or drooping.
Staminate flowers with 1-10, mostly 2, stamens, their filr.ments distinct or seme
times united.
Pistillate aments usually erect or spreading.
Ovary
sessile or
short-stipitate.
Style short or filiform.
Stigmas 2, entire or 2-cleft.
Capsule
mostly
2-valved.
[Name,
ancient.]
About
200
species,
of wide
geographic
distribution throughout the north temperate and
arctic zones
a few
in
the
southern hemisphere.
Type species
: Salix alba L.
1.
Salix chilensis MoUna, Sagg. Chil. 169.
1782.
Salix Humboldtiana Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 657.
1806.
A tree sometimes 20 m.
tall, with nearly erect branches, the trunk up to 4
dm. thick, the dark brown bark ridged and fissured.
Leaves glabrous,
linear,
6-14 cm. long, .3-7 mm. wide, acuminate at the apex, acute or somewhat rounded
at the base, serrate, the petioles 1.5-3.5 mm. long; catkins 3-7 cm. long, terminal
on leafy shoots, appearing with the leaves; bracts woolly, deciduous; stamens 4-7;
capsule ovoid, glabrous, 4-4.5 mm. long, stalked.
Locally persistent after planting, Porto Rico;
St. Croix:—Jamaica; Cuba; Alartin-
ique;
St.
Vincent; Texas and Mexico;
Central America.
Native
of South America.
Often planted
for ornament and interest in the West Indies.
Humboldt s Willow.
Sauce.
Salix baby'onica
L., Weeping Willow, Sauce lloron, with drooping
branches recorded as observed by Krug subspontaneous near Mayaguez,
is not
persistent in the climate of Porto Rico.
Order 4.
MYRICALES.
Shrubs or small trees, with simple leaves and small monoecious or dioecious
flowers in aments.
Perianth none.
Ovary
1 -celled;
style short; stigmas 2.
Ovule erect, orthotropous.
Endosperm none.
Only one family.
Family
1.
MYRICACEAE Dumort.
Bayberry Family.
Leaves alternate, mostly coriaceous and aromatic.
Flowers solitary in
the axils of the bracts.
Staminate flower with 2-16 (usually 4-8) stamens
inserted on the receptacle; filaments short; anthers ovate, 2-celled, the sacs
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
subtended
by
2-8
bractlets;
stigmas
linear.
Fruit a small drupe or nut, the exocarp often waxy.
Seed erect.
Cotyledons
plano-convex.
Radicle
short.
Two
genera
and
about
36
species.
1. MYRICA L. Sp. PI. 1024.
1753.
Leaves entire, dentate or lobed, mostly resmous-dotted.
Staminate aments
oblong or narrowly cylindric, expanding before or with the
leaves.
Stamens
4-8.
Pistillate aments ovoid or subglobose; ovary subtended by 2-4, mostly
short,
bractlets.
Drupe globose or ovoid,
its exocarp waxy.
[Ancient Greek
name of the Tamarisk.]
About 35 species, widely distributed.
Type species:
Myrica Gale L.
jr.:
232
JUGLANDACEAE
1. Myrica cerifera L. Sp. PI. 1024.
1753.
Cerothammis ceriferus Small, Fl. Miami 61.
1912.
A slender dioecious shrub, or a tree, sometimes 12 m. high, with a trunk 5
dm.
in
diameter,
the
barli
gray,
nearly smooth.
Leaves narrow,
oblong
or
oblanceolate, mostly acute, entire or sparingly dentate, narrowed at the base,
fragrant,
short-petioled,
dark
green
above,
paler and
sometimes
pubescent
beneath, golden-resinous, 2-8 cm.
long, unfolding with or before the aments;
staminate aments cylindric; pistillate aments short, oblong; ripe drupes globose,
bluish white, waxy, tipped with the base of the style, long-persistent.
Hillsides and thickets in moist districts at lower and middle elevations in Porto Rico:
—southeastern United
States; Bermuda; Bahamas; Cuba;
Hispaniola.
Wax-berbt.
Bay-berry.
Cerero.
Arrayan.
Several Asiatic species of Quercus (Oaks) of the family Fagaceae, received
from the Bureau of Plant Industry, were experimentally planted at the Forest
Station, Rio Piedras in the autumn of 1922, and in the spring of 1923 were reported
as having done
well;
these include Q. Thomsonii Miquel; Q. Lindleyana
Wall., Q. fenestrata Roxb. and Q. polystachya Wall.
Q. palustris Du Roi, the Swamp Oak, or Pin Oak of the eastern United
States was also experimentally planted.
Castanea diversifolia Kurz, East Indian,
also of the Family Fagaceae,
planted at the Forest Station in the autumn of 1922, grew vigorously, attaining
a height of about 2 meters by April, 1923.
Order 5.
JUGLANDALES.
Trees
with
alternate
pinnately compound
or
trifoliolate
leaves,
and
monoecious or dioecious bracteolate flowers, the staminate in long-drooping
aments, the pistillate soUtary or several together.
Staminate flowers con-
sisting of 3-numerous stamens with or without an irregularly lobed perianth
adnate
to
the
bractlet, very rarely with a rudimentary ovary.
Anthers
erect, 2-celled, the sacs longitudinally dehiscent; filaments short.
Pistillate
flowers with a 3-5-lobed calyx or with both calyx and petals, and a 1-celled
or 2-4-celled ovary.
Ovules solitary or 2, erect, orthotropous; style
1 or 2.
Fruit a drupe with indehiscent or dehiscent, fibrous, fleshy or woody exocarp,
enclosing the bony endocarp or nut which is 2-4-celled. Seed large, 2-4-lobed.
Endosperm none
Cotyledons corrugated.
Family
1.
JUGLANDACEAE Lindl.
Walnut Family.
Characters of the order.
Six genera and about 35 species, mostly of the
warmer parts of the north temperate zone.
1. JUGLANS L. Sp. PI. 997.
1753.
Trees, with spreading branches, superposed buds, fragrant bark, and odd-
pinnate leaves, with nearly or quite sessile leaflets, the terminal one sometimes
early perishing.
Staminate flowers in drooping cylindric aments, borne on the
ULMACEAE
233
twigs of the previous year; perianth 3-6-lobed; stamens 8-40 in 2 or more series.
Pistillate flowers on a terminal peduncle at the end
of shoots of the season,
the calyx 4-lobed, with 4 small petals adnate to the ovary at the sinuses; style
fimbriate, very short.
Drupe
large, globose or ovoid, the exocarp somewhat
fleshy, fibrous, indehiscent, the endocarp bony, rugose or sculptured, 2-4-celled
at the base, indehiscent, or in decay separating into 2 valves.
[Name a contrac-
tion of the Latin Jovis glans, the nut of Jupiter.]
About 12 species, natives of
the north temperate zone, 2 in the West Indies, several in the Andes of South
America.
Type species: Juglans regia L.
1. Juglans jamaicensis C. DC. in DC. Prodr.
16=: 138.
1864.
A forest tree 20-25 m. tall, the twigs, petioles and rachis rufous-pubescent.
Leaves 3 dm. long or more; leaflets 13-19, lanceolate, oblong lanceolate or ovate-
lanceolate, more or less inequilateral, acuminate at the apex, rounded or sub-
cordate at the base, subsessile or very f-hort-petioluled, serrate, glabrous or very
nearly so above, pubescent on the veins beneath, 6-10 cm. long, .3-4 cm. broad;
drupes short-ovoid, 4.5-5 cm. long, 4 cm. broad; nut corrugated, 3.3-3.5 cm. long,
2.8-3.2 cm. broad, acute at the apex, impressed at the base.
Local
in forests of the western mountains of Porto Rico:—Hispaniola.
Recorded
from
.Jamaica,
apparently
erroneously.
[Jiujlans
cinerea
of
Bello, not
of Lninaeus.]
In Kew Bulletin, 1894;
138, 371, the Porto Rican tree
is erroneously reported to be the
same as, the Cuban endemic
species
J.
insularis Grisebach.
Nogal.
P.\lo de nuez.
Walnut.
Juglans
regia
L., European Walnut, Madeira Nut,
experimentally
planted in Porto Rico, has leaves similar to those of the native species, the nut
with a nearly smooth thin shell, the seed delicious.
Hicoria Pecan (Marsh.) Britton, Pecan Nut, North American, also experi-
mentally planted,
is a pinnate-leaved tree, the 11-15 oblong-lanceolate leaflets
1-1.5 dm. long, the oblong-cylindric fruit 3-6 cm. long with a thin, 4-valved husk,
the seed of the smooth oblong nut delicious.
[Juglans Pecan
^Slarsh
;
Carya
oliviformis Nutt.]
Order 6.
URTICALES.
Trees, shrubs or herbs, with alternate or opposite leaves, the flowers with
a calyx but without a corolla, small, monoecious, dioecious or polygamous.
Stamens often as many as the sepals.
Ovary 1- or 2-celled.
Fruit an achene,
a samara, drupe, syncarp or synconium.
Endosperm often scant or wanting.
Fnut a drupe, sometimes nut-like, or a samara.
Fam. 1. Ulmaceae.
Fruit an achene, the achenes sometimes enveloped by the accres-
cent sepals and forming a syncarp.
Trees, shrubs or occasionally herbs, usually with a milky sap;
„
, ,
ovule often pendulous; fruit a syncarp or synconium.
Fam. 2. MORACEAE.
Herbs, sometimes shrubs or small
trees, the sap not milky;
ovule erect; frmt neither a syncarp nor a synconium.
Fam. 3.
URTICACEAE.
Family
1.
ULMACEAE Mirbel.
Elm Family.
Trees
or shrubs with watery
sap.
Leaves
alternate,
simple,
stipulate,
the stipules usually small, fugacious.
Flowers small, monoecious, dioecious,
perfect
or
polygamous,
clustered,
or
the
pistillate
sometimes
solitary.
Perianth in our genera 4-5-parted or of 4 or 5 distinct sepals.
Petals none.
Stamens as many as the perianth-lobes or sepals and opposite them; filaments
234
ULMACEAE
straight; anthers erect in the bud, 2-celled, longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary
1-celled
(rarely 2-celled); ovules
solitary, suspended from the apex of the
cell, anatropous or amphitropous;
styles
or stigmas
2.
Fruit
a samara,
drupe
or
nut.
Endosperm
little
or none.
Embryo
straight
or
curved;
cotyledons mostly flat.
About 13 genera and 140 species, widely distributed
in temperate and tropical regions.
stigmas 2-cleft; plants usually armed with stipular spines.
1. Momisia.
Stigmas entire: plants unarmed.
Segments
of
the
staminate
perianth
imbricate;
pistillate
perianth
deciduous.
2.
Cellis.
Segments of the staminate perianth valvate;
pistillate perianth per-
sistent.
3.
Trema.
1. MOMISIA F. G. Dietr. Vollst. Lex. Gaertn. Nachtr. 5: 122.
1819.
Woody vines, small trees or shrubs, sometimes high-climbing by recurved
stipular
spines.
Flowers
polygamo-monoecious,
at
least
the
staminate
in
elongated
axillary cymes.
Calyx
4- or 5-lobed,
deciduous.
Stamens 4 or
5,
exseried; filaments longer than the extrorse anthers.
Ovary 1-celled.
Stigmas
2-cleft.
Drupe ovoid or globose, with a more or less flattened, reticulated or
tuberculate
stone.
[Name
unexplained.]
Several
species
of temperate
and
tropical regions.
Type species: Mertensia laevigata H.B.K.
1. Momisia iguanaea (Jacq.) Rose & Standley, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 16: 8.
1912.
Rhamnus iguanaeus Jacq. Enum.
PI. Carib.
16.
1760.
Celtis aculeata Sw. Prodr. 53.
1788.
Celtis iguanaeus Sarg. Silva N. A. 7: 64.
1895.
Mertensia laevigata H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 2: 31.
1817.
Celtis aculeata serrata Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 149.
1859.
A woody vine, up to 7 m. long, armed with short recurved spines, the young
twigs,
petioles
and
branches
of
the
inflorescence
puberulent.
Leaf-blades
oblong-ovate, ovate or oval, 5-13 cm.
long, 2.5-7 cm. broad, acute to short-
acuminate at the apex, rarely obtuse, entire or coarsely crenate-serrate above the
middle, rounded or cordate and often slightly inequilateral at the base, glabrous
or nearly so on both sides, short-petioled; flowers in short or paniculate axillary
cymes; stigmas linear, bifid; drupes globose-ovoid, 8-12 mm. long, usually much
longer than the pedicel.
[Zizyphus reticulata of Stahl, not of de CandoUe.]
Tliickets and
woodlands,
Porto
Rico;
Icacos:
Culebra;
Desecheo;
Vieques;
St.
Thomas;
St. Jan;
St. Croix; Tortola:— Florida; West Indies
(except Bahamas); conti-
nental tropical America.
Cockspur.
Azufaifo.
2. CELTIS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 1043.
1753.
Unarmed trees or shrubs, vnth serrate or
entire,
pinnately veined,
or in
some
species
3-5-nerved
leaves.
Flowers
polygamo-monoecious,
or
rarely
monoecious, borne in the axils of the leaves, the staminate often clustered, the
fertile solitary or 2-3 together.
Calyx 4-5-lobed, deciduous.
Stamens 4 or 5;
filaments incurved
; anthers extrorse, loosely attached just above the base.
Ovary
sessile,
1-celled; stigmas
2, recurved or divergent.
Fruit
a globose or ovoid
drupe, the exocarp pulpy, the bony endocarp at length splitting into two valves.
Seed-coat membranous.
Embryo curved.
[Name ancient, used by
Plinj' for
an African species of Lotus.]
About 60 species of temperate and tropical regions.
Type species: Celtis australis L.
ULMACEAE
235
1.
Celtis trinervia Lam. Encyc. 4: 140.
1797.
Sponia trinervia Dene. Nouv. Ann. Mus. Paris 3: 498.
1834.
A slender tree, up to 18 m. high or higher, the smooth bark gray.
Leaf-
blades ovate-lanceolate to ovate, 4-13 cm. long, 2-7.5 cm. broad, acuminate at
the apex, usually rounded on one side at the base and acute on the other, serrate,
in age often covered with minute black elevated dots, glabrous or slightly pu-
bescent; petioles 4-11 mm. long, pubescent; flowers in loose axiUary cymes, or
the fertile ones sometimes solitary; stigmas linear; drupe purple-black, 7-8 mm.
long, about as long as the pedicel or longer; the pit subglobose, rugose.
Thickets and
forests; southern dry
districts
of Porto
Rico; Mona;
St. Thomas:
St. Croi.x; St. Jan; Tortola:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola.
[C. australis of Krebs, not of
Linnaeus.]
3. TREMA Lour.
Fl. Coch. 562.
1790.
Trees or shrubs, unarmed.
Leaves alternate, toothed, 3-nerved at the base.
Flowers small, mostly monoecious or polygamous, greenish or whitish, in axillary
cymes, the perfect mostly
fertile.
Sepals of the
pistillate flowers induplicate-
valvate. those of the perfect flowers sUghtly imbricated.
Stamens 4 or 5.
Ovary
sessile.
Stigmas 2.
Ovule pendulous.
Drupe ovoid or subglobose, surrounded
by the persistent perianth; endosperm
fleshy,
usually scant.
[Greek, a
hole.]
About 30
species
of tropical and
subtropical
regions.
Type
species:
Trema
cannabina Lour.
Leaves acute, 2-6 cm.
long, 0.6-2.5 cm. broad; veins prominent
beneath.
1.
T. Lamarckiana.
Leaves
acuminate,
6-15 cm.
long,
2.5-5 cm.
broad;
veins not
prominent.
2.
T. micrantha.
1. Trema Lamarckiana (R. & S.) Blimie, Mus. Bot. Lugd. 2: 58.
1853.
Celtis Lima Lam. Encyc. 4: 140.
1797.
Not Sw. 1788.
Celtis Lamarckiana R. &
S. Syst.
6: 311.
1820.
Sponia Lamarckiana Dene. Nouv. Ann. Mus. Paris 3: 498.
1834.
Trema Lima Hitchc. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 4: 129.
1893.
Not Blume, 1853.
A tree, up to 10 m. high, the trunk sometimes 3 dm.
in diameter, or more
often a shrub 1.5-3.5 m. high, the twigs slender, rough-pubescent.
Leaf-blades
lanceolate to ovate, 2-6 cm. long, 0.6-2.5 cm. broad, occasionally larger, acute
at the apex, equilateral or inequilateral at the base, very rough above, reticulate-
veined and
finely tomentose beneath;
flowers about 2 mm.
in diameter,
the
staminate clusters
sessile, the
pistillate short-stalked; drupe ovoid, 2.8-3 mm.
long, glabrous.
Thickets and hillsides, Porto Rico:—Florida; Bermuda; Bahamas; Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola; Saba to St. Vincent.
2. Trema micrantha (L.) Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. 2: 58.
1853.
Rhamnus micranthus L. Syst. ed.
10, 937.
1759.
Celtis micranthus Sw. Prodr.
.53.
1788.
Celtis rugosa Willd. Sp.
PI. 996.
1806.
Sponia micrantha Dene. Nouv. Ann. Mus. Paris 3: 498.
1834.
Trema micranthum obtusatum Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 195.
1905.
A
tree, sometimes
18 m.
tall, the bark gray-brown,
slightly
fissured,
the
branches pubescent with rather
stiff, whitish
hairs.
Leaf-blades oblong-lance-
olate to lanceolate-ovate, 6-15 cm. long, 2. .5-5 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex,
rarely obtuse, often somewhat inequilateral and cordate, rounded or occasionally
subtruncate
at the
base,
rough
above,
pubescent on
the nerves
beneath,
or
236
MORACEAE
glabrescent, not reticulate-veined; cymes equalling or twice as long as the petioles;
flowers greenish-yellow; drupes ovoid, 2.8--3 mm. long, glabrous.
Woodlands and
hillsides, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;
St.
Jan;
Tortola;
Cuba to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
The hght brown wood
is weali and
soft.
Palo de cabra.
Guacimilla.
Sponia stipellata Bello, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 109.
1883.
This was described from foliage only and has not been identified by sub-
sequent botanists.
Urban questions its reference to this family.
Family 2.
MORACEAE Lindl.
Mulberry Family.
Trees or shrubs, usually with milky sap, rarely herbs.
Leaves alternate,
entire,
toothed,
or
sometimes
lobed,
stipulate.
Flowers
monoecious
or
dioecious, in catkin-like spikes, or heads, on a flat entire or lobed receptacle,
or on the inside of a closed receptacle.
Staminate flowers with a 2-4-lobed
or 2-4-parted perianth, or perianth tubular, or sometimes wanting; stamens
usually as many as the perianth-lobes and opposite them,
rarely only
1;
petals none.
Pistillate flowers with a 3-5-parted perianth,
or sometimes
tubular with a small opening at the
top; ovary superior or more or
less
inferior, 1- or 2-celled; style or stigmas 1 or 2; ovule solitary, pendulous, ana-
tropous, or erect and orthotropous.
Fruit a syncarp or synconium.
Seeds
with
little or no endosperm; embryo straight or curved; cotyledons often
unequal, usually thick.
About 55 genera and over 900 species, natives of
temperate and tropical regions.
Trees or slirubs.
Flowers borne on
the inner
wall
of
a
closed
flesliy
receptacle,
1.
Ficus.
Flowers not borne on the inner wall of a closed receptacle.
Flowers
dioecious,
involucrate,
the
stainhiate
in
heads,
the
pistillate solitary.
2.
Pseudolmedia^
Flowers dioecious or monoecious, not tnvolucrate.
Flowers in solitary or paired axillary spikes or heads.
Staminate
and
pistiUate
flowers
spicate;
staminate
flowers
with
a
4-parted
perianth,
the
stamens
4;
pistillate perianth tubular, 4-toothed.
3.
Trophis.
Staminate flowers spicate, the pistihate hi dense heads.
,
Flowers dioecious; perianth of both stammate and
pistillate flowers 4-parted, the stamens
4.
4.
Chlorophora.
Flowers
monoecious;
perianth
of
the
staminate
flowers 2-4-lobed or -parted, the stamen
1; pistil-
late perianth tubular.
5.
Artocarpus.
Flowers in dense spikes clustered at the apex of a long
axiUary
pedimcle,
enclosed
at
first
in
a
spathe-llke
caducous bract.
6.
Cecropia.
Herbs,
acaulescent;
flowers
monoecious,
imbedded
in
the
long-
peduncled, flat, simple or lobed, androgynoiis receptacle.
7.
Dorstenia.
1. FICUS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 1059.
1753.
Trees or shrubs, sometimes woody
vines, with milky sap, and
alternate,,
rarely opposite leaves.
Flowers monoecious, borne on the inner walls of closed
fleshy, subglobose, pyriform or ovoid, sessile or stalked, axillary receptacles, with
an involucre of bracts at the base, the mouth (ostiolum) closed by imbricated
bracts; calyx of the staminate flowers
u£,aally divided into 2-6 sepals; stamens
1 or 2; filaments short,
erect, the anther innate or adnate,
2-celled, the ceUs
longitudinally dehiscing.
Sepals of the pistiUate flowers often fewer and nar-
rower than in the staminate, or sometimes wanting; ovary 1-celled, the solitary
ovule
pendulous,
anatropous;
styles
excentric; stigma
club-shaped.
Achenes.
MORACEAE
237
immersed in the thickened succulent receptacle.
Seed pendulous; testa mem-
branous; embryo
incurved; endosperm
fleshy;
cotyledons
equal
or unequal;
radicle incumbent.
[Ancient Latin name.]
About 600 species of tropical and
warm regions, known as Jaguey and Wild Figs.
The wood of the Porto Rico
species is soft, weak and not durable.
Type species: Ficus Carica L.
Ostiolum immersed in the
receptacle, surroimded by an elevated
ring.
1-
F. crassincrvia.
Ostiolum not immersed in the receptacle.
Receptacle 4. .5-10 mm. in diameter; basal bracts 1—4 mm. long.
Primary lateral veins of the leaves numerous, close together;
recep'tacle 4.5-6 mm. in diameter.
2.
F. Sintenisii.
Primary lateral veins of the leaves few,
distant; receptacle
7-10 mm. in diameter.
Pedimcles
slender,
4-20 mm.
long,
0.6-1 mm.
thick;
petioles 1..5-4 cm. long.
3.
F. laevigata.
Pedimcles
stout,
3-7
mm.
long,
1.6-2.5
mm.
thick;
petioles 1-2 cm. long.
4.
F. Stahlii.
Receptacle 1.5-2 cm. in diameter; basal bracts 9-12 mm. long.
5.
F. Urbaniana.
1. Ficus crassincrvia Desf.; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 113S.
1806.
A tree, occasionally 20 m. high, the twigs grayish-brown or brown, pubescent.
Leaves ovate, oblong or oval, 6-17 cm. long,
.3. .5-10 cm. broad, rounded or oc-
casionally acutish at the
ape.x, rounded and often subcordate at the base, the
petioles 1-3.5 cm. long; primary lateral veins distant, the secondary reticulate;
receptacles in pairs in the axils of the leaves, subglobose, 1-1.4 cm. in diameter,
often somewhat verrucose; ostiolum immersed
in the receptacle; basal bracts
about 2 mm. long, the peduncles 2-5 mm. long.
Hillsides, rocky woodlands, and forests, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Croi.x;
Tortola;—Cuba; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
St.
Lucia.
Recorded by Eggers
as Ficus
trigonata L.
2. Ficus Sintenisii Warb. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 464.
1903.
A tree, sometimes reaching a height of 20 m. with glabrous or puberulent
twigs.
Leaves
elliptic
to
oval,
occasionally somewhat
elliptic-obovate,
3-7.5
cm. long,
1.5-3.6 cm. broad, often rather abruptly acute or acuminate at the
apex, acute or rounded at the base, glabrous, the petioles 6-12 mm. long; veins
rather prominent, close together and parallel; receptacles usually in pairs in the
axils of the
leaves,
subglobose,
4.5-6 mm.
in diameter; ostiolum prominent;
basal bracts about 1.5 mm. long, the peduncles slender, 4-8 mm. long.
[? Ficus
pertusa of Sesse &. M05.]
Mountain forests, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
3. Ficus laevigata Vahl, Enum. 2: 183.
1805.
Ficus populnea Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1141.
1806.
Ficus lentiginosa Vahl, Enum. 2: 183.
1805.
Ficus pedunculata Vahl, Enum. 2: 184.
1805.
Ficus brevifolia Nutt. Sylva 2: 3.
1846.
Urostigma laevigatum Miq. in Hook. Lond. Jour. Bot. 6: 539.
1847.
Urostigma sanctae-crucis Liebm. in Vidensk. Selsk. Skrift. V. 2: 328.
1851.
Ficus thomaea Miq. Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bot. 3: 299.
1867.
Ficus sanctae-crucis Miq. Ann. Mus. Lugd. Bot. 3: 299.
1867.
Ficus portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 472.
1900.
Ficus populnea laevigata portoricensis Warb. in Urban, Symb. Ant.
3: 474.
1903.
Ficus populnea laevigata thomae Warb. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 474.
1903.
Ficus populnea laevigata sancti-joannis Warb. in Urban, Symb. Ant.
3: 475.
1903.
Ficus populnea laevigata sanctae-crucis Warb. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 475.
1903.
238
MORACEAE
Ficus populnea laevigata pedunculata AVarb. in Urban, Symb. Ant.
3: 475.
1903.
Ficus populnea lentiginosa subcordata Warb. in Urban. Symb. Ant.
3: 476.
1903.
Ficus populnea lentiginosa obliquicuspis Warb. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 477.
1903.
Ficus laevigata genuina portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 198.
190.5.
Ficus laevigata lentiginosa subcordata Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 198.
1905.
Ficus laevigata lentiginosa obliquicuspis Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 198.
1905.
A tree, sometimes reaching a height of 20 m., or shrub-like.
Leaves ovate,
elliptic, oval
or oblong, 3-17 cm.
long, 2-9 cm. broad,
glabrous, acute, acu-
minate or occasionally obtuse at the apex, rounded truncate or obtuse and often
subcordata at the base, long-petioled, the upper surface bearing numerous minute
elevated
papillae,
or sometimes
with
pores,
finely
reticulate-veined
beneath;
receptacles usually in pairs in the axils of the leaves, globose or globose-ovoid,
7-10 mm. in diameter; ostiolum more or less prominent; basal bracts 1-3 mm,
long, the peduncle slender, 4-20 mm. long.
Coastal
thickets and
hillsides at lower
elevations, Porto Rico;
Icacos;
Culebra;
Vieques; St. Thomas;
St. Croix; St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; Bahamas to Barbados.
A
species consisting of numerous races differing in size of foliage and
fruits, and in the
length of the peduncle.
Boislaglu.
4. Ficus Stahlii Warb. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 470.
1903.
A tree, 10-15 m. tall, with smooth bark and rather stout light-brown twigs.
Leaves oblong to ovate or broadly elliptic, occasionally obovate, 8-17 cm. long,
5-9 cm. broad, rounded or obtusely short-acute at the apex, obtuse or rounded
at the base, glabrous, the petioles 1-2 cm. long; primary lateral veins distant,
the secondary veins finely reticulate; receptacles usually in pairs in the axils of
the
leaves,
subglobose,
about
1
cm.
in diameter; ostiolum prominent;
basal
bracts 2-4 mm.
long,
usually puberulent; peduncles 3-4 mm.
long.
Limestone
hills at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Mona.
Endemic.
Very similar to
Ficus mamillifera Warburg of Jamaica.
5. Ficus Urbaniana Warb. in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 459.
1903.
A medium sized or large tree.
Leaves ovate, oval or obovate, 12-23 cm.
long, 7-14.5 cm. broad, rounded or obtuse at the apex, usually rounded and often
subcordate at the base, glabrous, the petioles rather stout, 3-6 cm. long; primary
lateral vins distant, the secondary finely reticulate beneath; receptacles usually
in pairs in the axUs of the leaves, subglobose, 1.5-2 cm. in diameter, finely pu-
bescent or nearly glabrous, the ostiolum sometimes nearly flat; basal bracts 9-12
mm. long, puberulent, the peduncle very short and stout or none.
In woods and occasionally planted on St. Croix:—Antigua; St. Martin; St. Eustatius;
Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
St.
Vincent.
Recorded by Eggers and by Millspaugh
as
Ficus crassinervia Desf.
Ficus Carica L., Higo, Edible Fig, of the Mediterranean region, grown for
its fruit in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, forms a small tree up to about 6 m.
high, with stout branches, rough-pubescent, suborbicular or oval, palmately 3-7-
lobed cordate leaves, the obovoid fruit 3-7 cm. long.
Ficus elastica Roxb., India Rubber Fig, Rubber Plant, Asiatic, grown
for shade and ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, reaches a height of
12 meters or more, with widely spreading branches and numerous stout pendent
aerial roots;
it has smooth shining elliptic entire many-veined leaves 1.5-3 dm.
long, the small ellipsoid fruit sessile.
MORACEAE
239
Ficus nitida Thunb., Laurel de India, grown for shade and for ornament
in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, is a den,sely leafy tree up to 20 m. in height,
with glabious, dark green, elliptic leaves 5-7 cm. long, acute at both ends, the
globose fruits about 7 mm. in diameter, sessile.
[F. arbutifoUa Link.]
Ficus pumila
L., Creeping
Fig,
Asiatic, commonly grown on walls in
Porto Rico and occasionally in the Virgin Islands, is a small-leaved vine, adhering
to walls by
its numerous
aerial roots;
it sends out horizontal branches with
larger ovate or elliptic leaves 5-8 cm. long, and obovoid figs about 5 cm. long.
Ficus
lyrata
Warburg,
Lyrate-leaved
Fig,
African,
experimentally
grown by Mr. A. S. Fairchild at Louisenhoj, St. Thomas, is a tree with coriaceous
obovate, strongly few-veined leaves up to 3 dm. long or longer, narrowed at or
below the middle, cordate and stout-petioled, the obovoid fruit about 2 cm. long.
Ficus benjamina
L., Malayan,
a
tree with drooping
branches, glabrous
throughout, the ovate shining, abruptly acuminate, subcoriaceous leaves 4-10 cm.
long, the subglobose red flgs sessile, 1-L5 cm.
in diameter,
is occasionally planted
for ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Ficus serratus L., in the hst of St. Thomas plants by Krebs,
is an error of
some kind; Ficus serrata L. is an Arabian species.
A species
of Ficus with coriaceous glabrous
entire pinnately
few-veined
leaves up to 3 dm.
long, the petioles stout and short, occasionally planted
in
Porto Rico, has not been specifically identified
; young trees only were seen.
2. PSEUDOLMEDIA Tree. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
III. 8: 129.
1847.
Forest trees with milky sap, entire or sUghtly repand pinnately veined leaves,
and
small
caducous
intrapetiolar
stipules.
Flowers
dioecious.
Stamlnate
flowers in sessile involucrate axillary heads; perianth wanting; stamens numerous
on a receptacle within the involucre, intermixed with stalked spathulate scales.
Pistillate flower solitary in the involucres,, axillary, the perianth tubular with a
small opening at the apex; ovary enclosed in the perianth; stigma bifid, exserted;
ovule pendulous.
Fruit ovoid, enclosed by the more or
less fleshy perianth.
Pericarp crustaceous.
Cotyledons fleshy, unequal.
[False Olmedia.]
About 5
species,
natives of the West Indies and continental tropical America.
Type
species: Pseudolmedia havanensis Tree.
1. Pseudolmedia spuria (Sw.) Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 152.
18.59.
Brosinvum spurium Sw. Prodr.
12.
1788.
Pseudolmedia havanensis Tree. Ann.
Sci. Nat. III. 8: 130.
1847.
A
tree, sometimes 15 m.
high, or higher, with slender
light-1)rown
twigs.
Leaves oblong-elliptic, 8-16 cm. long, 2.8-6 cm. broad, rather abruptly acuminate
at the apex, more or less inequilateral and acutish or obtuse at the base, dark
green and glabrous above,
paler, glabrous and finely reticulate-veined beneath,
the petioles 2.5-7 mm. long; bractsof the staminate heads suborbicular, pube.scent;
fruit eUipsoid, 1 cm. long.
Forests, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; also recorded from Panama.
Negra lora.
3. TROPHIS [P. Br.] L. Sp. Syst. ed.
10, 1289.
17.59.
Trees with milky sap.
Leaves pinnately veined, entire or toothed, those of
the
shoots sometimes
lobed,
the
stipules
lateral,
small,
caducous.
Flowers
dioecious.
Staminate flowers in dense cylindric soUtary or paired axillary spikes
perianth 4-parted; stamens 4, the filaments inflexed in bud, becoming straight,
exserted;
ovary
rudimentary.
Pistillate
flowers
in
few-flowered
soUtary
or
240
MORACEAE
sometimes paired axillary spikes; perianth tubular or tubular-ovoid, aduate to
the ovary, 4-toothed; style 2-parted, persistent; ovule pendulous.
Fruit some-
what
fleshy.
Embryo
straight; cotjledons
fleshy,
semiglobose;
radicle
short,
superior.
[Greek, fodder.]
Five or six species, natives of the West Indies and
continental tropical America, the following typical.
1. Trophis racemosa
(L.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 195.
1905.
Bucephalon racemosum L. Sp. PL 1190.
17.5.3.
Trophis americana L. Syst. ed.
10, 1289.
1759.
A
tree, occasionally reaching a height of 15 m., the young twigs brown,
pubescent.
Leaves oblong-elliptic or elliptic, 9-20 cm.
long, 3-8.5 cm. broad,
acuminate at the apex, acutish or rounded at the base,
finely reticulate-veined
beneath, glabrous, entire or somewhat sparingly toothed, the petioles 6-14 mm.
long; staminate
spikes
short-peduncled, 4-10 cm.
long,
about
7 mm.
thick,
velutinous; pistillate spikes 1-2 cm. long, velutinous; fruit subglobose or globose-
ovoid, 8-12 mm. long, reddish brown.
Wooded limestone hills and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:
Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
continental
tropical America.
The
leaves
are used
for
fodder.
Ramon.
Ramoncillo.
4. CHLOROPHORA Gaud. Bot. Freyc. Voy. 5G8, 509.
1826.
Trees with tough close-grained wood, and yellowish milky sap, the young
shoots
often, and the older branches occasionally, armed with slender axillary
spines.
Leaves pinnately veined, entire or variously toothed, those of the shoots
often shallowly or deeply pinnately lobed
; .stipules caducous.
Flowers dioecious.
Staminate flowers in dense slender-peduncled axihary catkin-like spikes; perianth
4-parted; stamens
4, the filaments inflexed in bud,
becomijig straight; ovary
rudimentary.
Pistillate flowers in dense axillary heads; perianth 4-parted, the
segments concave;
bracts
small,
similar to the perianth-segments, sometimes
thickened on the inside at the apex; ovary oblique; style lateral, filiform, exserted,
the long stigmatic surface undivided; ovule laterally affixed, descending.
Fruit
fleshy; achene compressed, oblique at the apex; embryo with equal cotyledons.
[Greek,
green-bearer.]
Two
species,
the
following
typical one
native
of the
West Indies and continental tropical America, the other of tropical Africa.
1. Chlorophora tinctoria (L.) Gaud. Bot. Freyc. Voy. 508.
1826.
Morus tinctoria L. Sp. PI. 986.
1753.
Broussenetia tinctoria H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 2: 32.
1817.
Broussenetia Plumieri Spreng. Syst. 3: 901.
1826.
Madura tinctoria D. Don.
; Steud. Nomencl. ed. 2, 87.
1841.
Madura xanthoxylon Endl. Gen. Suppl. 4: 34.
1847.
A tree, sometimes reaching a height of 20 m., the twigs light-brown, often
pubescent.
Leaves lanceolate to ovate-elliptic or elliptic, 5-12 cm. long,
1..5-5.3
cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded, subtruncate or cordate at the base,
glabrous
or somewhat pubescent on both
surfaces,
entire
or toothed,
short-
petioled; staminate spikes cylindric, 4-12 cm. long, about 4 mm.
thick, short-
peduncled;
pistillate flowers in subglobose heads 6-10 mm. in diameter; fruit
12-14 mm. in diameter, short-pedinicled.
Hillsides and woodlands, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Jan (according
to Eggers); St. Croix:—Cuba and Jamaica to Trinidad and Curacao; continental tropical
America.
The hard strong durable yellowish wood is used for furniture and in construc-
tion and yields a valuable dye.
Mora.
Palo de mora.
Fustic.
MORACEAE
241
5. ARTOCARPUS Forst. Char. Gen.
101.
1776.
Milky-juiced trees, some witli edible fruits.
Leaves often large, coriaceous,
entire or pinnately lobed, pinnately veined
; stipules various. Flowers monoecious;
the staminate in rather stout cylindric catkin-like spikes; perianth 2-4-lobed or
parted, the
lobes valvate or slightly imbricate; stamen
1, the filament
erect,
pistil wanting.
Pistillate flowers in axillary or terminal, subglobose or ellipsoid
heads, often mixed with peltate bracts, the perianth tubular, with a small opening
at the apex; ovary straight; style entire or 2-lobed; ovule soUtary, pendulous.
Fruit a
large
fleshy
oblong,
cylindric
or globose
receptacle.
Achenes sunk
in the
receptacle.
Seeds without
endosperm; embryo
straight
or incurved;
cotyledons fleshy; radicle short.
[Greek, bread-fruit.]
About 40 species, natives
of Ceylon and the Bast Indies.
Type species: Artocarpus communis Forst.
1. Artocarpus communis Forst. Char. Gen.
102.
1776.
Artocarpus incisa L.
f. Suppl. 411.
1781.
A
tree, 8-12 m.
high,
or sometimes higher, with spreading branches, the
bark gray and smooth.
Leaves 3-9 dm. long, 2.8-4.5 dm. wide, dark green and
often pubescent with rather long scattered hairs on the veins above, paler, sca-
brous,
finely reticulate-veined and somewhat pubescent beneath, cuneate and
entire at the base, deeply pinnately lobed, the lobes acuminate; staminate spikes
dense,
club-like, 2.5-4 dm.
long, the filament broad,
as long as the perianth;
pistiUate heads subglobose, long-peduncled
; fruit large, up to 3 dm. long, sub-
globose or oval, edible.
Hillsides and valleys, spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
St.
Croix:—widely cultivated for its fruit and seeds in
all tropical regions, some
races seedless.
Native of the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
The strong yellowish wood,
with a specific gravity of about 0.49,
is used
for furniture and in coD.struction.
Pan.
Palo de Pan.
Bread Fruit.
Artocarpus integrifolia L., Jack-fruit, East Indian, occasionally planted
in Porto Rico and the \'irgin Islands,
is a large tree with ovate, usually entire,
acute leaves,
its fruit similar to that of the preceding species.
6. CECROPIA L. Syst. ed.
10, 1286.
1759.
Trees with milky juice, often rather sparingly branched, the branches hollow
with septa
at intervals.
Leaves
large,
usually palmately lobed, more or
less
peltate, long-petioled, frequently white-tomentose beneath; stipules large, con-
nate, intrapetiolar.
Flowers dioecious, in dense spikes clustered at the apex of
the
axillary peduncle
within
a
large
spathe-like caducous
bract.
Staminate
spikes
dense,
slender,
cylindric,
perianth
tubular;
stamens
2,
the
filaments
straight, scarcely exserted; rudimentary ovary wanting.
Pistfllate spikes dense,
the perianth tubular with a small opening at the apex; ovary included; style short;
stigma penicillate, exserted; ovule erect, orthotropous.
Fruit oblong-ellipsoid.
Cotyledons equal; radicle superior.
[Greek, referring to the use of the wood in
making wind instruments.]
Some 35 or 40 species, natives of the West Indies
and tropical continental America.
Type species: Cecropia peltata L.
1. Cecropia peltata L. Syst. ed.
10, 1286.
1759.
Ambaiha peltata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 623.
1891.
A tree, 12-20 m.
high, with few spreading branches, the gray bark thin,
smooth.
Leaves orbicular, 3-4 dm. broad, 7-9-lobed, dark green and scabrous
242
MORACEAE
above, densely clothed beneath with white tomentum; petioles thick, 3 dm. or
more long; staminate spikes numerous, about 4 cm. long, 3 mm. thick; short-
peduncled
pistillate spikes 2-6,
sessile, 5-6 cm.
long, much thicker than the
staminate, yellowish.
[Cecropia obtusa of Cook and Collins.]
Hillsides, forests and ravines, Porto Rico, in moist and wet districts, ascending to
at least 900 m.
; Vieques
; St. Thomas
; St. Croix
; St. Jan
:—Cuba and Jamaica to Trinidad
also in northern South America.
The branches are hollow, the old trunks solid, the soft
wood nearly white.
Llagrumo.
Trumpet-tree.
Trumpet-wood.
7. DORSTENIA [Plum.] L. Sp. PI. 121.
1753.
Acaulescent herbs.
Leaves basal, entire or lobed, often membranous, the
stipules lateral,
distinct, usually persistent.
Flowers monoecious, imbedded in
the usually long-peduncled solitary, flat, simple or lobed, androgynous receptacle.
Perianths more or less connate and adnate to the receptacle.
Staminate flowers
with 1-3 stamens, the filaments at
first inflexed, becoming straight.
Pistillate
flowers more deeply imbedded in the receptacle than the staminate, the mouth
of the perianth almost closed; ovary included; style lateral or excentric,
bifid;
ovule pendulous.
Fruits small, at length protruded from the
pits.
Endocarp
crustaceous;
cotyledons
contorted.
[Named
in
honor
of Theodor
Dorsten,
professor of medicine at Marburg, Germany, died
1539.]
About 50 species, of
tropical America and Africa, one in Asia.
Type species
: Dorstenia contrajerva L.
1. Dorstenia contrajerva L. Sp.
PI. 121.
1753.
An acaulescent herb with long-petioled leaves, the rhizome erect, 2.5-5.5
cm.
long.
Leaves
oblong-ovate,
deltoid-ovate,
oval
or
orbicular
in
outline,
deeply lobed or entire, 6-20 cm. long, 7-22 cm. broad, glabrous or with scattered
hairs on both sides, the petioles 0.8-2.5 dm. long; receptacles entire or lobed,
peltate,
1.5-3 cm.
long,
1.5-3.5 cm. broad, pubescent on the back, the scape
slender, 0.7-3 dm. long.
Rich woods, Porto Rico:—St. Martin; Guadeloupe, Martinique;
St. Vincent; Gre-
nada; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Tusilla.
Castilla elastica Cerv., Central American Rubber, has been planted oc-
casionally hi Porto Rico.
It is a large tree, the sap milky, containing caoutchouc,
the pubescent leaves elliptic-obovate, 2-5 dm. long, acuminate, short-petioled, the
monoecious flowers capitate, both stamhiate and pistillate in the same clusters.
Morus nigra L., Mora, Black Mulberry, native of Asia, has been planted
for its fruit in Porto Rico.
It is a tree, sometimes up to 15 meters high, with
broadly ovate, serrate leaves 15 cm. long or less, occasionally somewhat lobed,
glabrous when mature; the monoecious flowers are
in drooping spikes 3-6 cm.
long, the staminate ones with a 4-parted perianth and 4 stamens, the pistillate
with a similar perianth, a sessile ovary and 2 linear stigmas.
The
fruit
is a
dense fleshy oblong purple or nearly black spike 2-3 cm. long, delicious.
Morus multicaulis Perr., Chinese, experimentally planted in Porto Rico,
its leaves a food for silk worms,
is a shrub or small tree, with leaves similar to
those of the Black Mulberry but rougher, the flowers similar, the black sweet
fruit smaller.
Morus alba L., White Mulberry, European and Asiatic, planted in Porta
Rico and St. Croix, difl'ers in having white fruit about 2 cm. long.
Brosimum guianense Grosourdy, recorded by the author as Porto Rican,.
called Gateado, has i;ot been identified by subsequent botanists.
URTICACEAE
243
Family 3.
URTICACEAE Rchb.
Nettle Family.
Annual or perennial herbs, shrubs, or occasionally trees, sometimes armed
with stinging hairs, often with dot-like or linear cystoliths.
Leaves alternate
or opposite, simple, entire, toothed or sometimes lobed; those of a pair often
unequal.
Stipules
usually
present.
Flowers
small,
greenish,
dioecious,
monoecious or polygamous, in axillary, simple or compound, often congested
cymes, or in globose clusters, the clusters sessile in the axils or at the nodes
or along the rachis of a spike.
Calyx 2-5-cleft, or of distinct sepals.
Petals
none.
Stamens as many as the calyx-lobes or sepals and opposite them,
reduced to staminodia in the pistillate flowers, or none; filaments distinct;
anthers opening lengthwise.
Ovary superior,
1-celled; style simple; ovule
soUtary, erect or ascending, orthotropous.
Fruit small, an achene.
Endo-
sperm oily, usually not copious; embryo straight, with thick flat, often broad
cotyledons.
About 40 genera and 550 species of wide geographic distribu-
tion.
Flowers without involucres.
Pistillate perianth 2-5-parte(i.
Shrubs or small trees.
1-
iVrera.
EEcrbs
Leaves alternate; plants armed with stinging hairs.
2. Fleurya.
Leaves opposite; plants without stinging hairs.
3.
Pilea.
Pistillate perianth tubular, 2-4-toothed or entire.
.
„
x.
Stigma persistent.
f- Boehmerta.
Stigma: deciduous.
5-
Pouzolzia.
Pistillate flowers involucrate by 2 bracts.
o- Houssena^
1. URERA Gaud. Bot. Voy. Freyc. 496.
1830.
Shrubs, sometimes climbing, or trees, often with stinging hairs, the alternate
petioled leaves entire or toothed, the cystoliths small, dot-like, linear, or some-
times wanting.
Stiimles
free, or more or
less connate.
Flowers dioecious or
sometimes monoecious.
Panicles dichotomous, cymose or irregularly racemo.=e.
Staminate flowers with a 4- or 5-parted calyx ; stamens 4 or 5; ovary rudimentary.
Pistillate calyx of 4 nearly equal lobes, or the two outer small; stigma penicillate,
persistent; ovule erect.
Achene straight or oblique, enveloped in the succulent
persistent perianth; pericarp thinly crust?ceous; seed with httle endospen;i or
none; cotyledons broad,
flat.
[Name un'.-xplained, probably from uro, to burn,
alluding to the stinging hairs.]
About 40 species, natives of tropical America;
Africa, the Mascarene Islands and Pacific Islands, the Porto Rico species known
as Ortiga.
Type species: Urtica baccifera L.
Leaves coarsely dentate: fruit 3-5 mm
long.
1.
f7
baccifera.
Leaves crenate-dentate, fruit 1-1.5 mm. long.
Leaves broadlv ovate to orbicular-ovate, usually cordate at the
base: flowers dioecious.
2.
(./. caracasana.
Leaves
oblong-elliptic
to
ovate,
usually rovmded
at
the
base;
flowers monoecious.
3.
U. chlorocarpa.
1. Urera baccifera (L.) Gaud.; Wedd. Ann. Sc. Nat. II. 18: 199.
1852.
Urtica baccifera L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 1398.
1763.
A shrub 1.5-4 m.
high, the stems usually armed with rather stout sharp,
often helmet-shaped, brownish prickles 1.5-7 mm.
long.
Leaves oblong-ovate
to round-ovate,
1-3.5 dm. long, 0.6-2.4 dm. broad, acute or acuminate at the
apex, rounded and sometimes subcordate at the base, dentate to coarsely sinuate-
dentate, glabrous or with sharp-pointed, often transparent, deciduous stinging
244
URTICACEAE
hairs above, usually armed on the veins beneath with rather stout straight or
recurved
stinging
hairs;
petioles 2-20 cm.
long; cymes much-branched,
the
branches pinkish or pinkish red, often armed with numerous, slender sharp hairs;
flowers dioecious; fruit white or rose-colored, 4-5 mm. long.
Woodlands and forests at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; St. Thomas:
Cuba;
Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
St.
Vincent;
Grenada;
Tobago;
Trinidad;
Central and
South America.
The plant is painfiUly stinging.
2. Urera caracasana (Jacq.) Gaud.; Griseb. FI. Br. W.
I. 154.
1859.
Urtica caracasana Jacq. Hort. Schoenb.
3: 71.
1798.
A shrub sometimes 6 m.
high, the young twigs armed with sharp slender
stinging hairs.
Leaves ovate to orbicidar-ovate, acuminate at the apex, usually
cordate at the base with a broad open sinus, crenate-dentate, scabrous above,
more or
less soft pubescent beneath especially when young and with slender
stinging hairs on the veins; petioles 2. .5-14 cm. long, pubescent, often armed with
scattered stinging hairs when young; cymes regularly dichotomous; flowers dioe-
cious or sometimes monoecious; fruit vermilion-colored when ripe, 1-1.5 mm. long,
0.8-1 mm. broad.
Primeval forest, Sierra de Nagiiabo:—Jamaica; Guadeloupe; Martinique; St. Lucia;
St. Vincent; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
3. Urera chlorocarpa Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 293.
1899.
A shrub 2-4 m. high, the older branches brown, often glabrous or nearlj
so,
the twigs more or less appressed pilose, usu.allj with sharp scattered transparent
hairs intermixed.
Leaves oblong-elliptic to ovate or oval, 7-23 cm. long, 3.5-12
cm. broad, acute cr acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base, crenate-dentate,
glabrous or A\ith scattered hairs above,
soft pubescent beneath when young and
with sharp scattered transparent hairs on the veins;
petioles 2-13 cm.
long;
cymes dichotomous, i.5-2.5 cm. long; flowers monoecious, the staminate short-
petioled; fruit short-ovoid or obliquely ovoid, 1-1.5 mm. long,
1 mm. broad.
Primeval forests near Adjuntas and on the Sierra de Naguabo.
Endemic.
Urera elata (Sw.) Griseb., aspecies apparently endemic in Jamaica, hss been
recorded from
St. Croix by Grisebach and by Eggers; it
is not known to exist
there now.
2. FLEURYA Gaud. Bot. Voy. Freyc. 497.
1830.
Annual herbs, mostly with stinging hairs, alternate petioled dentate leaves,
and minute clustered monoecious or dioecious flowers.
Staminate flowers with
a 4-5-parted
i^erianth, 4
or 5 stamens and
a rudimentary
ovary.
Pistillate
flowers with 4, more or less unequal, imbricated perianth-segments, a somewhat
oblique
ovary,
the stigma
papillose;
ovule
erect.
Fruit an
oblique
achene.
[Commemorates
J.
F.
Fleury, French
botanist.]
About 8
species,
of tropical
regions.
Type species: Fleurya paniculata Gaud.
1. Fleurya aestuans (L.) Gaud.; Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 154.
1859.
Urtica aestuans L. Sp.
PI. ed.
2, 1397.
1763.
Urtica latifolia Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 113.
1792.
Erect or ascending, simple or little-branched, 3-12 dm. high, the stinging
hairs copious or few.
Leaves thin, ovate or ovate-orbicular, 7-17 cm. long, 2.5-
12 cm. broad, coarsely and sharply dentate, acute or acuminate at the apex,
rounded or subcordate at the base, the petioles 1-12 cm. long; panicles androgyn-
URTICACEAE
245
ous, shorter than or eqlialUng the leaves, slender-ped uncled; achene ovate, com-
pressed, 1.2-1.6 mm. long.
On rocks
walls and waste grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques: St. Thomas; St. Croix; St.
Jan- Tortola:—Bahamas to Trinidad; continental tropical America; also recorded from
the Old World tropics.
Pica-pica.
West Indian Nettle.
3. PILEA Lindl. Coll.
vl-
4-
1821.
Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes shrubby at the base, with opposite
petioled mostly 3-nerved leaves, connate stipules, and small monoecious or dioe-
cious flowers in axillary cymose or glomerate clusters.
Staminate flowers mostly
4-parted (sometimes 2- or 3-parted)
; stamens as many as the perianth-segments,
the ovary rudimentary.
Pistillate flowers 3-part'ed, the segments in most species
unequal, each subtending a staminodium in the form of a concave scale; ovary
straight; stigma sessile, penicillate.
Achene compressed, smooth or scabridulous,
more or less incompletely enveloped by the persistent perianth-segments.
Seed-
coat thin; endosperm scanty or none; cotyledons broad.
[Latin, a felt cap, from
the shape of the larger sepal of the fertile flower which in some species partly
covers the achene.]
About 190 species, chiefly in the tropics, most abundant in
tropical America.
Type species: Pilea muscosa Lindl.
Leaves entire.
Leaves 1-nerved or faintly pinnately vemed; cystoliths of the
upper siu-face linear, conspicuous.
Stem erect or diffuse
; species of dry situations.
Herbaceous slender species.
Leaves fleshv.
1.
P. microphylla.
Leaves membranous.
2.
P. tenerrima.
Bushy, very fleshy.
3.
P. Margareltae.
Stems creeping in wet situations.
4.
P. herniarioides.
Leaves .3-nerved; cystoliths minute, inconspicuous.
Diminutive species with rhombic leaves 3-7 mm. long,
.3-5 mm. broad.
5.
P. multicaulis.
Tall species with ovate much larger leaves.
Sparmglv pubescent or glabrate; stipules triangular,
caducous.
6.
P- Parielaria.
Pilose; stipules semi-amplexicaul, persistent.
7.
P. yunquensis.
Leaves dentate, crenate or incised.
Leaves pinnately vemed.
8.
P. Krugu.
Leaves 3-5-nerved at or a little above the base.
Inflorescence
short,
about
as
long
as
the
petioles
or
shorter; creeping species: leaves orbicular.
9.
P. nummulartaefolia.
Inflorescence longer than the petioles, often as long as
the leaves.
Leaves
orbicular,
coarsely
crenate,
3
cm.
long
or
less; stem creeping.
10.
P. repens.
Leaves ovate, elliptic, lanceolate or linear.
Leaves acute or obtuse, crenate or dentate.
Plants low, slender, creeping; leaves 0.8-5 cm
long.
11-
P- inaequalis.
Plants tall, stout; leaves larger.
Leaves cimeate at the base.
12.
P. Richardi.
Leaves rounded or subcordate at the base.
Leaf-margm crenate-dentate.
13.
P. oblusaia.
Leaf-margin double toothed.
14.
P. sanctae-critcis.
Leaves long-acuminate.
Both
staminate
and
pistillate
inflorescence
paniculate.
15.
P. leptophylla.
Staminate
inflorescence
capitate,
pistillate
paniculate.
16.
P. semidentala.
1. Pilea microphylla (L.) Liebm. Vid. Selsk. Skr. V. 2: 296.
1851.
Parictaria inicrophijlla L. Syst. ed.
10. 1308.
1759.
Pilea microphylla trianthemoides Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 155.
1859.
Adicea microphylla Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 622.
1891.
Adicea microphylla trianthemoides Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 622.
1891.
246
URTICACEAE
Glabrous, dioecious or monoecious, the fleshy stems erect or ascending or
sometimes creeping at the base, 2-20 cm. high,
Leaves of a pair often unequal,
the blades small, often crowded, obovate, oblanceolate or elliptic, 1.5-10 mm.
long, 0.7-6 mm. broad, occasionally larger, acute or acutish at the apex, acute
at the base, l-nerved, entire, the cystoliths linear, prominent above, the petioles
filiform, shorter
than
the
blades;
flower-clusters
very
small,
usually
sessile,
shorter than the leaves; sepals ovate, very thin, acutish; achene oblong, lenticular.
[? Urtica portulacina of Krebs.]
Moist banks, rocks and walls at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas; St. Croix;
St.
Jan;
Tortola; Anegada:—Florida; Bermuda; West
Indies;
tropical America.
Consists of several races, some of them commonly planted for orna-
ment.
Madre selva.
Gale of Wind.
Artillery Plant.
Verdolaguxlla.
2. Pilea tenerrima Miquel, Linnaea 26: 219.
1854.
Stems very slender or nearly filiform, usually tufted, prostrate or nearly so,
slightly fleshy, 3-10 cm. long, more or less branched.
Leaf-blades suborbicular
or obovate, 3-6 mm. long, rounded or obtuse at the apex, obliquely narrowed or
obtuse
at the
base,
l-nerved,
usually
thin and
flaccid,
glabrous,
entire,
the
slender petioles 2-5 mm. long; flowers and achenes similar to those of the pre-
ceding species of which
it
is, perhaps, a slender, small-leaved race.
[?
Urtica
serpyllacea of Krebs.]
Banks and wells at lower elevations in dry districts of Porto Rico; Mona;
St. Jan;
St. Thomas;
Tortola; Anegada:—Bahamas;
Florida; Cuba; Jamaica; Curacao; South
America.
3. Pilea Margarettae Britton, sp. nov.
? Pilea microphylla succiilenta Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 155.
1859.
A low glabrous bushy fleshy herb, the stems erect or ascending.
Leaves of a
pair unequal, the blades broadly oval to orbicular, 2-6 mm. long, 1.8-6 mm. broad,
thick, flrm in texture, rounded at the apex, acutish or rounded at the base,
1-
nerved, entire, the cystoliths linear, prominent above, the petioles filiform,
1.5
mm. long or less; flower clusters often shorter than the petioles, sessile or short-
peduncled.
Limestone rocks and cliffs, Porto Rico
; Mona
; Anegada
:—Cuba ; Jamaica. Type from
rock crevices, top of a limestone
hill near Coamo Springs, Porto Rico (N. L. Britton,
E. G. Britton and Margaret S. Brown, Mar.
14, 1922).
4. Pilea herniarioides (Sw.) Lindl. Coll. Bot. under pi.
4.
1821.
Urtica herniarioides Sw. Vet. Akad. Handl. Stockh. 8: 65.
1787.
Pilea deltoides Liebm. Vid. Selsk. Skr. V. 2: 298.
1851.
Pilea microphylla herniarioides Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 16': 106, in part.
1869.
Adicea microphylla herniarioides Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 622.
1891.
Stems
filiform, short,
little branched, usually prostrate or creeping, often
rooting at the nodes.
Leaves of a pair nearly equal, the blades minute, broadly
ovate, deltoid or suborbicular, 1-3 mm. long and broad, glabrous or with few
long hairs on the upper surface and margin; petioles about
1 mm. long; inflores-
cence usually sessile in the upper axils or among the terminal leaves
; pedicels of
the stamina'te flowers up to 2 mm.
long, the perianth
1.2-1.5 mm.
long, the
pistillate perianth smaller; achene ovate-elliptic, 0.6-0.7 mm. long, more or less
muriculate, the margins somewhat transparent.
Bank of stream. La Juanita near Las Marias, and base of cliff above Corozal, Porto
Rico- St
Croix (according
to Fawcett & Rendle)
;
Vii-gin Gorda:—Cuba; Hispamola;
Jamaica; also recorded from Guadeloupe, Martinique and Costa Rica.
5. Pilea multicaulis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 295.
1899.
A small glabrous suffrutescent monoecious herb, the stems erect or ascending.
Leaves of a pair often unequal, the blades ovate to orbicular, 3-7 mm. long, 3-5
URTICACEAE
247
mm. broad, obtuse at the apex, obtuse or rounded at the base, 3-nerved, the
margin entire
; cystoliths minute, rather prominent above, inconspicuous beneath
;
petioles very slender, 2-6 mm. long; stipules semiorbicular, 0.4-0.7 mm. long;
inflorescence glomerate, the
pistillate sessile or short-peduncled, the staminate
with a peduncle up to 4 mm. long; achenes ovate, 0.5 mm. long.
Eastern Porto Rico, collected only by Schwanecke.
Endemic.
6. Pilea Parietaria (L.) Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bot. 2: 48.
1856.
Urtica Parietaria L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 985.
1753.
Urtica ciliaris L. Syst. ed. 10. 1266.
1759.
Pilea ciliaris Wedd. Ann. Sci. Nat. III.
18: 209.
1852.
Pilea Wydleri Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bot. 2: 49.
1856.
Pilea ciliaris Rivoriae Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 161; 114.
1869.
Pilea- ciliaris Wydleri Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 161; 115.
1869.
Adicea ciliaris Kuntze. Rev. Gen. PI. 622.
1891.
Pilea Parietaria Wydleri Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 201.
1905.
Monoecious, suffrutescent, with glabrous ascending stems up to 3 dm. or
higher.
Leaves
of a
pair often somewhat unequal,
the blades membranous,
narrowly ovate to broadly ovate, 2.5-9 cm. long, 1-4.3 cm. broad, acute or acu-
minate at the apex, obtuse or rounded and occasionally somewhat subcordate at
the
base.
3-nerved,
often
pilose above with
scattered
pellucid
hairs,
usually
pilose on the veins beneath, the margin entire,
ciliate, the cystoliths small and
inconspicuous
above,
usually
prominent
beneath;
petioles
3-5.5
cm.
long;
glabrous or sparingly pilose; stipules triangular, caducous, 1-2 mm. long, brown;
cymes
1 or 2 in the axils, the peduncles often longer than the petioles; achenes
ovate-elliptic, 0.6-0.7 mm. long, smooth.
Moist shaded situations, banks and forests, Porto Rico, ascending to higher eleva-
tions:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Saba to Grenada.
7. Pilea yunquensis (Urban) Britton & Wilson, sp. nov.
Pilea Parietaria yunquensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 295.
1899.
Pilea Parietaria yunquensis brevinodis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 295.
1899.
Suffrutescent, the stems
erect or ascending,
1-2 dm.
or higher,
densely
pilose.
Leaves of a pair somewhat unequal, the blades ovate, 3.5-8 cm. long,
2.5-5 cm. broad, acute or acuminate at the apex, rounded and often somewhat
Inequilateral
at
the
base,
3-nerved, membranous,
pilose on both
sides
with
pellucid hairs, the margin entire, ciliate; cystoliths small, rather inconspicuous;
petioles 1.5-4 cm. long, pilose; stipules semi-amplexicaul, persistent, white, 2.5-3
mm. long; achene ovate, smooth.
Forests of the eastern mountains of Porto Rico at higher elevations.
Endemic.
8. PileaKrugiiUrban, Symb. Ant. 1:298.
1899.
Glabrous, monoecious, the rootstocks up to 8 dm.
long, creeping among
mosses on tree trunks and over rocks, the stems erect or ascending, 1.5-3 dm. high.
Leaves of each pair usually very unequal, the blades membranous, pinnately
veined, serrate, the cystoliths linear; larger leaf-blades elliptic-lanceolate, lance-
olate or obovate-elliptic, 5-12 cm.
long,
1.5-4 cm.
broad, acuminate to long-
acuminate at the apex, acute or obtuse and often inequilateral at the base, the
petioles 0.5-1.5 cm. long, the smaller blades lanceolate, elliptic or broadly obovate,
7-5 cm.
long, the
petioles 0.5-6 mm.
long;
stipules caducous; inflorescence
capitate, many-flowered, axillary, sessile or short-peduncled; shorter or slightly
longer than the petioles; achenes ovate, 1.3 mm. long.
Mountain forests of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
248
URTICACEAE
9.
Pilea nummulariaefolia (Sw.) Wedd. Ann. Sci. Nat. III. 18: 225.
1852.
Urtica nummulariaefolia Sw. Vet. Acad. Handl. Stockh. 8: 63.
1787.
Adicea nummulariaefolia Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL
62.3.
1891.
Urtica rotundifolia Sesse & M05. Fl. Max. ed.
2, 214.
1894.
Not Savigny
1797.
Stem elongated,
creeping, rooting at the nodes,
pilose, the branches erect
or ascending.
Leaves of each pair about tiie same size and form, broadly oval
to orbicular, 5-20 mm. long, occasionally truncate at the ])ase, 3-nerved, hispid
on both sides with transparent hairs, crenate, the cystoliths linear; petioles 3-15
mm. long,
pilose; stipules oval to round-oval,
1..5-2.5 mm. long; staminate in-
florescence about half as long as the leaves, the calyx-lobes elliptic, 2-2.3 mm.
long, 1-1.2 mm. broad, pilose, the pedicels 3-4 mm. long; pistillate inflorescence
axillary or terminal, equalling or shorter than the petioles, the flowers subsessile
or pedicellate; achenes ovoid, 0.5-0.6 mm. long.
On shaded banks and rocks and in forests, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas; St.
Croix:—Bermuda;
Cuba;
Jamaica;
Hispaniola.
Sometim.es
planted
for
ornament.
Yerba de Culebra.
Creeping Charley.
10.
Pilea repens (Sw.) Wedd. Ann.
Sci. Nat. III. 18: 220.
1852.
Urtica repens Sw. Vet. Acad. Handl. Stockh. 8: 61.
1787.
Adicea repens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 622.
1891.
Stems creeping, often rooting at the nodes, the branches erect or ascending,
pilose.
Leaves of a pair often unequal, the blades ovate to suborbicular, occasion-
ally somewhat obovate, 0.8-3.5 cm. long, 0.7-3 cm. broad, rounded or obtuse at
the apex, rounded at the base, 3-nerved, glabrous or pilose with few scattered
pellucid hairs above,
often sparingly pilose on the veins beneath, the margin
crenate or crenate-serrate
; cystoliths linear, prominent on both surfaces; petioles
slender, 0.5-2.5 cm. long; inflorescence long-peduncled, sometimes longer than
the leaves; achene ovate, 0.7-0.8 mm. long, 0.5 mm. broad.
Shaded rocky situations at lower elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico:—Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe.
11. Pilea inaequalis (Juss.) Wedd. Ann. Sci. Nat. III. 18: 229.
1852.
Urtica inaequalis Juss.; Poir, in Lam. Encyc. Suppl. 4: 222.
1816.
Urtica collina Bertero; Spreng. Syst. 3: 839.
1826.
Pilea chamaedrys Wedd. Ann. Sci. Nat. III. 18: 229.
1852.
Adicea chamaedrys Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL 622.
1891.
Adicea inaequalis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL 622.
1891.
Stems erect or ascending, mostly less than 1.5 dm. high, pubescent, the root-
stocks slender.
Leaves of each pair usually unequal, the blades ovate to oval,
occasionally obovate, 0.8-5 cm. long, 0.5-3 cm. broad, obtuse or rounded at the
apex, acute or rounded at the base, glabrous or nearly so on both sides, the margin
coarsely crenate-serrate to the middle or below, the cystoliths linear;
petioles
3-18 mm. long, pubescent; stipules ovate to orbicular, 2 mm. long; inflorescence
in the axils of the upper leaves, the peduncles often as long as the leaves, the
flowers short-pedicelled or subsessile; achenes oval to round-oval, about
1 mm.
long.
Moist
hillsides and
forests
of Porto
Rico,
ascending
to
higher
elevations;
St.
Thomas:—Janaaica; also recorded from the Lesser Antilles.
12. Pilea Richardi Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 319.
1907.
Dioecious,
perennial,
the
stems
solitary,
erect,
sparingly
short-pilose.
Leaves of a pair subequal, the blades membranous, obovate or oval-elliptic, 6-9
cm. long, 3.5-4 cm.
broad, obtuse at the apex, cuneate at the base, sparingly
pilose above, glabrous beneath, 3-nerved above the base, the margin dentate-
URTICACEAE
249
serrate,
short-ciliate, the cystoliths linear;
petioles 1-2 cm.
long,
short-pilose;
stipules suborbicular, subtruncate at the apex, brown; pistillate inflorescence as
long as the leaves, the peduncles 3-4 mm. thick, the heads 6-15-flowered; flowers
sessile or subsessile, the lobes unequal; achene short-ovate or obhquely-ovate,
0.9 mm. long, brown, not muriculate.
St. Thomas, collected by L. C. Richard, according to Urban.
Known to us only
from the description.
Endemic.
13. Pilea obtusata Liebm. Vid. Selsk. Skr. V. 2: 300.
1851.
Pilea montana Wedd. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
III. 18: 228.
1852.
Pilea pubescens Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.I.
159.
1859.
Not Liebm.
Pilea pubescens montana Wedd. in DC. Prodr.
161; 153.
1869.
Adicea obtusata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 623.
1891.
Stems. erect, 1-3 dm. or higher,
pilose.
Leaves of each pair more or less
unequal, the blades broadly ovate, 3-9.5 cm. long, 2-7 cm. broad, obtuse or acut-
ish at the apex, rounded or obtuse and often subcordate at the base, 3-nerved,
glabrous or pilose above, pilose beneath especially on the veins, the margin coarsely
crenate-dentate, the cystoliths linear; petioles 0.5-4 cm. long: stipules broadly
ovate or orbicular, 2-3 mm. long; cj-mes long-peduncled
; staminate flowers sub-
sessile, the perianth 1.5 mm. long; pistillate flowers sessile or subsessile; achene
elliptic-ovate or ovate, 0.7-0.8 mm. long, 0.4-0.5 mm. broad, minutely muriculate.
Forests, wooded vallevs and ravines; in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico, ascending
to the higher elevations;—Montserrat; Martinique; erroneously recorded from Jamaica.
14. Pilea sanctae-crucis Liebm.
Vid. Selsk. Skr. Y. 2: 301.
1851.
Adicea sanctae-crucis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 623.
1891.
Dioecious or rarely monoecious, the stems erect.
Leaves of each pair sub-
equal, the blades membranous, or chartaceous, ovate or ovate-elliptic, 3-9 cm.
long, 2.5-7 cm. broad, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, rounded and often
subcordate at the base, glabrous or sparingly pilose above, pilose on the nerves
beneath, 3-5-nerved a little above the base, the margin doubly toothed, the cys-
toliths linear; petioles 1-4 cm. long; stipules orbicular or obovate-orbicular, 4-7
mm. long; persistent; inflorescence long-peduncled, paniculate, many-headed, or
the staminate sometimes raceme-like and few-headed;
achene ovate, 7-9 mm.
long.
[Pilea grandis and P. semidentata of Eggers, not Wedd.
; ? Urtica betulifolia
ofKrebs.]
Sierra de Luquillo (according to Urban); banks and forests,
St. Thomas; St. Croix;
St. Jan; Tortola.
Endemic.
15. Pilea leptophylla Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 297.
1899.
Stems erect, glabrous.
Leaves of a pair equal or nearly so, the blades mem-
branous, ovate or ovate-elliptic, 8-15 cm. long, 5-7 cm. broad, acuminate to long-
acuminate at the apex, rounded or subcordate at the base, 5-nerved, pilose when
young, the margins dentate or undulate-crenate. short-ciUate, the cystoliths linear;
petioles. 0..5-1. 5 cm.
long;
stipules ovate, 7-8 mm.
long, brown; inflorescence
long-peduncled, often longer than the leaves,
its branches spreading; staminate
flowers with
pedicels
1-2 mm.
long,
the
perianth-lobes
triangular;
pistillate
flowers subsessfle; achene short-ovate, 0.7 mm. long.
Cerro de Pandiira, Sierra de Yabucoa.
Endemic.
16. Pilea semidentata (Juss.) Wedd. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
III. 18: 215.
185:'.
Urtica semidentata Juss.; Poir. in Lam. Encyc. Suppl. 4: 222.
1816.
Pilea elegans Wedd. Ann. Sci. Nat. III. 18: 215.
1852.
Pilea portoricensis Wedd. in DC. Prodr.
16': 143.
1869.
250
URTICACEAE
Pilea elegans latifolia Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 16': 141.
1869.
Pilea elegans minor Wedd. loc. cit. 141.
1869.
Pilea semidentata major Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 16': 142.
1869.
Adicea elegans Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 622.
1891.
Adicea semidentata Kuntze, Rev. Pi. Gen. 2: 623.
1891.
Urtica capitata Sesse & M09. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 214.
1894.
Not L.
Pilea semidentata minor Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 297.
1899.
Pilea semidentata nana Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 297.
1899.
Stems erect, 1-4 dm. or more high, glabrous.
Leaves of a pair equal or
sometimes unequal; blades various, narrowly oblong, oblong-lanceolate, oblong-
obovate, lanceolate or ovate, 2-16 cm. long, 0..5-6 cm. broad, acuminate at the
apex, narrowing at the base into the petiole or rarely rounded, 3-5-nerved, glab-
rous on
both
sides,
the
margin
serrate,
denticulate,
or
incised-serrate,
the
cystoliths linear; petioles 0.6-5 cm. long; stipules elliptic to oval or ovate, 0.6-1.6
cm. long, persistent; inflorescence long-peduncled, often longer than the leaves,
the staminate capitate, the pistillate with spreading branches; achene narrowly
ovate, 0.8-0.9 mm. long, 0.5 mm. broad.
Shaded banks and cliffs and forests at middle and higher elevations In wet or moist
districts, Porto Rico; Hispaniola; Saba;
St.
Eustatiiis;
St.
Kitts; Guadeloupe; Domin-
ica; Martinique.
The species consists of many races, with leaves
differing in
size and
shape.
Pilea portoricensis Wedd., the broadest-leaved race, inhabits banks at about 600
m. altitude, between Guayama and Cayey.
Pilea grandifolia
(L.) Blume
[Pilea grandis Wedd.], recorded by Weddell
(DC. Prodr.
16': 143) as from Jamaica and St. Thomas, is confined to Jamaica,
where there is a parish of St. Thomas.
Pilea ciliata
(Sw.) Blume, recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas,
is
also
endemic in Jamaica [Urtica ciliata Sw.].
4. BOEHMERIA Jacq. Enum.
9, 31.
1760.
Perennial herbs, shrubs or sometimes small
trees, without stinging hairs.
Leaves opposite or alternate, often long-petioled, toothed, 3-nerved.
Stipules
generally free or joined only at the base, deciduous.
Flowers small, monoecious
or dioecious,
in globose clusters, the clusters generally unisexual,
sessile in the
axils or at the nodes or along the rachis of a spike.
Staminate flowers 4-parted
(rarely 3- or 5-parted) or the calyx of 4 distinct sepals; stamens as many as the
calyx-lobes
or
sepals;
ovary
rudimentary.
Pistillate
calyx
tubular
or
urn-
shaped,
2-4-toothed
or
entire.
Ovary enveloped by the
perianth,
sessile
or
stalked
; ovule erect
; stigma subulate, papillose or hairy along one side, persistent
in
fruit.
Achene enclosed by the withering-persistent
pistillate
calyx.
Seeds
small;
testa thin; cotyledons
elliptic or ovate.
[In honor of Georg Rudolph
Boehmer,
1723-1803,
professor
in
Wittenberg.]
About 50
species, mostly of
warm regions.
Type species; Boehmeria ramiflora Jacq.
Inflorescence elongate, glomerate-spicate; plant erect.
1. B. cylindrica.
Inflorescence of small a.xillary cliisters; plant traUing.
2. B. repens.
1. Boehmeria cylindrica (L.) Sw. Prodr. 34.
1788.
Urtica cylindrica L. Sp.
PI. 984.
1753.
Boehmeria littoralis Sw. Prodr. 34.
1788.
Boehmeria cylindrica brachystachys Wedd.
in DC.
Prodr.
16': 202.
1869.
Ramium cylindricum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL 632.
1891.
Perennial, erect, 2-10 dm.
tall, the stem simple or branched, pubescent or
nearly glabrous.
Leaves opposite or alternate, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate
URTICACEAE
251
or ovate-lanceolate, 5-17 cm. long, 1-7 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded,
acutish or occasionally subcordate at the base, coarsely dentate, often more or
less pubescent, especially beneath, petioled; flower-clusters sessile, dense, forming
elongated interrupted spikes on slender branches; achene suborbicular, 1-1.2 mm.
broad, pointed, often oblique at the base.
Wet or moist soil at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Bermuda; Cuba;
Jamaica; Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental America.
2. Boehmeria repens (Griseb.) Wedd. in DC. Prodr. 16': 201.
1869.
Pouzolzia repens Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad.
II. 8: 174.
1860.
Pilea Swartzii Griseb. loc.
cit.
174.
1860.
Not Wedd. 1852.
Boehmeria repens major Wedd.
loc.
cit. 201.
1869.
Ramium repens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 633.
1891.
Stems slender, trailing, 2-8 dm. long, pubescent.
Leaves ovate, 0.8-4.5 cm.
long, 0.6-2.5 cm. broad, those of a pair usually very unequal, acute or acuminate
at the apex, rounded or acutish at the base,
more or
less pubescent on both
surfaces with long
stiff hairs,
petioled, dentate; flower-clusters small,
axillary;
•achenes ovate, 1.5-2 mm. long,
1.2 mm. broad, pointed.
Moist forests, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola.
Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaud., Ramie, a native of tropical Asia, has been
cultivated in Porto Rico for its fiber.
It is a shrubby perennial, about
1 m. high,
with alternate ovate serrate leaves up to 2 dm. long, white-tomentulose beneath.
{Urtica nivea L.]
Boehmeria macrophylla
(Thunb.)
Sieb. & Zucc,
a Japanese
species,
was recorded by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas, apparently in error.
[Urtica
macrophylla Thunb.]
5. POUZOLZIA Gaud. Bot. Voy. Freyc. 503.
1830.
Herbs or shrubs, with
alternate,
rarely opposite,
usually
entire, 3-nerved,
petioled
leaves.
Flowers
monoecious,
rarely
dioecious,
in
axillary
clusters.
Staminate flowers with a 4- or 5-lobed or 4-.or 5-parted (rarely 3-parted) calyx;
stamens as many as the calyx-lobes
; ovary rudimentary.
Pistillate calyx tubular,
2-4-toothed
; ovary completely enclosed by the perianth
; stigma usually linear
or filiform, hairy on one side, not persistent in fruit
; ovule erect.
Achene enclosed
by the withering-persistent pistillate calyx.
Seed small; testa thin; endosperm
scant or none; cotyledons ovate.
[Named in honor of Pierre Casimir Marie de
Pouzolz,
1785-1858.]
About
60
species,
natives
of
tropical
regions.
Type
species
; Parietaria laevigata Poir.
1. Pouzolzia occidentaUs (Liebm.) Wedd. Arch. Mus. Paris 8: 410.
1856.
Levcococcus occidentaUs Liebm. Vid. Selsk. Skr. Y. 2: 311.
1851.
A shrub 3 m. or higher, with pubescent twigs.
Leaves membranous, elliptic
to ovate, 5-14 cm. long, 2.5-7 cm, broad, acuminate at the apex, cuneate or round-
ed
at the
base; pubescent above with
stiff scattered
hairs,
softly pubescent
beneath at least when young; stipules lanceolate, acuminate, pilose; heads few-
flowered;
staminate
flowers
sessile
or
short-pedicelled,
the
lobes
pubescent;
pistillate calyx pubescent; stigma deciduous; achene ovate.
Valley of the Coamo River at El Tendal, Porto Rico; Vieques:—Central and South
America.
252
URTICACEAE
6. ROUSSELIA Gaud. Bot. Voy. Freyc. 503.
1830.
A low difTuse perennial herb, without stinging hairs, the leaves alternate,
entire,
the
small
axillary
flowers
monoecious.
Staminate
flowers
in
small
racemes, the calyx 4-parted, the stamens 4, the ovary rudimentary.
Pistillate
flowers geminate, 2-bracted,
sessile, the bracts foliaceous; calyx ovoid, dentate;
ovary straight; style filiform, curved, plumose on one side.
Achene flat, ovate,
acute, surrounded by the bracts.
Seed with a membranous testa and scanty
endosperm.
[Commemorates
H.
F.
A.
de
Eoussel,
professor
at
Caen.]
A
monotypic genus.
1. Rousselia humilis (Sw.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 205.
1905.
Urtica humilis Sw. Vet. Akad. Handl. Stockh. 6: 34.
1785.
Urtica lappulacea Sw. loc.
cit. 8: 69.
1787.
Rotisselia lappulacea Gaud. Bot. Voy. Freyc. 503.
1830.
Pubescent; stems slender, branched, prostrate or ascending, 1-4 dm. long.
Leaves ovate to elliptic or oval, membranous, 3-nerved, 0.5-4 cm. long, 0.4-3.5
cm. broad, acute to acuminate or obtuse at the apex, rounded or acutish at the
base; stipules minute; bracts of the pistillate flowers ovate, 3-4 mm. long, entire;
achene shining, about 1.5 mm. long.
Shaded
rocky
place.s
at
lower
elevations,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Thomas:—Bahamas;
Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Saba; Dominica.
Pellionia Daveauana
N.
E.
Brown,
East
Indian,
well
established
at
Louisenhoj,
St. Thomas,
in
1923,
is
a
prostrate
spreading, somewhat
fleshy
perennial,
with
sessile lanceolate-oblong variegated leaves about 6 cm.
long,
their bases obliquely cordate.
Urtica elongata Vahl (St. Croix, according to West)
is a species unknown
to modern botanists.
Grevillea robusta Cunn., Silk Oak, Australian, of the large family Pro-
teaceae, order Proteales, planted for ornament and shade in Porto Rico and
the Virgin Islands,
is a fine
tree, reaching a height of 15 m. or more, with 2-
pinnately parted leaves up to 3 dm. long, the ultimate linear-oblong segments
small, acute;
its flowers are borne in panicled racemes, with oval sepals and a
long style; the fruits are recurved oblique follicles about 15 mm. long, tipped by
the slender bent style.
Macadamia ternifolia
F.
Muell., of Queensland, West Australia, also of
the Proteaceae, experimentally planted at the Forest Station, Rio Piedras and
growing well in 1923,
is a tree with verticillate, oblong-lanceolate, entire shining
leaves 1-3 dm. long, the nearly regular white flowers in racemes, the fruit globose,
leathery, the pericarp 2-valved.
Order 7.
SANTALALES.
Trees, shrubs or herbs, many of them parasitic on the roots or branches
of other
plants, with simple, mostly entire
leaves, sometimes reduced
to
scales.
Flowers perfect or imperfect, inconspicuous, the corolla present or
wanting.
Stamens
as many
or
twice
as many
as
the
sepals
or
petals.
Fruit various.
Seeds mostly with fleshy endosperm.
OLACACEAE
253
Plants not parasitic; flowers perfect.
Fam.
1. Olacaceae.
Parasitic plants; flowers monoecious or dioecious.
Parasitic slirubs containing clilorophyU; leaves oppo-
site, in some species reduced to scales, or alternate;
flowers borue in axillary or terminal spikes, racemes
„.^.^„.„^.x,
or panicles, or solitary.
,
„
Fam. 2. Loranthaceae.
Fleshy
root-parasites without leaves
or
chlorophyll;
flowers crowded on spadix-like peduncled heads or
„
„.^ .^.r^T>^r^^^r^^A^
QQ^Qs
Fam. 3. Balanophoraceae.
Family
1.
OLACACEAE Lindl.
Olax Family.
Shrubs, trees or woody vines, mostly with alternate and entire, pinnately
veined, estipulate leaves, and regular, perfect or polygamous flowers in axil-*
lary
clusters.
Calyx 4-6-toothed or 4-6-parted.
Corolla 4-6-lobed or of
4-6
distinct
petals.
Disk
various.
Stamens
4-12;
filaments
distinct
or
rarely monadelphous;
anthers
2-celled.
Ovary
1-3-celled,
inferior,
half-
superior, or partly immersed in the disk; ovules few, anatropous; style short,
usually
simple;
stigma
entire
or
2-5-lobed.
Fruit
drupaceous,
1-celled.
Testa of the seed membranous; endosperm fleshy, or rarely wanting.
About
25 genera and 140 species, mostly tropical.
1. SCHOEPFIA Schreb.; Gmel. Syst. 376.
1791.
Glabrous trees or shrubs, with coriaceous entire leaves and small perfect
flowers in axillary cymes.
Calyx very small, 4-toothed.
Petals united to above
the middle, forming a tubular or urceolate, 4-6-lobed corolla, the lobes valvate,
recurved.
Stamens as many as the corolla-lobes and opposite them; filaments
filiform or short; anthers didymous.
Ovary
sessile,
3-celled, partly immersed
in the disk; style slender or short; stigma capitate or 3-lobed; ovules usually 1 in
each cavity.
Fruit a small drupe nearly enclosed by the accrescent disk.
[Com-
memorates J. D. Schoepf, 1752-1800, a German botanist.]
About 15 species, of
tropical and subtropical America and Asia.
Type species: Schoepfia Schrebcri
Gmel.
Fruit 6-10 mm. long, 4.5-6 mm. in diameter.
Leaves obovate, occasionally oblong or elliptic, roiuided or obtuse,
2-4 cm. long, 0.8-2.5 cm. broad.
1.
S. obovata.
Leaves
lanceolate-ovate
to
ovate,
acuminate,
frequently
folded-
„
„
^
^
:
falcate, 4-7.5 cm. long, 1.8-4.8 cm. broad.
2.
S. Schreberi.
Fruit 1.6-1.8 cm. long, 1 cm. in diameter; leaves ovate, obtuse or acutish.
3.
S. arenaria.
1. Schoepfia obovata C. Wright; Sauvalle, Anales Acad. Habana 5: 289.
1868.
A glabrous shrub 1-3 m. high, or sometimes a tree up to 10 m. high, the twigs
slender,
gray, the bark rough in narrow plates.
Leaves obovate, occasionally
oblong or elliptic, coriaceous, 2-4 cm. long, 0.8-2.5 cm. broad, rounded or obtuse
at the apex, narrowed or cuneate at the base, few-veined, the petioles 1-3 mm.
long; peduncles solitary or few together in the axils, 2-8 mm. long, 1-3-flowered;
flowers sessile
; corolla 4-5 mm. long, red to greenish yellow, the lobes ovate or
triangular-ovate; fruit globose-obovoid to ellipsoid, 6-8 mm. long, 4.5-5 mm. in
•diameter, yellow or red wlien mature.
Coastal thickets and woodlands at lower and middle elevations in relatively dry dis-
tricts, Porto Rico; Anegada:—Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola.
2. Schoepfia Schreberi Gmel. Syst. 376.
1791.
Codoninm arborescens Vahl, Skr. Nat. Selsk. 2^: 207.
1792.
Schoepfia arborescens R. & S. Syst.
5: 160.
1819.
A shrub or small tree.
Leaves lanceolate-ovate to ovate, coriaceous, 4-7.5
cm. long, 1.8-4.8 cm. broad, obtusely acuminate at the apex, rounded or some-
254
LORANTHACEAE
what acutish at the base, frequently folded-falcate, rather indistinctly veined,
short-petioled
; peduncles solitary or several in the
axils,
1-3-flowered; flowers
sessile; corolla 4-4.5 mm. long, the lobes triangular-ovate; fruit obovoid or ellip-
soid, 8-10 mm. long, 5-6.5 mm. in diameter, black.
Woodlands, Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Croix:—Antigua to Trinidad; recorded from
continental tropical America.
3. Schoepfia arenaria Urban & Britton; Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 181.
1907.
A
.shrub with
light gray branches.
Leaves ovate,
coriaceous, 3.5-6 cm.
long, obtuse or somewhat acutish at the apex, rounded at the base, rather in-
tdisti'nctly pinnately nerved, the petioles 3-5 mm. long; peduncles 7-9 mm. long,
2-3-flowered; corolla 7 mm. long, cream-color; the lobes triangular-lanceolate;
fruit 1.6-1.8 cm. long,
1 cm. in diameter, bright red.
Sandy
coastal
thicket,
Santurce,
Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
Included
at
first by
Urban
in' the
preceding
species.
Recorded by Millspaugh
as
Schoepfia didyma
C.
Wright.
Ximenia americana L., a thorny shrub or small tree, widely distributed in
the West
Indies as a coastal species, has been recorded as occurring in Porto
Rico by Britton and Millspaugh (Bahama Flora 112), but we are not now able
to verify this range by reference to any specunen preserved; it grows on the coast
of Santo Domingo.
Santalum album L., Sandal-wood, East Indian, seedlings of which were
seen at the St. Croix Agricultural Experiment Station in 1923, forms a beautiful
small
tree,
its wood nearly white, fragrant,
its thin, elliptic leaves about 7 cm.
long, its small flowers in terminal panicles, white, turning purple.
Family 2.
LORANTHACEAE D. Don.
Mistletoe Family.
Parasitic shrubs containing chlorophyll, growing on woody plants and
absorbing food from
thsir sap through speciahzed
roots
called haustoria
(a few tropical species terrestrial).
Branches terete or angled, often artic-
ulated at the nodes.
Leaves opposite, in some species reduced to scales, or
alternate.
Flowers perfect, monoecious or dioecious, in axillary or terminal
spikes, racemes or panicles, or solitary.
Perianth of one or two
series of
parts.'
Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary.
Stamens 2-6.
Anthers 2-celled,
the
cells parallel, longitudinally dehiscing, or sometimes
1-celled, with the
cells confluent and dehiscing by a transverse pore or chink.
Disk present or
sometimes
wanting.
Ovary
solitary,
l-celled.
Style
simple
or
none.
Stigma
term'nal.
Fruit
a
berry.
Embryo
terete
or
angled.
About
21
genera and
500
species,
widely
distributed;
most abundant m
tropical
regions.
Perianth of two series of parts; flowers in axillary or terminal racemes
spikes or panicles, the calyx-tube enveloped by a cup-like, toothed
•
.
bractlet
'
"htvfirusa.
Perianth of one series of parts; flowers in axillary or terminal spikes,
more or less sunken in the racliis.
Tririiurr,
Leaves alternate: mternodes contmuous.
^-
ixiaium.
Leaves or scales opposite; internodes articulated
Filaments adnate to the petals at the base, with a short free tip;
anthers 2-celled
'
•^-
rhoraaeimron.
Filaments wholly adnate
to the
petals,
the anthers
sessile,
r..r,wrn„h/h«r«
1-celled
'->
confluence.
4. Dendropninora.
LORANTHACEAE
255
1. PHTHIRUSA Mart. Flora 131
: 110.
1830.
[Dendropemon Blume in R. & S. Syst. Veg. 7: 1729.
1830.]
Parasitic shrubs, with opposite, coriaceous or somewhat fleshy, mostly flat
leaves.
Flowers mostly perfect, solitary or in groups of 3's in terminal or axillary
spikes, racemes or panicles.
Bractlets connate, cupulate.
Caly.x-limb truncate
or sometimes toothed.
Petals usually
6,
free, spreading
in
flower.
Stamens
alternately unequal, the fleshy fllaments inserted below the middle of the petals.
Ovary with an annular disk; style stout, columnar.
Fruit a small fleshy berry.
Embryo straight.
[Greek, destroying.]
About 45 species, natives of the West
Indies and
tropical South America.
Known
as Hicaquillo.
Type
species:
Loranthus clandestinus Mart.
Branches terete, the twigs sometimes compressed.
Branches of the inflorescence scaly.
1.
P. bicolor.
Branches of the Inflorescence smooth.
Leaf-blades rouuded or subtriincate at the base, abruptly con-
tracted mto the petiole; berry oval.
2.
P. Sintenisii.
Leaf-blades gradually tapering into the petiole; berry obovoid
or obovoid-cylindric.
3. P. purpurea.
Branches 4-angled.
4. P. caribaea.
1. Phthirusa bicolor (Krug & Urban) Engler in E. & P. Nat. Pfl. Nachtr. 2-4:
135.
1897.
Loranthus emarginatus DC. Prodr.
4: 288, in part.
1830.
Not Sw.
1788.
Dendropemon bicolor Krug & Urban; Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 24: 24.
1897.
Phthirusa emaryinata Cook and Collins, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: 217. 1903.
Young
branches
compressed,
scaly.
Leaf-blades
narrowly
to
broadly
obovate, 2-5 cm.
long,
1-3.5 cm. broad, rounded or emarginate
at the apex,
cuneate at the base, short-petioled
; racemes usually shorter than the leaves, the
peduncles terete or shghtly compressed, 1-2 cm. long, scaly; pedicels 1 mm. long
or less; bractlets connate to about the middle; berry broadly eUipsoid, 7-8 mm.
long, 4-4.5 mm. in diameter, red with black tip.
On
trees and
shrubs,
Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
Recorded by BeUo
as Loranthus
americanus Jacq.
2. Phthirusa Sintenisii (Krug & Urban) Engler in E. & P. Nat.
Pfl. Nachtr.
2-4: 135.
1897.
Dendropemon Sintenisii Krug & Urban; Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 24: 25.
1897.
Branches terete or nearly so, smooth.
Leaf-blades ovate or short-obovate,
5-6 cm. long, 4-5 cm. broad, rounded or subemarginate at the apex, rounded or
subtruncate at the base, the petioles 4-5 mm. long; racemes 4-6 cm. long, the
peduncle smooth,
slightly compressed;
pedicels
1 mm. long or
less;
bractlets
united; berry oval, 8 mm. long.
On a tree in a cofifee plantation near Aibonito, collected only by Sintenis.
Endemic.
3. Phthirusa purpurea (L.) Engler in E. & P. Nat. Pfl. Nachtr. 2-4: 135.
1897.
Viscum purpiireum L.
Sp.
PI.
1023.
1753.
Dendropemon purpureus Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 24: 26.
1897.
Branches smooth, not at all scaly, flattened when young, soon terete.
Leaf-
blades obovate or oblanceolate, 2.5-6 cm. long, 0.9-2.5 cm. broad, obtuse, sub-
truncate or acute at the apex and usually mucronulate, rarely refuse, narrowed
at the base, the petioles 3-12 mm. long; racemes glabrous, several-many-flowered,
shorter or longer than the leaves, the peduncles somewhat flattened; pedicels
1-3 mm. long; bractlets connate to about the middle; berry obovoid-cylindric
or obovoid, 6-8 mm. long, black or blue-black. [P. parvifolia of Cook and Collins.]
On trees and shrubs, vicinity of Guanica, Porto Rico:—Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola.
256
LORANTHACEAE
4. Phthirusa caribaea (Krug & Urban) Engler in E. & P. Nat.
Tfl. Nachtr.
2-4: 135.
1897.
Loranthus occidentalis Sesse & Mog. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 83.
1894.
Not L.
1 759.
Dendropemon caribaeus Krug & Urban; Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 24: 27.
1897.
Pendent, 5-8 dm.
long; young branches
4-angled,
.smooth
or somewhat
scaly.
Leaf-blades obovate, occasionally oval or suborbicular, rarely ovate, 2-6
cm. long,
1.5-4 cm. broad, rounded and emarginate and often mucronulate at
the apex, rarely acute, narrowed or sometimes rounded at
base, short-pet ioled;
racemes glabrous or somewhat scaly, 1-6 cm.
long, the peduncles compressed
or angled;
pedicels
1-2 mm.
long,
often with
a furfuraceous decurrent
line;
bractlets connate to about the middle; berry obovoid, 7-8 mm. long, 4-5 mm. in
diameter, blue-black.
On trees and shrubs, Porto Rico, abundant in the dry southern districts; Vieques;
St. Thomas; St. Croix; St. Jan; Virgin Gorda; Tortola; Anegada:—Antigua to Barbados
Phthirusa pauciflora
(Sw.)
Eichl., endemic in Jamaica, was erroneously
recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas [Loranthus pauciflorus Sw.].
2. IXIDIUM Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
5^: 130.
1868-.
Parasitic plants with angled or compressed stems, the internodes continuous.
Leaves alternate.
Flowers in axillary spikes, monoecious, sessile, sunken in the
rachis, the staminate and pistillate in the same spike, the staminate occupying
the lower part, the pistillate the upper; staminate flowers with a 4-parted calyx;
stamens
4, the filaments short, free; anthers 2-celled,
longitudinally dehiscent;
disk fleshy; ovary rudimentary.
Pistillate flowers: calyx 3- or 4-lobed; ovary
subovoid-cylindric; disk thick;
style short; stigma obtuse.
Fruit a berry; seeds
subglobose; endosperm copious; embryo subclavate; cotyledons oblong.
[Name
derived from the Greek word for mistletoe.]
Two species of tropical America.
Type species: Ixidium Schottii Eichl.
1. Ixidium Wrightii (Griseb.) Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras. 5^: 132.
1868.
Eremolepis Wrightii Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad.
II. 8: 192.
1860.
Branches more or less flexuose, angled or compressed.
Leaf-blades obovate
1-2.4 cm. long, 5-10 mm. broad, rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base, 3-5-
nerved, subsessile, coriaceous; spikes short, few-flowered; sepals persistent.
On trees in mountain forests of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola.
3. PHORADENDRON Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila.
II. l: 185.
1848.
Shrubs, parasitic on trees or sometimes on other mistletoes, mostly brittle
at the nodes, with opposite coriaceous flat leaves or these sometimes reduced to
scales, and terete or angled twigs.
Flowers sessile, usually sunken in the rachis;
superposed in 2-6 rows, rarely in 8 rows in each joint, dioecious or monoecious.
Staminate flowers with a 3-lobed (occasionally 2-, 4-, or 5-lobed) calyx, bearing a
nearly sessile 2-celled anther at the base of each lobe.
Pistillate flowers with a
similar calyx adnate to the inferior 1-celled ovary; ovules solitary; style short;
stigma capitate.
Fruit a fleshy berry.
Seed with a small embryo enclosed
in
copious endosperm.
[Greek,
tree-thief,
from
its
parasitic
habit.]
Over 200
species, natives of the West Indies, continental tropical America, and a few in
North
America.
Known
as
Parasitica, Yerba
capitana and Mistletoe.
Type species
: Phoradendron californicum Nutt.
LORANTHACEAE
257
Scale-sheath at or near the base of the lowest internode only of a
branch.
Leaves basinerved; flowers in 4 series, rarely in 5 series.
Branches acutely 4-angled or 4-winged.
Sepals inflexed.
Spikes 3.5-9 cm. long, the joints 14-34-flowered.
1. P. tetrapterum.
Spikes 1-3 cm. long; the joints 6-18-flowered.
2: P. Randiae.
Sepals erect, parted.
3. P. trinervium.
Branches terete or somewhat compressed.
Leaves lanceolate to ovate, 6-8 cm. long.
4. P. chrysocarpum.
Leaves eUiptic, 3-5 cm. long.
5.
P. Helleri.
Leaves pinnately veined; flowers in 6 or 8 series.
6. P. hexastichum.
Scale-sheath at or near the base of each internode of a branch.
Leaves pinnately veined.
„
„
.
.
Twigs terete or somewhat compressed; leaves dull.
7.
P. ptperoiaes.
Twigs 4-angled; leaves glossy.
8.
P. racemosum.
Leaves basinerved.
9. P. dichotomum.
1. Phoradendron tetrapterum Ivrug & Urban; Urban,
Bot. Jahrb.
24: 35
1897.
Branches more or less spreading, the internodes acutely 4-angIed or 4-wlnged.
Scale-sheaths only at the base of the lowest internode of a branch; leaf-blades
obovate, oblanceolate, elliptic-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 4-10 cm. long, 1.5-4
cm. broad, obtuse or rounded at the apex, cuneately narrowed at the base, 5-
nerved; spikes
solitary or several together in the
a.xils, 3.5-9 cm.
long, 4-6-
jointed; flowers in 4 series, rarely 5 series; berry subglobose or broadly ellipsoid,
3-3.5 mm. long, white; sepals not meeting.
On trees and on other mistletoes, Porto Rico, in moist districts:—Jamaica, Martin-
ique.
Recorded by Kuntze as Phoradendron muUifoceolatum Eichl.
2. Phoradendron Randiae (Bello)
Britton.
Visciim angustifolium
Bertero; Spreng.
Syst.
1:
487.
1825.
Not
P.
an-
gustifolium Eichl.
Phoradendron rubrum Gri,seb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 314, in part.
1860.
Viscum Randiae Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 278.
1881.
Phoradendron antillarum Trel. Gen. Phorad. 111.
1916.
Branches more or less pseudodichotomous, the internodes acutely 4-angled.
Scale-sheaths at the base of the lowest internode only of a branch; leaf-blades
oblong-lanceolate,
lanceolate,
linear-lanceolate or narrowly obovate. 3-10 cm.
long, 0.5-2 cm. broad, obtuse or acute at the apex, cuneately narrowed at the
base,
subsessile, 3-5-nerved; spikes usually several, 1-3 cm. long, 3-4-jointed;
flowers in 4 series; berry subglobose, 3-4 mm. in diameter, yellow; sepals closely
inflexed.
On trees, Porto Rico; at lower and middle elevations:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola;
Antigua; Guadeloupe;
Dominica.
Referred by Urban
to P.
quadrangulare
(H.B.K.)
Krug & Urban.
Quasimilla de canario.
3. Phoradendron trinervium (Lam.) Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 314.
1860.
Viscum verticillatum L. Sp. Fl. ed. 2. 1452, in pact.
1763.
Not L. 1753.
Viscum trinervium Lam. Encycl. 3: 57.
1789.
Phoradendron verticillatum Fawc. & Rend.
Fl. Jam.
3: 96.
1914.
Branches pseudodichotomous, the internodes often short, 4-angled.
Seale-
sheaths at the base of the lowest internode only of a branch, sometimes with a
second sheath a short distance above
; leaf-blades obovate or elliptic-oblong. 2-6
cm. long, 1-3.6 cm. broad, rounded at the apex, narrowed or cuneate at the base,
scarcely petioled; spikes usually clustered, 1-2 cm. long, 2-4-jointed; flowers in
4 series; berry subglobose, 3-4 mm. in diameter, orange; sepals erect.
On trees, Porto Rico, mostly in the dry southwestern districts, but found also near
Las Cruces; St. Thomas:—Bahamas; Jamaica; Hispaniola to Trinidad.
258
LORANTHACEAE
4. Phoradendron chrysocarpum Krug & Urban; Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 24: 39.
1897.
Viscum flavens Spreng. Syst.
1: 488, in part.
1825.
Not Sw. 1788.
Viscum anceps DC. Prodr. 4: 282.
1830.
Not Spreng. 1825.
Branches rather long, often little forked, the internodes usually compressed.
Scale-sheath at the base of the lowest internode only of a branch; leaf-blades
oblong-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, elliptic or broadly ovate, 4.5-14 cm. long,
2-8 cm. broad, obtuse or rounded at the apex, cuneately narrowed at the base,
5-nerved; spikes several in the
axils,
1.5-3 cm. long; flowers in 4 series; berry
ovoid, 5-5.5 mm. long, white or yellow; sepals closely inflexed.
On trees, Porto Rico, at lower elevations, mostly in dry districts;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;—Guadeloupe;
Dominica;
Martinique;
St.
Vincent.
Recorded
by
Eggers
as
Phoradendron
flavens
Griseb.
; by Bello
as Phoradendron Berterianum Griseb.; and by
Millspaugh as Phoradendron marlinicense (DC.) Griseb.
Pata de gallina.
5. Phoradendron Helleri Trel. Gen. Phorad. 100.
1916.
Plant up to 8 dm. long, the branches more or less pseudodichotomous, the
internodes rather short, the upper compressed.
Scale-sheath at the lowest inter-
node only a branch; leaf-blades oblong-elliptic, 3-5 cm. long, 1.5-2.5 cm. broad,
rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base, petioled, 3-5-nerved; spikes solitary
or several,
1.5-2.5 cm.
long, about 3-jointed; flowers in 4 series; berry ovoid,
4 mm. long, nearly white when unripe; sepals nearly or quite closed.
On trees; southwestern dry districts of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
6. Phoradendron hexastichum (DC.) Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 313.
1860.
Viscum hexastichum DC. Prodr.
4: 282.
1830.
Branches rather
long,
scarcely
forked,
stout,
erect,
the internodes com-
pressed.
Scale-sheath
at the base of the lowest internode only of a branch;
leaf-blades oblong-ovate or ovate, 6-13 cm.
long,
3-6.5 cm. broad, obtuse or
rounded at the apex, often somewhat inequilateral and narrowed or sometimes,
rounded at the base, more or less distinctly petioled, pinnately veined; spikes
solitary or clustered, 2-6 cm. long, 3-4-jointed; flowers in 6 or 8 series;
iDerry
subglobose, 3-4 mm. in diameter, white, smooth; sepals closely inflexed.
On trees, Porto Rico, in mountain forests:—Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Mar-
tinique;
St.
Vincent;
Grenada;
also recorded from
continental
tropical America by
Eichler.
7. Phoradendron piperoides (H.B.K.)
Trel. Gen. Phorad.
145.
1916.
Viscum latifoliu?n Sw. Prodr. 268.
1797.
Not Lam. 1789.
Loranthus piperoides H.B.K. Nov. Gen.
3: 443.
1818.
Phoradendron latifolium Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 314.
1860.
Branches rather slender, the internodes long, terete, often somewhat com-
pressed
just below the
nodes.
Scale-sheaths
at the base
of each
internode;
leaf-blades lanceolate to ovate or oval, 5-12 cm.
long, 2-6.5 cm.
broad,
often
bluntly acute or acuminate, rarely rounded at the apex, narrowed at the base,
dull, scarcely petioled, obscurely pinnately veined; spikes often dull red, 3-7 cm.
long, usually clustered, 2.5-6 cm. long, 4-8-jointed; flowers in 4 series, rarely in
6
series; berry ellipsoid or ovoid,
3.5-4.5 mm.
long,
yellow or orange; sepals
ascending, usually somewhat parted.
On
trees,
Porto
Rico;
in
wet
or
moist
districts :-^Cuba;
Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe to Trinidad
; continental tropical America.
LORANTHACEAE
259
8. Phoradendron racemosum
(Aubl.) Knig &
Urban; Urban,
Bot.
Jahrb.
24: 46.
1897.
Viscum racemosum. Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 895.
1775.
Viscum latifolium Lam. Encyc.
3: 57.
1789.
Viscum macrophyllum Spreng. Syst.
1: 488.
1825.
Phoradendron penninervium Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
5-: 128.
1868.
Branches
usually
forked,
the
Internodes
quadrangular,
often
sdmewhat
enlarged just below the nodes.
Scale-sheaths near the base of each internode;
leaf-blades various, broadly lanceolate,
elliptic,
ovate,
oval or orbicular, 7-15
cm.
long, 4-10c5 cm. broad, shining, obtuse or rounded at the apex, acute or
sometimes rounded
at the
base,
distinctly
petioled,
pinnately nerved;
spikes
usually several, 2.5-5 cm.
long, 3-5-jointed; flowers
in 4 series; berry broadly
ellipsoid, 4 mm. long, white; sepals inflexed or someAvhat parted.
On trees, Porto Rico, mostly in moist districts; St. Thomas (according to Kiintze)
:
Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; South America.
9. Phoradendron dichotomum
(Bert.) Krug & Urban; Urban, Bot. Jahrb.
24: 48.
1897.
Viscutn dichotomum Bert.; Spreng. Syst.
1: 488.
1825.
Branches forked at each node, the internodes terete or slightly compressed
when young.
Scale-sheaths at the base of each internode often with a second
sheath a short distance above; leaf-blades lanceolate to ovate-elliptic, 5-12 cm.
long, 2-5.7 cm. broad, obtuse or acute at the apex, cuneate at the base, 3-7-
nerved; spikes solitary or several, 3. .5-7 cm. long, 4-7-jointed; flowers in 4 series;
berry subglobose, 4-5 mm. in diameter, white; sepals inflexed.
On trees, Porto Rico, in moist districts:—Cuba; Hispaniola.
Phoradendron anceps
(Spreng.) Krug & Urban,
is recorded by Trelease
as preserved in the Prag Museum labeled as from Porto Rico (Bertero 439 in part)
perhaps due to a mixture of specimens of P. anceps from Santo Domingo with
specimens of P. chrysocarpum from Porto Rico.
4. DENDROPHTHORA Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
5=: 102.
1868.
Shrubs,
parasitic,
the branches
articulated
at the
nodes,
the internodes
terete,
4-angled,
or flattened and
phyllode-like.
Leaves
opposite, reduced to
scales,
or wanting.
Spikes
axillary or terminal,
articulated, bracted
at each
joint.
Flowers monoecious or dioecious,
sessile, usually sunken in the rachis,
soUtary or several on each side of a joint, usually superposed in 2 rows or some-
times
4.
Staminate
flowers with a 3-lobed
(rarely 4-lobed)
calyx;
filaments
wholly adnate to the sepals; anthers
sessile.
Pistillate flowers with a 3-lobed
calyx; ovary
inferior.
Fruit a berry.
Seed with a small embyro enclosed in
copious endosperm.
[Greek, tree destroyer.]
About 40
species, natives of the
West Indies and tropical America.
Type species: Viscum opuntioides L.
Monoecious; leaves present or wanting.
Spikes with 2-5 joints; sepals forming a distinct crown on the
fruit.
1- D.
Wrightii.
Spikes with 6-18 joints
; sepals not e.xceeding the tip of the fruit.
2. D. flagelliformis.
Dioecious
; aplayUous
; scales of the branches conspicuous, decussate.
3. D. domingensis.
1. Dendrophthora Wrightii Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
5^: 103.
1868.
Arceuthobium macrostachyum Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad.
II.
8:
191.
1860.
Not Viscum macrostachyum, Jacq.
Branches yellow-green or greenish, the internodes terete,
1-2.5 cm.
long.
Leaves often wanting, the blades, when present, obovate, 0.8-3 5 cm. long, 0.6-
260
BALANOPHOKACEAE
1.5 cm. broad, rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base, 3-nerved, short-petloled
flowers monoecious;
spikes
rather
slender,
2-5-jointed,
the
joints 5-10 mm.
long; flowers biseriate, 2-6 or occasionally 8 in each joint; berry ovoid, 4.5-5 mm.
long, 4-4.5 mm. broad; sepals forming a distinct crown on the fruit.
On trees in the dry southwestern districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba.
2. Dendrophthora flagelliformis (Lam.) Krug & Urban, Ber. Deutsch. Bot.
Gesell. 14: 287.
1896.
Viscum flagelliforme Lam. Encycl. 3: 56.
1789.
Viscum leptostachyum DC. Prodr.
4: 28.
1830.
Dendrophthora leptostachya Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
5=:
104.
1868.
Pendent or spreading; internodes 2-5 cm. long, 2.5-4.5 mm. thick.
Leaves
often wanting, the
blade.^, when present, narrowly oblong to oblong-obovate,
2.5-5 cm. long, 6.5-14 mm. broad, obtuse or rounded at the apex, cuneate at the
base, 3-nerved, petioled or subsessile; flowers monoecious; spikes slender, 6-25
cm. long, 6-18-jointed; flowers
biseriate, 4-10 or occasionally 12 or 14 in each
joint; berry ovoid, 5-6 mm. long, 3.5-4 mm. broad; sepals not exceeding the tip
of the fruit.
On Petitia domingensts and other woody plants, at lower and middle elevations,
Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
Hispaniola.
Recorded
by
Bello
as
Arceuthobium
opuntioides
Griseb.
3. Dendrophthora domingensis (Spreng.) Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
5^: 103.
1868.
Viscum dorninjense Spreng. Syst. It 487.
1825.
Arce'Uhohium dominrjen.se Griseb. Gat.
PI. Cub.
121.
1866.
Much-branched,
leafless,
2.5-5 dm.
long
or more,
slender,
with
loosely
articulate greenish or greenish-yellow branches, the internodes 1-2.5 cm. long,
terete, 3-5 mm. thick.
Scales decussate; flowers dioecious, the staminate spikes
rather stout, up to 4 cm. long, 3-7-jointed, the flowers biseriate, 4-10 in each
joint; pistillate spikes stout, 0.5-2 cm. long, the joints 2-4 mm. long, the flowers
2 in each joint; berry ovoid, 5 mm. long; sepals forming a distinct crown on the
fruit.
On trees, Porto Rico, ia moist districts :^Cuba; Hispaniola.
Family 3.
BALANOPHOKACEAE Lindl.
Balanophora Family.
Fleshy root-parasites without leaves or chlorophyll.
Flowers monoecious
or dioecious, often minute, crowded on spadix-like peduncled heads or cones.
Staminate flowers usually much larger than the pistillate, the perianth none
or of 3-8-valvate lobes; stamens opposite the perianth-lobes; filaments free
or connate into a column or tube; anthers free or connate, 2-many-celled,
each
cell dehiscing by pores or chinks, or rupturing irregularly.
Perianth
of the pistillate flowers none, or 2-lipped or tubular; ovary 1-3-celled; ovules
solitary in each
cell; pendulous;' styles terminal.
Fruit a minute
1-celled,
1-seeded nut.
Seed with endosperm; embryo minute.
About 14 genera and
40 species of wide geographic distribution in damp forests of the tropics.
1. SCYBALIUM Schott. & Endl. Melet. 3.
1832.
Low blood-red plants, with tuberous rhizomes, parasitic on roots of various
dicotyledonous trees and shrubs, the thick fleshy peduncles clothed with numerous
imbricated scales, enlarged above, the bracts imbricated, deciduous.
Staminate
ASARACEAE.
261
"flowers: tube of the perianth
cylindric, the lobes
3, concave; stamens
3, the
fll.iments connate into a tube; anthers opposite the lobes of the perianth, connate,
several-celled.
Pistillate
flowers:
perianth
wanting; ovary
2-celled;
styles
2.
filiform;
stigmas
capitate;
ovules
2,
anatropous.
Fruit
1-celled,
1-seeded.
Seed oblong, with oily endosperm; embryo minute,
apical.
[From the Greek,
cast oflf, from the dropping of the scales.]
About 4 species, natives of the West
Indies and South America.
Type species: ScybaUum fungijorme Schott. & Endl.
1. Scybalium jamaicense (Sw.) Schott. & Endl. Melet. 12.
1832.
Cynomorium jamaicense Sw. Prodr. 12.
1788.
Phyllocoryne jamaicensis Hook.
f. Trans. Linn. Soc. 22: 51.
1856.
Rhizome long, cylindric, the peduncles 3-18 cm. long; scales brown, broadly
triangular or triangular-ovate, 5-7 mm.
long, 6-12 mm.
broad, acute or acu-
minate at the apex, passing into the larger broadly triangular bracts.
Capitulum
blood-red, 2.5-6 cm. long.
Primeval forest on the summit of Mt. Galsa, near Adjimtas, Porto Rico:—Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola.
Order 8.
ARISTOLOCHIALES.
Herbs
or
vines,
mostly with
cordate
or
reniforin
leaves and
perfect
flowers.
Calyx
inferior,
its tube wholly
or partly adnate
to
the
ovary.
Corolla none.
Ovary several- (mostly 6-)celled.
Only the following family.
Family
1.
ASARACEAE Link.
BiRTHwoRT Family.
Acaulescent plants, or with erect or twining stems.
Leaves alternate,
often basal, estipulate.
Flowers regular or irregular, solitary or clustered.
Calyx-limb 3-6-lobed or irregular.
Stamens 6-many , the filaments free from
or adnate
to the style-column
anthers
2-celled,
their sacs longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
4-6-celled,
inferior
or
superior.
Ovules numerous
in
each
cavity, anatropous,
horizontal or pendulous.
Fruit a many-seeded,
6-celled capsule.
Seeds angled or compressed, with a crustaceous testa and^
usually with a fleshy or dilated raphe; endosperm fleshy, copious; embryo
minute.
Six genera and about 200 species of wide distribution in tropical
and temperate regions.
1. ARISTOLOCHIA L. Sp. PI. 960.
17.53.
Perennial herbs or twining %dnes.
Leaves alternate, mostly petioled, entire
or 3-7-lobed, often cordate or auriculate, palmately nerved.
Flowers irregular.
Calyx adnate to the ovary, at least to its base, the tube usually inflated around
the style and contracted at the throat, the limb spreading or reflexed,
entire,
3-6-lobed or appendaged.
Stamens mostly 6; anthers adnate to the short style
or stigma,
2-celled,
the sacs longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary mostly
6-celled
with
6
parietal
placentae.
Style
3-6-lobed.
Capsule
naked,
septicidally
6-
valved.
Seeds very numerous, horizontal, compressed.
[Named for its supposed
medicinal
properties.]
About
180
species, widely distributed
in
tropical and
temperate regions.
Type species: Aristolochia rotunda L.
262
ASARACEAE
Leaves
3-lobed:
perianth-limb
ovate
to
orbicular-ovate,
1.7-2.2
cm. broad with a slender tail 1-3 dm. long.
1. A. trilobala
Leaves not 3-Iobed.
Limb of the perianth large, oblong-ovate or triangular-ovate,
mucronate, 5.5-8 cm. long, 4-5 cm. broad at the base.
2. A. odoratissima
Limb of the perianth small, linear or subtriangular,
1.2-2 cm.
long, 1.2-10 mm. wide.
Perianth-limb
linear,
1.5-2 cm.
long,
1.2-1.5 mm.
broad
above the base; leaves mostly triangular-ovate.
3. A. anguicidii.
Perianth-limb subtriangular when flattened, about
1.2 cm.
long,
1 cm. wide; leaves oblong-ovate or elliptic-ovate.
4. A. oblongatc
1. Aristolochia trilobata L. Sp. PL 960.
1753.
An ill-smelling vine 2-5 m. long.
Leaves 3-lobed, occasionally with soma
entire ones on the same stems,
orbicular in outline, 5-14 cm.
long, 6-17 cm.
broad, glabrous above, more or less densely puberulent beneath, cordate or sub-
truncate at the base; petioles 1.5-5 cm. long; bracts oval or suborbicular, cordate;
pedicels 4-8.5 cm. long, slender and glabrous; perianth greenish yellow, more or
less mottled, the lower inflated portion 3-5 cm. long, the upper tubular portion
3.5-5.5 cm. long, the limb ovate to orbicular-ovate, 1.7-2.2 cm. broad, the slender
tail 1-3 dm. long; capsule 6-8 cm. long; seeds triangular, about 7 mm. long.
Moist tliickets at lower elevations, Porto Rico:
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola;
St.
Croix
(according to West):—West Indies; continental tropical America.
C.\cniMBOS.
Panitos.
Bejuco de Santiago.
2. Aristolochia odoratissima L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 1362.
1762.
A rather pleasantly odorous vine.
Leaves triangular-ovate to oval-ovate,.
6-14 cm.
long,
4-8.5 cm.
broad,
entire,
glabrous above,
puberulent beneath;
petioles 1..5-6 cm. long; bracts broadly elliptic, cordate; pedicels 3.5-7 cm. long;
lower inflated portion
of the perianth
1.5-2 cm.
long,
1-1.3 cm.
broad,
the
upper tubular portion 0.8-1.5 cm.
long,
the limb oblong-ovate or
triangtilar-
ovate, 5.5-8 cm. long, 4.5 cm. broad, mucronate at the apex, deeply cordate at
the base; capsule 6-7 cm. long; seeds short-ovate, 3-3.5 mm. long, 2.8-3 mm.
broad.
Hillside thickets,
St. Jan:—^Jamaica; continental tropical America.
3. Aristolochia anguicida Jacq. Enum. 30.
1760.
A
slender
vine.
Leaves
triangular-ovate
to
broadly
short-ovate,
4.5-10
cm. long,
3. .5-8 cm. broad, entire; glabrous or with few scattered hairs on the
.^veins above, puberulent beneath;
petioles 2-5 cm.
long,
bracts oval; pedicels
slender, 2.5-3.5 cm. long; lower inflated portion of the perianth
1 cm. long or
less, the tube 1.6-2 cm. long, slender below, enlarged at the mouth, the linear
limb 1.5-2 cm. long.
Thickets,
St. Thomas
(according
to Krebs)
;
St.
Croix:—Lesser
Antilles;
South
America.
4. Aristolochia oblougata Jacq. Hort. Schoenbr. 2: 29.
1797.
Aristolochia calceiformis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 300.
1899.
A slender vine, 3 m. long or longer, the branches, petioles and pedicels often
pilose.
Leaves oblong-ovate or elliptic-ovate, 4.5-10 cm. long, 2-4.5 cm. broad,
entire,
glabrous
above,
minutely
pilose and
finely
reticulate-veined
beneath,
acute at the apex, cordate or subtruncate at the basg; petioles 1-2.5 cm. long;
bracts reniform; pedicels 1.5-2 cm. long; the lower inflated portion oval, 7-8 mm.
long, 4-5 mm. thick; the cylindric tube 2 mm. wide at the base, 10 mm. wide at
the top
of the funnel-shaped
throat,
the limb subtriangular when
flattened.
POLYGONACEAE
263
about
12 mm.
long, 10 mm. wide; capsule 2-2.5 cm.
long,
1.2-1.5 cm. broad;
seeds ovate-triangular, 4.5-5 mm. long, 3-4 mm. broad.
Thickets at lower and middle elevations in moist districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba;
Hispaniola; (Venezuela'?).
Recorded by Sesse & Mogino as .4. longifoha.
Aristolochia galeata :Mart., Brazilian, grown for ornament in Porto Rico
gardens, has reniform-orbicular thin leaves 8-15 cm. broad, large thin stipules
and large mottled flowers.
Aristolochia grandiflora Sw. was erroneously recorded from Porto
Pvico
by Duchartre.
Aristolochia ringens Vahl, was formerly cultivated on St. Croix, according
to West.
Order 9.
POLYGONALES.
Herbs,
twining
vines,
shrubs
or
trees,
with
alternate,
or sometimes
opposite or whorled, simple mostly entire leaves, often jointed stems, and
usually sheathing united stipules (ocreae).
Flowers small, regular, perfect,
dioecious, monoecious or polygamous.
Petals none.
Calyx
inferior, 2-6-
cleft or 2-6-parted, the segments or sepals more or less imbricated, some-
times petaloid, sometimes developing wings in fruit.
Stamens 2-9, inserted
near the base of the calyx; filaments filiform or subulate, often dilated at the
base, distinct or united into a ring; anthers 2-celled, the sacs longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary superior,
1-celled; ovule
solitary, orthotropous, erect or
pendulous;
style
2-3-cleft
or
2-3-parted,
sometimes very
short;
stigmas
capitate or tufted, rarely 2-cleft; fruit a lenticular 3-angled or rarely 4-angled
achene, usually invested by the persistent calyx; endosperm mealy; coty-
ledons accumbent or incumbent; embryo straight or nearly so.
Only the
following family.
Family
1.
POLYGONACEAE Lindl.
Buckwheat Family.
About 40 genera and 800 species, of wide geographic distribution.
Herbaceous plants.
Erect or ascending herbs.
,
„
Stigmas tufted.
1- Rume.r.
Stigmas not tufted.
2.
Persicana.
Climbing vines.
3
Anhgovon.
Trees or shrubs.
4.
Coccolobis.
1. RUMEX L. Sp. PL 333.
1753.
Perennial
or annual
herbs, some
species
slightly woody.
Stem grooved,
mostly branched.
Leaves flat or crisped, the ocreae brittle and fugacious, the
inflorescence of simple or compound, often panicled racemes.
Flowers green,
perfect,
dioecious,
or
polygamo-monoecious,
whorled,
on
jointed
pedicels.
Corolla none.
Calyx 6-parted, the 3 outer sepals unchanged in fruit, the 3 inner
ones mostly developed into wings, one or all three of which usually bear a callosity
(tubercle)
; wings entire, dentate, or fringed with bristle-like teeth.
Stamens 6,
264
POLYGONACEAE
filaments glabrous.
Style 3-parted; stigmas
peltate,
tufted; achene 3-angled,
the angles usually margined.
Embryo borne in one of the faces of the 3-angled
seed.
[The ancient Latin name.]
About 130 species,
of wide geographic dis-
tribution.
Type species: Rumex Patientia L.
1. Rumex crispus L. Sp. PI. 335.
1753.
Perennial, glabrous, dark green; stem rather slender, erect, 3-10 dm.
tall.
Leaves crisped and wavy-margined, the lower oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 15-
30 cm. long, long-petioled, the upper narrowly oblong or lanceolate, 7-15 cm.
long,
short-petioled,
all
cordate
or obtuse
at
the
base;
panicle
rather open;
racemes simple or compound; flowers rather loosely whorled; fruiting pedicels
13^-2 times as long as the calyx-wings, jointed near the base; wings cordate,
3-4 mm. long, truncate or notched at base, erose-dentate, or nearly entire, each
bearing a tubercle; achene 2 mm. long, dark brown.
Hillsides, roadsides and river-baaks at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico:
Bermuda; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Jamaica; temperate North and South America.
Native of the Old World.
Curled Dock.
Col agrly.
Vinagrillo.
Rumex vesicarius L., of the Mediterranean region,
is recorded by Eggers
as having been cultivated
in the Virgin
Islands.
It
is an annual herb, with
somewhat
fleshy, subhastate leaves,
the calyx-wings broad,
finely reticulated.
Krebs mentions it as found on the sea beaches of St. Thomas prior to 1852.
2. PERSICARIA [Tourn.] Mill. Gard. Diet. Abr. ed. 4.
1754.
Herbs, with alternate entire leaves, cylindric ocreae, and small flowers in
spike-like racemes, the ocreolae funnelform, the short pedicels jointed at the base
of the calyx.
Sepals mostly
5, neither winged nor keeled.
Stamens 4-8,
in-
cluded or exserted, the filaments erect or nearly
so.
Styles 2 or sometimes 3,
usually partly united
; stigmas capitate.
Achene lenticular, or sometimes 3-angled,
usually
black.
Endosperm
homy;
cotyledons
accumbent.
[From
Persica,
the leaves resembling those of the peach.]
About 125 spiecies, widely distributed,
known
as Smartweed
and Yerba
de
hicotea.
Type
species:
Polygonum
Persicaria L.
Ocreae and ocreolae ciliate and pubescent.
Achenes trigonous; stigmas
.3.
Achenes leiiticular; stigmas 2.
Ocreae and ocreolae eciliate, glabroixs.
Peduncles glabrous; achenes shining.
Peduncles glandular-pubascent; aciienes dull.
1.
P. punctata.
2.
P. acuminata.
3.
P. portoricensis.
4.
P. segetum.
1. Persicaria punctata
(Ell.) Small,
Fl. SE. U.
S. 379.
1903.
Polygonum punctatum Ell. Bot.
S. C & Ga.
1: 455.
1817.
Polygonum acre H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 2; 179.
1817.
Not Lam. 1778.
Annual or perennial, glabrous or very nearly so; stem erect or ascending,
rarely- prostrate, simple or branched, 3-12 dm. long.
Leaf-blades lanceolate or
oblong-lanceolate,
3-20 cm.
long,
acuminate
at
both
ends,
petioled,
ciliate,
conspicuously punctate,
acrid,
the midrib
often with
a few
scattered
hairs;
ocreae cylindric,
fringed with long
bristles
falling away at maturity, racemes
narrow, erect or slightly drooping, loosely-flowered, 2-8 cm. long; calyx greenish;
stamens 8; style 2-3-parted to the base; achene oblong,
thick, lenticular or 3-
angled, 2.5 mm. long, smooth, shining.
Wet grounds and waste places at lower and middle altitudes, Porto Rico:—-Bermuda;
Bahamas; .Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad, continental temperate
and tropical America.
POLYGONACEAE
265
2. Persicaria acuminata (H.B.K.) Maza, Per. Cub. 278.
1896.
Polygonum acuminatum H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 2: 178.
1817.
Perennial; stem stout, erect, usually glabrous below, strigose above, 0.5-2 m.
high.
Leaf-blades
lanceolate, more or
less
strigose on both
sides,
0.6-3 dm.
long, the apex long-acuminate, the base narrowed, the petioles usually less than
1 cm. long; ocreae cyhndric, 2-4 cm. long, strigose, fringed with long bristles;
racemes few or several, densely flowered, 10 cm. long or less; ocreolae about 3
mm. long, fringed
; pedicels 2-4 mm. long
; calyx white, about 3 mm. long, 4-parted
or 5-parted; stamens 5-9, included; stigmas 2; achene lenticular, shining, black,
2-2.5 mm. long.
Wet grounds at low elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guade-
loupe; Martinique; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
3. Persicaria portoricensis (Bert.) Small,
Fl. SE. U.
S. 377.
1903.
Polygonum portoricense Bert.
; Small, Mem. Bot. Col. Coll.
1: 46.
1895.
Polygonum glabrum C. & S. Linnaea 3: 46.
1828.
Not Willd. 1799.
Perennial, more or less scurfy; stem 1-1.5 m. long or longer, branched, en-
larged at the nodes.
Leaf-blades lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 4-30 cm. long,
acuminate at both ends, obscurely punctate, short-petioled, the nerves prominent
beneath; ocreae cylindric, sometimes bristly when young, naked when mature;
racemes narrow, 2.5-13 cm. long, dense, erect; calyx white or whitish, 5-parted
to near the
base; stamens 6-8,
included;
style
2-3-cleft, somewhat exserted;
achene
lenticular and strongly biconvex or 3-angled, 2-3 mm.
long,
broadly
oblong,
orbicular or even broader than
high,
black, smooth and
shining,
or
minutely granular.
Wet groimds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—southern United States;
Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe;
Dominica;
continental
tropical
America.
4. Persicaria segetum (H.B.K.) Small,
Fl. SE. U.
S. 378.
1903.
Polygonum segetum H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 2: 177.
1817.
Perennial,
glabrous below; stem
erect,
3-9 dm.
tall,
the nodes
swollen;
peduncles glandular.
Leaf-blades lanceolate, acuminate at the apex, narrowed
at the base, petioled,
ciliate, 5-16 cm. long; ocreae cylindric, naked, glabrous;
racemes pamcled, erect, oblong or cyhndric, 2-5 cm. long; calyx pink; stamens
6 or 7
; achene lenticular, brown, dull, 2.5 mm. long.
[Polygonum pennsylvanicum
of Urban, not of Linnaeus.]
Ditches near Rincon, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; continental tropical
America.
3. ANTIGONON Endl.; H. & A. Bot. Beech. Voy. 308.
1838.
Vines with alternate petioled cordate entire leaves, the petiole-bases clasping,
and small flowers in racemes opposite the leaves or clustered at the summit, the
racemes terminating in tendrils.
Sepals
5, unequal, the 3 outer ones cordate,
ovate, the 2 inner ones oblong.
Stamens 5, equal, the filaments subulate, connate
at the base.
Ovary 3-angled; ovule erect; styles 3, recurved.
Achene enclosed
in the accrescent
calyx.
[Greek,
opposite the nodes.]
Three or four species
native of Mexico and Central America.
Type species
; Antigonon leptopus H. & A.
Outer sepals orbicular-ovate in anthesis, ovate in fruit, inner sepals
lanceolate; achenes slightly angled below the ape.x.
1. A. leptopus.
Outer
sepals
orbiciilar-reniform
in
anthesis,
orbicular
in
fruit,
inner sepals ovate; achenes wing-angled below the apex.
2. A. macrocarpum.
266
POLYGONACEAE
1. Antigonon leptopus H. & A. Bot. Beech. Voy. 308.
1838.
Herbaceous, climbing, branched, often 5 m. long or longer, finely pubescent
at least above.
Leaves thin, broadly ovate, 3-9 cm. long, puberulent, acuminate
at the ape.x, rather deeply cordate at the base, the petioles 1-5 cm. long; racemes
several or many, loosely several-flowered, the floriferous part 3-8 cm. long, the
tendril as long or shorter; pedicels slender, 10 mm. long or less; flowering calyx
pink, rose or sometimes white, about 5 mm. long; fruiting calyx 1-1.5 cm. long,
the sepals less than
1 cm. wide, .strongly veined.
Waste ground, spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico; Vieques:—Florida; West
Indies; commonly cultivated for ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Native
of Me.\iC0.
CORALLINA.
CORALILLO.
2. Antigonon macrocarpum Britton and Small,
sp. nov.
Vine similar to A.
leptopus in
habit.
Leaves thicker and more pubescent,
broadly ovate to orbicular-ovate, 12 cm. long or
less, short-acuminate, acute or
obtuse at the apex, undulate, deeply cordate at the base, the petioles mostly
1 cm.
long or less; racemes elongated, mterrupted, usually with 3-6 tendrils near the tip;
pedicels relatively stouter than
in
A. leptopus, densely pubescent
; flowery calyx
light-pink, about
12 mm.
long;
fruiting calyx conspicuously enlarged, 2.5-3 cm.
long and wide, finely veined.
[Antigonum cordatum of Eggers and of Millspaugh;
A. cine'rescens of Britton.]
Roadsides, St. Thomas, spontaneous after cultivation, and cultivated on Porto Rico
and
St.
Croix.
Native of Costa Rica.
Type collected at Livingston, Costa Rica, by
W. W. Rowlee, May 16, 1918 (No. 28).
4. COCCOLOBIS P. Br. Civ. & Nat. Hist. Jam. 209.
1756.
Shrubs or trees, with alternate entire leaves, the ocreae cylindric or funnel-
form, often very small, the small, usually green flowers racemose or spicate, sub-
tended
by minute
bracts and
ocreolae.
Perianth
accrescent,
enclosing
the
achene,
its lobes
5.
Stamens
8, the filaments slender.
Ovary 3-angled; ovule
erect; styles 3.
Fruit ovoid or globose, the accrescent perianth becoming fieshy
and more or
less adherent to the achene.
Seed-coat thin; endosperm mealy.
[Greek, referring to the adherent calyx.]
Over 125 species of tropical and sub-
tropical
distribution,
all American, known in Porto Rico as Uvero and Uvillo.
Type species
: Polygonum Uvifera L.
1.
Perianth-tube accrescent, enclosing the fruit.
A.
Pedicels very short,
1 mm. long in fruit, or less, or none.
a.
Rachis of the mflorescence glabrous.
Venation of upper leaf-surfaces inconspicuous.
Inflorescence longer than the leaves; fruit coronate.
1.
C. pi rifolia.
Inflorescence mostly not longer than the leaves; fruit
not coronate.
2.
C. Kruqii.
Venation of upper leaf-surfaces conspicuous.
3.
C. borinquensis.
b.
Rachis
of the inflorescence puberulent;
leaves densely
reticulate-veined.
Inflorescence longer than the leaves; fruit coronate.
4.
C. diversifolia.
Inflorescence scarcely longer than the leaves;
fruit not
coronate.
5.
C. obtusifolia.
B.
Pedicels longer, 1.5 ram. long in fruit, or longer.
Racliis of the Inflorescence glabrous.
Leaves suborbicular, roimded.
6.
C.
Uvifera.
Leaves ovate to elliptic or obovate.
Leaves cordate, large, 10-25 cm. long; calyx red.
7.
C. Sintenisii.
Leaves obtuse or subcordate at base, smaller; calyx
greenish white.
8.
C.
laurifolia.
Racliis of the inflorescence pubescent or puberulent; leaves
very large.
Leaves pilose beneath.
9.
C. grandifolia.
Leaves glabrous beneath.
10.
C. rugosa.
2.
Perianth-lobes accrescent, enclosing the fruit.
11.
C. vcnosa.
Species not grouped, known from fohage only.
12.
C. rupicola.
POLYGONACEAE
267
1. Coccolobis pirifolia Desf. Cat. Hort. Paris ed. 3, 389.
1829.
Coccoloba Kunthiana Meisn. in DC. Prodr.
14': 166.
1856.
A tree, up to 10 m.
higli, or sometimes sliriibby, the slender twigs glabrous.
Ocreae acuminate, glabrous, 10 mm. long or less, fugacious; petioles 6-12 mm.
long; leaf-blades subcoriaceous, ovate to
elliptic, glabrous, 4-10 cm.
long, the
apex bluntly acute, acuminate, or obtuse, the base narrowed or obtuse, the vena-
tion inconspicuous on the upper side; inflorescence terminal, very slender, spike-
like, glabrous, drooping in fruit, usually much longer than the leaves, the nodes
l-flowered, the flowers sessile; bracts triangular, about
1 mm. long; ocreolae as
long as the bracts, 3-lobed; calyx campanulate, greenish,
1 mm. long; fruit sub-
globose, about 4 mm. in diameter, coronate.
Woodlands and liillsides in moist or wet districts of Porto Rico, ascending into the
mountain forests at higher elevations; St. Thomas (according to Lindau)
;—Jamaica.
2. Coccolobis Krugii Lindau, Bot. Jahrb. 13: 145.
1890.
A glaljrous shrub or small tree, sometimes about 8 m. high, the slender twigs
short and
munerous,
the
liark smooth,
gray.
Leaf-blades
broadly ovate
or
nearly orbicular, light green, subcoriaceous, rounded or obtuse at the apex, cordate
or subcordate at the
base,
6 cm. long or
less, inconspicuously veined above,
densely finely reticulate-veined beneath, the rather stout petioles 4-8 mm. long,
the ocreae appressed, short; spikes very slender, glabrous, mostly as long as the
leaves or shorter,
loosely flowered; pedicels
less than
0.5 mm.
long; perianth
green, about 1.5 mm. long; stamens white; fruit ovoid or ovoid-globose, 4-6 mm-
long, slightly ribbed, black, capped by the perianth-segments, the pericarp some,
what fleshy.
Low woods, hillsides and thickets at low elevations, Porto Rico, in dry parts of the
southwestern
districts;
Vieques;
Little
St.
James
Island;
Anegada:—Bahamas;
St.
Martin; Barbuda; Jamaica.
3. Coccolobis borinquensis Britton,
sp. nov.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, the trunk up to
1 m. in diameter, the twigs stout,
glabrous.
Ocreae subtruncate, glabrous, 1-2 cm. long; petioles stout, 1-2 cm.
long; leaf-blades coriaceous, glabrous, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 6-18 cm.
long, strongly reticulate-veined on both
sides, obtuse or rounded at the apex,
obtuse to cordate at the base; spikes terminal, rather stout, glabrous, mostly
much longer than the leaves, sometimes 3 dm. long, the nodes l-flowered; bracts
ovate, short; ocreolae about 2 mm. long; flowers sessile; calyx about 4 mm. broad,
the sepals acutish
; immature fruit subglobose, about 3 mm. in diameter, crowned
by the calyx.
Mountain forests at middle and liigher elevations, Porto Rico.
Type from Loma
Icaco. Sierra de Naguabo iShafcr SkW.
Endemic.
Erroneously included by Lmdau m
C. Urbaniana Lindau, of Trinidad.
Ortegon.
4. Coccolobis diveraifolia Jacq. Enum. 19.
1760.
Coccoloba barbadensis Jacq. Enum. 37.
7160.
A tree, up to IC or 12 m. high, the bark gray, separating in small scales, the'
twigs glabrous or nearly
so.
Leaf-blades ovate to
elliptic or elliptic-obovate,
coriaceous, glabrous, 4
10 cm. long, rounded or obtuse at the apex, obtuse, sub-
cordate, rounded or some of them narrowed at the base, reticulate-veined on both
sides, the rather stout petioles 8-20 mm. long; ocreae appressed, as long as the
petioles or shorter; inflorescence spicate, slender, longer than the leaves; rachis
puberulent,
or
glabrate;
flowers
green,
very
nearly
sessile,
2-2.5 mm.
long;
fruit
ovoid,
pointed,
6-10 mm.
long,
coronate,
the
pericarp
slightly
fleshy.
[C. coronata of Millspaugh; C. punctata of Krebs and of Eggers.]
Woodlands and
hillsides at lower and middle elevations in moist
districts, Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
St.
Croi,\;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Virgin Gorda:—Bahamas; Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua to Barbados; Aruba; Curacao; Bonaire.
Mountain Grape.
Red-wood.
268
POLYGONACEAE
5. Coccolobis obtusifolia Jacq. Eniim. 19.
1760.
Coccoloba microstachya Willd. Sp.
PI.
2: 459.
1799.
Coccoloba parvifolia Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 6: 64.
1804.
Coccoloba Klotischiana Meisn. in DC. Prodr. 14:
1.55.
1856.
C. microstachya ovalifolia and lanceolata Meisn. in DC. Prodr. 14: 162.
1856^
C. microstachya rotundifolia Urban; Lindau, Bot. Jahrb. 13: 147.
1890.
A shrub, or a tree up to 8 m.
in height, the twigs slender, puberulent or
glabrate.
Ocreae
thin, about 5 mm.
long, appressed;
petioles 4-6 mm.
long;
leaf-blades
chartaceous,
various,
lanceolate
to
oval,
ovate
or
suborbicular,
reticulate-veined on both sides, glabrous or nearly so, 3-8 cm. long (longer on
shoots) the apex obtuse, rounded, acute or acuminate, the base mostly rounded
or subcordate; spikes terminal, very slender, about as long as the leaves or a
little longer, the nodes 1-flowered; bracts puberulent, acute; rachis puberulent;
ocreolae 0.5 mm. long, equalling the bracts; fruit ovoid, black, about 5 mm. long.
[C. punctata microstachya of Eggers; C. punctata parvifolia of Millspaugh.]
Hillsides and
thickets
at lower
elevations,
Porto
Rico,
mostly
in dry
districts;
Culebra; Vieques; Mona; St. Thomas; St. Jan; St. Croix; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—His--
paniola.
Recorded from tlie Bahamas, apparently erroneously.
Puckhout.
6. Coccolobis uvifera
(L.) Jacq. Enum.
19.
1760.
Polygonum, uvifera L. Sp.
PI. 365.
1753.
Coccoloba leoganensis Jacq. Enum. 19.
1760.
A tree, exceptionally up to 15 m. high, with a trunk 1 m. in diarneter, usually
not over 6 m. high, the branches spreacUng, the smooth bark brown, the twigs-
stout,
finely pubescent when young, soon
glabrous.
Leaf-blades orbicular
or-
broader than long, coriaceous, 7-20 cm. broad, cordate at the base, very short-
petioled, their sheaths 1 cm. long or less
; flowers numerous, white, in dense narrow
glabrous racemes 7-12 cm. long; pedicels 3-4 mm. long; calyx white, about
6.
mm. broad, its lobes ovate, rounded; fruits forming drooping clusters somewhat
resembling bunches of grapes, globose, purple, 1-2 cm. in diameter, the pulp thin,
astringent.
Coastal thickets and hillsides near the coasts, Porto Rico; Icacos; Culebra; Vieques:
Mona; Desecheo;
St.
Croi.\;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—
Florida; Bermuda; West Indies; continental tropical America.
The heavy, hard, dark
brown wood has a specific gravity of about 0.96; it is used for furniture and in cabinet,
work.
Se\ Grape.
Uva de Mar.
7. Coccolobis Sintenisii Urban; Lindau, Bot. Jahrb. 13: 157.
1890.
A tree, 6 m. high or higher, the stout twigs glabrous.
Ocreae glabrous, 1-2
cm. long; leaf-blades coriaceous, glabrous, broadly ovate, 11-25 cm. long, pin-
nately few-veined, shining and not reticulate-veined above, dull and finely punc-
tate-reticulate beneath, the apex bluntly short-acuminate, the base cordate, the
stout petioles 2-3 cm. long; racemes apparently borne on lateral twigs,
sessfie,
rather densely many-flowered, 12 cm. long or less, the rachis glabrous, the nodes.
1-flowered;
bracts ovate, rounded, about
1 mm.
long, equalling the ocreolae;
flowering pedicels 5-6 mm. long; calyx red, about 3 mm. long; fruiting pedicels,
filiform, 8-10 mm. long; fruit ovoid, red, coronate, about 8 mm. long.
Forests of the western moimtains of Porto Rico, and, apparently, in arroyos near-
Coamo Springs.
The Coamo Springs specimen is barren.
Endemic.
UVERO DE Monte.
8. Coccolobis laurifolia Jacq. Hort. Schoen. 3: 9. 1797.
Coccoloba umbilicata Sesse & Mog. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 96.
1894.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, with a trunk sometimes 7 dm. thick, usually much,
smaller, and often shrubby, the thin gray bark brown mottled, the twigs and
leaves glabrous.
Leaves ovate, elliptic or obovate, coriaceous, obtuse or acute
POLYGONACEAE
2(59
at the apex, rounded at the base, 4-12 cm. long, or those of young shoots larger,
the petioles 5-20 mm. long, the sheaths short; racemes slender, 5-10 cm. long;
pedicels 5-8 mm. long; calyx greenish, about 5 mm. broad, its lobes suborbicular;
fruits subglobose, red, acid, 8-10 mm. in diameter.
Thickets and woodlands at lower elevations. Porto Rico, mostly in dry
districts;
Vieques: Mona: St. Croix:—Florida: Bahamas
: Jamaica
: Ciiba: Hispaniola.
The reddish
brown wood is hard, very heavy, its specific gravity about 1.00.
Glateado.
9. Coccolobis grandifolia Jacq. Enum.
19.
1760.
Coccoloba pubescens L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 523.
1762.
A tree, up to 25 m. high, the trunk simple or sparingly branched, the stout
twigs densely brown-hirsute, the wood red, hard and durable.
Ocreae 2-3 cm.
long, split on one side; leaves suborbicular, or broader than long, immense, up to
1 m. in diameter, rounded, cordate, coarsely reticulate-veined, finely pubescent
or becoming glabrate above, densely brown-pubescent beneath, the stout petiole
only about
1 cm. long; racemes solitary, terminal, densely many-flowered, 4-7
dm' long, the rachis puberulent; bracts and ocreolae about 0.5 mm. long; nodes
1
3-flowered; pedicels 3-5 mm. long; calyx white, 2-3 mm. broad; fruit globose
to ovoid, about 5 mm. in diameter.
Forests at middle and higher elevations in the western districts of Porto Rico:
Hispaniola:
Barbuda:
Antigua;
Montserrat;
Guadeloupe:
Martiiuque:
Barbados:
Mexico and' Guiana.
The wood, valued for furniture and for construction, is dense and
heavy.
Moralon.
10. Coccolobis rugosa Desf. Cat. Hort. Paris ed.
3, 389.
1829.
Coccoloba macrophylla Desf. Tabl. 38. Hyponym.
1804.
A very slender tree, up to 15 m. high, the trunk only 6-10 cm. in diameter,
nearly or quite unbranched, the very hard wood white, the young growth
flat-
tened, 2-edged,
glabrous, ridged,
stout, the bark light gray,
fissured.
Ocreae
firm, truncate, up to 7 cm. long.
Leaves
sessile, cordate, clasping, thick-cori-
aceous and brittle, wrinkled, orbicular to obovate, obtuse, 3-6 dm. broad, glabrous
on both sides, strongly veined, the veins impressed above, prominent beneath;
racemes terminal, bright red or crimson, 3-6 dm. long, many-flowered, the gtout
rachis minutely puberulent; bracts and ocreolae about
1 mm. long; pedicels 5-13
mm. long, 2-8 together at the nodes; calyx about 3 mm. long,
its lobes ovate;
fruit ovoid to subglobose, orange-red, about 6 mm. long.
[? C. latifolia of Bello,
and of Krebs, not of Lamarck.]
Woodlands
local in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas (according to
de Candolle).
Not known on
St. Thomas at
the present time;
it may have grown
there before the forests were cut away.
Ortegon.
11. Coccolobis venosa L. Syst. ed.
10, 1007.
1759.
^
Coccoloba nivea Jacq. Enum. 19.
, 1760.
Coccoloba excoriata L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 542.
1762.
A tree, with maximum height of about 12 m., or sometimes shrubby,
ttie
twigs short,
glabrous.
Ocreae membranous, acuminate, about
1 cm. long or
longer, deciduous; petioles 5-10 mm. long; leaf-blades thin-chartaceous, elUptic
to obovate-elliptic, rather strongly pinnately veined, 8-20 cm. long
(those of
shoots larger),
finely reticulate-veined on both sides, glabrous, the apex short-
acuminate, the base narrowed or obtuse; racemes spike-hke, terminal,
solitary,
nodding, 6-15 cm. long, the nodes several-flowered, the rachis glabrous; bracts
triangular, about 1.5 mm. long, shorter than the 2-lobed ocreolae; pedicels about
1 mm. long; calyx yellowish-green; fruit at length white, trigonous, about 6 mm.
long, the calyx-lobes accrescent.
Hillsides and thickets
at lower and middle elevations
in
dry
or moist districts,
Porto
Rico; Mona:
Vieques:
St.
Croix:
St.
Tliomas: Tortola:—.Tamaica;
Hispaniola;
St. Barfs to Trinidad.
Chiggery Grape.
Calambrena.
270
POLYGONACEAE
12.
Coccolobis rupicola Urban, Symb. Ant. 6: 10.
1909.
This species is based upon a barren specimen collected by Sintenls In a rocky
situation, also at Los Angeles, near Utuado; It has broadly ovate, rounded leaves
7-8 cm. long, glabrous and nearly sessile.
Lindau (Bot. Jahrb. 13: 154) erron-
eously regarded it as the same as C. verruculosa Lindau of Hispaniola.
Coccolobis Swartzii Meisn. var.
(?) portoricensis Meisn. In DC. Prodr.
14: 160.
1856.
This was briefly described by Meisner from an Incomplete specimen preserved
In the CandoUean herbarium at Geneva, Switzerland, recorded as from the high
mountains of Porto Rico, the name of the collector not cited.
Lindau, who had
a drawing of the specimen, thought
it might be related to
C. laurifolia, or to
C.
diversifolia
(C.
barhadensis), but could not associate any recently collected
specimens with it (Bot. Jahrb. 13:
1.58).
Coccolobis costata C. Wright, of eastern Cuba, was recorded by Lindau
as from Los Angeles, near Utuado, Porto Rico, after study of a barren .specimen
collected there by Sintenis {No. 6.934); Urban, however, after subsequent study
of the same material, concluded that
it represented some other species (Symb.
Ant.
4: 656).
Muehlenbeckia platyclada
(F. v. M.) Lindau, Centipede Plant, Poly-
nesian, a shrul), up to about 3 m.
in height, with
flat narrow jointed
leafless
branches, the small green flowers clustered at the nodes,
is grown for interest in
Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens.
[Coccoloba platyclada F. v. M.]
Fa?opyrum Fa?opyrum (L.) Karst., Buckwheat, European or Asiatic,
an annual herb with hastate leaves, the ocreae oblique, and racemose or panicled
small white flowers, the achenes about 2 mm. long and twice as long as the calyx,
has been cultivated in the Virgin Islands for
its nutritious
fruits, from which
buckwheat
flour
is made.
[Polygonum Fagopyrum
L.
; Fagopyrum esculentum
Moench.]
Triplaris caracasana Cham., Venezuelan,
seen
in the collection of trees
at the
Agricultural
E.xperiment
Station, Mayaguez,
forms a
fine
tree
10 m.
high
or
higher,
with
large oblong short-petioled
leaves,
the
dioecious small
flowers
spicate,
the 3 outer segments
of
the
pistillate calyx
elongating
into
narrow wing-like appendages.
Order 10.
CHENOPODIALES.
Herbs or shrubs, rarely trees, mostly with perfect flowers.
Calyx usually
present.
Corolla
present
or wanting.
Ovary
superior.
Embryo
coiled,
curved or annular.
Fruit a utricle, achene, berry, capsule or anthocarp, or
aggregate, rarely achene-like.
Fruit not capsular, a utricle, berry, anthocarp or achene-
like; corolla none.
Fruit a utricle.
Flowers
bractless,
or
if bracted,
the
bracts not
scarious, filaments usually free.
Fam.
1.
Chenopodiaceae.
Flowers with scarious bracts, filaments imited at
least at the base.
Fam.
2.
Amaranthaceae.
Fruit not a utricle.
Fruit an anthocarp.
Fam. 3.
Nyctaginaceae.
Fruit not an anthocarp.
Fruit aggregate.
Fam. 4.
Batidaceae.
Fruit not aggregate.
Fam.
5.
Phytolaccaceae.
CHENOPODIACEAE
271
Fruit a capsule, dehiscent by valves or teeth.
Capsule 2-several-cellecl
; corolla none.
Fam.
6.
Aizoaceae.
Capsule 1-celled; petals mostly present.
Sepals 5 or 4.
Fam.
7.
Aisinaceae.
Sepals only 2.
Plants never with twining stems; ovules 2
to
many.
Fam. 8.
Portul.-vcaceae.
Vines; ovule
1.
Fam. 9.
Basell.'Vceae.
Family
1.
CHENOPODIACEAE Duraort.
GoosEFOOT Family.
Annual or perennial herbs, rarely shrubs, with angled striate or terete
stems.
Leaves alternate or sometimes opposite, estipulate, simple, entire,
toothed or lobed, mostly
petioled
(in Salicornia reduced
to mere
scales).
Flowers
small,
green
or
greenish,
regular
or
slightly
irregular,
variously
clustered, occasionally solitary in the axils.
Petals none.
Calyx persistent,
2-5-lobed, 2-5-parted or rarely reduced
to a single
sepal, wanting in the
pistillate flowers of some genera.
Stamens as many as the lobes or divisions
of the calyx, or fewer, and opposite them, filaments slender; anthers 2-celled,
longitudinally dehiscent.
Disk usually none.
Ovary 1-celled; ovules solitary,
amphitropous; styles 1-3; stigmas capitate, or 2-3-lobed or divided.
Fruit
a utricle, with a thin or coriaceous
pericarp.
Seed vertical
or horizontal;
endosperm mealy,
fleshy or wanting.
About 75 genera and 550
species,
of wide geographic distribution.
Embryo annular or conduplicate, neither spiral nor coiled.
Stem leafy, not jointed; flowers in clusters or spikes.
Flowers mostly perfect, ebracteolate.
1.
Cheiiopodium.
Flowers mostly unisexual, the pistillate ones bracteolate.
2.
Alriplex.
Stem leafless, jointed; flowers simken in cavities of the joints.
3.
Salicornia.
Embryo spirally coiled.
4. Dondia.
1. CHENOPODIUM L. Sp. PI. 218.
1753.
Annual or perennial herbs, with alternate petioled leaves.
Flowers small,
green,
perfect,
sessile,
bractless,
clustered.
Calyx
2-5-parted
or
2-5-Iobed,
embracing or enclosing the utricle, its segments or lobes often keeled or ridged.
Stamens 1-5; filaments
filiform or slender.
Styles 2 or 3; seed horizontal or
vertical
; endosperm mealy
; embryo completely or incompletely annular.
[Greek,
goosefoot, from the shape of the leaves.]
About 60 species, mostly weeds, of
wide geographic distribution.
Type species: Chenopodium rubrum L.
Embryo a complete ring; plant not aromatic.
1.
C. murale.
Embryo horseshoe-shaped; plant aromatic.
2.
C. ambrosioides.
1. Chenopodium murale L. Sp.
PI. 219.
1753.
Annual, somewhat scurfy above; stem 3-8 dm. high, leafy to the summit.
Leaves rhombic-ovate,
thin,
bright
green,
acute
or
acuminate,
sharply and
coarsely sinuate-dentate, cuneate or subtruncate at the
base,
slender-petioled,
5-10 cm. long; flowers in loose axillary panicles often not longer than the petioles;
calyx-segments not entirely enclosing the utricle; seed sharp-edged, horizontal,
1.2-1.5 mm. broad,
dull,
firmly attached to the pericarp; embryo a complete
ring.
Waste and
cultivated
grotmds
at
lower
elevations,
Porto
Rico:
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas:—widely distribiited as a weed
in temperate and
tropical
regions.
Native of
the Old World
Mistaken by Cook and Collins for C/ienopodium a/ftum L.
Sowb.\xe.
272
CHENOPODIACEAE
2. Chenopodium ambrosioides L. Sp. PL 219.
1753.
Chenopodium anthelminticurn L. Sp.
Pi. 220.
1753.
? Chenopodium cuneifolium Vahl in West,
St. Croix 278. Hyponym.
1793.
Chenopodium spathulatum Sieb.
; Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13^: 73.
1849.
Annual,
glabrous
or
slightly
glandular-pubescent,
strong-scented;
stem
leafy, 6-10 dm. liigh, angular and grooved.
Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate,
narrowed to a short petiole, repand-dentate, undulate or the upper entire, 2-9
cm. long, the upper numerous and much smaller; flowers in small dense axillary
spikes; calyx usually 3-parted, completely enclosing the fruit; pericarp readily
separable from the horizontal or vertical, shining seed; embryo horseshoe-shaped.
Hillsides, waste and cultivated groimds, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—widelv distributed in temperate and tropical regions both of the New World
and the Old.
Consists of several races.
Wormseed.
Pasote.
2. ATRIPLEX L. Sp. PI.
10.52.
1753.
"
Herbs or low shrubs, often scurfy-canescent or silvery.
Leaves alternate,
or some of them opposite.
Flowers dioecious or monoecious,
small,
green,
in
panicled spikes or capitate-clustered in the axils.
Staminate flowers bractless,
consisting of a 3-5-parted calyx and an equal number of stamens;
fllaments
separate
or united by
their
bases;
a rudimentary ovary sometimes
present.
Pistillate flowers subtended by 2 bractlets which enlarge in fruit and are more
or
less
united, sometimes
quite
to
their summits;
perianth none; stigmas
2.
Utricle completely or partially enclo.sed by the fruiting bractlets.
Seed vertical
or rarely horizontal; embryo annular; endosperm mealy.
[From a Greek name
of orache.]
About 150 species, of wide geographic distribution.
Type species:
Atriplex hortensis L.
1. Atriplex paritandra (.Jaoq.) Standley, N. A. PL 21: 54.
1916.
Axyris pentandra Jacq.
Sel. Stirp. Am. 244.
1763.
Atriplex cristata H. & B.; W^illd. Sp. PL 4: 959.
1806.
Obione cristata Moq. Chenop. Enum. 73.
1840.
Annual or perennial, branched, the branches procumbent or ascending, 3-8
dm. long, scurfy when young, becoming glabrate.
Leaves alternate,
sessile or
short-petioled, oblong to rhombic or obovate, 1-3 cm. long, obtuse or acute at the
apex, mucronate, cuneate at the base, repand-dentate, undulate or the upper
entire, white-scurfy beneath, green above; flowers monoecious, the staminate in
dense short terminal spikes, the pistillate clustered in the axils; fruiting bracts
cuneate-orbicular, about 3 mm. long, united only at the base, sharply dentate,
the sides bearing 2 dentate crests or irregularly tubercled; seed brown.
Sandy sea-beaches, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; St. Croi.x:—Florida;
Bahamas;" Cuba;
Hispaniola; Jamaica; Curagao; northern South America.
Crested
Atriplex.
Garbancillo.
Atriplex portulacoides
L., of southern Europe and northern Africa, was
listed by Krebs as found in St. Thomas, evidently in error
[Obione portulacoides
Moq.].
3. SALICORNIA L. Sp. PL 3.
1753.
Succulent glabrous herbs, with opposite jointed branches, the leaves reduced
to mere opposite scales, the flowers sunken 3-7 together in the axils of the upper
ones forming narrow terminal spikes, perfect or the lateral ones staminate.
Calyx
obpyramidal or rhomboid, fleshy, 3-4-toothed or truncate, becoming spongy in
CHENOPODIACEAE
273
fruit, deciduous.
Stamens 2, or sometimes solitary, exserted; filaments cylindrlc,
short; anthers oblong,
large.
Ovary ovoid;
styles or stigmas
2.
Utricles en-
closed by the spongy
fruiting
calyx,
the
pericarp membranous.
Seed
erect,
compressed; embryo conduplicate
; endosperm none.
[Name Greek, salt-horn;
from the saline habitat, and horn-like branches.]
About 10 species, growing In
saline
soil, widely distributed in both the Old World and the Kew, known as
Glasswort.
Type species: Salicomia europaea L.
Perennial; prostrate with erect branches.
1.
S. perennis
Annual; erect.
2.
S. Bigelovii
1. Salicomia perennis Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8, no. 2.
1768.
Salicornia ambigua Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 2.
1803.
Perennial by a woody rootstock; stem
trailing or decumbent,
1.5-6 dm.
long, rooting, the branches ascending or erect, slender, nearly or quite simple,
rather
long-jointed.
Scales broadly ovate
or wider than
high,
appressed
or
slightly divergent; fruiting spikes 1-4 cm. long, their joints not longer than thick;
flowers all about equally high and about equalling the joints; seeds covered with
slender hairs.
Saline
soil,
St.
Croix;
Anegada:—Atlantic and
Gulf coasts
of North America;
Bermuda; Bahamas; Cuba; Jamaica; European coasts.
2. Salicornia Bigelovii Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. Surv. 184.
18.59.
Salicomia mucronata Bigelow, Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 2: 1824.
Not Lag. 1817.
Annual, stout, erect or nearly so, 5-50 cm.
tall, more or less branched, the
branches stout.
Scales ovate or triangular-ovate, sharply mucronate, 2-3 mm.
long, at length spreading; fruiting spikes 1-12 cm. long, their joints not longer
than thick; middle flowers slightly higher than the lateral ones, reaching very
nearly to the end of the joint; seed covered with short hairs.
Sea coast at Salinas de Cabo Rojo, Porto Rico:—Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North
America:
California; Bahamas; Cuba; Yucatan.
Erroneously recorded by Urban
as
Salicornia hcrbacea L.
4. DONDIA Adans. Pam.
PI. 2: 261.
1763.
Annual or perennial
fleshy herbs or low shrubs,
with alternate narrowly
linear, thick or nearly terete, entire sessile leaves, and perfect or polygamous,
bracteolate flowers, solitary or clustered in the upper axils.
Calyx 5-parted or
5-cleft, the segments in fruit enclosing the utricle.
Stamens 5.
Styles usually 2,
short.
Pericarp separating from the seed.
Embryo coiled into a
flat
spiral.
Endosperm wanting or very little.
[In honor of Jacopodi Dondi, Italian natural-
ist of the fourteenth century.]
About 50 species, of wide geographic distribution
Type species; Chenopodium altissimum L.
2. Dondia fruticosa (L.) Northrop, Mem. Torr. Club. 12: 35.
1902.
Chenopodium fruticosum L. Sp.
PI. 221.
17.53.
Perennial, woody, glabrous, or nearly so, somewhat glaucous, much branched,
8 dm. high or less, the branches leafy, ascending.
Leaves subterete, 1-1.5 cm.
long, the upper little shorter than the lower; calyx lobes rounded on the back,
inflexed; seed red-brown or black,
1 mm. broad.
Salijie
soil, Virgin Gorda;—western United States; Bahamas; Cuba; widely distri-
buted in tiie Old World.
274
AMARANTHACEAE
Beta vulgaris L., Remolacha, Beet, European, cultivated in Porto Rico
and the Virgin Islands, has a large fleshy red root, ovate leaves, the blade decur-
rent on the petiole, the small flowers glomerate-spicate, the glomerules subtended
by bracts.
Family 2.
AMARANTHACEAE J. St. Hil.
Amaranth Family.
Herbs,
or a few genera low
shrubs,
with
simple, mostly
entire,
thin
leaves.
Flowers
small,
green
or
white,
bracteolate,
variously
clustered,
usually in terminal spikes or axillary heads.
Petals none.
Calyx herbaceous
or membranous, 2-5-parted, the segments
distinct, or united at the base,
equal, or the inner ones smaller.
Stamens 1-5, mostly opposite the calyx-
segments, hypogynous, filaments distinct, imited at the base, or into a tube.
Ovary
1-celled;
ovule
solitary
in
the majority
of
genera,
amphitropous,
several in some tropical genera; stigmas 1-3.
1^'ruit a utricle, circumscissile,
bursting
irregularly,
or
indehiscent,
1-seeded
or
several -seeded.
Seed
mostly smooth: embryo annular; endosperm meal}^ usually copious.
About
40 genera and 475
species,
widely
distributed, most abundant
in warm
regions.
Ovules 2 or more.
•
1.
Celosia.
Ovule solitary.
Anthers 4-celled.
Seed erect.
Flowers mostly perfect; filaments tmited below; vines.
2.
Chamissoa.
Flowers imperfect or polygamous; herbs.
3. Arnaranthus.
Seed inverted.
4.
Centrostachys.
Anthers 2-celled.
Stigma capitate.
5.
Achyranthes.
Stigma 2-3-lobed.
Lobes of the stamen-tube 3-lobed.
6. Gomphrena.
Lobes of the stamen-tube entire.
Flowers not flattened, borne in slender panicled spikes.
7.
Iresine.
Flowers much flattened, in dense spikes or heads.
Stamens 2.
8.
Lithophila.
Stamens 5.
9.
Philoxerus.
1. CELOSIA L. Sp. PI. 205.
1753.
Herbs or shrubs, with alternate leaves, the small perfect bracted flowers in
spikes or fascicles.
Perianth 5-parted, the segments scarious, striate.
Stamens
5; filaments filiform or subulate, connate at the base; anthers 4-celled.
Ovary
2-many-ovuled
; style present or wanting; stigmas 2 or 3.
Utricle circumscissile
or irregularly rupturing.
Seeds 2 to many, lenticular, shining; embryo annular,
endosperm
starchy.
[Greek,
burned,
from
the dry parched
fiowers
of some
species.]
About 40
species,
of
tropical and
subtropical
distribution.
Type'
species: Celosia argeniea L.
Perennial
; inflorescence of panicled slender spikes
; sepals dark brown.
Seeds up to 20; leaf-blades short-decurrent on the petiole.
1.
C. niiida.
Seeds 5 to 8; leaf-blades long-decurrent.
2.
C. virgatn.
Annual; inflorescence of simple stout spikes; sepals bright white.
3.
C. argentca.
1.
Celosia nitida Vahl, Symb. 2: 44.
1791.
Perennial:
glabrous.
Stem
slender,
erect
or
vine-like,
3-15
dm.
long;
petioles
slender, 5-20 mm.
long;
leaf-blades ovate
to rhombic-lanceolate, 2-7
cm. long, obtuse, acute or acuminate at the apex, truncate or obtuse and often
obhcjue at the base; inflorescence of panicled spikes 1-5 cm. long; bracts nearly
half as long as the sepals, ovate to lanceolate, keeled, acuminate; sepals elliptic-
AMARANTHACEAE
275
lanceolate, about 5 mm. long, acuminate, dark bro-wn, strongly parallel-veined;
style short; utricle globose-ovoid, shorter than the calyx; seeds about 20, black,
smooth.
[Celosia paniculata of Krebs, not of Linnaeus.]
Thickets
at lower elevations,
especially along the coasts; Porto Pico; Dofecheo;
Mona;
Muertos; Vieqnes;
Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin
Gorda;—Florida; West Indies; Mexico and northern South America.
Albahaca.
2. Celosia virgata Jacq.
Coll. 2: 279.
1788.
Perennial;
glabrous.
Stem
erect,
little
branched
or
simple,
somewhat
woody below,
1 m. high or less; leaf-blades ovate or elliptic to lanceolate, 4-15
cm. long, the apex acuminate or acute, the base narrowed, long-decurrent on the
petiole; spikes 1-5 cm. long, panicled; bracts one-third to one-half as long as
the sepals, ovate to lanceolate, keeled, abruptly tipped
; sepals ovate to lanceolate,
about 6 mm. long, dark brown, acuminate, strongly parallel-veined; style much
shorter than the globose-ovoid utricle; seeds 5-8, smooth, black.
Tliicket, Cerro Ventana, Vieques:—Cuba; Mexico and northern South America.
3. Celosia argentea L. Sp.
PI. 205.
17.53.
Annual; glabrous.
Stein rather stout, erect, simple or branched,
1 m. high
or less; petioles margined,
1-3 cm. long; leaf-blades linear to ovate, 4-12 cm.
long, acute or acuminate at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base; spikes
soUtary, dense, oblong or cylindric, up to 2 dm. long and 2 cm.
thick; bracts
ovate to lanceolate, about half as long as the bright white sepals; style slender;
utricle subglobose; seeds black, shining.
Moist waste grounds
at lower elevations, Porto Rico;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas:—
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Martin to Grenada; continental tropical America and
Old World tropics; often planted for ornanient in gardens.
Silvery Celosia.
Celosia cristata L., Cockscomb, planted for ornament in Porto Rico and
Virgin Island gardens, has ovate leaves, the spikes variously crested and branchedi
red, purple, crimson or white.
2. CHAMISSOA H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 2: 196.
1817.
Perennial, herbaceous or slightly woody vines, or sometimes sufFrutescent,
with broad alternate petioled leaves, the perfect or polygamous flowers in terminal
and axillary, simple or branched spikes.
Bracts usually 3.
Sepals 5, persistent.
Stamens 5, the subulate filaments connate at the base; anthers ovoid, 4-ceIlcd;
staminodes none.
Utricle circumscissile at or below the middle.
Seed reniform-
lenticular, erect,
arillate, the embryo annular.
[Commemorates Louis Charles
Adelbert de Chamisso, 1791-1838, distinguished naturalist.]
A few species, of
tropical America, the following typical.
1. Chamissoa altissima (Jacq.) H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 2: 197.
1817.
Achyranthes altissima Jacq. Enum.
17.
1760.
Celosia paniculata L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 298.
1762.
Kokera paniculata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 542.
1891.
Glabrous or nearly so, clambering on shrubs or trees, slender, branched, up
to 5 m. long, woody below.
Petioles slender, 1-3.5 cm. long;
leaf-blades thin.
ovate to ovate-lanceolate or oval, 6-18 cm. long, the apex acuminate or acute,
the base narrowed or subtruncate; spikes densely or loosely flowered, 2 dm. long
or less, those of staminate flowers more slender than the pistillate; bracts about
1.
2.
AMARANTHACEAE
277
3. Amaranthus viridis L. Sp.
Pi. ed.
2, 1405.
1763.
Euxolus viridis Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13^: 273.
1849.
Amaranthus emarginatus Salzm.
; Uline & Bray, Bot. Gaz. 19: 319.
1894.
Steins slender, prostrate or ascending, glabrous, usually branched, 1-6 dm.
long.
Leaves slender-petioled, rhombic-ovate,
1-4 cm.
long,
glabrous, deeply
emarginate at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the base; flowers monoecious,
in small axillary clusters and usually also in a short terminal spike
; bracts ovate
to lanceolate, acute, as long as the sepals or shorter; sepals 3, those of the pistillate
flowers oblong or oblong-ol)lanceolate, obtuse or shorter than the utricle, those
of the staminate flowers oblong,
acute; stamens and style-branches
3;
utricle
smooth, indehiscent; seed reddish-brown, shining, nearly 1 mm. broad.
Waste grounds m moist
districts, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas
(according to
Krebs)
:—southern United States; Cuba; Jamaica; Bahamas; Guadeloupe; tropical South
America and Old World
tropics.
4. Amaranthus gracilis Desf. Tabl. Bot. 43.
1804.
Chenopodiiim caudatum Jacq. Coll. 2: 325.
1788.
Not A. caudatus L.
Euxolus caudatus Moq. in DC. Prodr.
IS^: 274.
1849.
Glabrous; stem
erect,
usually branched, 2-9 dm.
high.
Leaves
slender-
petioled, 8 cm. long or less, ovate or rhombic-ovate, mostly obtuse and emarginate
at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base; flowers monoecious,
in slender,
axillary and terminal, sometimes panicled spikes 4-12 cm. long, and also often
in small dense axillary clusters; bracts ovate to lanceolate, acute, scarious, much
shorter than the 3 sepals; sepals cuspidate, 1-1.5 mm. long; stamens and style-
branches 3; utricle wrinkled, indehiscent, as long as the sepals or longer; seed
dull, dark brown,
1 mm.
broad.
[Euxolus
oleraceus of Krebs and of Eggers;
? Amaranthus oleraceus of West.]
Waste and cultivated groimds, Porto Rico; Muertos; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—southern United
States; West
Indies;
tz-opical and subtropical continental
America and Old World tropics.
Lumboo.
5. Amaranthus spinosus L. Sp. Pi. 991.
1753.
Stem stout, ridged, erect or ascending, glabrous below, somewhat pubescent
above, usually much branched, sometimes red, 3-12 dm. high, with a pair of rigid
stipular
spines
at each
node.
Leaves
slender-petioled, rhombic-ovate or the
upper lanceolate, acute at both entls, 2-8 cm. long, the midvein excurrent; flowers
monoecious, the pistillate in numerous capitate axillary clusters, the staminate
in dense terminal spreading or drooping spikes 2-lS cm. long; bracts lanceolate-
subulate, about as long as or longer than the 5 scarious oblong mucronate-tipped
1-nerved
sepals,
and
the
thin
imperfectly
circumscissile
utricle;
stamens
5;
style-branches 3
; seed black, shining, nearly 1 mm. broad.
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
Tortola; Virgin Gorda;—United States; West Indies; all temperate and tropical regions.
6. Amaranthus dubivis Mart. Hort. Erlang. 197.
1814.
Amaranthus tristis Willd. Hist. Amar. 21.
1790.
Not L. 1753.
Glabrous, or somewhat pubescent above; stem erect, often much branched,
1 m. high or
less.
Leaves long-petioled, the slender petiole 2-9 cm.
long, the
blade ovate, 2-12 cm. long, acute or obtuse and usually emarginate at the apex,
rounded or acute at the base; flowers monoecious,
in slender, often drooping,
terminal and axillary spikes 5-25 cm. long, and sometimes in small dense axillary
clusters; bracts ovate or elliptic, acute, shorter than or about as long as the sepals;
sepals of the pistillate flowers 1.5-2 mm. long, mucronate, often emarginate,
1-
nerved; stamens 5; style-branches 3; utricle a little longer than the sepals, rugu-
278
AMAKANTHACEAE
lose, dehiscent
at the middle; seed dark brown or black, circular, sharp-edged^
1 mm. in diameter.
[A. pa7iicnlatus of Eggers and of Millspaugh.]
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Desecheo; Mona; Icacos; Vieques;
St.
Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—West Indies; Central and South America; tropical
Africa; adventive in Europe.
Bower.
Amaranthus gangeticus
L.
[A.
incomptus
Willd.;
A.
tricolor
L.]
Planted for ornament in the Virgin Islands, perhaps also in Porto Rico,
is erect,
up to
1 m. high, with terminal, interrupted spikes.
It
is a native of the Old
World tropics.
Amaranthus caudatus L., a tall unarmed species, with nodding terminal
stout spikes, the sepals of the pistillate flowers obovate or spatulate, was recorded
by W^est, many years ago, as found on St. Croi.x; it is occasionally cultivated as a
garden plant, but
is not known to
tis to exist in a wild state within the limits
of this Flora.
Amaranthus cruentus L.
[A. paniculatus L.], also a tall imarmed species,
with
erect terminal panicled red or purple
spikes,
the
pistillate sepals
short,,
oblong, obtuse, is grown for ornament in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens..
Caterpillar.
4. CENTROSTACHYS Wall, in Roxb.
Fl. Ind. 2: 497.
1824.
Herbs, some species somewhat woody, with opposite membranous broad
leaves, and small perfect green flowers, sessile in slender elongated terminal spikes,
the calyx defle.xed after anthesis.
Sepals 4 or 5, cartilaginous, narrow, acuminate
or
aristate.
Stamens 4 or
5; filaments subulate; anthers
4-celled.
Ovary
1-
ceUed; ovule 1; style fiUform; stigma capitate.
Utricle thin-walled, indehiscent.
[Greek, prickly-spike.]
About 12 species, of warm and tropical regions.
Type
species: Centrostachys aquatica Wall.
Leaves suborbictilar to obovate, abruptly tipped; sepals about 4 mm. long.
1.
C. indica.
Leaves oval to ovate, acuminate; sepals 6-7 mm. long.
2.
C. aspera.
i. Centrostachys indica (L.) Standley, Journ. Wash. Acad. Sci. 5: 75.
1915.
Achyranthes aspera indica L. Sp. PI. 204.
1753.
Achyranthes indica Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8, no. 2.
1768.
Achyranthes obtusifolia Lam. Encycl.
1: 545.
1785.
Achyranthes aspera obtusifolia Griseb. Fl. Br. W^. I. 62.
1859.
Annual,
herbaceous,
erect
or
ascending,
simple
or
branched,
6-12
dm.
high,
rather densely pubescent
above.
Leaf-blades suborbicular or obovate-
orbicular, pubescent, 2-7 cm. long, abruptly short-tipped, narrowed or cuneate
at the base, the slender petioles 1-3 cm. long; spikes very slender, 2-6 dm. long,
densely flowered above, the lower flowers scattered; flowers about 4 mm. long;
bracts subulate-tipped, horny, glabrous, a
little shorter than the calyx;
.sepals
acuminate.
Waste and
cultivated groimds, Porto Eico; Mona; Muertos; Vieques;
Culebra;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; Tortola:—tropical and siibtropical regions. Man-better-man.
2.
. Centrostachys aspera (L.) Standley, Journ. Wash. Acad. Sci. 5: 75.
1915.
Achyranthes aspera L. Sp. PI. 204.
1753.
Achyranthes argentea Lam. Encycl.
1: 545.
1785.
Aimual or perennial, decumbent or a.scending, usually few-branched, about
1 m. long or
less,
pilose.
Leaf-blades oval or ovate, 4-20 cm. long, the apex.
AMAKANTHACEAE
279
acuminate,
the base rounded
or narrowed,
the
petioles
2.5 cm.
long or
less;
spikes slender, 3 dm. long or less,
loosely flowered below, dense above; flowers
6-7 mm. long; bracts long-aristate
; sepals acuminate, twice as long as the bracts.
Waste groimds near Mayaguez, Porto Rico: Virgin Islands
(ex Eggers)
: Tortola;—
Florida:
Ciiba:
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
St.
Vincent;
Central America;
Old World tropics.
5. ACHYRANTHES L. Sp. PI. 204.
1753.
Mostly decumbent or prostrate herbs.
Leaves opposite, entire or nearly so.
Flowers perfect, in sessile or peduncled, head-like, usually whiteor silvery spikes.
Sepals
5,
unequal.
Stamens
5, the filaments partially united into a cup-like
tube;
staminodia
surpassing
the
filaments and
2-celled
anthers,
or
shorter.
Ovary 1-celled; stigma capitate.
Ovule solitary.
Utricle flattened, indehiscent.
Seeds lenticular, smooth.
[Greek, straw-flower.]
Forty species or more, mostly
of
tropical
distribution, known
as Sanguinaria.
Type
species:
Achyranthes
repens L.
TTpSids sGSsilc
staminodia mostly shorter than the
filaments,
entire or den-
ticulate: plants prostrate or procumbent.
Outer sepals aristate.
1. A. peploides.
Sepals all acuminate or acute.
Sepals 4 mm. long, the utricle much shorter.
2. A. polyqonoidcs.
Sepals 2 mm. long or less, the utricle as long or longer.
3. A. sessihs.
Staminodia as long as the filaments or a little longer, lactmate.
Leaf-blades orbicular; bracts entire; plant prostrate.
4. A. portoncensis.
Leaf-blades rhombic, obovate or oval.
Lower bracts lacuiiate-lobed.
5. A.
Beltzickiana.
Bracts entire.
6. A. ficoidea.
Heads on elongated pedtmcles
; plant erect or ascending.
7. A. ramosissima.
1. Achyranthes peploides (H. & B.) Britton.
Illecebrum peploides H. & B.
; R. & S. Syst.
5: 517.
1819.
' Alternanthera repens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 2: 540.
1891.
Not Achyranthes
repens L.
Loosely pilose, branched, the branches prostrate, 5 dm. long or less.
Leaves
spatulate, obovate, to oval or suborbicular, 2 cm. long or less, pinnately veined,
obtuse or abruptly tipped, narrowed at the base into short petioles; floAvers in
dense sessile globose or oblong heads 6-12 mm. long; sepals dull whitish, unequal,
about 2 mm. long, longer than the bracts, the outer aristate, villous: staminodia
somewhat shorter than the filaments, entire, or few-toothed below; utricle ovoid,
included.
[Illecebrum
Achyrantha
of
Krebs,
not
of
Linnaeus;
Alternanthera
Achyranlha Griseb., not R. Br.]
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas :—south-
ern United
States; West
Indies;
continental
tropical America;
Atlantic
Islands and
Spain.
Ardosxa j.\edin.
2. Achyranthes polygonoides
(L.) Lam. Encycl.
1: 547.
1785.
Gomphrcna polygonoides L. Sp. PI. 225.
1753.
Alternanthera polygonoides R. Br. Prodr.
1: 417.
1810.
Alternanthera paronychioides St.
Hil. Voy. Bras. 2: 439.
1833.
Glabrous or sparingly pilose, branched, the branches procumbent or creeping,
1-6 dm
long
Leaves spatulate to elliptic, 2 cm. long or less, obscurely veined,
acute or obtuse at the apex, narrowed at the base, the petioles 5-10 mm. long;
flowers
in dense
sessile globose
axillary heads 8-12 mm.
in diameter;
.sepals
oright
w^hite.
shining,
lanceolate,
acute,
slightly unequal, about 3 mm.
long,
somewhat longer than the lanceolate bracts; staminodia about as long as the
280
AMARANTHACEAE
filaments,
toothed
to
the
apex;
utricle
obcordate,
included.
[Alternanthera
ficoidea of Bello].
Fields, banks and waste grounds, Porto Rico, especially in sandy soil, at lower ele-
vations;
St. Thomas:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
Barbados
; continental tropical America.
3. Achyranthes sessilis (L.) Steud.
; Standley, Jourii. Wash. Acad. 5: 73.
1915.
Gomphrena sessilis L. Sp. PI. 225.
1753.
Alternanthera sessilis R. Br. Prodr. 417.
1810.
Branched, the branches slender, prostrate, glabrous or with a Une of hairs
on one side, often rooting at the nodes.
Leaf-blades elliptic to spatulate,
1-5
cm. long, rounded or short-acuminate at the apex, narrowed or cuneate at the
base,
glabrous,
or sparingly
villous beneath,
the
petioles only 1-4 mm.
long;
heads subglobose, axillary, white, a little longer than the petioles; sepals ovate,
acute, about twice as long as the bracts; staminodia about as long as the filaments,
entire; utricle about as long as the calyx, obcordate.
Fields, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, especially in moist sandy soil at
lower elevations; St. Thomas (accordmg to Krebs)
:— Hispaniola; St. Kitts to Trinidad;
continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
4. Achyranthes portoricensis (Kuntze) Standley, Journ. Wash. Acad.
5: 73.
1915.
Alternanthera portoricensis Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 540.
1891.
Telanthera Sintenisii Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 301.
1899.
Telanthera dolichocephala Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 302.
1899.
Alternanthera cidebrasensis Uline, Field Mus. Bot.
1: 420.
1899.
Alternanthera Sintenisii Uline, Field ]Mus. Bot.
1: 421.
1899.
Alternanthera dolichocephala Urban, Symb. Ant.
4: 221.
1905.
Perennial, branched, prostrate, the branches slender, up to
1 m. long, white-
villous or in age glabrate.
Leaf-blades orbicular to broadly oval, 5 cm. long or
less,
thin, rounded at base and apex, pilose or becoming glabrate, the petioles
3-10 mm. long; heads axillary, sessile, white; sepals oblong-lanceolate, acuminate,
3-nerved,
pilose, about twice as long as the ovate acuminate bracts; staminodia
as long as the filaments or a little longer, laciniate.
Sandy and rocky
soil at lower and middle
altitudes, southern and southwestern
dry districts, Porto Rico; Culebra;
Little
St. James Island;
St.
Croix; Anegada.
En-
demic.
5. Achyranthes Bettzickiana (Regel) Standley, N. A. Fl. 21: 138.
1917.
Telanthera Bettzickiana Regel, Gartenflora 11: 178.
1862.
Perennial or flowering as an annual, green or purplish red, erect or ascending,
1-4 dm. high, branched, villous when young, soon glabrate, the nodes swollen.
Leaf-blades rhombic or obovate, 4 cm. long or less, the apex acuminate or abruptly
acute, the base long-attenuate, the petioles as long or shorter; heads axillary,
sessile,
whitish,
shorter than
the
petioles;
sepals
oblong-lanceolate,
acute
or
acuminate, twice as long as the laciniate-lobed lower bracts; staminodia laciniate,
as long as the filaments; utricle ovoid.
Locally escaped from cultivation in Porto Rico.
Widely planted for ornament in
tropical America.
Probably native of Brazil.
Jamon con huevos.
6. Achyranthes ficoidea
(L.) Lam. Encycl.
1: 548.
1785.
Gomphrena ficoidea L. Sp. PI. 225.
1753.
Telanthera ficoidea Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13^: 364.
1849.
Perennial, short-pubescent or becoming glabrate,
prostrate or ascending,
2-10 dm.
long, simple or branched, rooting at the lower nodes.
Leaf-blades
AMARANTHACEAE
281
oblong to ovate-oblong, rather thick, 5.5 cm. long or less, obtuse or acute, the
base narrowed, the petioles 2-7 mm. long; heads axillary, sessile, solitary or 2 or 3
together, subglobose, longer than the petioles, yellowish white; sepals oblong to
ovate, acuminate, twice as long as the ovate, spinulose-tipped bracts; staminodia
as long
as the filaments or longer;
utricle suborbicular.
[Altemanthera
2^oly-
gonoides of Grisebach, not of R. Brown.]
Moist
.situation.s,
ISIayaguoz,
Porto
Rico:
St.
Thoma.s;
Tortola:—Jamaica;
His-
paniola; Cuba; Dominica to Trinidad and continental tropical America.
Achyranthes halimifolia Lam., related to A.
ficoidea,
but
with
leaves
densely pubescent ])eneath,
is recorded by Standley (N. A.
Fl.
21: 140)
as in-
habiting the Danish West Indies, but this must be in error for Dutch West Indies,
as the plant is not known to grow in the Virgin Islands but is abundant on Cura-
gao.
7. Achyranthes famosissima
(Mart.)
Standley,
Journ. Wash.
Acad.
5:
74.
1915.
Mogiphanes ramosissima Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 36.
1S26.
Perennial, sparingly strigose or glabrate; stems slender, branched, ascending,
woody below,
1.5 m.
long or
less.
Leaf-blades ovate to lanceolate, 2-S cm.
long, the apex acute or acvmiinate, the base rounded or narrowed, the petioles
only 5 mm. long or less; peduncles straight, slender, 2-10 cm. long; spikes sub-
globose to cyUndric, 1-2.5 cm. long, white; sepals oblong, mucronate, 4-5 mm.
long, about three times as long as the bracts; staminodia much longer than the
filaments, the apex laciniate.
[Erroneously recorded by Urban as Altemanthera
brasiliensis and by Millspaugh as Altemanthera straminea.]
Coastal sands, San Juan, and near Bayamon, Porto Rico:—Florida; Grenada;
St.
Vincent; Trinidad; Yucatan; northeastern South America.
6. GOMPHRENA L. Sp. PI. 224.
1753.
Pubescent,
annual
or
perennial
herbs,
with
opposite
leaves,
the
perfect
flowers in heads or spikes,
white, yellow or red, the bractlets keeled, the keel
often crested.
Calyx 5-lobed or 5-parted.
Stamens 5, the filaments united into
a lobed tube, the anthers 2-celled.
Stigma 2-lobed, the lobes recurved.
Utricle
flattened.
Seed smooth,
inverted.
[An ancient name,
derivation not stated.]
Perhaps as many as 100 species, of tropical regions.
Type species: Gomphrena
globosa L.
Heads 20-25 mm. in diameter; aimual.
1.
G. globosa.
Heads 9-13 mm. in diameter; perennial.
2.
G. dispersa.
1. Gomphrena globcsa L. Sp. PI. 224.
1753.
Annual,
branched
or sometimes
simple,
erect, 3-8 dm.
high,
appressed-
pilose, the nodes swollen.
Leaf-blades oblong to ovate or spatulate, 2-10 cm.
long, the apex acute, the base narrowed or obtuse, the petioles 5-20 mm. long,
the heads
usually subtended by 2 or 3 much smaller leaves; heads
solitary,
subglobose,
white,
yellow
or
purple,
20-25 mm.
in
diameter;
calyx
woolly,
shorter than the acute or acuminate bracts and bractlets; stamen-tube longer or
shorter than the bractlets
; style long.
Waste
groimds,
locally spontaneous
after
cultivation
in Porto
Rico;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas:—spontaneous
after cultivation for ornament
in
tropical and subtropical
regions.
Frequently grown in Porto Rico and Virgin Island flower gardens.
Native of
tropical Asia.
Globe Amaranth.
Bachelor's Button.
282
AMARANTHACEAE
2. Gomphrena dispersa Standley, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb.
18: 91.
1916.
Perennial, ascending or prostrate, branched, appressed-pilose, the branches
2-30 cm. long.
Leaf-blades oblong to obovate, 5 cm. long or less, acute or obtuse
at the apex, narrowed at the base, the petioles 2-6 mm. long, the heads subtended
by 2 or 3 similar somewhat smaller leaves
; heads mostly sohtary, white, subglobose
to short-cylindric, 9-13 mm. in diameter; calyx woolly, about as long as the thin
bractlets; stamen-tube short; style long.
"Waste and cultivated grounds,
vicinity of San Juan and
Santurce, Porto Rico,
apparently introduced:—Cuba; Jamaica; Mexico and Central America; adventive in
Florida.
7. IRESINE P. Br. Hist. Jam. 358.
1756.
Tall or long herbs, with opposite petioled leaves and small 3-bracted white
flowers,
in
large
terminal
panicles
or
panicled
spikes.
Calyx
5-parted,
the
pistillate usually woolly.
Stamens
5,
rarely fewer; filaments united by their
bases,
filiform; anthers
2-celled.
Utricle very small, subglobose,
indehiscent.
[Greek, in allusion to the woollj- pubescence.)
About 40 species, natives of warm
and temperate regions.
Type species: Celosia paniculata L.
Flowers perfect; perennials.
Erect, herbaceous; glabrate.
1.
I. angustifolia.
Somewhat woody vine, the inflorescence densely tomentulose.
2.
/. argenldla.
Flowersdloecious;erect or clambering, glabrate annual or perennial.
3.
I. Celosia.
1. Iresine angustifolia Euph. Beskr. St. Bart. 165.
1795.
Iresine elatior Rich.
; Willd. Sp. PL 4: 706.
1805.
Alternanthera linearis Bello, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 107.
1S83.
Perennial,
erect, slender, branched, glabrate, 5-20 dm. long, the branches
ascending.
Leaf-blades
ovate-lanceolate
to
linear-lanceolate,
5-10 cm.
long,
0.5-4 cm. wide, the apex acuminate, the base narrowed, the slender petioles 2.5
cm. long or less, those of the inflorescence smaller; heads loosely panicled, brown-
ish, subglobose or subcylindric, 5-12 mm. long, the peduncles and panicle branches
very slender; flowers perfect; sepals oblong, acute,
1.5 mm. long, about as long
as the bractlets; utricle orbicular.
Banks and thickets at lower and middle elevations, especially along the coasts and
in dry districts, Porto Rico; Desecheo; Icacos; Culebra: Vieques; St. Croix: St. Thomas;
Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Barts to Trinidad; continental tropical Ameri-
ca.
2.
Iresine argentata (Mart.) D. Dietr. Syn. PL
l: 870.
1839.
Trommosdorffia argentea Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp.
2: 41.
1826.
Achyranth.es nodosa Bert.; Mart. loc.
cit., as synonym.
1826.
Alternanthera argentata Moq. in DC. Prodr.
13-: 352.
1849.
Gomphrena Berteriana Balb.
; Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 707.
1864.
A somewhat woody, much branched vine, up to 7 m. long, the stems glabrate,
slender,
terete,
the branches of the inflorescence densely tomentulose.
Leaf-
blades oval to ovate, glabrous or nearly so, 6-12 cm. long, the apex acute, the
base cordate, the petioles 10 mm. long or less; heads very numerous, subglobose,
sessile or short-stalked, 6-8 mm. in diameter,
silvery; sepals pilose,
acutish, 2
mm. long, about three times as long as the bractlets; staminodia short, entire;
filaments filiform.
Thickets, woodlands, and banks at lower and middle elevations in moist districts,
Porto Rico:—northern South America; recorded from Trinidad.
AMARANTHACEAE
283
3.
Iresine Celosia L. Syst. ed.
10, 1291.
1759.
Celosia paniculala L. Sp. PL 206.
1753.
Iresine celosioides L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 1456.
1763.
Iresine paniculata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL
2: 542.
1891.
Not Poir.
1813.
Annual or perennial; stem erect, ascending or clambering, 0.6-3 m.
long,
glabrous or nearly so.
Leaves ovate, ovate-lanceolate or the upper lanceolate,
0.5-1.5 dm. long, acute or acuminate, the slender petioles 1-6 cm. long; flowers
very numerous, 2 mm. broad or less; caly.x and bracts silvery; sepals 1-1.5 mm.
long; pistillate flowers white-villous at the base, about twice as long as the bracts;
utricle shorter than the sepals; seed red, shining, 0.5 mm. in diameter.
Tliickets, banks and woodlands, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations in moist
districts:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Iresine Lindenii Van Houtte, recorded as from Ecuador, grown for orna-
ment in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens,
is
tall, similar to
/.
Celosia, but
with ovate acuminate purple leaves, the panicled inflorescence often very large,
sometimes 3 or 4 dm. high.
Iresine
Herbstii
Hook.,
South
American,
also grown
for ornament
in
Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens,
is similar, but the purple leaves are sub-
orbicular, rounded, obtuse or notched, the inflorescence smaller.
Iresine interrupta Benth. [Altemanthera Richardi Moq.], a Mexican species,
was recorded by Krebs as found in St. Thomas, evidently in error.
8. LITHOPHILA Sw. Prodr.
14.
1788.
Perennial, more or less villous herbs, the leaves mostly in basal tufts, the
small perfect bracteolate flowers in spikes or heads.
Caly.x flattened, 5-parted,
sessile.
Stamens
2;
filaments connate below; anthers
2-celled; staminodia
3.
Ovary ovoid; style short; stigmas 2, slender; ovule 1, pendulous.
Utricle ovoid,
compressed.
Seed lenticular, smooth.
[Greek, rock-loving.]
About 4 species,
of the West Indies and Galapagos, the following typical.
1. Lithophila muscoides Sw. Prodr.
14.
1788.
Achyranthes linearifolia Sw. Vet. Acad. Handl. 1825: 48.
1825.
Root woody, often deep
; stems few or several, prostrate or ascending, villous,
branched,
0.1-2 dm.
long.
Basal leaves several or many,
tufted,
filiform
to
oblong-spatulate, 1.5-5 cm. long, 0.3-5 mm. wide, obtuse, villous near the base;
cauline leaves few, similar but smaller, glabrous: spikes 3-15 mm. long, about 5
mm. thick, solitary or clustered, terminal or axillary, sessile or nearly so; bracts
white, membranous, ovate, acute or acuminate, about one-half as long as the
sepals; bractlets similar, nearly as long as the sepals; sepals oblong, 1-2.5 mm.
long, the outer obtuse, villous at the base, the inner acute
; seed nearly orbicular,
brown, shining, 0.5 mm. in diameter.
Near the coast, Arecibo; Porto Rico: Mona; St. Croix; Anegada:—Bahamas; Cuba;
Hispaniola; St. ISIartin to IMartuiique; Bonaire; Curagao; Aruba.
9. PHILOXERUS R. Br. Prodr. 416.
1810.
Herbs, mostly
fleshy, with opposite entire leaves,
the perfect bracteolate
flowers
in dense heads or short
spikes.
Calyx compressed, thickened
at the
base,
5-parted, the segments obtuse.
Stamens 5; filaments subulate, connate
below
; anthers oblong, 2-celled.
Ovary ovoid, compressed
; style short
; stigmas 2,
284
NYCTAGINACEAE
subulate; ovule suspended on a long funicle.
Utricle compressed, ovoid, inde-
hiscent.
Seed
lenticular; embryo
annular; endosperm
starchy.
[Greek,
dry-
loving, some
species inhabiting dry
situations.]
About
10
species of coastal
distribution in tropical and subtropical America, Africa and Australasia.
Type
species: Philoxervs conicus R. Br.
1. Philoxerus vermicularis
(L.) Nutt. Gen. 2: 78.
1818.
Gomphrena vermicularis L. Sp. PI. 224.
1753.
Iresine vermicularis Moq. in DC. Prodr.
13-: .340.
1849.
Iresine crassifolia Moq. loc. cit.
1849.
Iresine aggregata Moq. loc. cit.
1849.
Lithophila vermicidata Uline, Field Mus. Bot. 2: 39.
1900.
Fleshy, the stems prostrate, branched, 1-8 dm. long, the branches prostrate
or ascending, sometimes 1.5 dm. high.
Leaves thick, or subterete, linear, linear-
oblong, oblong or clavate, 1-5 cm. long, acutish or blunt at the apex, narrowed
to the sessile base; heads subglobose to cylindric, densefy many-flowered, bright
white, 1-2.5 cm. long, 6-10 mm. thick; sepals about 3 mm. long, obtuse, a little
longer than the bracts.
Saline soil along the coasts, Porto Rico; Muertos; Vieques; St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Florida; West Indies; continental tropical America;
west coast of tropical Africa.
Races differ in size, shape and thickness of leaves.
Salt-
weed.
Recorded by Urban as called LiRio in Porto Rico, wliich seems vmlikely, as that
name belongs to Hymenocallis.
Family 3.
NYCTAGINACEAE Lindl.
Four-o'Clock Family.
Herbs, shrubs or trees, with simple leaves, and regular flowers in clusters,
in many
of
the
genera
subtended by
involucres.
Petals
none.
Calyx
inferior,
usually
corolla-like,
its limb 4-5-Iobed or 4-5-toothed.
Stamens
hypogynous; filaments filiform; anthers 2-celled, dehiscent by lateral
slits.
Ovary enclosed by the tube of the perianth,
1-celled, 1-ovuled; ovule cam-
pylotropous; stigma capitate.
Fruit a ribbed, grooved or winged anthocarp.
About 25 genera and 350
species,
of wide geographic
distribution, most
abundant in America.
Herbs; flowers perfect.
Perianth large; involucre large, gamophyllotis.
1.
Mirabilis.
Perianth small: involucre of miniite bracts.
Fruit .5-angled or .5-ribbed.
2.
Boerhaavea.
Fruit 10-ribbed.
3. Commicarpus.
Trees, shrubs or woody vines; flowers dioecious.
Stamens cxserted.
Fruit drupe-like, fleshy.
4.
Torrubia.
Friiit dry, with 5 rows of glands.
5.
Pisonia.
Stamens included.
•
6. Neea.
1. MIRABILIS L. Sp. PI. 177.
1753.
Perennial
herbs,
with
large
tuberous
roots
and
forking
stems.
Leaves
opposite, .somewhat
fleshy,
petioled,
or the upper
sessile.
Flowers
in cymes.
Involucre
calyx-like,
5-lobed.
Calyx
colored,
its
tube
elongated, somewhat
constricted
above
the ovary,
its limb expanded.
Stamens
5
or
6,
unequal;
filaments filiform, slender, incurved, united into a fleshy cup at the base.
Style
filiform.
Fruit ribbed.
Seed
filling the pericarp,
to which the testa adheres;
endosperm mealy.
[Latin,
beautiful.]
Twenty or more American species, the
following typical.
NYCTAGINACEAE
285
1. Mirabilis Jalapa L. Sp. PI. 177.
1753.
Mirabilis odorata L. Cent. PI. 1: 7.
1755.
Mirabilis dichotorna L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 252.
1762.
Mirabilis Jalapa odorata L.; Heimerl, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 616.
1896.
Foliage deep green, glabrous or slightly pubescent.
Stem
erect, 3-7 dm.
tall, much
branched;
leaves
ovate,
acuminate,
sometimes
sparingly
ciliate,
entire, truncate or cordate at the base, the petioles about one half as long as the
blades;
involucres campanulate,
7-8 mm.
high,
pubescent,
1-flowered,
their
lobes ovate-lanceolate, twice as long as the tube, acute; calyx trumpet-shaped,
3-5 cm. long, deep' red to purple or white, often more or less blotched, the edge
notched; stamens exserted; fruit ovoid, black, 8-10 mm. long, wrinkled-tubercu-
late, 5-ribbed.
Waste grounds spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St.
Thomas; Tortola:— Florida; Bermuda; West Indies; Texas to Central and South America.
Commonly planted in flower gardens.
Four-o'Clock.
Siciliana.
2. BOERHAAVEA L. Sp. PI. 3.
1753.
Slender, erect or diffuse, annual or perennial herbs, with forking stems and
branches, sometimes woody at the base.
Leaves opposite, the blades more or
less
unequal,
entire
or
sinuate.
Flowers
perfect,
small,
umbellate,
cymose,.
capitate or racemose, subtended by minute bracts.
Calyx campanulate or funnel-
shaped, deciduous, the tube short or elongate, the Umb spreading, 5-lobed.
Sta-
mens 1-5, exserted or included; filaments slender, connate at the base.
Ovary
stipitate;
style
filiform; ^tigma
peltate.
Anthocarp obovoid or
clavate,
3-5-
angled,
rarely 3-5-winged.
Seed adhering to the
pericarp; embryo
uncinate.
[In
honor
of Hermann Boerhaave,
1668-1738,
a
celebrated Dutch
scientist.]
About 40 species, natives of warm and tropical regions, known as Hog-weed.
Type species: Boerhaavea diffusa L.
Fruit glandular-puberulent; perennial.
1.
B. coccinca.
Fruit glabrous; annual.
2.
B. erecla.
1. Boerhaavea coccinea Mill. Gard. Diet. ed.
8, no. 4,
1768.
Boerhaavea hirsuta Jacq. Hort. Vind.
1: 3.
1770.
Boerhaavea caribaea Jacq. Obs. 4: 5.
1771.
Boerhaavea diffusa Sw. Obs.
10.
1791.
Not L. 1753.
Boerhaavea paniculata Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Par.
1: 105.
1792.
Boerhaavea viscosa Lag. & Rodr. Anal. Ci. Nat. 4: 2.56.
ISOl.
Boerhaavea decumbens Vahl, Enum.
PI.
1: 284.
1804.
Boerhaavea diffusa paniculata Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI.
.533.
1891.
Perennial, procumbent or ascending, branched, 3-12 dm.
high,
often pu-
bescent, at least below, the branches glabrous or puberui^
Leaves rhombic-
ovate
to oblong or nearly orbicular, 2-6 cm.
long, 0.8-5 cm. broad, rounded,
obtuse or occasionally acute at the apex, truncate, rounded, or subcordate at the
base, slender-petioled, entire or undulate; panicle slender, often 3 dm. long,
its
branches nearly filiform, glabrous or puberulent; flowers reddish, 2 mm. broad;
fruit obovoid,
2. .5-4 mm. long, 5-grooved, glandular.
Waste places
fields and river banks, Porto Rico at lower elevations; Mona; loacos;
Desecheo; Muertos; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Croix; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—
Florida- West
Indies; Mexico through
Central America
to northern South America;
tropical Africa.
Races differ in pubescence and in size of the fruit.
[B. repens of Mills-
paugh.]
TOSTON.
286
NYCTAGINACEAE
2. Boerhaavea erecta L. Sp. PI. 3.
1753.
Annual,
erect or ascending,
branched, 2-10 dm.
high.
Leaves ovate
to
deltoid-ovate, sometimes inequilateral, 2-7 cm. long, 1-4.5 cm. broad, apiculate.
repand or undulate, acute
to cordate at the
base, minutely brown-dotted on
the lower whitish
surface,
the petioles usually about one half as long as the
blades or longer; peduncles filiform
; flowers 2-6 in a cluster; calyx white to purple,
its tube glabrous, the limb campanulate, 1-1.5 mm. long, sparingly pubescent;
stamens exserted; fruit obpyramidal, 3-3.5 mm.
long,
1-1.5 mm. broad at the
truncate apex, 5-angled, glabrous.
Fields, banks and cultivated grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico;
St.
Croixl
St. Thomas; Tortola:—southern United States; Bermuda; West Indies; Mexico to Centra;
and South America.
3. COMMICARPUS Standley, Contr. Nat. Herb. 12: 373.
1909.
Perennial herbs, with long forking stems, opposite entire petioled leaves and
small perfect umbellate flowers.
Calyx short-funnelform, the limb rather widely
expanded.
Stamens
2-5,
exserted,
the
filaments
slender.
Ovary
oblique;
style
slender.
Fruit
clavate,
10-ribbed,
mucilaginous-glandular,
the
glands
rather
large.
Seed adherejit to the pericarp; embryo uncinate.
[Greek, viscid
fruit.]
About 5 species, natives of tropical and subtropical America, the follow-
ing typical.
1. Commicarpus scandens (L.) Standley, Contr. Nat. Herb. 12: 373.
1909.
Boerhaavea scandens L. Sp. PI.
3.
1753.
Glabrous, stems slender, pale, elongated and often Vine-like, much branched,
sometimes 3 m.
long.
Leaves ovate, rather thin, somewhat fleshy,
1.5-6 cm.
long, 1-4.5 cm. wide, acute, acuminate or obtuse at the apex, cordate or truncate
at the base, the petioles 2.5 cm. long or less; peduncles slender, mostly longer
than
the
leaves;
umbels
several-flowered;
pedicels
filiform,
5-10 mm.
long;
calyx greenish, 3-4 mm. broad; fruit narrowly clavate, 7-10 mm. long, glandular
toward the blunt apex, its ribs low and obscure.
Thickets and
liillsides
at lower
elevations,
Porto Rico, mostly
in dry
districts;
St. Thomas; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Martin;
St. Barts:—Texas to Guatemala and Peru.
Pega-pollo.
4. TORRUBIA Veil.
Fl. Flum. 139.
1825.
Unarmed shrubs or trees, with opposite, often somewhat fleshy leaves, and
small greenish dioecious panicled
flowers.
Perianth-limb 5-toothed.
Stamens
about
10, exserted, the filaments filiform.
Ovary sessile; style slender or short.
Anthocarp fleshy, drupe-like, obovoid to ellipsoid or subglobose, without glands in
rows, enclosing the utricle.
[Commemorates Jose Torrubia, a Spanish naturalist.]
Fifteen species or more,
of tropical and
subtropical America.
Type species:
Torrubia opposita Veil.
Leaves rounded at the apex.
1.
T.
discolor.
Leaves usually abruptly acute or short-acuminate at the apex.
2.
T.fragrans.
1. Torrubia discolor (Spreng.) Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 31: 613.
1904.
Pisonia discolor Spreng. Syst. 2: 168.
1825.
A shrub or small
tree.
Leaves oblong,
elliptic, obovate or oblanceolate,
2-6.5 cm. long, 1-4 cm. broad, obtuse or rounded at the apex, cuneate or some-
times rounded at the base, thin, glabrous, the slender petiole 2 cm. long or less;
NYCTAGINACEAE
287
peduncles slender, axillary and terminal, 1-2.5 cm. long, glabrous or nearly so,
the inflorescence often few-flowered, 1-4 cm. broad; flowers sessile or subsessile;
fruit oblong or ellipsoid, 5-8 mm. long, 3.5-4 mm. broad, scarlet, the utricle 10-
striate.
Rocky
hillsides and
thickets,
Punta Montalva,
Porto
Rico;
Desecheo:—Cuba;
Jamaica; Hispaniola.
Recorded by Krebs from St. Thom.as, probably in error.
2. Torrubia fragrans (Dum.-Cours.)
Standley, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb.
18:
100.
1916.
Pisonia obtusata Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 1960.
1806.
Not Jacq. 1798.
Pisonia fragrans Dum.-Cours. Bot. Cult. ed. 2, 7: 114.
1814.
Pisonia inermis Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 71, in part.
1859.
Not Jacq. 1763.
A tree up to 20 m. high, with a trunk 6-9 dm. in diameter with grayish or
grayish brown
branches,
the
bark smooth.
Leaves,
rhombic-oval,
rhombic-
obovate, obovate or oblanceolate, usually broadest above the middle, 3.5-13 cm.
long, 2-7.5 cm. broad, abruptly acute to acuminate at the apex, acute or rarely
obtuse at the
base,
glabrous,
lustrous above,
dull beneath; peduncles mostly
terminal, 2-9 cm. long, puberulent or glabrous, the inflorescence many-flowered,
cymose, 2-7 cm. broad; flowers sessile or short-pedicelled
; fruit ellipsoid, 7-11
mm. long, 3-4 mm. in diameter.
[? P. coccinea of West; P. nigricans of Krebs.]
Forests, thickets and hiUs at lower and middle elevations in moist and dry districts,
Porto Rico, ascending to 900 m.; Icacos; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas; Tortola; Virgin
Gorda;—West Indies (except Bahamas)
; Central and South America.
Black Mampoo.
CoRCHo.
Majagua que mona.
5. PISONIA L. Sp. PI. 1026.
1753.
Woody vines, shrubs or trees, some species armed with prickles.
Leaves
mostly
opposite,
entire.
Flowers
dioecious,
in
sessile
or pedunculate cymes,
bracteolate.
Staminate
perianth
obconic-campanulate,
the
limb
5-toothed;
stamens 6-10; filaments
filiform, connate below into
a tube or ring; anthers
exserted.
Pistillate perianth tubular, the limb 5-toothed; ovary
sessile; style
slender; stigma capitellate.
Anthocarp coriaceous, oblong or clavate, terete and
costate
or
5-angled,
bearing
viscid
stalked
glands
in
rows;
utricle elongate.
[Commemorates William Piso, a physician of Leyden, who travelled in
Brazil,
died in 1648.]
Twenty species or more of tropical and subtropical distribution.
Type species; Pisonia aculeata L.
Straggling shrubs or large woody vines armed with stout recurved
prickles.
Matiire fruit 3-4 mm.
in diameter, the glands along the angles
iiniseriate or nearly so.
1. P. aculeata.
Mature fruit 5-6.5 mm. m diameter, the glands along the angles
in 2 rows or more.
2.
P. Helleri.
Leaf-blades often subcordate at the base, glabrous or nearly so;
fruit 10-costate.
3. P. subcordala.
Leaf-blades
obtiise, rounded
or somewhat acutish
at the base,
cuiereous-tomentulose beneath
; fruit 5-angled.
4. P. albida.
1. Pisonia aculeata L. Sp. PI. 1026.
1753.
A straggling shrub, or a woody vine sometimes 10 m. long, usually armed
with numerous stout recurved
prickles, sometimes unarmed.
Leaves
elliptic,
oval, ovate-oblong, or suborbicular, 2.5-14 cm. long, 2-6 cm. broad, acute, short-
acuminate or obtuse at the apex, cuneate or sometimes rounded at the base,
leathery, glabrous or occasionally pubescent on both
sides,
or glabrous above
and tomentulose
beneath,
the
petioles
1-4 cm.
long; cymes many-flowered,
puberulent; staminate perianth 3-4 mm. long, puberulent. yellowish-green, the
288
NYCTAGINACEAE
lobes broad,
acutish; stamens usually
6;
pistillate perianth
2--2.S mm.
long,
puberulent; fruit clavate, 9-14 mm. long, 3-4 mm. in diameter, rounded at the
apex, 5-angled, the glands along the angles uniseriate or nearly so, the pedicels
1.6 cm. long or less.
Thickets,
hillsides and woodlands, Porto Rico,
at low
elevations in moist or dry
districts; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croi.x:—West Indies;
Florida;
continental tropical
America and Old World tropics.
Prickly Mampoo.
Escambron
2. Pisonia Helleri Standley, N. A. Flora 21: 187.
1918.
Similar to the preceding.
Fruit clavate or clavate-oblong, 10-14 mm. long,
5-6.5 mm. in diameter, rounded or slightly depressed at the apex, 5-angled, the
glands along the angles in 2 or more rows, the pedicels 1-3 cm. long.
Limestone hills and thickets at lower elevations in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico
:—
Isle of Pines; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Martinique; Guadeloupe; Antigua.
[Pisonia aculeata
pediccllaris of Urban.]
3. Pisonia subcordata Sw. Prodr. 60.
1788.
Pisonia nigricans West, Bidr.
St. Croix 312.
1793.
Not Sw. ISOO.
Pisonia siibovata Poir. in Lam. Encyc. 5: 347.
1804.
Pisonia subcordata typica Swartiiann Ileimerl, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 630.
1896.
Pisonia subcordata typica gigantophylla Heimerl, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 630.
1896.
An unarmed tree, 7-25 m. high, with a trunk up to
1 m. in diameter, the
gray bark smooth, the twigs and
foliage ferruginous-puberulent when young,
glabrous or nearly so in age.
Leaves oval or suborbicular, 5.5-27 cm. long, 4.5-
20 cm. broad, rounded and occasionally shallowly emarginate at the apex, rounded
and often subcordate at the base, finely reticulate-veined and glabrous or nearly
so beneath; peduncles 1-3 cm. long; staminate inflorescence 2-3.5 cm. broad, the
flowers greenish-yellow, subsessile or with short stout pedicels, the campanulate
perianth 3-4 mm. long, the stamens often nearly twice as long; pistillate inflores-
cence loosely corymbose, the flowers on pedicels 2-5 mm. long, the perianth about
3 mm. long or shorter; fruit clavate or cyUndric, 10-13 mm. long, 1.5-1.7 mm. in
diameter, 10-striate, bearing 5 I'ows of glands near the apex.
Thickets, hillsides and forests, Porto Rico, ascending to the higher elevations; Icacos;
Culebrita; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;
Tortola; Anegada:—St. Martin
to Mar-
tinique.
The race with very large,
tliin leaves inhabits
hills of the Arecibo Limestone
in northern Porto Rico.
Water Mampoo.
Palo bobo. Lobloly.
4. Pisonia albida (Heimerl) Britton; Standley, N. A. Flora 21:
190.
1890.
Pisonia subcordata typica albida Heimerl, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 630.
1896.
Pisonia subcordata albida Heimerl in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 226.
1905.
A tree, 6-12 m. high or higher, with puberulent twigs and petioles, the bark
smooth, light
gray.
Leaves oblong
to
eUiptic or
oval, or occasionally some-
what ovate, 4.5-12 cm. long, 2.5-7.5 cm. broad, often much larger on the young
shoots, obtuse, rounded or occasionally acutish at the apex, rounded or acute at
the
base,
grayish green and glabrous above,
paler and cinereous-tomentulose
beneath, the petioles 1-2.5 cm. long or longer; peduncles 1-3 cm. long, tomentu-
lose; staminate inflorescence 2-3.5 cm. broad, the flowers short-pedicillate, the
calyx 3 mm.
long,
puberulent,
the stamens usually
8, much longer than the
perianth;
pistillate
inflorescence
divaricate-branched,
the
pedicels 2-14 mm.
long, the clavate fruit 6-7 mm. long, 5-angled, the angles each bearing a row of
uniseriate glands above the middle.
Limestone
hills and
coastal
tliickets
at lower
elevations
in
dry
districts, Porto
Rico;Mona; Muertos.
Endemic.
BATIDACEAE
289
6. NEEA R. & P. Fl. Per. Prodr. 52.
1794.
[Eggersia Hook.
f. in Hook. Ic. 15:
1.
1883.]
Shrubs or trees.
Leaves opposite, vertictllate or rarely alternate.
Flowers
usually dioecious.
Staminate perianth urceolate, subglobose, or elongate, '4-5-
toothed; stamens 8 or 10, included, inserted at the base of the perianth; filaments
unequal;
anthers
oblong.
PistUlate
perianth
tubular-urceolate,
4-5-toothed;
stamens with sterile anthers inserted at the base of the ovary; style included;
stigma penicillate.
Anthocarp somewhat fleshy on the outside, usually crowned
by the persistent perianth.
Seed with a hyaUne testa.
Embryo straight; en-
dosperm scant, fleshy; radicle short.
[Dedicated to Dr. Luis Nee.]
About 40
species, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Neea verticillata R. & P.
1. Neea buxifolia (Hook,
f.) Heimerl, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 633.
1896.
Eggersia buxifolia Hook.
f. in flook.
Ic. 15:
1.
1883.
A shrub, 2-8 m. high, with slender grayish
branches.
Leaves oblong
to
oblong-ovate or oblanceolate, 9-24 mm. long, 3-9 mm. wide, obtuse or rounded
at the apex, narrowed at the base into a short petiole or subsessile, glabrous,
coriaceous, the margin more or less revolute; peduncles slender, 3.8-5 mm. long,
pubescent; staminate perianth 3.5 mm.
long, pubescent or glabrate, 5-toothed;
stamens 5-8; pistillate perianth 3 mm. long, slightly contracted in the throat,
5-dentate; fruit unknown.
Coastal thickets and wooded hillsides, Porto Rico, in eastern and northern districts
at low elevations; Culebra; St. Thomas;
St. Jan.
Endemic.
Bougainvillea spectabilis Willd., Brazihan, commonly planted for orna-
ment in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
is one of the most elegant vines of
tropical regions, chmbing high on porches, arbors and fences, covered when in
bloom with masses of rose or rose-purple inflorescence.
It has alternate ovate
entire acuminate petioled leaves 4-8 cm. long, and slender prickly branches; the
small flowers are subtended by thin ovate-elliptic bracts 3-4 cm.
long, which
form the conspicuous part of the inflorescence. Trinitaria.
Bougainvillea glabra
Choisy,
also
Brazilian,
is a
similar
vine,
usually
smaller than
B.
spectabilis, occasionaUy grown in Porto Rico and the Virgin
Islands, difl'ering in having bright red bracts.
Family 4.
BATIDACEAE Dammer.
Saltwort Family.
Low fleshy much-branclied
slirubs, with opposite
semiterete,
linear or
club-shaped,
entire
sessile
estipulate
leaves, and small
dioecious
greenish
flowers in axillary spikes.
Staminate spikes with many persistent imbricated
scales, each subtending a flower; calyx 2-lobed; stamens 4 or 5, with stout
filaments alternating with staminodia; anthers
introrse.
Pistillate
spilves
4-12-flowered, the scales deciduous; calyx and coroUa wanting; ovary sessile,
4-celled; ovule
1 in each cavity, erect, anatropous; stigma sessile, somewhat
2-lobed;
fruit
aggregate,
about
4-seeded.
Seeds
club-shaped,
the
testa
membranous; endosperm none; cotyledons large.
Only the following genus.
1. BATIS L. Syst. ed.
10, 1289.
1759.
Characters of the family.
[Greek, from the fancied resemblance of the fruit
to a blackberry.]
A monotypic genus.
290
PHYTOLACCACEAE
1
Batis maritima L. Syst. ed.
10,
1289.
1759.
A glabrous shrub 1 m. high or less, the rather stout stems spreading, prostrate
or ascending,
the branches nearly
erect,
angular.
Leaves acutish,
1-2. .5 cm.
long; spikes ovoid or oblong, 5-10 mm. long, the staminate sessile, the pistillate
short-peduncled
;
scales nearly
orbicular
or
reniform,
longer than the
calyx;
stamens exserted,
longer than the triangular staminodia;
fruit 1-2 cm.
long,
drooping.
Saline soil along the coasts, Porto Rico; Icacos; Vieques; Culebra;
St. Croix;
St.
Thomas;
Tortola;
Anegada:—southeastern
United
States;
California;
West
Indies;
continental tropical America
Galapagos; Sandwich Islands.
[Dondia
linearis of Mills-
paugh.]
Saltwort.
Barrilla.
Family 5.
PHYTOLACCACEAE Lindl.
PoKEWEED Family.
Herbs, some tropical species shrubs, vines or trees, with alternate entire,
mostly
estipulate
leaves, and
perfect
regular, polygamous or monoecious
flowers.
Calyx 4-5-parted or of 4 or 5 sepals,
its segments or sepals im-
bricated in the bud.
Petals usually wanting.
Stamens
as many
as the
calyx-segments
or
sepals and
alternate
with
them,
or more
numerous,
hypogynous; filaments distinct, or united at the base; anthers 2-celled, the
sacs
longitudinally
dehiscent,
often
nearly
separated.
Ovary
superior,
several-celled in most of the genera; ovules solitary in the cavities, amphi-
tropous.
Styles as many as the carpels,
short, or none; stigmas linear or
filiform.
Fruit a berry or an achene.
Endosperm
of the seed mealy or
fleshy.
About 22 genera and 110 species, mostly in the tropics.
Perianth-segments 4.
Fruit a globose berry.
Stamens 4; style elongated.
1.
Rivina.
Stamens 8-16; style .none.
2.
Trichostigma.
Fruit dry, achene-Uke, with deflexed bristles at the apex.
3.
Petiveria.
Perianth-segments 5.
Ovary one-celled, with 2 stigmas.
4.
^^crotea.
Ovary several-celled, with as many stigmas as cells.
5.
Phytolacca.
1. RIVINA L. Sp. PI. 121.
17.53.
Herbs, sometimes woody below, the stems branched, erect, the leaves thin
in texture, the small perfect flowers in
axillary or terminal,
slender racemes.
Sepals 4, not enlarging in fruit.
Stamens 4, the filaments filiform, the anthers
erect.
Ovary 1-celled, subglobose; style curved; stigma capitate.
Fruit a small
subglobose
berry.
Seed
erect,
lenticular,
its
testa
crustaceous,
the embryo
curved,
the endosperm mealy.
[Commemorates August
Rivinus,
1652-1725,
professor in Leipzig.]
About 3 species of tropical and subtropical America, the
following typical.
1. Rivina humilis L. Sp. PI. 121.
1753.
Rivina humilis glabra L. Sp. PI. 122.
1753.
Rivina humilis canescens L. loc. cit. 122.
1753.
Rivina laevis L. Mant. 1: 41.
1767.
Rivina purpurascens Schrad. Gen. lU. 17.
1809.
Rivina laevis pubescens Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 59.
1859.
Rivina viridiflora Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 12: 105.
1883.
Glabrous or finely pubescent, branched, 3-8 dm.
high.
Leaves ovate to
oblong or lanceolate, 3-12 cm.
long, membranous,
flaccid, undulate or entire,
PHYTOLACCACEAE
291
acute or acuminate at the apex, narrowed or subtruncate at the base, the slender
petioles 1-5 cm. long; racemes 10 cm. long or less, loosely several-many-flowered;
pedicels 4-6 mm. long; bracts deciduous; calyx about 6 mm.
wide, the
.sepals
oblong-cuneate, obtuse, pink or nearly white; stamens somewhat shorter than
the sepals; berries subglobose, red, about 3 mm. in diameter.
Fields,
thickets, banks, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto
Rico, at lower and
middle elevations; Vieqiies;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:
Florida; Texas; West Indies; continental tropical America.
Carmin.
Cat's-blood.
2. TRICHOSTIGMA A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 10: 306.
1845.
"Woody
vines,
or shrubs,
with
alternate petioled broad
leaves,
the small
perfect flowers in slender bracted racemes.
Sepals 4, concave, spreading or re-
flexed.
Stamens
8-16;
filaments
filiform;
anthers
linear,
versatile,
2-cleft.
Ovary subglobose, 1-celled
; stigma sessile, peniclllate.
Fruit coriaceous, baccate,
subglobose, the pericarp adherent to the erect seed.
[Greek, referring to the peni-
clllate stigma.]
About 3 species, of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Trichostigma octandrum
(L.) H. Walter, Pfianzenr. 39: 109.
1909.
Rivina humilis scandens L. Sp. PI. 122.
1753.
Rivina octandra L. Cent. PL
2'. 9.
1756.
Rivina scandens Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8, 1768.
Trichostigma rivinoides A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 10: 306.
1845.
Villamilla octaridra Hook.
f. in Benth. & Hook. Gen. PI. 3: 81.
1880.
A woody vine, often 10 m. long or longer, usually climbing on trees, the stem
up to 1.5 dm. in diameter at the base, the branches long and slender, glabrous.
Leaves elliptic, oblong, or elliptic-lanceolate, membranous, 5-15 cm. long,
1.8-
5.9 cm. broad, acuminate or acute at the apex, narrowed or occasionally rounded
at the base, glabrous, entire, the slender petioles 1-5 cm. long; racemes usually
numerous, loosely many-flowered, as long as the leaves or longer; pedicels 2-10
mm. long; flowers white, about 8 mm. broad, the ovate obtuse sepals at length
reflexed; berry black, about
mm. in diameter.
Woods and thickets at lower elevations in moist
districts, Porto Rico; Culebra;
Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; West Indies; continental
tropical America.
Hoop-vine.
Basket Wiss. Bejuco de paloma.
3. PETIVERIA L. Sp. PI. 342.
1753.
An erect slender perennial herb with the odor of garlic, the leaves broad,
membranous, alternate, entire, the small perfect flowers in slender bracted spikes.
Calyx 4-parted, conic at the base, the segments lanceolate, spreading in flower,
erect in fruit.
Stamens 4-8; fllaments subulate; anthers linear, 2-cleft at apex
and base; ovary oblong, flattened, truncate, tomentose,
1-celled, with 1-6 de-
flexed bristles near the apex; style very short or none; stigma penicillate.
Fruit
elongated, cuneate, flattened, striate, keeled on both sides, 2-lobed at the top and
bearing 1-6 hooked bristles.
Seed linear.
[In honor of Jacob Petiver, English
naturaU^t and apothecary, who died in 1718.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Petiveria alliacea L. Sp. PI. 342.
1753.
Stem puberulent above, or glabrate,
erect, branched, 3-10 dm.
high, the
branches slender,
long, nearly erect or ascending.
Leaves
elliptic, oblong or
obovate, sparingly pubescent or glabrous, 3-12 cm. long, 2.5-5 cm. broad, acute
or acuminate
at the apex, narrowed
at the
base,
short-petioled
;
spikes very
292
PHYTOLACCACEAE
slender,
1-4 dm.
1
>
i
r,
puberulent;
flowers
greenish,
short-pedicelled; sepals,
snarrovvly linear, about 4 mm. long; achene linear-cuneate, about 6 mm. long
appressed to the axis of the spike, the terminal, reflexed bristles about 2 mm. long.
Thickets, waste and
cultivated grounds
at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Mona;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Tliomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; West Indies; continental
tropical America, north to Mexico.
Garlic-weed.
Anamu.
Gully-root.
Guinea-hen
WEED.
CONGA-ROOT.
4. MICROTEK Sw. Prodr. 53.
1788.
Erect or prostrate herbs, with alternate, petioled or sessile leaves.
Flowers
perfect, minute.
Sepals 5.
Stamens 5-8; filaments subulate or linear.
Ovary
1-celled,
of two carpels.
Stigmas 2; ovule
solitary.
Fruit subglobose,
ttiber-
culate echinate or smooth.
Embryo semi-annular.
Cotyledons concave, one
twice as large as the other; radicle thick, short.
[Greek, alluding to the small
flowers.]
About 9 species, of tropical America.
Type species:
Microteadebilis Syr.
Fruit covered with a honeycomb-like network uniting the spine-Uke
tubercles.
1.
]\f. debilis.
Fruit reticulate-veined, without spine-like tubercles.
2. M. portoricensis.
1. Microtea debilis Sw. Prodr. 53.
1753.
A prostrate or ascending annual herb with slender branches.
Leaves thin,
elliptic, ovate, oljovate, oblanceolate or somewhat spathulate, .3-7 cm. long, 1-3.2
cm. broad, acute or obtuse at the apex, acute or cuneate at the ba.se; glabrous;
perianth-segments elliptic or ovate, 0.6-0.7 mm. long, 0.3-0.4 mm. broad; fruit
subglobo.se or globose-obovoid, 1.2-1.5 mm. long, 1-1.2 mm. broad, covered with
a honeycomb-like network uniting the spine-like tubercles.
Waste
grounds.
Dorado,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas:—West
Indies
(e.Kcept Bahamas)
; Central and South America.
2. Microtea portoricensis Urban, Ber. Deutsch. Bot.
Gesell.
3: 324.
1885.
A
prostrate
annual
herb
closely
resembling
the
preceding.
Perianth-
segments oblong-elliptic 0.7 mm. long, 0.4 mm. broad; fruit subglobose, 0.9-1 mm.
broad, reticulate-veined, without spine-like tubercles.
Fields and hillsides near TrujiUo-bajo and Cabo Rojo, Porto Rico:—Cuba.
5. PHYTOLACCA L. Sp. PI. 441.
1753.
Tall perennial herbs, with petioled estipulate leaves, and small flowers in
terminal racemes, which by the further growth of the stem become opposite the
leaves.
Pedicels bracted at the base and often 1-3-bracted above.
Calyx of
5 persistent rounded sepals.
Stamens 5-20, inserted at the base of the calyx.
Ovary composed of 5-20 distinct or somewhat united carpels.
Fruit a depressed-
globose
5-1.5-celled
fleshy
berry.
Seeds
1
in each
cavity,
erect, compressed;
embryo annular in the mealy endosperm.
[Name Greek and French, referring
to the crimson juice of the berries.]
About 24 species, mostly tropical.
Type
species: Phytolacca americana L.
Pedicels as long as the flowers, in fruit 2-4 mm. long.
1.
P. icosandra.
Pedicels longer than the flowers, in fruit 6-10 nun. long.
2.
P. rivinoides.
AIZOACEAE
293
1. Phytolacca icosandra L. Syst. ed.
10, 1040.
1759.
Phytolacca octandra L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 631.
1762.
Erect, glabrous, or puberulent above, branched, somewhat succulent,
1-3
m. high.
Leaves elHptic to ovate-lanceolate, membranous, 8-20 cm. long, acute
or acuminate at the apex, narrowed at the base, the rather stout petioles 1-5 cm.
long; racemes erect, densely many-flowered,
1-3 dm.
long; pedicels 2-4 mm.
long; flowers greenish white or yellowish; sepals rounded; stamens 8-20; carpels
8-20; berry black, depressed-globose, about 8 mm. in diameter.
Porto Rico, collected by Plee (according to Moquin)
:-—Jamaica; Bahamas: Cuba;
Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Also recorded from the Old World.
Southern Poke-weed.
2. Phytolacca rivinoides Kunth & Bouche, Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. 1848:
15.
1848.
Stem weak, vine-like, glabrous, occasionally 4 or 5 m. long.
Leaves elliptic,
ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 8-18 cm. long, 3-8 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex,
acute or cuneate at the base; petioles 2-5.8 long; racemes loosely flowered, 2-5
dm. long; fruiting pedicels 6-10 mm. long; flowers white or pinldsh; sepals round-
ed; stamens 10-20; carpels 10-16; berry black, 5-7 mm. in diameter.
Woodlands, thickets and river-banks in moist districts, ascending to higher elevations,
Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts
to Trinidad; continental tropical
America.
(P. icosandra of Urban, not of Linnaeus.)
Juan de Vargas.
Agdestis elematoidea M05. &
Sesse,
Mexican,
occasionally planted for
ornament in Porto Rico, is a long woody vine, with a very large tuljer, the reddish
stems sometimes
15 m.
long, the
alternate
petioled
leaves cordate,
the small
white flowers in large panicles, the sepals 4.
Family 6.
AIZOACEAE A. Br.
Carpet-weed Family.
Annual or perennial herbs, often prostrate and branching, with mostly
opposite, more
or
less
fleshy
leaves,
and
perfect
small
regular
flowers.
Stipules none or scarious, or the petiole-bases dilated.
Calyx 4- or 5-cleft or
4-parted.
Petals small, or none in most species.
Stamens hypogynous or
perigynous.
Ovary usually free from the calyx, 3-many-celled; ovules few
or numerous in each cell.
Fruit a capsule with loculicidal or circumscissile
dehiscence.
Seeds amphitropous; endosperm
scanty
or
copious; embryo
slender, curved.
About 22 genera and 500 species mostly of warm regions,
a few in the temperate zones.
Capsule loculicidally deliiscent.
1- Mollugo.
Capsule circumscissile.
„
^
CapsiUe 3-5-celled.
2. Sesuvium.
Capsule 1- or 2-celled.
„
™,
•
...
Stamens 5-10 or more.
3.
Trmnthema.
Stamens 2 or 3.
4.
Cypselea.
1. MOLLUGO L. Sp. PI. 89.
1753.
Erect or prostrate, mostly annual herbs, with verticillate, or in some species
basal or alternate leaves, and small cymose or axillary flowers.
Stipules scarious,
deciduous.
Calyx
5-parted,
persistent.
Petals
none.
Stamens
3-5.
Ovary
3-5-celled, superior; styles 3-5; ovules numerous.
Capsule subglobose or ellip-
soid, loculicidally 3-5-valved.
Seeds few or numerous, small, the testa smooth,
granular or sculptured.
[An old Latin name for some soft plant applied to this
294
AIZOACEAE
genus because of the resemblance in the arrangement of its leaves to those of
Galium Mollugo.]
About 14 species, natives of the tropics of the Old
World;
a few
also
in north temperate and tropical America.
Type
species: Mollugo
verticillata L.
Cauline leaves In whorls; flowers axillary.
1. M. vertirillnta.
Leaves all basal; flowers in long-peduncled cymes.
2. M. nuclicaulis'.
1. Mollugo verticillata L. Sp.
Pi. 89.
1753.
Mollugo Berteriana Ser. in DC. Prodr.
1: 391.
1824.
Pharnaceum Berterianum Spreng. Syst.
1: 949.
Excl. syn.
1825.
Pharnaceum
lineare Bert.;
Ser.
in DC. Prodr.
1: 391, a synonym.
1824.
Not L. 1781.
Mollugo verticillata scrohiculata juncea Rohrb. Mart. Fl. Bras. 14^: 242.
1872.
A glabrous prostrate herb, sometimes forming patches 1 m. or more in di-
ameter, the branches sometimes ascending.
Leaves verticillate, often in
5's or
6's,
spatulate, obovate or
linear, 0.7-3 cm.
long,
1-11 mm.
broad, obtuse or
rounded at the apex, tapering at the base into the petiole; flowers axillary, the
pedicels filiform; sepals oblong or eHiptic, 2-2.5 mm. long, 0.6-1.2 mm. broad;
capsule elhpsoid, 2.5-3 mm. long, 1..5-2 mm. in diameter
; seeds reniform, 0.6 mm.
long, brown, smooth and shining, ridged along the back.
Sandy plains, waste and cultivated grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
Buck
Island,
St. Thomas;
Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
St.
Barts;
St.
Eustatius;
St. Vincent; Margarita; Bonaire; Ciu-acao; continental America.
On the wliite sands of the northern coastal plain of Porto Rico, a race with very narrow
leaves occiu-s, deep-rooted and apparently perennial.
Carpet-w^ed
.
2. Mollugo nudicaulis Lam. Encycl. 4: 234.
1797.
Mollugo hellidifolia Ser. in DC. Prodr. 1: 391.
1824.
A glabrous herb, 7-30 cm. high.
Leaves all basal, in an erect-spreading tuft,
spatulate or obovate,
1..5-5 cm.
long, 6-16 mm.
broad, rounded at the apex,
tapering
at
the
base
into
the
petiole; cymes
long-peduncled,
the
peduncles
slender, somewhat angled and grooved;
flowers slender-pedicelled
; calyx-lobes
elliptic, about 2 mm. long, 0.8-1 mm. broad; capsule ellipsoid, 2-2.5 mm. long;
seeds reniform, 0.5-0.6 mm. long, black, granulate.
Sandy and rocky soil at lower elevations northern and western districts of Porto Rico;
St. Thomas;
St. Croix; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Lucia; Giziana;
Old World tropics.
2. SESUVIUM L. Syst. ed. 10, 1058.
.1759.
Fleshy decumbent or prostrate herbs, with opposite leaves and axillary pink
or purplish flowers.
Stipules none, but the petioles often dilated and connate
at the base.
Calyx-tube top-shaped, 5-lobe4, the lobes oblong, obtuse.
Petals
none.
Stamens 5-60,
inserted on the
calyx-tube.
Filaments
filiform, some-
times united at the
base.
Ovary 3-5-celled.
Ovules numerous.
Styles 3-5,
papillose along the inner
side.
Capsule membranous,
oblong,
3-5-celled,
cir-
cumscissile.
Seeds round-reniform, smooth; embryo annular.
[An unexplained
name.]
About 6 species, natives of seacoasts and other saline regions.
Type
species: Sesuvium Portulacastrurn L.
Stamens 5; flowers usually sessile.
1.
S. maritimum.
Stamens nmnerous; flowers often long-pedicelled.
2.
S. Portulacastrurn.
1. Sesuvium maritimum (Walt.) B.
S. P. Prem. Cat. N. Y. 20.
1888.
Pharnaceum maritimum Walt.
Fl. Car.
117.
1788.
Sesuvi'iim pentandrum Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 1: 556.
1821.
Annual, glabrous; branches 0.5-3 dm. long.
Leaves obovate or spatulate,
entire, rounded or slightly emarginate at the apex, narrowed into a petiole or the
AIZOACEAE
295
upper sessile, 8-25 mm. long: flowers sessile or nearly so, about 2 mm. broad,
mostly solitary; stamens
5, alternate with the calyx-lobes
; -capsule ovoid, 4-4.5
mm. high, scarcely longer than the calyx.
Borders of Lake Guanica, and seashore at Pvmta Cangrejos, Porto Rico; Icacos:
Atlantic coast of the United States; Texas; Bahamas; Cuba.
Slender Sea Purslane.
2. Sesuvium Portulacastrum L. Syst. ed. 10, 1058.
1759.
Portulaca Portulacastrum L. Sp. 446.
17.53.
Trianthema polyandrum Blume, Bijdr. 1137.
1826.
Halimus Portulacastrum Kuntze, Kev. Gen. PL 263.
1891.
Perennial, fleshy, glabrous.
Stems usually diffusely branched, the branches
prostrate, often creeping, forming large patches; leaves oblanceolate to oblong,
1.5-4.5 cm. long, acute or acutish, the bases clasping; flowers pedicelled, solitary
in the axils; calyx-lobes lanceolate, 7-10 mm. long, hooded, purple within, the
back prolonged into an appendage; stamens numerous; capsule conic, 8-10 mm.
long.
Saline
soil along the
coasts, Porto Rico; IMona:
Icacos; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas;
St. Jan:—coasts of the southeastern United
States; Bermuda; West Indies;
continental
tropical America and
Old World
tropics.
Sea
Ptjrslane.
Yerba de
VIDRIO.
3. TRIANTHEMA [Sauvag.] L. Sp. PI. 223.
1753.
Fleshy diffuse or prostrate herbs, with opposite unequal petioled leaves, and
small sessile or stalked axillary flowers.
Calyx 5-lobed, the lobes often append-
aged on the back below the apex.
Petals none.
Stamens 5-10 or more.
Ovary
1- or 2-celled, few-ovuled; styles
1 or 2.
Capsule membranous or coriaceous,
turbinate or cylindric, at length circumscissile.
Seeds reniform
; embryo annular.
[Greek, three flowers, named for some species having three flowers in the axils of
the leaves.]
About 17 species, widely distributed in the tropics.
Type species:
Trianthema Portulacastrum L.
1. Trianthema Portulacastrum L. Sp. PL 223.
1753.
Trianthema monogynum L. Mant.
1: 69.
1767.
A nearly prostrate, much-branched perennial herb, the branches sometimes
10 dm. long.
Leaves broadly obovate, elliptic or suborbicular, 1-4.5 cm. long,
0.3-3.3 cm. broad, rounded, notched or apiculate at the apex, acute or sometimes
rounded at the base, the petioles 0.5-2.5 cm. long; flowers sessile in the
axils,
partly concealed within the petiolar sheath, the sepals ovate-lanceolate, 3-5 mm.
long, rosy purplish within; capsule 4-5 mm. long, crested.
Waste grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; Culebra;
St. Croix;
St.
Thomas; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba to Trinidad
; Margarita; Bonaire; Curacao; Aruba;
warm temperature and tropical continental America; Old World tropics.
4. CYPSELEA Turp. Ann. Mus. Paris 7: 219.
1806.
Small, somewhat fleshy, prostrate herbs, with slender branched stems and
small
axillary
flowers.
Leaves
opposite,
those
of a
pair
unequal.
Stipules
scarious,
laciniate.
Calyx
5-lobed,
the
lobes
unappendaged.
Petals
none.
Stamens 2 or 3, alternate with the calyx-lobes.
Ovary 1-celled, superior.
Styles
bifid.
Ovules
numerous.
Capsule
1-celled,
circimiscissile.
Seeds
minute.
Testa smooth.
Embryo curved.
[Greek,
a
bee-hive, from
the shape
of the
capsule.]
One species, of warm temperate and tropical America.
296
ALSINACEAE
1. Cypselea humifusa Turp. Ann. Mus. Paris 7: 219.
1806.
Stems much branched, forming mats 3-20 cm. in diameter.
Leaves oblong-
elliptic to oval, 1.5-10 mm. long, 0.8-5 mm. broad, rounded at the apex, acute or
rounded
at the
base,
entire,
short-petioled
;
flowers
axillary,
greenish,
short-
pedicelled; calyx-lobes ovate, 1-1.3 mm. long; capsule subglobose, 1-1.6 mm. in
diameter.
In damp soil. Water Island, St. Thomas; Anegada:—Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe;
Margarita; southern Florida and California.
Tetragonia
expansa
Murr., New
Zealand
Spinach,
native
of New
Zealand, occasionally grown in Porto Rican gardens, is a nearly prostrate, some-
what fleshy herb, the stems 5-8 dm. long, the alternate entire rhombic-ovate
leaves 2.5-8 cm.
long, the
flowers
solitary,
axillary, 5-6 mm. wide, the
fruit
obovoid, 4-horned, about 10 mm. thick.
Mesembryanthemum angustum Haw.,
of South
Africa, grown from
Palermo Botanical Garden seed by Mr. A. S. Fairchild at Louisenhoj, St. Thomas,
and established in 1923, has tufted, half-cylindric, linear, various leaves in alter-
nate pairs, the yellow flowers nearly sessile.
Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum L., of the Mediterranean region, was
grown from seed by Mr. Fairchild from the same source.
Mesembryanthemum uncinellum Salm-Dyck, South African, sent to
Louisenhoj from the New York Botanical Garden, was well established in 1923.
Family 7.
ALSINACEAE Wahl.
Chickweed Family.
Annual
or perennial
herbs, with opposite
entire
leaves,
estipulate
or
stipulate, and mostly small perfect flowers, soUtary or in cymes or umbels.
Calyx of 4 or 5 sepals, imbricated, at least in the bud, separate to the base,
or nearly
so.
Petals as many as the
sepals, not clawed, rarely wanting.
Stamens 8 or 10, or fewer, inserted at the base of the sessile ovary, or on a
small
disk;
filaments
distinct,
or cohering below;
anthers
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary usually
1-celled;
styles
2-5,
distinct or united;
ovules
several or numerous, amphitropous or campylotropous, borne on a central
column.
Fruit a capsule, dehiscent by valves or by apical teeth.
Embryo
mostly curved and with incumbent cotyledons.
About 32 genera and 500
species, of wide distribution, most abundant in temperate regions.
styles united below.
1. Drymaria.
Styles separate to the base.
2.
Alsine.
1. DRYMARIA Willd.; R. & S. Syst. 5: 406.
1819.
Low branching herbs, with flat leaves, small, often fugacious stipules, and
mostly white flowers in cymes or solitary.
Sepals
5, distinct.
Petals
5, cleft.
Stamens 5
or
fewer.
Ovary
1-celled;
styles mostly
3,
united
below.
Fruit
a 3-valved capsule.
Seeds globose-reniform,
the embryo
peripheral.
[Greek,
pertaining to the forest.]
About 40 species, of tropical and subtropical America,
one also in the Old World tropics.
Type species: Drymaria arenarioides H. & B.
ALSINACEAE
297
.
1. Drymaria cordata (L.) Willd.; R. &
S. Syst. 5: 40G.
1819.
Holosteum cordatum L. Sp. PI. 88.
1753.
Eolosteum diandrum Sw. Prodr. 27.
1788.
Drymaria cordata diandra Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mils. 13: 27.
1879.
Drymaria
ramosissima
Kuntze,
Rev.
Gen.
1:
50.
1891.
Not
Schlecht.
1838.
Annual, glabrous, or puberulent above; stems very slender, diffuse, 1-4 dm.
or more long.
Leaves orbicular or broader than long, G-24 mm. wide, mem-
branous, palmately veined, rounded or acute at the apex, commonly subcordate
at the
base,
short-petioled
; peduncles
filiform,
usually much longer than the
leaves, often forked; cymes few-several-flowered; pedicels as long as the bractlets
or shorter; sepals 1.5-3 mm. long, oblong-lanceolate, acute; petals 2-cleft
; capsule
about as long as the sepals
; seeds
1 mm. long, granulose.
Moist grounds,
river-banks and woodlands, Porto Rico, mostly in wet or moist
districts;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;—Florida; West Indies; continental tropical Ameiica.
Drymahia.
Yerba de estrella.
2. ALSINE [Tourn.] L. Sp. PL 274.
1753.
[Stellaria L. Sp. PI. 421.
1753.]
Herbs, with cymose white flowers.
Sepals 4 or
5.
Petals 4 or
5,
2-cleft,
2-parted, or emarginate, white in our species, rarely none.
Stamens 10 or fewer,
hypogynous.
Ovary 1-celled; styles commonly 3, rarely 4 or 5, usually opposite
the
sepals.
Capsule dehiscent by twice as many valves as there
are
styles.
[Greek, grove, the habitat of some species.]
Species about 75, widely distributed,
most abundant in temperate or cold climates.
Type species; Alsine media L.
1. Alsine antillana (Urban) Britton & Wilson.
Stcllarla antillana Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 303.
1899.
Drymaria
laxiflora
pauciflora Kuntze,
Rev.
Gen.
PI.
1:
50.
1891.
Not
Benth.
Stem slender, creeping, branched, often rooting at the nodes, angled, glabrous
or nearly so.
Leaves ovate to rhombic-ovate or rhombic-elliptic, 4-18 mm. long.
3-12 mm. broad, acuminate or mucronate at the apex, abruptly narrowed at the
base into the petiole; petioles 1.5-2 mm. long; peduncles axillary, solitary, slender.
1.5-3 cm. long; flowers 4-merous or sometimes 5-merous; sepals ovate, 2-3 mm.
long; petals
2-cleft; capsule about 3 mm. long; seeds 0.9 mm. in diameter, dark
brown, echinate.
[Stellaria ovata of Bello, not of Willdenow.]
Moist shaded situations at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico, descending to
350 m. :—Hispaniola.
West Indian Chickweed.
Pega-pollo.
Dianthus Caryophyllus
L., Carnation, originally European or Asiatic,
of the related family C ^ryophyllaceae, grown for its flowers in Porto Rico and
Virgin
Island
gardens, has
tufted
rather
stiff stems up
to
1 m.
high, linear
5-nerved leaves, the large fragrant flowers rose, purple or white, the calyx sub-
tended by 4 broad appressed short-tipped bracts, the petals variously erose.
Dianthus chinensis L.. of China and Japan, listed by Krebs as form(>rly
grown in St. Thomas, has pink or lilac flowers with spreading calyx-bracts.
Saponaria officinalis L., Soapwort, European, also of the family Caryo-
phyllaceae. listed by Krebs in 1851 as found in
St. Thomas, may have been a
temporary garden flower.
It is an herb with opposite ovate or oval leaves
the
large white flowers in terminal corymbs, the nearly tubular calyx 5-toothed.
298
PORTULACACEAE
Family 8.
PORTULACACEAE Rchb.
Purslane Family.
Herbs, rarely somewhat woody, with regular perfect but unsymmetrical
flowers.
Sepals
2.
Petals
4-6,
rarely
more,
hypogynous,
imbricated.
Stamens hypogynous, equal in number to the petals or fewer, rarely more;
filaments
filiform;
anthers
2-celled,
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
1-
celled;
style With 3-7 stigmatie branches;
ovules 2-many, amphitropous.
Capsule circumscissile, or dehiscent by 3 valves.
Seeds 2-many, reniform-
globose or compressed; embryo curved.
About 20 genera and 180 species,
mostly natives of America.
Calyx free from the ovary
; capsule 3-valved
; flowers racemose or panicu-
late.
1.
Talinum.
Calyx partly adnate to the ovary; capsule circumscissile; flowers solitary
or clxistered at the ends of the branches.
2.
Portulaca.
1. TALINUM Adans. Earn.
PI. 2: 245.
1763.
Eleshy glabrous erect or ascending herbs, with alternate estipulate leaves.
Sepals herbaceous, deciduous
or
persistent.
Petals
5, hypogynous,
fugacious.
Stamens 10-30, adherent
to the bases of the
petals.
Ovary free, many-ovuled;
style 3-lobed or 3-cleft.
Capsule 3-valved.
Seeds numerous, borne on a central
globose placenta.
[Aboriginal name of a Senegal species.]
A genus of about
15 species, natives mostly of America.
Type species
: Portulaca triangularis Jacq.
Inflorescence paniculate; petals 4-5 mm. long.
1.
T. paniculatum.
Inflorescence racemose or subcorymbose
; petals 6-9 mm. long.
2.
T. ttiangulare.
1. Talinum paniculatum (Jacq.) Gaertn. Er. & Sem. 2: 219.
1791.
Portulaca paniculata Jacq. Enum. 22.
1760.
Portulaca patens Jacq. Hort. Vind.
2: 71.
1772.
Talinum patens Willd. Sp.
PI.
2: 863.
1800.
Claytonia patens Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 57.
1891.
Stems rather slender, 3-7.5 dm. high, simple or branched.
Leaves elliptic
or obovate, 3—8 cm. long, 1.5-4 cm. broad, obtuse or sometimes acute at the apex,
tapering at the base into the petiole; panicle 7-25 cm.
long; pedicels slender,
terete; sepals deciduous, 3-4 nun. long; petals red, pink or yellowish, 4-5 mm.
long; stamens 15—20; capsule 3-4.5 mm.
in diameter; seeds 1-1.2 mm. broad,
black, shining.
Rocky and sandy soil, Porto Rico; Mona; Desecheo; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Jan; St.
Thomas; Virgin Gorda; Tortola:—Cuba to Margarita;
southern United States and con-
tinental tropical America.
2. Talinum triangulare (Jacq.) Willd. Sp. PL 2: 862.
1800.
Portulaca triangularis Jacq. Enum. 22.
1760.
Portulaca racemosa L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 640.
1762.
Talinum crassifolium Willd. Sp. PI. 862.
1800.
Talinum racemosum Rohrb. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
15-: 297.
1872.
Claytonia triangularis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 56.
1891.
Stems stout, fleshy, sometimes 6 dm. high.
Leaves oblanceolate to obovate,
2-8 cm.
long, 1-3.2 cm. broad, rounded or acute at the apex, tapering at the
base into the
petiole; racemes few- or many-flowered;
pedicels angled; sepals
persistent, about 5 mm. long; petals red, yellow or whitish, broadly elliptic, 6-9
mm. long, 6 mm. broad; stamens about 30; capsule 4.5-6 mm. in diameter; seeds
0.8 mm. broad, shining.
Rocky soil at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, often near the coast; Culebra;
St. Thomas; St. Croix:—Jamaica; St. Barts; Guadeloupe to Margarita; South America.
PORTULACACEAE
299
2. PORTULACA [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 445.
1753.
Diffuse or ascending, glabrous or pubescent succulent herbs,
witli terminal
flowers.
Sepals 2, united at the base and partly adnate to the ovary.
Petals
4-6 (mainly 5), inserted on the calyx, fugacious.
Stamens 7-25, inserted at the
base of the petals.
Ovary many-ovuled; style deeply 3-9-cleft or -parted.
Cap-
sule membranous, dehiscent by a
lid, many-seeded.
[Latin, in allusion to the
purging qualities of some of the species.]
A genus of over 30 species, mostly
natives of America.
Type species: Portulaca oleracea L.
Flowers yellow.
Seeds black or grayish black.
Leaves flat.
Leaves alternate, obovate, 7-30 mm. long.
1.
P. oleracea.
Leaves opposite, mostly elliptic or ovate, 3-6 mm. long.
2. P. quadrifida.
Leaves obovoid or cyliadric.
.
Leaves obovoid.
3.
P. caulerpoides.
Leaves linear.
4.
P. halimoides.
Seeds brown; leaves linear, subterete.
5. P. phaeosperma.
Flowers purplish; leaves linear, subterete.
Seeds black.
'
6. P. pilosa.
Seeds gray.
7.
P. poliospcrma.
1. Portulaca oleracea L. Sp.
PI. 445.
1753.
Portulaca parvifolia Haw. Syn. Succ. 122.
1812.
Portulaca oleracea parvifolia Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 707.
1864.
Portulaca oleracea macrantha Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus.
13: 27.
1879.
Portulaca oleracea micrantha Eggers, loc. cit. 27.
1879.
A glabrous annual, with prostrate or ascending branches.
Leaves alternate,
flat, obovate, or cuneate, 7-30 mm. long, 3-13 mm. broad, rounded at the apex,
very fleshy; flowers clustered or solitary,
sessile; sepals keeled, acutish; corolla
yellow; petals longer than the sepals, very delicate and soon withering; stamens
7-12;
styles 4-6; capsule 4-7 mm.
long,
circumscissile
at about
the middle;
seeds black, 0.7-0.8 mm. in diameter; finely tuberculate.
Rocky and sandy
soil and waste
places, Porto
Rico; Mona; Desecheo;
Icacos;
Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Anegada:—all temperate and tropical
regions.
Purslane.
Verdolaga.
2. Portulaca quadrifida L. Mant.
1: 73.
1767.
A prostrate, much-branched annual, creeping and rooting at the nodes, with
slender stems and long white hairs encircling the nodes.
Leaves opposite,
flat,
eUiptic-ovate to ovate or oval, 3-6 mm. long, 1.2-3 mm. broad, acute or obtuse
at the apex, rounded or acutish at the
base,
short-petioled
; flowers terminal,
solitary, sessile, surrounded with long white hairs, and an involucre of 4 leaves;
sepals oblong-oval, obtuse; corolla yellow; petals elliptic to oval, obtuse; stamens
8-12; style filiform; capsule circumscissile above the base; seeds gray, 0.8-10 mm.
In diameter.
Roadside banks, waste grounds and coastal plains, southwestern dry districts of
Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;
St. Jan;
Tortola:—Cuba to Trinidad;
South America.
Native of tropical Asia.
The flowers open about noon.
Chicken-weed.
3. Portulaca caulerpoides Britton & Wflson, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 42: 515.
1915.
Perennial,
prostrate, forming
tufts 8-12 cm.
in diameter; stems
slender,
branched, hairy in the
axils.
Leaves
fleshy, obovoid, 3-5 mm. long, 2-3 mm.
broad, not at all flattened, rounded at the apex, narrowed at the base, subsessile.
glabrous, shining, with labyrinthine cr tortuous mottling; flowers terminal, solitary,
sessile; sepals oval; corolla pale
yellowish-white; petals broadly obovate, 2.5-3
mm. long, 2-2.5 mm. broad, notched at the apex; seeds reniform, black, 0.5 mm.
broad, rugulose.
Limestone rocks, Cayo Muertos.
Endemic.
300
PORTULACACEAE
4. Portulaca halimoides L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 639.
1762.
A much-branched annual, sometimes 15 cm. high; branches erect or diffuse,
with tufts of white axillary
hairs.
Leaves fleshy, subcylindric, 6-15 mm. long,
1.5-2.5 mm.
broad, often
acutish
at the apex;
flowers terminal,
encircled by
numerous white
hairs;
sepals about 2 mm.
long;
corolla white with a yellow
center; petals ovate or ovate-elliptic, 3 mm. long,
1.2-1.3 mm. broad; stamens
8-20; capsule circumscissile below the middle; seeds black, 0.4 mm. broad, tuber-
culate.
[? P. ruhricaulis of Krebs.]
Fields,
coastal sands and
rocks, Porto
Rico,
in
the southwestern dry
districts;
St. Crol.x; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Martin
to Guadeloupe; Bonaire; Curasao; Aruba; Mexico.
5. Portulaca phaeosperma Urban, Symb. Ant.
4: 233.
1905.
A fleshy herb; branches ascending, 2.5 dm. long or less, the tufts of axillary
hairs
often
rather
inconspicuous.
Leaves
linear
or linear-oblong,
subterete,
acute or obtuse, 5-16 mm. long, 2-3.5 mm. thick, alternate and often clustered
at the ends of the branches; flowers terminal, encircled by long brownish hairs;
sepals about 4 mm. long; corolla yellow; petals oblong to ovate-oblong or some-
what obovate, obtuse or acutish; stamens 12-16; capsule subglobose, 3-5 mm. in
diameter;
circumscissile
above
the
middle;
seeds
rugulose,
0.5-0.6 mm.
in
diameter, brown.
Rocky
soil, Porto Rico, near the southern coast; Mona;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;
Virgin Gorda:-—Florida; Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; Jamaica; Ciu-agao.
6. Portulaca pilosa L. Sp. PI. 445.
1753.
Stems ascending or prostrate, often conspicuously pilose-pubescent with tufts
of long brown or whitish hairs in the axils.
Leaves linear-subulate, nearly terete,
acute, 8-16 mm. long,
1.5-3 mm. broad, alternate; flowers terminal, encircled
by long white or brown hairs: sepals linear-oblong, obtuse, 2-3 mm. long; corolla
red or purple; stamens
15 or more,
the filaments crimson;
style 5-6-parted;
capsule
circumscissile
at about the middle,
covered by the withered
corolla;
seeds 0.3-0.4 mm. in diameter, black, minutely tuberculate.
Sandy and rocky soil at low elevations, Porto Rico; St. CroLx; St. Thomas:—Cuba
to Trinidad; Florida; Mexico, and South America.
7. Portulaca poliosperma Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 232.
1905.
Portulaca poliosperma minor Urban, loc. cit. 4: 233.
1905.
An annual herb with spreading branches, the axillary hairs few and rather
short.
Leaves linear, 5-13 mm. long, 1-1.8 mm. broad, obtuse; flowers solitary
or several, terminal, encircled by whitish or brownish hairs; sepals 2.5-2.8 mm.
long; corolla purple; petals oblong, obtuse; capsule broadly ellipsoid, 4-5 mm.
long, 3-3.5 mm.
thick,
circumscissile
at
about
the middle;
seeds 0.6-7 mm.
broad, gray, tuberculate.
Sandy soil, northern coastal plain of Porto Rico:—Cuba; St. Martin; Curacao.
Portulaca brasiliensis West, of St. Croix,
is not described; it is probably
referable to one of the preceding.
Limnia perfoliata (Donn) Haw., a native annual of western North America,
was recorded by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas, but this is wholly improbable,
unless grown from seed;
it could not endure the climate.
[Claytonia perfoliata
Donn.]
BASELLACEAE
301
Family 9.
BASELLACEAE.
Basella Family.
More
or
less
succulent
vines with
alternate,
entire
leaves.
Flowers
small, perfect, in axillary and terminal spikes or spike-like racemes.
Sepals
2, sometimes winged in fruit.
Petals
5.
Stamens
5, opposite the petals;
filaments terete or flattened; anthers
versatile.
Ovary superior,
1-celled;
ovule solitary; styles 3, distinct; stigmas entire or cleft.
Fruit indehiscent.
Seeds erect, with a membranous testa.
About 5 genera and
15 species of
tropical distribution, mostly American.
1. BOUSSINGAULTIA H.B.K. Nov. Gen. 7: 194.
1825.
Branching vines with tuberous roots; the leaves rather fleshy.
Flowers in
axillary and terminal simple or branched spike-like racemes.
Sepals not winged.
Petals white or greenish-white, spreading.
Stigmas cleft.
Seeds with starchy
endosperm.
Cotyledons plano-conve.x.
[Commemorates John Baptiste Bous-
singault, chemist and physicist, professor in Bogota.]
About 10 species, natives
of tropical America.
Type species: Boussingauliia basselloides H.B.K.
1. Boussingaultia leptostachys Moq. in DC. Prodr.
13^: 229.
1849.
A glabrous vine with slender stems and branches.
Leaves ovate to elliptic,
2—6 cm.
long,
1.5-4 cm. broad, acute to acuminate at the apex, gradually or
abruptly narrowed at the base, short-petioled
; racemes lax, much longer than
the
leaves;
bracts linear-acuminate,
1.5 mm.
long;
pedicels
1-1.2 mm.
long;
flowers white;
bracteoles triangular-cuspidate,
0.5 mm.
long; sepals
1-nerved;
petals 2-2.5 mm. long.
Woods and thickets in moist districts, Porto Rico; St. Thomas; St. Croix; Tortola:—
Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe:
Dominica:
ISIartinique;
Florida and
conti-
nental tropical America.
Recorded by Bello as Anredera scandcTjs.
Sueld.\-consuelda.
Boussingaultia baselloides H.B.K., Madeira vine, recorded as grown for
ornament in Porto Rico,
is a similar vine with larger cordate leaves.
Basella rubra
L., Malabar Night.shade,
Asiatic, grown
for
its edible
foliage in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens, is a succulent, annual or biennial
vine up to
1 m. long or longer, with ovate entire petioled leaves 5-7 cm. long,
the small flowers spicate, sessile, white, red or violet [B. alba L.].
Order 11.
RANALES.
Herbs, vines, shrubs or trees.
Calyx present, usually of separate sepals.
Corolla usually present and of separate petals.
Ovary or ovaries superior,
free from the calyx; carpels
1 to many, usually separate.
Stamens mostly
hypogynous and more numerous than the sepals.
Aquatic herbs.
Plants with minute sessile monoecious flowers; involucre
8-12-cleft; perianth none; leaves cauline, submerged,
crowded in whorls, .sessile.
1. Ceratophyllaceae,
Plants with small or large, long-peduncled flowers; sepals
and petals present.
Carpels not borne in a fleshy receptacle
; leaves cauline,
of two kinds, the submerged opposite or whorled,
dissected into capillary segments, the floating leaves
when present few, peltate.
2. Cabombaceae.
Carpels
immersed
in
a
fleshy
receptacle;
leaves
arising from a
large horizontal
root stock,
floating
or
emersed,
the
blades
broadly
eHiptic
to
sub-
orbicular.
3. NYMPHAEAC'EAE.
302
CABOMBACEAE
Woody plants or terrestrial herbs.
Leaves compoimd, opposite; flowers dioecious or polygam-
ous.
Oiu-
species
a
vLae;
the
leaves
trifoliolate ;
acheues
with plumose styles.
4. Ranttnculaceae.
Tree; leaves piimate; follicles 2-valved.
5. Brunelliaceae.
Leaves
simple,
mostly
alternate,
sometimes
none
or
reduced to scales.
Anthers not opening by valves.
Flowers dioecious; mostly vines; fruit a drupe.
6. Menispermaceae.
Flowers perfect; trees or shrubs.
Sepals and petals imbricate; carpels coherent,
opening on
the
back,
forming
a
fleshy
or
woody, cone-like friut.
7. Magnoliaceae.
Sepals and petals valvate; carpels separate or
coherent, forming a drupe-like or berry-like
fruit.
8. Annonaceae.
Anthers opening by valves.
Leafy trees or slu"ubs.
Perianth superior.
9. Hernandiaceae.
Perianth inferior.
10. Lauraceae.
Leafless, twining, parasitic vines.
11. Cassythaceae.
Family
1.
CERATOPHYLLACEAE A. Gray.
HoRNwoRT Family.
Submerged aquatic herbs, with branching stems and whorled, rigid, finely
dissected
leaves.
Flowers
small,
monoecious,
solitary and
sessile
in
the
axils of the whorls.
Involucre 8-12-cleft.
Perianth none.
Stamens many,
crowded on a flat or convex receptacle; anthers sessile or nearly so, linear-
oblong,
the
connective
prolonged
into an
often
2-3-toothed,
fleshy ap-
pendage.
Pistillate flowers with a sessile, 1-celled ovary; ovule 1, pendulous;
style filiform, stigmatic at the summit.
Fruit an indehiscent nut.
Endo-
sperm wanting.
Embryo with a very short radicle, thick oval cotyledons,
and a plumule consisting of several nodes and leaves.
The family contains only the following genus:
1. CERATOPHYLLUM L. Sp. PI. 992.
1753.
Leaves sessile, crowded in verticils, cut into two- or three-forked thread-like
often
spinulose-serrulate
divisions.
Sterile
flowers
with
10-24
stamens,
the
anthers large.
Fertile and sterile flowers generally at different nodes, occasionally
in opposite axils at the same node.
Ovary somewhat longer than the involucre.
Fruit beaked witli the long persistent
style.
[Greek,
horny-leaf.]
About two
species, widely distributed in fresh-water, the following typical.
1. Ceratophyllum demersum L. Sp. PI. 992.
1753.
Ceratophyllum submersum L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 1409.
1763.
Stem 5-12 dm.
long,
branching.
Leaves rather
stiff,
6-12
In a whorl;
fruit oval, 4-5 mm. long, 3-3.5 mm. broad, with a slender straight or ctirved
spine-like beak 5-6 mm. long, smooth and spurless or with a long basal spur
on each side, or tuberculate and with narrowly winged spiny margins or broadly
winged without spines.
Fresh-water lakes and streams, Porto Rico; St. Thomas:—Cuba, Jamaica; Hispan-
iola; Martinique; Barbadoes; Trinidad; temperate and
tropical regions of the world.
HORNWORT.
Family 2.
CABOMBACEAE A. Gray.
Water-shield Family.
Perennial aquatic caulescent herbs, with gelatine-coated stems, floating
or immersed
leaves,
and
solitary
axillary
flowers.
Sepals
3,
rarely
4.
NYMPHAEACEAE
303
Petals 3, rarely 4.
Stamens 3-18.
Carpels 2-18, distinct.
Stigmas sessile
or nearly so.
Ovules 2 or 3, o.rthotropous.
Fruits indeliiscent, coriaceous,
separate.
Seeds 1-3 borne on the dorsal suture.
Embryo at the base of
fleshy endosperm.
Cotyledons fleshy.
Two genera and about 5
species,
widely 'distributed in fresh-water lakes and streams.
1. CABOMBA Aubl. PI. Guian. 1: 321.
1775.
Stems
slender, mainly submerged.
Leaves
of two
kinds,
the submerged
opposite, or verticlllate, palmately dissected into numerous capillary segments,
the floating leaves when present few, alternate and centrally peltate.
Flowers
small, white, or purple.
Sepals 3.
Petals 3.
Stamens 3-6; filaments slender;
anthers short, extrorse.
Carpels 2-4.
Stigmas small, terminal
; ovules commonly
3, pendulous.
Fruit coriaceous,
indehiscent,
2- or 3-seeded.
[Guiana name.]
A genus of about 4
species,
natives of the warmer parts of America.
Type
species: Cabomba aquatica Aubl.
1. Cabomba piauhyensis Gardn.; Hook.
Ic. PI. 7:
pi. 641.
1844.
Stem slender, 5 dm. or more long.
Submerged leaves opposite or occasion-
ally
verticlllate,
usually long-petioled, 2-4 cm.
broad, much divided;
floating
leaves linear, peltate
; flowers purple, long-peduncled from the upper axils
; sepals
oblong, 6-6.7 mm. long, 2.5-3 mm. broad; petals oblong to elliptic-oblong, about
as long as the sepals; carpels flask-shaped, more or less echinate.
Fresh-water lagoons and streams, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Trinidad; Brazil.
Family 3.
NYMPHAEACEAE DC.
Water-lily Family.
Aquatic herbs, with more or
less elongated, often tuber-bearing root-
stocks.
Leaves floating or erect, or sometimes submersed.
Flowers perfect,
terminating
elongated
scapes.
Sepals
4-6,
often
green.
Petals
few
or
numerous, usually passing into staminodes or stamens.
Stamens numerous;
anthers erect, the connective continuous with the filament.
Gynoecium of
several or many carpels united into a compound ovary.
.Stigmas united
into a disk with radiating stigmatic
lines.
Ovules numerous, pendulous.
Fruit
indeliiscent.
Seeds often enveloped by a sack-like
aril; cotyledons
fleshy;
hypocotyl very
short.
Five
genera and
over
60
species,
widely
distributed in fresh-water lakes and streams.
1. CASTALIA Salisb. Par. Lond.
1:
jji.
14-
1805.
Herbs with horizontal perennial rootstocks, floating leaves and often large
showy flowers.
Sepals
4.
Petals in several rows, or but few, inserted on the
receptacle; gradually passing into the stamens.
Stamens numerous, the exterior
with large petaloid filaments and short anthers, the interior with linear filaments
and elongated
anthers.
Carpels
several,
united
into a compound
pistil with
radiating linear projecting stigmas.
Fruit covered with the bases of the petals,
ripening under water.
[A spring on Parnassus, sacred to Apollo and the Muses.]
About 50
species,
of wide geographic
distribution, known as Flok de agua,
Yerba de hicotea, Water-lily.
Type species: Castalia magnifica Salisb.
304
NYMPHAEACEAE
Flowers diurnal.
Carpels free from one another at the sides; styles short, stiff
and fleshy.
Leaves coarsely
sinuate-dentate;
flowers 8-16 cm.
broad;
petals 12-21.
1.
c. ampla.
Leaves entire or slightly undiUate; flowers mostly less than
8 cm. in diameter; petals 4-8.
2.
C. pulchella.
Carpels united by their sides; styles ligulate.
3.
C. odorata.
Flowers nocturnal;
carpels imited by
their
sides;
styles
slender,
with enlarged club-shaped tips.
Petioles with a ring of long hairs at the top; leaves entire.
4.
C. amazonum.
Petioles without a ring of hairs at the top.
Leaves coarsely sinuate-dentate.
5.
C. Rudgeana.
Leaves entire.
6.
C. Jamesoniana.
1.
Castalia ampla Salisb. Par. Lond.
1:
pi.
14.
1805.
Nymphaea ampla DC. Syst. 2: 54.
1821.
Nymphaea speciosa Mart. & Zucc. Abhand. Muench. Akad.
1: 368.
1832.
Nymphaea ampla Plumieri Planch. Ann. Sci. Nat.
III. 19: 44.
1853.
Nymphaea ampla speciosa Casp. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 4^: 158.
1878.
Leuconymphaea ampla Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pi.
11.
1891.
Leaves suborbicular,
15-45 cm.
in
diameter,
coarsely sinuate-dentate
or
nearly
entire, red-purple beneath and often marked with purplish-black
blot-
ches, the basal lobes acute.
Flowers diurnal, raised above the water, 8-16 cm.
broad;
sepals
oblong-lanceolate,
obtuse
or
acutish,
the
outer surface
green,
marked
with
purplish-black
lines;
petals
12-21,
oblong-lanceolate,
obtuse;
stamens 90-190, the outer long-appendaged
; carpels 14-23, free from one another
at the sides; styles short, stiff and fleshy.
Fresh-water lagoons and streams, Porto Rico;
St. Croix:—West Indies; Texas and
continental tropical America.
2. Castalia pulchella (DC.)
Britton,
Bull. N.
Y.
Bot. Gard.
4:
138.
1906.
Nymphaea pulchella DC. Syst. 2: 51.
1821.
? Nymphaea ampla parviflora Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I.
11.
1859.
Nymphaea ampla pulchella Casp. in Mart. Fl. Bras.
4^: 159.
1878.
Similar to the preceding.
Leaves
suborbicular, 8-20 cm.
or
sometimes
more in diameter, often green on both sides, the margin slightly undulate or sub-
entire.
Flowers small; sepals oblong-lanceolate, 6 mm. long or less; petals 4-8,
white, acute; stamens 30-50, the outer long-appendaged; carpels free from one
another at the sides; styles short, stiff and fleshy; fruit 2-3 cm.
in diameter.
Fresh-water lakes and ponds, Porto Rico; Vieques (according to Eggers); St. Croix
(according
to Urban):—Bahamas; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Jamaica; South America.
Re-
corded by Bello as Nymphaea minor DC.
3. Castalia odorata (Dryand.) Woodv. & Wood. In Rees' Cyclop. 6: no.
1.
1806.
Nymphaea odorata Dryand.; Ait. Hort. Kew. 2: 227.
1789.
Leaves suborbicular, 8-20 cm.
or more
in
diameter,
green
above,
often
purplish and somewhat pubescent beneath, the sinuses opened or closed.
Flowers
diurnal, usually floating, white or sometimes pinkish, sweet-scented, 7-15 cm.
in diameter; sepals lanceolate to ovate, rounded or obtuse at the apex, narrowed
at the
base,
the outside green, more or
less shaded with reddish-brown, the
inside
greenish-white,
occasionally
tinged
with
pinldsh-purple
;
petals
23-32,
oblong to elliptic or ovate, smaller than the sepals; stamens 55-106, the outer
filaments petaloid, the innermost often narrower than the anther; carpels 13-25,
united by their sides; styles ligulate; seeds ellip.soid, about 3 mm. long.
Algarrobas,
Porto Rico
{J. A.
Stevenson
2139):—Eastern United
States; Cuba;
Mexico; British Guiana.
RANUNCULACEAE
305
4. Castalia amazonum (Mart. & Zucc.) Britton & Wilson.
Nymphaea amazonum Alart. & Zucc. Abhand. Miiench. Akad. 1: 363.
1832.
Nymphaea Rudgeana amazonum Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I.
12.
1S59.
Leuconymphaea amazonum Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 11.
1891.
Leaves suborbicular, 9-17 cm. wide, entire, brownish-red beneath and often
marked with small purplish-black blotches, the petioles bearing a ring of long
hairs at the top.
Flowers floating, nocturnal, faintly malodorous, S-14 cm. in
diameter; sepals elliptic or elliptic-ovate, acute or obtuse; petals 16-20, oblong
or ovate,
greenish cream-color; stamens 100-188, occasionally more or fewer;
the outer not long-appendaged
; carpels 25-35, completely united by their sides;
styles slender with enlarged red club-shaped tips; fruit subspherical, about 4 cm.
in diameter.
Lagoons and canals, northern districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe: Martinique; Tobago; Trinidad; South America.
Recorded bv
Bello
as
Nymphaea Rudgeana Meyer.
5. Castalia Rudgeana (G.
F. W. Meyer) Britton & Wilson.
Nymphaea Rudgeana G.
F. W. Meyer. Prim.
Fl. Esseq. 198.
1818.
Leaves elliptic to suborbicular,
1.5-30 cm. or more broad, coarsely sinuate-
dentate, with unequal distant
teeth,
often somewhat reddish-brown beneath;
the petioles without a ring of hairs at the top.
Flowers nocturnal, 6.5-15 cm.
in diameter; sepals ovate-oblong, acute or obtuse; petals 12-32, elliptic to oblong-
lanceolate,
greenish
yellow; stamens
40-80,
the
outer not long-appendaged;
carpels 11-24, united by their sides; styles slender with enlarged, club-shaped tips;
fruit depres,sed-globose, truncate.
Porto Rico (according to Conard)
:—Cuba; Jamaica; Martinique; Trinidad; South
America.
6. Castalia Jamesoniana (Planch.) Britton & Wilson.
Nymphaea Jamesoniana Planch. Revue Hort. IV. 2: 66.
1853.
Leuconymphaea Jamesoniana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI.
11.
1891.
Leaves ovate-cordate,
entire, the under surface marked with dark purple,
forked and branching lines.
Flowers 8-10.5 cm. wide; sepals lanceolate-ovate,
green, marked from base to apex with long narrow dark crimson lines; petals 16,
oblong, those of the outer whorls obtuse, of the inner whorl acute
; stamens 52-65,
the outer not long-appendaged; carpels about 30, united by their sides; styles
slender, with club-shaped tips.
Ditches, Hatillo near Anasco, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola; Ecuador.
Castalia zanzibarensis
(Casp.)
Britton, Zanzibar
Water-lily,
grown
by Mr. Fairchild at Louisenho,i,
St. Thomas, has ovate-orbicular, sinuate leaves
with a deep basal sinus, and long-peduncled, erect, bright blue flowers.
Family 4.
RANUNCULACEAE Jus&.
Crowfoot Family.
Annual or perennial herbs,
or shrubby climbers.
Leaves alternate or
opposite, simple or compound, frequently dissected, their stalks dilated at
the
base,
occasionally with
stipule-like
appendages.
Flowers
regular
or
irregular.
Sepals 3-15, generally caducous, often petal-like.
Petals about
as many as the sepals, occasionally more or wanting.
Stamens indefinite,
rarely few.
Carpels numerous, or rarely solitary,
1-celled, 1-many-ovuled.
Ovules anatropous.
Seed with endosperm.
About 35 genera and 1200 spe-
cies,
distributed throughout the world, not abundant in the tropics.
306
BRUNELLIACEAE
1. CLEMATIS L. Sp. PI. 543.
1753.
Perennial
vines, more or
less woody.
Leaves opposite,
ternately or
piii-
nately compound or simple.
Flowers cymose-paniculate, dioecious or polygauo-
dioecious.
Sepals 4 or 5, valvate in the bud, petaloid.
Petals none.
Stammis
numerous, spreading.
Pistils several.
Achenes 1-seeded, with silky or plumose
styles.
[Greek name for some climbing plant.]
About 25 species of wide geo-
graphic distribution.
Type species: Clematis Vitalba L.
1. Clematis dioica L. Syst. ed.
10, 1084.
1759.
Clematis dominica Lam. Encycl. 2: 45.
1786.
Clematis dioica antillensis Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
13': 147.
1864.
Clematis dioica normalis Kuntze, Verb. Bot. Ver. Brand. 26: 102.
1885.
Clematis dioica americana Kuntze, loc.
cit. 103.
1885.
Clematitis virginiana dioica Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
1: 2.
1891.
A rather slender vine, often high-climbing, the stems and foliage more or less
densely pubescent or glabrous.
Leaves trifoliolate or the uppermost sometimes
simple or 3-lobed, the
leaflets various, ovate to oval or suborbicular, 3-10 cm.
long, 2-7 cm.
broad, acute or acuminate at the apex, often rounded and oc-
casionally subcordate at the base, 3-6-nerved, usually long-petioluled, the margin
eatire or with few coarse teeth on each side; flowers greenish-white; sepals oblong
or elliptic, 6-9 mm. long, 2.5-3.5 mm. broad, often densely pubescent; pedicels
slender, pubescent; achenes about 4 mm. long, the plumose style 3-6 cm. long.
Thickets along streams and on hillsides, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique; Tobago ; continental tropical America.
Cabellos
DE ANGEL.
Family 5.
BRUNELLIACEAE.
Brunellia Family.
Trees with opposite or whorled, simple or compound leaves.
Stipules
small, deciduous.
Flowers small, dioecious or polygamous, in corymbiform
axillary and
terminal
panicles.
Calyx
4-
or
5-parted,
valvate.
Corolla
none.
Disk
8-
or
10-lobed,
adnate
to
the
calyx.
Staminate
flowers:
stamens 8
or
10,
inserted
at the base
of the
disk;
ovaries rudimentary.
Pistillate flowers: carpels 4 or 5, distinct, 1-celled; styles subulate; ovules 2,
collateral.
Follicles 4 or
5, sometimes fewer by abortion, 2-valved,
1- or
2-seeded.
Seeds with fleshy endosperm.
Cotyledons
flat.
Only the
fol-
lowing genus.
1. BRUNELLIA R. & P.
Fl. Per. Prodr. 71.
1794.
Characters of the family.
About 10 species, natives of tropical America.
[Commemorates Gabriele Brunelli, 1728-1797, professor of botany at Bologna.
Type species: Brunellia aculeata R. & P.
1. Brunellia comocladifolia H. & B.
PI. Equin.
1: 211.
1808.
A tree, sometimes 20 m. high, the young branches, petioles and rachis rusty-
pubescent,
the bark smooth,
gray.
Leaves odd-pinnate, occasionally equally
pinnate through the suppression of the terminal leaflet, 1.5-4 dm. long; leaflets
11-23,
oblong-lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, 4.5-15 cm.
long, 2.2-6 cm.
broad,
usually acuminate
at the apex, rounded and inequilateral
at the
base,
short-
petioluled
; panicle 5.5-8 cm. long, its branches rusty-pubescent
; flowers numerous
calyx 5-cleft, rusty-pubescent, the lobes ovate, about 2.5 mm. long; follicles 3-3.5
ram. long; seeds 2.5 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. broad.
Mountain
forests,
western
districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola;
Mexico;
South America.
[Zanthoxylum acuminatum
of
Stahl.]
Palo bobo.
West
Indian Sumac.
MENISPERMACEAE
307
Family 6.
MENISPERMACEAE DC.
MooNSEED Family.
Vines, shrubs or trees, with alternate estipulate leaves, and small dioe-
cious, panicled, racemose or cymose flowers.
Sepals 4-12, or fewer.
Petals 6,
imbricated in 2 rows, sometimes fewer, or none.
Stamens about the same
number as the petals or fewer.
Carpels 1-3
in the West Indian genera;
ovule
solitary;
styles
commonly
recurved.
Fruit
drupaceous.
Embryo
long, curved.
About 55 genera and 150 species, mainly of tropical distri-
bution, a few extending into the temperate zones.
Slender vines; pistillate flowers with a rudimentary perianth of 1 sepal,
1 petal and a single carpel.
1.
Cissampelos.
Woodv vines or trees; pistillate flowers with 6 sepals in two series, 6
petals and 3 carpels.
2. Hyperbaena.
1. CISSAMPELOS L. Sp. PI.
10.31.
17.53.
Slender
vines,
often
high-climbing,
the
leaves
broad,
mostly
entire and
cordate, palmately veined, the staminate flowers cymose-paniculate, the pistillate
clusters racemose, bracted.
Staminate flowers with 4 sepals,
the
petals united
below into a cup, the 2-4 anthers sessile on the peltate top of the stamen-column.
Pistillate flowers with
a rudimentary scale-like perianth of
1 sepal and
1 petal
and a single carpel with a 3-cleft or 3-toothed style.
Drupe subglobose, convex;
stone compressed, tubercled on the back, concave on both sides.
[Greek, ivy-
grape, j
Perhaps
2.5
species,
of
tropical America and
tropical and
southern,
Africa.
Type species: Cissampelos Pareira L.
1. Cissampelos Pareira L. Sp. PI. 1031.
1753.
Cissampelos Caapeba L. Sp. PI. 1032.
1753.
Cissampelos microcarpa DC. Syst.
1: 534.
1818.
Cissampelos Pareira Caapeba Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 11.
1859.
A vine, 3—5 m. long or longer, the young branches, inflorescence and
leaves'-
tomentose
or
glabrous.
Leaves
suborbictilar
or
broadly
ovate,
3. .5-10 cm.
broad, rounded, acute or emarginate and u.sually mucronate at the apex, cordate-
or subtruncate at the base and often peltate, the petioles 2-8 cm. long; stamiiiate
inflorescence 7 cm. long or less; sepals 1-1.4 mm. long, the corolla 1-1.5 mm. in
diameter; racemes of pistillate flowers 4-12 cm. long, the bracts orbicular, 6-18
mm.
broad;
pedicels
slender;
sepal
1-1.4 mm.
long,
the
petal
0.5-0.8 mm..
long, 1-1.5 mm. broad; drupe subglobose, 3.5—4.5 mm. in diameter.
Woodlands and
tliickets,
Porto
Rico,
ascending
to
liigher
elevations.
Vieques;
Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guade-
loupe to Trinidad; Margarita;
continental tropical America and Old World
tropics.
Paeier.\.
Bejuco de moxa.
Velvet-le.\f.
2. HYPERBAENA Miers, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist.
II. 7: 44.
(Hyponym)
1851.
Benth.
Journ.
Linn.
Soc.
5:
Suppl.
2,
47,
50.
1861.
Woody vines, shrubs or sometimes trees, with leathery leaves.
Staminate
flowers cymose-paniculate.
Pistillate flowers racemose.
Sepals
6,
in 2
series,
the inner much larger than the otiter.
Petals 6, shorter than the sepals.
Stamens
6, free in the staminate flowers.
Staminodes 6 in the pistillate flowers.
Carpels
free, with hook-like
styles.
Fruit a drupe.
Endosperm wanting; cotyledons
thick,
semi-cylindric
;
radicle
short.
[From
the Greek
to mount
or
climb.]
About 10 species, natives of the West Indies, Central and South America.
Type
species: Hyperbaeyia nemoralis Miers.
Leavesoblong to lanceolate; drupe subglobose, 2-2.7 cm. in diameter.
1. H. laurifolia.
Leaves elliptic to oval or ovate; drupe obovoid, about 1.4-1.8 cm.
long, 1-1.3 cm. in diameter.
2. H. domingensis.
308
MAGNOLIACEAE
1. Hyperbaena laurifolia (Poir.) Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 304.
1899.
Cisscnnpelos laurifolius Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 5: 11.
1804.
Anelasma laurifolia Miers, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. III. 14: 260.
1864.
Cocculvs laurifolia Eggers, Vldensk. Meddel. 1889: 14.
1890.
Not C. lauri-
folia DC. 1818.
A woody vine, 5 m. or more long, or shrub-like.
Leaves oblong to lanceolate,
7-19 cm. long, 2.3-6 cm. broad, acute or acuminate at the apex, rounded or acute
at the base, glabrous and finely reticulate-veined on both surfaces,
the petioles
1.2-2 cm. long; inflorescence equalling or longer or shorter than the petioles, the
branches ferruginous-tomentellous
; sepals about
1 mm. long; drupe subglobose,
laterally flattened, oblique, 2-2.7 cm. in diameter.
Woodlands on limestone
hills, northern
districts
of Porto Rico;
St. Thomas:
Jamaica; Montserrat.
2. Hyperbaena domingensis (DC.) Benth. Journ. Linn.
Soc.
5: Suppl.
2,
50.
1861.
Cocculus domingensis DC. Syst.
1: 528.
1818.
Pachygone domingensis Eichl. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 13': 197.
1864.
Hyperbaena retinervis Miers, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. III. 19: 95.
1867.
A woody vine, recorded as sometimes a small tree.
Leaves elliptic, oval or
ovate, 4-12 cm. long, 2.5-8 cm. broad, acute, acuminate or obtuse at the apex,
rounded and sometimes subcordate at the base, finely reticulate-veined on both
surfaces, gljvbrous or slightly pubescent on the veins beneath, the petioles l.,'>-4.5
cm. long; inflorescence 5-15 cm. long, the branches rufescent-tomentose; sepals
about 1.5 mm. long; drupe obovoid,
1.4-1.8 cm. long, 1-1.2 cm. in diameter.
Forests Mt
Galso near Adjuntas and Loma la Mina,
Sierra de Naguabo, Porto
Rico;
St.
Thomas:—Cuba;
Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
Saba;
St.
Eustatius;
Guadeloupe;
Dominica; Martinique; Guiana; Brazil.
Family 7.
MAGNOLIACEAE J. St. Hil.
Magnolia Family.
Trees or shrubs with alternate, entire or rarely lobed leaves, large showy
flowers and bitter aromatic bark.
Sepals and petals arranged in 3 or more
series of
3's, hypogynous, deciduous.
Stamens usually numerous; anthers
adnate.
Carpels many, separate or coherent, borne on the surface of the
elongated
receptacle,
ripening
into an
aggregate
fruit composed
of
1-2-
seeded dry or fleshy follicles or achenes.
Seeds
1 or 2 in each carpel, endo-
sperm fleshy; embryo very small.
About 10 genera and 75 species, of wide
geographic distribution.
1. MAGNOLIA L. Sp. PI. 535.
1753.
Deciduous or evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves large, chartaceous or coriaceous,
entire.
Flowers perfect, fragrant or ill-scented, solitary at the ends of branches.
Sepals 3, spreading or reflexed.
Petals 6-12.
Anthers linear, introrse.
Carpels
coherent, forming a fleshy and often rather woody cone-like fruit, opening on the
back.
Seeds 1 or 2, fleshy, at length pendulous on a thread.
[In honor of Pierre
Magnol, 1638-1715, professor of botany at Montpelier.]
A genus of about 25
species, natives of eastern North America, the West
Indies, Mexico, eastern
Asia and the Himalayas.
Type species: Magnolia virginiana L.
leaves ovate-elliptic, acute or acuminate.
.
1-
A/, splendens.
lSI oval-orbicular to obovate, abruptly short-acummate.
2. M. porioncensts.
ANNONACEAE
309
1. Magnolia splendens Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 306.
1899.
A forest tree, 15-30 m. tall, the trunk up to nearly 1 m. in diameter, the young
branches appressed-pilose or glabrous.
Leaves ovate or ovate-elliptic, 10-18 cm.
long, 4. .5-9 cm. broad, acute or acuminate at the apex, round or acutish at the
base, glabrous above, pilose beneath with appressed hairs or glabrous, reticulate-
veined on both surfaces, coriaceous; petioles grooved above, 1.8-3 cm. long; sepals
obovate-oblong or obovate, 3-3.5 cm. long,
1.5-2.5 cm. broad; petals obovate,
4-4.5 cm. long, 3 cm. broad; cone of fruit 3-3.5 cm. long, 2 cm. thick; seeds tri-
angular, G.5-7 mm. long.
Forests of the eastern moimtams of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
The beautiful brown
wood
is hard,
heavy,
strong and
durable,
valued
for furnitm-e and in
construction.
Sabixo.
Laurel Sabixo.
2. Magnolia portoricensis Bello, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat.
10: 233.
1881.
A
forest tree with glabrous branches.
Leaves broadly oval or somewhat
obovate,
7.5—15
cm.
long,
5.5-10.5
cm.
broad,
coriaceotis,
abruptly
short-
acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base, glabrous and reticulate-veined on
both surfaces; petioles 1.5-2.5 cm. long; sepals concave, greenish; petals ovate,
6 cm. long, obtuse; cone of fruit 3.5 cm. long, 2.2 cm. thick.
Forests of the western districts of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
jAQtJiLL.\.
Magnolia grandiflora L., of the southeastern United States, is planted for
ornament in Porto Rico; it was erroneously listed by Stahl as Talauma Plumieri.
Its leaves are leathery, brown-hairy beneath,
glabrous above,
its large white
flowers fragrant, the petals 7-10 cm. long, the head of fruit up to 12 cm. long.
Family 8.
ANNONACEAE DC.
Custard-apple Family.
Trees or shrubs, often aromatic, with alternate evergreen or deciduous
leaves.
Inflorescence
terminal,
axillary
or
opposite
the
leaves.
Flowers
perfect
or
occasionally monoecious
or
dioecious.
Calyx
of
3
(rarely
2)
distinct or united sepals.
Corolla of 6 distinct petals, in 2 series, the three
inner sometimes reduced to scales or obsolete, or petals united at the base.
Stamens usually numerous.
Filaments short.
Anthers extrorse.
Carpels
few or numerous, separate or coherent, mainly fleshy in fruit.
Seeds large.
Embryo minute; endosperm copious wrinkled.
About 46 genera and over
650 species, mostly natives of the tropics, a few in the temperate zones.
Carpels free.
Connective produced beyond the anthers into a long, tapering append-
age.
1-
Oxandra.
Connective truncate.
2.
Cananga.
Carpels imited into a single frint.
Petals distinct, concave or flat, not winged.
3. Annona.
Petals united at the base, the outer produced into a wing.
4.
RoUinia.
1. OXANDRA A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cub. IC: 20.
1845.
Trees or shrubs, with strong, tough, fine-grained wood.
Flowers solitary or
clustered,
axillary or
lateral.
Calyx 3-parted.
Petals
6, imbricate, the inner
slightly shorter than the outer.
Stamens numerous,
the connective produced
above the extrorse anthers into a long tapering appendage.
Receptacle convex.
Carpels
several,
distinct.
Ovule
solitary,
erect.
Berries
ellipsoid,
stalked
or
subsessile.
[Greek,
referring
to the sharp pointed
connective.]
Two
species,
310
ANNONACEAE
natives of the West
Indies, known as Haya and Lancewood.
Type species
Uvaria laurifolia Sw.
Leaves
elliptic-lanceolate,
3.5-9.5
cm.
long;
outer
petals
oval
or
obovate-oval, 4-5 mm. long; berries subsessile.
1.
O. lanceolata^
Leaves oblong-elliptic, 8-19 cm. long; outer petals oblong or oblong-
elliptic, 6-7 mm. long; berries long-stalked.
2.
O. laurifolia^
1. Oxandra lanceolata (Sw.)
Baill. Adansonia 8: 168.
1868.
Uvaria lanceolata Sw. Prodr. 87.
1788.
Uvaria virga a Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 999.
1800.
Guatteria virgata Dunal. Anon. 131.
1817.
Oxandra virgata A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cub. 10: 20.
184.5.
Bocagea virgata Benth. & Hook.
; Sauv. Anales Acad. Habana 5: 197.
1808.
A tree, occasionally attaining a height of 15 m., with slender grayish-brown
branches.
Leaves lanceolate to
elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-9.5 cm.
long,
1.8-4 cm. broad, usually obtusely acuminate at the apex, acute or rounded at the
base, glabrous, pellucid-dotted, the petioles 1—2 mm. long; calyx-lobes semi-oval
or semi-orbicular; outer petals oval or obovate-oval, 4-5 mm. long; berries ellip-
soid, 11-12.5 mm. long, 7-9 mm. broad, subsessile.
Woods and thickets near Quebradillas and Cabo Rojo, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispanjola.
Recorded by Bello as Oxandra
laurifolia A.
Rich.
The yellow wood
is
light, durable and elastic, Vcilued for rods, spars and shafts and for a variety of smaller
objects.
2. Oxandra laurifolia (Sw.) A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cub. 10: 20.
1845.
Uvaria laurifolia Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 1001.
1800.
Guatteria laurifolia Dunal, Anon. 132.
1817.
Bocagea laurifolia Benth. & Hook.
; Sauv. Anales Acad. Habana 5: 197.
1868.
Xylopia acuminata DC. Prodr.
1: 93, in part.
1824.
Not Dunal.
Uvaria dodecandra Sesse & Mog. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 133.
1894.
A forest tree, sometimes 25 m. tall, with a trunk diameter of 4 dm. or more.
Leaves oblong-elliptic, 8-19 cm. long, 2. .5-5.5 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex,
acute or somewhat rounded at the base, villous beneath when young, glabrous
in
age,
obscurely
pellucid-dotted,
the
petioles rather
stout,
2.5-3 mm.
long;
calyx-lobes
semi-oval,
ciliate;
outer
petals oblong
or
oblong-elliptic,
6-7 mm.
long; obtuse; berries ellipsoid, 1.5-17 mm. long, 8-10.5 mm. broad, long-stalked.
Mountain woodlands, Porto Rico; St. Croix (according to West):—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola; Giiadeloupe.
Recorded by Bello as Anaxagorea acuminata
St. Hh.
The
wood is similar to that of tlie preceding species.
2. CANANGA Aubl.
PI. Guian. 1: 607.
1775.
[Guatteria R. & P.
(Fl. Per. Prodr.
85. hyponym, 1794)
Syst. Veg.
145.
1798.]
Trees or shrubs with coriaceous or subcoriaceous leaves.
Peduncles usually
axillary, 1-flowered.
Calyx 3-parted.
Petals 6, flat, in 2-series, equal or nearly
so.
Stamens
numerous;
connective
truncate.
Carpels
numerous,
distinct.
Ovules solitary in each carpel, erect.
Berries ellipsoid, sessile or stalked.
[Guiana
name.]
Some 50 species, natives of tropical and
subtropical America.
Type
species: Cananga Ouregou Aubl.
Leaves 4-8 cm. long, 1.7-3 cm. broad, rounded or acute at the apex.
1.
C. Blainii.
Leaves 8-22 cm. long, 3-7 cm. broad, long-acuminate at the apex.
2.
C. caribaea^
ANNONACEAE
311
1. Cananga Blainii (Griseb.) Britton.
Asimina Blainii Griseb. Cat.
PI. Cub. 3.
1866.
Uvaria viridiflora Sesse & MoQ.
Fl. Mex. ed.
2,
133.
1894.
Not R.
.fe P.
Guatleria Blainii Urban, Symb. Ant.
4: 239.
1905.
A forest tree, 10-20 m. tall.
Leaves coriaceous, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-
elliptic or oblong-obovate, 4-8 cm. long, 1.7-3 cm. broad, rounded or acute at tlie
apex, acute at tlie base, reticulate-veined, glabrous, the petioles 3-5 mm. long;
pedicels longer than the peduncles; calyx-lobes triangular or triangular-ovate, 5
mm. long; petals coriaceous, oblong-obovate or obovate, 10-14 mm. long, 5-7
mm. broad, obtuse, tomentose; berry ellipsoid, 10-13 mm. long, 6-7 mm. broad,
subsessile or short-stipitate.
Forests and wooded valleys, Porto Rico:— Cuba; Hispaiiiola. Recorded by Bello as
Maba inconstans Griseb.
Haya minga.
Negralora.
2. Cananga caribaea (Urban) Britton.
Guatteria Ouregou Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I.
7. 1859.
Not Dunal, 1817.
Guatteria caribaea Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 240.
1905.
A tree, 5-15 m. tall, the young twigs brown, appressed-puberulent.
Leaves
coriaceous, elliptic-oblong to elliptic-ovate, 8-22 cm. long, 3-7 cm. broad, long-
acuminate at the apex, obtuse or acutish at the base, reticulate-veined, glabrous
above, often somev.hat pubescent beneath with scattered appressed
hairs, the
midvein minutely pustulate;
petioles 4-7 mm.
long; peduncle 3-4 mm.
long,
bracted, jointed with the long slender pedicel and less than half its length; calyx-
lobes triangular, 3-4 mm.
long, acuminate; petals coriaceous,
rigid, oblong or
elliptic-oblong, 10-15 mm. long, 3.5-5.5 mm. broad, obtuse, tomentose; berry
oblong-cylindric, 17-20 mm. long, 6-7 mm. thick, short-stipitate.
Forests in the vicinitv of Fajardo and
in the Sierra de Luquillo, Porto Rico;
St.
Thomas
(according
to
Grisebach):—Guadeloupe;
Dominica;
Martinique;
Grenada.
Recorded by Bello as
? Oxandra virgata A. Rich.
Haya blanca.
3. ANNONA L. Sp. PI. 536.
1753.
Trees or shrubs, with coriaceous or chartaceous leaves.
Flowers perfect,
solitary or
in
clusters.
Calyx 3-parted.
Petals
6,
in two
series,
valvate
or
slightly imbricate, the inner series sometimes reduced to small scales or even
wanting.
Stamens numerous, crowded on the receptacle,
the fleshy filament
bearing a pair of linear, parallel pollen-sacs on its back.
Carpels numerous, often
cohering
; ovule solitary, erect.
Fruit large, formed of the united carpels.
[From
Hanon, an aboriginal name for the tree
in tropical America, probably Santo
Domingo.]
Fifty
species
or
more,
of
tropical and
subtropical
distribution.
Type species: Annona muricata L.
Flowers subglobose; petals 6, the outer broadly ovate.
Leaves with pockets in the axils of the lateral veins; uuier petals
imbricate; fruit armed with fleshy spinules.
Fruit with long, curved spinules, edible.
1. A. muricata.
Fruit ^ith small, straight spinules, not edible.
.
2. A. montana.
Leaves
without
pockets in the
axils
of
the
lateral veins;
inner
petals valvate; fruit smooth.
3. A. glabra.
Flowers elongate; petals 3 only, or the 3 inner ones scale-like and in-
conspicuous.
,
.
,
,
•
1
Fruit composed of numerous, loosely cohering carpels wmch are
roimded on the back; pulp custard-like.
,,
_.,
A. A. squamosa.
Fruit smooth or nearly so, its surface areolate; pulp tallow-hke.
5. A. reticulata.
1. Annona muricata L. Sp. PI. 536.
1753.
Anona muricata borinquensis Morales, Fl. Arb. Cub. 60.
1887.
? Anona portoricensis Maza, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 23: 42.
1894.
A tree, 4-10 m. high, with grayish or grayish-brown slender twigs.
Leaves
obovate-oblong,
occasionally
elliptic-oblong, 8-15 cm.
long,
3 5-7 cm.
broad,
312
ANNONACEAE
usually short-acuminate at the apex, acute or somewhat rounded at the base,
green and lustrous above, more or less rusty and with pockets in the axils of the
lateral veins beneath, the petioles 4-14 mm. long; flowers borne on rather stout
peduncles; calyx-lobes triangular,
acute; petals cream-color,
thick and
fleshy,
concave,, the outer broadly ovate, valvate, 2.8-4 cm. long, 2-3 cm. broad, cordate
at the base, acuminate at the apex, the inner somewhat smaller and thinner,
short-clawed, imbricate; fruit ovoid, ellipsoid or somewhat heart-shaped,
1.5-20
cm. long, 9-12 cm. broad, the skin dark green, ill-smelling, areolate, each areole
bearing a solitary fleshy curved spinule, the pulp white and
juicy, pleasantly
subacid; seeds brown, oblong-elliptic, 1.4-1.7 cm. long, 9-12 mm. broad.
Woods, thickets and hillsides, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Jan; St
Croix-
Virgin Gorda; Tortola:—widely cultivated for
its fruit in tropical regions.
The fruit
yields a
delicious
drink;
tlie wood
is
soft,
light,
brown,
not
durable.
Guanabana
Sour Sop.
2. Annona montana Macf.
Fl. Jam.
1:
7.
1837.
A small tree, closely related to the preceding species.
Leaves obovate-oblong,
7-18 cm. long,
3. 7-7. .5 cm. broad, often abruptly short-acuminate at the apex,
acute or rounded at the base
; flowers on stout peduncles
; calyx-lobes triangular,
acute; petals green, thick and fleshy, the outer broadly ovate, valvate, 3.5-4.7
cm.
long, 2.7-3.2 cm. broad, cordate; inner petals broadly obovate or elliptic,
imbricate, 2.5-3 cm. long, 2-2.4 cm. broad, usually rounded at the apex, nar-
rowed at the base into a claw; fruit broadly ovoid or subglobose, 6-10 cm. in
diameter, occasionally larger, the skin dark green, areolate, bearing small fleshy
straight spinules, the pulp yeljowish when ripe, not edible; seeds light brown or
tan-colored, 2-2.3 cm. long, 1-1.2 cm. broad.
Mountain
woodlands
and
shaded
ravines,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Croix:—Cuba
and
Jamaica to Trinidad
; Central and South America.
Guanabana cimmabona
Moun-
tain or Wild Sour Sop.
3. Annona glabra L. Sp. PI. 537.
1753.
Annojia palustris L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 757.
1762.
Anona laurifolia Dunal, Anon. 65.
1817.
A tree, 5-10 m. high, or occasionally up to 14 m. with a trunk diameter of
2-4 dm., the bark reddish-brown.
Leaves oblong-elliptic to ovate, 6-18 cm. long,
acute or short-acuminate, usually rounded at the base, the petioles 0.7-2.5 cm.
long; flowers nodding on rather stout peduncles; calyx-lobes triangular, 8-11 mm.
broad, acute; petals valvate, thick and fleshy, concave, the outer broadly ovate,
2.2-3.4 cm. long, cream-colored or greenish-yellow, sometimes deep red at the
base within, the inner ovate, 0.8-2.5 cm. long, dirty white on the back, the inner
surface blood red at the base; fruit ovoid, 6-12 cm. long, 5-8 cm. thick, smooth,
faintly areolate, rounded at the top, impressed at the base, yellow with brown
blotches when fully ripe, the pulp slightly aromatic, insipid; seeds brown, about
1.5 cm. long.
Coastal swamps,
borders
of marshes and banks
of streams,
Porto
Rico,
at low
elevations; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
St. Croix; Virgin Gorda; Tortola;—Florida;
West Indies; Panama; South America; west coast of Africa; Galapagos Islands.
The
brownish wood is soft, weak and not durable; it is very light In weight, the specific gravity
only about 0.5; it is used for floats, rafts and stoppers.
Cayur.
Corazon cimarron.
Cork Wood.
Alligator Apple.
Pond Apple. Monkey Apple.
Mangrove Annona.
Bunya.
Dog Apple.
4. Annona squamosa L. Sp. PI. 537.
1753.
Anona cinerea Dunal, Anon. 71.
1817.
A
rather
small
tree,
occasionally
10 m.
high,
the young
twigs
densely
pubescent.
Leaves elliptic-lanceolate to oblong, 6-12 cm. long, 3-4.5 cm. broad,
sometimes larger, pubescent, at least when young, sometimes glabrous when old,
acute or short-acuminate at the apex, narrowed or occasionally rounded at the
ANNONACEAE
313
base, minutely punctate, the petioles 5-12 mm. long; flowers several in a cluster,
or occasionally solitary; calyx-lobes triangular, acute, pubescent,
1.5 mm. long;
outer petals linear-oblong, 1.6-2.5 cm. long, 5-7 mm. wide, pubescent-keeled on
the inside and with a purple excavation at the base
; inner petals minute, ovate or
obovate; fruit subglobose or ovoid, 5-9 cm. in diameter, composed of numerous
loosely cohering carpels which are rounded on the back, greenish-yellow when
ripe and covered with a glaucous bloom, the sweet pulp white; seeds oblong or
oblong-elliptic, 1-1.5 cm. long, 6.5-9 mm. broad.
Thickets, roadsides and
valleys, Porto Bico; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
St.
Croix; Virgin Gorda; Tortola:—West Indies; widely cultivated for its fruit in all tropical
regions.
The wood
is brownish,
weak,
soft and
light.
Anon.
Sweet Sop.
Sugar
Apple.
5. Annona reticulata L. Sp. Pi. 537.
1753.
An7iona longifolia Sessg & Mog. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 134.
1894.
Not Aubl. 1775.
A small
tree, sometimes 8 or 9 m. tall, the grayish bark shallowly grooved,
the young twigs fulvous-pubescent.
Leaves oblong to lanceolate, 9-21 cm. long,
acute or acuminate at the apex, acute or rounded at the base, puberulent when
young, glabrous when old, the petioles 6-18 mm. long; flowers several in a cluster;
peduncles nodding; calyx-lobes triangular, acute; outer petals fleshy, oblong, 2-3
cm. long, 4-6.5 mm. broad, olive-green or yellowish, keeled on the inside and
usually purplish, with a dark purple blotch at the base; inner petals minute,
ovate; fruit subglobose, 8-12 cm. in diameter, smooth, reticulate-areolate, usually
reddish-brown when ripe, the pulp yellowish; seeds oblong, brown, shining.
Roadsides,
woods,
hillsides and pasture
lands,
Porto
Rico; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; St. Croix:—West Indies; widely cultivated for its fruit In tropical regions.
The
brownish wood
is light and weak.
Corazon.
Custard Apple.
Bullock's Heart.
Annona involucrata Baill.
Adansonia 8: 265.
1868.
Anonu Prestoei Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. PI. 26:
pi. 2519, 2520.
1897.
The Porto Rican record for this species, a native of the mountains of Mexico,
Guatemala,
Salvador, Trinidad and possibly Venezuela,
is based wholly on a
drawing of a tree in western
Porto Rico.
It
is probable that the illustration
was made from a cultivated plant.
Annona diversifolia Safford, Guatemalan, sent to the
St. Croix Agricul-
tural Experiment Station from Washington in 1922, was growing well there in
1923.
Annona cherimolia Mill., Cherimoya, native of the South American Andes,
occasionally planted
for
its
fruit
in West
Indian gardens and naturalized
in
Jamaica, was recorded by Krebs as found in St. Thomas.
4. ROLLINIA St. Hil.
Fl. Bras. Merid.
1: 28.
1825.
Trees or shrubs, the leaves and fruits resembling those of species of Annona.
Flowers perfect.
Calyx 3-parted.
Petals united at the base, the three outer
produced into wings or spiu's, in some species horizontal, in others curved upward
and inward, or outward and downward, the three inner reduced to scales, alter-
nating with the outer, or obsolete.
Stamens numerous, crowded on the recep-
tacle.
Carpels numerous,
cohering; ovule
solitary,
erect.
Fruit
often
large.
[Named in honor of Charles Rollin, a French historian.]
About 35 species, natives
of tropical America.
Type species. Roliinia longifolia St. Hil.
314
HERNANDIACEAE
1. Rollinia mucosa (Jacq.) Baill. Adansonia 8: 268.
1868.
Annona mucosa Jacq. Obs.
1: 16.
1764.
Rollinia Sieberi A. DC. Mem. Soc. Phy.s. Hist. Nat. Geneve 5: 199.
1832.
Annona biflora Sesse & Moq. F1. Mex. ed. 2, 133.
1894.
A small
tree, with slender brown pubescent twigs.
Leaves oblong-elliptic
to elliptic, 10-21 cm. long, acuminate at the apex, acute or rounded at the base,
pubescent above and pilose beneath when young, in age glabrate above, pilose
beneath with appressed rufous
hairs;
petioles 6-11 mm.
long; peduncle often
opposite a leaf, 1-flowered, 1.5-4 cm. long, pubescent with appressed hairs and
bearing 2 ovate bracteoles, one below the middle, the other at the base; calyx-
lobes
triangular,
acute
or acuminate;
corolla densely
fulvous-tomentose,
the
outer petals obovate, 1.5-2.2 cm. long, 6-12 mm. broad; fruit subglobose, 7 cm.
or more in diameter, areolate, each areole produced into a thick angled spinule;
pulp white, mucilaginous, sweet, edible; seeds brown, obovate, 15-20 mm. long,
10-13 mm. broad.
Forests near Adjimtas and
Quebradillas:—Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
St. Vincent; Trinidad; Mexico.
Recorded by Bello as Anona dolabripetala DC.
The
yeUowish wood is hard, strong and heavy.
Rollinia multiflora
Splitg., a Guiana species, was erroneously recorded as
Porto Rican by Grosourdy and by Cook and Collins."
Rollinia longiflora A. St. Hil., a Brazilian species, was erroneously recorded
as Porto Rican by Cook and Collins.
Canangium odoratum
(Lam.)
King,
Ylang-Ylang,
East
Indian,
is
commonly planted in Porto Rico and occasionally in the Virgin Islands.
It is
a tall, rather quick-growing tree, up to 15 m. high, the bark russet, with sweet
scented flowers.
[Uvaria odorata Lam.; Cananga odorata Hook.
f. & Thoms.]
Family 9.
HERNANDIACEAE Diimort.
Hernandia Family.
Shrubs or forest trees, the alternate leaves 3-7-nerved a little above the
base, pinnately nerved above.
Inflorescence long-stalked, terminal or in the
axils of the upper leaves, corymbose or panicled.
Perianth-segments usually
in
3-5-parted
whorls.
Stamens
opposite
the
outer
segments.
Anthers
2-celled.
Staminodes more or less glandular, or wanting.
Ovary inferior,
1-celled; ovule solitary, pendulous.
Fruit dry.
Seed without endosperm.
Embryo straight.
Cotyledons large, sometimes lobed.
About 4 genera and
35 species, natives of the tropics.
1. HERNANDIA [Plum.] L. Sp. PI. 981.
1753.
Evergreen
trees with
long-petioled
entire,
often
peltate
leaves.
Flowers
monoecious,
small,
in
loose corymb-like cymes,
the branches terminated by
usually 3-flowered cymules each surrounded by an involucre of 4 or 5 bracts, the
central flower pistillate, sessile, the lateral ones staminate and stalked.
Pistillate
flower surrounded at the base by a cup-like involucel; perianth-segments 8 or
10; staminodes 4 or
5; ovary
inferior,
1-ovuled;
style
short; stigma
dilated.
Staminate flowers with 6 or 8 perianth-segments; stamens 3 or 4; staminodes twice
as many as the stamens and attached one on each side at the base of each filament,
or as many and alternate, or wanting.
Fruit inclosed in the much enlarged in-
volucel.
Seed subglobose or ovoid; testa thick, hard, ridged.
Cotyledons lobed.
LAURACEAE
315
(In honor of Francisco Hernandez, 1530-1578, physician to Philip II of Spain;
traveled in the West Indies and Mexico.]
About 14 species of wide geographic
distribution in the tropics.
Type species: Hemandia sonora L.
1. Hemandia sonora L. Sp. PI. 981.
17.53.
A tree, 10-25 m. tall.
Leaves oblong-ovate to oval-ovate, 12-25 cm. long,
7-16 cm.
broad,
occasionally
larger,
usually
peltate,
or cordate
at
the
base,
acute to acuminate at the apex
; inflorescence 12-20 cm. long, the branches grayish-
tomentulose; involucral bracts oblong, .5-7 mm. long, 2.5-3.8 mm. broad, tomen-
tulose;
flowers
yellowish,
the
perianth-segments 5-7 mm.
long,
1.5-2.8 mm.
broad, tomentulose;
fruit ovoid or
ellipsoid, 2.5-3.3 cm.
long,
1.8-2.7 cm. in
diameter.
Forests in wet or dry districts. Porto Rico:—Cuba; Montserrat to Trinidad; con-
tinental tropical America.
Recorded by Sesse & Mocino as Hemandia peltata.
The
nearly white wood is light and soft.
Mago.
Family 10.
LAURACEAE Lindl.
Laurel Family.
Aromatic trees or shrubs, witli alternate or opposite leaves, the blades
thick,
entire
or
lobed,
often
minutely
pellucid
dotted.
Flowers
small,
perfect, polygamous,
dioecious or monoecious,
yellow, white
or
greenish,
in panicles, corymbs, racemes or umbels.
Calyx 4-6-lobed or -parted, the
segments imbricated in 2 series in the bud.
Corolla none.
Androecium of
usually more stamens than there are calyx-lobes, in 2-4 series, those of the
third series often glandular-appendaged, those of the fourth series mostly
mere staminodia.
Filaments free or united into a staminal tube.
Anthers
opening by valves.
Ovary
superior,
free from the
calyx,
1-celled; ovule
solitary, anatropous, pendulous
; stigma discoid or capitate.
Fruit a 1-seeded
drupe or berry.
Endosperm none.
Cotyledons plano-convex, accumbent.
About 40 genera and 1000 species, widely distributed in tropical regions; a
few in temperate zones.
Most of the native Porto Rico species are ever-
green and known as Laurel.
Anthers 2-celled.
Fertile stamens usually 9.
,
.
^
Calyx deciduous,
the friut without a cupule; stanunodes
„
,
,
^.
large, cordate-sagittate.
1- Hujelanata.
Calyx
persistent,
the
fruit immersed
in a toothed
cupule;
.,
staminodia small.
— Anioa.
Fertile stamens 3.
„
,
^
^
Stamens
free,
the
two
outer
series
usually
changed
to
^- ,-.
foliaceou^ staminodia.
,
.
3.
Acroaiciiatum.
Stamens luiited into a tube, the two outer series abortive.
4. Misanteca.
Anthers of the outer series 4-celled.
Staminodes large, sagittate.
,
.
,
^ ^^
-^
c
e>„^<.»«
Lower cells of the anthers touching the upper at the side.
5.
^ersea.
Lower cells of the anthers touching the upper at their base.
b.
ftioeoe.
Staminodes none or small, sometimes club-shaped.
Anther-cells superposed in pairs.
,
.
,
x,
,
o
^f°'l'"'^r„
Anther -cells of the outer ring arranged in a bow-shaped cm-ve.
8.
ISeclandra.
1. HUFELANDIA Nees, PI. Laur. Expos. 11.
1833.
Trees with alternate leaves, the blades coriaceous, often glaucous beneath.
Inflorescence
axillary
or subterminal.
Flowers
perfect.
Calyx
6-parted,
de-
ciduous in fruit, its segments nearly equal.
Fertile stamens 9, the filaments as
long as or shorter than the 2-celled anthers.
Staminodes large, cordate-sagittate,
sessile or stipitate.
Ovary subglobose or ovoid, glabrous, the stigma subcapitate.
316
LAURACEAE
Drupe ellipsoid, succulent, without a cupule.
[Dedicated to C. W. Hufeland, a
doctor
of
medicine.,]
About
8
species,
nati^'Bs
of
tropical
America.
Type
species: Laurus pendula Sw.
1. Hufelandia pendula (Sw.) Nees, PI. Laur. Expos. 22.
1833.
Laurus pendula Sw. Prodr. 65.
1788.
Hufelandia thomaea Nees, PI. Laur. Expos. 23.
1833.
Beilschmiedia thomaea Maza, Anal. Inst. Seg. Ens. 2: 207.
1895.
Wimmeria thomaea Nees; Meissn. in DC. Prodr. 15': 65, as synonym.
1864.
A forest tree, sometimes 20 m. high, the bark nearly smooth, the twigs mi-
nutely and often densely strigillose with short light brown
hairs.
Leaf-blades
elliptic or elliptic-obovate, 4.5-15 cm. long, 2-7 cm. broad, usually obtusely short-
acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, glaucous and sparingly pubescent
beneath when young,
finely
reticulate-veined on both
surfaces;
panicles
lax;
calyx greenish-yellow, its lobes elliptic to oval, 1-1.7 mm. long, 1-1.2 mm. broad,
fruit ellipsoid, 2.7-4 cm. long, 1.3-1.5 cm. thick, black.
Mountain forests, Porto Rico; St. Thomas:—Cuba; Jamaica: Hispaniola; St. Kitts
to
St. Lucia.
The brownish wood
is hard, strong and
toiigh.
Aguacate cim.\brox.
Cedro ma cho.
Palo Colorado.
• 2. ANIBA Aubl. PI. Guian.
1: .327.
1775.
Trees with alternate or sometimes subverticillate leaves, the blades charta-
ceous or
leathery.
Flowers perfect
in
axillary
panicles.
Calyx
6-parted,
its
lobes nearly equal.
Fertile stamens usually 9, with 3 inner abortive or changed
Into staminodia, the anthers 2-celled.
Ovary pilose or glabrous.
Berry ellipsoid
or subglobose, the cupule usually simple-margined, truncate or toothed.
[Name
unexplained.]
About 28
species,
natives of tropical America.
Type
species:
Aniba guianensis Aubl.
1. Aniba bracteata (Nees) Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 66.
1889.
Aydendron bracteatum Nees, Syst. 256.
1836.
Aydendron argenteum Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 285.
1860.
A small or medium size tree, the twigs rather stout, ferruginous-tomentose.
Leaves often subverticillate, coriaceous, oblanceolate, obovate or elhptic, 1.5-3.5
dm. long, 3.5-9.5 cm. broad, acute to long-acuminate at the apex, obtuse or acute
at the base, short-petioled, glabrous, the midrib and primary veins flat or im-
pressed above, prominent beneath; inflorescence many-flowered,
the branches
tomentulose;
calyx densely pubescent with mostly appressed
hairs,
its
lobes
ovate, about
1 mm. long; drupe ellipsoid, 2 cm. long, 11 mm. broad, the cupule
irregularly toothed.
Mountain forests, Porto Rico:—ISIontserrat; Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique;
St. Lucia;
St. Vincent.
Canelillo.
3. ACRODICLIDIUM Nees, PL Laur. Expos.
13.
1833.
Trees or shrubs with alternate or rarely opposite leaves, the blades coriaceous
or chartaceous, pinnately veined.
Inflorescence axillary or subterminal.
Flowers
perfect.
Calyx 6-parted, its lobes equal or nearly so, deciduous.
Fertile stamens
3, in a single series with an inner series of abortive ones and usually 2 outer series
of foliaceous staminodia; filaments of the fertile stamens with two glands at the
base, the staminodia without glands
; anthers 2-celled, extrorse or rarely introrse.
Berry ellipsoid, the cupule simple or double-margined.
[Greek, referring to the
LAURACEAE
•
317
two apical lids by which the anthers open.]
About 20 species, natives mostly of
South America.
Type species: Acrodiclidium brasiliense Nees.
1. Acrodiclidium salicifolium (Sw.) Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
1. 280.
1860.
Laurus salicifolia Sw.
Fl.
2: 709.
1800.
A
tree, 7-15 m. tall, the bark dark gray, nearly smooth, the twigs slender,
ferruginous-tomentulose.
Leaf-blades
coriaceous,
oblong-lanceolate
or
lance-
olate, 3.5-15 cm. long, 1-4.5 cm. broad, acute to long-acuminate at the apex
dark green, glabrous or slightly pubescent and reticulate-veined above,
paler,
often
pubescent and
reticulate-veined
beneath,
the
petioles 5-10 mm.
long;
branches of the inflorescence tomentulose; caTyx strigose-puberulent,
its lobes
ovate to ovate-oval, 1-1.3 mm. long, 0.8-1 mm. broad; drupe ellipsoid, 12-15 mm.
long, 6-8 mm. in diameter, the cupule double-margined.
Hillsides and woodlands at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; St.
Thomas; St. Croix; St. Jan:—Antigua; Montserrat; Guadeloupe; Martinique.
Canela.
Canelillo.
4. MISANTECA Cham. & Schl. Linnaea 6: 367.
1831.
Evergreen trees or shrubs with alternate leaves, the blades leathery, entire.
Flowers perfect, small, in panicled cymes.
Calyx lobes 6, nearly equal, deciduous
in fruit.
Stamens 3, united into a tube, the anthers 2-celled, opening outward.
Style columnar; stigma minute.
Berry ellipsoid or ovoid, seated in a double-
margined cupule.
[Name derived from "palo mlsanteco," the Mexican name.]
About 4 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Misanteca capitata
Cham. & Schl.
1. Misanteca triandra (Sw.) Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 103.
1889.
Laurus triandra Sw. Prodr. 65.
1788.
Acrodiclidium jamaicense Nees, Syst. Laur. 270.
1836.
A
tree, 10-20 m. high, with a somewhat flaky bark.
Leaf-blades oblong-
elliptic, elliptic or oval, 5-13 cm. long, 1.8-5.5 cm. broad, often abruptly acumi-
nate at the apex, the tip often obtuse, acute or occasionally rounded at the base,
lustrous above, glabrous; perianth 0.8-1.8 mm. wide, the lobes obtuse; drupes
oblong-ovoid or ovoid, 2-2.5 cm. long, 1.2-1.4 cm. in diameter, green, the en-
larged cup-like perianth red.
Woods,
near Bayamon
and
Quebradillas ;
Vieques:—Florida;
Cuba;
Jamaica;
HIspaniola; Martinique.
5. PERSEA INIill. Gard. Diet. Abr. ed. 4.
1754.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate coriaceous persistent entire leaves.
Flowers
small.
Calyx deeply 6-parted.
Stamens usually 12, in 4 series of 3, the inner
series reduced to gland-like staminodia, the 3 other series anther-bearing, their
anthers usuaUy 4-celled, 4-valved.
Staminodia large, cordate,
stalked.
Berry
ellipsoid, globose or pear-shaped.
[Ancient Greek name of some oriental
tree.)
About 60 species, natives mostly of America.
Type species: Laurus Persea L.
Ovary
pilose;
leaf-blades 3-16 cm.
broad,
often sparingly pubenUent
on the veins beneath.
,
,
,
,
,
.^,
^'
•
"^^^^'^'
Ovary glabrous; leaf-blades 1.5-3.2 cm. broad, densely pubescent with
short, brown or grayish-brown, appressed hairs beneath.
2.
±^. Krugii.
318
•
LAURACEAE
1. Persea Persea (L.) Cockerell, Bull. Torrey Club 19: 95.
1892.
Lavrvs Persea L. Sp. PI. 370.
1753.
Persea gratissima Gaertn.
f. Fr. & Sem.
3: 222.
1807.
Persea americana Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8.
1768.
A
tree, gometimes
18 m. high, Avith a triuik 6 dm. diameter, usually smaller.
Leaf-blades oblong to elliptic or oval, or slightly broadest above or below the
middle, 7-25 cm. long, 3-16 cm. broad, acute, short-acuminate or rounded at the
apex, acute, rounded or someA\hat truncate at the base, glabrous above, usually
somewhat glaucous and often sparingly puberulent on the veins beneath, the
nerves prominent;
petioles 1.5-5 cm. long, channeled above, often puberulent;
flowers tomentuloge; calyx
greeni.«h,
its lobes somewhat unequal, oblong-lance-
olate or oblong elliptic, 4. .5-6 mm. long, ovary pilose; drupe pyriform, subglobose,
oval or ovate, 8-20 cm. long, the 'flesh butter-like.
Spontaneous after planting, Pofto Rico; St. Thomas; St. Croix:—Native of Mexico.
Widely cultivated in many races in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible fruit,
which yields a valuable oil, used for biu-ning and for making soap.
The wood is reddish-
brown and soft, its specific gravity about 0.6.
Aguacate.
Avocado Pear.
Alligator
Pear.
2. Persea Krugii Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berhn 5: 177.
1889.
A tree, sometimes 1.5 m. high, the young twigs, branches of the inflorescence,
pedicels,
calyx, and under surface of the leaves clothed with
a
brown
silky
appressed pubescence.
Leaf-blades oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, 4-10 cm. long,
1.4-3.2 cm. broad, acute, short-acuminate, or obtuse at the apex, acute at the
base,
pubescent above when
young,
the
hairs sometimes
persistent
in
age;
petioles 6-18 mm.
long, channeled above, pubescent; pedicels 2-3 mm.
long,
inflorescence
equalling
or
shorter than
the
leaves;
calyx
yellowish,
its
lobes
unequal, ovate to oval-ovate, acute, the outer 2.4-3 mm. long,
1.5 mm. broad,
the inner 4.5-5 mm. long; filaments pilose; ovary glabrous, the style slender;
drupe not seen.
ISIoimtain forests, western districts of Porto Rico:—Hispaniola.
Canela.
6. PHOEBE Nees, Syst. Laur. 98.
1836.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate leaves, the blades chartaceous or coriaceous,
pinnately
veined
or
triple-nerved.
Inflorescence
axillary.
Calyx
6-parted,
wholly persistent in fruit.
Fertile stamens 9; anthers of the outer ring 4-celled,
those
of the
Inner
ring
usually
4-celled and opening outwards
or
laterally;
staminodes cordate-sagittate.
Berry ellipsoid; pedicels often somewhat thick-
ened in fruit.
[Greek, one of the names of the moon goddess.]
About 82 species,
mostly natives of tropical America, a few in the East Indies and the Malay
Archipelago;
the
Porto
Rico
species
are
called Ave&pillo.
Type
species:
Ocotea sericea Nees.
Leaves triple-nerved.
1-
P- montana.
Leaves pinnately veined.
2.
P. elongata.
1. Phoebe montana (Sw.) Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 279.
1860.
Laurus montana Sw. Prodr. 65.
1788.
A
tree, up to 20 m. high, the young twigs ferruginous-tomentose.
Leaf-
blades elliptic-lanceolate to ovate or oval, triple-nerved, 4-11 cm. long, 2-6.5 cm.
broad, acuminate at the apex, acute or rounded at the base, glabrous or pubescent
on the midvein above, pubescent on the veins beneath; branches of the inflores-
cence pilose; flowering pedicels 1-2.5 mm. long; calyx pilose,
its lobes elliptic,
0.8-2 mm. long, about 1 mm. broad
; staminodes cordate-sagittate
; ovary glabrous
drupe subelliptic, 9-10 mm. long, 6-7 mm. broad.
Mountain forests,
central and western
districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola.
LAURACEAE
319
2. Phoebe elongata (Vahl) Nees, Syst. La^ur. 116.
1836.
Laiirus elongata Vahl; Nees, Syst. Laur. 116.
1836.
Phoebe ciihensis Nees, Syst. Laur. 120.
1836.
Phoebe antiUana genuina Meissn. in DC. Prodr. 15': 31.
186i.
Phoebe antillana porloricensis and cubensis Meissn.
in DC. Prodr.
15': 31.
1864.
A tree, 6-12 m. tall, occasionally up to 20 m., the bark smooth and gray, the
young twigs glabrous or tomentulose.
Leaf-blades elliptic-lanceolate to ovate
or elliptic, i)irniately veined, 5-19 cm. long, 2-6 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex,
acute or rounded at the base, glabrous above in age, sparingly short-pilose on
the
veins beneath: branches
of the
inflorescence glabrous or sparsely
pilose;
flowering pedicels 1.5-3 mm. long; calyx greenish-white or white, its lobes ovate
or elliptic-ovate, about 2 mm.
long.
1.5 mm. broad, pilose within; staminodes
sagittate,
triangular-acute; ovary glabrous; drupe
ellipsoid,
13-15 mm.
long,
6-7 mm. in diameter.
Woods and forests in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico;
St. Croix:—Cuba; His-
paniola
; Montserrat to Trinidad.
7. OCOTEA Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 780.
1775.
Evergreen trees, rarely shrubs, with alternate coriaceous leaves and small
perfect or polygamous flowers in axillary or terminal panicles.
Calyx 6-parted,
its lobes nearly equal, deciduous or persistent.
Perfect stamens 9, in 3 series;
stamens of the first and second .series eglandular, their anthers introrsely 4-celled;
stamens of the 3rd series with extrorsely 4-celled anthers
; staminodia, representing
a fourth series of stamens, are present in some species.
Ovary wholly or partly
enclosed by the perianth-tube; style short.
Berry oblong to globose, partly en-
closed by the enlarged perianth-tube.
[Guiana name.]
About 200 species of
wide geographic distribution, most abundant
in the American
tropics.
Type
species: Ocotea guianensis Auhl.
Flowers perfect: filaments often pilose.
Leaf-blades densely ferruginous pubescent beneath when yoimg,
the hairs sometimes becoming grayish in age.
Leaf-blades
oblong-lanceolate
or
lanceolate,
acute
or
acu-
minate at the apex.
1.
O.
Wriglitii.
Leaf-blades obovate,
roimded,
trimcate
or abruptly short-
acute at the apex.
2.
O. cuneata.
Leaves glabrous.
•
Filaments nearly equalling the anthers, or longer.
Drupe 2.:3-.3.2 cm. long,
18-2.5 mm. in diameter: cupule
saucer-shaped: leaves clustered mostly at or near the
apex of the branches.
3.
O. spathulata.
Drupe
11-12 mm.
long,
12 mm.
in
diameter;
cupule
hemispheric: leaves scattered.
4.
O. moschata.
Filaments less than one half as long as
tlie anthers: cupule
saucer-shaped.
5.
O.foeniciilacea.
Flowers dioecious: filaments glabrous.
Leaf-blades with callus-like tliickenings in the axils of the veins
beneath.
6.
O. portoricensis.
Leaf-blades without
callus-like tluckenings
in
the axils of the
veins.
Cupule
simple-margined;
nerves of
the
upper
leaf-surface
inconspictious.
7.
O. leucoxylon.
Cupule double-margined:
nerves
of
the upper
leaf-surface
usually reticulate.
8.
p. floribunda.
1. Ocotea Wrightii (Meissn.) Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 267.
1889.
Acrodididium Wrightii Meissn. in DC. Prodr.
15': 85.
186
A
tree,
10-30 m.
high,
the
branches
appressed-puberulent.
Leaf-blades
coriaceous,
oblong-lanceolate
to
lanceolate,
6-12 cm.
long,
1.5-3 cm.
broad,
320
LAURACEAE
acuminate at the apex, acute at the base, glabrous above, densely ferruginous-
pubescent beneath with appressed hairs when young;
petioles 5-7 mm.
long;
inflorescence shorter than the
leaves,
its branches pubescent;
flowers
perfect;
calyx pubescent,
its lobes ovate, obtuse; filaments somewhat pilose, the anthers
oval; ovary glabrous; drupe globose, 10 mm. in diameter, the cupule hemispheric,
double-margined.
Mountain
forests, western districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba.
Canela.
Canelon
2. Ocotea cuneata (Griseb.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 246.
1905.
Nectandra cuneata Griseb. Mem. Amer. Acad.
II. 8: 188.
1860.
Nemodaphne cuneata Meissn
. in DC. Prodr. 15^: 109.
1864.
Ocotea nemodaphne Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin
5: 270.
1889.
A small or medium size tree, the young twigs, branches of the inflorescence,
petioles and under surface of the young leaves clothed with a dense ferruginous
velvety
pubescence,
which
in
age becomes
grayish.
Leaf-blades
coriaceous,
obovate, 6-14 cm.
long, 2.5-7.5 cm. broad, rounded, truncate or occasionally
abruptly short-acute at the apex, cuneate at the base; petioles rather stout, 5-10
mm. long; inflorescence sometimes equalling or longer than the leaves; flowers
perfect; calyx densely rusty tomentose, its lobes elliptic to oval or ovate, 2.5 mm.
long; fllaments pilose, the anthers ovate, obtuse; ovary glabrous; drupe ellipsoid,
about 16 mm. long, 12-13 mm.
in diameter, the cupule hemispheric, sometimes
double-margined.
Mountain forests, western districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba.
Sassafras.
Laxjrel.
Sassafras.
Not to be confused with the northern genus Sassafras.
3. Ocotea spathulata Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 268.
1889.
A tree, sometimes up to 20 m. high, the leaves clustered mostly at or near the
ends of the twigs.
Leaf-blades rigid-coriaceous, spatulate-obovate or obovate,
7-12 cm. long, 2.4-6 cm. broad, obtuse or rounded at the apex, acute at the base,
glabrous and rather dull above, lustrous,
rather
faintly reticulate-veined and
glabrous beneath, short-petioled
; inflorescence ferruginous-hirsute, shorter than
the leaves; flowers perfect; calyx pilose; fllaments nfearly glabrous, the anthers
ovate; ovary glabrous;
drupe ellipsoid or subglobose, 2.3-3.2 cm.
long, 18-25
mm. broad, the cupule sometimes double-margined.
Forests of the eastern mountains of Porto Rico:—Cuba.
Granadillo.
Nemoca
CIMARRON.
4. Ocotea moschata (Pavon) Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 260.
1889.
Vespilodaphne moschata Meissn. in DC. Prodr. 15h 106.
1864.
Laurus moschata Pavon; Meissn. in DC. Prodr. 15': 106, as synonym.
1864.
A tree, 10-20 m.
high, the young twigs and branches of the inflorescence
clothed
with
a
ferruginous tomentum.
Leaf-blades
coriaceous,
narrowly
to
broadly obovate or occasionally elliptic, 6-14 cm. long, 2.2-7 cm. broad, obtuse
or rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base, glabrous above, the midrib and veins
slightly impressed, glabrous or slightly puberulent beneath with appressed hairs,
the midrib and primary veins rather prominent
; petioles stout, short
; inflorescence
shorter than
the
leaves;
flowers
perfect,
short-pedicelled
;
calyx
ferruginous-
tomentulose,
its lobes
elliptic, 3-3.5 mm.
long,
2.3-2.5 mm.
broad;
fllaments
pilose, the anthers
elliptic, obtuse"; ovary glabrous; drupe subglobose or ovoid,
11-12 mm. long, 12 mm. in diameter, cupule hemispheric, double-margined.
Mountain
forests of Porto Rico.
Emleroic.
Nemoca.
Nuez mcscoda.
Nuez
MOSCODA CIMARRONA.
NUEZ MCSCODA DEL PAYS.
6. Ocotea foeniculacea Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 266.
1889.
A tree, up to 25 m.
tall, the young branches pubescent.
Leaf-blades rigid-
coriaceous, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 5-8.5 cm. long, 2.3-4 cm. broad
acute at
LAURACEAE
321
the apex, cuneate at the base, glabrous, shining and reticulate-veined beneath;
inflorescence subracemose, shorter than the leaves, pubescent; flowers perfect;
calyx white, strigose-pubescent,
its lobes ovate, acute; filaments pilose; ovary
subglobose, glabrous; drupe ellipsoid, 20 mm. long, 12 mm. in diameter, black;
cupule obscurely double-margined.
Forests, vicinity of Adjuntas, Porto Rico:-—Cuba.
Palo santo.
6. Ocotea portoricensis Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. BerUn 5: 364.
1889.
A tree, 7-1.5 m. high, with slender branches, the young twigs minutely strigose.
Leaf-blades subcoriaceous, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic, 5.5-10 mm.
long,
1.5-
3.5 cm. broad, glabrous above, the primary veins slender, slightly elevated, gla-
brous beneath with callus-like thickenings in the axils of veins; petioles slender,
5-10 mm.
long;
inflorescence
shorter than
the
leaves,
few-flowered;
flowers
dioecious; calyx minutely strigose,
its lobes ovate to broadly ovate, 1.5-2 mm.
long, 1.3-1.5 mm. broad, pubescent within
; anthers elliptic-ovate
; ovary glabrous;
drupe
cylindric-ellipsoid,
1.6-1.8 cm.
long,
4.5 mm.
in
diameter
(mature?^;
cupule small, narrowly funnel-shaped, 3-4 mm. wide.
Mountain forests of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
7. Ocotea leucoxylon (Sw.) Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 329.
1889.
Laurus leucoxylon Sw. Prodr. 65.
1788.
Laurus exaltata lancifolia Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 3: 319.
1813.
Persea leucoxylon Spreng. Syst.
2: 268.
1825.
Oreodaphne leucoxylon Nees, Syst. Laur. 413.
1836.
A tree, up to 24 m. high, the young twigs and branches of the inflorescence
often
minutely
and
densely
strigillose-puberulent.
Leaf-blades
coriaceous,
oblong-lanceolate to elliptic or elliptic-ovate, 10-27 cm. long, acute, acuminate
or obtuse at the apex, rounded or acute at the base, glabrous above, the midrib
and primary veins more or less impressed, glabrous or puberulent on the midrib
beneath, the primary veins prominent; flowers dioecious; staminate flowers with
elliptic-oblong calyx-lobes 1.8-2 mm. long; anthers suberect, the ovary sterile;
pistillate flowers with minute sterile stamens; drupe subglobose, 8 or 9 mm. in
diameter, the cupule. greenish-brown, usually covered with light brown warts.
Hillside thickets and forests in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending to liiglier
elevations; St. Thomas; Tortola:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Grenada.
Cacaillo.
8. Ocotea floribunda (Sw.) Mez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 325.
1889.
Laurus floribunda Sw. Prodr. 65.
1788.
Laurus cerifera Vahl, Skrivt. Nat. Selsk. Kopenh. 6: 130.
1810.
Strychnodaphne floribunda Griseb. Fl. Br..W.
I. 283.
1860.
A
tree, 9-20 m.
high,
the young twigs, branches of the inflorescence and
petioles sparsely pubescent.
Leaf-blades elliptic-lanceolate to elliptic or some-
what obovate, 5-18 cm. long, obtuse or acuminate at the apex, the tip usually
rounded, acute at the base, glabrous and often finely reticulate-veined above,
glabrous or somewhat puberulent and reticulate-veined beneath; flowers dioe-
cious; calyx sparingly puberulent; staminate flowers with elliptic, broadly elliptic
^
or ovate calyx-lobes 2-2.5 mm. long, the ovary sterile; pistillate flowers with the
stamens well developed, the anthers without valves
; drupe subglobose or ellipsoid,
1-1.3 cm.
long, the cupule
flat, double-margined, the calyx-lobes reflexed and
often persistent in fruit.
Woods and forests at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet districts, Porto
Rico; St. Jan; Tortola;—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martinique; Trinidad;
also in Central and South America.
322
LAURACEAE
8. NECTANDRA
Roland;
Rottb.
Act.
Lit.
Univ.
Hafn.
1:
279.
1778.
Trees
or shrubs with
alternate
leaves and small
perfect
or polygamous
flowers in axillary or terminal panicles.
Calyx 6-parted,
its lobes nearly equal.
Stamens
9, much
shorter than
the
perianth.
Anthers
4-celled;
staminodes
none or small; filaments short or globose, seated in a simple-margined, cup-shaped,
or saucer-shaped cupule;
pedicel often thickened or expanding above
to the
diameter of the cupule.
[Greek, honey-stamens.]
Over 80 species of tropical
America.
Type species: Nectandra sanguinea Rottb.
Anthers sessile, or filaments glabrous.
Calyx 5.5 mm. or more wide; anthers sessile.
Drupe
ellipsoid,
1.2-1.8 cm.
long, 6-10 mm. in diameter.
Twigs, branches of the inflorescence, pedicels and calyx
clothed with a loose ferruginous tomentum.
1. N. Ktugii.
Twigs, branches of the inflorescence, pedicels and calyx
glabrous or pubescent with short appressed hairs.
2. N. Sintenisii.
Drupe globose, 8-10 mm. in diameter.
3. N. antillana.
Calyx ;?.5-4.5 mm. in diameter; filaments glabrous.
4. N. membranacea.
Filaments pilose; leaves reticulate-veined on both surfaces.
Calyx
4-5 mm.
wide;
drupe
oblong-ellipsoid
or somewhat
ovoid, 2-2.5 cm. long.
5. N. patens.
Calyx 8-10 mm. wide; drupe oval or subglobose, 10-18 mm. long.
6. N. coriacea.
1. Nectandra Krugii ^Nlez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. BerUn 5: 422^
1889.
Nectandra discolor Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 282.
1860.
Not Nees.
A tree, 10-25 m. high, the young twigs, branches of the inflorescence, calyx
and
petioles
tomentose.
Leaf-blades
olilong-lanceolate
to
ovate-lanceolate,
11-25 cm. long, 3-9 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, acute or obtuse at the base,
tomentulose above when
young,
the primary
nerves
impressed,
tomentulose
especially on the veins beneath, the primary veins prominent, the petioles 1-2.3
cm. long"; panicles axillary, long-peduncled, several-many-flowered; flowers 8-10
mm. in diameter; calyx white,
its lobes oval to suborbicular, 4-4.5 mm. long,
tomentulose on both sides; drupe narrowly elhptic, 1.5-1.8 cm. long, 8-10 mm.
in diameter, dark violet, the cupule hemispheric.
Motmtain
forests,
central
and
western
districts
of
Porto
Rico:—Guadeloupe;
Dominica.
,
2. Nectandra Sintenisii IMez, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 5: 419.
1889.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the young twigs pubescent with short appressed
hairs.
Leaf-blades lanceolate to
elliptic or ovate, 4.5-20 cm.
long, 2-7.5 cm.
broad, acute or acuminate at the apex, the tip obtuse, acute or obtuse at the base,
glabrous, the primary veins few and rather distant, the secondary veins rather
inconspicuously
reticulate;
petioles 5-15 mm.
long;
panicles usually
long-pe-
duncled, the branches spreading, glabrous or nearly so, usually many-flowered
pedicels 2-3 mm. long, slender; calyx white,
its lobes obovate or elliptic, 3 mm.
long, 1.5-1.8 mm. broad; drupe ellipsoid, 12 mm. long, 6 mm. in diameter; the
base of the cupule verruculose.
[A^. leucantha of Bello, not of Nees.]
Forests at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico;
St.
Thomas (according to Mez) but not found there by recent collectors:—Hispamola.
3. Nectandra antillana Meissn. in DC. Prodr. 15': 153.
1864.
Nectandra leucantha Griseb.
Fl.
Br.- W.
I. 282, in part.
1860.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the trunk sometimes 8 or 9 dm. in diameter, the bark
splitting
into
thick
scales.
Leaf-blades oblong
to
broadly
lanceolate,
rarely
ovate, 6-23 cm. long, 2-8 cm. broad, acuminate at the ai)ex, acute or rarely cordate
at the base, glabrous or sometimes puberulent on the midrib beneath, the primary
veins few,
distant,
flat above, prominent
beneath,
the secondary
veins often
LAURACEAE
323
rather
inconspicuous,
the
petioles 5-17 mm.
long,
more
or
less
puberulent;
panicles many-flowered, the branches spreading, puberulent; calyx-lobes spread-
ing, roundish-obovate
or
suborl:)icular, 4-4.5 mm.
long, tomentulose on both
sides; drupe globose, S-10 mm. in diameter, blue-black, the cupule 'red, saucer-
shaped, 7-9 mm. in diameter.
Thickets and river-banks at low elevations in the southern districts of Porto Rico
and recorded from the Sierra de Luquillo;
St. Thomas:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola
Guadeloupe; Martinique; Barbados and Tobago.
Bedstead-wood Tree.
4. Nectandra membranacea (Sw.) Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 282.
1860.
Laurus membranacea Sw. Prodr. 65.
1788.
A
tree, sometimes 20 m. high or higher, the young branches slender,
fer-
ruginous-strigillose.
Leaf-blades oblong-lanceolate
to
elliptic, 8-24 pm.
long,
2-8 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, acute at the base, the primary veins more
or
less impressed above, rather prominent beneath, glabrous or sparingly pu-
berulent on both sides, the petioles 5-15 mm. long; panicles axillary, often long-
peduncled,
the
branches more
or
less
strigillose,
several-many-flowered,
the
pedicels 2-10 mm. long; calyx yellowish-white,
its lobes ovate-elliptic,
1.5-1.7
mm. long, strigillose on the outside: drupe globose or subglobose,
1 cm. in dia-
meter, black, the cupule saucer-shaped, 6-7 mm. broad, the pedicels thickened
above to the diameter of the cupule.
Forests and
hillsides in wet
or moist
districts, Porto
Rico,
ascending
to higher
elevations;
St. Thomas and
St.
Croix
(according
to Eggers):—Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe to Trinidad.
5. Nectandra patens (Sw.) Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 281.
1860.
Laurus patens Sw. Prodr. 65.
1788.
A shrub, or tree, sometimes 18 m. high, the young twigs puberulent.
Leaf-
blades elliptic-lanceolate to ovate or oval, coriaceous, 7-20 cm.
long, 3-8 cm.
broad, acute to acuminate at the apex, the tip usually obtuse, acute or occasion-
ally rounded at the base, glabrous or sometimes with tufts of hairs in the axils
of the veins below, reticulate-veined on
l)oth
surfaces,
the
petioles 3-10 mm.
long, puberulent: calyx-lobes elliptic, 2
2.5 mm. long, 1.2-1.5 mm. broad, white,
pubescent on both sides; drupe oblong-ellipsoid, or oblong-ovoid, 2-2.5 cm. long,
white, the cupule red.
Forests, river-valleys and wooded hills, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevatioEta
in wet or moist districts:—Jamaica; Hispaniola; Martinique.
6. Nectandra coriacea (Sw.) Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 281.
1860.
Laurus coriacea Sw. Prodr.
6.5.
1788.
"
Oreodaphne coriacea Nees, Syst. Laur. 454.
1836.
Nectandra Willdenoviana Nees, Syst. Laur. 321.
1836.
A tree, up to 12 m. high, the trunk sometimes 3 dm. in diameter, the bark
nearly smooth,
light
gray,
the
twigs
slender,
glabrous.
Leaf-blades
oblong,
oblong-lanceolate or ovate-elliptic, coriaceous, 6-15 cm. long, 2-5.5 cm. broad,
acute or acuminate at the apex, narrowed at the base, dark green and lustrous
above, dull beneath, glabrous or very nearly so, reticulate-veined, the petioles
5-15 mm. long; panicles axillary, peduncled, puberulent, several-many-flowered;
pedicels 4-7 mm. long; calyx white, its lobes oblong or ovate-oblong, obtuse, 3-4
mm. long; stamens shorter than the calyx; drupe oval or subglobose, dark blue
or nearly black, 10-18 mm. long, the cupule red or yellow.
Woods,
hillsides and arroyos at lower elevations, "Porto Rico,
in dry or moist dis-
tricts; Vieques; Mona;
St. Thomas;
St. Croix:
St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; West Indies;
V'ucatan.
Recorded by Bello as Nectandra sanguinea Rottb.
Laurus indica West, of St. Croix,
is unknown to modern botanists.
324
CASSYTHACEAE
Laurus longifolia Vahl,
collected on
St.
Croix by West,
is not further
determined.
Cinnamomum zeylanicum
Nees, Cinnamon Tree,
of southern
Asia,
occasionally planted
in Porto Kico and the Virgin
Islands, a small
tree,
the
reddish-brown bark the source of cinnamon, was recorded by Eggers as naturalized
In shaded valleys on St. Croix, prior to 1879, but it does not appear to have been
persistent.
Camphora Camphora (L.) Karst., Camphor, of eastern Asia, occasionally
planted in I'orto Rico, and seen as seedlings at the
St. Croix Agricultural Ex-
periment Station in 1923, becomes about 8 m. in height, with a trunk up to about
3 dm. in diameter; its 3-nerved leaves are ovate to elliptic, 10 cm. long or less,
acuminate and
slender-petioled
;
its small white
flowers
are borne
in
axillary
panicles and have 9 stamens; the globose drupe
is about 8 mm.
in diameter.
The bark and leaves are the source of camphor [Laurus Camphora L.
; Cinnamo-
mum Camphora Nees & Eberm.].
Family 11.
CASSYTHACEAE Dumort.
Love-vine Family.
Parasitic
vine.s.
Leaves none,
or reduced
to
scales,
the small regular
and perfect flowers spicate, racemose, or capitate.
Calyx 6-cleft, the lobes
imbricated, in 2 series, the outer ones shorter than the inner.
Corolla none.
Perfect stamens
9, with
2-celled anthers; staminodes
3.
Pistil
1; ovary
1-ovuled,
becoming
enclosed by
the
enlarging
calyx-base;
style
simple;
stigma small, mostly capitate.
Fruit berry-like, fleshy.
Only the following
genus.
1. CASSYTHA L. Sp. PL 35.
1753.
Characters of the
family.
About
15 known
species,
of tropical
regions.
[Synonym of Cuscuta.]
Type species: Cassytha filiformis L.
1. Cassytha filiformis L. Sp. PI. 35.
1753.
Cassytha americana Nees, Syst. Laur. 664.
1836.
Slender, branched, often 5 m. long, or more, sometimes matted, yellow or
yellowish-green, the stems about 2 mm. thick.
Leaves mere ovate or lanceolate,
acute
scales
1-2 mim.
long,
few and
distant;
spikes peduncled,
few-several-
flowered, 1-2 cm. long; flowers white, about 2 mm. broad, the inner sepals ovate,
larger than the outer; fruit globose, white, 5-7 mm. in diameter.
Sandy coastal thickets and dunes, Porto Rico; Icacos; Vieques;
St. Thomas; St
Croix:—cosmopolitan in the tropics.
Love-vine.
Order 12.
PAPAVERALES.
Mostly herbs, with clustered, regular and perfect flowers.
Petals, with
very rare exceptions, present, separate.
Sepals usually separate.
Stamens
hypogynous.
Ovary superior, free from the calyx, compound, composed of
two united carpels, or more.
Sepals 2 (very rarely 3 or 4); endosperm fleshy.
Fam.
1.
Pap^veraceae.
Sepals or calyx-segments 4-8; endosperm none.
Capsule 2-celled by a longitudinal partition, usually 2-
valved, rarely indehiscent.
Fam. 2.
Brassicaceae.
Capsule 1-celled, of 2-6 carpels.
Stvle short or wanting; seeds wingless.
Fam. 3.
Capparidaceae.
Style elongated; seeds winged.
Fam. 4.
Moringaceae.
-PAPAVERACEAE
325
Family
1.
PAPAVERAGEAE B. Juss.
Poppy Family.
Herbs, with milky or colored sap, and alternate leaves or the upper rarely
opposite.
Stipules none.
Flowers perfect, regular.
Sepals 2 (rarely 3 or 4),
caducous.
Petals 4-6 or rarely more, imbricated, often wrinkled, deciduous.
Stamens
hypogynous,
distinct;
filaments
filiform;
anthers
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
1,
many-ovuled,
mainly
1-celled;
style
short;
ovules
anatropous.
Fruit a capsule, generally dehiscent by a pore, or by valves,
rarely indehiscent.
About 23 genera and 115 species, widely distributed,
most abundant in the north temperate zone.
Petals large; capsule apically deliiscent.
1. Argemone.
Petals none; capsule dehiscent by 2 valves from the base.
2. Bocconia.
1. ARGEMONE L. Sp. PI. 508.
1753.
Glaucous herbs, with yellow
sap, spiny-toothed leaves and large
flowers.
Sepals 2 or
3.
Petals 4-6.
Stamens
8.
Placentae 4-6, many-ovuled.
Style
very short.
Stigma dilated, 3-6-radiate.
Capsule prickly, oblong, dehiscent at
the
apex
by
valves.
Seeds
numerous,
cancellate.
[Greek,
an
eye
disease,
supposed to be relieved by the plant so called.]
A genus of about 10 species,
natives of the warmer parts of America.
Type species: Argemone mexicana L.
1. Argemone mexicana L. Sp. PI. .508.
17.53.
Stem 3-6 dm.
high, spiny or sometimes nearly unarmed.
Leaves
sessile,
clasping by a narrowed
base,
1-2.5 dm.
long,
glaucous,
runcinate-pinnatifld,
spiny-toothed and more or less spiny on the veins; flowers orange or yellow, sessile
or subsessile, 2-8 cm. broad; sepals acuminate, bristly-pointed; capsule 2.5 cm.
long or more
; stigma sessile.
Waste and cultivated groimds. Porto Rico; Icacos; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:—southern United States; Bermuda; continental tropical America.
Mexican Poppy.
Sissle.
Cardo Santo.
2. BOCCONIA L. Sp. PI. 505.
1753.
•
Herbs or shrubs.
Leaves pinnately nerved
or lobed.
Flowers
small, in
terminal much-branched panicles.
Sepals 2.
Petals wanting.
Stamens 8-24.
Placentas of the ovary
2.
Ovule
solitary,
erect from the
base.
Stigmas
2,
spreading.
Capsule
dehiscent by
2
valves from
the
base.
Seed
large and
nearly fllling the cavity, surrounded at the base with a soft cup-like aril; endo-
sperm fleshy.
[In honor of Dr. Paolo Bocconi, SicUian botanist and author.]
About 8 or 9 species, natives of the West Indies and continental tropical America.
Type species: Bocconia frutescens L.
1. Bocconia frutescens L. Sp. PI. 505.
1753.
A shrub, 1-3 m. high, with a yellow acrid sap.
Leaves membranous, oblong-
elliptic to broadly elliptic in outline, lobed or pinnatifld, 14-35 cm. long, 8-18
cm.
broad,
glabrous- above,
usually densely tomentose beneath when young,
sometimes nearly glabrous in age, the lobes oblong, denticulate; upper leaves
oblong or elliptic, repand or denticulate, sometimes entire; panicle 2.8-4 dm.
long; sepals oblong-elliptic or
elliptic,
7-8.5 mm.
long; filaments
filiform,
the
anthers linear, 4-5 mm. long; ovary stalked; fruit ellipsoid, 7-8 mm. long.
Cultivated ground, hillsides and forests at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:
Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; St. Kitts to St. Vincent; Mexico to Peru.
Pan ciMj^rron.
Parrot weed.
Celandine.
326
BRASSICACEAE
Eschscholtzia califomica Cham., California Poppy, occasionally grown
in Porto Rico flower gardens as an annual, has leaves finely divided into linear
segments and bright yellow flowers 5-8 cm. broad, the fruit a slender capsule.
Reseda odorata L., Mignonette, native of northern Africa, occasionally
grown for its fragrant flowers in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens, but not
persistent, is a low her)) of the related family Re3edaceae, with cuneate, entire
or lobed
leaves, and small
irregular greenish
flowers
in narrow racemes,
the
horned capsule lobed.
Family 2.
BRASSICACEAE Lindl.
Mustard Family.
Annual or j^erennial herbs, rarely somewhat woody, with watery acrid
sap,
alternate
leaves, and racemose or corymbose
flowers.
Sepals
4,
de-
ciduous, or rarely persistent, the 2 outer narrow, the inner similar, or con-
cave, or saccate at the base.
Petals 4, hypogynous, cruciate, nearly equal,
generally
clawed.
Stamens
6,
rarely
fewer,
l^ypogjnious,
tetrad^ynamous.
Pistil
1, compound,
consisting of 2 united
carpels,
the
parietal placentae
united by a dissepiment; style generally persistent, sometimes none; stigma
discoid or usually more or less 2-lobed.
Fruit a silique or silicic, generally
2-celled,
rarely
1-celled,
in a few genera indehiscent.
Seeds attached
to
both sides of the septum; endosperm none; cotyledons incumbent, accumbent
or conduplicate.
About 200 genera and over 1600 species, of wide geographic
distribution.
Pod a silique or silicle, dehiscent into 2 valves.
Pod a short siHcle, flattened contrary to the partition.
1. Lepidium.
Pod a short or long silique, not flattened contrary to the partition.
Seeds l-rowed; pod long-beaked.
Pod with a slender terete beak, its valves l-nerved.
2.
Brassica.
Pod with a com])ressed or angled beak,
its valves 3-5-nerved.
3.
Sinapis.
Seeds in 2 rows in eacli cell; pod short-beaked.
Petals with a median nectary, usually yellow.
4.
Radicula.
Petals without nectary, white.
5.
Sisiimbrium.
Pod indeliiscent, elongated, of 2 separating joints
6.
Cakile.
1. LEPIDIUM L. Sp. PI. 643.
17.53.
Erect or
rarely
diff'use
herbs, with
pinnatifld lobed or entire leaves and
racemose white or whitish flowers.
Stamens often fewer than 6.
Petals short,
sometimes none.
Silicles oblong to orbicular, flattened contrary to the partition,
winged or wingless; valves keeled, dehiscent.
Seeds solitary in each
cell,
flat
tened; cotyledons incumbent or rarely accumbent.
[Greek, a little scale, from
the
flat scale-like pods.]
About 65 species, widely distributed.
Type species:
Lepidium latifolium L.
1. Lepidium virginicum L. Sp. PI. 645.
1753.
Nasturtium virginicum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 35.
1891.
Lepidium virginicum pinnatisectum O. E. Schulz in Urban, Symb. 3: 495.
1903.
Annual,
erect,
glabrous.
Basal
leaves
obovate
or
spatulate
in
outline,
pinnatifld, generally with a large terminal lobe and numerous small lateral ones,
all
dentate,
glabrous or slightly pubescent; stem-leaves lanceolate or oblong-
linear, sessile, or the lower stalked; flowers 1-2 mm. broad, white; petals generally
present, sometimes wanting in the later flowers; pedicels slender, spreading, 4-6
mm.
long
in
fruit; pod
flat,
short-oval or orbicular, minutely winged above;
cotyledons accumbent.
Waste and cultivated grounds. Porto Rico; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan; Tortola
:—contLiiental North America; Bermuda; West Indies.
[Lepidium apetalum
of Millspaugli, not of Lmnaeus.]
Wild Pepper-grass.
Mastuerzo.
BRASSICACEAE
327
Lepidium sativum L., Pepper grass, Europeaii,
is grown
in Porto Rico
and Virgin Island gardens as a condiment.
It has pinnatifid leaves 7-15 cm.
long, the upper much smaller, the ovate-oval pods winged all around.
2. BRASSICA L. Sp. PI. 666.
1753.
Erect branching
herbs,
with
pinnatifid
basal
leaves,
and showy
yellow
flowers in elongated racemes.
Siliques elongated, sessile, terete or 4-sided, tipped
with an indehiscent conic, usually l-.seeded beak.
Valves convex, 1-3-nerved.
Seeds in 1 row in each cell, oblong, marginless; cotyledons conduplicate.
[Latin
name of the cabbage.]
About 80 species, natives of Europe, Asia and northern
Africa.
Type species: Brassica oleracea L.
1. Brassica integrifolia (West) O. E. Schulz in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: .509.
1903.
Sinapis integrifolia West, Bidr.
St. Croi.x 296.
1793.
Sitiapis lanceolata DC. Syst. Nat. 2: 611.
1821.
Sinapis brassicata Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I.
14.
1859.
Not. L.
1768.
Glabrous or sparingly pilose below, pale green, slightly glaucous, 8 dm. high
or
less.
Basal and lowest cauline leaves broadly obovate, or elliptic-obovate,
coarsely dentate, obtuse, long-petioled, often 2-lobed near the base; upper leaves
oblong to
linear, few-toothed or entire, mostly acute, short-petioled or sessile;
racemes loosely several-many-flowered, erect; pedicels filiform, 6-12 mm. long:
petals light yellow, 6-9 mm. long, broadly obovate, clawed; pods erect-spreading,
3-4 cm. long, about 2 mm. thick, the slender beak 4-7 mm. long.
[B. juncea of
Cook and Collins].
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques; Culebrita;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:
St. Jan; Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—Bermuda; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad.
Native of Asia.
Wild Mustard.
jMost.\za.
Brassica nigra (L.) Koch, Black Mustard, European and Asiatic, natu-
ralized as an annual in temperate North America, was recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas in 1851, where it may have been cultivated.
It has slender, short-
pedicelled pods about 2 cm. long.
[Sinapis nigra L.]
Brassica campestris
L., Nabo, Turnip, European, occasionally planted
in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
is biennial with rough leaves, large yellow
flowers, the large fleshy roots various in shape in different races.
[B. rapa L.]
Brassica Napus
L., Rape, European,
similar to B.
campestris, but with
smooth
foliage, was recorded by Krebs as found on
St. Thomas, presumably
planted.
Brassica oleracea L., Col, Cabbage, grown for food in Porto Rico and the
Virgin Islands,
is also of European origin.
3. SINAPIS L. Sp. PI. 668.
17.53.
Annual or biennial, usually erect, branching, more or less hispid herbs, with
pinnatifid or lobed leaves, and rather large, mostly yellow flowers in terminal
racemes.
Siliques
linear,
nearly
terete,
constricted between the
seeds,
sessile
in the calyx, tipped with a flat sword-like beak which sometimes contains a seed
near its base, its valves 3-5-nerved.
Seeds oblong or subglobose, not winged nor
margined.
Cotyledons
conduplicate.
[Name
Greek,
said
to come from
the
Celtic for turnip.]
About 5 species, natives of southern Europe.
Type species:
Sinapis alba L.
Leaves lyrate-pinnatifid
; fruiting pedicels 8-14 mm. long.
1.
S. alba.
Loaves dentate or lobed; fruiting pedicels 4-6 mm. long.
2.
S. arvcnsis.
328
BRASSICACEAE
1. Sinapis alba L. Sp. Pi. G68.
1753.
Erect, 3-6 dm.
high, more
or
less pubescent with
stiff spreading
hairs.
Lower leaves 1.5-2 dm. long, obovate in outline, deeply pinnatifld or pinnate,
with a large terminal leaflet or lobe and several pairs of smaller lateral ones,
dentate all around; uppermost leaves lanceolate or oblong, merely dentate, short-
petioled
; flowers yellow, 14-18 mm. broad; pedicels rather stout, spreading, 10-14
mm. long in fruit; pods spreading or ascending, terete, constricted between the
seeds; beak flat, equalling or sometimes longer than the pod; seeds light brown.
Subspontaneous in
fields along the coast near Dorado, foxrnd only
by
Sintenis;
recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas, in 1852.
Not persistent in tropical regions.
United
States.
Native of Europe.
White Mustard.
2. Sinapis arvensis L. Sp. PI. 668.
1753.
Brassica Sinapistrum Boiss. Voy. Esp. 2: 39.
1839-45.
Erect, 3-6 dm. high, hispid with scattered stiff hairs, or glabrate.
Leaves
oblong to elliptic, dentate, denticulate or subpinnatifld
; flowers 1-1.6 cm. broad;
pedicels
stout; pods
glabrous,
spreading
or
ascending, somewhat
constricted
between the seeds, 1-1.6 cm. long, 2 mm. wide, tipped with a flattened elongated
conic often 1-seeded beak 10-12 mm. long, the valves strongly nerved.
Naturalized near Anguilla, St. Croix prior to 1879 (according to Eggers)
; not fouiid by
subsequent collectors:—Bermuda; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; North America.
Native
of Europe.
Charlock.
4. RADICULA HUl, Brit. Herb. 264.
1756.
Branching herbs, with simple or pinnate, lobed dissected or rarely entire
leaves, and small yellow flowers.
Sepals spreading.
Stamens 1-6.
Pods short,
terete or nearly so.
Stipe none.
Valves nerveless or l-nerved.
Style short or
slender.
Stigma 2-lobed or nearly entire.
Seeds turgid, minute, in 2 rows in
each
cell
or
very
rarely
in
1
row.
Cotyledons
accumbent.
[Name
Latin,
diminutive of radix,
root.]
About 50 species, of wide geographic distribution,
most abundant in the north temperate zone, known as YELLOw-rREss.
Type
species: Sisymbrium amphibium L.
Pods
linear, 4.5-12 mm.
long,
1.1-1.8 mm. broad; pedicels much
.
shorter than the pods.
,
1-
-K- portoricensis.
Pods short-elliptic, 2.5-5 mm. long, 2-2.5 mm. broad; pedicels equal-
Ung or longer than the pods.
2.
H. glaora.
1. Radicula portoricensis (Spreng.) Britton.
Nasturtiu77i palustre brevipes DC. Syst. 2: 192.
1821.
Nasturtium portoricense Spreng. Syst. 2: 882.
1825.
Nasturtium brevipes Griseb. Mem. Amer. Acad.
II.
8: 154.
Radicula brevipes Britton, Torreya 6: 30.
1906.
1860.
Annual, 1-3 dm. tall, glabrous or sparingly pubescent below, branched from
the base, the branches usually prostrate or nearly so, slender, 3 dm. long or less.
Leaves pinnately divided into several or numerous, oblong, ovate or suborbicular
dentate
segments, or
the
upper segments
confluent; racemes several-many-
flowered, 6-12 cm. long; pedicels about 1 mm. long; flowers about 1.5 mm. long;
petals minute or wanting; pods linear, 4.5-12 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide.
Wet grounds, river-banks and waste places, Porto Rico:—Bahamas; Cuba; His-
paniola.
BRASSICACEAE
329
2. Radicula palustris (L.) Moench, Meth. 263.
1794.
Nasturtium amphihumi palustre L. Sp.
PI. 687.
1753.
Nasturtium palustre DC. Syst. 2: 191.
1821.
Annual, 2.5-5 dm. tall, the glabrous stem often rather stout, branched above
the base, the branches 1-2.5 dm. long.
Leaves pinnately divided; flowers yellow;
pedicels 4-5 mm.
long, equalling or longer than the pods; pods short-elliptic,
2.6-5 mm. long, 2-2.5 mm. broad.
Waste grounds, Dos Bocas and Santurce, Porto Rico:—north temperate zone.
5. SISYMBRIUM [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 657.
1753.
An aquatic or uligenous herb, with pinnately divided
leaves, and small,
white flowers in terminal racemes.
Pods linear to linear-oblong,
slender-pedi-
celled, tipped with the rather stout style, the valves nerveless.
Seeds in 2 rows
in each
cell
of the
pod;
cotyledons accumbent.
[Ancient Greek name.]
A
monotypic genus of the Old World.
1. Sisymbrium Nasturtium-aquaticum L. Sp. PI. 657.
1753.
Cardamine fontana Lam. Encycl. 2: 185.
1786.
Nasturtium officinale R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew, ed. 2,
4: 110.
1812.
Nasturtium fontanum Aschers. Fl. Brand. 32.
1864.
Nasturtium roridulum Bello. Anales Soc. Hisp. Nat. 10: 236.
1881.
Nasturtium Nasturtium Cockerell, Bull. Torr. Club 19: 95.
1892.
Rorida Nasturtium Rusby, Mem. Torr. Club 3': 5.
1893.
Glabrous, rooting from the nodes.
Leaves odd-pinnate, of 3-9 segments,
the terminal one larger than the lateral, all obtuse, ovate or oval, or the terminal
one nearly orbicular; flowers white, 4-5 mm. broad; pods 1.2-3.5 cm. long, 2 mm.
wide, slightly curved upward, on pedicels of about their length.
In
rivulets,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Croix;
St.
Tlaomas:—-Cuba;
Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
Martinique;
Dominica;
St.
Vincent;
Barbados.
Widely
distributed
in
continental
America.
Native of Europe and Asia.
Used for salad.
Water-cress.
Berros.
6. CAKILE [Tourn.] Mill. Gard. Diet. abr. ed. 4.
1754.
Annual
glabrous
fleshy
herbs,
with
purplish
or
white
flowers.
Siliques
elongated,
flattened
or ridged,
indehiscent,
2-jointed,
the
joints
1-celled and
usually
1-seeded.
Style
none;
cotyledons
accumbent.
[Old
Ai-abic
name.]
A genus of about 3 species, natives of sea and lake shores of Europe and North
America.
Type species; Bunias Cakile L.
1. Cakile lanceolata (Willd.) O. E. Schulz in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 504.
1903.
Raphanus lanceolatus Willd. Sp. PI. 3: 562.
1801.
Cakile aequalis L'Her. DC. Syst. 2: 430.
1821.
Cakile lanceolata domingensis O.
E.
Schulz
in Urban, Symb. Ant.
3:
505.
1903.
Cakile lanceolata integrifolia O. E. Schulz, loc.
cit.
3: 507.
1903.
Erect or ascending, often much branched, 8 dm. high or less.
Basal and
lower leaves broadly oblong,
obtuse,
.5-8 cm.
long,
coarsely crenate-dentate
upper leaves
smaller, narrowly obovate
to oblong,
crenate-dentate or
entire;
flowers pale purplish, 6-10 mm. broad; fruiting racemes often 3 dm. long; fruiting
pedicels stout, ascending, 4-6 mm. long; pod 1.5-3 cm. long, its upper joint 1 J^-
4 times as long as the lower.
[Cakile americana of Krebs, not of Nuttall.]
Coastal sands and rocks, Porto Rico; Culebra; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—southern United States; Bermuda: West Indies and
northern South America.
MostacilLu\ del mar.
Sea-rocket.
330
CAPPARIDACEAE
RaphaAus sativus
L., Radish, Rabano, European, grown
in Porto Rico
and Virgin Island gardens,
is biennial with a fusiform or napiform root, lyrate-
pinnatifid leaves and pink or white flowers 1-2 cm. broad, the fleshy indehiscent
pods with a long conic beak.
Raphanus Raphanistrum L., Jointed Charlock, European, recorded by
West as formerly found on St. Croix,
is otherwise unknown in the West Indies,
but found in Bermuda; it resembles the preceding species, but has a deep slender
root and yellow flowers.
It is widely naturalized as a w^eed in continental North
America.
Koniga maritima
(L.)
R.
Br., Sweet Alyssum, commonly grown
for
ornament in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens,
is a low perennial, its stems
procumbent or ascending,
1-3 dm.
high,
its linear or lanceolate, entire leaves
1-5 cm. long; its fragrant white flowers are 4-5 mm. wide, in terminal racemes,
the oval pods 2—3 mm. long.
[Clypeola maritima L.
; Alyssum inaritimum Lam.]
Iberis amara L.
Candy Tuft, European, grown as a garden flower
in
Porto Rico,
is a low annual with white or purplish corymbose flowers, the pods
small, 2-lobed.
Family 3.
CAPPARIDACEAE Lindl.
Caper Family.
Herbs, shrubs or
trees, with alternate
or rarely opposite
leaves, and
regular or
irregular, mostly perfect
flowers.
Sepals 4-8,
free or more
or
less united.
Petals
4, or rarely more, or sometimes wanting.
Receptacle
elongated or short.
Stamens 4-oo
; filaments distinct or united at the base
and sometimes adnate
to
the
stalk
of
the ovar3^
Style generally
short.
Ovules
oc, on
parietal placentae.
Fruit a
capsule,
or indehiscent,
or
ir-
regularly
rupturing.
Seeds
various;
endosperm
none;
embrj^o
generally
coiled.
About 35 genera and 450 species, mostly of warm regions.
Mostly annual herbs
(sometimes slirubby);
fruit a longitudinally
de-
hiscent capsule.
1.
Cleoine.
Slirubs and trees; fruit indeliiscent or irregularly rupturing.
Sepals free, or the two outer imited.
2.
Capparis.
Sepals united.
3. Morisonia.
1. CLEOME L. Sp. PI. 671.
17.53.
Glabrous or glandular herbs or low shrubs.
Leaves digitately 3-7 foliolate
or simple.
Flowers solitary or in leafy-bracteti racemes.
Calyx 4-divided or of
4 sepals.
Petals
4, nearly equal,
entire, more or less clawed.
Stamens 4-30,
sometimes borne on a gynophore.
Ovary stalked or sessile.
Capsule elongated,
many-seeded.
Seeds conduplicate, with a rugose, ridged, or tuberculate testa.
[Derivation
uncertain.]
About 75
species, mainly natives
of tropical regions,
especially American and African.
Type species: Cleome gynandra L.
1. Stamens borne on a gynophore; petals white or pink.
Bracts trifoliolate
; petals 1-1. .5 cm. long.
1.
C. gynandra.
Bracts simple; petals 2.5-3.5 cm. long.
2.
C. speciosa.
2. Stamens borne below the gynophore.
Stamens 4-6.
Leaves 3-7-foliolate.
Stipular prickles 2; petals white to piu-ple.
Leaflets 5 or 7, rarely 3; gynophore 2.5-5 cm. long.
3.
C. spinosa.
Leaflets 3; capsule ses.sile.
4.
C. aculeata.
Without prickles; leaflets 3; gynophore 0.5-1 cm. long.
5.
C.
clliatd.
Leaves simple; petals yellow.
6.
C. stenophylla.
Stamens 12-20; petals yellow.
7.
C. icosandra.
CAPPARIDACEAE
331
1. Cleome gynandra L. Sp. PI. 671.
17.53.
Cleome peniaphylla L. Sp. PI. ed.
2, 938.
1763.
Pediccllaria pentaphylla Schrank; Roem. & Ust. Mag. Bot. 8: 11.
1790.
Gynandropsis pentaphylla DC. Prodr.
1: 238.
1824.
Gynandropsis gynandra Briquet, Ann. Cons. Jard. Bot. Geneve 17: 382.
1914.
An erect, glandular-pubescent, annual herb.
Stem .S-10 dm. tall, branching;
leaves digitately 3- or 5-foliolate;
leaflets
elliptic to oval or obovate, 2-6 cm.
long,
1-3. .5 cm. broad, obtuse, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, narrowly
or broadly cuneate
at the
base,
entire
or minutely
denticulate; racemes
1-4
dm. long; bracts trifoliolate
; sepals lanceolate, 3.5-5 mm. long, acuminate; petals
not imbricate in bud, white or pink, 1-1.5 cm. long, the blades often longer than
the claws; stamens
6, inserted upon the
filiform gynophore; capsule
cylindric,
4-9 cm. long,
2. .5-4 mm. thick, gynophore l.S-3 cm. long, the upper part often
only
half as long
as the lower;
pedicels glandular-pubescent,
1-2.3 cm.
long;
seeds 1.5-2 mm. broad, coarsely rugose and muricate.
[? C. pubescens of Krebs.]
Waste and cultivated groiinds, Porto Rico: Mona: Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—southern United States; Bermuda; West Indies; continental tropical America.
Native of the Old World.
Small Spider-flower.
Jasmin del Rio.
White Mas-
SAMBEE.
2. Cleome speciosa H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 84.
1821.
Gynandropis speciosa DC. Prodr.
1: 238.
1824.
An erect glabrous or pubescent herb.
Leaves digitately 5- or 7-foliolate;
leaflets narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, 6-14 cm. long, 2-4 cm. broad, sometimes
larger, acuminate to long-acuminate at the ape.x, cuneate at the base, entire or
minutely toothed; racemes 1-3.5 dm. or more long; bracts simple, ovate to or-
bicular, cordate at the base; sepals narrowly lanceolate, 4-6 mm. long, acuminate;
petals imbricate in bud; pink or occasionally white, 2.5-3 cm. long, the blades
longer than the claws; stamens
6, inserted upon the filiform gynophore; capsule
6-10 cm.
long, about 4 mm.
thick; gynophore 5-6.5 cm.
long, the upper part
about 6 or 7 times as long as the lower; pedicels glabrous or nearly so, 1.5-4.5
cm. long; seeds about 3 mm. in diameter, often muricate.
Spontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Guadeloupe; Martinique.
Native of continental tropical America.
Volatines PRECIOSOS.
3. Cleome spinosa Jacq. Enum. 26.
1760.
Cleome pungens Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. 2: 689.
1809.
Cleome spinosa
f. pungens Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
13':
2,53.
1865.
A more
or
less
glandular-pubescent
herb 6-15 dm.
high.
Leaves
5- or
7-foliolate,
the
lower
long-petioled,
the upper passing
into
the simple ovate
or roundish subcordate bracts of the raceme; petioles often with 2 prickles at the
base; leaflets lanceolate, 2.5-9 cm. long, 0.7-3 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex,
cuneate or inequilaterally rounded at the base; racemes
1 dm. long or longer;
flowers long-pedicelled
; .sepals narrowly lanceolate, 7-8 mm. long; petals purplish
or whitish, obovate, about 2 cm. long, long-clawed; stamens
6, inserteil upon a
conic disk below the filiform gynophore of the ovary;
stigma sessile;
pedicels
2-3.4 cm. long, more or less glandular pubescent; capsule usually longer than the
gynophore, 6-13 cm. long, 3-3.5 mm. thick; seeds about 2 cm. broad.
Waste and
cultivated
groiuids,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan:
southern United
States; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe
to
Trinidad; con-
tinental tropical America.
Recorded from tropical Africa.
Spider flower.
JasMin
del Rio.
S.\mbo. Volatines punzantes.
Wild Massambee.
4. Cleome aculeata L. Syst. ed.
12, 232.
1768.
A
diffu.se glandular-puberulent herb,
2..5-9 dm.
tall, with stipular prickles.
Lower leaves digitately
3-foliolate, the upper passing into the simple ovate or
oval, often subcordate, sessile bracts;
leaflets
elliptic, obovate or elliptic-ovate,
332
CAPPARIDACEAE
1.5-6.5 cm. long, 0.8-3.5 cm. broad, obtuse or acutish at the apex, more or less
inequilateral at the base; flowers solitary,
axillary; sepals narrowly lanceolate,
or oblong, 2-3 mm. long; petals white, about 5 mm.
long, clawed; stamens
6,
inserted upon the disk; capsule linear-cylindric, 2.5-5.5 cm. long, 3-4 mm. thick,
subsessUe, striate, the filiform pedicel 1-2.5 cm. long; seeds reticulate-tuberculate,
about 2.5 mm. in diameter.
Waste groTind near Isabel Segiinda, Vieques:—Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Dominica;
IMartinique; Grenada; Trinidad; South America and tropical Africa.
5. Cleome ciliata Schum. & Thom. Vid. Selsk. Afh. 4: 68.
1829.
An
erect or sometimes
trailing, glabrous or sparsely
pilose
herb.
Leaves
digitately 3-foliolate,
rarely 5-foliolate, the lower ones long-petioled, the upper
sessile or nearly so;
leaflets elliptic or lanceolate; 9-25 mm.
long, 4.5-12 mm.
broad, acute or obtuse at the apex, more or less cuneate and often inequilateral
at the base, minutely or obsoletely ciliolate
; flowers solitary, axillary
; sepals nar-
rowly lanceolate,
2.7-3 mm.
long;
petals 5-6 mm.
long, white or
white-lilac;
stamens 6; capsule linear-cylindric, 2.5-6 cm.
long, about 3.5 mm.
thick, pro-
minently nerved, several times longer than the short gynophore
; pedicels slender,
13-20 mm. long; seeds transvei'sely ridged, 1.5-2 mm. in diameter.
Waste and cultivated grounds, Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica.
Native of tropical
Africa.
6. Cleome stenophylla Klotzsch; Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 251.
1905.
Physostemon lanceolatum Eichl. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
13^: 244, in part.
1865.
An erect glabrous branching annual, 12-40 cm. high.
Leaves simple, linear.
2.5-5 cm. long, 1-4.5 mm. broad, acute at the apex, obtuse at the base, jointed
with the petiole, the margin more or less revolute; flowers axillary; sepals oblong.
2.8-3 mm.
long,
acuminate;
petals
yellow,
elliptic-oblong,
4-4.5 mm.
long,
1.5-1.8 mm. broad; fllaments flliform, the anthers elliptic; capsule sessile, linear-
cylindric,
1-3.5 mm.
long,
longitudinally nerved; seeds about
1.2 mm.
in
di-
ameter, tuberculate and ridged.
Dry open places at low elevations, southwestern dry districts of Porto Rico:—St.
Barts; Bonaire; Curagao; Guiana.
7. Cleome icosandra L. Sp. PI. 672.
1753.
Cleome viscosa L. Sp. PL 672.
1753.
Polanisia viscosa DC. Prodr. 1: 242.
1824.
Polanisia icosandra Wight & Arn. Prodr. 22.
1834.
An
erect viscid-glandular annual,
3-9 dm.
tall.
Leaves
digitately
3- or
5-foliolate;
leaflets obovate, oblanceolate or elliptic,
1-7.5 cm.
long, 0.7-3 cm.
broad, acute to acuminate, rarely obtuse at the apex, often inequilateral at the
base, the margin glandular-ciliate; flowers solitary in the axils of the upper leaves:
sepals oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate 6.5-8 mm.
long; petals yellow, obovate,
about
1 cm. long; stamens 12-20, free; capsule cylindric, 5.5-10 cm. long, 4-4.5
mm. thick; tapering to the apex, striate; viscid-glandular; seeds about
1.8 mm.
in diameter, flattened, transversely ridged.
Waste and cultivated grotmds, St. Croix; St. Thomas; Tortola:—-Bermuda; Cuba;
Jamaica; St. :Martia to Tobago.
Natiu-alized from the Old World tropics.
Cleome serrata Jacq., [C.
triphylla DC] listed by Krebs as found in
St.
Thomas prior to 1851,
is not otherwise recorded within the geographical area of
this Flora, and is not known to exist in St. Thomas now.
It occurs in Jamaica,
Cuba, Hispaniola and continental tropical America.
CAPPARIDACEAE
333
2. CAPPARIS L. Sp.
PI. 503.
1753.
Trees or shrubs, with simple, mostly coriaceous leaves, sometimes stipulate
on young or barren shoots, and large corymbose, mostly white flowers.
Sepals 4,
distinct or partly united, often with a gland at the
base.
Petals
4,
distinct.
Imbricated.
Stamens
several
or
usually
many,
the
filaments
filiform,
the
anthers
short.
Ovary
stalked,
1-4-celled; ovules few or many,
usually on
2
parietal
placentae;
style
none;
stigma
depressed.
Fruit
elongated-linear,
or
oblong,
or short and subglobose,
indehiscent,
or irregularly rupturing.
Seeds
without endosperm; embryo
convolute;
cotyledons
fleshy.
[From
the Greek
name of the Caper-tree,
Capparis spinosa
L., of Europe.]
About 150 species,
natives of tropical and
subtropical
regions,
in Porto
Rico laiown
as Burro.
Type species: Capparis spinosa L.
Leaves scaly beneath; calyx-lobes not imbricated.
Calyx-lobes open
in bud,
2-2.8 mm.
long;
petals densely
stellate-tomentose on the back.
1.
C. indica.
Sepals
distinct, valvate, 8-12 mm.
long, nearly as long as
the petals; petals densely peltate-scaly on the back.
2.
C. cynophallophora.
Leaves glabrous; calyx-lobes imbricated.
Calyx 5-6 mm.
broad; stamens
as long
as
the
petals
or
slightly longer.
3.
C. baducca.
Calyx
1 cm. or more broad; stamens much longer than the
petals.
Fruit
tornlose,
long-linear,
6-20
cm.
long,
1-1.5
cm.
tliick; leaf-blades coriaceous, linear to elliptic, roimded
or acute at the base.
4.
C. flexuosa.
Fruit not torulose.
Fruit
oblong,
compressed,
10-18
cm.
long,
3
cm.
broad; leaf-blades rigid-coriaceous, elliptic to oval,
roimded and usually subcordate at the base.
5.
C. coccolobifolia.
Fruit
elliptic
or obovate,
3-6 cm.
long,
1.5-2 cm.
broad;
leaf-blades
subcoriaceous,
elliptic
to
oval
or obovate, obtuse or acute at the base.
6.
C. porloricensis.
1. Capparis indica (L.) Fawc. & Rendle, Journ. Bot. 52: 144.
1914.
Breynia indica L. Sp. PI. 503.
1753.
^
Capparis Breynia L. Syst. ed. 10, 1071.
1759.
Capparis amyrjdalifolia Jacq. Enum. 24: 17G0.
Capparis atnygdalina Lam. Encyc.
1: 60S.
1785.
A shrub or small
tree 2-8 m. tall, the
angled twigs densely scaly.
Leaves
narrowly elliptic to elliptic or obovate, 5-11 cm. long, 2-4.5 cm. broad, acute or
occasionally obtuse at the apex, acute or obtuse at the base, glabrous and rather
faintly
reticulate-veined above, silvery-scaly beneath,
the
lateral veins usually
distinct;
petioles scaly, 4-16 mm.
lojig; corymbs few-flowered;
pedicels
scaly,
5-15 mm. long; flowers fragrant; calyx small,
scaly,
4. .5-5. 5 mm.
in diameter,
deeply
4-cleft,
the
lotjes narrowly
triangular, 2-2.8 mm.
long,
acute, open
in
bud; petals white,
elliptic or obovate, 10-12 mm. long, scaly-tomentose on the
back, tomentose on the inside; fruit linear, torulose, dry, 5-25 cm. long, 6-7 mm.
wide, scaly.
[C. furfuracea of Sesse and Mogino;
C. Grisebachii of Millspaugh.]
Thickets, woods and hillsides at lower elevations, eastern and southern districts of
Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. .Tan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica;
St. Barts to Barbados; continental tropical America.
Lixgu.\m.
2. Capparis cynophallophora L. Sp.
Pi.
.504.
1753.
Capparis siliquosa L. Syst. ed.
10, 1071.
In part.
1759.
Capparis jamaicensis Jacq. Enum. 23.
1760.
Capparis torulosa Sw. Prodr. 81.
1788.
Capparis emarginaia A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 10: 28.
1845.
Capparis jamaicensis emarginata Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 18: 1859.
Capparis jamaicensis siliquosa Griseb.
loc.
cit.
1859.
334
CAPPAKIDACEAE
Capparis jamaicensis vmrgindta Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus. 13:25.
1879.
Capparis Breynia Sw. Obs. 210.
1791.
Not L.
17.59.
Capparis Breynia atropitrpurea Bello, Anal.
Soc. Esp.
Hist. Nat.
10: 237.
1881.
Capparis Breynia rosea Bello, loc.
clt.
1881.
A shrub or a tree up to about 15 m. high, with a trunk diameter reaching 2
or 3 dm., the dark brown, furrowed, the slender, angular twigs densely scaly.
Leaves elliptic or oblong, coriaceous, 4-12 cm. long, 2-6 cm. wide, or those of
shoots narrowly
linear, sometimes 3 dm. long and only 3-10 mm. wide, acute,
obtuse or emarginate at the apex, narrowed ao the base, glabrous and shining
above, densely silvery-scaly and with the lateral venation usually obsolete be-
neath, the scaly petioles 1-3 cm.
long; corymbs few-several-flowered; pedicels
stout, scaly, 0.5-3 cm. long; flowers fragrant; flower-bud 4-angled; sepals distinct,
valvate, 8-12 mm. long, densely scaly, reflexed, nearly as long as the white petals;
stamens numerous, purplish, 2-3 times as long as the petals, the anthers yellow;
fruit narrowly
linear,
scaly,
torulose, drooping,
8 cm.-3.5 dm.
long, 6-8 mm.
thick, irregularly rupturing, scarcely fleshy, usually much longer than the gyno-
phore.
[?
C.
linearis of AVest;
C.
nitida of Sessg & Mogino;
?
C. intermedia of
Krebs.]
Coastal liills and thickets, Porto Rico; Mona; Desecheo; Icacos; Culebra; St. Croix;
St Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola;—Florida; West Indies; also recorded from Mexico, Central
America and
northern
South America.
Black wattle.
Bl.\ck willow.
Bejuco
INGLES.
Consists of many races, differing mainly in size and shape of leaves.
3. Capparis baducca L. Sp. PI. 504.
1753.
Capparis frondosa Jacq. Enum. 24.
1760.
A glabrous shrub,
or a small tree sometimes 8 m.
tall.
Leaves
elliptic-
oblong,
occasionally
elliptic-obovate,
coriaceous,
0.8-3 dm.
long,
3.5-9.5 cm.
broad, acute or acuminate
at the apex, rounded and subcordate
at the
base,
reticulate-veined on both sides, the petioles 0.5-5 cm. long; corymbs few-several-
flowered;
pedicels 6-14 mm.
long;
flowers odorless; calyx
small, 5-6 mm.
in
diameter, the lobes suborbicular, imbricated at the base, 1.5-2 mm. long; petals
obovate, 9-11 mm. long, 7-8 mm. broad, pale greenish white or purplish; stamens
as long
as the petals;
fruit short, narrowly oblong, 3-7.5 cm. long; irregularly
nodose-torose.
Woods and thickets in moist
districts, Porto Rico: Cidebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St
Thomas;
St. Jan
(according
to Eggers); Tortola:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispamola
to
Trinidad; Central and South America.
Rat-bean.
Sapo.
4. Capparis flexuosa L. Sp. Pi. ed.
2, 722.
1762.
Capparis cynophallophora L. Syst. ed.
10, 1071.
In part.
1759.
Not
C.
cynophallophora L.
1753.
Capparis hasiata L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 722.
1762.
Capparis saligna Vahl, Symb. 3: 66.
1794.
Capparis pauciflora H. B. K., Nov. Gen.
5: 89.
1821.
Capparis cynophallophora saligna Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I.
18.
1859.
Capparis cynophallophora normalis Eichl. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 13: 282.
1865.
Capparis cynophallophora angustifolia Eichl.
loc.
cit. 283.
1865.
Capparis cynophallophora micraphylla Eichl. loc. cit.
1865.
Capparis cynophallophora
longifolia
Bello,
Anal.
Soc.
Hist.
Nat.
10: 237.
1881.
Capparis cynophallojjhora
hiflora Bello, loc.
cit.
1881.
Capparis cynophallophora triflora Bello, loc. cit.
1881.
Capparis cynophallophora elliptica Bello, loc. cit.
1881.
Capparis cynophallophora mollis Bello, loc. cit.
1881.
A glabrous shrub, or a tree up to 9 mm. high, with a trunk 2 dm. in diameter,
the bark brown, the branches slender, sometimes vine-like.
Leaves elliptic to
oblong, lanceolate to linear, coriaceous, 4-12 cm. long, 1-5.2 cm. broad,
obtuse^
CAPPARIDACEAE
335
emarginate or sometimes acute at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the base,
reticulate-veined on both sides, the rather stout petioles 3-11 mm. long, with a
small
sessile,
oblong
or subglobose
gland
in
the
axil; corymbs
few-flowered;
pedicels stout, 12 mm. long or less; flowers fragrant; sepals suborbicular, 4-7 mm.
long, imbricated the outer smaller than the inner; petals white to rose, obovate,
1.5-2 cm. long; stamens numerous, about 3 times as long as the petals, the
fila-
ments white; fruit long-linear, 6-20 cm. long, 1-1.5 cm. thick, more or less toru-
lose, about twice as long as the slender gynophore, tardily opening longitudinally
Its pulp scarlet.
Woods,
hillsides and thickets at Iowqt elevations near the
coasts, mostly
in
dry
districts, Porto Rico; Mona; Deseclieo; Icacos; Vieques; St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan;
Tortola;
Virgiii Gorda:—Florida; West Indies; continental tropical America.
C.\per-
TREE.
Palinguan.
Consists of many races, differing mainly in size and shape of leaves.
5.
Capparis coccolobifolia Mart.; Eichl. in Mart. Fl. Bras. IS^: 284.
1865.
Capparis cynophallophora latifolia Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I.
18.
1859.
Capparis latifolia Stahl, Est. 2: 186.
1884.
A shrub 3-5 m. high, or a small tree sometimes attaining a height of 10 m.,
the bark
gray, smooth.
Leaves
oblong-elliptic
to
oval,
occasionally
elliptic-
ovate, coriaceous, 5-11 cm. long, 3-8.5 cm.
l:)road, obtuse or rounded and often
notched at the apex, rounded and frequently subcordate at the base, reticulate-
veined and glabrous on both
sides, the stout petioles 5-10 mm.
long, usually
with a small capitate gland in the axil; corymbs few-flowered; pedicels stout,
6-20 mm. long, minutely puberulenticalyx often minutely puberulent, especially
near the base, the lobes suborbicular,^-6 mm. long, imbricated, the outer smaller
than the inner; petals white, elliptic to oval, 1.8-2.3 cm. long, 13-15 mm. broad,
rounded at the apex, glabrous; stamens numerous, about 3 times as long as the
petals; friut oblong, compressed, 10-18 cm. long, 3 cm. broad.
Woods, thickets and arroyos, eastern and southern dry districts of Porto Rico at
lower elevations; Vieques; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—Antigua to Trinidad
;
Cm-acao; northern South America.
Broad-leaved Caper-tree.
6. Capparis portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 309.
1899.
Capparis cynophallophora acutifolia Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 237.
1881.
A
tree 6-20 m.
tall,
the young
twigs
glabrous
or minutely puberulent.
Leaves elliptic to oval, or obovate, subcoriaceous, 4-11.5 cm. long, 2.5-5.5 cm.
broad, rounded, obtuse or short and obtusely acuminate at the apex, obtuse or
acute at the base, glabrous on both sides, the petioles 5-10 mm. long; inflorescence
few-flowered; pedicels 7-15 mm. long; sepals biseriate, orbicular, the outer 6 mm.
long, the
inner 12-14 mm.
long;
petals
white, obovate-oblong, 2 cm. long
or
longer, about 1 cm. broad; fruit elliptic or obovate, 3-6 cm. long, 1.5-2 cm. broad.
[C. verrucosa of Stahl;
? C. baducca Sesse & Mogino; mistaken by Cook & Collins
and illustrated for C. cynophallophora L.]
Woods and thickets, southwestern dry districts of Porto Rico, at lower elevations;
Vieques;
St.
Jan:—Dominica.
Tlie wood
is
nearly
white,
ratlier
hard and
heavy.
Burro blanco.
Capparis verrucosa .Jacq.
is recorded from St. Thomas by Grisebach and
from the Virgin Islands by Eggers, but has not been detected on any island of
the archipelago by recent collectors.
Capparis ferruginea
L.,
a shrub
or small
tree of Jamaica, Cuba and
Hispaniola,
with
oblong-lanceolate
leaves densely covered
with
stellate
hairs,
was erroneously recorded by Krebs as found in St. Thomas.
336
MORINGACEAE
Capparis tenuisiliqua Jacq.,
of the southern West Indies and northern
South America, was also recorded by Krebs as found In
St. Thomas;
If so,
It
must have been planted there.
Capparis spinosa L.
Caper Bush, native of the Mediterranean region,
a spiny shrul), the flower buds of which, pickled,
are the capers of commerce,
also recorded by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas, may have been planted there.
Capparis eustachiana Jacq., of St. Eustatius and recorded from Antigua,
was also listed by Krebs as found in St. Thomas.
3. MORISONIA L. Sp. PI. 503.
1753.
Unarmed trees or shrubs with simple coriaceous leaves.
Calyx irregularly
rupturing into 2 valves
or
2-4-cleft.
Petals
4.
Stamens
6-20,
the
filaments
subulate, inserted on the disc; anthers oblong.
Ovary 1-celled, or the 4 parietal
placentas meeting in the center and making it falsely 4- or 8-celled.
Ovules
oo
;
stigma discoid
;
sessile.
Berry subglobose.
Seeds
cc
; testa crustaceous
; coty-
ledons
fleshy,
convolute;
radicle
fusiform.
[Dedicated
to
Robert
Morison,
1620-1683, professor of botany at Oxford.]
About 5 species, natives of the AYest
Indies and South America.
Type species: Morisonia ainericana L.
1. Morisonia americana L. Sp. PI. 503.
1753.
A shrub or small
tree, sometimes 10 m.
high,
the twigs and
foliage scaly
when
young,
glabrous
in
age.
Leaves
coriaceous,
oblong
to
oblong-elllptlc,
8-25 cm. long, 2.5-9.5 cm. broad, rounded, obtuse or occasionally rather abruptly
and bluntly acuminate at the apex, rounded and frequently subcordate at the
base,
finely and
often
rather
indistinctly
reticulate-veined on
both
surfaces;
petioles 2-6 cm. long, slightly enlarged at both base and apex; corymbs short-
stalked, the branches scaly; calyx closed in the ovoid bud, bifid by rupture, about
half as long as the white petals; petals obovate, 1-1.2 cm. long, 5..5-6 mm. broad,
scaly on the back, more or less downy within; ovary longitudinally striate; fruit
subglobose, 3.5-4 cm. or more in diameter; seeds 7-10 mm. In diameter.
[? M.
americana subpeltata of Eggers.]
Wooded
hillsides,
Desecheo;
Culebra; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tortola:—Lesser Antilles; northern South America.
Wild Mespili.
Crataeva Tapia L., Garlic Pear-tree, of Jamaica and continental tropical
America, was recorded by Krebs as formerly found in St. Thomas; if the record
is correct,
it must have been planted there.
Crataeva differs from Capparis In
having 3-foliolate leaves and globose berries.
Crataeva gynandra L., a similar tree, was also recorded by Krebs from St.
Thomas, perhaps in cultivation.
Family 4.
MORINGACEAE Dumort.
Horseradish-tree Family.
Trees with alternate, 2-3-pinnate, deciduous leaves, and perfect, slightly
irregular flowers in large axillary panicles.
Sepals
5, unequal, imbricated,
reflexed or spreading, slightly united at the base.
Petals
5, somewhat un-
equal,
the lower one
reflexed.
Stamens
5, with slender filaments and
1-
celled anthers alternating with as many staminodia.
Ovary
1-celled, with
MORINGACEAE
337
3
parietal
placentae,
bearing numerous
pendulous
ovules;
style
slender;
stigma
minute.
Capsule
elongated,
angled,
beaked,
3-valved.
Seeds
3-
winged or wingless; endosperm none; embryo straight,
tlie cotyledons large.
Onlj^ the following genus.
1. MORINGA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 31.S.
1763.
Characters of the family.
[Malabar name.]
Three known species, natives
of Asia and Africa, the following typical.
1. Moringa Moringa (L.) Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 1: 490.
1902.
Guilandina Moringa L. Sp. PI. 381.
1753.
Moringa oleifera Lam. Encycl.
1: 398.
1783.
Moringa pterygosperma Gaertn. Fr. & Sem.
2: 314.
1791.
A tree, up to 9 m. high, the roots Avith the taste and odor of horseradish,
the bark corky,
rough,
the puberulent
twigs
slender.
Leaves 3-6 dm.
long,
their segments and leaflets opposite; leaflets numerous,
thin, oblong to obovate,
1-2 cm.
long,
obtuse,
entire;
flowers numerous,
fragrant;
pedicels
r,-10 mm.
long; sepals linear to linear-oblong, 9-13 mm. long, reflexed; petals nearly white,
a little larger than the sepals; capsule linear, 3-angled, pendulous, 2-4.5 dm. long,
1-2 cm. thick; seeds winged, 2.5-3 cm. long.
Spontaneous
after
cultivation
in Porto
Rico, and
widely planted;
Vieques;
St.
Thomas
; St. Jan; St. Croix; Virgin Gorda:—Florida; West Indies and continental tropical
America.
Native of the East Indies.
It yields the lubricating oil of ben.
Horseradish
Tree.
Ben.
AxgeLu\.
J.\smin Frances.
Order 13.
ROSALES.
Herbs,
shrubs
or
trees.
Leaves
alternate,
opposite
or whorled,
the
blades
simple
or
compound.
Flowers
perfect,
occasionall.v
monoecious,
dioecious or polygamous, regular or irregular.
Calyx of distinct or partially
united sepals, or sometimes 2-lipped.
Corolla of as manj' distinct petals as
there are sepals, or of partially united petals, or rarely wanting.
Stamens as
many
as the
sepals and
petals, or twice as many or more, the filaments
distinct
or
partially united.
Carpels one or more,
distinct
or sometimes
united into a compound ovary.
Fruit various.
Seed with
or without en-
dosperm.
Flowers regular or nearly so.
Endosperm present, usually copious and fleshy.
Herbs; fruit of 4 follicles.
Shrubs or trees; capsule 2-valved.
Endosperm wanting or scant.
Seed with a fimbriate or rugose aril.
Seed without an aril.
Carpels several or numerous, or
if solitary be-
coming an achene.
Carpel solitary, not becoming an achene.
Ovary
with
2
ovules;
leaf-blades
simple;
fruit a drupe.
Ovary
bearing
several
o\iiles;
leaf-blades
pinnate.
Petals valvate in the bud.
Petals imbricate in the bud.
Flowers irregular.
Fruit a legume; upper petal enclosed by the lateral
ones in the bud; leaves compound.
Fruit spiny, indeliiscent
; leaves mostly simple.
Fruit a legume or loment or indehlscent
; upper petals
enclosing the lateral ones in the bud; leaves com-
pound, sometimes imifoliolate.
Fam.
Fam.
338
CRASSULACEAE
Pamily
1.
CRASSULACEAE DC.
Orpine Family.
Herbs, or somewhat shrubby plants, mostlj^ fleshy or succulent, with
cymose or rarely solitary regular
or symmetrical
flowers.
Stipules none.
Calyx persistent,
free from the ovary or ovaries, 4-toothed or 4-parted in
our species.
Petals or corolla-lobes equal in number to the calyx-lobes or
calyx-segments, usually
persistent, rarely wanting.
Stamens of the same
number or twice as many as the petals or corolla-lobes; anthers longitudin-
ally dehiscent.
Receptacle with a scale at the base of each carpel.
Carpels
equal
in number
to
the
sepals
or
calyx-lobes,
distinct,
or united
below;
styles subulate or
filiform
; ovules numerous, arranged
in 2 rows along the
ventral
suture.
Follicles
1-celled,
dehiscent
along
the
ventral
suture.
Seeds minute; endosperm fleshy; embryo terete; cotyledons short.
About
30 genera and 600 species, of wide geographic distribution.
Calyx inflated, 4-toothed.
1. Bryophyllum.
Calyx 4-parted.
2. Kalanchoe.
1. BRYOPHYLLUM Salisb. Par. Lond.
pi.
3.
1805.
Upright herbs.
Leaves opposite, simple or pinnately compoinid, the leaflets
mostly toothed.
Flowers perfect,
often showy, nodding,
in cymes or panicles
opposite the branches.
Calyx inflated, 4-toothed.
Corolla nearly campanulate,
or urn-shaped, the narrow limb with 4 spreading lobes.
Stamens 8, in 2 series,
adnate to about the middle of the corolla-tube
; filaments filiform
; anthers mostly
exserted.
Carpels
4,
distinct or partially united.
Ovules many.
Follicles
4.
Seeds nimierous.
[Greek, sprouting leaf.]
Four known species of South Africa,
Asia and Madagascar, the following typical.
1. Bryophyllum pinnatum (Lam.) Kurz, Jour. Asiat. Soc. Beng. 40-: 52.
1871.
Cotyledon piiinata Lam. Encycl. 2: 141.
1786.
Bryophyllum calycinum Salisb. Par. Lond.
pi. 3
1805.
Perennial,
fleshy,
glabrous.
Stems 4-15 dm.
tall,
branched;
leaf-blades
often pinnately compound, 1-3 dm. long; leaflets oblong, oval or elliptic, obtuse,
crenate, the terminal one several times longer than the lateral ones
; panicles 1-4
dm.
long,
conspicuous;
calyx
bladder-like,
finally
oblong-campanulate,
3-3.5
cm.
long,
glabrous; corolla reddish, twice as long as the calyx or shorter,
its
lobes lanceolate or narrowly ovate, acute.
Banks and thickets in dry soil, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan;
Tortola; Anegada:—Florida; Bermuda.
West
Indies;
continental
tropical America;
Old World tropics.
Pi-obably native of Asia.
The plant
is succulent and highly ten-
acious of life; buds form in the leaf-margins, and roots develop from
small
fragments.
Life Plant.
Bruj.^.
2. KALANCHOE Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 248.
1763.
Erect herbs, sometimes a
little woody, with opposite leaves and panicled
flowers, often showy.
Calyx 4-parted, shorter than the corolla.
Corolla salver-
form, with a swollen tube and a spreading, 4-parted limb.
Stamens usually 8,
in 2 series on the corolla-tube, the filaments very short.
Carpels 4, lanceolate,
adnate
to the base of the corolla-tube; ovules many.
Follicles many-seeded.
[Chinese name.]
Twenty species or more,
all but the following natives of Asia
and Africa.
Type species: Cotyledon laciniata L.
CUNONIACEAE
339
1. Kalanchoe brasiliensis Camb. in
St-.
Hil.
Fl. Bras. Mer.
2: 196.
1829.
Herbaceous, perennial, 3-10 dm. high, glandular-pubescent above.
Leaves
ovate to obovate, short-petioled, 5-10 cm. long, faintly pinnately veined, crenate-
dentate,
or the upper pairs
lanceolate, much smaller and
entire; inflorescence
1-3 dm. long, cymose-paniculate, its branches nearly erect, the bracts very small,
flowers yellow,
12-16 mm.
long; sepals lanceolate, glandular-pubescent,
acute;
corolla-tube 2-3 times as long as the calyx, the limb spreading; stamens borne
on the corolla-tube a little above the middle, not exserted; follicles about 6 mm.
long, the brown seeds oblong.
Spontaneous after cultivation in flower gardens, St. Thomas:—Bermuda; Bahamas;
Cuba.
Native of Brazil.
Species of the genus Echeveria, Mexican, with rosettes of fleshy, ovate to
lanceolate leaves, the mostly red flowers racemose or panicled on erect scapes,
the corolla 5-angled, are occasionally planted for ornament
in Porto Rico and
Virgin Island gardens.
Liquidambar
Styraiciflua
L., Sweet Gum, of eastern North America,
a large tree with star-shaped leaves, the small monoecious flowers capitate, has
been experimentally planted for forest purposes in Porto Rico.
It is a member
of the
Family Haitiamelidaceae.
West
Indian
climates
are
probably
too
continuously warm for its successful development.
Family 2.
CUNONIACEAE R. Br.
CuNONiA Family.
Shrubs
or
trees.
Leaves
opposite,
or
rarely
ternate
or
verticillate,
stipulate, simple or compound.
Flowers small, mostly perfect, sometimes
polygamous or dioecious.
Sepals 4 or 5.
Petals 4 or 5.
Stamens as many
as the petals, twice as many, or sometimes more, inserted under the margin
of the disk; filaments slender; anthers 2-celled.
Carpels usually
2, united
into a 2-celled ovary, or distinct; ovules usually numerous and in 2 rows on
the
placenta.
Fruit mostly
capsular
or
follicular.
Seeds
several
or nu-
merous,
often winged; embryo small; endosperm
present; cotyledons
flat
or
convex.
About
20
genera and
125
species,
mostly
of
the southern
hemisphere.
1. WEINMANNIA L. Syst. ed.
10. 1005.
1759.
Shrubs or trees with opposite, odd-pinnate or rarely simple leaves, the rachls
often winged.
Stipules deciduous.
Inflorescence racemose, terminal or axillary.
Flowers small, perfect or polygamo-dioecious.
Sepals 4 or 5, imbricate.
Petals
inserted under the margin of a lobed disk, caducous.
Stamens 8 or 10; filaments
flhform; anthers small.
Ovary superior, 2-celled, rarely 3-celled; styles 2, rarely
3,
subulate,
persistent,
with
simple
stigmas.
Ovules
several
or
numerous,
biseriate.
Capsule small,
2-celled,
septicidally 2-valved,
few-seeded
to many-
seeded.
Seeds oblong or reniform, the testa thin; embryo terete.
[Dedicated to
Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, druggist
at
Regensburg,
died
1734.)
About
75
species, natives
of the West
Indies,
tropical and
temperate South
America-
Australia, New Zealand, INIalaya, Madagascar and Polynesia.
:K.I
r?
340
CONNARACEAE
1. Weinmannia pinnata L.
Syst. ed.
10.
1005.
1759.
Weinmannia
hirta
S\v.
Prodr.
63.
1788.
Windmannia pinnata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 228.
1891.
A shrub 2-4 m. high, or a tree sometimes 15 m. tall, the trunk up to 3 dm. In
diameter.
Leaves ijinnate, short-petioled
; leaflets 5-25, usually 9-17, oblong to
ovate or somewhat obovate,
sessile, obtuse at the apex, narrowed at the base,
serrate,
6-25 mm.
long, 4-12 mm.
broad,
glabrous above,
pubescent on the
veins beneath or sometimes glabrous on both sides; rachis narrowly or broadly
winged; racemes usually longer than the leaves, many-flowered; pedicels filiform,
2-4 times
as long
as the
calyx,
appressed-pubescent
;
sepals ovate
to
ovate-
lanceolate, acute, pubescent or glabrate, about
1 mm. long; petals obovate to
oblong-obovate, 1-nerved; capsule ovoid, glabrous; seeds about 1 mm. long, pilose.
Mountain forests at high elevations, Porto Rico:—Ciiba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; St.
Kitts to St. Vincent; Mexico to Brazil.
Oreganillo.
Brexia madagascariensis Thouars, Madagascan, a small tree with stiff cori-
aceous large, linear to lanceolate, spiny-toothed or entire leaves and
large green-
ish flowers in axillary clusters, has been grown at the Agricultural Station, Road-
town, Tortola.
It is classified in the related family Escalloniaceae.
Family 3.
CONNARACEAE R. Br.
CoNNARUs Family.
Trees, shrubs
or
vines, with alternate
estipulate mostly odd-pinnate
leaves.
Flowers usually
perfect,
regular, racemose
or paniculate.
Calyx
5-lobed
or
5-parted,
often
persistent
at the base
of the
fruit.
Petals
6,
usually
distinct.
Stamens 5 or
10, those opposite the petals shorter;
fila-
ments often united at the base
; anthers small, didymous.
Carpels 5, distinct,
1-celled;
ovules
2.
Fruit a leathery
or woody,
1-seeded
rarely 2-seeded
follicle, ventrally dehiscent.
Seed erect; cotyledons foliaceous; endosperm
fleshy or none.
About 40 genera and 140 species of wide distribution.
1. ROUREA Aubl. PI. Guian. l: 467.
1775.
Woody
vines,
shrubs,
or
small
trees.
Leaves
odd-pinnate,
rarely
unl-
foliolate, evergreen.
Twigs often terminating in a stout hook or coil.
Flowers
small,
in axillary or terminal panicles.
Calyx 5-lobed, enlarged and persistent
in fruit.
Petals 5.
Stamens 10.
Carpels 5, usually
1 only maturing, the others
Imperfect.
Follicle sessile, 1-seeded
; seed erect; endosperm none.
[Named from
Roura, a town of French Guiana.]
About 40 species, natives of tropical America
and Asia, one African.
Type species: Rourea frutescens Aubl.
1. Rourea surinamensis Miq. Linnaea 26: 221.
18.53.
Rourea glabra Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 228, in part, 1860.
Not H. B. K.
1824.
A woody
vine, 2-4
m.
long
or
longer.
Leaves long-petioled,
glabrous:
leaflets 3-5, oblong to ovate-elliptic, 3-12 cm.
long, 2.3-7.5 cm. broad, shining
aljove,
dull
beneath,
acute
or acuminate
at
the
apex, rounded
at
the
laase;
petiolules 2-6 mm. long; panicles 6-10 cm. long, shorter than the leaves; pedicels
filiform, 2-8 mm. long; calyx about 3 mm. long, its lobes ovate to oval, ciliolate;
petals obovate, white; stamens a
little shorter than the petals; carpels villous;
follicles obliquely
short-cylindric, i-1.7 cm.
long, 4-6 mm.
in diameter; seed
dark-brown.
Forests in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico, ascending to higher elevations:—Cuba;
Jamaica; Hispaniola; St. Lucia; Grenada: Soutli America.
Recorded by Bello and by
Cook and Collins as Rourea frutescens.
Bejuco de garrote.
Juan caliente.
ROSACEAE
341
Family 4.
ROSACEAE B. Juss.
Rose Family.
Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with alternate (in some exotic genera opposite)
leaves, and regular perfect or rarely polygamo-dioecious flowers.
Stipules
commonly present, sometimes large.
Calj^x free from or adnate to the ovary,
5-lobed
(rarely 4-9-lobed), often bracteolate.
Disk adnate to the base of
the
calyx.
Petals equal
in number
to the calyx
lobes,
distinct, or none.
Stamens usually numerous, distinct; atnthers small, 2-celled.
Carpels l-co,
distinct, or adnate
to the
calyx.
Ovary
1-celled or rarely imperfectly
2-
celled; style terminal or lateral.
Ovules
1, 2, or several, anatropous.
Fruit
mostly
follicles
or
achenes; endosperm
none,
or
rarely
copious.
About
75 genera and over 1200 species, of wide geographic distribution.
Fruit of aggregate drupelets.
1. Rubus.
Achenes enclosed in the ripened caly.x-tube.
2. Rosa.
1. RUBUS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 492.
175.3.
Perennial herbs, shrubs or traihng vines, often prickly, with alternate simple
lobed or 3-7-foliolate leaves, the stipules adnate to the petiole.
Flowers terminal
or
axillary,
solitary, racemose
or
panicled,
white,
pink or
purple,
perfect
or
sometimes dioecious.
Calyx persistent, not bracted, deeply 5-parted,
its tube
short and
broad.
Petals
5,
deciduous.
Stamens numerous,
inserted on
the
calyx, distinct.
Carpels x
, rarely few, inserted on a convex or elongated recep-
tacle, ripening into drupelets and forming an aggregate
fruit.
Ovules
2, one
abortive.
Style nearly terminal, slender.
Seed pendulous.
[The ancient name
of the bramble, from ruber, red.]
About 250 species, of wide geographic distri-
bution, most abundant
in
the
north
temperate
zone.
Type
species:
Rubus
fruticosus L.
Drupelets falling from the dry receptacle; lateral leaflets 1-3.2 cm.
broad.
1. R- rosaefolius.
Drupelets coherent with the receptacle; lateral leaflets 3.8-6 cm. broad.
2. R. florulentus.
1. Rubus rosaefolius Smith, PI. Ic. Ined.
pi. 60.
1791.
Rubus rosaefolius coronarius Sims, Bot. Mag.
pZ. 1783.
1816.
Stems perennial, nearly terete, erect, about 1 m. high or less, often with re-
curved branches, pilose or glabrate, armed with small straight or recurved prickles.
Leaves pinnately 3-15-foliolate
; stipules filiform or subulate; petioles and rachis
pilose,
often armed with small
prickles;
lateral
leaflets
sessile
or very
short-
petioluled,
lanceolate to ovate, 2-7 cm.
long, 1-3.2 cm. broad, doubly-serrate,
sparingly
pilose on
both
sides
or
glabrate,
the
terminal
leaflet
larger,' long-
petioluled;
flowers solitary or
in
few-flowered
cymes,
terminal, often double;
pedicels pilose; sepals lanceolate, long-acuminate; petals white, obovate, 1-2 cm.
long; fruit thimble-shaped, 2-3.5 cm. long, bright red or orange, drupelets some-
times glandular.
Mountain
slopes
at middle
elevation
in
moist
districts
of Porto Ricoi^Cuba,
Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts;
Guadeloupe;
Dominica;
Martinique;
St.
Vincent.
Native
of
southeastern Asia.
Locally very abundant in Porto Rico, and its fruit collected and sold
in
large quantities;
occasionally
cultivated.
Mountain Raspberry.
Zarza.
Rosa
MiNADORA.
Rosa de novia.
Fresas.
2. Rubus florulentus Focke, Abh. Nat, Ver. Bremen 11: 411.
1890.
Stems
perennial,
angled,
climbing,
sometimes
10 m.
long,
more or
less
pubescent, often rather sparingly armed with recurved prickles.
Leaves ternate;
stipules linear-lanceolate
;
petioles and
petiolules puberulent or glabrous, often
342
ROSACEAE
armed with recurved prickles
; lateral leaflets coriaceous, ovate to oval, 4-8 cm.
long, 3.8-6 cm. broad, finely serrate, glabrous and lustrous above, dull, glabrate
or hirsute at least on the veins beneath, acute or short-acuminate at the apex,
cordate or subcordate at the base, their petiolules 3-6 mm. long; terminal leaflet
somewhat
longer
and
broader,
long-petioluled
;
panicles
many-flowered,
the
branches tomentose, armed with rather stout recurved
prickles; pedicels often
with 2 or 3
bracts; sepals ovate,
6-7.5 mm.
long,
reflexed, tomentose;
petals
white obovate, nearly twice as long as the sepals; drupelets glabrous.
Mountain forests near Maricao and Adjuntas.
Endemic.
Rubus probus
Bailey, planted
at
the
Insular Experiment
Station,
Rio
Piedras,
.studied there in
1924, resembles
R.
rosaefolius but
is
taller and has
larger leaflets, and the scarlet fruit is depressed-globose, often twice as bi'oad as
high
;
it is supposed to be of hybrid origin.
Rubus trivialis Alichx., Low Bush Bl.\ckberry, North American, experi-
mentally planted at the Insular Agricultural Experiment Station in 1923,
is a
prostrate prickly plant, up to 2 dm. long, with glabrous ovate to oblanceolate
leaflets and black fruit 1-1.5 cm. long.
Rubus glaucus Benth., of the northern Andes of South Arperica, also intro-
duced at the Rio Piedras Station,
is a glabrous and somewhat glaucous shrub
2-3 m.
high, the obtuse
leaflets green above, whitish-tomentose beneath, the
dark purple fruit up to 2 cm. long.
Rubus
ellipticus Smith,
Asiatic, introduced at the Rio Piedras Station
from Jamaica, where it is naturalized in the mountains, is an erect prickly shrub
becoming about '5 m. high, the stems hispid with reddish hairs, the coriaceous
leaflets dark green above, white-tomentose beneath, the hemispheric fruit yellow.
Rubus argutus Link, North American, also grown at the Rio Piedras Station,
is
a very prickly plant, the branches up
to about
1 m. long, the 3 or 5 ovate or
oblong, acuminate leaflets coarsely serrate.
2. ROSA [TouTn.J L. Sp. PI. 491.
17.53.
Erect or climbing shrubs, generally with subterranean rootstocks.
Stems
commonly
prickly.
Leaves
alternate,
odd-pinnate.
Stipules
adnate
to
the
petiole.
Flowers corymbose or solitary,
red,
pink,
or white
(in our
species).
Calyx-tube
cup-shaped
or
urn-shaped,
constricted
at
the
throat,
becoming
fleshy in fruit, 5- (rarely 4-) lobed, the lobes imbricated, deciduous or persistent.
Petals 5, (rarely 4), spreading.
Stamens
oo
, inserted on the hollow annular disk.
Carpels x,
sessile at the bottom of the calyx;
ovaries commonly pubescent-
styles distinct or united.
Achenes numerous, enclosed in the berry-like fruiting
calyx-tube.
Seed pendulous.
[The ancient Latin name of the rose.]
A large
genus, natives of the northern hemisphere.
Type species:
Rosa cinnamomea L.
Styles connate; stems climbing.
1. R. sempervirens.
Styles distinct; stems erect.
2. B. indica.
1. Rosa sempervirens L. Sp. PI. 492.
1753.
Stems
climbing,
armed
with
scattered,
curved
prickles.
Leaflets
3-7,
elliptic to oval or ovate, acute or acuminate at the apex, usually rounded at the
base,
appressed-serrate,
glabrous on
both
sides,
or
rarely pubescent on
the
veins
beneath;
flowers corymbose
or sometimes
solitary;
pedicels
glandular-
hispid;
hypanthium
ellipsoid
or
subglobose,
glandular-hispid;
sepals
ovate,
ROSACEAE
343
abruptly acuminate, petals glandular-hispid on the back, reflexed and deciduous,
white; styles united, usually villous.
Locally subspontaneous after cultivation at middle elevations in Porto Rico.
Native
of southern Europe and northern Africa.
Planted for ornament in Porto Rico and tlie
Virgin Islands.
Ros.\ de
1t.\li.\.
2. Rosa indica L. Sp. n. 492.
1753.
Stems
erect,
terete, armed
Avith
stout,
flat,
straight or somewhat curved
prickles.
Leaflets 3-5, rarely
7, ovate, acuminate at the apex, usually rounded
at the base, finely serrate, dark-green and lustrous above, paler beneath, glabrous;
flowers few, corymbose or solitary; pedicels glabrous or slightly glandular; hy-
panthium pear-shaped, acute at the base, glabrous; sepals lanceolate, caudate-
acuminate; petals crimson, pink or white, styles exserted, distinct.
Locallv subspontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Mexico.
Native of southeastern Asia.
Rosa verde.
Rosa damascena
Mill., Damask Rose,
Asiatic,
occasionally planted
for
ornament in the Virgin Islands, but scarcely persistent,
is a bushy, prickly rose,
the somewhat pubescent leaves with 5 or 7
leaflets, the usually numerous and
double flowers white or pink.
Rosa semperflorens Curtis, Chinese, recorded by Krebs as formerly grown
in St. Thomas,
is also a bushy rose, but often unarmed, the glaljrous leaves with
3 or 5 shining leaflets, the crimson or pink flowers soUtary or few together.
Many kinds of garden roses, especially hybrid teas, are grown in Porto Rico
and the Virgin Islands; among the more successful mention may be made of
Madam Eugene Marlitt, Etoile de Lyon, Souvenir de laMalmaison, Maris Van
Houtte, Marechal Niel, Alexander Hill Gray and La France.
Various Polyantha and Baby Rambler Roses blossom freely at higher ele-
vations in Porto Rico, but the long ramblers do not succeed.
A plant of the Green Rose (Rosa chinensis
tiridiflora Dipp.,
in which
all
the numerous petals are transformed into small narrow green leaves, was seen
in the garden of Mrs. William McKinley, near Santurce, Porto Rico, in 1924.
Fragaria chiloensis Duchesne, Strawberry, has been grown for its fruit
in Porto
Rico; an
interesting experimental plantation was estabhshed at the
Rio Piedras Agricultural Experiment Station in 1923-1924.
Malus Malus (L.) Britton
[Pyrus MalusT-,.; Malus co7nmunis Foir.], Apple,
Manzana, has been grown for its fruit at middle altitudes in Porto Rico, but the
tree is not long-lived in the West Indies.
Eriobotrya
japonica
(Thunb.)
Lindl.,
Loquat,
Japanese
Medlar,
Japanese, has been experimentally planted in Porto Rico, but while growing to a
height of 3 m. or more, it has not proved successful as a crop.
It is a small tree,
with oblong serrate leaves 10-20 cm. long, brownish woolly beneath;
its white
flowers are in dense woolly terminal panicles; the fruit is a yellow acid pome 3-4
cm. long [Mespilus japonica Thunb.].
Hydrangea hortensis Smith, Asiatic, of the related family Hydrangeaceae
occasionally grown for ornament
in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
is not
persistent.
344
AMYGDALACEAE
.
Family 5.
AMYGDALACEAE Rchb.
Plum Family.
Trees or shrubs,
the bark exuding gum,
the fohage, bark and seeds
often containing prussic
acid,
bitter.
Leaves
alternate,
petioled,
serrate,
the small
stipules early deciduous,
the teeth and petiole often glandular.
Flowers
regular, mostly
perfect.
Calyx
deciduous,
free from
the ovary,
5-lobed.
_ Disk
annular.
Petals
5,
inserted on
the
calyx.
Stamens
nu-
merous,
inserted with the
petals.
Pistil
1
in our genera; ovary
1-celled,
2-ovuled;
style simple; stigma mostly small and
capitate.
Fruit a drupe.
Seed
1, suspended; endosperm none; cotyledons
fleshy.
About
10 genera
and 120 species, widely distributed, mostly abundant in the north temperate
zone.
Style terminaL
1. Laurocerasus.
Style basal or lateral.
Stamens 15 or more, short, in a complete circle.
2.
Chrysnbalanus.
Stamens 3-8, long-exserted
; imilateral.
3.
Hiriella.
1. LAUROCERASUS Roem. Syn. Mon. 3: 89.
1847.
Evergreen trees or shrubs, with coriaceous or subcoriaceous leaves and small
white flowers in axillary racemes.
Calyx .5-lobed, the lobes deciduous.
Petals 5,
white, deciduous.
Stamens 15-30, the filaments slender.
Ovary sessile
; ovules
pendulous;
style
terminal.
Drupe subglobose or
ellipsoid,
1-seeded,
the
flesh
thin, not pulpy.
[Laurel-cherry.]
About 20 species, of temperate and tropical
regions.
Type species: Prunus Laurocerasus L.
Flowers 5 mm. broad; fniit subglobose, 9-13 mm. in diameter.
1.
L. myrtifolia.
Flowers 7 mm. broad; fruit ellipsoid, 2-2.5 cm. long.
2.
L. occidentalis.
1. Laurocerasus myrtifolia (L.) Britton, N. A. Trees, 510.
1908.
Celastrus myrtifolius L. Sp.
Pi. 196.
1753.
Prunus sphaerocarpa Sw. Prodr. 80.
1788.
Cerasus
sphaerocarpa Loisel. in Nouv. Duham. Arb. ed. nov. 5: 4.
1812.
Prunus myrtifolia Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 93.
1904.
A tree attaining a maximum height of about 12 m. with a trunk up to 4 dm.
thick,
the
nearly smooth bark reddish brown.
Leaves subcoriaceous,
elliptic
or elliptic-ovate, 5-11 cm. long, 2.5-4.8 cm. broad, acute, bluntish, or acuminate
at the apex, narrowed or obtuse at the base, glabrous, shining above, dull beneath,
entire-margined, the petioles about 1 cm. long; racemes mostly shorter than the
leaves, rather densely flowered; pedicels 4-7 mm. long; calyx-lobes toothed; petals
broadly obovate, about 2.5 mm.
long; drupes globose, 9-13 mm.
in diameter,
orange-brown.
Forest, Monte Alegrillo, near Maricao, collected by Sintenis (according to Urbanl :—
Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
Also recorded from Mexico and Brazil.
2. Laurocerasus occidentalis (Sw.) Roem. Syn. Mon. 3: 89.
1847.
Prunus occidentalis Sw. Prodr. 80.
1788.
Cerasus occidentalis Loisel. in Nouv. Duham. Arb. ed. nov. 5: 4.
1812.
A
tree sometimes
18 m.
high.
Leaves
subcoriaceous,
oblong-elliptic
or
elliptic, 9-20 cm. long, 4-7.5 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded or acute
at the
base, glabrous; racemes shorter than the
leaves, 3-9 cm.
long, densely
flowered; pedicels .5-9 mm. long; calyx lobes triangular; petals obovate, about 3
mm. long; drupes ellipsoid 2-2.5 cm. long,
1.5 cm. or more thick.
Forests in moist
districts, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola:
St.
Kitts to
St. Vincent.
Also recorded from Guatemala and Panama.
The light brown wood
is
hard, heavy, its specific gravity nearly 1.00; it is valued for cabinet work.
Almendrillo.
AMYGDALACEAE
345
2. CHRYSOBALANUS L. Sp. PI. 513.
1753.
Small trees or shrubs, with coriaceous, entire or undulate-margined leaves,
and small, white or greenish,
perfect flowers in terminal or axillary cymes or
panicles.
Calyx with a campanulate or turbinate tube and a 5-lobed limb, the
lobes imbricated, nearly equal.
Petals 5, deciduous.
Stamens numerous, with
slender filaments.
Ovary ssssile, 1-celled; ovules 2, erect; style fiUform, basal or
lateral.
Drupe pulpy,
with a hard 5-6
ridged
stone.
[Greek,
golden
date.]
About 3 species, 2 of them American, the other African.
Type species: Chryso-
balanus Icaco L.
Fruit oval or globose; petals cimeate.
1.
C. Icaco.
Fruit obovoid; petals spatulate.
2.
C. pellocarpus.
1. Chrysobalanus Icaco L. Sp. PI. 513.
1753.
An evergreen tree or shrub, attaining a maximum height of about 10 m.,
with a trunk sometimes 3 dm. in diameter, the thin bark brownish, the twigs
glabrous or nearly so, reddish brown.
Leaves elliptic to obovate or nearly or-
bicular, 4-8 cm. long, glabrous, rounded, obtuse or emarginate at the apex, nar-
rowed at the base, dark green and shining above, duU beneath, the petioles short,
stout; cymes peduncled, several-many-flowered, shorter than the leaves; calyx
pubescent,
its lobes triangular-ovate, acute, about 2.5 mm. long; petals white,
cuneate, twice as long as the calyx-lobes; drupes various, globose or oval, pink,
white or purple, 2-4 cm. long.
Thickets and
hillsides,
mostly at lower
elevations near
the
coasts,
Porto Rico;
Icacos; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; West Indies; Mexico
to northern South America.
Also recorded from tropical Africa.
The frtiit is used for
preserves and dulces; the seeds are edible and yield an oil; the leaves and bark are astrin-
gent;
the wood is light brown, hard and heavy, with a specific gravity of about 0.77.
Coco-Plum.
Hicaco.
Icaco.
2. Chrysobalanus pellocarpus G. F. W. Meyer, Prim.
Fl. Esseq. 193.
1818.
Chrysobalamis Icaco pellocarpus DC. Prodr.
2: 525.
1825.
Similar to the preceding species, but not attaining as large
size, usually a
shrub 2 m. high or less, sometimes a small tree.
Leaves usually smaller, 6 cm.
long or
less, rounded or abruptly acute
at the apex; cymes shorter than the
leaves; petals spatulate; drupe mostly obovoid, or oblong-obovoid, 1.5-2 cm. long,
purple to black.
Hillsides
in moist
districts,
Porto
Rico:—Florida; Bahamas; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe; northern South America.
Probably a race of the preceding species.
3. HIRTELLA L. Sp. PI. 34.
1753.
Shrubs or trees with simple alternate entire leaves and small flowers in axil-
lary and
terminal
panicles
or
racemes.
Stipules
caducous.
Calyx-lobes
5,
reflexed.
Petals
5, deciduous.
Stamens 3-10, or more, the perfect stamens on
one side only of the receptacle, the staminodes on the other side
; filaments united
at the base, long exserted.
Ovary 1-celled, inserted on one side of the receptacle;
ovules
2;
style
nearly
basal.
Fruit
drupaceous,
dry.
Seed
erect;
cotyledons
fleshy;
radicle
inferior.
[Latin,
hairy,
referring
to
the
hairy
twigs.]
About
40
species,
natives
of
tropical
America,
one
in Madagascar.
Type
species:
Hirtella americana L.
Leaves lanceolate to elliptic, acute or roimded at the base; pubescence
appressed.
1- H. tnandra.
Leaves ovate, subcordate at the base; pubescence spreading.
2. H. rugosa.
346
MIMOSACEAE
1. Hirtella triandra Sw. Prodr. 51.
1788.
Hirtella americana Jacq.
Sel. Amer. 8.
1763.
Not L. 1753.
A shrub 3-4 m. high, or a tree up to 15 m. or more, the slender young twig^
strigose.
Leaves lanceolate to
elliptic,
rarely somewhat elliptic-obovate, 5-15
cm.
long, 2.5-5.8 cm.
broad, long-acuminate at the apex, acute or rounded at
the base, the midvein hirsute-strigose
;
petioles 2-4 mm.
long,
hirsute-strigose
inflorescence usually 3.5 cm. or more long; sepals ovate to oval, about 3 mm.
long, velvety-pubescent within, strigose-pubescent on the back; petals oval or
broadly obovate, 4.6-5 mm.
long, 3 mm. broad; filaments pink;
fruit oblong-
obovoid, 2-2.5 cm. long, 6-9 mm. broad, more or less hirsute.
Forests and hillsides and river-banks in wet or naoist districts, Porto Rico, ascending
to the higher elevations:—Jamaica: Cuba; Hispaniola:
St. Kitts to Trinidad; Panama;
northern South America.
The light brown wood is hard, tough and heavy.
Teta DE
BURRA.
2. Hirtella rugosa Pers. Syn. 1: 250.
1805.
Hirtella portoricensis H. & B.; R. & S. Syst. 5: 274.
1819.
A small tree, up to 6 m. high, with long-hirsute drooping branches.
Leaves
lanceolate-ovate to broadly ovate, 3-9 cm.
long,
1.6-4.6 cm. broad, acuminate
at the apex, rounded and usually subcordate at the
base,
lustroiis,
reticulate-
veined and often long-hirsute on the midvein above, long-hirsute on the veins
beneath, the margin often ciliate; calyx-lobes elliptic to oval or somewhat ovate,
3.5-4 mm.
long,
densely appressed-pubenUent
within,
densely puberulent on
the back
with
long
hairs
intermixed;
petals
red,
elliptic
to
elliptic-obovate,
5.5-6 mm. long, 3-3.5 ram. broad, rose-pink or red;
fruit about
1.5 cm. long,
red.
Mountain forests at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Icacillo.
Teta de burra cimarron.
Family 6.
MIMOSACEAE Rchb.
Mimosa Family.
Herbs, shrubs or trees, with alternate, commonly 2-3-pinnate leaves.
the
stipules
various, and
small
regular mostly
perfect
flowers
in
heads,
spikes or racemes.
Calyx 3-6-toothed or 3-6-lobed, the teeth or lobes mostly
valvate
in
the
bud.
Corolla
of
as many
distinct
or united
petals,
also
valvate.
Stamens
distinct,
or
monadelphous.
Ovary
1-celled;
style
simple.
Fruit
a
legume.
Seeds
without
endosperm;
cotyledons
fleshy.
About 40 genera and 1500 species, mostly tropical.
Filaments imited below into a tube.
Leaves simply and abruptly pinnate.
1.
Inga.
Leaves bipinnate, the pinnae sometimes with only one pair of
leaflets.
Pod curved or coiled, the valves twisted after dehiscence.
2. Pithecellobium.
Pod straight,
flat.
Valves of the pod coriaceous.
Valves not elastically dehiscent.
3. Samanea.
Valves elastically dehiscent from the apex and revolute.
4.
Anneslia.
Valves thin or papery.
5.
Albizzia.
Filaments distinct, or connate only at the base.
Stamens numerous, more than twice as many as the i)etals or
corolla-lobes.
Ovary sessile; pods nearly terete, pulpy within.
6.
Vachellia.
Ovary stipitate; pods mostly thin, dry and flat.
7.
Acacia.
Stamens as many or twice as many as the petals or corolla-lobes,
distinct.
Anthers not glanduliferous.
Valves of the pod not separating from their margins.
Pod broadly linear, the seeds transversel.y placed.
8. Leucaena.
Pod narrowly
linear,
the seeds longitudinally or ob-
liquely placed.
9. Acuan.
MIMOSACEAE
347
Valves of the pod separating from their margins.
Pod little flattened, subtetragonal, beaked.
10. Morongia.
Pod flat, not beaked.
11. Mimosa.
Anthers glanduliferous. at least in the bud.
Seeds with endosperm.
Flowers capitate; herbs.
12. Neptunia.
Flowers spicate or racemose; trees or shrubs.
Pod compressed, 2-valved.
13. Adenanthera.
Pod thick, indehiscent.
14.
Prosopis.
Seeds without endosperm.
Trees or slirubs.
15.
Piptadenia.
High-climbing woody vines.
16. Entada.
1. INGA [Plum.] Scop. Introd. 298.
1777.
Unarmed
trees or shrubs
vi^ith evenly pinnate leaves, the flowers spicate,
capitate or racemose, usually perfect.
Calyx tubular or campanulate, .5-toothed
corolla tubular or funnelform, the petals being united to the middle or beyond
the middle.
Stamens numerous,
long-exserted
; filaments united below
into a
tube;
anthers
very
small;
pollen-grains
agglomerate.
Ovary
sessile;
ovules
numerous;
style slender; stigma terminal.
Pod
linear,
flat or 4-angled,
or 4-
ribbed, coriaceous, mostly indehiscent, usually pulpy withiii.
[Aboriginal name.]
About 150 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Mimosa Inga L.
Pubescent; leaf-rachis winged; pod 4-costate.
1.
/. Inga.
Glabrous; leaf-rachis wingless; pod flat.
2.
/. laurina.
1. Inga Inga (L.) Britton, Fl. Bermuda 170.
1918.
Mimosa Inga L. Sp.
PI.
.516.
1753.
Inga vera Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 1010.
1806.
A tree, 15 m. high or higher, with pubescent twigs, the trunk up to 1 m. in
diameter, the bark slightly fissured when old.
Leaves 2-3 dm. long, the pubescent
petioles 1-2.5 cm. long, the rachis winged between the leaflets; leaflets 3-5 pairs,
oblong to
elliptic,
sessile, pubescent,
10 cm. long or
less, acute or acuminate,
darker green above than
beneath;
flowers
few,
sessile
or nearly
so,
in
short,
peduncled spikes; peduncles pubescent,
1..5-6 cm. long; calyx tomentulose, about
1 cm. long,
its teeth triangular-ovate, acute; corolla densely sericeous, somewhat
longer than the calyx, its lobes acute; stamens white, long-exserted, 3-4 times as
long as the corolla; pod tomentose, 4-costate, falcate, 1-1.5 dm. long.
Woodlands, hillsides and along streams at lower and middle altitudes, in moist or
wet
districts, and
exten.sively planted for cofl'ee-shade, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; continental tropical America from Mexico to Venezuela;
its wood
is light
gray, hard, strong and rather heavy.
Guaba.
2. Inga laurina (Sw.) Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1018.
1806.
Mimosa laurina Sw. Prodr. 85.
1788.
Fenillea laurina Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 184.
1891.
A tree, 15 m. high or more, glabrous throughout, the brown bark smooth.
Leaves 1-2.5 dm. long, the petioles 1-2 cm. long; leaflets mostly 2 pairs, some-
times a single pair, firm in texture, oblong or elliptic, bluntly pointed or acute,
sessile, .5-10 cm. long, shining above; spikes many-flowered, peduncled, 7-15 cm.
long; flowers very nearly sessile; calyx only about 2 mm. long, its teeth short and
broad;
corolla white,
about 6 mm.
long,
its lobes triangular-lanceolate, acute;
stamens white, about 4 times as long as the corolla; pod
linear,
flat, 5-12 cm.
long,
about
2 cm.
wide,
with
raised
margins,
transversely
striate.
[Mimosa
nodosa of Sess6 & Mogino, not of Linnaeus.]
Woodlands, hillsides and along streams at lower and middle elevations, mostly in
moist districts; and extensively planted for coffee-shade, Porto Rico; VicQUes: St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:— Hispaniola; St. Kitts to Grenada.
Also
much planted for coffee-shade.
The dark gray wood is hard, a little heavier than that
of the preceding species.
Guama.
Pomshgck.
Sweet Pea.
348
MIMOSACEAE
Inga
edulis
Mart., of
tropical America, experimentally planted
at
the
IVIayaguez Af<ricultural Experiment Station, has tomentose leaves with 4 to 6
pairs of oblong acuminate leaflets, and usually with a winged petiole, the flowers
spicate, the long pods subterete.
Inga fastuosa Willd., Venezuelan, also planted at the Mayaguez Station,
is a tree, with reddish hispid twigs, the leaves with 4 or 5 pairs of ovate shining
acute leaflets and a winged petiole, the flowers spicate, the villous pod up to 3
dm. long and 7 cm. wide.
Inga heterophylla Wflld.,
listed by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas,
is a
species of Trinidad and northern South America,
certainly not native
in the
Virgin Islands.
2. PITHECELLOBIUM Mart. Hort. Monac. 188.
1829.
Shrubs or trees, often with spinescent stipules, the leaves bipinnate with few
or many
leaflets,
the
flowers
in clustered or sohtary heads or spikes.
Calyx
5-toothed.
Corolla tubular
to
funnelform,
the
petals being united
to above
the middle.
Stamens long-exserted
; filaments united below into a tube
; anthers
very
small;
pollen-grains
agglomerate.
Ovary
many-ovuled;
style
filiform.
Pod compressed or subterete, curved or coiled, the valves twisting after dehiscence.
Seeds often with a fleshy
aril.
{Greek, monkey's-earing, referring to the con-
torted
pods.]
Twenty
species
or
more,
mostly
tropical
American.
Type
species:
Pithecellobium
Unguis-cati
(L.)
Mart.
The
generic name
has
been
written Piihecolobium by subsequent authors.
Leaflets a
single
pair on each pinna;
stipules
spinescent;
foliage
gUbrous.
1.
P. Unguis-cati.
Leaflets very numerous; stipules not spinescent; twigs and petioles
pubescent.
2.
P. arboreum.
1. Pithecellobium Unguis-cati
(L.) Mart.
Hort. Monac.
188.
1829.
Mimosa Unguis-cati L. Sp. PI. 517.
1753.
I7iga
Unguis-cati Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 1006.
1806.
Feuillea Lnguis-cati Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 144.
1891.
A shrub up to 6 m. high, rarely a small tree 8 m. high, usually armed with
spinescent stipules 2 cm. long or
less, the foliage glabrous.
Petiole 5-20 mm.
long; pinnae 2, each with one pair of obliquely obovate or oblong, obtuse, leaflets
1-5 cm.
long;
heads
slender-peduncled,
in
terminal
racemes;
flowers
sessile;
calyx about 2 mm. long; corolla 5-6 mm. long; stamens 10-15 mm. long, yellowish
or pinkish; pod coiled or curved, compressed, somewhat constricted between the
seeds, 5-10 cm. long, about 7 mm. wide; seeds nearly black, shining, 4-6 mm.
broad.
Coastal thickets, and on hillsides near the southern coast, extending up the valley
of the Coamo River, Porto Rico; Vieques; Culebra; Desecheo; iSIona; Icacos;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—West Indies; Florida; northern South
America.
Una de gato.
Rolox.
Crab Prickle.
Black Bead.
Cat's-cl.\w.
2. Pithecellobium arboreum (L.) Urban, SJ^nb. Ant. 2: 259.
1900.
Mimosa arborea L. Sp. PL 510.
1753.
? Mimosa filicifolia Lam. Encycl.
1: 13.
1783.
Acacia arborea Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 1064.
180S.
Pithecolobium filicifolium Benth. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. 3: 205.
1844.
An unarmed
tree up
to 20 m.
high, the twigs,
petioles and leaf-rachlses
pubescent, the bark gray and smooth.
Leaves bipinnate, 1.5-3 dm. long; pinnae
8-16 pairs, a small circular gland on the rachis between each pah-
; leaflets 20-40
MIMOSACEAE
349
pairs,
obliquely oblong or oblong-lanceolate, glabrous or nearly
so, 8-12 mm.
long, 1..5-2 mm. wide, obtuse or acutish; peduncles clustered or solitary, pubes-
cent, slender, 5-10 cm. long, axillary or at old internodes; heads globose, many-
flowered; flowers sessile; calyx about
2 mm.
long, glabrous,
its teeth short and
broad; corolla 6-8 mm.
long; stamens 12-16 mm. long, whitish; pod curved or
coiled, rather fleshy, constricted between the seeds, 5'-15' long, crimson within,
puberulent when young, glabrous when
old; seeds black, without a fleshy aril.
[Acacia Berteriana of Bello and of Cook and Collins, not of Balbis.]
Woodlands and river banks at lower and middle altitudes, Porto Rico, mostly in
moist districts:—Hispaniola; Cuba; Jamaica; Mexico and Central America.
Cojoba.
CojOBAN.\.
Acacia sylvestre.
Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth., of Central America, a tree, usually
unarmed, with slender glabrous branches, the glabrous leaves with 2 or 4 oblong
leaflets,
the
white
globose
heads
of
flowers
panicled,
has
occasionally
been
planted
in Porto
Rico, and seedhngs were seen at the
St.
Croix Agricultural
Experiment Station in 1923.
[Mitnosa dulcis Roxb.]
Pithecellobium platylobum fSpreng.) Urban,
a
tree of northern South
America and islands adjacent,
listed by Krebs as found in St. Thomas prior to
1851, may, perhaps, have been planted there.
[Acacia platyloba Spreng.]
Pithecellobium parvifolium
(Willd.)
Benth., endemic
in Jamaica, was
listed by Krebs from St. Thomas, evidently in error.
[Acacia parvifolia Willd.]
3. SAMANEA Merrill, Journ. Wash. Acad. 6: 46.
1916.
Mostly unarmed trees or shrubs with bipinnate leaves and capitate or um-
bellate
flowers.
Calyx tubular to campanulate,
5-toothed.
Corolla 5-toothed
or
5-lobed,
the
petals
being united
to beyond
the
middle.
Stamens many,
long-exserted; filaments united below into a tube; anthers very small.
Ovary
several-many-ovuled
; style slender, or filiform.
Pod flat or compressed, mostly
straight, the valves coriaceous or fleshy, not twisting after dehiscence, sometimes
very tardily dehiscent.
[BYom the South American name of the following typical
species.]
Perhaps 25 species, nearly all of tropical America.
1. Samanea Saman (Willd.) Merrill, Journ. Wash. Acad. 6: 47.
1916.
Mimosa Saman Jacq. Fragm. 15.
1809.
Inga Saman Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1024.
1808.
Inga cinerea H. & B.; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1024.
1806.
Calliandra Saman Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 225.
1860.
Pithecolohium Saman Benth. In Hook. Journ. Bot. 3: 216.
1844.
Enterolohium Saman Praln, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 66: 252.
1897.
A tree up to 20 m. high, or higher, with widely spreading branches, the twigs
and leaves finely pubescent, the old bark grey, separating In strips, the leaves
often 4 dm. long.
Pinnae 2-6 pairs, a small circular gland on the rachis between
each
pair; pinnules 2-8
pairs, obliquely oblong to obovate, 2-4 cm.
long, pu-
bescent
beneath,
becoming
glabrous
above,
obtuse,
finely
reticulate-veined
umbels many-flowered; peduncles pubescent, 6-12 cm. long; pedicels 2-5 mm.
long; calyx pubescent, 6 mm. long; corolla silky-villous, 10-12 mm. long; stamens
4-5 cm. long, pinkish, united toward the base; pod straight or a little curved,
compressed, 10-20 cm. long, 10-18 mm. wide, about 6 mm. thick, very tardily
dehiscent, pulpy within, the valves somewhat fleshy; seeds oblong, dull, 5-8 mm.
long.
Roadsides and hillsides, Porto Rico, natiiralized from continental tropical America;
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix.
Widely naturalized
in the West
Indies.
Planted for shade;
its pods furnish food for cattle; the reddish wood is hard and heavy, but not very durable.
Sai\l\n.
Rain-tree.
Giant Thibet.
Guango.
Cow-bean Tree.
350
MIMOSACEAE
4. ANNESLIA Salisb. Parad. Lond.
pi.
64.
1807.
Shrubs, or small trees, with bipinnate leaves and capitate flowers, the heads
peduncled, axillary, or in terminal racemes.
Calyx 5-toothed or 5-lobed.
Corolla
funnelform or campanulate,
5-lobed, the petals being united
to
the middle or
above the middle.
Stamens numerous;
filaments united below,
long-exserted,
anthers
small,
glandular-hirsute
or
glabrous,
the
pollen-grains
agglomerate.
Ovary many-ovuled;
style
filiform.
Pod
linear,
usually narrowed below the
middle, fiat, not pulpy within, straight or nearly so, elastically dehiscent from the
apex, the valves
stiff, with raised margins.
Seeds obovate or orbicular, com-
pressed.
[Commemorates George Annesley
(1769-1844), Enghsh botanist and
traveller.]
Over 100 species in tropical and subtropical regions.
Type species:
Anneslia falcifolia Salisb.
Pinnae 2-6 pairs; leaflets many, thin, linear to linear-oblong, 8-16
mm. long; stamens white; plant unarmed.
1. A. portoricensis.
Pinnae
1
pair;
leaflets few,
coriaceous,
oblong,
4-7 mm.
long;
stamens red; stipules spinescent.
2. A. haematostoma.
1. Anneslia portoricensis (Jacq.) Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Card.
1: 50.
1918.
Mimosa portoricensis Jacq. Icon. Rar.
3: 20,
pi. 633.
1793.
Acacia portoricensis Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 1069.
1806.
Calliandra portoricensis Benth. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot.
3: 99.
1844.
Acacia Zewcocep/iaZa Bertero; Spreng. Syst. 3: 139.
1826.
Not Link.
Fenillea portoricensis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 184.
1891.
A shrub, usually not over 3 m. high, rarely a tree up to 8 m. high, the twigs
and foliage glabrous or pubescent.
Leaves 7-18 cm.
long, the slender petiole
eglandular; pinnae 2-6 pairs; leaflets 10-30 pairs, linear or linear-oblong, straight
or shghtly curved, 8-16 mm. long, 2.5 mm. wide or less, few-veined, obtuse, thin;
peduncles slender, clustered or solitary, 3-10 cm. long, glabrous or pubescent;
heads globose; calyx 2 mm.
long; corolla 3-4 mm.
long; stamens white,
1.5-2
cm. long; pod 4-10 cm. long, 6-9 mm. wide, glabrous when mature, obtuse, nar-
rowed toward the base
; seeds oblong, oblique.
Thickets, hillsides and woodlands at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico,
in
dry and moist districts; Culebra; Vieques; St. Jan; Tortola:—Hispaniola; Cuba; Jamaica;
continental
tropical
America;
western
tropical
Africa.
Cojobillo.
Zarza
boba.
White Anneslia.
2. Anneslia haematostoma (Bertero) Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. l:
50.
1918.
Acacia haematomma Bertero; DC. Mem. L6g. 448.
pi. 68.
1825.
Calliandra haematostoma Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot.
3: 103.
1844.
A much branched shrub 3 m. high or less, the twigs sparingly pilose or gla-
brous.
Leaves small,
1-3 cm. long; petioles short; pinnae
1
pair;
leaflets 3-8
pairs, oblong to obovate, 4-7 mm.
long, obtuse or mucronulate, strongly few-
nerved, coriaceous; peduncles mostly pubescent, usually shorter than the leaves,
commonly clustered toward the ends of the branches; calyx striate, about 2 mm.
long; corolla silky-pubescent, 5-7 mm. long; stamens red, 1-2 cm. long; pod pu-
bescent, 5-8 cm. long, 6-8 mm. wide.
Calcareous rocks, Penon, near Guayanilla, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas:—Hispaniola;
Bahamas
; Cuba
; Jamaica.
Red Axneslia.
Anneslia purpurea (L.) Britton [Mimosa purpurea
L.
;
Calliandra
pur-
purea Benth.;
Inga purpurea
Willd.]
Cultivated on
St.
Croix
(according
to
West), and recorded from
St. Thomas by Krebs as Soldier Wood, is native in
the Lesser Antilles from Guadaloupe to Grenada.
MIMOSACEAE
351
5. ALBIZZIA Durazz. Mag. Tosc. 3: 11.
1772.
Unarmed trees, or some species shrubs, with bipinnate leaves and solitary
or panicled
heads,
umbels
or
rarely
spikes
of
small,
mostly
perfect
flowers.
Calyx 5-toothed.
Corolla funnelform,
the
petals united
to about
the middle
into a
tube.
Stamens numerous,
united
below,
long-exserted
; anthers small;
pollen-grains agglomerate.
Pod
broadly
linear,
flat,
thin,
not pulpy
within.
Seeds
suborbicular
to
oblong.
[In
honor
of
the
Italian
naturalist
Albizzi.]
About
.50 species, natives of the Old World.
Tyi^e species: Albizzia Jidihrissin
Durazz ini.
1. Albizzia Lebbeck (L.) Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 3: 87.
1844.
Mimosa Lebbeck L. Sp. PI. 516.
17.53.
Acacia Lebbeck WiUd. Sp. PI. 4: 1066.
1806.
Mimosa speciosa Jacq. Ic. PI. Bar. 19.
1781.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, often flowering when not over 5 m., the foliage
glabrous or sparingly puberulent.
Leaves large, often 4 dm. long; petioles 2-10
cm. long, bearing an oblong, sessile gland; pinnae 2-4 pairs; leaflets 4-9 pairs on
each pinna,
thin, nearly sessile, obliquely oblong or the terminal pair obovate,
obtuse, 2-4 cm.
long, reticulate-veined; peduncles 3-10 cm. long; umbels sub-
globose; pedicels pubescent, 2-5 mm. long; calyx narrowly campanulate, pubes-
cent, about 4 mm. long, its teeth short; corolla about 6 mm. long; stamens yel-
lowish, about 3 cm.
long; pod straight, broadly
linear, narrowed at each end,
1.5-3 dm. long, 2-4 cm. wide, glabrous, shining, rattling in the wind; seeds about
1.5 cm. broad.
Roadsides,
hills and
fields, Porto Rico; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
naturalized, after planting for sliade.
Native of Old World tropics.
Widely naturalized
in the West Indies.
The dark brown wood is hard, strong and durable.
Amor platon-
ico.
AcACiA
AIVL'VRILLA.
WOMEN'S TONGUES.
THIBET TREE.
Recorded by Urban
as also called Flamboyan in Porto Rico, but that name belongs to Delonix regia.
Albizzia stipulata Boiv., planted
at Mayaguez,
has many
small
linear
falcate leaflets, smaller flowers and pods.
It
is native of tropical Asia.
Albizzia procera (Willd.) Benth., a species of tropical Asia, was listed by
Krebs as found in
St. Thomas, certainly not indigenous there.
[Acacia procera
Willd.]
6. VACHELLIA Wight & Arn. Prodr. 272.
1834.
Shrubs or small trees with spinescent stipules, bipinnate leaves, the leaflets
small and numerous, and small polygamous flowers in peduncled, globose heads.
Calyx
5-toothed.
Corolla
tubular-funnelform,
5-toothed,
the
petals
being
united nearly
to
their
tips.
Stamens numerous:
fllaments
distinct,
exserted;
anthers
minute.
Ovary
sessile,
several-many-ovuled
;
style
flliform.
Pod
nearly terete, pulpy within, the valves coriaceous, very tardily dehiscent.
Seeds
in 2 separate rows.
[In honor of Rev. C. H. Vachell, missionary and botanical
collector in China.]
Species one or more, natives of tropical regions, the follow-
ing typical.
1. Vachellia Farnesiana (L.) Wight & Arn. Prodr. 272.
1834.
Mimosa Farnesiana
L. Sp.
PI.
.521.
17.53.
Acacia Farnesiana Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1083.
1803.
Acacia acicularis Willd. Enum. 1056.
1899.
Usually a shrub not over 3 m. high, rarely a small
tree up to 9 m., much
branched, the twigs glabrous or nearly so.
Leaves 5-10 cm. long, with a small
gland on the petiole; stipular spines
whitish,
0..5-5 cm. long; pinnae 2-6 pairs:
352
MIMOSACEAE
petiole and rachis commonly pubescent;
leaflets 10-25
pairs,
linear, or linear-
oblong, obtuse, 3-5 mm. long; peduncles slender, pubescent, 2-4 cm. long; heads
of flowers about
12 mm.
in diameter,
fragrant,
bright
yellow; pod subterete,
turgid, SQjfnewhat curved, glabrous, 4-7 cm. long, about
1 cm. thick.
Thickets at lower elevations, Porto Rico, mostly in dry districts; Vieques; St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortela; Virgin Gorda:—Florida; West Indies; tropical continental
America; Old World tropics.
Aroma.
Casha.
7. ACACIA Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 1049.
1806.
Trees or shrubs with bipinnate leaves, or the leaves reduced to phyllodes in
Australasian species, the small flowers in heads or spikes.
Calyx campanulate
4-5-toothed or of distinct
sepals.
Petals more or
less imited,
rarely
distinct'
Stamens numerous, sometimes 50 or more, distinct, or united only at the base;
anthers very small.
Ovary mostly stipitate
; style filiform.
Pod linear to oblong,
straight, contorted or curved, compressed or flat, usually dehiscent, the seeds not
In two distinct rows.
[Greek, referring to the spiny branches of some species.]
A very large genus, of perhaps 450 species, widely distributed in tropical and
warm-temperate regions.
Type species: Acacia
nilotica Delile.
Flowers spicate.
Leaflets 8-16 pairs, elliptic to oblong, 6-10 mm. wide; unarmed
native tree.
Leaflets 25-50 pairs, linear, about 1 mm. wide; prickly natural-
ized tree.
Flowers capitate.
Climbing vine, armed with recurved prickles.
Trees or shrubs.
Leaflets
1 or 2 pairs, oblong or obovate.
Leaflets many pairs, linear.
Involucre subtending tlie heads of flowers.
Leaflets 15-40 pairs; pod somewhat flattened.
Leaflets 10-20 pairs; pod subterete.
Involucre at about the middle of the peduncle; pod flat,
constricted between the seeds.
1. Acacia muricata (L.) Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1058.
1806.
Mimosa muricata L. Syst. ed. 10, 1311.
1759.
Acacia nudiflora Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 1058.
1806.
An unarmed tree up to 15 m. high, the young twigs finely pubescent.
Leaves
2 dm. long or less, pubescent when young, becoming glabrous, or the petiole and
rachis permanently pubescent; glands orbicular, scutellate, elevated; pinnae 4-6
pairs;
leafiets 8-16 pairs,
elliptic or oblong,
inequilateral, 10-18 mm.
long,
10
mm. wide or less, coriaceous, obtuse at the apex, roimded or subcordate at the
base, dark green and shining above, paler and dull beneath
; spikes slender, 7-15
cm.
long,
many-flowered,
the
rachis pubescent;
flowers
small,
whitish;
calyx
about 1.5 mm. long, with 5 short teeth; pod broadly linear, short-stipitate, gla-
brous, dehiscent,
coriaceous, straight
or curved,
flat, brown and
transversely
white-banded
within, 5-15 cm.
long,
10-20 mm.
wide,
the margins
entire or
crenate; seeds flat.
Hillsides, plains and woodlands at lower elevations, eastern and southern
districts
of Porto Rico; Vieques; Culebra; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Antigua;
Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martmique.
Recorded
from
Hispaniola.
Its reddish brown
wood
is hard,
heavy, strong and durable.
T.\marindo
cl\l\rron.
Acacia ntjdosa.
Spineless Acacia.
Amarat.
2. Acacia Suma (Roxb.) Kurz; Brandis, For.
Fl. 187.
1874.
Mimosa Suma Eoxb.
Fl. Tnd. 2: 563.
1832.
A tree up to 10 m. high, with hard and durable wood, the slender twigs pale
grey or nearly white, the stipular spines conic, short or wanting.
Leaves up to
2 dm.
long, the pubescent petiole bearing a large
elliptic gland; pinnae 10-40
1.
MIMOSACEAE
353
pairs;
leaflets 25-50 pairs,
linear, 4-8 mm.
long,
acutisli,
1-nerved, puberulent
or glabrate; Inflorescence tomentulose, the small, white flowers
in axillary and
terminal,
slender spikes 6-10 cm.
long;
calyx tomentose, about
2 mm.
long;
corolla about 3 mm.
long; pod
linear-bolong,
flat,
glabrous,
finely
reticulate-
veined, 6-12 cm. long, 1-1.5 cm. wide.
[A. Catechu of Krebs, of Eggers and of
Millspaugh.]
Thickets and
valleys,
St.
Croix:—Jamaica; Grenada.
Native of the Old World
tropics.
Catechu tree.
3. Acacia riparia H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 276.
1823.
Acacia Westiana DC. Prodr. 2: 464.
1825.
A vine, climbing or spreading, often 6 or 7 m. long or longer, or shrubby,
and recorded as sometimes a
tree, the branches armed with recurved
prickles,
glabrous.
Leaves
glabrous or nearly
so,
7-15 cm.
long,
the
petiole
usually
bearing a scutellate gland and sometimes
1 or 2 recurved prickles; pinnae 4-12
pairs;
leaflets 15-40
pairs,
glabrous,
linear-oblong,
thin,
slightly inequilateral,
6-10 mm. long, obtuse or acutish at the apex, obliquely subtruncate at the base;
heads
globose,
1-1.5 cm.
in diameter when
in
flower;
flowers
sessile
or
very
nearly so; calyx about
1 mm. long; corolla 2-3 mm. long; stamens white; pod
flat, 6-20 cm. long, slender-stipitate, 1.5-2.5 cm. wide, obtuse, acute, acuminate
or apiculate at the apex, narrowed at the base, the valves chartaceous, finely to-
mentulose or glabrous.
[A. sarmentosa of Krebs and of Grisebach, not of Des-
vaux; Mimosa paniculata of West.]
Hillsides, river-banks and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, as-
cending to about 700 meters on Monte Alegrillo; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix (according
to West); St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Hispaniola; Trinidad and tropical continental
America.
Recorded as sometimes forming a
tree, but not so oliserved by us
in the
West Indies.
The old stems become 8 cm. in diameter or thicker, with 4 rounded ridges.
Zarza.
Catch-and-keep.
4. Acacia anegadensis Britton, Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 6: 572.
1916.
An intricately branched
tree, up to 8 m.
high, the main branches widely
spreading, the slender twigs tortuous, glabrous.
Stipules a pair of rigid, acicular,
persistent spines 5-15 mm. long; leaves 2-3 cm. long; petiole glabrous, or spar-
ingly pubescent, 3-6 mm. long, channeled above, bearing a sessile, saucer-shaped
gland al)out 0.5 mm.
in diameter at the top; pinnae
1-pair; petiolules a
little
longer than the similar petiole, with a smaller, similar gland between the
leafiets;
leaflets 1-pair, rarely 2-pairs,
sessile, obliquely oblong or oblong-obovate,
coria-
ceous, glabrous, 10-16 mm. long, strongly and loosely reticulate-veined, rounded
or emarginate at the apex, obliquely obtuse at the base, lustrous on both sides;
peduncles solitary or 2-4 together in the upper axils, slender, loosely pubescent,
shorter than the leaves; heads globose,
in flower 5-6 mm.
in diameter; flowers
yellow; calyx minutely toothed, about 0.6 mm. long; corolla narrow,
its teeth
ciliolate, much shorter than the tube; stamens about
20, 3-4 mm.
long, the
filaments filiform, the anthers minute; pod short-stipitate, linear, curved, apicu-
late. glabrous, veiny, 3-4 cm. long, swollen, the dry subcoriaceous valves very
tardily
dehiscent;
seeds
compressed,
suborbicular,
brown,
dull,
3-4 mm.
In
diameter, 1.5 mm. thick.
Abimdant on the rocky plain, and occasional on the sandy plam near the West End,
Anegada.
Endemic.
5. Acacia macracantha H. & B.; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1080.
1806.
Mimosa lutea Mill. Gard. Diet. ed.
8.
1768.
Acacia jlexuosa H. & B.; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1082.
1806.
Acacia obtusa Willd. loc. cit. 1087.
1806.
Acacia macracanthoides Bert.
; DC. Prodr. 2: 463.
1825.
354
MIMOSACEAE
Acacia lutea Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 16: 327.
1889. Not
Leavenw.
1824.
Acacia macracantha glabrens Eggers, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. 13: 49.
1879.
A widely branched tree, 5-15 m. high or sometimes a shrub, the young twigs
slender,
tomentose
or pubescent,
the
tortuous branches armed
with
stipular
spines 9 cm. long or less, or sometimes unarmed, the spines on the trunk some-
times longer.
Leaves tomentose or pubescent, the short petiole bearing a sessile
depressed gland or glandless; pinnae 15-40
pairs, short-stalked, 2-4 cm.
long;
leaflets 15-40 pair^, linear, 2-5 mm. long, obtuse, sessile, glabrous or nearly so;
peduncles clustered or solitary in the upper
axils,
slender, pubescent, 1-3 cm.
long; flowers yellow, capitate; heads globose, 8-10 mm.
in diameter, subtended
by an
involucre; pod
linear,
tomentulose,
turgid-compressed,
6-10 cm.
long,
straight or a little curved, continuous or more or less torulose, somewhat pulpy.
Formm? thickets on Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Bahamas;
Cuba; Jamiica; Hispaniola; St. Martin; St. Eustatius; Guadeloupe; Martinique; Grenada;
Margarita; continental tropical America.
WILD Tamarind.
C.-vcia.
Stixk Casha.
6. Acacia tortuosa
(L.) Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 1083.
1806.
Mimosa tortuosa L. Syst. ed.
10, 1312.
1759.
A shrub or a small tree up to 8 m. high, the twigs pubescent, the branches
tortuous, the stipular spines 1-4 cm. long.
Leaves more or less pubescent, the
short petiole bearing an oblong gland or glandless; pinnae 2-8 pairs, 3 cm. long
or less; leaflets 10-20 pairs, linear-oblong, obtuse, glabrate, 4-7 mm. long; pe-
duncles solitary or clustered,
slender, pubescent, 2-4 cm. long; flowers yellow,
capitate; heads globose, about 8 mm. in diameter, subtended by an involucre;
pod subterete, linear, puberulent, at least when young, 8-15 cm. long, straight or
curved, about 8 mm. thick.
Hillsides,
St. Thomas;
St.
Croix;
Tortola:—Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
St.
Eustatius;
Guadeloupe; Montserrat; Martinique;
Bonaire; Curacao; Aruba; continental tropical
America.
Acacia Bush.
Called Cassia in the Virgin Islands.
7. Acacia nilotica (L.) Delile, Fl. Aegypt. 79.
1812.
Mimosa nilotica L. Sp. PI. 521.
17,53.
Acacia arabica Willd. Sp. PL 4: 1085.
1806.
Mimosa arabica Lam. Encycl.
1: 19.
1783.
A shrub or a tree up to about 8 m. high, the slender twigs pubescent or gla-
brate, with a pair of stipular, acicular or slender-subulate pale spines up to 4 cm.
long at some or
all of the nodes.
Leaves petioled, 5-15 cm. long, more or less
pubescent, the petiole and rachis usually bearing a few glands; pinnae 3-8 pairs;
leaflets 10-30 pairs, linear-oblong, 5-8 mm. long, 1-nerved, obtuse; flowers yellow;
in dense, globose, peduncled axillary heads about
1.5 cm. in diameter,
the pe-
duncle
bearing an involucre
at
or above
the middle; pod
linear,
nearly
flat,
5-15 cm. long, white-tomentulose or glabrate, 8-15 mm. wide, constricted between
the seeds, short-beaked.
Natiu-alized near dwellings on St. Croix and St. Thomas:—Jamaica; Cuba; Antigua;
Guadeloupe; Montserrat; Martinique; Grenada; Native of tropical Africa.
Occasion-
ally planted for ornament in the Virgin Islands and on Porto Rico.
GuM Arabic Tree.
Acacia Senegal
Willd.,
native
of tropical
Africa,
a
tree with bipinnate
leaves,
the numei-ous pale green oblong
leaflets about 6 mm.
long,
the white
flowers densely spicate, the very flat pod about 8 cm. long and 2 cm. wide, was
found planted at Lamosure, St. Jan, in 1913.
Acacia nigricans R.
Br., a species of Australia, was listed by llrebs as
found in St. Thomas prior to 1851; it may, possibly, have been planted there.
MIMOSACEAE
355
Acacia macrostachya Rchb., native of western
tropical Africa, was
also
recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas.
Acacia decurrens
Willd., Black Wattle,
Australian,
has been
experi-
mentally planted for forestry purposes in Porto Rico and planted by Mr. A.
S.
Fairchild at Louisenhoj,
St. Thomas.
It
is an unarmed
tree, the leaves with
many small linear leaflets.
Under the Spanish name "Carbonero" a tree of very rapid growth, recorded
as native of Colombia, has been experimentally planted at the Forest Station,
Rio Piedras, Porto Rico;
it attained in 1923, after about three year's growth, a
height of 7 meters with a trunk up to 1 decimeter in diameter;
it has bipinnate
leaves of many small oblong
leaflets and linear
flat pods about 9 cm. long.
It
appears to be a species of Acacia.
8. LEUCAENA Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 4: 416.
1842.
Unarmed
trees or shrubs, with bipinnate
leaves, the white flowers
in
pe-
duncled
heads.
Calyx narrowly campanulate,
5-toothed.
Petals
5,
distinct,
valvate.
Stamens
10,
distinct,
exserted, the anthers not gland-bearing, often
pilose.
Ovary stipitato; ovules numerous; style filiform; stigma minute.
Pod
broadly
linear,
flat, membranous, completely 2-valved,
the ovate or obovate
flat seeds transverse.
[Greek, referring to the white flowers.]
About 10 species,
mostly of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Leucaena glauca (L.) Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 4: 416.
1842.
Mimosa glauca L. Sp. PI. 520.
1753.
Acacia glauca Willd. Sp. PL 4: 1075.
1803.
Acacia Irucocephala Link, Enum. 2: 444.
1822.
Usually a tree in Porto Rico, sometimes 20 m. high, but sometimes a shrub
3 m. high or
less, the young twigs puberulent.
Leaves 1-2 dm. long;
petiole
3-6 cm. long, with or without a gland; pinnae 3-10 pairs, the upper ones little
shorter than the lower; leaflets 10-20 pairs to each pinna, oblong or lanceolate,
thin, 8-15 mm. long, inequilateral, acute at the apex, obliquely narrowed at the
base, light green above, pale beneath; heads globular, axillary or terminal, mostly
clustered, 1.5-3 cm. in diameter; peduncles stout, puberulent or pubescent, 2i-3
cm. long; cal\'x obconic,
1 mm. long, its.?hort teeth blunt; petals linear-spatulate,
pubescent; stamens al)out 3 times as long as the petals; ovary pubescent; pods
several or numerous, linear, 10-15 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. wide, abruptly acute
or mucronate at the apex, tapering at the base, the thin valves with raised margins.
[Acacia portoricensis of Bello, not of Willdenow.]
Hillsides,
woodlands and
thickets
at lower and middle
elevations,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques; St. Croix: St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—West Indies;
Florida;
tropical continental America and in tlie tropics of the Old World.
Its brownish wood is
hard and durable.
Horses, browsmg on the foliage, are reported to lose
tails and manes.
Hediondill.\.
Acacia palida,
Campeche.
Wild Tamarind.
Tantan.
9. ACUAN Medic. Theod. 62.
1786.
Perennial herbs or shrubs, with bipinnate leaves, small stipules, anl greenish
or whitish small regular flowers in axillary peduncled heads or spikes.
Flowers
perfect, sessile, or the lowest sometimes staminate, neutral or apetalous.
Calyx
campanulate,
its teeth short.
Petals valvate, distinct, or slightly united or co-
herent
below.
Stamens
10 or
5,
distinct, mainly exserted;
anthers
all
alike.
Ovary
nearly
sessile;
ovules
oo.
Pod
linear,
straight
or curved,
acute,
flat,
356
MIMOSACEAE
several-seeded, 2-valved, the valves coriaceous or membranous.
[Name unex-
plained.]
About 10 species, natives of warm and tropical America, one widely
distributed in tropical regions of the Old World.
Type species: Mimosa virgata L.
Pods 6-9 cm. long; plant erect or ascending.
1. A. virgatum.
Pods 2-6 cm. long; plant diffuse.
2. A. depressum.
1. Acuan virgatum (L.) Medic. Theod. 62.
1786.
Mimosa virgata L. Sp. PI. 519.
1753.
Desmanthus virgatus Willd. Sp.
PI.
4: 1047.
1806.
Desmanthns strictus Bertol. Giorn. Arcad. 21: 190.
1824.
Desmanthus virgatus strictus Grisob.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 218.
1860.
Acacia leptosperma BeWo, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 265.
1881.
Stem erect or ascending, glabrous, or sparingly pubescent above, branched,
0.5-2 m. high.
Stipules subulate,
2. .5-4 mm. long; leaves 2-8 cm. long, short-
petioled, the petiole and rachis .sometimes pubescent; pinnae 1-7 pairs, the gland
between the lower pair usually oblong, conspicuous;
leaflets 10-20
pairs,
linear
or linear-oblong, 4-9 mm. long, thin, obtuse or apiculate at the apex, subtruncate
at the base
; heads
few-.several-floAvered
; peduncles solitary in the axils, slender,
2-5 cm.
long;
flowers white; stamens 10, about twice as long as the petals; pod
straight
or
slightly curved, 6-9 cm.
long, 3-4 mm.
wide, acute
or
apiculate,
smooth.
Banks, thickets and hillsides at lower and middle elevations; Porto Rico; Icacos
Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Florida;
West Indies, south to Tobago, east to Anegada; continental tropical America.
Des-
lkL\NTO.
2. Acuan depressum (H. & B.) Kuntze, Kev. Gen.
PI. 158.
1891.
Desmanthes depressus H. & B.
; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1046.
1806.
Mimosa depressa Poir, in Lam. Encycl. Suppl.
1: 58.
1810.
Diffusely branched, prostrate or ascending, seldom over 3 dm. high, glabrous
or sparingly pubescent.
Stipules subulate, 3.5 mm. long or
less; leaves short-
petioled, 1 ..5-4 cm. long ; pinnae 1-5 pairs, the gland between the lowest pair small,
mostly orbicular; leaflets 10-20 pairs, linear, 3-5 mm. long, thin, obtuse at the
apex, obtu.se or subtruncate at the base
; heads few-flowered, on solitary axillary
peduncles; stamens 10, about 6 mm. long, twice as long as the petals; pod straight
or slightly curved, 2-6 cm. long; about 3 mm. wide.
Hillsides at lower elevations, eastern and southern districts of Porto Rico; St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola:—Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Thomas and St. Jan to Martinique; Curagao; continental tropical America.
10. MORONGIA Britton, Mem. Torr. Club 5: 191.
1894.
Perennial herbs, or shrubs, arching, prostrate or procumbent, armed with
recurved prickles.
Leaves bipinnate, usually sensitive; leaflets numerous, small;
stipules setaceous.
Flowers regular, small, 4-5-parted, pink or purple, perfect
or polygamous,
in axillary peduncled heads or spikes.
Stamens usually 8-12,
distinct, or united at the base; anthers all alike.
Ovary nearly sessile; ovules
oo.
Pod linear, acute or acuminate, spiny all over, at length 4-valved, several-seeded.
[Named
in honor of Thos. Morong, 1827-1894, American botanist.]
About 10
species, natives of warm and tropical America, 1 in tropical Africa.
Type species:
Schrankia aculeata Willd.
:m]mosaceae
357
1. Morongia portoricensis (Urban) Britton.
Schrankia portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
2: 267.
1900.
A shrub, 2 m.
high or
less, glabrous or very nearly
so, the long slender
angled
branches armed
with numerous
recurved
prickles
1.5-2.5 mm.
long.
Stipules subulate, 6-12 mm. long; leaves 7-12 cm. long: petiole and rachis slender,
armed with recurved
prickles; pinnae 4-7
pairs, rather distant;
leaflets 10-20
pairs,
linear,
thin,
inconspicuously
veined, 3-6 mm.
long,
or the
lowest
pair
shorter, obtuse or acutish at the apex, obtuse at the base; heads axillary, solitary,
about S mm.
in diameter, on peduncles 1-2 cm.
long; flowers yellowish, very
nearly sessile; calyx about 0.5 mm. long; corolla glabrous, about 3 mm. long, its
lanceolate lobes about as long as the tube; stamens 6 mm.
long, the filaments
united at the base; pod nearly terete, 8-18 cm. long, 4-5 mm.
in diameter,
its
subulate beak 1-2 cm.
long,
its valves armed with few distant prickles; seeds
rectangular-oblong, black, 4-5 mm. long.
[Schrankia leptocarpa Bello, not DC.
.S. dislachya Stahl, not DC; Morongia
leploclada and M. distachya of Cook and
CoUins.]
Thickets and woodlands, vicinity of Coamo, Porto Rico, apparently local.
Endemic.
Zarzarii.l,\.
11. MIMOSA L. Sp. PI. 516.
1753.
Herbs, shrubs or rarely trees, mostly with 2-pinnate, often sensitive leaves,
the small, regular, mostly 4-5-parted, perfect or sometimes polygamous flowers
in
axillary,
peduncled
heads
or
spikes.
Calyx small,
its
teeth
short.
Petals
valvate, connate below, hypogynous.
Stamens as many as the petals or twice
as many, distinct, exserted; filaments mostly filiform; anthers small, eglandular.
Ovary 2-many-ovuled;
style slender or
filiform; stigma terminal,
small.
Pod
linear or oblong, usually
flat, often transversely jointed, 2-valved with the con-
tinuous margins
persistent.
Seeds compres.sed.
[Greek,
referring to the sen-
sitive leaves of some species.]
Over 300 species, natives of warm and tropical
regions.
Type species: Mimosa sensitiva L.
Low, herbaceous: pods jointed: stamens as many as the petals.
1. M. pudica.
Climbing prickly vine; pods not jointed; stamens twice as many as the
petals.
2. M. Ceraionia.
1. Mimosa pudica L. Sp.
PI. 518.
1753.
Herbaceous, or a little woody, loosely pubescent Avith long hairs or glabrate,
branched, 5 dm. high or
less, the stems and branches armed with rather stout,
somewhat curved prickles 2-4 mm. long.
Stipules lanceolate, striate, acuminate,
3-6 mm. long; petioles slender, with a pulvinus at base, 2-6 cm. long, deflexed
when touched; pinnae 1 pair or 2 approximate pairs, also with a pulvinus at base,
2-6 cm. long; leaflets 1.5-25 pairs, thin, linear, 6-10 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide,
folding when touched, acutish at the apex, obliquely rounded at the base; heads
ovoid,
axillary; peduncles 1-2 cm.
long; calyx minute;
petals and stamens 4;
stamens pink, fading white; pods linear-oblong, 2-.5-jointed, 1-1.5 cm. long, 3 mm.
wide, constricted at the joints, the margins armed with slender straight prickles,
otherwise glabrous.
Fields, banks and roadsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas:—Andros Island, Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba to Trinidad; con-
tinental tropical America.
Naturalized in tropical Asia and in Australasia.
Morivivi.
Sensitiva.
Sensitive Pl.\nt.
2. Mimosa Ceratonia L. Sp. PI. 523.
1753.
A glabrous woody vine, often 6 m. long, trailing or climbing, or sometimes
shrubby, the angular branches and slender petioles armed with hooked prickles.
Stipule's subulate, 2-3 mm. long; pinnae 1-5 pairs, the rachis with small hooked
358
MIMOSACEAE
prickles, the petiolules 6-10 mm. long; leaflets 3-5 pairs, obliquely obovate, in-
equilateral,
thin, 3-nerved, 1-2.5 cm. long, rounded at the apex, paler beneath
than above; heads
in
terminal racemes
or narrow
panicles,
often numerous;
peduncles prickly, 2 cm. long or less; petals mostly 3; stamens mostly 6, white or
pinkish, about 8 mm. long; pod oblong, straight or a little curved, 6 cm. long or
less,
1-4-lS mm. wide,
flat and thin, glabrous, shining, not jointed,
its margins
armed with hooked prickles.
[? M. sensitiva of West.]
Hillsides and thickets, Porto Rico, ascending to at least 900 m.
; Vieques
; St. Croix(?)
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Hispaniola
to
St. Vincent.
Zabz.\.
Bl.\ck Ambbet.
Climbixg Mimosa.
Mimosa pigra
L. (M. asperata
L.) was recorded by Grisebach from
St.
Thomas, but the plant has not been found there by recent collectors;
it
is not
known within the geographical range of this Flora, but occurs elsewhere in the
West Indies.
Mimosa acantholoba (H. & B.)
Polr., a species of Ecuador, recorded by
Krebs as found in St. Thomas, must be an error in determination [Acacia acan-
tholoba H. & B.].
12. NEPTUNIA Lour.
Fl. Coch.
0.>3.
1790.
Prostrate,
diffuse or floating perennial herbs, some species a
little woody,
with bipinnate leaves, and axillary, solitary, long-peduncled heads of more or less
imperfect and perfect flowers.
Calyx campanulate, with 5 short teeth.
Petals 5,
distinct, or united below the middle.
Stamens mostly 10, distinct, exserted, the
anthers bearing a stalked gland.
Ovary stipitate, several-many-ovuled
; style
filiform
with
a
terminal
capitate
stigma.
Pods
broadly
linear
or
narrowly
oblong, stipitate,
flat, commonly recurved, impressed between the ovate trans-
verse
seeds,
2-valved,
the
valves
thin-coriaceous.
[Dedicated
to
Neptune.]
About
10
species,
of America,
tropical Asia and
Australasia.
Type
species:
Neptunia oleracea Lour.
1. Neptunia plena (L.) Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 4: 355.
1842.
Mimosa plena L. Sp.
PI. 519.
1753.
Desmanthus plenus Willd. Sp.
PI.
4: 1045.
1806.
Desmanthus punctaius Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1047.
1808.
Glabrous, the slender branches prostrate or ascending, 3-6 dm. long.
Stipules
ovate
to
lanceolate,
thin,
oblique, 4-6 mm.
long;
leaves 4-10 cm.
long, with
slender petioles; pinnae 2-4 pairs; leaflets 12-20 pairs, linear, thin, faintly veined,
4-10 nmi. long, obtuse; peduncles 6-12 cm. long, usually bearing 1 or 2 cordate
bracts at or below the middle; heads ovoid; flowers yellow, the upper ones perfect,
the lower staminate, or neutral with exserted staminodes
; pods 2-5 cm. long, about
8 mm. wide, acute or apiculate, thickened on the margins.
Moist or wet sandy soil and in ponds, Porto Rico, local near the coasts:—Bahamas;
Culja; Hispaniola: Antigua to Grenada; Curacao; tropical continental America.
Re-
corded by Krebs as formerly found in
St. Thomas.
Water Neptunia.
Desmanto
AMARILLO.
Neptunia pubescens Benth. was recorded by Baron Eggers as found on
Buck Island, St. Thomas, many years ago; we failed to flnd it during two visits to
Buck
Island
in
1913.
Professor Paulsen informs us that no specimen
is pre-
served in the Copenhagen herbarium.
MIMOSACEAE
359
13. ADENANTHERA L. Sp. PI. 384.
1753.
Unarmed
trees with
bipinnate
leaves and long narrow racemes of small
flowers, axillary, or in terminal clusters.
Calyx campanulate, 5-tootlied.
Petals
5, united below the middle or nearly distinct.
Stamens
10,
distinct, about as
long as the corolla; filaments slender; anthers bearing a deciduous gland.
Ovary
many-ovuled,
sessile;
style
filiform with a small, terminal stigma; pod
linear,
usually curved, compressed, but swollen over the seeds, at length 2-valved, the
valves twisting
after dehiscence; seeds
thick,
suborbicular, compressed, hard
and
shining,
mostly
red.
[Greek,
glandular
anther.]
Three
or
four
species
natives of the Old World tropics, the following typical.
1. Adenanthera pavonina L. Sp. PI. 384.
1753.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, glabrous or very nearly so throughout.
Leaves
large, often 5 dm. long, stout-petioled
; pinnae 2-5 pairs; leaflets 11-21, mostly
alternate, oblong-elliptic, thin, obtuse at each end, or emarginate, or apiculate,
1.5-4 cm.
long, with short
petiolules; racemes narrow,
erect, 10-18 cm.
long;
pedicels 1.5-2.5 mm. long; calyx about 1 mm. long; petals acutish, about 3 mm.
long; pod somewhat
fleshy,
1.5-2.5
dm. long, about 13 mm. wide; seeds com-
pressed-lenticular, red, shining, suborbicular, about 8 mm. broad.
Occasionally planted and locally escaped from cultivation m Porto Rico
; St. Thomas
St. Jan (according to Eggers)
:—naturalized in Jamaica and in the Lesser Antilles.
Native
of tropical
Asia.
Tlie wood yields a red dye, and
is used in cabinet work,
JM.^TO
COLORADO.
CORALITOS.
PALO
DE
MATO.
PERONILAS.
COQUELICOT.
CIRCASSL4.N
BE.AN.
14. PROSOPIS L. Mant. l: 10.
1767.
Trees, with bipinnate leaves, and small, nearly or quite sessile flowers, in
axillary spikes or
rarely
capitate.
Calyx campanulate,
5-toothed.
Petals
5,
valvate.
Stamens
10,
distinct, the anthers usually bearing a deciduous gland.
Ovary many-ovuled;
style
filiform; stigma
small and
terminal.
Pod
linear,
subterete or somewhat flattened, coriaceous, indehiscent, the mesocarp spongy.
Seeds
flattened.
[Greek name of some
plant.]
About
15
species,
natives
of
tropical and subtropical regions.
Type species: Prosopis spicigera L.
1. Prosopis juliflora (Sw.) DC. Prodr. 2: 447.
1825.
Mimosa juliflora Sw. Prodr. 85.
1788.
Acacia salinarum DC. Prodr. 2: 456.
1825.
A tree, up to 13 m. high, but usually smaller, with widely spreading branches,
armed with
stipular slender
straight
spines
1-4 cm.
long,
the smooth
bark
brown,
the
slender twigs
glabrous
or
nearly
so.
Leaves
glabrous,
or
Avhen
young sparingly ciliate, 0.7-2 dm. long; petioles slender, 1-4 cm. long; pinnae 1
or 2 pairs, short-stalked; leaflets 12-20 pairs, linear-oblong, sessile, 7-16 mm. long,
strongly few-veined, obtuse or mucronulate at the apex, obliquely obtuse at the
base; flowers greenish or yellowish, in dense cylindric peduncled spikes 5-10 cm.
long, 7-8 mm. thick; calyx about
1 mm. long,
its teeth short; petals about 2.5
mm.
long,
acute,
villous within; ovary
villous; pod compressed,
falcate, 7-20
cm. long, 8-10 mm. Avide, 5-7 mm. thick when mature.
Thickets, southern coastal plain of Porto Rico;
St. Thomas
(ex Krebs): hillsides.
Tortola:—Cuba; Hispaniola; IMontserrat; Bonaire; Curacao; Ariiha; continental tropical
America, introduced into the Bahamas and naturalized in the Philippines.
Commonly
planted in Porto Rico, and occasionally in the Virgin Islands, for ornament and for the
use of its pods as food for cattle.
JMesquite.
360
MIMOSACEAE
15. PIPTADENIA Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 4: .334.
1842.
Trees or shrubs with bipinnate leaves, the white or greenish perfect or poly-
gamous
flowers
spicate
or
capitate.
Calyx campanulate,
slightly
.5-toothed.
Petals
5, mostly united
to about the middle.
Stamens
10,
e.xserted,
distinct;
anthers
usually
tipped by
a deciduous
gland.
Ovary
sessile,
several-many-
ovuled.
Pod linear, flat, not jointed, 2-valved, not pulpy between the seeds, the
valves entire.
Seeds
flat, without endosperm, with a filiform funicle.
[Greek,
deciduous gland.]
About 40 species, mostly tropical American, a few in tropical
Africa.
Type species
: Piptadenia latifolia Benth.
1. Piptadenia peregrina (L.) Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 4: 340.
1842.
Mimosa peregrina L. Sp.
PI.
.520.
1753.
Acacia peregrina Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 1073.
1806.
Acacia angustifolia DC. Prodr. 2: 470.
1825.
An unarmed tree up to 20 m. high, the young twigs and leaves puberulent,
the mature foliage glabrous or very nearly so, the bark of the trunk suberous-
verrucose,
nearly
black.
Pinnae numerous, up
to 30 pairs or more, narrow;
leaflets numerous, often 25 pairs or more, sessile,
linear, 2-4 mm. long, very in-
conspicuously veined,
acutish, approximate; heads
usually numerous,
globose,
about 10 mm. in diameter, on slender puberulent peduncles 1-3 cm. long; flowers
white; calyx very small; pod 8-17 cm. long, 10-18 mm. wide, somewhat constricted
between the seeds, the valves coriaceous; seeds suborbicular, very thin and
flat,
black, shining, about 10 mm. wide.
Woodlands aad hillsides, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations:—Hispaniola;
Dominica; St. Vincent; Grenada; South America.
The red-brown wood is hard, heavy,
strong and dui-able.
Cojobana.
Cojobillo.
Pipt.\denia.
16. ENTADA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 318.
1763,
High-climbing, unarmed vines, with bipinnate leaves, and small, perfect or
polygamous flowers in clustered spikes.
Calyx 5-toothed.
Petals 5, distinct or
coherent at the base.
Stamens 10, distinct, shghtly exserted, the anthers bearing
a deciduous gland.
Ovary many-ovuled; style
flliform, with a small terminal
stigma.
Pod very large,
flattened, transversely jointed within the continuous
margins,
coriaceous
or
woody,
the
joints
1-seeded.
Seeds
large,
orbicular.
[Malabar name.]
About
10 species, natives of tropical regions.
Type species:
Mimosa Entada L.
1. Entada polyphylla Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 2: 133.
1840.
Young twigs finely puberulent.
Leaves 1.5-2.5 dm. long, the petiole-base
somewhat swollen; pinnae 4-6 pairs, short-stalked; leaflets 10-20 pairs, oblong,
sessile, 8-12 mm. long, glabrate or puberulent, obtuse or emargmate at the apex,
narrowed or rounded at the base, pinnately veined, the midvein quite prominent
beneath;
spikes
cylindric,
brownish, 4-5 cm.
long, about
3 mm.
thick,
very
numerous in terminal racemes; pod coriaceous, about 6 cm. wide.
River bank near Fajardo and in sandy soil near Vega Baja, Porto Rico:—South
America.
Tamarindillo.
Enterolobium cyclocarpum
(Jacq.)
Griseb., of Jamaica and continental
tropical America, a large spreading tree up to 20 m. high or higher, occasionally
planted in Porto Rico for shade or ornament, has glabrous large bipinnate leaves,
the numerous leafiets linear-oblong, glaucous beneath, 8-13 mm. long; the small
CAESALPINIACEAE
361
flowers are in axillary pediincled heads, the corolla about 5 mm. long; the large
flat pod
is curved into a complete circle 8-10 cm. broad.
[Mimosa cyclocarpa
Jacq.]
Lysiloma latisiliqua
(L.) Benth., of the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola,
was
listed by Krebs
as found
in
St. Thomas, presumably
in
error.
[Acacia
latisiliqua L.
; Lysiloma Sabicu Benth.]
Parkia biglandulosa W. & A., East Indian, seen in the collection of trees
at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Mayaguez, forms an elegant tree at
least 18 m.
high, with spreading branches, the large bipinnate leaves velvety,
the very numerous leaflets 6-8 mm. long and close together; the white flowers
are in long-peduncled heads, those of the lower part of the head sterile,^ those of
the upper part fertile.
Family 7.
CAESALPINIACEAE Kl. & Garcke.
Senna Family.
Trees,
herbs
or
shrubs, with
alternate, simple
or compound, mostly
stipulate leaves.
Flowers mostly' clustered and perfect, sometimes monoe-
cious, dioecious or polygamous, nearly regular, or irregular.
Calyx mostly
of 5 sepals or 5-toothed.
Petals usually
5, imbricated, and the upper (un-
paired) one enclosed by the lateral ones in the bud.
Stamens 10 or fewer
in our genera, the filaments distinct, or more or less united.
Ovary 1-celled,
1-many-ovuled.
Fruit a legume,
mostlj' dehiscent
into 2
valves.
Seeds
with or without endosperm.
About 90 genera and 1000 species, mostly of
tropical distribution.
A. Leaves simple, entire or 2-lobed; calyx gamosepalous.
B. Leaves pinnate or bipinnate, of 2 to many leaflets; calyx-segments
separate nearly or quite down to the receptacle,
a. Leaves simply pinnate or 2-foliolate.
*Anthers versatile, longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary free from^ the receptacle.
Leaves glandless; stamens naked.
Leaves black-glandular beneath; filaments woolly.
Ovary, or its stipe, adnate to the receptacle.
Leaflets a single pair; pod woody.
Leaflets many; pod pulpy within.
**Anthers basiflxed, mostly opening by a terminal pore.
tPods elastically dehiscent.
ttPods indehiscent, or not elastically dehiscent.
1. Pods terete or subterete or tetragonal, not flattened.
Pods woody, indehiscent: large trees; perfect stamens 7-10.
Pods membranous or coriaceous; vines, slu-ubs or herbs;
perfect stamens mostly
7.
Pods deliiscent along one side or indehiscent.
Pods
dehiscent
along
one
side;
mostly
vines;
leaflets 4 only, broad.
Pods indehiscent or irregularly dehiscent; shrubs;
leaflets 6 or more.
Pods
dehiscent
along
both
sutures,
very
narrow;
herbs.
2. Pods flattened, turgid or 4-winged.
Pods flattened or rarely turgid; herbs, shrubs or trees.
Pods deliiscent along both sutures.
Pods elongated, pointed, not crested.
Pod-valves coriaceous, not impressed between
1"lif* spprfs
Pod-valves chartaceous, impressed between the
SGGdS
Pods short, roxmded, crested over the seeds.
Pods indehiscent; trees.
Pods 4-wingetl; large sln-ub.
b. Leaves bipinnate (or some of them simply pinnate).
* Shrubs or trees.
Leaf-rachis very
short, spine-tipped; pmnae very
long,
with many leaflets.
1. Bauhinia.
2.
Cynometra.
3.
Slahlia.
4. Hymei^aea.
5.
Tamarindus.
6.
Chamaecrista.
7.
Cassia.
8.
Chamaeflstula.
9. Adipera.
10. Emelista.
11. Ditremexa.
12.
Peiranisia.
13. Senna.
14.
Isandrinn.
15.
Herpetica.
16.
Parkinsonia.
362
CAESALPINIACEAE
Leaf-rachis elongated.
Calyx-segments valvate.
17. Delonix.
Calyx-segments imbricated.
Pod splitting at the middle of the valves.
18. Haematozylon.
Pod dehiscent along the sutures or indehiscent.
Stamens long-exserted.
19.
Poinciana.
Stamens little longer than the petals.
Pods straight, dehiscent.
20.
Caesalpinia.
Pods curled
or straight, indehiscent.
21.
Libidibia.
** Woody vines, mostly prickly.
Pods swollen; seeds subglobose.
22.
Guilandina.
Pods compressed; seeds compressed.
23. Biancaea.
1. BAUHINIA [Plum.] L. Sp. PI. 374.
1753.
Shrubs, trees or some species climbing vines, with broad, simple and entire,
or more or
less deeply 2-lobed leaves, sometimes cleft into 2 distinct
leaflets,
caducous
stipules, and mostly
large
flowers
in terminal racemes or corymbs.
Calyx-tube
short
or elongated,
the limb
variously
cleft
or
lobed, sometimes
completely closed in the bud.
Petals 5, somewhat unequal.
Perfect stamens 10
or fewer; filaments distinct, or connate at the base; anthers versatile.
Ovary
mostly stipitate; style elongated or short, the stigma terminal.
Pod linear to
oblong, compressed, 2-valved or in some species indehiscent, the valves thin to
coriaceous,
often
twisting
after
dehiscence.
Seeds
ovate
to
orbicular,
com-
pressed.
[Commemorates Jean Bauhin, 1541-1613, and Caspar Bauhin, 1560-
1624, famous Swiss botanists.]
About 150 species, of tropical and warm tem-
perate regions of the Old World and the New.
Type species : Bauhinia aculeata L.
A short stout spine at the base of each petiole; petals elongated-linear.
1. B. Paulelia.
Unarmed shrubs or trees; petals obovate.
Perfect stamens 10; pods 1-1.5 cm. wide; leaves 3-6 cm. long.
2. B. tomentosa.
Perfect stamen only 1; pods 2.5-3 cm. wide; leaves 8-20 cm. long.
3. B. monandra.
1. Bauhinia Pauletia Pers. Syn. i: 455.
1805.
A shrub, or a small tree up to 5 m. high, with long branches, the young
twigs villous-pubescent or puberulent, bearing a stout spine 2-4 mm. long at the
base of each petiole.
Leaves suborbicular, or a httle broader than long, 2-lobed
to about one-third their length, rounded or subcordate at the base, 6 cm. long or
less, pubescent beneath or nearly glabrous, the lobes rounded, their petioles 1-2
cm. long; flowers racemose at the ends of the twigs, leafy-bracted, (5-10 cm. long;
pedicels about 1 cm. long; calyx-tube 1.5-2 cm. long; petals and sepals elongated-
linear; perfect stamens
5, about as long as the petals; pod
linear, compressed,
long-stipitate,
velvety,
25
cm.
long
or
less,
about
13 mm.
wide.
[Pauletia
aculeata Cav., not Bauhinia aculeata L.
; Bauhinia Krugii of Stahl, not of Urban.]
Thickets and roadsides at low
elevations, southwestern
districts
of Porto Rico,
perhaps introduced:—Trinidad; Mexico to Venezuela.
Arana gato.
2. Bauhinia tomentosa L. Sp. PI. 375.
1753.
A shrub, or small tree, 4 m. high or less, with slender unarmed branches, the
young twigs villous or pubescent.
Leaves suborbicular, 2-lobed to about one-
third their length,
thin, subtruncate or subcordate
at the
base, 3-6 cm.
long,
villous beneath,
the
lobes rounded,
the
slender,
pubescent
or
villous
petioles
1..5-3 cm. long; peduncles opposite the leaves, villous, 1-3-flowered; calyx about
2.5 cm. long, closed in bud, puberulent, cleft in anthesis; petals yellow, with dark
red bases, broadly obovate, obtuse, nearly equal, about 5 cm. long; stamens 10^
unequal in length,
all anther-bearing; pod linear, 1-1.5 cm. wide, about 10 cm.
long, short-stipitate.
Roadsides, Porto Rico, escaped from cultivation;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:—widely
established by
cultivation
in
the West
Indies.
Native of tropical Asia and
Africa.
Mariposa.
CAESALPINIACEAE
363
3. Bauhinia monandra Kurz, Journ. Asiat.
Soc. Bengal, 42^:
73.
1S73.
Bauhinia Kappleri Sagot, Ann.
Scl. Nat. VI. 13: 317.
1882.
Bauhinia Krugii Urban, Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell.
3: 83.
188.5.
A large shrub or small
tree 5-12 m.
high, recorded up to 15 m.
liigh, the
young twigs pubescent, the bark gray and smooth.
Leaves broadly ovate or
suborbicular, 8-20 cm. long, rather thick, 2-lobed to about one-third their length,
cordate or truncate at the base, pubescent on the veins beneath, glabrous above,
the petiole rather stout, 6 cm. long or less, the pulvinus at the base of the blade
conspicuous: flowers large, in short, pubescent racemes; calyx about 2 cm. long,
tomentose, split along one side at flowering time, pointed in bud; petals obovate,
4-5 cm.
long,
long-clawed,
rose-colored, one of them carmine-spotted;
fertile
stamen only
1, about 4 cm. long, the linear anther about 6 mm. long; pod linear,
flat, 22 cm. long or less, about 2.5 cm. broad, the valves coriaceous, twisting after
dehiscence;
seeds about
1 cm.
long,
flat,
black and
shining.
[B.
porrecta
of
Stahl, not of Swartz.]
Roadsides,
river-banks and
thickets,
Porto
Rico,
naturalized
after
cultivation;
Vieques; St
Croix; St. Thomas:—widely established in the West Indies; native of south-
eastern
Asia.
Its
wood
is
brown.
Flamboyan
bl.\xco.
Seplina.
Napoleon s
Plume.
Bauhinia Ungala Jaccj., recorded by Grisebach as found on
St. Thomas,
is probably an error in record.
Bauhinia grandiflora Juss., Peruvian, grown from seed by Mr. Thompson
at the St. Croix Agricultural Experiment Station, is a shrub with stipular spines,
the ovat« leaves pubescent beneath, the large, racemose flowers with 10 stamens.
Bauhinia racemosa Vahl, East Indian,
also grown from seed at the
St.
Croix Station, is a shrub with cordate, deeply 2-cleft leaves, the racemose flowers
with 3 stamens.
Bauhinia variegata L., Asiatic, occasionally planted for ornament in Porto
Rico and the Virgin Islands,
is a shrub or small
tree, with large nearly glabrous,
cordate or subcordate leaves, 2-cleft to about the middle, the large variegated
flowers with 5 stamens.
Bauhinia aculeata L. [B. pubescens DC], a South American
species, was
listed by Krebs
as found
in
St. Thomas, where
it may,
perhaps, have been
planted.
2. CYNOMETRA L. Sp. PI. 382.
1753.
Unarmed trees or shrubs, with evenly pinnate leaves of 1 pair or a few pairs
of oblique leathery
leaflets, the small flowers in axillary clusters.
Calyx-tube
very short, its 4 or 5 segments reflexed, imbricated, at least in the bud.
Petals 5.
nearly equal, or the lower
1 or 2 smaller than the others.
Stamens mostly 10,
distinct, the fllaments glabrous.
Ovary short-stipitate or sessile, not adnate to
the receptacle; ovules 2; style filiform; stigma terminal.
Pod usually oblique or
curved, leathery, swollen or terete, at length 2-valved.
Seeds without endosperm.
[Greek, of no obvious application.]
About 30 species, natives of tropical regions
of both the Old World and the New.
Type species: Cynometra cauliflora L.
I. Cynometra portoricensis
Krug &
Urban;
Urban,
Symb.
Ant.
i:
312.
1899.
A
tree, sometimes 15 m.
high, densely
leafy, the yoimg twigs
pilose, the
wood tough.
Petiole only 2.5 mm. long, or less; stipules none; leaflets a shigle
pair,
obliquely
oblong-obovate,
sessile,
inequilateral,
coriaceous,
entire,
1.5-3
364
CAESALPINIACEAE
cm.
long, obtuse or emarginate at the apex,
pale green; flowers few,
in small
sessile axillary clusters subtended by ovate-orbicular striate bracts about 2 mm
long; pedicels slender, densely pubescent, 4-6 mm. long; calyx-segments narrowly
oblong, about 5 mm. long; petals shorter than the calyx-segments; anthers short-
oblong; pod obliquely oblong, 2-3 cm. long, verrucose or at length smooth.
Wooded
cliffs, Quebrado del Salto, near Rincon, and on a limestone hill five miles
Bouth of Arecibo, Porto Rico
:—Hispaniola.
Oregaxillo.
3. STAHLIA Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 2.55.
1881.
A
large unarmed
tree with
alternate evenly
pinnate
leaves,
the
leaflets
bearing scattered round
l:)lack glands beneath, and rather large yellow,
perfect
flowers in terminal and axillary racemes.
Calyx of 5, nearly equal, ovate sepals
united at the base.
Petals 5, nearly equal, papillose, oval-elliptic, the anterior
short-clawed.
Stamens 10, distinct, with woolly filaments and versatile anthers.
Ovary
sessile, not adnate to the receptacle,
glabrous; ovules 2;
style slender;
stigma
small,
terminal.
Pod
ovoid,
coriaceous,
indehiscent,
or,
perhaps,
at
length 2-valved.
[In honor of Dr. Augustin
Stahl, 1842-1917, physician,
col-
lector, and author of "Estudios sobre la Flora de Puerto Rico."]
A monotypic
genus.
1. Stahlia monosperma (Tul.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 285.
1900.
Caesalpinia monosperma Tul. Arch. Mus. Nat. Paris 4: 148.
1844.
Stahlia maritima Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 255.
1881.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, with glabrous twigs and leaves.
Petioles 1-2.5 cm.
long; leaflets 6-12, mostly opposite, short-stalked, .5-9 cm. long, ovate to ovate-
lanceolate, entu'e or irregularly crenulate, shining above, dull beneath, acute or
short-acuminate at the apex, truncate, obtuse or subcordate at the base
; racemes
10-15 cm. long, the rachis, bracts, pedicels and calyx sparingly pilose; pedicels
stout, recurved, 4-8 mm. long; sepals ovate, obtuse, about 6 mm. long; petals
10-12 mm. long; stamens deflexed, about as long as the petals; pod 5 cm. long or
less, about 2.5 cm. wide and 1 cm. thick, purple, coriaceous, 1-seeded.
Coastal woodlands, eastern and southern districts of Porto Rico ; Vieques.
'
Endemic.
[St. Lucia?].
Its nearly black wood
is hard, heavy and strong, valued for furniture;
the tree has become scarce.
Cobana.
Polisandro.
4. HYMENAEA L. Sp. PI. 1192.
1753.
Large,
unarmed
resinous
trees,
with
2-foliolate,
petioled,
subcoriaceous
leaves, the leaflets oblique, and large white flowers in terminal corymbose panicles.
Calyx-segments 4, imbricated, the tube narrowly campanulate.
Petals 5, slightly
unequal, sessile.
Stamens 10, distinct, glabrous; anthers longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary short-stipitate,
its stipe adnate to the calyx-tube; style
flliform; stigma
small, terminal.
Pod woody, thick, indehiscent.
Seeds few, without endosperm,
the testa bony.
[Dedicated to Hymen, the god of marriage.]
About 8 species
of tropical regions, the following typical.
1. Hymenaea Courbaril L. Sp. PI. 1192.
1753.
A tree, up to 20 m. high or higher, the trunk up to 2 m. in diameter, the bark
smooth, the stout branches spreading, the twigs and leaves glabrous.
Leaflets
oblong to oblong-lanceolate, or oblong-ovate, 4-9 cm.
long, very inequilateral,
sessile, acute or acuminate; panicles several-many-flowered; pedicels short and
CAESALPINIACEAE
365
stout; calyx-tube
(receptacle) about 8 mm. long; the segments oblong, densely
puberulent, about 15 mm. long; petals thin, dotted, about as long as the caly.x-
segments; stamens white, about 3 cm. long; pod oblong, dark brown, compressed,
roughened, 5-10 cm.
long, few-several-seeded, the seeds oblong, 2-3 cm. long.
Forests and
hillsides, mostly La moist or wet
districts, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St.
CroLx;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tortola:—Jamaica;
Hispaniola;
St.
Barts
to Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
Recorded from Cuba.
The heavy wood, with specific
gravity of nearly 1.00, is red, hard and tough, much used in carpentry and for furniture,
wheels" and cogs.
Alg.\rrobo.
West Indi.\n Locust.
5. TAMARINDUS L. Sp. PL 34.
1753.
An unarmed tree, with evenly pinnate leaves, numerous and small leaflets,
the minute stipules caducous, and yellow, racemose flowers.
Caly.x-tube turbi-
nate,
its 4 segments imbricated.
Petals very unequal, the 3 upper ones large,
nearly alike, the 2 lower ones minute,
scale-like.
Perfect stamens 3, monadel-
phous; anthers longitudinally dehiscent; staminodia minute.
Ovary
stipitate,
few-many-ovuled, the stipe adnate to the calyx-tube; style long; stigma terminal,
subcapitate.
Pod linear or linear-oblong, curved, little compressed, indehiscent,
the
thin
epicarp
crustaceous,
the mesocarp
pulpy,
the
coriaceous endocarp
septate
between
the
obovate-orbicular
seeds.
Endosperm
none;
cotyledons
thick.
[Latin name of the tree.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Tamarindus indica L. Sp.
PI. 34.
1753.
Tamarindus occidentalis Gaertn.
Fr. & Sem.
2: 310.
1791.
A large
tree, sometimes 20 m. high or higher, with a trunk up to
1.5 m.
thick, the bark brown, rough, the branches widely spreading, the young twigs
slender, puberulent.
Leaves 6-12 cm.
long,
short-petioled, glabrous or nearly
so; leaflets 10-18 pairs, thin, reticulate-veined, oblong, 12-25 mm. long, rounded
or retuse at the ape.x, obliquely obtuse or subtruncate at the base; racemes few-
several-flowered, mostly terminal and shorter than the leaves; pedicels slender,
6-10 mm. long; caly.x 8-10 mm. long; larger petals a little longer than the sepals;
stamens a little longer than the petals; pod ;5-15 cm. long, about 2 cm. thick, the
epicarp brown, scaly, the flesh acid, the brown, shining seeds about 1 cm. broad.
Hillsides and along roads, naturalized after planting, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—native of the East Indies; widely naturalized in tropical
and subtropical regions.
The yellow wood, with specific gravity of about 0.9, is hard and
durable, used in construction, for the handles of tools and for furniture; the acid fruit
yields a cooling drmk.
T.\.marind.
T.\m.\rindo.
6. CHAMAECRISTA Moench. Meth. 272.
1794.
Herbs or low shrubs, with evenly pinnate leaves, often sensitive to the touch,
mostly persistent strongly nerved stipules, and yellow flowers in small
a.xillary
clusters or solitary in or above the axils.
Calyx-lobes acuminate.
Corolla some-
what irregular, some of the five petals smaller than the others.
Stamens 5-10, all
usually
with
perfect
anthers
opening
by
terminal
pores.
Pods
linear,
flat,
more or less elastically dehiscent, the valves twisting.
[Greek, low crest.]
Abou
100 species, widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions.
Type species
Chamaecrista nictitans (L.) Moench.
A.
Leaflets
a
single
pair,
obliqtiely
obovate;
peduncles
long,
filiform.
1.
C. diphylla.
B.
Leaflets several or many pairs; peduncles short.
1.
Flowers 2-3 cm. broad.
Leaflets membranous, finely veined.
Pod 4-6 cm. long, 3-5 cm. wide
^leaflets 8-12 mm. long.
2.
C. Swartzii
366
CAESALPINIACEAE
Pod 2.5 cm. long or less, 2-2.5 mm. wide; leaflets 4-6 mm.
long.
3.
C. miraUlis.
Leaflets thick or coriaceous; strongly veined.
Foliage glabrous or merely puberulent.
Leaflets glabrous, shining, callous-margined.
4.
C. portoricensis.
Leaflets granular-puberulent, dull, not margined.
5.
C. granulata.
Foliage densely pubescent.
6.
C. yramniica.
2. Flowers 8-15 mm. broad.
Petiolar gland small, stalked..
7.
C. Chamaecrisla.
Petiolar glands large, sessile.
8.
C. aeschinomene.
1. Chamaecrista diphylla (L.) Greene, Pittonia 4: 28.
1890.
Cassia diphylla L. Sp.
PI. 376.
17.53.
Herbaceous, glabrous, or the petioles and stipules ciliate, 5 dm. high or less*
often much-branched,
the branches spreading or
diffuse.
Stipules
lanceolate*
5-8 mm.
long, acuminate and subulate-tipped, cordate at base, strlate-nerved'
longer than the petiole; petiolar glands 1 or 2, nearly sessile; leaflets a single pair,
obliquely obovate, rounded at the apex, 1-3 cm. long, flabellate-nerved, the rachis
prolonged between them
as a short sharp
tip; peduncles solitary
In the
axils,
filiform, longer than the leaves, 1-flowered; sepals scarious, finely many-nerved,
6-10 mm. long; petals about as long as the sepals; pod
linear, pubescent with
long hairs, 3-6 cm. long, 3-6 mm. wide; seeds transversely oblique, narrowed at
base.
Grassy banks, sandy fields and cliffs, at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—Cuba; His-
paniola: Mexico to Brazil.
Recorded from St. Kitts and
St. Vincent.
Hediondilla.
Zarzabacoa.
2. Chamaecrista Swartzii fWickstr.) Britton, Bull.
Torr. Club 44:
9.
1917.
Cassia Swartzii Wickstr. Vetensk. Acad. Handl. 1825: 430.
1826.
Chamaecrista complexa Pollard, Field Mus. Bot. 2: 47.
1900.
Cassia glandulosa Swartzii Macbride, Contr. Gray Herb.
II. 59: 26.
1919,
Shrubby, more or less pubescent,
1.5 m. high or less, the branches slender.
Stipules
triangular-lanceolate,
long-acuminate,
striate-nerved,
4-8 mm.
long.
Petiole 4-8 mm. long, bearing a stipitate, sometimes long-stipitate gland, rarely 2;
leaflets 15-25 pairs, linear-oblong to oblong-obovate, thin, 8-12 mm. long, obtuse
and cuspidate at the apex, oblique at the base, the midvein nearly central, the
lateral veins many, ascending; peduncles 1-3 in the axils, mostly longer than the
petioles,
1-flowered;
sepals membranous,
scarcely
nerved,
10-12 mm.
long;
petals about twice as long as the sepals, one of them much larger than the other
four; pod
linear,
loosely ptibescent or glabrate, 4-6 cm.
long, 3-5 mm.
wide.
[Cassia glandulosa of West, of Krebs, of Stahl and of Urban, not of Linnaeus;
?
Cassia riparia of Krebs; Cassia glandrdosa striata and ramosa of Eggers; Chamae-
crista glandulosa and C. glandulosa ramosa Of Millspaugh.]
Banks, hillsides and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Culebra;
Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Hispaniola;
St. Barts to Grenada.
Tamarixdillo.
3. Chamaecrista mirabilis Pollard, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 15: 19.
1902.
Cassia mirabilis Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 276.
1905.
Shrubby, low, prostrate, ascending or erect, 3-6 dm. long, glabrous, or finely
pubescent above when young, the branches slender.
Stipules linear-subulate,
striate, 3-6 mm. long; petioles short, bearing 1-3 stalked discoid glands; leaflets
3-17
pairs,
linear, 4-6 mm.
long, cuspidate,
thin, the midvein nearly central,
the lateral veins numerous; peduncles mostly solitary in the
axils, nearly
filiform,
sometimes as long as the smaller leaves,
1-fiowered; sepals thin, 6-9 mm. long;
petals longer than the sepals, one of them much larger than the other four; pod
in
ar, sparingly pubescent, 2-2.5 cm. long, 2-2.5 mm. wide.
In .sand, northern coastal plain of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
CAESALPINIACEAE
367
4. Chamaecrista portoricensis
(Urban) Cook &
Collins,
Contr.
U.
S. Nat.
Herb. 8:
113.
1903.
Cassia portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 317.
1899.
Cassia portoricensis callosa Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 317.
1899.
Shrubby, usually bushy-branched, 6 dm. high or
less, the branches short-
pubescent.
Stipules lanceolate, long-acuminate, 3-8 mm.
long; petioles about
as long as the stipules or shorter; leaflets 3-11 pairs, coriaceous, oblong or obovate-
oblong, 6-15 mm.
long,
glabrous,
shining,
callous-margined, obtuse
or
acute,
mucronate, strongly veined; petiolar gland with a short, stout stipe; peduncles
1-2-flowered, shorter than the leaves; sepals lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 6-8
mm. long, acuminate, thin, not striate-nerved
; petals obovate, 10-15 mm. long;
pod linear, short-pilose, 6 cm. long or less, 4-6 mm. wide.
Hillsides and serpentine slopes, western and southwestern districts of Porto Rico
at lower and middle elevations.
Endemic.
Ketama.
5. Chamaecrista granulata (Urban) Britton, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 2: 41.
1915.
Cassia portoricensis granulata Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 318.
1899.
Cassia granulata Macbride, Contr. Gray Herb.
II. 59: 26.
1919.
Shrubby, often much branched, 1 m. high or less, the branches rather densely
short- pubescent.
Stipules lanceolate, acuminate, 3-5 mm. long; petioles about
as long as the stipules or shorter, bearing a stipitate gland; leaflets 4-7 pairs,
subcoriaceous,
oblong
or obovate,
6-12 mm.
long,
granular-puberulent,
dull,
obtuse, mucronate, not margined; peduncles 1-flowered, shorter than the leaves;
sepals lanceolate, acuminate, 7-8 mm. long; petals obovate, about twice as long
as the sepals; pod linear, loosely pubescent, 3-5 cm. long, 4-5 mm. wide.
Sand-dunes and limestone thickets near the coast, dry southwestern districts of
Porto Rico; Mona; Muertos.
Endemic.
6. Chamaecrista grammica (Spreng.) Pollard, Field Mus. Bot. 2: 47.
1900.
Cassia grammica Spreng. Neue Entd. 3: 55.
1822.
Shrubby, 6 dm. high or
less, densely pubescent.
Petiole short, bearing a
stalked gland; leaflets 3-8 pairs, oblong to obovate, 6-12 mm. long, dull, acutish
or obtuse, mucronate, their margins slightly thickened; stipules lanceolate, acu-
minate, about 5 mm. long; peduncles 1-flowered, shorter than the leaves ornearly
as long; sepals lanceolate, pilose, about 8 mm. long; petals nearly twice as long
as the sepals; pod linear, about 3 cm. long and 3 mm. wide, pubescent.
Coastal limestone hills near Ponce, Porto Rico; Vieques; Little St. James Island:
Cuba; Hispaniola.
Similar to the preceding species, but densely pubescent.
7. Chamaecrista Chamaecrista (L.) Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 44: 12.
1917.
Cassia Chamaecrista L. Sp.
PI. 379.
1753.
Cassia diffusa DC. Mem. Soc. Phys. Geneve 2: 130.
1824.
Chamaecrista diffusa Britton, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 2: 41.
1915.
Low, slightly woody, diffusely branched, the branches slender, spreading or
prostrate, pubescent or glabrate, sometimes 2-3 dm. long.
Stipules lanceolate,
acuminate,
strongly few-veined, 3-6 mm.
long;
petioles about as long as the
stipules, bearing a solitary, small, slender-stalked gland; leaflet 5-16 pairs, linear,
5-7 mm. long, inequilateral,
thin,
flnely puljescent or glabrate, mucronate, the
midvein
eccentric;
peduncles
1-flowered,
not
longer than
the
petioles;
sepals
thin, lanceolate, 3-4 mm. long; petals obovate, sUghtly longer than the sepals;
stamens 5-7
; pod linear, loosely pubescent or glabrate, 1.5-3 cm. long, 3 mm. wide.
[Cassia nictitans of Krebs, of Eggers, of Urban and of Millspaugh, not of Lin-
naeus.]
Sand dunes and sandy soil along the coasts, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques; St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan:—West Indies, south to Grenada, Margarita and Curagao.
368
CAESALPINIACEAE
8. Chairaecruta aeschinomene (DC.) Greene, Pittonia 4: 32.
1899.
Cassia aeschinomene DC; Collad. Cass.
127.
1816.
Cassia mimosoides aeschinomene Benth.
Trans.
Linn.
Soc.
27: 579.
1871.
Chamaecrista Millspaughii Pollard, Field Mus. Bot. 2: 47.
1900.
(?) Cassia exunguis Urban, Repert. 15: 312.
1918.
Slightly woody, erect or
diffuse, branched or nearly simple,
1 m. high or
less,
the branches more or
less pubescent, or glabrous.
Stipules lanceolate or
linear-lanceolate,
6-12 mm.
long,
striate-nerved,
long-acuminate;
petioles
as
long as the stipules or shorter, bearing a single,
large,
sessile, scutellate gland;
leaflets 7-25 pairs, linear, 8-15 mm. long, thin, glabrous or pubescent, acute or
obtuse, and mucronate,
rather strongly
veined; peduncles mostly
1-flowered,
short; sepals
lanceolate, acute or acuminate, glabrous
or
pubescent, 5-7 mm.
long;
petals obovate, a
little longer than
the
sepals; stamens
.5-7; pod
linear,
pubescent or nearly glabrous, 3-5 cm. long, 2.5-4 mm. wide.
[Cassia nictitans
of Urban in part, not of Linnaeus;
? C. hecatophylla of Krebs.]
Sand dunes, banks and
hillsides
at lower and middle
elevations, Porto Rico:
Vieques; Desecheo:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
Chamaecrista serpens
(L.) Greene, a species of Jamaica, Cuba and con-
tinental America, was recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas, presumably in error
[Cassia prostrata H. & B.].
7. CASSIA [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 376.
1753.
Mostly trees with evenly pinnate leaves and yellow or white flowers In droop-
ing racemes.
Sepals nearly
equal,
obtuse.
Corolla nearly
regular;
petals
5,
spreading, nearly equal, imbricated, clawed.
Stamens usually
10, the 3 lower
ones with elongated
filaments; anthers of the lower stamens
larger than the
others.
Pods
woody,
indehiscent,
elongated,
pendulous,
septate.
Seeds
numerous, transverse.
[Ancient name.]
About 20 species, of wide distribution
in warm and temperate regions.
Type species; Cassia Fistula L.
Leaflets 4-8 pairs, ovate, glabrous, 7-20 cm. long.
1.
C. Fistula.
Leaflets 7-20 pairs, oblong, pubescent, 6 cm. long or less.
2.
C. grandis.
1. Cassia fistula L. Sp.
Pi. 377.
1753.
A tree, up to 20 m. tall, the trunk up to 7 dm. in diameter, the twigs glabrous
or very nearly so.
Stipules hnear-lanceolate, small, fugacious.
Leaves often 4 dm.
long or longer, the stout, eglandular petiole 10 cm. long or less; leaflets 4-8 pairs,
short-stalked, chartaceous, ovate to ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, 7-20 cm.
long, acutish or bluntly acuminate at the apex, obtuse or narrowed at the base,
finely pinnately veined with a prominent midvein,
glabrous, bright green and
somewhat shining above, paler green beneath; racemes drooping, 3-8 dm. long;
pedicels very slender, 2-5 cm. long; sepals oval or oblong, obtuse, puberulent,
6-10 mm. long; petals bright yellow, oblong, obtuse, 2-3 cm. long; pods cylindric.
drooping, terete, nearly black, glabrous, 6 dm. long or less, about 2 cm. thick,
pulpy within around the flat horizontal seeds.
Roadsides, pastures and hillsides, Porto Rico, escaped from cultivation and natural-
ized; Vieques; St. Croix :^widely planted and naturalized in the West Indies.
Native
of tropical Asia.
The purgative pulp of the fruit yields the drug.
The wood is reddish,
hard, strong and dxirable, with speciflc gravity of about 0.93.
Cana fistula.
2. Cassia grandis L.f. Suppl. 230.
1781.
Cassia brasiliana Lam. Encycl.
1: 649.
1783.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the young twigs pubescent.
Stipules very small,
linear, fugacious.
Leaves about 3 dm. long or less, densely finely pubescent all
over; petiole 2-6 cm. long, eglandular; leaflets 8-20 pairs, oblong, nearly sessile.
CAESALPINIACEAE
369
obtuse at both ends,
or the upper ones narrowed at the
base, 3-5 cm.
long;
racemes lateral or axillary, drooping, pubescent, 1-2 dm. long; pedicels 1-2 cm.
long; sepals ovate-oblong,
obtuse,
canescent, 6-8 mm.
long;
petals
orbicular,
reddish or purplish, about 12 mm. broad; pod compressed-cylindric, indehiscent,
transversely rugulose, septate between the seeds, 9 dm. long or less.
Hillsides in dry parts of the southwestern districts of Porto Rico; sometimes planted:
naturalized on St. Thomas and St. Croix:—Hisoaniola; Cuba; Jamaica; tropical conti-
nental America: planted in other West Indian islands.
The red-brown wood, used in
cabinet work and construction, is hard, strong and dural)le, with specific gravity of about
0.75.
Cana fistula cimarrox.
Cassia nodosa Hamilt., a tree of tropical Asia, has been experimentally
planted for forestry purposes in Porto Rico.
It has large leaves, of 6-10 pairs
of leaflets, the rose-colored flowers in lateral racemes.
Cassia siamea Lam. (C. floHda VahO, East Indian, is planted for shade and
ornament in the Virgin Islands, and
is there sometimes spontaneous from seed.
It is a rapidly growing tree of large size, the leaves with 6-10 pairs of oval-oblong,
obtuse glabrous leaflets 4-6 cm. long, the yellow flowers in large panicles, the
narrow
flat elongated
stiff",
slightly cm-ved pod at length
dehiscent, the seeds
transverse.
It belongs with a group of Old World
species, not
strictly con-
generic with the true Cassias.
Cassia triflora Vahl, collected on St. Croix by Rohr, is noted by Eggers as
''a doubtful species," not the same as Cassia
triflora Jacq.,
a prior name of a
Cha7naecrista.
8. CHAMAEFISTULA G. Don, Gen. Syst. 2: 451.
1832.
"Woody vines, rarely shrub-like, the leaves with 2 pairs of broad leaflets, the
large yellow flowers in terminal panicles or racemes.
Sepals nearly equal, mostly
obtuse.
Petals 5, nearly equal, imbricated.
Perfect stamens usually 7; staml-
nodia usually 3; anthers all nearly alike, linear-oblong, opening by terminal pores.
Pods mostly elongated, terete, dehiscent along the inner suture, somewhat cori-
aceous,
the
transverse
seeds compressed,
the pulp
glutinous.
[Greek,
a low
Cassia.]
About 30 species of tropical America.
Type species; Cassia bacillaris
L.f.
A linear gland between each pair of leaflets.
1.
C. antillana.
An ovoid gland between the lower pair of leaflets.
2.
C. bacillaris.
1. Chamaefistula antillana Britton and Rose, sp. nov.
A vine, 8 m. long or more, the young twigs and inflorescence
appressed-
puberulent or glabrate, the branches 5-angled.
Leaves 1-2 dm.
long;
petiole
slender, 2-4 cm. long, eglandular; leaflets 2 pairs, with a linear gland between
each pair, obliquely ovate, 3-10 cm.
long, short-stalked, chartaceous, acute or
acuminate at the apex, mostly obtuse at the base, shining above, glabrous on
both
sides
or somewhat pubescent
beneath;
panicles several-many-flowered;
pedicels slender, 2 cm. long or less; sepals oblong or ovate, obtuse, puberulent,
4-6 mm.
long; petals bright yellow, orbicular-ovate, veiny, 1-2 cm. long; pod
linear, turgid when mature, glabrous, 8-18 cm. long, 1-1.5 cm. thick, ultimately
dehiscent
along one
suture;
seeds
obliquely
oval,
compressed,
black,
viscid,
shining, ,5-6 mm. long.
[Referred by de Candolle and by Krebs to Cassia viminea
L.
; by Bello and by Stahl to Cassia bacillaris L.f., and by Urban to Cassia quin-
quangulata L. C. Rich.]
Thickets and woodlands at lower and middle elevations
in
moist
districts, Porto
Rico, ascending into the LuquilloMoimtains; St. Thomas ;Tortola;—Type from St. Thomas
(.Britton and Marble, ifOO).
Hediondilla.
370
CAESALPINIACEAE
2. Chamaefistula bacillaris (L.f.) G. Don, Gen. Syst. 2: 451.
1832.
Cassia bacillaris L.f. Suppl. 231.
1781.
A vine, similar to the preceding species, the young shoots and inflorescence
puberulent,
the foliage glabrous or puberulent.
Leaves 2.5 dm. long or
less;
petiole 2-5 cm. long; leaflets 2 pairs, with a short blunt ovoid gland between the
lower
pair,
chartaceous,
short-stalked,
obliquely
ovate,
larger than
those
of
C. antillana, 5-15 cm. long, the apex acuminate, the base rounded; panicles broad,
several-flowered; pedicels slender,
1-3 cm. long; sepals obtuse, 6-7 mm. long;
petals yellow, rounded, about 2 cm. long; pod
linear, 2 dm. long or less; seeds
compressed.
Sierra de
Luquillo,
Porto Rico
{Eggers, 1395):—St.
Vincent; Tobago;
Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
Chamaefistula macrophylla
(Kunth)
G.
Don,
a
species
of northern
South America, was recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas, evidently in error.
9. ADIPERA Raf. Sylva Tell. 129.
1838.
Shrubs, the branches sometimes elongated and vine-like, the leaves with 3
or more pairs of leaflets, the rather large yellow flowers corymbose or racemose.
Sepals 5, unequal.
Petals nearly equal.
Perfect stamens usually 7
; staminodes
usually
3; anthers narrowly oblong, opening by terminal pores.
Pods mostly
elongated,
terete or subterete, subcoriaceous or membranous, indehiscent or ir-
regularly
bursting.
Seeds
transverse,
compressed.
[Greek,
referring
to
the
unlike stamens and staminodes.]
About 8 species, of tropical America.
Type
species: Cassia Herbertiana Lindl.
Leaflets oblong to obovate, 1-4 cm. long, obtuse.
Pedicels short. 3-8 mm. long.
1. A. bicapsularis.
Pedicels slender, 1-3 cm. long.
2.
A. Stahlii.
Leaflets ovate, 4-8 cm. long, acute.
3. A. laevigata.
1. Adipera bicapsularis (L.)Britton & Rose.
Cassia bicapsularis L. Sp. PL 376.
1753.
A shrub, up to 3.5 m. high, glabrous, or nearly so, throughout, the branche's
slender, .sometimes
vine-like.
Stipules small,
early deciduous; leaves 5-9 cm.
long, slifihtly fleshy, bearing an oblong gland narrowed toward the base, between
the lowest pair of leaflets; leaflets 3-5 pairs, 1-4 cm. long, short-stalked, rounded
at the ape.x, the upper pair obovate, narrowed at the base, the others oblong to
suborbicular, rounded at both ends
; racemes axillary, few-flowered, as long as the
leaves or longer; pedicels 3-8 mm. long; sepals oblong, obtuse, faintly veined.
8-12 mm. long; petals yellow, veiny, oblong-obovate, somewhat longer than the
sepals; pod turgid, subterete, 8-15 cm. long, about
1 cm. thick; seeds lenticular,
obliquely oval, brown, shining, about 5 mm. long, horizontal.
Thickets and
hillsides
at lower
elevations, Porto Rico, mostly
in dry
districts;
Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Anegada:—West Indies and
tropical continental America; introduced into the Old World tropics.
Hoja de Sen.
Sen de p.ais.
Styveb-bush.
Christmas-bush.
2. Adipera Stahlii (Urban) Britton & Rose.
Cassia Stahlii Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 316.
1899.
A shrub, 4 m. high or less, nearly glabrous throughout, or the inflorescence
pubescent.
Stipules linear-subulate,
1 cm. long or
less, deciduous; leaves 5-8
cm.
loiij:, with an oblong-linear gland ijetween the lowest pair of leaflets, or be-
tween
all the pairs;
leaflets 3-5 pairs, oblong, oval, or the lower suborbicular,
rounded at each end, thin, 1-3 cm. long, the lower smaller than the upper; racemes
axillary and
terminal, several-many-flowered,
bracts membranous. 6-10 mm.
CAESALPINIACEAE
371
long, usually deciduous; pedicels slender, 1-3 cm. long; sepals ovate or orbicular-
ovate, 6-7 mm. long; petals obliquely obovate or suborbicular, nearly twice as
long as the sepals, purplish-veined; pod turgid, subterete,
1.5 cm. long or
less,
1-1.5 cm. thick.
[C. laevigata of Bello, not of Linnaeus.]
Woodlands and stream-banks
at middle
altitudes
in wet
districts,
Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
Velamuerto.
3. Adipera laevigata (Willd.) Britton & Rose.
Cassia laevigata Willd. Enum. 441.
1809.
A glabrous shrub,
3 m. high or
less.
Stipules
linear, about 3 mm.
long,
deciduous; leaves 1-2 dm. long, bearing oblong-linear glands between each pair of
leaflets; leaflets 3 or 4 pau's, ovate to ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, 4-8 cm.
long,
thin, short-stalked, acuminate
at the apex, obtuse at the base; racemes
axillary and terminal, mostly long-peduncled and shorter than the leaves, few-
several-flowered; bracts linear-lanceolate,
1 cm. long or less, deciduous; pedicels
slender, 5-1.5 mm. long; sepals oblong, obtuse or acutish, 6-8 mm. long, veiny;
petals obovate, yellow, about twice as long as the sepals; pod tiu-gid, subterete,
6-8 cm. long, about 1 cm. thick.
Thickets and
river-valleys at middle
altitudes
in moist
districts, Porto
Rico:
Jamaica; continental tropical America; introduced into the Old World tropics.
Hedi-
ONDA MACHO.
10. EMELISTA Raf. Sylva Tell. 127.
1838.
Herbs, the leaves with several pairs of broad leaflets, the rather large flowers
axillary,
in
few-flowered
racemes,
or
solitary.
Sepals
obtuse.
Petals nearly
equal.
Perfect stamens 6 or 7
; staminodes 3.
Pods narrowly linear, tetragonal
or
subterete,
dehiscent along both
sutures.
Seeds
longitudinal.
[Derivation
not cited.]
A few species, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species:
Cassia obtusifolia L.
1. Emelista tora (L.) Britton & Rose.
Cassia tora L. Sp. PI. 376.
17.53.
Cassia obtusifolia L. Sp. PI. 377.
1753.
Annual, herbaceous,
glabrous,
or sparingly pubescent,
1 m.
high
or
less.
Stipules linear-subulate, sometimes ciliate, 1-1.5 cm. long, at length deciduous;
leaves 8-15 cm. long; petioles 1-4 cm. long, a linear gland between or above the
lower pair of leaflets; leaflets 2-4 pairs, very short-stalked, obovate, thin, 1.5-5
cm. long, obtuse and often mucronate at the apex; flowers axillary, few or soHtary;
peduncles commonly shorter than
the
petioles; sepals 5-8 mm.
long, obtuse,
often cihate; petals yellow, about twice as long as the sepals; pods narrowly
linear, strongly curved, 2 dm. long or less, 3-5 mm. wide, tetragonal-compressed,
dehiscent; seeds oblong, compressed, shining, about 5 mm. long, parallel with the
valves of the pod.
Hillsides, waste and cultivated grotmds. Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
.St. Thomas;
Tortola:—southeastern United States; West
Indies;
tropical continental America; Old World tropics.
Dormidera.
11. DITREMEXA Raf. Sylva Tell. 127!
1838.
Herbs, shrubs or trees, the leaves various, the flowers mostly in axillary or
lateral clusters.
Sepals mostly obtuse.
Petals nearly equal.
Perfect stamens
usually
7, with 3 staminodes.
Pods flattened or rarely turgid, dehiscent along
both sutures, the valves coriaceous or subcoriaceous.
Seeds transverse or oblique.
[Derivation not cited.]
Species 100 or more, widely distributed in both temperate
and tropical regions.
Type species
: Cassia occidentalis L.
372
CAESALPINIACEAE
Herbaceous species ; pods flat.
Hirsute; pods only about 5 mm. wide.
1. D. hirsuta.
Glabrous or nearly so; pods 6-9 mm. wide.
2. D. occidentalis.
Shrub; pods tiu-gid.
3.
£). Sophera.
1. Ditremexa hirsuta (L.) Britton & Rose.
Cassia hirs2tta L. Sp. PL 378.
1753.
Perennial, herbaceous, hirsute, malodorous, 0.5-1.5 m. high.
Stipules linear,
acuminate,
1 cm. long or less; leaves up to 3 dm. long; petioles 3-8 cm. long,
bearing a stout, oblong-cyUndric gland near the base;
leaflets 3-5
pairs, very
short-stalked, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 4-7 cm. long, acute or acuminate, the
base narrowed or obtuse; flowers yellow,
in short
axillary racemes; peduncles
much shorter than the petioles; bracts short, deciduous; sepals oblong, obtuse,
about 9 mm. long, hirsute; petals about twice as long as the sepals; pods linear,
hirsute, somewhat curved, compressed, 12-20 cm. long, about 5 mm. wide.
Recorded by Eggers as foimd
at Sugar Estate
in
St. Thomas
prior to 1876:
Jamaica; Guadeloupe; Martinique; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2. Ditremexa occidentalis (L.) Britton & Rose.
Cassia occidentalis L. Sp. PI. 377.
1753.
Annual or perennial, herbaceous or slightly woody, erect, 2 m. high or less,
glabrous,
or very sparingly pubescent.
Stipules, linear-lanceolate,
acuminate,
4-6 mm. long, caducous; leaves 1-2 dm. long; petiole 3-5 dm. long, bearing a large
sessile capitate gland near thQ base; leaflets 4-6 pairs, very short-stalked, thin,
ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base,
7 cm. long or less; racemes axillary, short-peduncled, few-flowered; bracts lance-
olate, acuminate, 1-1.5 cm. long, caducous; sepals 6-9 mm. long; petals yellow,
fading whitish, nearly twice as long as the sepals; pods linear, flat or compressed,
usually a little curved, 6-12 cm. long, 6-9 mm. wide, dehiscent, the valves char-
taceous, their margins thickened
; seeds compressed, obovoid, brown, dull, about
4 mm. long, parallel to the dissepiments of the pod.
Banks, hillsides, waste and cultivated grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto
Rico; Desecheo; Mona; Icacos; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; VirgLa
Gorda:—West
Indies;
southeastern United
States and Mexico;
continental
tropical
America and Old World tropics.
Hedionda.
Coffee Sentsta.
Stinking Weed.
3. Ditremexa Sophera (L.) Britton & Rose.
Cassia Sophera L. Sp. PI. 379.
1753.
A shrub, 1-2.3 m. high, nearly glabrous throughout, with slender branches.
Leaves 1-1.5 dm. long; petiole 1-3 cm. long, bearing a sessile round gland near
the base; leaflets 5-10 pairs, ciliate, at least when young, membranous, lanceolate
to oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at the apex, mostly rounded at the base;
flowers in short racemes in the upper axils; pedicels 8-15 mm. long; calyx about
8 mm. long; petals about twice as long as the sepals; pod linear, straight, tiu'gid
or subterete, 5-10 cm. long, 7-9 mm. thick, pointed, glabrous; seeds dull, brown,
4-5 mm. long.
Roadside,
near
the
settlement,
Anegada:-—Bahamas; West
Indies;
continental
tropical America and Old World tropics.
Perhaps this is the plant recorded by Krebs
from St. Thomas as Cassia frutescens Mill.
Ditremexa ligUStrina (L.) Britton & Rose [Cassia Ugustrina L.; C. occiden-
talis glabra Stahl] of Florida, Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba and Hispaniola, occasion-
ally planted for ornament in Porto Rico gardens,
is a glabrous perennial 1-2 m.
high, the leaves with 6 or 8 pairs of lanceolate acute leaflets 3-6 cm. long, the
yellow flowers panicled, the flat, somewhat curved pods 7-15 cm. long, 6-10 mm.
wide.
Privet Senna.
CAESALPINIACEAE
373
12. PEIRANISIA Raf., Sylva Tell. 127.
1838.
Trees or shrubs, the leaves often fascicled at the nodes of the branches, with
several or many pairs of small membranous leaflets, with or without glands on
the petiole or rachis, the large yellow flowers slender-pedicelled in small clusters.
Petals nearly alike.
Perfect stamens usually 7, two or three of the lower ones
beaked,
1-porose;
staminodes
usually
3.
Pod
flattened,
elongated,
narrow,
dehiscent along both sutures, tipped or pointed, the valves chartaceous, impressed
between the transverse seeds; their margins thickened.
[Derivation not cited.]
About 25 species, of tropical America.
Type species Cassia aversifolia Hook.
1. Peiranisia polyphylla (Jacq.) Britton & Rose.
Cassia polyphylla Jacq.
Coll. 4: 104.
1790.
Usually a shrub 3 m. high or less, or a tree up to 4 m., but recorded as some-
times becoming a tree up to 15 m. high, the young twigs loosely and sparingly
pubescent, the branches slender.
Leaves 2-6 cm. long, pubescent when young,
nearly
sessile,
fascicled at the nodes; stipules subulate, 2-3 mm.
long;
leaflets
very small, 5-15 pairs, nearly sessile, obovate, oblong-obovate, or oblong, 4-10
mm.
long, obtuse, retuse or mucronulate at the apex, 3-nerved and pinnately
few-veined, somewhat pubescent when
young, becoming
glabrous;
peduncles
axillary,
slender,
shorter than the
leaves,
1-2-flowered; flowers showy; sepals
oval, unequal, obtuse; petals obovate, short-clawed, bright yellow, about 1.5 cm.
long; pod linear, nearly straight, 8-15 cm. long, 6-8 mm. wide, stipitate, short-
tipped, drooping, dehiscent, impressed between the seeds, the chartaceous valves
brown, becoming black, shining; seeds compressed.
[Cassia biflora angustisiliqua
of Eggers; C. biflora of Bello and of Stahl, not of Linnaeus.]
Hillsides and thickets at low and middle elevations, Porto Rico, mostly in dry parts
of the southern and southwestern districts; St. Thomas; St. Croix; Anegada:—Hispaniola.
Elegant when in bloom; sometimes planted for ornament.
Retama prieta.
13. SENNA [Tourn.] Mill. Gard. Diet. Abr. ed. 4.
1754.
Herbs with eglandular leaves with 3 to 8 pairs of broad and thin leaflets, the
flowers in axillary racemes, the membranous bracts caducous.
Petals yellow,
rather
large.
Perfect stamens usually
7,
with 3 staminodes.
Pod
thin,
flat,
short, broad, curved, obtuse or rounded, dehiscent along both sutures, crested
over the seeds.
[The name is said to be of Arabic origin.]
A few species of the
Old World tropics.
Type species: Cassia Senna L.
1. Senna obovata (Collad.) Batka, Mon. Senn. 32, 46.
1866.
Cassia obovata Collad. Hist. Cass. 92.
1816.
Glabrous, glaucous,
erect,
0.5-1.2 m.
high.
Stipules lanceolate, 4-6 mm.
long, acuminate; leaves 8-15 cm.
long; petioles slender, 2-5 cm. long;
leaflets
3-7
pairs, obovate
or oblong-obovate,
1-4 cm.
long,
nearly
sessile,
the apex
rounded and mucronulate, the base narrowed; racemes mostly as long as the
leaves or longer, several-many-flowered, slender-peduncled
; bracts 4-7 mm. long;
petals bright yellow, nearly alike, about twice as long as the sepals; pod oblong,
very flat, rounded at both ends, 3-6 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. wide.
Naturalized on
St. Thomas (according to Krebs and to Eggers):—Jamaica; His-
paniola;
St. Martin;
St. Eustatius; Margarita; Aruba; Curagao; Venezuela.
Native or
the Old World tropics.
Senna.
Port Royal Senna.
Senna angustifolia (Vahl) Batka, was planted on
St. Croix, according to
West.
It is a species of tropical Africa, not otherwise known in America.
[Cassia
angustifolia Vahl.]
374
CAESALPINIACEAE
14. ISANDRINA Raf. Sylva Tell. 126.
1838.
Trees or shrubs, the glandless leaves with broad leaflets, the flowers axillary
or
lateral,
racemose
or
corymbose-paniculate.
Petals
nearly
alike.
Perfect
stamens
7,
with
3 staminodes.
Pods
flattened,
narrow,
elongated,
drooping,
coriaceous,
indehiscent,
their margins somewhat
thickened.
Seeds
flattened.
[Derivation not cited.]
A few .species of tropical America.
Type species Cassia
emarginata L.
1. Isandrina emarginata (L.) Britton & Rose.
Cassia emarginata L. Sp. PI. 376.
1753.
Cassia elliptica H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 356.
1823.
Isandrina arborescens Raf. Sylva Tell. 126.
1838.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, or sometimes shrubby, the young twigs densely
pubescent^ the branches rather stout.
Leaves 2 dm. long or
less, pubescent;
petioles stout, eglandular, 2-5 cm. long; leaflets 2-5 pairs, broadly oblong or oval,
short-stalked, obtuse at each end, or acutish, mucronulate or emarginate at the
apex, 2-10 cm. long, pinnately veined; stipules setaceous, 2-4 mm. long, decidu-
ous; racemes as long as the leaves or shorter, axillary, peduncled, several-many-
flowered; sepals oblong, obtuse or acutish, 5-7 mm.
long; petals 2-3 times as
long as the sepals; pod linear, glabrous, straight or nearly so, compressed, 3 dm.
long or less, 8—12 mm. wide.
[Cassia eglandulosa of Cook and Collins.]
Hillsides and woodlands at lower elevations in dry parts of the south-central districts
of Porto Rico :^Jamaica
; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Mexico to Venezuela.
15. HERPETICA Raf. Sylva Tell. 123.
1838.
A large shrub,
the
large
glandless leaves with broad obtuse
leaflets,
the
showy yellow
flowers racemose,
terminal or in the upper
axils,
large-bracted.
Petals
nearly
alike.
Perfect
stamens
7.
Staminodes
3.
Pods
elongated,
chartaceous,
longitudinally
4-winged,
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Seeds
flat,
transverse.
[Derivation not cited.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Herpetica alata Raf. Sylva Tell. 123.
1838.
Cassia alata L. Sp.
PI. 378.
1753.
A shrub, 4 m. high or less, the young foliage puberulent, the branches stout.
Leaves large, 3-10 dm. long; stipules lanceolate, acuminate, 1-2 cm. long; petioles
stout, 1.5-4 cm. long, glandless; rachis angular, puberulent,
flat above; leaflets
6-12 pairs, very short-stalked, chartaceous, broadly oblong, 5-17 cm. long,
el-
liptic, the upper pairs obovate and often much larger than the lower,
all obtuse
at both ends, somewhat inequilateral, distinctly pinnately veined
; racemes large,
elongated; pedicels very short; bracts ovate-orbicular, obtuse,
1-1.5 cm.
long,
caducous; sepals about
1 cm. long; petals obovate, clawed, 2 cm. long or less;
pod linear, straight or nearly so, many-septate, 10-15 cm.
long, about
1.5 cm.
wide, dehiscent, the valves chartaceous, nearly black, shining, each with a broad,
crenulate, longitudinal wing; seeds parallel with the dissepiments, 4-sided, com-
pressed, brown, about 5 mm. long.
Hillsides, river-banks and waste grounds, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations;
Vieques;
Culebra;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—West Indies
(except Bahamas);
continental
tropical
America;
introduced
into
the Old World
tropics.
Tal.\ntal.\.
Carrion Crow.
Ringworm Tree.
16. PARKINSONIA L. Sp. PI. 375.
1753.
A spiny shrub or small tree, with nearly sessile bipinnate leaves, the common
rachis very short and spinulose-tipped, the 1 or 2 pairs of pinnae elongated, with
CAESALPINIACEAE
375
several-many small
leaflets, the showy yellow
flowers in racemes.
Calyx-tube
short, the 5 narrow segments nearly equal.
Petals
5, spreading, nearly equal.
Stamens
10, distinct; filaments villous at the base; anthers
all
alike,
versatile,
the
sacs
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
short-stipitate,
many-ovuled;
style
nearly
filiform; stigma small and
terminal.
Pod
linear,
coriaceous,
torulose,
striate-veined, 2-valved.
Seeds oblong, longitudinally placed, hard; endosperm
horny; cotyledons
flat.
[Commemorates John Parkinson, an English
botanist,
herbalist to James I, who died in 1750.] A monotypic genus, or, perhaps, a second
species in Africa.
1. Parkinsonia aculeata L. Sp. PI. 375.
1753.
A shrub, or a tree up to about 9 m. high, with brown bark slightly fissured Into
small
plates, and
slender,
spreading
or drooping
branches,
the young
twigs
pubescent, the stipular spines 3 cm. long or less.
Pinnae
1 or 2 pairs, .appearing
like sessile pinnate leaves, 2-4 dm. long, the rachis fiat, narrowly winged, bearing
10-25 pairs of short-petioluled linear to obovate leaflets 1.5
8 mm. long, or some-
times without
leaflets; racemes few-several-flowered,
as long
as the leaves or
shorter; pedicels very slender, 0.5-2 cm. long; calyx 6-8 mm. long; petals nearly
orbicular, about twice as long as the calyx; stamens about one-half as long as the
petals; pods drooping, hnear-cylindric, 5-15 cm. long, much con.stricted between
the seeds, which are oblong-cylindric, about 1 cm. long.
Plains and wet
soil at lower
elevations,
eastern and southern
districts near the
coasts of Porto Rico, ascending the Coamo Valley nearly to Coamo Springs; Vieques;
St
Croi.\; St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—soutiiern United .States; West
Indies; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Often planted
for orna-
ment, and grows luxuriantly in regions of low rainfall, highly decorative when in bloom.
Palo de r.\yo.
Jerus.^lem Thorx.
Horsebe.\n.
17. DELONIX Raf.
Fl. Tell. 2: 92.
1836.
Unarmed trees, with evenly bipinnate, estipulate leaves of numerous small
leaflets, and large showy, orange to scarlet flowers in terminal or axillary corym-
bose racemes.
Calyx deeply 5-lobed, the nearly equal lobes valvate.
Petals 5,
long-clawed, the blade nearly orbicular.
Stamens 10, declined; filaments distinct;
anthers longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary sessile, many-ovuled; style slender or
short; stigma
truncate,
ciliolate.
Pod
broadly
linear,
fiat, woody,
2-valved,
nearly solid between the oblong, transverse seeds.
Endosperm present; coty-
ledons
thick.
[Greek,
referring to
the long-clawed
petals.]
About
3
species,
natives of Africa, the following typical.
1. Delonix regia (Bojer)
Raf.
Fl.
Tell. 2: 92.
1836.
Poinciana regia Bojer; Hook. Bot. Mag.
pi- 2884.
1829.
A widely branched tree, reaching a maximum height of about 12 m. with a
trunk up to 9 dm. in diameter, fianged at the base, the thin bark gray-brown, the
twigs somewhat pubescent.
Leaves 3-5 dm. long
; petiole stout, reddish or yellow,
7-12 cm. long; pinnae 10-25 pairs, short-stalked, 8-15 cm. long, the rachis pu-
bescent; leafiets 20-40 pairs, oblong, puberulent on both sides, 4-10 mm. long,
inequilateral, rounded at both ends; pedicels stout, 4-8 cm. long; calyx about 2
cm. long; petals spreading and
refiexed, .5-7 cm. long, orange to scarlet and mot-
tled; stamens shorter than the petals; pod 4-6 dm. long, 5-7 cm. wide, dark brown.
Roadsides.
Porto
Rico,
occasionally
spontaneous
after
planting;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas.
Native of Madagascar.
Widely planted for ornament m tropical and sub-
tropical regions.
Its most elegant bloom is in summer, but an occasional tree flowers as
early
as
April
first.
The nearly white wood
is weak,
soft and
light.
Fl.\mboyax.
Flamboyant.
Royal Poixciana.
Flame tree.
376
CAESALPINIACEAE
18. HAEMATOXYLON L. Sp. PI. 384.
1753.
Trees or shrubs, with red or yellow wood, evenly pinnate leaves, the leaflets
obcordate, the spinescent stipules persistent or deciduous, the showy yellow, min-
utely bracted flowers in
loose,
axillary racemes.
Calyx-tube very short,
its 5
segments imbricated, somewhat unequal.
Petals 5, oblong, spreading, somewhat
unequal.
Stamens
10,
distinct; filaments pilose at the base; anthers
all
alike.
Ovary short-stipitate, 2-3-ovuled,
style
filiform; stigma terminal,
small.
Pod
flat, membranous, oblong
or
lanceolate, not dehiscent along
the
sutures,
but
splitting through the middle of the valves.
Seeds transverse, oblong; endosperm
none; cotyledons 2-lobed.
[Greek, bloodwood.]
Two known species, the follow-
ing typical.
1. Haematoxylon campechianum L. Sp. PI. 3S4.
1753.
A glabrous tree up to about 8 m. high, or sometimes shrubby, with spreading
branches, the trunk ridged, the bark smooth and light gray, the twigs slender.
Stipular spines 5-15 mm. long; leaves petioled, 5-10 cm.
long; petiolules very
short;
leaflets 2-4
pairs,
chartaceous,
cuneate-obovate,
1-3
cm.
long,
finely
many-veined, usuall.v rather deeply emarginate, shining above; racemes several-
many-flowered, short-peduncled, 2-5 cm. long; pedicels filiform, spreading, 4-6
mm. long; stamens about as long as the petals; pod oblong, delicately veined,
2-5 cm. long, 8-12 mm. wide, very thin, pointed at both ends.
Hillsides and coastal woods, southern and western districts of Porto Rico at lower
elevations;
St.
Croix;
St. Tliomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—West
Indies; Central America.
The red, hard, strong and durable wood yields the dye haematoxylin.
Logwood.
Cam-
PECHE.
19. POINCIANA L. Sp. PI. 380.
1753.
Shrubs or small trees, sometimes prickly, with evenly bipinnate leaves, and
orange or yellow, showy flowers in panicles or racemes, the bracts early deciduous
or none.
Calyx-tube short, the 5 lobes imbricated, unequal, the lowest one the
largest.
Petals 5, unequal.
Stamens 10, distinct, long-exserted
; anthers longi-
tudinally dehiscent.
Ovary sessile, several-ovuled
; style slender; stigma small,
terminal.
Pod linear or linear-oblong,
flat, 2-valved.
Seeds transverse; endo-
sperm none.
[In honor of Poinci, a governor of the West Indies.]
A few species,
of tropical and subtropical distribution, the following typical.
1. Poinciana pulcherrima L. Sp. PI. 380.
1753.
Caesalpinia pulcherrima Sw. Obs. 166.
1791.
A glabrous shrub or small tree up to about 5 m. high, the branches prickly.
Leaves 3 dm. long or less, unarmed, the petiole and lower part of the rachis stout,
the upper part of the rachis very slender
; pimiae 3-9 pah-s, short-stalked
; leaflets
5-12 pairs, thin, very short-stalked, oblong to oblong-obovate, bright green above,
pale beneath,
1-2 cm.
long, 7-10 mm. wide, rounded or subtruncate and mu-
cronulate at the apex, obtuse at the base; racemes large, terminal and a.xillary;
pedicels slender 5-8 cm.
long; sepals unequal, the larger about
1.5 cm.
long;
petals orange or yellow, 1.5-2.5 cm. long; stamens 5-6 cm. long; pod flat, broadly
linear, 12 cm. long or less, 14-18 mm. wide, somewhat oblique, pointed at both
ends,
its valves subcoriaceous,
glabrous, twisting after dehiscence; seeds com-
pressed.
Roadsides
and
thiclcets,
Porto
Rico, escaped
from
cultivation;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas:—commonly planted for ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands: widely
distributed tlirough cultivation in all tropical regions, its origin unknown.
Clavellina.
Barbados Pride.
Doodle-do.
Dul-dul.
CAESALPINIACEAE
377
Poinciana Gilliesii Hook., Espigo de Amor, native of Argentina, occasion-
ally planted
for ornament
in
Porto Rico gardens,
is a climbing or straggling
shrub,
with long slender branches, the bipinnate leaves with numerous small
black-punctate
leaflets,
the
inflorescence
densely
glandular,
the
large
yellow
flowers racemose, with filaments three or four times as long as the petals, the
flat pod 6-10 cm. long, about 2 cm. wide.
[Caesalpinia Gilliesii Wall.)
20. CAESALPINIA L. Sp. PI. 380.
17.53.
Unarmed or prickly shrubs or trees, with evenly bipinnate or simply pinnate
leaves and racemose bracted flowers, the
bracts commonly early deciduous or
none.
Calyx-tube short or none, the segments or sepals imbricated, the lower
one often cucullate.
Petals 5, broad, imbricated, more or less unequal.
Stamens
10, distinct, declined, short-e.xserted
; anthers
all alike, longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary
sessile;
style mostly
filiform; stigma
terminal.
Pod
linear
to
oblong,
dehiscent,
flat
or
compressed.
Seeds
transverse;
endosperm
none.
[Com-
memorates Andreas Caesalpini, 1.519-1603, famous Italian physician and botan-
ist.]
Twenty species or more, of tropical and subtropical regions.
Tyi^e species:
Caesalpinia brasiliensis L.
1. Caesalpinia monensis Britton, sp. nov.
A branched shrul), about 2 m. high, the twigs rather copiously armed with
paired
straight stipular prickles 5-9 mm. long.
Leaves unarmed;
petioles only
about 2 mm. long; pinnae a single pair; petiolules longer than the petioles; leaflets
1-3 pairs, .5-8 mm. long, elliptic to obovate-elliptic, chartaceous, glabrous, emar-
ginate, pinnately few-veined; racemes terminal, 8-16-flowered, bractless; pedicels
secund, very slender, curved, 2-3 cm.
long, glabrous; flowers greenish yellow;
calyx-tube broadly campanulate, 5 mm. long, the lower segment cucullate, about
8mm. long, and twice as long as the others; petals shorter than the calyx-segments;
fllaments pubescent, nearly twice as long as the lower calyx-segment.
On
the
limestone
plateau, Mona:—Endemic.
At
first
doubtfully
recorded
as
C. domingensis Urban.
Caesalpinia elata Sw., a species of the Old World tropics, was recorded
by Eggers in 1876 as found on
St. Croix, but he did not include
it in his Flora
of St. Croix and the Virgin Islands, published in 1879.
Caesalpinia glandulosa Bert.,
a
little known species of Hispaniola, was
recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas, presumably in error.
Caesalpinia vesicaria
L.
[C.
hijuga
Sw.],
of
Jamaica, Cuba
and
the
Bahamas, was erroneously recorded as Porto Rican by Grosourdy.
21. LIBIDIBIA Schl. Linnaea 5: 192.
1830.
Unarmed
trees,
with
unevenly
bipinnate
leaves,
the
leaflets small
and
numerous, the small bractless yellow flowers in axillary and terminal racemes or
panicles.
Calyx with a turbinate tube and 5 recurved nearly equal segments.
Petals 5, about as long as the calyx, one of them reflexed.
Stamens 10, somewhat
longer than the petals; anthers all alike.
Stigma terminal.
Pod oblong, twisted,
curled or straight, several-seeded, indehiscent.
Seeds oblong, compressed-turgid,
smooth.
[From the aboriginal name.]
A few species of tropical America, the
following typical.
378
CAESALriNIACEAE
1. Libidibia coriaria (Jacq.) Schl. Linnaea 5:
19.3.
1830.
Poinciana coriaria Jacq.
Sel. Stirp. Am. 123.
Caesalpinia coriaria Willd. Sp.
PI.
2: 532.
1799.
Caesalpinia thomaea Spreng. Syst. 2: 343.
1825.
A
tree, up to 10 m.
high, with spreading, crooked
branches,
the
slender
brown twigs glabrous or puberulent.
Leaves 1-2 dm. long; petioles and rachis
tomentulose; pinnae 4-10 pairs and a terminal one, short-stalked; leaflets 12-28
pairs, 4-8 mm.
long, linear-oblong, obtuse at the apex, subcordate or truncate
at the base, glabrous and dull on both sides, usually with one or more black dots
beneath;
flower-clusters
shorter than
the
leaves;
pedicels
glabrous, 2-4 mm.
long; calyx about 5 mm. long; petals spatulate; pod 3-6 cm. long, 1-2 cm. wide;
seeds 6-7 mm. long.
Hillsides, St. Thomas and planted on St. Croix:—Bahamas (spontaneous after cul-
tivation); Jamaica; Hispaniola; St. Martin; St. Eustatius; Saba; Mont.serrat; Trinidad
(natiu-alized after cultivation)
; Margarita; Bonaire; Curasao; Aruba; continental tropical
America.
The characteristic pods are astringent, containing much tannin, used in tanning
leather and in pharmacy.
Divi-Divi.
Libi-libi.
Libidibia
punctata
CWilld.)
Britton.
Quebrahacha,
Venezuelan,
a
tree 12 m. high or higher, the ridged bark smooth and gray, with glabrous bl-
plnnate leaves up to 3 dm. long, the leaflets 3-5 pairs, elliptic or obovate, rounded
or obtuse, 1-2 cm.
long, the numerous yellow flowers in long-stalked racemes,
one petal orange-variegated, the woody, straight, oblong pod about 5 cm. long
has long been growing in the park at
St. Thomas
; three fine trees were studied
there In 1924.
[Caesalpinia punctata Willd.]
22. GUILANDINA L. Sp. PI. 381.
17.53.
Woody vines, the stems and branches mostly armed with stout recurved
prickles.
Leaves large, petioled, bipinnate, the leaflets often punctate.
Flowers
rather
large,
yellow,
racemose
or
paniculate,
the
narrow
bracts
deciduous.
Calyx-lobes 5, imbricated, longer than the tube.
Petals 5, nearly alike, spreading.
Stamens 10, the filaments pubescent below, the anthers longitudinally dehiscent.
Pods oval or
elliptic, not much longer than wide, subcoriaceous, compressed,
usually prickly, splitting along the sutures.
Seeds hard, globose or ovoid, yellow,
gray or black, smooth, scarcely flattened.
[Commemorates Melchoir Guilandi-
nus,
a German
traveller and
botanist who died
in
1590.]
About
12
species,
mostly West Indian.
Type species; Guilandina Bonduc L.
Stipules usually large, broad, often foliaceotis, sometimes wanting;
seeds gray; bracts reflexed.
1.
G. Crista.
Stipules none or subulate, 3 mm. long or less.
Seeds yellow.
Leaflets 4-8 cm. long; bracts erect.
2.
G. Bonduc.
Leaflets 1-3 cm. long; bracts, or their tips, spreading.
3.
G. divergens.
Seeds black or dark brown.
Seeds nearly black
; leaflets ovate.
4.
G. melanosperma.
Seeds dark browit; leaflets oval-orbicular.
5.
G. portoricensis.
1. Guilandina crista (L.) Small,
Fl. SE. U.
S. .591.
1903.
Caesalpinia Crista L. Sp. PI. 380.
1753.
Giiilandina Bonducella L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 545.
1762.
Caesalpinia Bonducella Fleming, Asiatic Res. 11:
1.59.
1810.
Guilandina Bonduc minus DC. Prodr. 2: 480.
1827.
A vine, up to 6 m.
long,
trailing or climbing, the twigs and leaves armed
with hooked prickles, the tw igs also more or less densely bristly.
Stipules usually
foliaceous, thin, usually incised, persistent, sometimes 5 cm. broad, rarely want-
ing; leaves 3-8 dm. long, more or less pubescent; pinnae 4-8 pairs, short-stalked
CAESALPINIACEAE
379
leaflets 4-8
pairs,
short-stalked;
leaflets 4-8
pairs, oblong to ovate-oblong or
elliptic, rather thin, 2.5-7 cm. long, obtuse, retuse or short-acuminate and often
mucronate at the apex, nearly sessile, rounded or subcordate at the base
; racemes
axillary, pubescent, many-flowered, sometimes 3 dm. long; bracts linear-acumin-
ate, reflexed, or spreading, 1-1. .5 cm. long, deciduous; pedicels
1 cm. long or less;
calyx 7-9 mm. long; petals oblong-ovate, about
1 cm. long; pod 5-10 cm. long,
6 cm. wide or
less, usually densely prickly; seeds grey,
shining, obovoid-oval,
„lightly compre.ssed, 2-2.5 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. wide.
o
Coastal sands and sand-dunes, Porto Rico; Mona: Culebra; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:—Florida; Bermuda; West Indies
; continental tropical
America; Old World tropics.
Gr.^y Nickers.
Mato de pl.-vya.
Mato azul.
2. Guilandina Bonduc L. Sp.
PI. 2, 545.
1753.
Caesalpinia Bonduc Koxb. Hort. Beng. 32.
1814.
A
trailing or climbing vine, armed with hooked
prickles.
Stipules none;
leaves often 6 dm. long, stout-petioled
; pinnae 3-6 pairs; leaflets 4-8 pairs, ovate
to elliptic-ovate, 4-8 cm. long, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, rounded or
obtuse
at the
ba.se,
subcoriaceous, somewhat shining above, glabrous or very
nearly so when old; racemes 3 dm. long or
less, many-flowered; bracts linear-
lanceolate,
erect, early deciduous; pedicels 4-8 mm.
long; calyx about 6 mm.
long; petals 1.5 cm. long or less; pod 6-12 cm. long, about one-half longer than
wide, rather loosely prickly; seeds bright yellow, 1.5-2.5 cm. long.
[Caesalpinia
Bonduc Roxb.]
Recorded by Urban, as found at Isabela, Porto Rico, by Stahl, the determination
from a leaf only:—Florida; Bahamas; Cuba; Jamaica; Central America; tropical Asia.
Yellow Nickers.
3. Guilandina divergens (Urban) Britton, Ann. IMo. Bot. Gard. 2: 41.
1915.
Caesalpinia divergens Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 271.
1900.
Prickly, or sometimes unarmed, usually much branched, up to 4 m. long or
longer,
the young twigs and leaf-rachises puberulent.
Stipules only 1-3 mm.
long or wanting; leaves
1..5-2.5 dm.
long; pinnae 4-7
pairs;
leaflets
.5-7
pairs,
broadly oval, ovate or oval-obovate,
1.5-3 cm. long, chartaceous, inequilateral,
rounded or emarginate at the apex, obtuse, rounded, or the upper ones narrowed
at the base, shining above, dvdl beneath, puberulent on the veins but otherwise
glabrous; racemes peduncled, as long as the leaves or shorter, the rachis, pedicels
and calyx puberulent; bracts linear-lanceolate, erect with spreading tips, about
8 mm. long; sepals 7-8 mm. long; petals yellow, about as long as the calyx; pod
6-7 cm. long, about 5 cm. wide, looselj' prickly; seeds yellow or grayish-yellow,
fading Avhitish,
1..5-2.5 cm.
long,
horizontally
striate.
[Guilandina
Bonduc of
Schlechtendal and of Eggers.]
Coastal
thickets, Mona;
Icacos;
(?)
Muertos;
Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda.
Small Yellow Nickers.
4. Guilandina melanosperma Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus.
13: 46.
1879;
Britton, Ann. :Mo. Bot. Gard. 2: 41.
1915.
Caesalpinia melanosperma Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 276.
1900.
A vine-like shrub, with long branches, the twigs densely puberulent, aitiied
with scattered, short recurved prickles.
Stipules none.
Leaves 2 dm. long or
longer, the rachis densely puberulent, prickly; pinnae about 4 pairs; leaflets 5-7
pairs,
ovate,
inequilateral, nearly glabrous, 2 cm.
long or
less, shining above,
obtuse or rounded, the base suotruncate; racemes several-many-flowered, shorter
than the leaves, densely puberulent; bracts subulate, erect or ascending, about
4 mm. long; petals yellow, about 8 mm. long; pod 6 cm. long, 4 cm. wide, the sides
380
CAESALPINIACEAE
smooth, the margins sparingly prickly; seeds nearly black, shining, about 2 cm.
long and 1.5 cm. broad.
Coastal
thickets,
Mona;
St.
Croix;
Tortola
(according
to
Eggers).
Endemic.
Black Nickers.
5. Guilandina portoricensis Britton & Wilson, sp. nov.
Stems unarmed, up
to
6 m.
long,
the twigs puberulent.
Stipules none;
leaves about 1.5 dm. long, the rachis puberulent; pinnae 3-5 pairs, bearing a few
short prickles;
leaflets 3-5-pairs, oval-orbicular, 1-2 cm. long, chartaceous,
in-
equilateral, light green, dull, glabrous, rounded or emarginate at the apex, rounded
at the base; pod 5-6 cm. long, about 4 cm. wide, unarmed or with a few short
marginal
prickles; seeds dark brown to nearly black,
1.5-2 cm.
long, shining,
smooth, not horizontally striate.
Limestone bench, Salinas de Guanica, Porto Rico {Britton, Cowell & Brown, Jt9l6).
In fruit March, 1915.
23. BIANCAEA Todaro, Nuov. Gen. 21.
18.58-61.
Prickly woody vines, rarely small
trees, with evenly bipinnate leaves and
racemose deflexed, yellow or yellowish
flowers.
Calyx-tube broadly
urceolate,
the 5 segments
petaloid,
deciduous.
Petals
5,
short-clawed,
longer than
the
calyx-segments.
Stamens
10;
filaments densely woolly
below,
a
little
longer
than
the
petals.
Ovary
sessile;
style slender; stigma subtruncate.
Pod
flat,
unarmed, oblong or falcate, few-seeded, tardily dehiscent or indehiscent.
Seeds
with
thick
cotyledons.
[Commemorates
Guiseppe
Bianca,
a
student
of
the
SiciUan flora.]
A few species of the Old World tropics, the following typical.
1. Biancaea sepiaria (Roxb.) Todaro, Hort. Bot. Panorm. 3.
1876.
Caesalpinia sepiaria Roxb. Hort. Beng. 32.
1814.
Biancaea scandens Todaro, Nuov. Gen. 22.
18.58-61.
A much-branched very prickly vine-like shrub 3 m. high or less, the young
twigs and foliage puberulent.
Petiole stout, tapering into the rachis, which
is
very slender above; stipules half-sagittate, early deciduous; leaves 1-5 dm. long;
pinnae 4-10 pairs, short-stalked;
leaflets 7-12
pairs,
thin, oblong, rather dark
green above, pale green beneath, 8-20 mm. long, rounded or retUse at the apex,
obtuse at the base, very short-stalked
; racemes axillary and terminal, puberulent,
usually many-flowered;
flowers
deflexed
at
anthesis;
pedicels
1.5-3 cm.
long;
calyx about 1.5 cm. long, puberulent; petals suborbicular, about 1.5 cm. broad;
filaments about as long as the petals; filaments densely woolly below; pod oblong,
compressed,
glabrous, unarmed,
.5-8 cm.
long, 2-2.5 cm. wide, abruptly long-
beaked, 6-8-seeded; seeds oblong-ovoid, black and variegated, nearly 1 cm. long,
5-6 mm. thick.
Roadsides and thickets, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations:—Jamaica; Cuba
to Grenada; native of the East Indies.
Zarza de cercas.
Wait-a-bit.
Biancaea Sappan (L.) Todaro, East Indian, a small, slightly prickly tree,
the leaves with numerous obliquely oblong leaflets about 2 cm. long, the flowers
in large terminal panicles, the flat shining indehiscent pod 7-10 cm. long, 3-4 cm.
wide, with a short recurved beak,
is occasionally planted for ornament in the
Virgin Islands.
[Caesalpinia Sappan L.]
Schizolobium excelsum Vogel, Brazilian, grown from seed by Mr. Thomp-
son at the St. Croix Agricultural Experiment Station, forms a very large tree, its
leaves bipinnate, its flowers racemose.
KRAMERIACEAE
381
Peltophorum Linnaei
Benth.
Brasiletto,
Jamaican,
planted
at
the
University of Porto Rico, Rio Piedras, forms a large tree with bipinnate leaves,
the elliptic leaflets puberulent, 2-5 cm. long, the yellow flowers racemose, with
one of the calyx-lobes larger than the others, the flat broad pod 6-10 cm. long.
Peltophorum ferrugineum
(Dene.)
Benth.,
Australian, young
trees of
which were seen in the Governor's Garden, Rio Piedras, Porto Rico, 1923,
is also
a large tree, the numerous leaflets oblong, rounded or subtruncate, about 2 cm.
long, the racemes ferruginous-pubescent, the flat pod about 10 cm. long.
[Caesal-
pinia ferruginea Dene.]
Gleditsia
triacanthos
L.,
Honey
Locust,
North
American,
and
Gleditsia sinensis Lam., Chinese, were grown from seed at the Porto Rico Forest
Station, Rio Piedras, in 1922, reaching a height of about 1.5 m. by the end of the
year.
The climate is presumably too continuously warm for their establishment.
Phyllocarpus septentrionalis Donnell Smith, Guatemalan, sent by
the
Bureau of Plant Industry to the Forest Station at Rio Piedras at the end of 1921,
has attained a height of over 3 metei's by the spring of 1923 from seedlings.
Copaiva hymenaefolia (Moric.) Kuntze, a Cuban species, was erroneously
listed as also Porto Rican by Cook and Collins.
[Copaifera hymenaefolia Moric]
Copaiva officinalis Jacq., of the southern West Indies and Venezuela, was
erroneously recorded from Porto Rico by Grosourdy and by Cook and Collins.
[Copaifera officinalis L.]
Hermesius
COCCinea
(Jacq.)
Kuntze,
Rosa
del Monte,
Venezuelan,
was planted in
St. Croix prior to
1797, according to West.
It
Is a
tree, with
evenly pinnate leaves of 4 or 6 oblong, acuminate, glabrous leaflets, the clustered
scarlet
flowers
about 4 cm.
long,
the
calyx
4-5-lobed,
the
5
petals clawed.
[Brownea coccinea Jacq.]
Family 8.
KRAMERIACEAE Dumort.
Krameria Family.
Shrubs or perennial herbs, mostly tomentose or silky, with alternate,
simple and entire, or rarely 3-foliolate leaves, and rather large, irregular
flowers, axillarj^ or in terminal bracted racemes.
Sepals 4 or 5, unequal.
Petals
5, the 3 upper ones long-clawed, distinct or partly united, the 2
others much smaller,
thick,
sessile.
Stamens 3 or 4; filaments united
at base or up to the middle; anthers 2-celled, the sacs dehiscent by a
pore.
Ovary
1-celled;
ovules
2,
collateral,
pandulous,
anatropous;
style
cylindric,
acute.
Fruit
globose,
indehiscent,
spiny,
1-seeded.
Seeds with thick cotjdedons and no endosperm.
The famih'
consists
of the following genus only.
1. KRAMERIA Loefl.; L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 177.
1762.
Characters of the family [Commemorates J. G. H. Kramer, Austrian botan-
ist].
About 15 species, of tropical and warm-temperate America, the following
typical.
382
FABACEAE
1. Krameria Ixina L. Sp. PL ed.
2,
177.
1762.
A shrub about
1 m.
high
or
less,
irregularly branched,
the
stiff slender
brajiches Avhitish-tomentose.
Leaves simple, entire, narrowly oblong or oblong-
lanceolate,
1-2.5 cm.
long, tomentose, the apex spinulose-acuminate, the base
narrowed, the slender petioles 2-6 mm. long; flowers in short terminal bracted
racemes; pedicels very short; .sepals ovate, acuminate, silky, about 6 mm. long;
larger petals lavender or purple, a little longer than the sepals; body of the fruit
pubescent, 5-6 mm.
in diameter, the slender numerous spines 4-6 mm. long,
retrorsely barbed above.
Coastal thickets and hillsides near the coast, dry southwestern districts of Porto Rico;
Mona; St. Thomas:—Hispaniola; St. Eustatitis; Antigua; Bonaire; Curacao; Colombia.
Family 9.
FABACEAE Rchb.
Pea Family.
Herb.s, shrubs, ^'incs or trees, with alternate mostly comjijoiincl stipulate
leaves,
and
irregular
(papilionaceous)
perfect
or
sometimes
poh^gamo-
dioecious
flowers,
mainly
in
spikes,
heads,
racemes
or
panicles.
Calyx
4-5-toothed, or 4-5-cleft, sometimes 2-lipped.
Petals more or
less united,
or separate, perigj^nous or hypogynous, usually consisting of a broad upper
one (standard, banner), two lateral ones (wings), and two front one? more or
less united (forming the keel); the standard enclosing the wings in the bud.
Stamens monadelphous, diadelphous, or sometimes
separate, 10 in most of
the genera, sometimes
9,
rarely
5.
Pistil simple,
superior; ovary mainly
1-celled, sometimes 2-celled bj- the intrusion of the sutures, or several-celled
by cross
partitions; style simple; ovules 1-many, anatropous or amphitro-
pous.
Fruit a legume,
1-many-seeded,
dehiscent
into 2
valves,
or inde-
hiscent,
in one
tribe
a loment.
Seeds mostly without endosperm;
coty-
ledons thick.
About 325 genera and over 5000 species, most abundant in
temperate and warm regions.
1. stamens 10, distinct (Sophoreae).
Pod flat, winged, l-seeded at the ape.x.
1. ATyrospermum.
Pod wingless, 2-many-seeded.
Pod 2-valved; trees.
2.
Ormosia.
Pod tndehiscent; slirubs.
3. Sophora.
2. Stamens monadelphous or diadelphous.
A.
Herbs, shrubs, or trees; (Securiclaca and Barbieria vine-like),
a. Pod 2-valved (indehiscent in Parosela).
Leaves digitately 3-foliolate or
1-foliolate or simple.
Stamens monadelphous (Genisteae).
4.
Crotalaria.
Stamens diadelplious (Trifolieae).
Flowers spicate or racemose.
5. Aledicago.
Flowers capitate or umbellate.
6.
Trifolium.
Leaves pinnate (Galegeae).
tAnther-coimective appendaged by a gland or penicil-
late; pod turgid or terete.
7.
Indigofera.
ttAnther-connective unappendaged.
JFoliage glandular-dotted; pod small,
1-2-seeded,
indeliiscent.
8.
Parosela.
tJFoliage not glandular-dotted
; pod several-seeded,
deliiscent.
§Racemes terminal or opposite the leaves, or
axillary in Barbieria.
Calyx short
; petals short-clawed.
9.
Cracca.
Calyx long-tubular; petals long-clawed.
10.
Barbieria.
§§Inflorescence axillary.
Pod continuous, not septate between the seeds.
Style subulate; stigma terminal.
Leaves vmevenly pinnate.
11.
Gliricidia.
Leaves evenly pinnate, the rachis ter-
minatmg
in a
tip; pod
slender-
stipitate.
12. Sabinea.
Style stigmatic below
the hooked apex;
pod short-stipitate.
13.
Corynella.
FABACEAE
383
Pod septate between the seeds.
Leaves unevenly pinnate;
style bearded
on the inner side.
Leaves evenly pinnate; style not bearded.
Flowers
yellow, or mottled,
small;
calyx-lobes acute
or
acuminate;
standard broad; herbs or slirubs.
Flowers large, white to red;
calyx-
lobes broad and short; standard
narrow; tree,
h
Pod jointed (a loment), or indeMscent.
*Pod a loment, except in Arachis (Hedysareae).
tShrubs
or
small
trees
with
pinnate,
bristle-tipped
ttHerbaceous plants; leaflets not bristle-tipped.
Sheath of the stamens
partly
split, dividing
the filaments into 2 clusters; leaves piimate.
Stamen-sheath not
split; leaves 3-foliolate or
pinnately few-foliolate.
Leaflets not stipellate.
Calyx-tube elongated.
Flowers
small,
terminal,
capitate;
pod small, hooked.
Flowers large, axillary, solitary, the
peduncle elongating, and the fruit
ripening imdergroimd
Calyx-tube short; leaflets 2 or 4.
Leaflets stipellate.
Loment-joints flat.
Flowers panicled or racemose.
Flowers
1-4
together,
axillary
or
opposite the leaves.
Loment-joints terete.
**Pod not a loment, indehiscent; trees, shrubs or woody
vines (Dalbergieae).
Pod papery or leathery, not drupaceous.
Leaflets alternate, or only one.
Anthers terminal, opening by a terminal
slit.
Stamens 9, in 2 fascicles of 4 and 5; leaflets
3-5.
Stamens 10; leaflet only one.
Anthers versatile, opening longitudinally.
Calvx obtuse at base; pod coriaceous.
Calyx
acute
at
base
or
turbinate;
pod
chartaceous.
Leaflets opposite or mostly so.
Pod
flat, wmgless.
Pod with 4 membranous wings.
Pod drupaceous, subglobose; leaflets mostly opposite.
B
Herbaceous or woody vines, pod 2-valved
(Erythrina trees;
Cicer herbaceous; Cajan slu-ubby; some of the Phaseoleae
bushy).
Leaves pmnate
; leaflets dentate (Cicerixae)
.
**Leaves 3-foliolate or jiinnate; leaflets entire.
tLeaves
evenly
pinnate,
the
rachis
termuiating
in
a
bristle tin other genera in a tendril) Vkiaeae.
ttLeaves 3-foliolate. or unevenly pinnate (Phaseoleae).
JFlowers normally papilionaceous.
§ Nodes of the inflorescence not swollen.
fLeaves stipulate or leaflets stipellate.
Style longitudinally beirded.
" Leaves pinnate ;leginne-valves ecostate,
flat.
Leaves 3-foliolate
; legume-valves convex
or ridged with a prominent midvein.
Style glabrous.
Bracts
persistent;
standard
large,
spurred or gibbous.
Bracts deciduous; flowers small; stand-
ard unaijpendaged.
ttLeaves estipulate; leaflets mostly estipellate.
Pod several-many-seeded; erect shrub.
Pod 2-3-seeded: vines.
§§ Inflorescence nodose-racemose (scarcely nodose in
Cacara)
tStyle glabrous or sometimes pubescent at the
base.
Vexillar stamen free.
Upper calyx-lobe 2-toothed.
Calvx-lobes 4.
14. Benthamantha.
15. Sesban.
16.
Agati.
17. Pictetia.
18. Aeschynomene.
19.
Slylosanthes.
20.
Arachis.
21. Zornia.
22. Meibomia.
23.
Sagotia.
24.
Alysicarpus.
25.
Securidaea.
20. Ecastophyllum.
27. Drepanocarpus.
28. Pterocarpus.
29. Lonchocarpus.
30.
Ichthyovicthia.
31. Andira.
32.
Cicer.
33.
Abrus.
34.
Clitoria.
35.
Marliusia.
36.
Bradburya.
37.
Teramnus.
38.
Cajan.
39.
Dolicholus.
40.
CnlopoqoniuTn.
41.
Galaclin.
384
FABACEAE
Vexillar stamen more
or
less united with
the others.
Calyx nearly equally 4-cleft.
42.
Dioclea.
Calyx 2-lipped.
43.
Canavali.
H IfStyle bearded on the inner side, at least above.
Keel a complete spiral or coil.
44.
Phaseolus.
Keel not a complete spiral.
Stigma oblique or lateral.
Style not flattened above.
45.
Vigna.
Style
flattened
above,
the
lateral
stigma globose.
46.
Cacara.
Stigma terminal.
47.
Dolichos.
t+Either the standard or the keel very large; flowers
large and showy.
Keel the largest of the petals; pods mostly with
stinging hairs.
Perennial woody vines
; seeds with a tliick testa
and linear hilum.
48. Alucuna.
Annual herbaceous
vines; seeds with a
tliin
testa and short hilum.
49.
Stizolobium.
Standard the largest of the petals.
Twining woody vine.
50. Neorudolphia.
Trees, rarely shrubs.
51. Erylhrina.
1. MYROSPERMUM Jacq. Enum. 4.
1760.
A tree, with unevenly pinnate leaves, tiie oblong or oval leaflets lineolate-
punctate, and rather large white racemose
flowers.
Calyx
turbinate,
oblique
and
incurved,
its membranous limb nearly
truncate.
Standard obovate,
the
other 4
petals nearly
alike,
lanceolate,
curved,
acute.
Stamens
10,
distinct;
filaments
filiform,
elongated;
anthers
very
small,
oblong.
Ovary
stipitate;
ovules 2 or several
; style subulate, slightly curved
; stigma very small.
Pod flat,
winged, indehiscent, bearing a single oblong seed at the apex.
[Greek, balsam
seed.]
A monotypic genus of central and northern South America.
1. Myrospermum frutescens Jacq. Enum. 20.
1760.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, or often shrubby, the twigs glabrous.
Leaves 1-2
dm.
long,
sparingly
puberulent when
young,
glabrous when
old,
estipulate.
Leaflets 11-17, thin, short-stalked, oblong, ovate-oblong or oval, 1.5-3 cm. long,
rounded or retuse
at the apex, obtuse, subtruncate, or narrowed at the base;
racemes terminal, or in the upper axils, several-flowered, 7-10 cm. long; standard
about 1.5 cm. long; pod 5-8 cm. long, stipitate, somewhat curved, including the
wings about 1 cm. wide; seed compressed, about 1 cm. long.
Roadsides and woodlands, spontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico and natiu-al-
ized;
St. Thomas
(according
to Krebs)
;
St.
Croix
(according
to Eggers):—Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
Cercipo.
2. ORMOSIA Jacks. Trans. Linn. Soc. 10: 360.
1811,
Trees, with large pinnate leaves, and rather large white to purple, panicled
or racemose
flowers.
Calyx campanulate or oblong,
its 2 upper teeth partly
united.
Standard nearly orbicular; wings obliquely obovate-oblong; keel-petals
similar to the wings, distinct.
Stamens 10, distinct, unequal; anthers versatile.
Ovary nearly
sessile,
with
2-several
ovules;
style
filiform,
its apex
involute;
stigma lateral, introrse.
Pod linear or oblong, coriaceous or Avoody, compres.sed,
not winged, 2-valved.
Seeds compressed,
shining, red or spotted.
[Greek,
a
necklace, referring to this use of the seeds.]
About 20 species in tropical regions
both the Old World and the New.
Type species: Rohinia coccinea Aubl.
FABACEAE
385
1. Ormosia Krugii Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 320.
1899.
A forest tree, up to 2.5 m. high, the twigs, foliage and inflorescence brownlsh-
puberulent, the young bark corrugated, the old bark smooth.
Leaves ,5-10 dm.
long, the petiole and rachis stout; leaflets 5-9, stout-stalked, oval or elliptic, cori-
aceous, 7-20 cm. long, strongly pinnately veined, obtuse or abruptly short-acu-
minate at the apex, obtuse or the terminal one narrowed at the base, glabrous
above, puberulent beneath; panicles 3 dm. long or less, many-flowered, terminal
and axillary; calyx pilose, about
1 cm. long; petals dark violet; wings and keel-
petals about 15 mm. long; pod 5-10 cm. long, about 2 cm. wide across the seeds
and deeply constricted between them, pointed at both ends; seeds suborbicular,
red or black-spotted, about
1 cm. broad.
[0. dasycarpa Bello, not Jacks.]
The wood is light, soft and weak.
Primeval forests at higher and middle elevations
Porto Rico:—Dominica.
Palo de matos.
Peroxia.
Ormosia dasycarpa Jacks., listed l)y Krebs as found in St. Thomas, where
It may, perhaps, have been planted, is a tree native in the southern Les.ser Antilles.
3. SOPHORA L. Sp.
VI. 373.
1753.
Leaves odd-pinnate.
Flowers white, yellow or violet, in terminal racemes or
panicles.
Calyx generally campanulate,
its teeth short.
Standard obovate or
orbicular; wings
obliquely oblong;
keel oblong,
nearly
straight.
Stamens
all
distinct or very nearly so
; anthers versatile.
Ovary short-stalked
; style incurved.
Pod stalked, coriaceous or fleshy, terete, constricted between the seeds, mainly
indehiscent.
[Name Arabic, yellow.]
About 25
species, of herbs, shrubs and
trees, natives of warm and
tropical
regions.
Type species:
Sophora
alopecu-
roides L.
1. Sophora tomentosa L. Sp. PI. 373.
17.53.
A
shrub
1-3 m.
tall, with
silky-tomentose
foliage.
Leaves
1-2 dm.
long;
leaflets 11-17, the blades leathery, oblong, oblong-obovate or oval, inequilateral,
becoming glabrous and revolute-margined
; racemes
elongating,
1-4 dm.
long;
pedicels 5-10 mm. long; calyx oblong or oblong-funnelform, 5-8 mm. long, con-
stricted at the base, undulate or indistinctly 5-lobed; corolla yellow; standard
with an ovate blade fully
1 cm. broad, and over 1.5 cm. long; keel-petals 20mm.
long; pods 5-10 cm. long, strongly constricted between the seeds, long-stalked.
Coastal sands and
thickets, southwestern
districts of Porto Rico;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas;
Tortola;
Anegada:—Florida;
Bermuda;
West
Indies;
continental
tropical
America and Old World tropics.
4. CROTALARIA L. Sp. PI. 714.
1753.
Herbs, sometimes slightly woody, with simple, or in many tropical species
3-7-foliolate
leaves,
and racemose
yellow
flowers.
Calyx
5-toothed,
slightly
2-lipped; standard orbicular or ovate, often cordate; wings oblong or obovate;
keel curved.
Stamens monadelphous,
their sheath deeply cleft; anthers
of 2
forms,
alternating with each
other, the one
small,
versatile, the other larger;
style more or less curved
; pod oblong or globose, inflated, many-seeded, the seeds
loose
at maturity.
[Greek, a rattle.]
About 250 species, mainly of tropical re-
gions, called Cascabelillo and Rattlebox.
Type species: Crotalaria lotifolia L.
Leaves trifoliolate.
Herbaceous; racemes terminal, long-peduncled.
.
Racemes several-flowered; keel short-beaked.
1.
C. mcana.
Racemes many-flowered; keel subulate-beaked.
2. C striata.
3.
FABACEAE
387
long, glabrous or nearly so above,
finely appressed-pubescent beneath,
short-
petioled, the rounded stipules 3-6 mm. longfracemes several-flowered, longer than
the leaves, the peduncle and rachis angled
; calyx deeply cleft, its upper lobes ovate,
the lower lanceolate; corolla
blue,
variegated,
1-1.5 cm.
long, about twice as
long as the corolla; pod sessile, oblong, beaked, appressed-pubescent with long
hairs, 3-4 cm. long, 9-12 mm. thick.
Waste and cultivated groimds, St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Bahamas;
Jamaica; Cuba; St. Martin to Tobago; Panama; Colombia; Old World tropics.
Abundant
as a weed in the Virgin Islands, not observed in Porto Rico.
5. Crotalaria juncea L. Sp. PI. 714.
17.53.
Annual,
erect, silky-pubescent, up to 2 m.
high or higher, few-branched,
virgate.
Leaves simple,
linear to linear-oblong, very nearly
sessile, 4-10 cm.
long, .5-10 mm. wide, acute; stipules minute or none; racemes terminal, elongated,
several-many-flowered;
pedicels
stout, densely pubescent,
1 cm.
long or
less;
calyx about 1.5 cm. long, deeply 5-parted, the segments linear-lanceolate
; petals
bright yellow; pods oblong, pubescent, 3-4 cm. long.
In a field at Bassin, St. Croix; recorded by West as cultivated on St. Croix prior to
1793; now cultivated in Porto Rico and St. Croix as a nitrogen-fixing plant.
Natm-alized
in Jamaica.
Native of the Old World tropics.
6. Crotalaria retusa L. Sp.
PI. 715.
17.')3.
Annual, appressed-pubescent,
usually branched, 4-10 dm.
high.
Stipules
minute
or
wanting;
leaves
simple,
oblanceolate,
spatulate
or
oblong,
short-
petioled, 4-8 cm. long, rounded or retuse at the apex, cuneate at the base, glabrous
above,
appressed-pubescent
beneath;
racemes
terminal,
peduncled,
loosely
several-many-flowered, 2 dm. long or less
; pedicels 6-10 mm. long; calyx 2-lipped,
about 10 mm. long; petals nearly twice as long as the calyx, yellow, the standard
variegated; pod oblong, 2.-5-3.5 cm. long, about
1 cm. thick, short-beaked, gla-
brous.
Fields,
roadsides, waste and
ciiltivated groimds, Porto Rico; Vieques:
St. Croix;
St Thomas- St Jan: Virgin Gorda:—Florida; West Indies: continental tropical America
and Old World tropics.
Matraca.
Sonajuel.\s.
Yellow Lupix.
7. Crotalaria maritima Chapm.
Fl.
S.
IT.
S. Suppl. 614.
1883.
Perennial
liy a deep
root;
branches
several
or many,
.slender,
prostrate,
pubescent with appressed hairs.
Leaves simple, nearly sessile, oblong to oblance-
olate, or the lower ones oval, 3 cm. long or less, the apex obtuse or acutish, the
base narrowed, both surfaces appressed-pubescent; stipules narrow, decurrent,
their tips linear-lanceolate, 6-7 mm. long; flowers lateral, few or solitary, long-
peduncled;
calyx
appressed-pubescent;
corolla
small,
yellow;
pods
oblong,
glabrous, 1.5-3 cm. long.
[C. sagittalis of Urban, not of Linnaeus.]
White sand, northern coastal plain of Porto Rico
; near Yauco (according to Urban)
:
southeastern United States.
8. Crotalaria stipularia Desv. Journ. Bot. 3: 76.
1914.
Annual, or of longer duration, herbaceous, or somewhat woody below, erect,
branched,
6-9 dm.
high,
pubescent
with
rather
long
hairs.
Leaves
simple,
sessile, oblong or lanceolate, 2-7 cm. long or those of branches sometimes smaller;
stipules broad, decurrent, up to 5 cm. long, their free tips incurved; flowers few
or
several,
yellow,
about
1
cm.
wide,
in
long-stalked
lateral
racemes;
calyx
deeply 5-cleft,
its segments lanceolate, long-hairy, about as long as the corolla;
pod oblong, glabrous, 2-3 cm. long.
Banks,
hillsides and
fields. Porto Rico
at lower and
middle
elevations:—Cuba;
Hispaniola; St. Kitts to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
388
FABACEAE
Crotalaria laburnifolia L., was formerly cultivated on St. Croix, according
to West.
It is an Asiatic species witli 3-foliolate glabrous leaves, yellow racemose
flowers, and long-stipitate, pendulous pods.
Crotalaria mucronata
Desv.,
described
in
1S14
from
the
"Antilles,"
was recorded by Krebs in
1.S.51 as found
in
St. Thomas;
it
is otherwise known
only to modern botanists from the original incomplete description.
5. MEDICAGO [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 778.
1753.
Herbs, with 3-foliolate leaves, and small yellow or violet flowers in axillary
spikes
or racemes.
Leaflets commonly dentate,
the veins terminating
in
the
teeth.
Calyx-teeth
short,
nearly
equal;
standard
obovate
or
oblong;
wings
oblong; keel obtuse; stamens diadelphous, the
1 opposite the standard separate
from the other 9; anthers
all alike; ovary 1-several-ovuled
; style subulate; pod
curved
or
spirally
twisted,
reticulated
or
spiny,
indehiscent,
1-few-seeded.
[Greek,
Medike, from Medea,
whence
the Medic,
or Lucerne, was
derived.]
About 50 species, natives of Europe, Asia and Africa, the following typical.
1. Medicago sativa L. Sp.
Pi. 77S.
17.53.
Decumbent or ascending, 3-5 dm. high, the young shoots and leaves with
some scattered hairs.
Leaflets oblanceolate or obovate, 4-25 mm. long, dentate,
obtuse, truncate or emarginate and often mucronate, narrowed or cuneate at the
base
; stipules entire
; peduncles 1-5 cm.
long, bearing a short raceme of violet
flowers; petals about 5 mm. long; pod pubescent, twisted into 2 or 3 spirals.
Waste grounds, Mayaguez; occasionally cultivated for fodder and persistent for a
few years in the Virgin Islands and in Porto Rico, and widely Ln the temperate zones;
naturalized In North America.
Native of Eiu"ope.
Alfalfa.
Lltcebne.
6. TRIFOLIUM [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 764.
17.53.
Herbs,
with
mostly
3-foliolate
(occasionally
4-11-foliolate)
denticulate
leaves, the flowers in dense heads or umbels.
Stipules adnate
to the
petiole.
Calyx-teeth nearly equal.
Petals commonly
persistent,
their claws adnate to
the stamen-tube.
Stamens diadelphous,
or the tenth one separate for only a
portion
of
its
length.
Ovary few-ovuled.
Pod
often
included
in
the
calyx,
membranous, indehiscent or tardily dehiscent by
1 suture, 1-6-seeded.
[Latin,
referring to the
3
leaflets.]
About 275
species, most abundant
in the north
temperate zone.
Tyi>e species: Trifolium pratcnseL,.
1. Trifolium pratense L. Sp.
PI. 768.
17.53.
Perennial,
pubescent,
1..S-6
dm.
high.
Leaves
long-petioled
;
stipules
ovate, strongly veined, subulate-tipped, 12-20 mm. long; leaflets short-stalked,
oval, oblong or obovate, narrowed at base, hardly cuneate, obtuse and sometimes
emarginate at the apex, often dark-spotted near the middle,
finely denticulate,
1-3.5 cm. long; heads globose or ovoid, rarely slightly peduncled, about 2.5 cm.
long; flowers red
(rarely white), about 12 nmi.
long, remaining erect
in
fruit;
calyx sparingly hairy, its subulate teeth shorter than the corolla.
Waste grounds,
San Juan,
1914:—Bermuda;
Cuba.
Widely
naturalized
in
the
north temperate zone.
Native of the Old World.
Red Clover.
FABACEAE
389
7. INDIGOFERA L. Sp. PI. 751.
1753.
Herbs, or rarely shrubs, often canescent with hairs affixed by the middle,
with odd-pinnate leaves, small stipules, and pink or purple, spicate or racemose
flowers.
Calyx-teeth oblique, nearly equal, or the lower longer; standard ovate
or orbicular,
sessile or clawed; wings oblong; keel erect, somewhat gibbous, or
spurred; stamens mainly monadelphous; ovary 1-x-ovuled; style slender; pod
linear, 4-angled or subterete, septate between the seeds.
[Name from the yield
of indigo by some species.]
About 275 species, natives of warm and temperate
regions, known as Anil and Indigo.
Type species: Indigo/era tinctoria L.
Pods 5-15 mm. long.
,
^
~
.
Pods curved, falcate, on reflexed pedicels.
1.
I. siiffruHcosa.
Pods straight, on spreading pedicels.
2.
I. guatcmalensis.
Pods 2.5-3.5 cm. long.
Pods nearly straight; leaflets glabrous above.
3.
I.
tinctoria.
Pods curved; leaflets pubescent on both sides.
4.
/. sumatrana.
1. Indigofera suffruticosa Mill. Gard. Diet. ed.
8, no.
2.
1768.
Indigofera Anil L. Mant.
2: 272.
1771.
Indigofera truxillensis H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 4.56.
1823.
Anila tinctoria vera Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 160.
1891.
A shrub, 1-1.5 m. high, usually much-branched, the branches slender, tough-
whitish appressed-pubescent and grooved when young.
Leaves .5-12 cm. long;
stipules filiform-setaceous, very small;
leaflets 9-17, oblong or oblong-obovate,
3 cm. long or less, obtuse or acutish and mucronate at the apex, mostly narrowed
at the base, pale green, appressed-pubescent on both
sides, or glabrous above,
darkening
in
drying;
racemes
narrow,
several-many-flowered,
2-5 cm.
long;
pedicels about
1 mm. long, about equalling the campanulate pubescent calyx,
reflexed
in
fruit;
corolla
yellowish,
3.5-4.5 mm.
long; pod
falcate,
appressed-
pubescent when young, glabrous when old, 8-15 mm. long, 2 mm. thick, ridged
on the sutures, 3-8-seeded.
Thickets, fields, hillsides and river-banks at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
Vieques; Mona:
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—southeastern
United States; West Indies; tropical continental America; introduced into tropical regions
of the Old World.
2. Indigofera guatemalensis ]Moc. &
Sesse; Prain & Baker, Journ. Bot. 40:
67.
1902.
Indigofera tinctoria brachycarpa DC. Prodr. 2: 224.
1825.
A
shrub,
similar
to
the
preceding
species.
Leaves
sometimes
smaller;
leaflets 9-13, oblong or obovate, 2 cm. long or less, appressed-pubescent on both
sides; racemes and flowers much
like those of
/.
suffruticosa, but the pedicels
spreading or scarcely reflexed in fruit
; pod straight, sometimes shorter than that
of I. suffruticosa, sometimes as long, 2 mm. thick.
Hillsides and
fields, at lower elevations in the western districts of Porto Rico; St.
Thomas:—continental tropical America.
Sometimes cultivated.
3. Indigofera tinctoria L. Sp. PI. 751.
1753.
A shrub, up to 2 m. high, with slender branches, the twigs minutely appressed-
pubescent.
Le9,ves 6-10 cm. long; stipules minute; leaflets 7-13, oblong to ob-
long-obovate, 1-2 cm.
long, darkening in drying, glabrous or nearly so above,
appressed-canescent beneath, the apex rounded, mucronulate, the base narrowed
or obtuse; racemes several-many-flowered, 2-7 cm.
long;
pedicels very
short,
not longer than the pubescent calyx, reflexed in fruit; corolla 5-6 mm. long, red-
390
FABACEAE
dish or purplish; pod
linear,
straight or but
little curved, glabrous when
old,
2.5-3.5 cm. long, 2 mm. wide, 8-1.5-seeded.
Thickets, Quebradillas, Porto Rico; "Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; formerly cul-
tivated in the Virgin Islands for the dye indigo:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Martin to Grenada; Curagao.
Native of the Old World tropics.
4. Indigofera sumatrana Gaertn. Fr. & Sem. 2: 317.
1791.
A shrub, similar to
/.
tinctoria, about as large, the slender twigs minutely
pubescent, the leaves of about the same size.
Leaflets 7-11, obovate, pubescent
on both
sides; racemes 3-8 cm.
long; corolla reddish, about 5 mm.
long; pod
linear, about 3 cm. long and 2.5 mm. wide, strongly curved, 8-12-seeded.
Tluckets and roadsides,
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Venezuela.
Native of tropical Asia.
8. PAROSELA Cav. Descr. PL
185.
1802.
Herbs, or sometimes shrubs, with usually glandular-punctate foliage, odd-
pinnate leaves, minute stipules, and small flowers in terminal or lateral spikes
or
racemes.
Calyx-teeth
nearly
equal,
the
tube
10-ribbed,
campanulate;
standard cordate or auriculate, clawed; wings and
keel mainly exceeding the
standard, adnate by their claws to the lower part of the stamen-tube; stamens
10 or
9, monadelphous
; ovules 1-3; style subulate; pod included in the calyx,
membranous, mostly indehiscent and 1-seeded.
[Anagram of Psoralea.]
About
170 species, natives of America.
Type species: Psoralea mutabilis Cav.
1.
Parosela domingensis fDC.) Mihsp. Field Mus. Bot.
1: 21.
1895.
Dalea domingensis DC. Prodr. 2: 246.
1825.
Shrubby,
usually much-branched, 5 dm.-2 m.
high,
the slender branches
ascending,
the young twigs pubescent.
Leaves 3-6 cm.
long,
short-petioled
leaflets 7-15, oblong to obovate,
.5-13 mm.
long, some pubescent or glabrous,
rather copiously black-dotted, retuse or rounded at the apex, narrowed or obtuse
at the base; spikes many, dense, oval, 1-2 cm. long; bracts ovate-oblong, acumin-
ate, deciduous; calyx about
1 cm.
long,
its setaceous plumose teeth about as
long as the ridged, campanulate tube; corolla purple to white, a little longer than
the calyx, the standard cordate; pod about as long as the calyx-tube.
[Dalea
phymatodes of Eggers, not of Willdenow; the Porto Rico plant was referred by
Rydberg to P. emphysodes (Jacq.) Rydb.]
Fields, hillsides and tiiickets at low elevations in the dry southern districts of Porto
Rico; St. J^an:—Cuba; Hispaniola; northern South Anierica.
9. CRACCA L. Sp. PI. 752.
1753.
[Tephrosia Pers. Syn. 2: 328.
1807.]
Herbs, sometimes slightly shrubby, with odd-pinnate and punctate leaves,
and purple, red or white flowers in racemes or short
clusters.
Stipules small;
leaflets
entii-e.
Calyx-teeth usually nearly equal.
Petals
all clawed; standard
orbicular or broadly
ovate; wings
obliquely obovate
or oblong;
keel curved;
stamens monadelphous or diadelphous; ovules several or many.
Pod linear, flat,
2-valved, several- seeded.
[Latin, vetch.]
About 120 species, mainly natives of
warm and tropical regions.
Type species: Cracca villosa L.
Prostrate or pscending; leaflets 9-15, acutish or obtuse and mucronate;
corolla about 1 cm. long.
1.
C. cinerea.
Erect; leaflets 5-9, mostly retuse; corolla 7-8 mm. long.
2.
C. cathartica.
FABACEAE
391
1. Cracca cinerea (L.) Morong, Ann. N. Y. Acad.
Sci. 7: 79.
1892.
Galega cinerea L. Syst. ed.
10. 1172.
1759.
Tephrosia cinerea Pers. Syn. 2: 328.
1807.
Galega littoralis L. Syst. ed. 12. 497.
1767.
Tephrosia cinerea littoralis Benth. in ISIart. Fl. Bras.
15^: 48.
1859.
Cracca villosa cinerea Kiintze. Rev. Gen. PI. 173.
1891.
Cracca
littoralis Rydb. N. A. Fl. 24: 178.
1923.
Rootstock thick, sometimes long, woody; stems slender, usually branched,
ascending, or diffuse, about 1 m. long or less, more or less pubescent.
Leaves 5-8
cm. long; petioles
1.5 cm. long or less; stipules subulate; leaflets 9-15, mostly
oblanceolate, sometimes narrowly oblong.
1.&-2.5 cm.
long, obtuse to acutlsh
at the apex, often mucronate. cuneate or narrowed at the base, appressed-pu-
bescent, at least beneath; racemes few, several-flowered, peduncled, mostly op-
posite the leaves; calyx about 5 mm. long, its teeth acuminate; petals about twice
as long as the calyx, purple or purplish, the standard about 10 mm. broad; pod
3-6 cm. long, 3.5-4 mm. wide, finely pubescent, containing 10 seeds or fewer.
Banks
thickets, sandy plains, fields and hillsides, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations; Alona; Icacos; Vieciues; Muertos; Desecheo; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan.
Tortola-
Virgin
Gorda:—West
Indies;
continental
tropical
America.
Anil cexizo;
Baces differ in pubescence, shape and size of leaflets and color of flowers.
2. Cracca cathartica (Sesse & Mog.) Britton & Millspaugh. Bahama Fl.
181.
1920.
Galega cathartica Sess6 & M05.
Fl. Mex. ed. 2. 175.
1894.
Cracca Schottii Vail, Bull. Torr. Club 22: 25.
1895.
Tephrosia cathartica Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 283.
1905.
Root deep, elongated; stem erect, often much branched, 8 dm. high or less,
the branches ascending or
difl'use,
slender, tough, 2-4 dm.
long.
Leaves 5-8
cm. long; petioles slender, 2 cm. long or less; stipules linear-subulate; leaflets 5-9,
oblong-obovate, 1.5-4 cm. long, appressed-pubescent on both sides or glabrate
above, mostly retuse at the apex, narrowed at the base; racemes terminal and
opposite the leaves, few-flowered, short or elongated; calyx about 4 mm. long; Its
teeth acuminate; petals purple or red-purple, the standard about 8 mm. broad;
pod 3-4 cm. long, 4-5 mm. wide, 5-7-seeded.
[Tephrosia leptostachya of Bello,
not of Linnaeus; Cracca leptostachys of Cook and Collins.]
In sandy soil at lower elevations near the coasts of Porto Rico; Virgin GOTda:—Ba-
hamas; Hispaniola; Saba; St. Eustatius; St. Kitts; Cayman Islands; Colombia.
Some-
times cultivated.
Anil racemillo.
Cracca caudida (Roxb.) Kuntze, of southern Asia, was recorded by Krebs
as found in
St. Thomas.
It is an erect plant with large white flowers about 2
cm. broad, established in Jamaica and St. Kitts [Kieseria sericea Reinw.].
Cracca purpurea L. [Galega purpurea L.] was formerly cultivated on
St.
Croix, according to West, and is listed as occurring In Porto Rico by Cook and
Collins.
It
Is shrubby, 6 dm. high or less, glabrate, the leaves with 13-21 nar-
rowly oblong or oblanceolate
leaflets,'. finely silky beneath, the flowers in short
racemes, the calyx minutely pubescent, the pod 3-4 cm. long, glabrous or strigil-
lose.
It Is native of the East Indies.
Cracca brevipes
(Benth.) Kuntze
[Cytisus
sessiliflorva
Poir.;
Tephrosia
brevipes Benth.] was attributed to Porto Rico by Poiret, in error; the plant In-
habits Trinidad and northern South America.
.
10. BARBIERIA DC. Mem. Leg. 6: 241.
1825.
A slender shrub, or woody vine, with unequally pinnate, thin leaves, narrowly
triangular-lanceolate
stipules,
setaceous
stipels and
oblong
leaflets,
the
large
392
FABACEAE
red flowers in short terminal and axillary, long-peduncled
racemes.
Calyx long-
tubular.
Its
long narrow
teeth
nearly
equal.
Standard
oblong,
long-clawed;
wings oblong, adnate to the keel; keel blunt, nearly as long as the standard.
Stamens monadelphous,
1 free, 9 united; anthers all alike.
Ovary many-ovuled,
sessile;
style
slender,
longitudinally bearded on the inner
side; stigma
small,
terminal.
Pod linear, straight,
flat, 2-valved, septate between the black trans-
verse oblong seeds.
[Commemorates J. B. G. Barbier, French pharmacologist.)
A monotypic genus of the West Indies and South America.
1. Barbieria pinnata (Pers.) Baill, Hist.
PI. 2: 26.3.
1870.
Galaciia pinnata Pers. Syn. 2: 302.
1807.
Clitoria polyphylla Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 2: 300.
1811.
Barbieria polyphylla DC. Mem. Leg. 242,
2>l- 39.
1825.
Much-branched,
the
slender,
elongated
branches
villous-pubescent when
young.
Leaves 1-2 dm. long; stipules about
1 cm. long; petioles 1-2 cm. long;
leaflets 13-21, 5 cm. long or
less, 10-17 mm.
wide,
tliin, obtuse at each end,
mucronate, dark green and glabrous, or nearly so above, appressed-pubescent and
pale
beneath,
the
filiform-setaceous
stipels 4-6 mm.
long; peduncles
slender,
pubescent, 4-10 cm. long; racemes few-flowered; calyx about 3 cm. long, villous,
the long-acuminate teeth about half as long as the tube; standard about 5 cm.
long
; pod about as long as the standard, 6 mm. wide, pilose.
Thickets and hillsides at lower and middle elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico:
Cuba; Hispaniola; Central and South America.
Enredadera.
11. GLIRICIDIA H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 393.
1823.
Trees or shrubs with unequally pinnate leaves, small stipules, entire stalked
leaflets without stipels, and rather large pink or rose-colored flowers In lateral or
axillary racemes.
Calyx obliquely campanulate, its teeth short, broad, the two
upper
ones
partly
united.
Standard
broad,
reflexed;
wings
oblong,
curved,
distinct; keel incurved, blunt.
Stamens diadelphous (1 and 9); anthers all alike.
Ovary stipitate; ovules numerous; style suljulate, inflexed; stigma small, terminal.
Pod
flat, broadly
linear,
dehiscent, continuous,
its valves coriaceous.
[Greek,
mouse-killer.]
About 4 species, of tropical America, the following typical.
1.
Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Steud. Nom. 688.
1841.
Robinia sepiurji Ja,cq. Enum. 28.
1760.
Lonchocarpus maculatus DC. Prodr.
2: 260.
1825.
A tree, up to 10 m. high, the young twigs silky-pubescent.
Leaves 4 dm.
long or less; petioles 1-4 cm. long; leaflets 7-17, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 3-7
cm. long, sparsely short-pubescent, or glabrate, obtuse to acuminate at the apex,
rounded or narrowed at the
Ijase,
their rather stout stalks pubescent; racemes
commonly numerous, 10-15 cm. long; calyx about 5 mm. long; standard 1.5-2
cm. long
; ovary glabrous
; pod 10-20 cm. long, 1-2 cm. wide.
Recorded
as subspontaneous near
Afiasco,
Porto Rico;
occasionally
planted
for
ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Native of Central America and northern
South America.
Naturalized in Jamaica, Cuba, Hispaniola, Trinidad and Curacao.
12. SABINEA DC. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
I. 4: 92.
1825.
Shrubs or small
trees, with equally pinnate leaves, the rachis terminating in
a tip, the small leaflets entire, short-stalked, and rather large pink to rose-colored
flowers solitary or clustered on twigs or branches of previous seasons.
Calyx
FABACEAE
393
thin, turbinate or campanulate, nearly truncate.
Standard broad; wings oblong,
somewhat curved;
lieel inflexed, blunt.
Stamens diadelphous
(1 and
9), equal
in length or 5 of them shorter than the others; anthers all alike.
Ovary stipitate,
many-ovuled; style very slender, incurved or nearly straight; stigma small and
terminal.
Pod narrowly linear, stipitate, continuous, dehiscent,
its thin valves
twisting;
seeds
compressed.
[Commemorates
J.
Sabine,
English
botanist.)
Three known species, the following, and one in Dominica.
Type species: Robinia
florida Vahl.
The 5 posterior stamens half as long as the others; style incurved; calyx
turbinate; flowers lavender.
1.
S. florida.
Stamens all of nearly the same length; style nearly straight; calyx cam-
panulate; flowers pink to carmine.
2. S. punicea.
1. Sabinea florida (Vahl) DC. Ann. Sci. Nat. I. 4:
92.
182.5.
Robinia florida Vahl; West, Bidr. St. Croix 300.
1793.
A small tree, up to 6 m. in height, the young twigs appressed-pubescent, the
branches wand-like.
Stipules lanceolate-subulate, 4-6 mm.
long; leaves 4-11
cm. long, short-petioled
;
leaflets 5-15 pairs, oblong or elliptic, or the end pair
obovate-oblong, 8-15 mm.
long, obtuse at both ends, mucronulate, pinnately
few-veined, glabrous above, sparingly appressed-pubescent or glabrous beneath,
the slender rachis channelled on the upper side; pedicels mostly clustered at the
nodes,
nearly
filiform, 6-10 mm.
long; calyx broadly turbinate, about 5 mm.
long; flowers lavender to pale purple; standard 1.5-1.8 cm. broad; wings obovate,
1.5-2 cm. long, short-clawed; keel obliquely obovate, the tip heliotrope colored;
stamens of two lengths, 5 of them about half as long as the others; style strongly
Incurved; pod slender-stipitate, 7-10 cm.
long, 4-7 mm. wide.
[Sabinea dubia
DC. in part.]
Thickets, banks and hillsides at lower and middle elevations in moist districts of
Porto Rico; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda.
Endemic.
Occasionally planted for ornament and very decorative, its long branches crowded with
the beautiful fugacious flowers.
Retama.
Wattapama.
2. Sabinea punicea Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 323.
1899.
A shrub, up to 2 m. high, the young twigs pubescent or glabrate.
Foliage
closely similar to that of the preceding species; leaves 10 cm. long or less; leaflets
5-10 pairs; oblong to obovate-oblong, obtuse at both ends or retuse at the apex,
mucronulate,
firm
in
texture and
reticulate-veined;
pedicels
flUform,
mostly
clustered, about 10 mm. long; flowers pink to carmine; calyx campanulate, about
5 mm. long, oblique; standard 13-15 nmi. broad; wings oblong, 1.5-2 cm. long;
keel oblong; stamens
all of nearly the same length; style nearly straight; pod
slender,
stipitate, 6-9 cm. long, 5-7 mm. wide.
[S. florida of Bello, not of de
Candolle.]
Shaded banks, liillsides and ravines at lower and middle elevations Ln moist parts of
the central and western districts of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Caracolillo.
13. CORYNELLA DC. Ann. Sci. Nat.
I. 4: 93.
1825.
Shrubs, with pinnate leaves, and rather small, violet blue or purple flowers
in lateral clusters or solitary, appearing with or before the leaves of the season,
the stipules subulate, small and
rigid.
Calyx campanulate,
its teeth short or
subulate, the 2 upper connate.
Standard ovate or suborbicular, clawed, reflexed
wings lanceolate to elliptic; keel curved,
its petals partly united.
Stamens dia-
delphous (1 and 9)
; anthers all aUke.
Ovary stipitate, many-ovuled
; style slender,
hooked at the apex, stigmatic on the inner side below the apex.
[Greek, a little
394
FABACEAE
club.]
Two or three species, natives of tlie West Indies.
Type species: Robinia
poljjantha Sw.
1. Corynella pauciflora DC. Ann. Scl. Nat.
I. 4: 93.
1825.
A shrub, 2 m. high or less, with slender branches, the young twigs pubescent.
Stipules stiff, 3-4 mm. long; leaves 2-4 cm. long, short-petioled, evenly pinnate,
the rachis sparingly pubescent, channelled above
;
leaflets 3-5
pairs, oblong or
obovate, 5-15 mm. long, pubescent on the midvein beneath when young, soon
glabrous, shining and reticulate-veined above, obtuse or acutish and mucronulate
at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base; flowers violet, commonly numerous
and clustered on the old twigs; pedicels slender, pubescent, 3-6 mm. long; calyx
pubescent,
its
teeth
short; standard suborbicular,
al)out 8 mm.
broad; wings
elliptic;
keel-petals obtuse
at the apex;
style a
little thickened upward; pod
linear, narrowed below, about 5 cm. long and 7 mm. wide.
Thickets, banks and hillsides at lower elevations in dry parts of the southern dis-
tricts of Porto Rico:—Hispaniola.
Ret.^ma.
14. BENTHAMANTHA Alefeld, Bonplandla lO: 264.
1862.
Slender shrubs or somewhat woody perennial herbs, with unevenly pinnate
leaves,
the stipules subulate, the
leaflets minutely
stipellate, and rather large
white or yellowish flowers, few In axillary racemes.
Calyx 5-cleft, the narrow
lobes nearly equal.
Standard orbicular, or broader than long, reflexed; wings
obovate-oblong
; keel broad, incurved, acute or beaked.
Stamens diadelphous
(1 and 9)
; anthers alike.
Ovary sessile, many-ovuled; style Incurved, longitudin-
ally bearded on the Inner side; stigma terminal.
Pod narrowly
linear, nearly
flat,
sessile
In the
calyx,
2-valved,
septate between the
seeds.
[In honor of
George Bentham,
1800-1884,
a
distinguished
British
taxonomist.]
About
6
species, of tropical and warm temperate America.
Type species: Cracca glandu-
li/era Benth.
1. Benthamantha caribaea
(Jacq.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI.
3':
53.
1898.
Galega caribaea Jacq.
Sel. Amer. 212.
1763.
Tephrosia caribaea DC. Prodr. 2: 251.
1825.
Tephroaia aniloides Bello, Anal. Soc. HIsp. Hist. Nat. 10: 258.
1881.
Cracca caribaea Benth.; Oerst. Kjob. Vid. Med. 1853: 9.
1853.
Cracca aniloides Cook & Collins, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 8:
128.
1903.
Brittonamra caribaea Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 164.
1891.
A shrub, 2 m. high or less, the branches very slender, appressed-pubescent
when young.
Stipules 4
7 mm. long; leaves 5-12 cm. long, short-petloled
; leaflets
13-19, thin, 1-3 cm. long, oblong, acutish or oijtuse and mucronate at the apex,
mostly obtuse
at
the
base,
appressed-pubescent and
pale
beneath,
sparingly
pubescent and green above; peduncles slender, as long as the leaves or shorter;
flowers few,
white,
purple-veined; calyx-lobes longer than the
tulje; standard
about 1 cm. ijroad; mngs nearly as long as the standard; pod 4-6 cm. long, 2.5-3
mm.
wide,
finely pubescent,
its sutures slightly thickened, impressed between
the nearly quadrate seeds.
Thickets, banks and hillsides at lower elevations, Porto Rico, mostly in dry districts
Culebra; Desecheo; St. Croix; St. Thomas; Tortola:—Hispaniola; St. Martin to Trinidad;
Central America and northern South America.
Anil falso.
15. SESBAN Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 327.
1763.
Herbs or shrubs, with evenly pinnate leaves, the leaflets numerous, entire,
not stipellate, or the stipels minute.
Flowers in axillary racemes, the slender
FABACEAE
395
pedicels with 2 deciduous bractlets under the calj-x.
Calyx campanulate, nearly
equally 5-toothed.
Standard broad, ovate or orbicular; wings oblong,
falcate;
keel
blunt.
Stamens diadelphous
(9 and
1).
Ovary mostly
stipitate, many-
ovuled;
style
glabrous;
stigma
small.
Pod
elongated-hnear,
wingless,
com-
pressed, partitioned between the oblong seeds. [Name Arabic] About 15 species,
natives of warm and tropical regions.
Type species: Aeschynomene Sesban L.
Leaves silky-pubescent beneath.
1.
S.
sericea.
Leaves glabrous.
Calyx 4-5 mm. long; corolla less than
1..5 cm. long; pod torulose.
2.
S. Sesban.
Calyx 6-7 mm. long; corolla 1.5-2 cm. long; pod not torulose.
3.
S. emerus.
1. Sesban sericea (Willd.) DC. Prodr. 2: 266.
1825.
Coronilla sericea Willd. Enum. 773.
1809.
Stem slightly woody, 1-2 ni.
tall, silky-pubescent, at least above.
Leaves
1-2.5 dm. long, the rachis pubescent; leaflets 10-20 pairs, linear-oblong, 1.5-2.5
cm.
long, obtuse and mucronate
at the apex,
usually densely silky-pubescent
beneath, glabrous or nearly so above, sometimes nearly glabrous on both sides;
peduncles few-flowered, much shorter than the leaves; pedicels very slender, 1 cm.
long or less; calyx about 4 mm. long, its teeth triangular, very acute; wings yellow;
standard 10-12 mm. long, yellow, brown-spotted; pod 10-16 cm. long, biconvex,
3 mm. wide, short-beaked, not constricted between the seeds.
Wet grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:—Bahamas;
Hispaniola; Jamaica; Antigua to Martinique; Trinidad.
2. Sesban Sesban (L.) Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Card. 1: 54.
1918.
Aeschynomene Sesban L. Sp. PI. 714.
1753.
Sesbania aegyptiaca Pers. Syn. 2: 316.
1807.
Shrubby, branched,
1..5-3 m. high,
flnely pubescent above when young, or
glabrous.
Leaves 8-15 cm. long; leaflets 10^20 pairs, narrowly oblong,
1.5-2.5
cm. long, pale green, obtuse at each end, mucronulate at the apex; racemes com-
monly as long as the leaves or longer, several-flowered; pedicels very slender,
about
1 cm. long
; calyx broadly campanulate, 4-5 mm. long,
its short triangular
teeth acute; corolla 1.2-1.5 cm. long, the petals variously colored, the standard
yellow to white, sometimes streaked with red, purple, orange or scarlet; pod 1-2
cm. long, about 3 mm. thick, torulose.
Waste groimds. Porto Rico, sparingly naturalized after
planting; planted on
St.
Croix.
Native
of the Old World
tropics.
Introduced by
cultivation into Jamaica,
Cuba, St. Kitts and Guadeloupe.
3. Sesban emerus (Aubl.) Urban, Report. 16: 149.
1919.
Aeschynomene emerus Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: Tab. noms.
1; 775 no.
4.
1775.
Sesban occidentalis Pers. Syn. 2: 316.
1807.
Coronilla occidentalis Willd. Sp. PI. 3: 1147.
1803.
Emerus Sesban occidentalis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 181.
1891.
Shrubby, 3 m. high or less, branched, glabrous, or sparingly pubescent above
when young.
Leaves 1-2 dm. long;
leaflets 10-20 pairs,
linear-oblong, obtusa
at both ends, 1.5-2.5 cm. long, mucronate at the apex; racemes shorter than the
leaves,
few-several-flowered;
pedicels
slender,
8-12 mm.
long;
calyx broadly
campanulate, 6-7 mm.
long,
its triangular teeth very
acute;
corolla about 2
cm. long, the standard yellow; purple-dotted; pod 1.5-2.5 dm. long, 2-3 mm. wide,
biconvex, slightly constricted between the seeds when young.
In lakes and ditches at low elevations in the southern and western districts of Porto
Rico:—Bahamas; Hispaniola; Cuba.
396
FABACEAE
16. AGATI Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 320.
1763.
Rapid-growing and short-lived small trees or shrubs, with equally pinnate
leaves of many pairs of oblong, entire leaflets, and large, variously colored flowers
in
a.\illary
racemes.
Calyx
large,
campanulate,
its
lobes
short
and
broad.
Standard ovate to oblong; wings narrow, longer than the standard; keel-petals
curved, separate at base and apex.
Stamens diadelphous
(1 and
9)
; anthers
alike.
Ovary stipitate
; style subulate, curved, the small terminal stigma capitate
pod
linear,
elongated,
flat,
septate between
the
seeds.
[Malabar
name.)
A
monotypic genus.
1. Agati grandiflora (L.) Desv. Journ. Bot.
1: 120.
1813.
Aeschynomene arandiflora L. Sp. PI. 1060.
1753.
Sesban grandijlorus Poir. in Lam. Encycl.
7: 127.
1806.
Agati coccinea Desv. Journ. Bot.
1: 120.
1813.
A tree, up to 12 m. high, with a trunk up to 3 dm. thick, glabrous or very
nearly so throughout,
or the young
foliage
finely pubescent,
the bark rough.
Leaves 2-3. .5 dm.
long,
short-petioled.
Leaflets 10-30
pairs,
oblong, 2-4 cm.
long, obtuse or retuse at the apex, inequilaterally narrowed at the base; racemes
2-5-flowered, shorter than the leaves; calyx 2-2.5 cm. long, its broadly triangular
lobes much shorter than the tube; corolla red to white, 6-10 cm. long; pod 2-4
dm. long, about 8 mm. wide, beaked at the apex, narrowed at the base into a
long, stout stipe.
Roadsides and
thickets,
spontaneous
after
cultivation
in Porto
Rico;
"Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—native of tropical Asia.
Widely distributed bv cul-
tivation in soutliern Florida and the West
Indies.
The nearly white wood is soft and
light.
Gallito.
Cresta de gallo.
Baculo.
17. PICTETIA DC. Ann. Sci. Nat.
I. 4: 93.
1824.
Shruljs or small
trees, with unequally pinnate
leaves,
the
leaflets
bristle-
tipped, estipellate, the stipules spiny or rigid, the yellow flowers in axillary, long
or short racemes.
Calyx campanulate, many-veined,
its teeth somewhat un-
equal, obtuse or acute, the lower one longer than the others.
Standard nearly
orliicular, recurved
; keel blunt, shorter than the obliquely oblong wings.
Stamens
diadelphous
(1 and 9); anthers all
alike, versatile.
Ovary stipitate, muriculate;
style
slender,
glabrous,
incurved; stigma small and
terminal.
Pod
linear or
oblong, few-jointed, indehiscent.
[Commemorates Marc Auguste Pictet, 1752-
1825.]
Four known species, natives of the West Indies, the following typical.
1. Pictetia aculeata (Vahl) Urban. Symb. Ant. 2: 294.
1900.
Robinia aculeata Vahl; West, Bidr. St. Croix 300.
1793.
Robinia squamata Vahl, Symb. 3: 88.
pi. 69.
1794.
Aeschynomene aristata Jacq. Hort. Schoenb.
2: 59.
pi. 237.
1797.
Pictetia squamata DC. Ann. Sci. Nat.
I.
4: 94.
1825.
Pictetia aristata DC. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
I.
4: 94.
1825.
A shrub or a small
tree, up to 10 m. high, the trunks often clustered, the
branches upright, the old bark separating in large flakes, the young twigs and
leaves finely pul3escent, becoming glabrous or nearly so.
Stipules rigid, spines-
cent, lanceolate to lance-subulate, 6-12 mm. long; leaves 6-12 cm. long; leaflets
9-25, orbicular-obovate, 1-2 cm. long, mostly as wide as long, obcordate or sub-
truncate at the apex and
bristle-tipped,
pinnately few-veined, obtuse or sub-
cordate at the base; racemes as long as the leaves or shorter, several-flowered.
FABACEAE
397
pedicels filiform, 1-2.5 cm. long; calyx 5-6 mm. long; standard about 2 cm. long
and broad; pod short-stipitate, linear, slightly curved, 2-5 cm. long, about 6 mm.
wide, 2-6-jointed, the joints longer than wide.
Thickets and hillsides at lower and middle elevations, southern and eastern districts
of Porto Rico, extending up the western coast to Punta Guaniquilla; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Hispaniola.
Tach-
UELo.
Karrebesu.
Called Fustic in the Virgin Islands.
18. AESCHYNOMENE L. Sp. PI. 713.
1753.
Herbs, or in tropical regions shrubs, mainly with odd-pinnate leaves, the
leaflets sensitive in some species, and yellow flowers in axillary clusters.
Calyx
teeth nearly equal, more or less united into 2
lips.
Standard orbicular, short-
clawed; wings oblong or obliquely obovate, about as long as the standard; keel
curved.
Stamens diadelphous
(5 and
5); anthers
all
alike.
Ovary
stipitate;
ovules 2-00.
Pod stalked, flat, jointed.
[Greek, to be ashamed, referring to the
sensitive leaves.]
About 55 species, in warm and tropical regions.
Type species'
Aeschynomene aspera L.
Pod deeply crenate on the lower margin,
its joints
nearlj' semi-
circular or semioval.
Erect; leaflets 10-30 pairs, Imear.
1. A. americana.
Prostrate or trailing; leaflets 3-5 pairs, obovate or oval.
2. A. portoricensis.
Pod slightly crenate on one margin or both margins,
its joints sub-
quadrate.
3. A. sensitiva.
1. Aeschynomene americana L. Sp.
PI. 713.
1753.
Aeschynomene glandulosa Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl.
4: 76.
1816.
Aeschynomene villosa Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 76.
1816.
Aeschynomene americana depila JNIillsp. Field Mus. Bot.
1: 494.
1902.
Aeschynomene am.ericana villosa L^rban, Symb. Ant.
4: 288.
1905.
Herbaceous, or slightly woody; stem erect, 3 dm.-2 m. high, glabrous,
oi
more or less villous, and sometimes glandular.
Stipules half-sagittate, triangular-
lanceolate,
striate,
long-acimiinate,
12 mm. long or
less; leaves 3-7 cm.
long,
very short-petioled
;
leaflets
10-30-pairs,
linear, glabrous or ciliate, 4-6-nerved,
mucronate and sometimes denticulate at the apex, obliquely rounded at the base,
7-10 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide; racemes few-flowered; calyx 2-lipped, about
4 mm. long; corolla yellow, sometimes brownish-striped or nearly white, 6-8 mm.
long; pods short-stipitate, straight or a little curved, 4 cm. long or less, glabrous
or pubescent, 2-8-jointed, the upper margin continuous and nearly straight, the
lower deeply crenate, the joints nearly semicircular, 2-3 mm. long.
Aloist banks, rocks, hillsides and fields at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica: Cuba to St. Kitts, Barbados
and Tobago; continental tropical America.
Yerb.\ rosario.
2. Aeschynomene portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 325.
1899.
Branches .several ormany from a woody root, slender, spreading or prostrate,
1-10 dm.
long,
villous,
glabrate
or
puberulent.
Stipules
ovate-lanceolate
or
lanceolate,
striate, acuminate, 3 mm. long or
less; leaves 1-2 cm.
long, short-
petioled; leaflets 3-5 pairs, oval to obovate, thin, pinnately few-veined, 5-8 mm.
long, obtuse and apiculate at the apex, obliquely obtuse or subcordate at the base,
sparingly appressed-pubescent or glabrate; peduncles almost
filiform; racemes
1-2 cm.
long,
1-4-flowered,
the
pedicels
filiform;
calyx about
2.5 mm.
long,
pubescent,
its teeth acute; corolla light yellow, about 5 mm. long; pod filiform-
stipitate,
10-15 mm.
long, about
3 mm.
wide,
curved,
2-4-jointed,
minutely
pubescent,
its upper margin continuous,
the lower deeply
crenate,
the
joints
obliquely semi-oval.
398
FABACEAE
Hillsides and moist sandy soil, at lower elevations, northern and western districts of
Porto
Rico.
A
single specimen with yoimg
fruit was found on a grassy
hillside at
Aibonito, apparently a waif.
Endemic.
3. Aeschynomene sensitiva Sw. Prodr.
107.
1788.
Aeschynomene fistulosa Bello, Ap.
1: 259.
1881.
Shrubby but not very woody,
erect, branched,
1-4 m.
high, glabrous or
sparingly pubescent above.
Leaves 2-10 cm.
long;
stipules membranous,
10
mm. long or less, half-sagittate, early deciduous; leaves 2-10 cm. long;
leaflets
10-20
pairs,
linear or
linear-oblong,
obscurely pinnately few-veined with the
midvein rather prominent, 5-9 mm. long, obtuse and often mucronulate at the
apex, obliquely obtuse at the base; peduncles slender, 1-2.5 cm. long, few-flow-
ered; calyx deeply cleft, 3-4 mm. long; corolla yellow or reddish-veined, 8-10 mm.
long; pod stipitate, straight or a little curved, glabrous or nearly so, 5 cm. long
or less, 3.5-5 mm. wide, both margins usually slightly crenate, the subquadrate
joints 4-10.
Wet grounds and in water, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations; St. Thomas
(ex
Krebs);
Tortola:—Cuba
to
Porto
Rico,
Guadeloupe and
Trinidad;
continental
tropical America and tropical Africa.
Yerba de cienega.
19. STYLOSANTHES Sw. Prodr. 108.
1788.
Perennial
herbs,
sometimes
woody,
with
pinnately
3-folIolate,
stipulate
leaves, the leaflets entire and estipellate, and small yellow flowers.
Calyx-tube
elongated,
its 4 upper lobes more or less united, the fifth (lower) lobe separate.
Petals and stamens borne at the top of the calyx-tube; standard nearly orbicular;
wings oblong,
distinct; keel incurved.
Filaments united into a tube; anthers
alternately longer and shorter, the shorter ones versatile.
Ovary nearly sessile,
containing 2 or 3 ovules
; style elongated, the lower part persistent on the pod
and hooked or recurved.
Loment 1-2-jointed, the joints reticulated.
[Greek,
column-flower, referring to the calyx-tube.]
About 30 species, mostly of tropical
distribution, the following typical.
1. Stylosanthes hamata (L.) Taubert, Mon.
Stylos. 22.
1889.
Hedysarum hamatuml^. Syst. ed.
10, 1170.
1759.
Stylosanthes procumbens Sw. Prodr. 108.
1788.
Somewhat pubescent, branched, the branches spreading or ascending, 0.5-5
dm. long.
Stipules adnate to the petioles, with free subulate apices.
Leaflets
oblong, elliptic or narrowly oblong, longer than the petioles, 17 mm. long or less,
nearly glabrous, acute at both ends or the apex obtuse, strongly pinnately veined,
mucronate; flowers about 6 mm.
Avide,
in short, dense, bracted spikes; loment
commonly 2-jointed, the persistent, hooked style-base pubescent.
Fields, hills and banks at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Mona; St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda: Anegada:—Florida; West Indies; tropical
continental America.
Races differ in size and shape of leaflets.
Z.vrzabacoa enana.
Pencil-flower.
Stylosanthes viscosa Sw., recorded by West from St. Croix, and by Krebs
from
St. Thomas, was regarded by Baron Eggers as, perhaps, a mistake for the
preceding species, and this is the more probable because the plant has not been
found by recent collectors either in the Virgin Islands or Porto Rico.
20. ARACHIS L. Sp. PI. 741.
17.53.
Herbs, Avith evenly pinnate leaves, the stipules adnate to the lower part of
the petiole, the yellow flowers in axillary bracted clusters.
Calyx-tube slender.
FABACEAE
399
ils 4 upper lobes united, the fifth (lower) one separate.
Petals and stamens borne
at the top of the calyx-tube; standard nearly orbicular; wings oblong, separate;
keel incurved and beaked.
Filaments all united into a tube; anthers alternately
longer and shorter, the shorter ones versatile.
Ovary nearly sessile at flowering
time, 2-3-ovuled, but after fertiUzation of the ovules
its stalk
(torus)
greatly
elongates, becomes deflexed, and forces the pod into the ground, where it ripens;
style slender; pod oblong, reticulated, indehiscent, not jointed; seeds oblong to
ovoid, the cotyledons thick and
fleshy.
[Greek name of some papilionaceous
plant.
About 7 species, natives of South America, the following typical.
1. Arachis hypogaea L. Sp. PL 741.
1753.
Annual, loosely pilose, 6 dm. high or less.
Stipules lanceolate, long-acumin-
ate, 1-3 cm. long; petioles 1-5 cm. long; leaflets 2 pairs, sessile, elliptic-obovate,
rounded or retuse and minutely apiculate at the apex, narrowed at the base, 5
cm. long or less; corolla about 12 mm. broad; torus elongating to several inches,
becoming stiff, and forcing the ripening ovary into the earth, where it ripens the
well-known peanuts.
Subspontaneous
after
cultivation,
Porto
Rico and
the
Virgin
Islands,
Widely
cultivated in tropical and warm temperate regions,
its origin imknown, but probably
from Brazil.
Pea-xut.
jSIani.
Pindels.
Ground-ntjt.
21. ZORNIA Gmel. Syst. 2: 1096.
1791.
Perennial
herbs, sometimes a
little woody, with
2-foliolate
or
4-foliolate
leaves, the leaflets estipellate, the small flowers in terminal or axillary bracted
spikes, or solitary.
Calyx campanulate,
its 2 upper teeth united, the 2 lateral
ones
smaller,
the lower one
oblong-lanceolate,
nearly
as long
as
the
upper.
Standard nearly orbicular, clawed; wings oblong or obovate, oblique; keel some-
what beaked, incurved.
Filaments
all united into a tube; anthers alternately
longer and
shorter,
the shorter ones
versatile.
Ovary
sessile,
several-ovuled
style very
slender; stigma small and terminal.
Loment
flat,
articulated,
the
upper suture nearly straight, the lower sinuate, the joints indehiscent.
[In honor
of Johann Zorn. German botanist and pharmacist.]
About 10 species, of tropical
and warm temperate America and
Africa.
Type
species: Anonymos
bracteata
Walt.
1. Zornia diphylla (L.) Pers. Syn. 2: 318.
1807.
Hedysarum diphyllum L. Sp. PI. 747.
1753.
Zornia reticulata Smith in Rees Cyclop. 39: no. 2.
1818.
Deep-rooted, diffusely branched, the branches rather stiff, slender, spreading
or
ascending,
2-5
dm.
long.
Stipules
lanceolate,
acuminate,
half-sagittate,
8-20 mm. long; petioles slender, 1-2 cm. long; leaflets a single pair, inequilateral,
oblong-lanceolate, very short-stalked, acute or acuminate; glabrous or nearly so,
1.5-3.5 cm.
long;
flowers
pale
yellow,
in elongated bracted
peduncled spikes;
bracts
foliaceous,
oblong and
half-sagittate,
strongly
parallel-veined,
ciliate,
6-12 mm. long, almost concealing the purplish or yellowish flowers; loment pube.s-
cent and hispid, shorter than the bracts.
Dry
fields and
hillsides
at lower
elevations, Porto Rico;
St.
Tliomas;
St.
Croi.'s
(according
to de Candolle)
:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St. Eustatius
to Trinidad;
continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Zarz.\bacoa de dos hojas.
400
FABACEAE
22. MEIBOMIA
Heist.; Fabr. Enum.
PI.
Hort. Helmst.
168.
1759.
Perennial herbs, sometimes woody at base, rarely annuals, with
stipellate,
3-follolate or in some species 1- or o-foliolate leaves, and small flowers in racemes
or panicles.
Calyx-tube short, its teeth more or less united into 2 lips, the upper
one 2-toothed, the lower teeth acute or attenuate.
Standard oblong, ovate or
orbicular, narrowed or rarely clawed at the base; wings obliquely oblong; keel
nearly
straight,
obtuse.
Stamens monadelphous
or
diadelphous
(9
and
1);
anthers all alike.
Ovules 2-x
.
Loment flat, 2-several-jointed, the joints mainly
coriaceous and pubescent or muricate, indehiscent or rarely partially dehiscent,
readily separable.
[Named for Dr. Brandus Meibom; died at Helmstadt, 1740.]
About 160 species, natives of warm and temperate regions, called Tick-trefoil
and Zarzabacoa.
Type species: Hedysarv7n canadense L.
Flowers in short terminal racemes; calyx long-pilose.
Flowers in long racemes or panicles; calyx not long-pilose.
Upper suture of the loment straight or nearly so, the lower
margin deeply undulate and intruded.
Erect or ascending; racemes terminal.
Lower margin
of the loment undulate
to about
the
middle; bracts large.
Lower margin
of the loment undulate nearly
to
the
upper suttu-e; bracts small.
Flowers purple; stipules connate at base.
Flowers white;
stipules distinct or nearly
so, sub-
cordate.
Trailing or creeping, rooting at the nodes; racemes axillary.
Leaflets obtuse or acutish.
Leaflets actuninate or sharply acute.
Stem and petioles densely pilose.
Stem and petioles glabrous or merely puberulent.
Leaflets
ovate,
roimded
at
the
base,
firm
in
texttu-e.
Leaflets triangular-ovate, truncate or subcordate,
membranous.
Both sutures of the loment undulate.
Joints of the narrow loment linear-oblong.
Joints of the loment orbicular or oval.
Loment 2-jointed; upper joint much longer than the
lower.
'
Loment several-jointed, the joints all alike, twisted.
Perennial; loment-joints straight when mattu-e.
Annual; loment-joints permanently twisted.
1. M. barbaia.
2.
^f. adscendens.
3.
i\/. supina.
4. M. affinis.
5. M. axillaris.
6. M. umbrosa.
7.
A/. Sii\tenisii.
8.
iV/. Wydleriana.
9.
i\/. scorpiurus.
10. M. mollis.
11. M. purpurea.
12. M. procitmbens.
1. Meibomia barbata (L.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 195.
1891.
Hedysarum barbahim
L,. Syst. ed.
10, 1170.
1759.
Nicolsonia barbata DC. Mem. Leg. 7: 313.
1825.
Desmodium barbatum Benth. Kjoeb. Vldensk. Medd. 1853:
18.
1853.
Ascending or erect, branched, 2-6 dm. high, somewhat Avoody, the branches
pubescent.
Stipules narrowly lanceolate, long-acuminate, about half as long as
the petioles; petioles shorter than the leaves; stipels subulate; leaflets 3, oblong to
elliptic-obovate, 2 cm. long or less, obtuse and mucronulate at the apex, glabrous
or nearly so above, appressed-pubescent and reticulate-veined beneath; racemes
terminal, rather dense, 1-3 cm. long; pedicels very slender, 2-3 times as long as
the ovate-lanceolate, acuminate
bracts; calyx at
length
nodding,
pilose with
long, brown hairs; corolla blue-purple,
little longer than the calyx; loment 2-4-
jointed, 1-1.6 mm. long, the upper suture continuous, the lower deeply undulate,
the joints finely pubescent.
Fields and banks at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cubai
Hispaniola; Martinique;
St.
Lucia; Tobago;
Trinidad;
continental
tropical America.
Introduced into the Old World tropics.
FABACEAE
401
2. Meibomia adscendens (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen, PI. 195.
1891.
Hedysarum adscendens Sw. Prodr. 106.
1788.
Desmodium adscendens DC. Prodr.
2: 332.
1825.
Stems diffii.se or ascending, sometimes rooting at the nodes.
1 m. long or less,
the ascending branches loosely pilose, 3-6 dm. high, somewhat woody.
Stipules
distinct,
lanceolate,
acuminate,
as
long
as
the
petioles
or shorter;
leaflets
3,
elliptic to obovate, 1-3 cm. long, glabrous above, appressed-pubescertt beneath,
obtuse, or acutish; racemes 3-20 cm. long; pedicels filiform, ascending, 8-15 mm.
long;
bracts
lanceolate,
acuminate,
villous,
about
7 mm.
long,
deciduous;
calyx about 5 mm. long, deeply cleft, its teeth linear-lanceolate; corolla purple to
white, about twice as long as the calyx; loment 3-6-jointed, 2 cm. long or less, its
upper suture continuous,
the lower margin undulate
to about the middle,
the
oblong joints pubescent.
Banks, thickets and woodlands at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascending
into the eastern mountains:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Kitts to Truiidad; con-
tinental tropical America; recorded from tropical Africa.
3. Meibomia supina (Sw.) Britton, Ann. N. Y. Acad.
Sci. 7: 83.
1892.
Hedysarum supinum Sw. Prodr.
106.
1788.
Hedysarum incamnn Sw. Prodr.
107.
1788.
Desmodium supinum DC. Prodr.
2: 322.
1825.
Desmodium incanum DC. Prodr.
2: 322.
1825.
Hedysarum portoricense Spreng. Syst.
3: 314.
1826.
Desmodium portoricense G. Don, Gen. Syst.
2: 294.
1832.
Desmodium incanum angustifolium Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I.
187.
1859.
Meibomia incana Cook & Collins, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 8: 189.
1903.
Desmodium supinum angustifolium Urban, Symb. Ant.
4: 291.
1905.
Stems erect or ascending, somewhat woody, 3-9 dm.
high, puberulent or
short-pubescent.
Stipules
lanceolate, acuminate, connate
below,
or at length
distinct, mostly shorter than the petioles; leaflets 3 or often only
1, various In
form, mostly
elliptic, but also
lanceolate, obovate, nearly
linear,
or orbicular,
sometimes several forms on the same plant, glabrous or nearly so and dark green
above,
finely
pubescent and
pale
beneath,
2-7.5 cm.
long;
stipels
subulate;
racemes 2-8 cm. long; bracts linear-lanceolate, pubescent, shorter than the pedi-
cels, deciduous; pedicels 0-12 mm. long; calyx small, about 3 mm. long, its teeth
ovate-lanceolate, acute; corolla purple or purplish, 2-3 times as long as the calyx;
loment 3-8-jointed,
3 cm. long or
less,
its upper suture continuous, the lowen
margin deeply undulate, the oblong joints densely pubescent.
Banks,
hillsides and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Mona;
Vieques; St. Croi.x; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—West Indies; continental tropical America and
tropical Africa.
4. Meibomia afflnis (Schl.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL 197.
1891.
Desmodium affine Schl. Linnaea 12: 312.
1838.
Desmodium albiflorum Salzm.
; Benth. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 15': 99.
1859.
Meibomia albifiora Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL
197.
1891.
Stems ascending or spreading, loosely pilose, 5 dm. long or less.
Stipules
lanceolate,
subcordate,
acuminate,
mostly much
shorter
than
the
petioles;
leaflets 3, ovate, G cm. long or less, acute or bluntish at the apex, obliquely obtuse
or the middle one narrowed at the base, glabrous above, more or less pubescent
on the veins beneath; stipels lanceolate-subulate; raceme 5-15 cm. long; pedicels
fiUform, 8-20 mm. long; bracts ovate, acuminate, about as long as the calyx,
deciduous; calyx about 3 mm. long, its teeth lanceolate; corolla w^hite, somewhat
longer than the calyx; loment nearly sessile, 4-6-jointed, the upper suture con-
tinuous, the lower margin deeply undulate, the oblong joints densely pubescent,
about 6 mm. long.
Coffee plantations near Cayey and Coamo:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; continenta
tropical America.
402
FABACEAE
5. Meibomia axillaris (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 195.
1891.
Hedysarum axillare Sw. Prodr. 107.
1788.
Hedysarum reptans Poir. in Lam. Encycl. 6: 442.
1804.
Desmodium axillare DC. Prodr. 2: 333.
1825.
Desmodium reptans DC. Prodr. 2: 333.
1825.
Meibomia axillaris obtusifoliola Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 195.
1891.
Desmodium axillare genuinum Urban, Symb. Ant.
2: 303.
1900.
Desmodium axillare ohtusifoliolum Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 291.
1905.
Stem trailing, rooting at the nodes, glabrate to somewhat pilose, 2-7 dm. long.
Stipules ovate to ovate-lanceolate, short, 4-7 mm. long; petioles slender, more or
less pubescent, 3-10 cm. long; leaflets 3, ovate to rhombic-elliptic, 3-7 cm. long,
glabrous or nearly so above, appressed-pubescent or glabrate beneath, obtuse and
rounded,
or merely acutish
at the apex;
stipels subulate,
deciduous; racemes
elongated, sometimes 3 dm. long; pedicels filiform, 8-15 mm. long; bracts ovate
to ovate-lanceolate, pilose, 3-4 mm. long; calyx about 2 mm. long; corolla rose
to violet, about 6 mm. long; loment short-stipitate in the calyx, mostly 2-jointed,
the upper suture slightly indented between the joints, the lower margin deeply
Intruded, the rhombic-oblong joints densely pubescent, 6-8 mm. long.
[? Des-
modium oblongifolium of Krebs.]
Banks, thickets and woodlands, at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, ascend-
ing into the eastern motmtains;
St. Thomas
(ex Krebs);
St.
Croix:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Saba to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
6. Meibomia umbrosa Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 37: 353.
1910.
? Desmodium splrale stoloniferum DC. Prodr. 2: 333.
1825.
Meibomia axillaris acutifoiia Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI.
195.
1891.
Desmodium axillare angustatum Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 303.
1900.
Desmodium axillare angustatum forma robustius Urban, Symb. Ant.
2: 303.
1900.
Desmodium axillare acuiifolium Urban, Symb. Ant.
4: 292.
1905.
Stem trailing, rooting at the nodes, 5-10 dm. long, densely villous.
Stipules
lanceolate or lance-subulate, about
1 cm. long, acuminate; petioles rather stout,
densely
villous, 4-12 cm.
long;
leaflets
3, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5-10 cm.
long, sparingly pubescent or glabrate above, rather densely pubescent beneath,
acute or acuminate at the apex; stipels lance-subulate, deciduous; racemes elong-
ated, often 3 dm. long; pedicels filiform, 2 cm. long or less; bracts ovate, pilose,
about 5 mm. long; calyx 2-3 mm. long; corolla purple or reddish, about twice as
long as the calyx; loment stipitate,
1-3-jointed, the upper suture continuous,
undulate,
the
lower
margin
deeply
intruded,
the
obliquely
oblong-rhombic
joints about 8 mm.
long, densely pubescent.
[:' Desmodium oblongifolium DC]
Woods and thickets, eastern districts, ascending into the Liiquillo Moimtains, Porto
Rico;—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Martinique;
St.
Vincent;
Panama
to
Brazil.
[Hedysarum
repens Sesse & INIogino, not of Lianaeus.]
7. Meibomia Sintenisii (Urban) Britton.
Desmodium axillare Sintenisii Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 303.
1900.
Stem trailing, rooting at the nodes, finely puberulent, 6 dm. long or longer.
Stipules lanceolate, about
1 cm. long; petioles slender, puberulent, 10 cm. long
or less; leafiets 3, ovate, 5-7 cm. long, glabrous above, appressed-pubescent be-
neath, sharply and somewhat abruptly acuminate at the apex, rounded or obtuse
at the base; racemes elongated; flowers described as white; loment-joints abou
10 mm. long.
Mountain forests of Porto Rico:—Hispaniola; ?Jamaica.
FABACEAE
403
s. Meibomia Wydleriana (Urban) Britton.
Desmodium Wydlerianum Urban. Symb. Ant. 2: 302.
1900.
Stem
trailing,
rooting
at
the
nodes,
puberulent.
Stipules
lanceolate,
acuminate, 4-8 mm. long; petioles slender, 3-5 cm. long, puberulent; leaflets 3,
triangular-ovate
or
triangular-rhombic.
3-6
cm.
long,
membranous,
slightly
pubescent or glabrous on both sides, shining alwve, pale and dull beneath
; racemes
elongated,
few-flowered,
10-15
cm.
long;
flowering
pedicels 8-15 mm.
long;
bracts 1..5-2 mm. long, deciduous; calyx about 2 mm. long, its triangular-lance-
olate teeth acuminate; corolla violet, about 4 mm. long; loment 2-3-jointed.
Eastern Porto Rico:—Grenada; Tobago.
9. Meibomia scorpiurus (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI.
198.
1891.
Hedysarum scorpiurus Sw. Prodr.
107.
1788.
Desmodium scorpiurus Desv. Journ. Bot. 1: 122.
1813.
Stems prostrate or procumbent, slender, angled, loosely pubescent, 2-8 dm.
long.
Stipules obliquely ovate, half-cordate, about 4 mm. long; leaflets 3, oblong
to
elliptic
or
ovate-elliptic,
1-4.5 cm.
long,
obtuse and rounded
or
slightly
emargiuate at the apex, mostly obtuse at the base, loosely appressed-pubescent
with scattered hairs on both sides; stipels minute, subulate; racemes slender, 5-20
cm. long; pedicels short,
1 cm. long or less; bracts lanceolate-subulate, deciduous,
about 2 mm. long; calyx about 2.5 mm. long, its teeth linear-lanceolate; corolla
about 3 mm. long, pink to purple; loment linear, nearly sessile, 2-7-jointed, both
margins about equally undulate, the narrowly oblong joints 2-3 times as long as
wide, not twisted.
Fields, sand dimes, hillsides and cultivated grounds at lower and middle elevations,
Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas
(e.x Grisebach)
; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Antigua to Trinidad; continental tropical America; East Indies.
10. Meibomia mollis (Vahl) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 198.
1891.
Hedysarum molle Vahl, Symb. 2: 83.
1791.
Desmodium molle DC. Prodr. 2: 332.
1825.
Stem
erect,
rather
stout,
branched,
2 m.
high
or
less,
softly pubescent.
Stipules triangular-subulate, 2-6 mm. long; leaflets 3, rarely only
1, ovate, 2-10
cm. long, acute or acutish at the apex, obtuse at the base, pubescent on both'
sides, as long as the pubescent petioles or shorter; stipels subulate: racemes 1-2
dm.
long, commonly branched; pedicels
filiform, 3-8 mm.
long; bracts ovate,
about
1 mm. long, deciduous; calyx 2.5-3 mm. long, its teeth linear-lanceolate;
corolla blue,
little longer than the calyx; loment nearly
sessile,
2-jointed,
the
lower joint small, twisted, the upper one elliptic or subreniform, 6-8 mm. long,
finely reticulate-veined, sparingly pubescent or glabrate.
Fields,
liillsides, waste and
cultivated groimds, Porto Rico; Mona; Culebra;
St.
Croix; St. Thomas; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Bahamas; recorded from Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Martiaiqiie; Cm'agao; continental tropical America.
11. Meibomia purpurea
(ISIill.) Vail; Small. Fl. S. E. U. S. 639.
1903.
Hedysarum purpureum Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8.
1768.
Hedysarum tortuosum Sw. Prodr.
107.
1788.
Desmodium tortuosum DC. Prodr.
2: 332.
1825.
Meibomia tortuosa Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 198.
1891.
Desmodium purpureum Fawcett &
Rendle,
Fl. Jam.
4:
36.
1920.
Not
H. & A.
Erect, branched, 1.5 m. high or less, the stem and branches finely and rather
densely pubescent, striate.
Stipules lanceolate, acuminate, half cordate at base,
6-15 mm. long; leaflets
3, ovate to oblong or elliptic, 2-10 cm.
long, sparingly
t \
i.
I
404
FABACEAE
pubescent with appressed
hairs, or glabrous above, mostly obtuse at the apex
and narrowed
at the
base,
as long as the
petioles or longer; stipels subulate;
racemes simple or sparingly branched, 1.5-3 dm. long; pedicels filiform, 1-2 cm.
long; bracts narrowly lanceolate, 2-3 times as long as the calyx, deciduous; calyx
about 2 mm. long, its teeth subulate; corolla blue to purple, about 5 mm. long;
loment nearly
ses.sile,
at
first much
twisted,
at length
flat,
3-6-jointed,
both
margins deeply undulate, the oval-orbicular joints 4-5 mm. long.
Banks,
fields, waste aiad cultivated grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto
Rico;
Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
Tortola:—Florida;
Texas; Jamaica; Cuba
to
Grenada; continental tropical America.
Junquillo.
12. Meibomia procumbens
(Mill.) Britton.
Hedysarum procumbens Mill. Gard. Diet. ed.
8.
1768.
Hedysarum spirale Sw. Prodr. 107.
1788.
Desmodium spirale DC. Prodr. 2: 332.
1825.
Desmodium tenuiculum DC. Prodr. 2: 333.
1825.
Desmodium procumbens Hitchc. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 4: 76.
1893.
Stems slender, ascending or diffuse, branched, 8 dm. long or less, the branches
pubescent or glabrous.
Stipules small, 2-4 mm.
long,
lanceolate-subulate,
di-
lated at the base; leaflets 3, or on upper leaves reduced to 1, thin in texture, ovate
to oblong or suborbicular, 1-5 cm. long, acute or obtuse at the apex, sparingly
pubescent or glabrous
; stipels minute, subulate
; racemes slender, mostly branched,
5-15 cm. long; pedicels fiUform, 5-10 mm. long; bracts minute, deciduous; calyx
about 2 mm. long; corolla somewhat longer than the calyx, purplish to white or
blue; loment nearly sessile, 2-8-jointed, both margins constricted nearly to the
middle, the nearly quadrate jomts permanently twisted, about 4 mm. long.
Fields,
hillsides and waste grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan:—Jamaica; Cuba
to
Trinidad;
Margarita;
Curacao; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
23. SAGOTIA Duch. & Walp. Llnnaea 23: 737.
1850.
Low perennial herbs, diffuse or prostrate, with small, 3-foliolate leaves, the
leaflets
estipellate, or minutely
stipellate, the flowers 1-4 together in
axillary
clusters, or opposite the leaves, on filiform pedicels.
Calyx-tube campanulate,
short, the calyx-teeth narrow, the 2 upper ones somewhat united.
Corolla blue,
purple or white, the standard broad, the wings oblique, the keel blunt.
Pod a
few-jointed loment.
[Commemorates P. Sagot, French physician and botanist.]
Three known species, natives of the Old World tropics, the following typical one
perhaps native also in tropical America, where it is widely distributed.
1. Sagotia triflora (L.) Duch. & Walp. Linnaea 23: 738.
18.50.
Hedysarum triflorum L. Sp. PI. 749.
1753.
Desmodium triflorum DC. Prodr. 2: 334.
1825.
Meibo7nia triflora Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 197.
1891.
Diffusely branched, often matted and tufted; stems slender,
loosely pilose
or glabrate, 3 dm. long or less.
Stipules lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 2.5 mm.
long, acuminate; petioles slender, 4-10 mm. long; leaflets glabrous or nearly so,
obovate, subtruncate or emarginate, G-11 mm. long; pedicels shorter than the
leaves; calyx 4-5 mm. long, deeply toothed; corolla purplish to white, Uttle longer
than the calyx; loment curved, 2 cm. long or less, the upper suture continuous,
the lower margin crenate, the 4-6 reticulated joints pilose or glabrate.
Fields, banlis and roadsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jau; Virgin Gorda:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba to Trinidad; New and
Old World tropics.
FABACEAE
405
24. ALYSICARPUS Neck.; DC. Prodr. 2: 352.
1825.
Herbs, our species with 1-foliolate leaves and small purplish or blue flowers
in short terminal racemes, the scarious bracts deciduous.
Calyx narrow, deeply
cleft, the lobes lanceolate-acuminate, chartaceous,
striate, the two upper ones
partly united.
Standard suborbicular, clawed; wings obliquely oblong, adnate
to the blunt incurved
keel.
Stamens diadelphous
(9 and
1).
Ovary
nearly
sessile, several-ovuled
; style fiUform, its apex incurved; stigma terminal, capitate.
Loment nearly
terete,
several-jointed,
the
joints
indehiscent.
[Greek,
chain-
fruit.l
About
16
species,
natives
of the Old World
tropics.
Type
species:
Alysicarpus biipleurifolius (L.) DC.
1. Alysicarpus vaginalis (L.) DC. Prodr. 2: 353.
1825.
Hedysarum vaginale L. Sp. PI. 746.
1753.
Perennial, branched at the base, the branches slender,
diffuse, glabrous or
nearly so, spreading or ascending, 5 cm.-6 dm. long.
Stipules scarious, striate,
lanceolate, acuminate. 4-6 mm. long; petioles very slender,
1 cm. long or
less;
leaflets glabrous, or sparingly pubescent, the lower orbicular to oval, 5-12 mm.
long, the upper oblong to lanceolate, 1-3.5 cm. long; racemes 1-3 cm. long; pedicels
very short, pubescent; calyx 4-5 mm. long; corolla little longer than the calyx;
loment 1-2 cm. long, its puberulent or glabrous joints truncate, slightly wrinkled.
[A. nummulariaefolius of authors, not Hedysarum jiummulariaefolium L.]
Fields, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St Jan: Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—nearly throughout the West Indies, except the Bahamas.
Yerba de coxtrabando.
False Money-wort.
25. SECURIDACA
L.
Sp.
PI.
707.
1753.
Woody vines, or widely branching shrubs, or trees with alternate, unevenly
pinnate leaves, the leaflets estipellate, and small white, bracted flowers mostly in
axillary
clusters.
Calyx
subcampanulate,
its
teeth
nearly
equal.
Standard
broadly ovate or suborbicular; wings oblong;
keel
blunt, incurved,
its
petals
connate on the back near the apex.
Stamens
9, in two
fascicles of 4 and
5;
anthers erect, their sacs dehiscent by terminal slits.
Ovary 2-ovuled, stipitate;
style nearly straight; stigma terminal.
Pod nearly orbicular to
short-elliptic,
nearly
flat, 1-seeded, subligneous, indehiscent.
[Latin, like a hatchet.)
About
5
species,
or
more,
natives
of tropical
America
and
Africa.
Type
species;
Securidaca volubilis L.
1. Securidaca volubilis L. Sp. PI. 707.
1753,
Dalbergia monetaria L.f. Suppl. 317.
1781.
Ecastophyllum monetaria DC. Prodr.
2: 421.
1825.
Usually a vine, chmbing to a height of 3-6 m., sometimes shrubby, rarely
tree-like and 5 m. high, the young twigs and petiolules finely pubescent or gla-
brous.
Stipules
ovate;
leaves
2-5-foliolate
;
petioles
1-2
cm.
long;
leaflets
ovate or ovate-elliptic, 6-13 cm. long, glabrous on both sides or very sparingly
pubescent
beneath,
acuminate
at
the
apex, rounded
or obtuse
at
the
base;
panicles axihary, pubescent. 3 cm. long or less; pedicels very short; calyx pubes-
cent, about 5 mm. long; coroUa about 3 times as long as the calyx; pod oval-
orbicular, 2.5-4 cm.
long, glabrous, shining.
[Ecastophyllum
Berterii of
Bello,
not of de Candolle.]
Banks, hillsides and along streams at lower and middle elevations
Porto Rico, in
moist or wet districts:—.Jamaica; Cuba: Hispaniola: Guadeloupe toTrmidad; contmental
tropical America.
Membrillo.
Palo de Brasilete.
Money-bush.
406
FABACEAE
26. ECASTOPHYLLUM [P. Br.] Adans. Fam.
PI. 2: 320.
1763.
Woody vines or shrubs, the alternate leaves 1-foliolate, the white flowers in
small axillary panicles.
Calyx short, its 2 upper teeth broad.
Standard subor-
blcular; wings oblong; keel blunt, incurved,
its petals united on the back.
Sta-
mens
10, united into a
cleft sheath, or the upper one partly
free; anther-sacs
opening by terminal
slits.
Ovary 2-ovuled;
style
slender.
Pod suborbicular,
flat,
l-seeded,
subcoriaceous,
indehiscent.
[Greek,
referring
to
the
1-foliolate
leaves.]
A few species of tropical and subtropical America, the following typical.
1. Ecastophyllum Ecastophyllum
(L.) Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard,
1:55.
1918.
Hedysarum Ecastophyllum L. Syst. ed.
10, 1169.
1759.
Pterocarpiis Ecastophyllum L. Syst. ed.
13, 533.
1774.
Ecastophyllum Brownei Pers. Syn. 2: 277.
1807.
Dalhergia Ecastophyllum Taubert, in E. & P. Nat.
Pfl.
3^^: 335.
1894.
A widely branched, spreading or shrub-like vine 2-10 m. long, rarely tree-
like and described as sometimes reaching a height of 8 m., the branches elongated,
the young
twigs
finely
pubescent.
Stipules
lanceolate,
silky-pubescent,
acu-
minate, about 1 cm. long; leaves 1-foliolate; petioles stout, pubescent, .5-12 mm,
long; petiolule 2-3 mm. long; leaflet ovate, 6-12 cm. long, rounded or subcordate
at the base, short-acuminate at the apex, glabrous or nearly so above, finely and
densely pubescent beneath,
at least when young; panicles axillary, pubescent,
usually
little longer than the petioles; pedicels 2-4 mm.
long; flowers slightly
fragrant; calyx pubescent, about 5 mm. long; corolla about 1 cm. long; pod sub-
orbicular
to
broadly
oval,
1.5-3
cm.
long,
flnely
pubescent.
[Amerimnum
Brownei of Krebs.]
Coastal thickets and borders of mangrove swamps, Porto Rico; Vieques: St. CroLx;
St.
Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola;
Virgin
Gorda:—Florida; Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Trinidad;
continental
tropical
America;
tropical
Africa.
Maray-Makay.
Palo DE
POLLO.
Ecastophyllum glabrum
Desv.,
attributed
to Porto Rico
erroneously,
was probably from Guiana (according to Urban).
27. DREPANOCARPUS G. F. W. Meyer, Prim.
Fl. Ess. 236.
1818.
Woody vines, or trees, with unevenly pinnate leaves, the estipellate leaflets
mostly alternate, the stipules spinescent in our species, and small panicled or
racemose purple to white, minutely bracted flowers.
Calyx truncate, minutely
5-toothed,
obtuse
at
the
base.
Standard
orbicular
or
broadly
ovate,
silky-
pubescent without; wings oblong; keel incurved, its petals connate on the back.
Stamens monadelphous
or
diadelphous,
their sheath
variously
cleft;
anthers
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
short-stipitate ; ovules
1
or
2;
style
filiform,
incurved; stigma
terminal.
Pod
coriaceous, curved
into a
circle,
or broadly
falcate,
l-seeded.
Seed
flat, reniform.
[Greek,
sickle-fruit.]
About 8 species,
natives of tropical America and Africa, the following typical.
1. Drepanocarpus lunatus
(L.f.) G. F. W. Meyer, Prim.
Fl. Ess. 238.
1818.
Pterocarpus lunatus L.f. Suppl. 317.
1781.
Shrubby, with spreading branches, or climbing to a height of 4 m. or more,
the young
twigs
flnely
pubescent.
Stipular
spines
curved,
4-10 mm.
long;
petioles slender, 1-2 cm. long; leaflets 5-11, short-stalked, oblong, or the terminal
FABACEAE
407
one obovate or oblanceolate, 2-5 cm. long, rounded at the apex, somewhat nar-
rowed at the
base, glabrous on both
sides, chartaceous; panicles terminal and
axillary, manv-flowered, G-15 cm. long; pedicels about 2 mm. long; calyx about 5
mm. long, obtuse at the base; corolla purple to lilac, 7-9 mm. long; pod coriaceous,
flat, curved into a circle which is 2-4 cm. broad.
Coastal thickets and woods, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas^His-
paniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; continental tropical America; tropical Africa.
Escam-
BBON.
Palo de hoz.
.
28. PTEROCARPUS L.; Jacq. Sel. Amer. 283.
1763.
Unarmed trees, with alternate, unevenly pinnate leaves, the leaflets mostly
alternate, estipellate, the flowers in terminal or axillary panicles or racemes, their
bracts caducous.
Calyx campanulate. 5-toothed, the 2 upper teeth more or less
united,
its base acute or turbinate.
Standard orbicular or Ijroadly ovate,
gla-
brous;
wings
obliquely
obovate
or
oblong;
keel-petals
similar
to
the
wings,
distinct or united on the back.
Stamens monadelphous or diadelphous; anthers
longitudinally dehiscent, versatile.
Ovary 2-6-ovuled
; style very slender; stigma
small and terminal.
Pod
flat,
or compressed, indehiscent, obliquely orbicular
to oval, chartaceous, winged or acutely margined. 1-2-seeded.
[Greek, winged-
fruit.]
About 20 species, natives of tropical regions, the following typical.
1. Pterocarpus officinalis Jacq.
Sel. Amer. 283.
1763.
Pterocarpus Draco L. Sp. PI. ed 2, 1662.
1763.
A large tree, sometimes 30 m. high, glabrous, except the minutely pubescent
inflorescence.
Leaves 2-4 dm.
long;
leaflets
5-9,
alternate,
ovate
to
ovate-
oblong or ovate-lanceolate, short-stalked, shining,
.5-12 cm. long, acuminate at
the apex, rounded or obtu.se at the base; flowers numerous. In loose panicles about
as long as the leaves; pedicels 2-4 mm.
long; calyx glabrous, oblique, about 5
mm.
long,
its
teeth short and broad; corolla 10-15 mm.
long,
yellow,
or the
standard violet; pod short-stipitate, glabrous, very obliquely suborblcular, 3-5
cm. broad, broadly winged along one side, reticulate-veined, 1-seeded.
Forests at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, occasional only:—Guadeloupe;
Dominica; St. Lucia; St. Vincent; Trinidad and continental tropical America; Jamaica {!).
The light brown wood is weak and not durable;
it has a specific gravity of about O.b.
Palo de pollo.
29. LONCHOCARPUS H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 383.
1824.
Trees or vinelike shrubs, with alternate, unevenly pinnate leaves, the leaflets
opposite,
short-stalked,
the rather
large,
purple
to white flowers racemose or
paniculate.
Calyx cup-like, truncate or 5-toothed.
Standard nearly orbicular,
or obovate; wings oblong or falcate; keel blunt,
its petals slightly cohering on
the back.
Stamens mostly monadelphous, with
versatile
anthers.
Ovary 2-
many-ovuled, mostly short-stipitate; style
filiform, incurved; stigma small and
terminal.
Pod oblong to linear, flat, coriaceous or membranous, indehiscent, not
winged.
[Greek,
lance-fruit.]
About
50
species,
natives
of tropical
regions.
Type species: Lonchocarpus punctatus H. B. K.
Pod coriaceous; calyx truncate, very minutely toothed.
Pod mostly deeply constricted between the seeds;
leaflets not
r
j
•
finely reticulate-veined, acuminate; twigs tomentulose.
1. L. domingensis.
Pod linear, scarcely or not at all constricted; leaflets finely reticu-
late-veined
beneath,
glaucescent,
blvmt,
emarginate;
twigs
glabrous
2.
L. glaucifohus.
Pod papery; calyx 5-toothed; leaves pubescent beneath.
3. L. laHfohus.
408
FABACEAE
1. Lonchocarpus domingensis (Pers.) DC. Prodr. 2: 259.
1825.
Dalbergia domingensis Pers. Syn. 2: 276.
1807.
? Robinia latifolia Spreng. Syst.
3: 247.
1826.
Not Polr.
Cytisus major Sess6 & Mog. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 174.
1894.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, with widely spreading branches,
tlie twigs finely
brown-tomentulose.
Leaves 1.5-2 dm. long; leaflets 7-11, oval to elliptic-oval,
6-12 cm.
long,
firm
in
texture, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, mostly
obtuse at base, glabrous above, sparingly pubescent beneath; panicles axillary,
often as long as the leaves, nearly simple or slightly compound
; pedicels often 2
on common peduncle, 3-6 mm. long; calyx 4-6 mm. long, nearly truncate, finely
tomentulose, in fruit broader than long; corolla violet to rose, 2-3 times as long
as the calyx
; standard silky-pubescent
; pod 10 cm. long or less, brown-tomentulose
or l)ecoming glabrous,
usually constricted between the seeds,
1..5-2 cm.
wide,
flat, coriaceous.
River banks and
hillsides, western and southern districts
of Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; JMartuiique.
Recorded from Jamaica.
Gexo-Geno.
2. Lonchocarpus glaucifolius Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 326.
1899.
Vine-like, with slender branches, or forming a tree up to 8 m. high, the twigs
and
leaves
glabrous.
Stipules
triangular,
scarcely
1 mm.
long,
deciduous.
Leaves 1-1.5 dm. long;
leaflets
.5-7,
elliptic to obovate-oblong, 4-13 cm.
long,
obtuse
and
emarginate
at
the
apex,
obtuse
or somewhat
narrowed
at
the
base, firm in texture, pale, glaucescent, densely and finely reticulate-veined be-
neath; panicles 6-14-flovvered, much shorter than the leaves; pedicels 5-8 mm.
long, often 2 on a common peduncle; calyx about 4 mm. long, minutely pilose,
truncate; corolla rose, about 3 times as long as the calyx; standard finely silky;
pod linear, 14 cm. long or less, 1-1.5 cm. wide,
flat, scarcely or not constricted,
subcoriaceous.
[L. violaceus Stahl and of Cook and Collins, not of H. B. K.]
Mountain woodlands and
hillsides,
western
districts
of Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
Gen'o.
3. Lonchocarpus latifolius (Willd.) H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 383.
1823.
Amerimnum latifoUum Willd. Sp. PI. 3: 909.
1803.
Dalbergia pentaphylla Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 2: 445.
1811.
Lonchocarpus pentaphyllus H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 383.
1823.
Cytisus membranaceus Sessg & Mog. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 174.
1894.
A tree up, to 20 m. high, the young twigs tomentulose or glabrous.
Stipules
ovate,
1-2 mm.
long,
eai'ly deciduous; leaves 3 dm. long or
less;
leaflets 5-9,
elliptic to oblong-lanceolate,
.5-15 cm. long, acute, obtuse or acuminate at the
apex, narrowed or rounded at the base, glabrous above, densely finely pubescent
beneath; racemes several-many-flowered, shorter than the leaves; pedicels mostly
solitary,
1..5-5 mm. long; calyx puberulent, 2-3 mm. long, 5-toothed, becoming
truncate and broader than long; corolla purple, about 3 times as long as the caly.\;
the standard silky; pod oblong, narrowed at both ends, 10 cm. long or less, 2-2.5
cm. wide, papery, finely pubescent or becoming glabrous.
Woodlands,
in moist or wet
districts, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts
to
Trinidad;
continental
tropical America.
Its reddish wood
is used
for
furniture.
Palo hediondo.
Forte Ventura.
30. ICHTHYOMETHIA P. Br. Hist. Jam. 296.
1756.
Trees, with tmevenly pinnate leaves, the short-stalked leaflets large, opposite,
estipellate, the pink
to purplish, rather large flowers in
lateral panicles, often
appearing
before
the
leaves.
Calyx
obliquely campanulate,
5-toothed,
the 2
upper teeth connate.
Standai'd suborbicular; wings oblong, somewhat falcate,
FABACEAE
409
adherent
to the keel; keel obtuse,
its petals coherent on the back.
Stamens
monadelphous, but the upper one
free
at the base; anthers
versatile.
Ovary
many-ovuled
;
style
filiform,
incurved;
stigma
terminal,
small.
Pod
linear,
flattened, indehiscent with
4, broad, membranous wings, several-many-seeded.
[Greek,
fish-killing.]
A few
species of tropical and
subtropical America,
the
following typical.
1. Ichthyomethia piscipula (L.) Hitchc. Gard. & For. 4: 472.
1891.
Erythrina piscipula L. Sp. PI. 707.
17.53.
Piscidia Erythrina L. Syst. ed. 10,
11.5.5.
1759.
Piscidia carthaginensis Jacq. Enum. 27.
1760.
Piscidia piscipula Sargent, Gard. & For. 4: 436.
1891.
Ichthyomethia acuminata Blake, Journ. Wash. Acad. 9: 249.
1919.
A tree, usually low, rarely 20 m. high, the twigs finely puberulent, the trunk
up to 6 dm. thick.
Leaves 2-3 dm. long; leaflets 5-9 (rarely 3). elliptic, oblong,
or the lower pair ovate, 4-12 cm. long, obtuse or acutish at the apex, rounded at
the base, glabrous above, at least vihen mature, finely pubescent beneath; panicles
many-flowered, as long as the leaves or shorter; ultimate pedicels short, puberu-
lent; calyx about 6 mm. long,
its teeth triangular-ovate; corolla silky, about 1.5
cm. long; pod 5-15 cm.
long,
its wings 7-12 mm. wide,
lacerate, transversely
veined; seeds black.
Coastal thickets and hillsides near Fajardo, and along the southern coast of Porto
Rico, extending north to Punta Guaniquilla; Culebra; Vieques; St.
Croi.x; St. Thomas;
St
Jan-
Tortola:—Florida; West
Indies.
The
branches, thrown
into water, stiipify
fish.
The yellowish hard and durable wood has a specific gravity of about 0.9.
FiSH
Poison.
Ventura.
Dogwood.
31. ANDIRA Lam. Encycl. l: 171.
1783.
Trees, with alternate, unevenly pinnate leaves, the leaflets opposite or rarely
alternate, stipellate or estipellate, the rather small pink, purple or violet flowers
In large, mostly terminal panicles.
Calyx subcampanulate, truncate or minutely
5-toothed.
Standard nearly orbicular; wings oblong, obtuse; keel-petals similar
to
the
wings.
Stamens diadelphous,
rarely monadelphous;
anthers
versatile.
Ovary usually
stipitate; style short and incurved; stigma small and
terminal.
Fruit
globose
to
obovoid,
fleshy,
indehiscent,
with
a
single
pendulous
seed.
[Brazilian name.]
About 15 species, natives of tropical America, the following
one recorded
also from western tropical Africa.
Type species; Andira racemosa
Lam.
1. Andira inermis
II. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 385.
1823.
Goeffraea jamaicensis inermis W. Wright, Trans. Roy. Soc.
67: 512.
1777.
Andira jamaicensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 298.
1905.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the young twigs and Inflorescence pubescent, the
malodorous bark gray, narrowly
fissured.
Leaves 2-4 dm. long;
leafiets 7-13,
opposite, short-stalked, oblong to oblong-lanceolate or obovate-oblong, acute or
short-acuminate at the apex, mostly obtuse at the base. .5-8 cm. long, glabrous
on both
sides,
finely retlculate-velned beneath, the subulate, deciduous stipels
3-5 mm. long; panicles often as long as the leaves, many-flowered, the flowers
subsessile; calyx pubescent, 4-5 mm. long; corolla pink to purple, 1-1.5 cm. long,
glabrous; pod stalked, green, subglobose, 2-4 cm. in diameter, the exocarp fleshy,
the endocarp woody.
[? A. racemosa of Grosourdy.]
Woodlands, hillsides and
river
banks, Porto
Rico, ascending
to
high
elevations;
Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas: St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica: Cuba; Hispaniola: St. Kitts
410
FABACEAE
to Trinidad: continental
tropical America.
Moca.
Bastard Mahogany.
Angelin
Tree.
Cabbage bark.
The wood used in carpentry and construction, for canes and
handles, for piles and for boats,
is reddish yellow, hard, strong and durable, with specific
gravity of about 0.8.
32. CICER [Tourii.] L. Sp.
PI. 738.
1753.
Erect or ascending, often glandular-pubescent herbs, with alternate, pinnate
leaves, the estipellate leaflets dentate, the stipules foliaceous, the white. l)lue or
purple flowers solitary or few together in the axils on slender peduncles.
Calyx
oblique,
or gibbous
at
base,
deeply
.5-cleft.
Standard
suborbicular,
clawed;
wings obliquely obovate; keel broad, incurved.
Stamens diadelphoiis (9 and
1);
anthers
all
alike.
Ovary
sessile,
2-several-ovuled
;
style
filiform,
glahi'oiis,
inciu-\ed; stigma terminal.
Pod ovoid to oblong, swollen. 2-valved,
Seeds siili-
globose.
[Name Hebraic]
About 7 species, natives of southern Ihn-opc iiordnM-n
Africa and Avestern Asia, the following typical.
1. Cicer arietinum L. Sp. PI. 738.
17.53.
Annual, glandular-pubescent, erect or ascending, branched, 3-0 dm.
high,
the branches angled.
Leaves 5-10 cm.
long;
stipules
.3-5 mm.
long, dentnte,
acute; petioles slender,
1-3 cm. long;
leaflets 9-17, oblong or obovate,
se.ssile,
•8-16 mm.
long,
serrate above,
entire below, mostly obtuse;
flowers white
to
purple, nodding, solitary on pedtmcles much shorter than the leaves; ('alyx-Iol)es
linear-lanceolate, acute, 6-S mm. long; corolla somewhat longer than the calyx;
pod oblong, erect, 2-3 cm. long, densely pubescent.
Waste grounds, San Juan,
1914:—Cuba; Bolivia: occasional as a waif
iji eastern
North America.
Native, perhaps, of the ISIediterranean region.
Occasionally cull ivaled
in Porto Kico.
Garbanzos.
Chick-pea.
33. ABRUS L. Syst. ed.
12, 2: 472.
1767.
Slender, somewhat woody vines, with evenly pinnate leaves, the nuincM-otis,
estipellate
leaflets
entire,
the
rachis terminating
in a small
bristle,
the small
rose
to white
flowers
clustered
at the nodes of axillary or
termintil
racemes.
Calyx subtrimcate,
its teeth very
short.
Standard
ovate, with
a broad and
short claw; wings oblong, falcate; keel curved, larger than the wings.
Sttimens 9,
monadelphous.
Ovary nearly sessile, several-many-ovuled ; style short-cin-ved:
stigma
terminal.
Pod
flat,
2-valved,
partitioned
between
the
subglolxj.se,
shining seeds.
[Greek,
graceful.]
Five known species, of tropical regions, the
following typical.
1. Abrus Abrus (L.) W. F. Wight. Contr. V.
S. Nat. Herb. 9: 171.
lOO.'i.
Glycine Abrus L. Sp. PI.
7.53.
1753.
Abrus praecatorius L. Syst. ed.
12, 472.
1767.
Stems woody
below,
nearly herbaceous above,
climbing or twining
to
a
length of 2-3 m.,
glabrous,
or the young parts
sparingl.v pubescent.
Stipules
linear, acute, 3-5 mm. long; petioles short, mostly less than
1 cm. long; leaves
5-10 cm. long, the very slender rachis sparingly pubescent;
leaflets 8-15 pairs,
8-20 mm.
long, oblong, or the upper ones obovate. glabrous above,
sparingly
puberulent beneath, rounded and mucronulate at the apex, rounded at the base,
very short-stalked, readily detached when dry; racemes peduncled. 3-S cm. long;
corolla red to purple, rarely white, S-10 mm. long; pod oblong, beaked, 2-3.5 cm
long, about
1 cm. wide; seeds scarlet with a black base.
FABACEAE
411
Waste grounds and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Culebra;
"Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—West
Indies; con-
tinental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Peronillas.
Crabs'-etes.
Jumbee
Bead.
Wild Licorice.
34. CLITORIA L. Sp.
PI.
7.53.
1753.
Woody vines, or erect or climbing herb.s, with pinnately 5-9-foliolate leaves,
persistent stipules, and large axillary flowers.
Calyx tubular, 5-toothed, the 2
upper teeth more or less united; standard large, erect, retuse, narrowed at the
base, not spurred; wings oblong, curved;
keel
acute,
shorter than the wings;
stamens more
or
less monadelphous:
anthers
all
alike; ovary
stipitate;
style
elongated, incurved, hairy along the inner side; pod short-stalked in the calyx;
linear or linear-oblong, flattened, 2-valved, the valves ecostate.
[Name Greek.]
Six or eight species, natives of the Old W^orld
tropics, the following typical.
1.
Clitoria ternatea L. Sp. PI. 753.
1753.
Perennial, herbaceous or slightly woody below, slender, twining to a height
of 5 m.
or more,
or,
if without support,
prostrate, pubescent,
at
least on the
younger
parts.
Stipules
linear-lanceolate,
acuminata,
.5-8 mm.
long;
petiole
slender, pubescent, 1-3 cm. long; leaflets 5-9 (usually
5), ovate or oval, short-
stalked, 2-3.5 cm. long, mostly obtuse at the apex, obtuse or narrowed at the
base, thin, glabrous above, somewhat pubescent beneath; peduncles 1-flowered,
1-2 cm. long; bracts ovate-orbicular, obtuse, 5-7 mm. long; calyx about 1.7 cm.
long,
its lanceolate lobes acuminate; corolla large, blue and white, the standard
3-4 cm. long; pod nearly sessile,
flat, linear, beaked, pubescent, 13 cm. long or
less, about
1 cm. wide; seeds compressed, subreniform, mottled, 5-6 mm. long.
tropicii
World tropics.
Bejuco de coxchitas.
Papito.
35. MARTIUSIA Schultes, Mant. 1: 69.
1822.
Vines, or rarely suberect herbs, with
3-foliolate
(rarely
1-foliolate)
leaves,
and
large purple to white,
axillary, bracteate and bracteolate flowers, few or
solitary on the peduncles.
Calyx tubular,
.5-cleft,
its 2 upper lobes connate.
Standard large, nearly erect, mostly emarginate, unappendaged; wings oblong,
curved, adnate
to the shorter, acute curved
keel.
Stamens monadelphous or
diadelphous
(9 and
1), the anthers
all aUke.
Ovary stipitate, several-ovuled
style long, bearded longitudinaUy on the inner side.
Pod stipitate, 2-valved, its
convex
valves
with
a
central
midrib.
Seeds
subglobose,
viscid-glandular.
[Commemorates K.
F. P. von Martius, 1794-1868, German
botanist.)
A few
species, natives of tropical America, those in Porto Rico called Conchita and
Flor de Pito.
Type species: Martia physodes Leander.
Prostrate or twining vine; peduncles 3-13 cm. long; petioles long;
pubescence pilose.
1-
^^- rubiginosa.
Erect, or with erect branches; peduncles 0.5-3 cm. long; petioles short;
pubescence appressed.
2. M. launfolia.
1. Martiusia rubiginosa (Juss.) Britton.
Clitoria .rubiginosa Juss.; Pers. Syn. 2: 303.
1807.
Neurocarpum ellipticum Desv. Journ. Bot.
1: 119.
1813.
Clitoria glycinoides DC. Prodr., 2: 234.
1825.
Neurocarpum falcatum DC. Prodr.
2: 236.
1825.
Stems slender, 6-15 dm. long, densely pilose, trailing or twining.
Stipules
ovate, parallel-veined, acute, 4-7 mm. long; petioles pilose, 1-4 cm. long; leaflets
412
FABACEAE
ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 3-10 cm. long, thin, obtuse or acute at the
apex, obtuse or rounded at the base, glabrous above, loosely villous or pubescent
beneath; stipels linear, 5-7 mm. long; peduncles villous, 1-3-flowered, 3-13 cm.
long; bracts and bractlets ovate, acute; flowers fragrant; calyx villous, 2-3.5 cm.
long,
its lobes lanceolate, acuminate, about one-half as long as the tube; corolla
about 5 cm. long, white with purple or crimson veins; pod stipitate, linear-oblong,
3-4.5 cm. long, about 8 mm. thick, glabrous, its convex valves with a prominent
midrib; seeds globose, very viscid, about 3 mm. in diameter.
Banks,
tliickets and open woods at lower and middle
elevations, Porto Rico:
Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
St. Vincent; Tobago; Panama
and tropical South America.
2. Martiusia laurifolia (Poir.) Britton.
CUtoria laurifolia Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 2: 301.
1811.
Neurocarpum cajanifolium Presl, Symb.
1: 17.
1832.
CUtoria cajanifolia Benth. Journ. Linn. Soc. 2: 46.
1858.
Centrosema laurifolia Stahl, Est. 3: 64.
1885.
Roots deep, woody; stems usually several, erect, appressed-pubescent above,
usually simple, 2-6 dm. high, or the stem sometimes prostrate with erect branches.
Stipules triangular-lanceolate, acuminate, 4-6 mm. long; petioles short, mostly
less than 6 mm. long; leaflets oblong or linear-oblong, rather thin, 3-10 cm. long,
rounded, emarginate, or sometimes acute at the apex, obtuse or acutish at the
base, glabrous above, sparingly short-pubescent and pale beneath; stipels minute,
deciduous; peduncles 0..5-3 cm. long,
1-2-flowered; bractlets ovate; calyx
little
pubescent or glabrous, 2-2.8 cm. long, its lobes ovate or ovate-lanceolate, about
one-third as long as the tube; corolla purple, purplish or nearly white, .5-6 cm.
long; pod stipitate, linear-oblong, 2.5-4 cm.
long, about 8 mm.
thick, glabrous,
its convex valves ridged; seeds ovoid-globose, viscid, about 3 mm. long.
[CUtoria
arborescens of Stahl, not of Alton; Bradburya laurifolia of Cook and Collins.]
Sandy soil on the northern coastal plain of Porto Rico, from Santurce to Manati:—
Cuba; Hispaniola; Trinidad; tropical South America.
36. BRADBURYA Raf.
Fl. Ludov. 104.
1817.
Slender vines, with pinnately
3-foliolate leaves
(rarely 5-7-foliolate) , per-
sistent stipules, and large axillary bracteolate flowers.
Calyx campanulate,
its
teeth or lobes nearly equal; standard orbicular, nearly flat, spurred on the back
near its base, clawed; wings obovate, curved
; keel curved.
Stamens more or less
diadelphous
(9 and 1); style incurved, bearded at the apex around the stigma;
pod linear, flattened, nearly sessile, partially septate between the seeds, 2-valved,
the
valves thick-edged,
longitudinally
finely nerved along
their margins.
[In
honor of John Bradbury, who travelled
in America early in the
last century.]
About 30 species, natives of America,
in Porto Rico called Conchita.
Type
species: Bradburya scandens Raf.
Foliage lilackening in drying; margins of the pod broad; bractlets
about twice as long as the calyx.
1.
B. Plumieri.
Foliage not blackening in drying; margins of the pod narrow; bract-
lets as long as the calyx or shorter.
Pod 5-7 mm. wide.
2.
B. pubescens.
Pod 4 mm. wide or less.
3. B. virginiana.
1. Bradburya Plumieri (Turp.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 104.
1891.
CUtoria Plumieri Tiiri).; Pers. Syn. 2: 303.
1807.
Centrosema Plumieri Benth. Ann. Wien. Mus. 2: 118.
1838.
Stem glabrous, or loosely pubescent above, trailing or twining, 1-2 m. long,
somewhat woody below.
Stipules ovate, acute,
striate, 4-7 mm.
long;
leaflets
FABACEAE
413
3, ovate, or rhombic-ovate, 5-12 cm. long, blackening in drying, short-acuminate
at the apex, obtuse or rounded at the base, glabrous, the petiolules sometimes
pubescent; peduncles 2-6-flowered, mostly shorter than the
petioles;
bractlets
ovate-oblong,
obtuse,
finely
many-striate,
about
twice
as
long
as
the
calyx;
calyx 6-7 mm. long, its teeth much shorter than the tube; standard white with a
purple centre, 4-5 cm. broad; pod 10-15 cm. long, about 1 cm. wide, the margins
of its valves much thickened.
Recorded as found by Stahl in thickets near Bayamon, Porto Rico; St. Thomas:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Kitts to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2. Bradburya pubescens (Benth.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 164.
1891.
Centrosema pubescens Benth. Ann. Wien. Mus. 2: 119.
1838.
Pubescent or glabrate, trailing or twining, 2 m. long or less.
Stipules ovate,
acute, 2-3 mm. long.
Leaflets 3, ovate to oblong, stipellate, acute or blunt at
the apex, rounded at the base, 4-7.5 cm. long, reticulate-veined, glabrous above,
pubescent, at least on the veins, beneath; peduncles commonly longer than the
petioles, few-flowered; bractlets ovate, about as long as the calyx; upper calyx-
segments about
as long as the calyx-tube; standard 2-4 cm.
broad, white or
yellowish; pod 10-20 cm. long, 5-7 cm. wide.
Banks, thickets and sand hills at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
3. Bradburya virginiana (L.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 164.
1891.
Clitoria virginiana L. Sp. PI. 753.
175.3.
Centrosema virginianum Benth. Ann. Wien. Mus.
2: 120.
1838.
Clitoria virginiana angustifolia DC. Prodr. 2: 234.
1825.
Centrosema virginiana angustifolia Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 193.
1860.
Pereiuiial,
finely rough-pubescent, 6-12 dm.
long.
Stipules
linear, acute;
leaflets 3, ovate, oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, stipellate, rounded at the
base,
reticulate-veined,
2. .5-5 cm. long; peduncles about equalling the petioles,
1-4-flowered; bractlets ovate, acute, finely striate; flowers 2. .5-4 cm. long; corolla
purple to violet or nearly white
; calyx-lobes linear; pod 10-13 cm. long, 4 mm. wide
or less, long-acuminate.
Banks,
hillsides and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Mona;
Icacos; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Ane-
gada:—southeastern
United
States; West
Indies;
tropical
continental America and
tropical Africa.
Consists of many races, differing in width of leaflets and color of the
corolla.
A curious teratological modification of the flowers of this plant, found by
Mrs. Britton in a sandy thicket near Laguna Tortuguero, Porto Rico in 1924,
has the calyx developed into 5 foliaceous lanceolate organs, the standard a green
suborbicular ciliate disk and the ovary elongated.
37. TERAMNUS [P. Br.] Sw. Prodr. 105.
1788.
Slender, twining or trailing herbaceous vines, with stipellate, 3-foliolate leaves,
and small
bracted
flowers in axillary clusters.
Calyx campanulate,
its 2 upper
teeth
sometimes
connate.
Standard
obovate,
unappendaged
;
wings
narrow,
longer than the blunt
keel.
Stamens monadelphous
;
alternate anthers small,
sterile.
Ovary several-ovuled, sessile
; style short, glabrous, the stigma capitate.
Pod narrowly
linear, 2-valved, septate between the seeds, beaked by the bent
style.
[Derivation not explained.]
About 4 species, natives of tropical regions.
Type species; Teramnus volubilis Sw.
Leaflets oblong to lanceolate; pod densely pubescent.
1.
T. uncinatus.
Leaflets ovate to elliptic; pod sparingly and loosely pubescent.
2.
T. labialis.
414
FABACEAE
1. Teramnus uncinatus (L.) Sw. Prodr. 105.
1788.
Dolichos uncinatus L. Sp. PI. ed.
2, 1019.
1763.
A slender vine, 6 dm. long or longer, the stems, petioles and inflorescence
densely villou.s-pubescent.
Stipules lanceolate, 3-5 mm. long; petioles 3-6 cm.
long; leaflets oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 5-8 cm. long, acute, apiculate or blunt
at the apex, obtuse or rounded at the base, appressed-pubescent above,
silky-
pubescent beneath; racemes
slender, mostly longer than the
leaves,
distantly
several-flowered, or some flowers solitary
in the
axils; calyx
villous, 5-6 mm.
long,
its 5 narrow lobes nearly equal, longer than the tube; corolla purplish
to
white,
little longer than the calyx; pods 4-7 cm.
long, 3-4 mm. wide, densely
brown-pubescent, the abruptly bent beak 3-5 mm. long; seeds oblong, brownish,
shining, 3 mm. long.
Banks, hillsides and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; continental tropical America.
Crest.-v dk gallo blanxo.
2. Teramnus labialis
(L.f.) Spreng. Syst. 3: 235.
1826.
Glycine labialis L.f. Suppl. 325.
1781.
A slender vine, sometimes 1.5 m. long, the stems, petioles and inflorescence
loosely short-villous.
Stipules lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, about 3 mm. long:
leaflets ovate to elliptic or oval, thin, 2-5 cm. long, bearing scattered, appressed
hairs on the upper surface, appressed-pubescent beneath, acutish or obtuse at
the apex, rounded at the base; inflorescence few-several-flowered, as long as the
leaves or longer; calyx about 4 mm. long, hirsute, its 5 linear lobes nearly equal,
not longer than the tube; corolla somewhat longer than the calyx; pod 3-5 cm.
long, about 3 mm. wide, loosely pubescent or glabrate, its beak about 2 mm. long;
seeds oblong-quadrate, dark brown, 1.5-2.5 mm. long.
Banks and hillsides near the southern and eastern coasts of Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica;
St. Kitts to Barbados; Old World
tropics.
38. CAJAN Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 326.
1763.
A perennial
stiff, slightly woody herb, finely puberulent or pubescent, with
pinnately 3-foliolate leaves, and showy yellow flowers in stalked a.xillary racemes.
Calyx narrowly campanulate,
its lobes acute, the 2 upper ones partly united.
Standard nearly orbicular, reflexed; wings obliquely obova e; keel with a blunt
incurved
tip.
Ovary
many-ovuled;
style
thickened
above;
stigma
oblique.
Pod linear, flattened, acute and long-tipped,
its valves impressed between the
seeds.
[From the Malayan name.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Cajan Cajan (L.) Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 53.
1900.
Cytisus Cajan L. Sp. PI. 739.
1753.
Cajanus bicolor DC. Cat. Hort. Monsp. 85.
1813.
Cajanus flavus DC. Cat. Hort. Monsp. 85.
1813.
Cajanus indicus Spreng. Syst. 3: 248.
1826.
Cajanus luteus Bello, Ann. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 260.
1881.
Bushy, branched, 2 m.
high
or
less.
Leaves petioled;
leaflets oblong or
oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-8 cm. long, acute at both ends or obtuse at the base, velvety
on both sides, dark green above, pale beneath
; racemes few-flowered, as long as the
leaves or longer; pedicels, rachis and calyx brown-pubescent; flowers 12-16 mm.
broad; pods 5-8 cm. long, 10-12 mm. wide, 4-7-seeded; seeds whitish, someAvhat
flattened, about 4 mm. thick.
Banks, fields and hillsides, Porto Rico, spontaneous after cultivation for its seeds, in
several races; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Bermuda; West Indies;
continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Original home unknown.
Pigeon-
PEA.
Congo pea.
Gandul.
Gandures.
FABACEAE
415
39. DOLICHOLUS Medic. Vorles.Chur.Phys. Ges. 2:354.
1787.
Perennial, twining, trailing or erect herbs, with pinnately 1-3-foliolate leaves,
and yellow, mostly axillary and racemose flowers.
Leaflets generally punctate
with resinous dots, not stipellate.
Calyx 4-5-lobed, somewhat 2-lipped
; standard
obovate or orbicular, spreading or reflexed; wings narrow; keel incurved at the
apex or falcate; stamens diadelphous (9 and
1).
Ovary nearly sessile; ovules 2,
rarely
1
; style filiform.
Pod
flat, oblong or obliquely orbicular, 2-valved, 1-2-
seeded.
[Greek, diminutive of Dolichos.]
About 200 species, natives of warm
and temperate
regions,
in
Porto
Rico known
as
Frijolillo.
Type
species:
Dolichos 7ninimus L.
Pods constricted between the seeds.
1. D. pyramidalis.
Pods not constricted between the seeds.
Leaves prominentlv reticulate-veined beneath;
caly.^ 7-12 mm.
Ions, nearly as long as the corolla.
2. D. reticulatus.
Leaves not prominentlv reticulate-veined
;
calyx 2-3 mm. long,
about half as long as the coroUa.
3.
D. minimus.
1. Dolicholus pyramidalis (Lam.) Britton & Wilson.
Dolichos pyramidalis Lam. Encycl. 2: 296.
1786.
Glycine phaseoloides Sw. Prodr. 105.
1788.
Rhynchosia phaseoloides DC. Prodr. 2: 385.
1825.
Dolicholus phaseoloides Sw. Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI.
3': 62.
1898.
A trailing or climbing vine, up to 7 m. long, the stem flattened, the branches
and shoots densely and finely pubescent.
Leaves mostly long-petioled
; leafiets
thin, ovate or rhombic-ovate, 3-12 cm. long, sparingly pubescent above, densely
puberulent or tomentulose beneath, the apex acute or acuminate, the base obtuse
or subtruncate, the terminal one long-stalked; racemes several-many-flowered,
5-15 cm.
long; pedicels 1-2 mm.
long; calyx 3-4 mm.
long; corolla brownish-
yellow, the standard 8-10 mm. long; pods compressed, 1.5-2.5 cm. long, usually
2-seeded, constricted between the seeds; seeds scarlet with a black end or side,
or black nearly all over.
Woodlands and thickets, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations in wet or moist
districts;
St. Tliomas (according to Eggers)
:—Jamaica: Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe
to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2. Dolicholus reticulatus (Sw.) Millsp. Field
ISIus. Bot. 2: 53.
1900.
Glycine reticulata Sw. Prodr.
105.
1788.
Rhynchosia reticulata DC. Prodr. 2: 3S5.
1825.
A pubescent or tomentose twining or trailing vine often 5 m. long.
Leaves
petioled, 3-foliolate; leafiets ovate to ovate-lanceolate or ovate-elliptic, 5-10 cm.
long, reticulate-veined, acuminate, acute or obtuse at the apex, obtuse or rounded
at the base, the terminal one long-stalked, the lateral ones nearly sessile; racemes
several-many-flowered, shorter than the leaves; pedicels very short; calyx 7-12
mm. long, deeply 4-cleft, the lobes lanceolate, acuminate; corolla yellow, a little
longer than the calyx-lobes; pod
flat, lunate, 2-2.5 cm. long, 6-9 mm. wide,
its
valves twisting in drying; seeds nearly black.
Thickets at lower and middle
elevations,
Porto
Rico; Mona; Vieques;
Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St.
Tliomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—West
Indies;
continental
tropical America.
3. Dolicholus minimus (L.) Medic. Vorl. Chur. Phys. Ges. 2: 3.54.
1787.
Dolichos yninimns L. Sp. PI. 726.
17.53.
Rhynchosia minima DC. Prodr. 2: 385.
1825.
416
FABACEAE
A slender, puberylent or pubescenit, resinous-dotted, more or less branched
vine, 3-12 dm. long, trailing or twining.
Stipules subulate, about 2 mm. long,
caducous; petioles very slender, 1-4 cm. long; leaflets 3, rhombic-ovate or rhombic-
orbicular, obtuse or acute at the apex, obtuse at the base, the terminal one slender-
stalked, 1-3 cm. long, the lateral ones short-stalked, smaller or as large, inequi-
lateral; racemes slender, several-flowered, mostly as long as the leaves or longer;
pedicels very short; calyx 2-3 mm.
long,
its lobes lanceolate-subulate;
corolla
yellow; standard orbicular-obovate,
retuse, 5-6 mm. long; pods falcate, 10-17
mm. long, about 4 mm. wide, puberulent; seeds brown, mottled.
[? Rhynchosia
caribaea of Krebs.]
Thickets and hillsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Florida; West Indies; continental
tropical America and Old World tropics.
40. CALOPOGONIUM Desv. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
I. 9: 423.
1826.
Twining vines, herbaceous, or woody toward the base, with 3-foliolate leaves,
the
leaflets
stipellate,
the
small,
blue
or
violet
flowers nodose-racemose,
the
pedicels short.
Calyx
2-lobed,
the upper lobe 2-toothed,
the lower 3-parted.
Standard obovate,
auricled; wings narrow,
adherent
to
the short blunt
keel.
Vexillar stamen free from the others.
Ovary several-many-o\Tiled; style naked;
stigma terminal, capitate.
Pod linear, compressed, 2-valved.
Seeds orbicular,
compressed.
[Greek,
beautiful
beard.]
About 8
species,
of tropical America.
Type species: Calopogonium mucunoides Desv.
Corolla about twice as long as the calyx; pods 6-8 mm. wide.
1.
C. coeruleum.
Corolla about as long as the calyx; pods about 4 mm. wide.
2.
C. orthocarpum.
1. Calopogonium coeruleum Benth.; Sauvalle, Ann. Acad. Habana
5: 337.
1869.
Stenolobium. coeruleum Benth. Ann. Wien. Mus. 2: 125.
1837.
A rather stout vine, up to 6 m. long or longer, the twigs, foliage and inflores-
cence pubescent.
Leaflets rhombic-ovate, entire, or 3-lobed, 5-8 cm. long, obtuse
or acutish, the lateral ones very obUque; inflorescence usually long-stalked, many-
flowered and longer than the leaves; calyx about 4 mm. long, villous, about half
as long as the blue corolla, its lower teeth ovate-lanceolate, acuminate; pods 5-8
cm. long, 6-8 mm. wide, the valves slightly impressed between the seeds.
Hillside,
Agricultural Experiment
Station,
Mayagtiez,
191.3, apparently natural-
ized;—Cuba; St. Vincent; Tobago; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Occasionally
planted for ornament in Porto Rico.
2. Calopogonium orthocarpum Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 327.
1899.
A slender vine, twining or creeping,
1 m. long or longer, somewhat woody
below, the stems, petioles and inflorescence densely villous with brown spreading
hairs.
Leaflets
ovate, 2.5-10 cm.
long,
entire,
acute
or obtusish,
appressed-
pubescent on both sides, the lateral ones oblique
; inflorescence stalked or nearly
sessile, often longer than the leaves,
several-flowered, the pedicels very short;
calyx 6-8 mm.
long,
its lower teeth lanceolate-subulate; corolla blue, about as
long as the calyx; pod 2-3.5 cm.
long, about 4 mm.
wide,
villous, impressed
between the seeds.
[Stenolobium coeruleum of Bello and of Cook and
Collins,
not of Bentham.]
Thickets, fields, hillsides and in cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations in moist districts:—Cuba; Hispaniola.
Jicaxa.
FABACEAE
417
41. GALACTIA P. Br.; Adaiis. Fam. PI. 2: 322.
1763.
Perennial vines (some species erect and shrubby), mainly with pinnately
3-foliolate leaves, small and deciduous stipules, and small or large axillary race-
mose flowers.
Calyx 4-lobed, bracteolate, the lobes acute, often as long as the
tube.
Standard orbicular or obovate.
Wings narrow, obovate, adherent to the
narrow,
nearly
straight
keel.
Stamens
diadelphous
or
nearly
so
(9 and
1).
Ovary nearly sessile; ovules
oo
; style filiform, not bearded.
Pod linear, straight
or slightly curved, usually flattened, 2-valved. several-seeded.
Fleshy few-seeded
pods
are sometimes produced from
subterranean
apetalous
flowers.
[Greek,
milk-yielding, the typical
species described
as having milky branches.]
About
70 species, natives of warm and temperate regions, most abundant in America.
Type species: Glycine Galactia L.
Standard 17-21 mm. long.
1.
G. Eggersii.
Standard 8-15 mm. long.
Leaflets mostly large, 3-6 cm. long; inflorescence usually elongated and
long-peduncled
: pod 6-9 mm. wide.
2.
G. striata.
Leaflets small, 0.8-4 cm. long; pod about 5 mm. wide.
3.
G. dubia.
1. Galactia Eggersii Urban, Symb. Ant.
2: 311.
1900.
Stem very slender, twining,
1 m. long or longer, sparingly appressed-pubes-
cent or, when old, glabrous.
Stipules subulate, 2-3 mm. long;
leaflets oval to
ovate
or obovate,
1..5-3 cm.
long,
chartaceous,
obtuse, rounded
or
slightly
emarginate,
the
base rounded,
glabrous
above,
appressed-pubescent
beneath,
reticulate-veined; peduncles 1-7 cm.
long, 1-few-flowered
; pedicels 8 mm. long
or less; calyx appressed-pilose, 10-12 mm. long, the segments lanceolate, acumin-
ate; standard red-purple to scarlet, 17-21 mm. long, reflexed; keel pale purple,
about as long as the standard; pod about 7 cm. long and 6-7 mm. wide, ap-
pressed-pubescent.
[G. iemiiflora of Eggers in part; G. pendula of Krebs, not of
Persoon.]
Hillsides, St. Thomas; St. Jan.
Endemic.
2. Galactia striata (Jacq.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 320.
1900.
Glycine striata Jacq. Hort. Vind.
1: 32,
pi. 76.
1770.
Odonia tomentosa Bertol. Lucubr.
2.5.
1822.
Galactia Berteriana DC. Prodr. 2: 238.
1825.
G. striata tomentosa Urban, Symb. Ant. 2; 321.
1900.
G. striata Berteriana Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 322.
1900.
Twining, up to 5 m. long or longer, the stems, leaves and inflorescence spar-
ingly pubescent to tomentose.
Stipules 2-4 mm.
long, subulate;
leaflets sub-
meiiibranous, ovate or ovate-elliptic, 3-0 cm. long, the apex obtuse or acutish,
the base mostly rounded
; inflorescence slender-peduncled, usually several-many-
flowered and longer than the leaves, but sometimes not over 3 cm. long; pedicels
2-3 mm. long; calyx 7-8 mm. long, its lanceolate segments about twice as long as
the tube; standard purple or purplish, 8-10 mm. long, about as long as the keel;
pod 3-7 cm. long, 6-9 mm. wide, more or less pubescent.
[G. fiUformis of Bello,
not of Bentham; G. tomentosa of Urban, not of Sprengel.]
Thickets and hillsides at lower and middle elevations, Porto Eico; Mona; Vieques;
Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Martinique; Trinidad; northern South America.
Consists of many races,
dififering in size of lewflets, color of flowers, size of pods, and in pubescence, the more hairy
ones inhabiting drv districts.
Specimens from a
liiUside between Aibonito and Coamo
have leaflets only 1..5-3 cm. long, and short few-flowered inflorescence, hut the pods are
those of
this species;
a race on JMona Island has small
leaflets and smaller pods than
typical.
418
FABACEAE
3. Galactia dubia DC. Prodr. 2: 238.
1825.
G. dubia Ehrenhergii Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 318.
1900.
G. dubia guanicensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 318.
1900.
Stem slender, twining, up to 2 m.
long, glabrate to densely appressed-pu-
bescent.
Stipules
lanceolate, acuminate, 2-3 mm.
long;
leaflets oval
to
oval-
obovate, chartaceous, 1.5-4 cm. long, glabrous or pilose above, appressed-pilose
especially on the veins beneath, the apex rounded and usually emarginate, the
base
rounded;
inflorescence
usually
short and
short-peduncled,
few-flowered;
pedicels 3-6 mm. long; calyx 7-8 mm. long, glabrous or pilose, its segments lance-
olate;
flowers white,
pink,
purple
or lavender,
the standard 12-15 mm.
long,
about as long as the
keel; pod 3-6 cm.
long, 5-6 mm. wide, appressed-pilose.
[G. tenuiflora of Eggers, in part; G. regularis of Millspaugh
; G. filiformis minor
-{-
villosa forma albida of Kuntze; G. filiformis of Stahl, not of Bentham.]
Thickets at lower elevations, mostly near the coast, Porto Rico, locally extending
inland; Icacos; Vieques; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Anguilla to Guadeloupe.
42. DIOCLEA H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 437.
1824.
Twining, more or less woody vines, with pinnately 3-foliolate leaves and no-
uose-racemose,
rather
large
flowers.
Calyx campanulate,
4-lobed.
Standard
broad,
rounded
or emarginate,
auricled
at
the
base; wings
oblique,
clawed;
keel
slightly
curved.
A'exillar stamen more
or
less
united
with
the
others.
Style
glabrous.
Pod more
or
less compressed,
the upper margin
thickened.
[Commemorates Diodes, a physician of ancient Greece.]
About 30 species, mostly
of tropical America.
Type species: Dioclea sericea H. B. K.
1. Dioclea reflexa Hook.
f. in Hook. Niger Fl. 306.
1849.
Stem
thick, 8 m. long or longer, climbing on trees, the twigs, petioles and
inflorescence long-pilose with brown
hairs, or glabrate.
Leaflets elliptic, char-
taceous, strigose beneath, at least on the veins, 7-10 cm. long, abruptly short-
pointed,
the
base rounded;
peduncles
stout,
usually
longer than
the
leaves;
raceme
several-many-flowered;
bracts
linear-lanceolate,
reflexed,
pubescent,
1.5-2 cm. long; calyx silky, about 1.5 cm. long; flowers reddish to violet; standard
about 2 cm. long; pod woody, oblong, 5-12 cm. long, 4-6 cm. wide, 1-4-seeded;
seeds 2-3 cm. long.
Forests and
hillside thickets at middle elevations, southeastern districts of Porto
Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Dominica to Trinidad; continental
tropical America;
tropical
Africa.
The specific identity of the West Indian plant with the typical one of Africa
is not certainly determined.
Bejuco de Mato.
Maya prieta.
43. CANAVALI Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 325.
1763.
Perennial
herbs,
with
prostrate
or
twining
stems.
Leaves
pinnately
3-
foliolate;
leaflets chartaceous
or
thick.
Flowers
large,
in
axillary peduncled
racemes.
Calyx 3-lipped, the upper lip truncate or 2-lobed, the lower one entire
or
3-lobed.
Standard
reflexed,
suborbicular;
wings curved
or
twisted;
keel-
petals incurved, broader than the wings, obtuse or with an inflexed or spiral
beak.
Stamens diadelphous
(9 and
l) or monadelphous to the middle.
Style
glabrous,
incurved.
Ovules
several.
Pod
flat
or
slightly
swollen, oblong or
broadly linear, 2-valved.
Seeds white, red or brown.
[Aijoriginal name in the
South Sea Islands.]
About 15 species, natives of tropical regions.
Type species*
Dolichos ensiform,is L.
Leaflets ovate to elliptic,
tliin.
Seeds crimson.
1
C. rusiosperma.
Seeds wliite or whitish.
2.
C. ensiformis.
Leaflets orbicular to obovate, tliick, romided.
3.
C. maritima.
FABACEAE
419
1. Canavali rusiosperma Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 473.
1900.
High-climbing, tlie old stems sometimes 10 cm. thick near the base, glabrous,
or the young twigs sparingly pubescent.
Leaflets subchartaceous, ovate to
el-
liptic, acutish, short-acuminate or obtuse. 5-10 cm. long; inflorescence 5-25 cm.
long; pedicels 2^ mm. long; calyx 10-12 mm. long; corolla red, the standard about
twice as long as the calyx; pod linear-oblong, compressed, 10-25 cm. long, 4-5
cm. wide, 2-ribbed near the suture; seeds suborbicular, crimson, 1.5-2 cm. wide,
12-17 mm. thick.
[C. parvifiora of Eggers, not of Bentham; C. gladiata of Bello,
not of de CandoUe.]
Mountain forests in the western districts of Porto Rico; St. Thomas:—Hispaniola.
Mato colobado.
2. Canavali ensiformis
(L.) DC. Prodr. 2: 404.
1825.
Dolichos ensiformis L. Sp. PI. 725.
1753.
Malocchia gladiata Savl, Nuov. Giorn. Pisa 8: 116.
1824.
Canavali gladiata DC. Prodr. 2: 404.
1825.
Climbing, sometimes 10 m. long or longer, glabrous, or when young flnely
pubescent.
Leaflets thin, ovate or ol)long-ovate, 5-12 cm. long, acute or short-
acuminate
at
the
apex,
obtuse
at
the
base; racemes several-many-flowered,
mostly longer than the leaves; pedicels short, thick, 5 mm. long, or less; calyx
1-1.5 cm. long; corolla white to purple, longer than the calyx; pod broadly linear,
flat,
1-2.5 dm.
long, about
2 cm.
wide; seeds oblong, white or
whitish.
[C.
gladiata ensiformis of Eggers.]
Siibspontaneous after cultivation for
its seeds. Porto Rico;
St. Thomas :—widely
cultivated in temperate and tropical regions.
Native of the East Indies.
Horse bean.
Sword Bean.
3. Canavali maritima (Aubl.) Thou,
in Desv. Journ. Bot.
1: 80.
1813.
Dolichos maritimus Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 765.
1775.
Dolichos oUusifolius Lam. Encycl. 2: 295.'
1786.
Dolichos rotundifolius Vahl, Symb. Ant. 2: 81.
1794.
Canavaiia obtnsifolia DC. Prodr.
2: 404.
1825.
Clitoria rolundifolia Sesse & Mog.
Fl. IMex. ed. 2, 172.
1894.
Foliage flnely strigillose.
Stems prostrate or climbing, 1-5 m. long, branch-
ing; leaflets leathery, suborbicular to oval or obovate, 4-10 cm. long, obtuse at
the apex, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base; racemes surpassing the sub-
tending
leaves;
peduncles
often
longer
than
the
racemes;
pedicels
spur-like;
calyx helmet-like, 14-17 mm.
long, constricted at the base; corolla pink; pods
broadly linear, 10-12 cm. long; seeds oblong, brown.
Coastal sands and rocks, Porto Rico; Mona; Icacos; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St
Jan- Tortola; Virgin Gorda;—Florida; Bermuda; West Indies; contmental tropical
America; Okl World tropics.
Bay-bean.
Mato de la playa.
44. PHASEOLUS L. Sp. PI. 723.
17.53.
Vines, rarely erect herbs, with pinnately 3-foliolate leaves, and axillary race-
mose
flowers.
Calyx 5-toothed or 5-lobed, or the 2 upper teeth more or
less
united.
Standard orbicular, recurved, spreading or somewhat contorted; wings
mainly obovate; keel
spirally
coiled,
linear or obovoid.
Stamens diadelphous
(9 and
1).
Style longitudinally bearded; stigma oblique or lateral; ovary sessile
or nearly so; ovules
co
.
Pod various, 2-valved, several-seeded, tipped with the
persistent
style.
Seeds mostly with rounded
ends.
Rachis thickened
at
the
bases of the pedicels.
[Ancient name of the Kidney bean.]
About 170 species.
of warm and temperate regions.
Type species: Phaseolus vulgaris L.
420
FABACEAE
Pod
compressed
or
flat,
6-15 mm.
wide;
calyx-teeth
mostly
4;
mostly vines.
Pod Ivmate.
1.
p. hmatus.
Pod linear, straight or a little ctirved.
Standard 2-2.5 cm. long.
2.
P. adenanthus.
Standard 1.5 cm. long or less.
Pod flat, 3-4 cm. long; flowers yellow.
3. P. trichocarpus.
Pod turgid, 10-15 cm. long.
4. P. vulgaris.
Pod
subcylindric, 2-3 mm. wide;
calyx-teeth 5;
plant herbaceous;
suberect.
5. P. lathyroides.
1. Phaseolus lunatus L. Sp. Pi. 724.
1753.
Phaseolus portoricensis Bert.
; Spreng. Syst. 3: 253.
1826.
A usually annual, herbaceous, sparingly pubescent vine up to 3 m. long or
longer, twining or trailing.
leaves rather large, petioled; leaflets ovate, ovate-
lanceolate or rhombic-ovate, thin
in
texture, 4-7 cm.
long, acute at the apex,
obtuse or subtruncate at the base; the te-minal one long-stalked, equilateral, the
others
short-stalked,
inequilateral;
racemes
peduncled,
about
as
long
as
the
leaves, sometimes
longer, several-many-flowered;
pedicels slender, mostly
less
than 1 cm. long; calyx campanulate, about 3 mm. long, its 4 teeth short, ovate;
bractlets oblong, about one-half as long as the calyx
; corolla greenish white, the
standard about 7 mm. broad; pod flat, lunate or subfalcate, .3-7 cm. long, 1-1.5
cm. wide (larger in cultivated races)
; seed, oblong or subquadrate, flattened.
Thickets
at
lower and
middle
elevations and spontaneous
after
cultivation
in
Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. .Tan:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
Widely cultivated for its seeds in tropical and temperate regions.
Lima Bean.
Broad
Bean.
Habas.
2. Phaseolus adenanthus G. F. W. Meyer, Prim. Esseq. 239.
1S18.
Phaseolus truxillensis H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 451.
1823.
Perennial, twining, sparingly pubescent, up to 6 m. long or longer.
Leaflets
ovate to elliptic-ovate or lanceolate, 5-10 cm.
long, acute or short-acuminate,
the
petiolules and the veins on the underside usually pubescent; inflorescence
about as long as the leaves, or shorter, few-several-flowered; calyx about 4 mm.
long, 4-toothed, longer than the bractlets, the upper tooth broad, emarginate,
the
lateral ones
lanceolate, acuminate;
flowers variegated,
white,
yellow and
purple, fragrant; standard 2-2.5 cm. long; pod linear, flat, usually a little curved,
8-10 cm.
long, 8-12 mm. wide, 10-15 seeded.
[Phaseolus
cochleatus of Bello,
not of Vellozo.]
Moist thickets and banks at lower elevations, Porto Rico:-—Jamaica; Cuba; His-
paniola
; Guadeloupe to Trinidad ; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Wild Bean.
Habicuela cimarrona.
3. Phaseolus trichocarpus C. Wright; Sauvalle, Anales Acad. Habana 5: 337.
1868.
Phaseolus lanceolatus Bello, Ann. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 262.
1881.
Perennial,
trailing or twining, slender; stems villous-pubescent or glabrate,
7 dm.
long or
longer.
Leaflets
lanceolate
to
ovate-lanceolate, 3-8 cm.
long,
sparingly pubescent or glabrous, acute or acuminate, the petiolules pubescent;
pedtmcles mostly longer than the leaves,
few -flowered
at the end, the narrow
bractlets longer than the calyx; floAvers bright yellow; calyx 4-toothed, about 3
mm. long, the teeth rounded; standard about 10 mm. long, emarginate; pod flat,
nearly straight, 3-4 cm. long, about 6 mm. wide, loosely pubescent.
[P. ovatus
of Urban, not of Bentham.]
Moist thickets and in wet white sand, northern and western districts of Porto Rico:
Cuba.
Tile stipules in this species are posteriorly prolonged.
FABACEAE
421
4. Phaseolus vulgaris L. Sp. n. 723.
1753.
Annual, glabrate, erect and 6 dm. high or less, or twining and up to 3 m. long,
consisting of many races.
Leaflets ovate, 3-15 cm.
long, acute or acuminate;
racemes mostly shorter than the leaves, sometimes very short; pedicels a
little
longer than the calyx, 6-10 mm. long in fruit; bractlets 5-6 mm. long; flowers
white to purple; calyx about 4 mm. long, its 4 teeth broad; standard 10-13 mm.
long; pod linear, straight or somewhat curved, several-seeded, 10-15 cm. long,
10-15 mm. wide, turgid.
Spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—widely
cultivated for
its seeds In temperate and tropical regions,
its original home unknown.
KiDXEY Beax.
Habichuel.\.
5. Phaseolus lathyroides L. Sp. Pi. ed. 2, 1018.
1763.
Phaseolus semierectus L. Mant.
1; 100.
1767.
Herbaceous, erect or ascending, simple or somewhat branched, silky pubes-
cent or glabrate, 3-10 dm. long.
Stipules narrowly lanceolate, acuminate,
1.5
cm. long or less; petioles slender; leaflets various, membranous, ovate to lanceolate
or linear-lanceolate, 2-6 cm. long, acute, obtuse or acuminate at the apex, acute
or obtuse at the base; racemes elongated, several-many-flowered, 1-3 dm. long
in fruit; pedicels very short; calyx 4-5 mm. long, 5-toothed, its upper teeth ovate,
the lower lanceolate, acuminate; corolla red or purple: standard 12-15 mm. long;
pods narrowly
linear,
straight or a
little curved,
reflexed-spreading, 7-12 cm.
long, about 3 mm. thick.
Fields, banks, sand dunes and hillsides, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations;
St. Croix: St. Thomas; St. Jan: Tortola:—West Indies: continental tropical America and
Old World
tropics.
Sometimes
a weed
in
cultivated
grounds.
Wild Btsh Bean
HABICHUELA P.-iRADA.
PHASEMY.
Phaseolus aureus Roxb.. Mung Bean, Asiatic, cultivated
in Porto Rico
and
tlie Virgin Lslands,
is an herbaceous annual about 3 dm. high, with ovate
glabrous leaflets 3-5 cm. long, clustered yellow flowers about 1.5 cm. long and
linear pods 3-6 cm. long.
Phaseolus alatus L., recorded from St. Croix by West, is not further deter-
mined; the .species is not understood by modern botanists.
Phaseolus Caracalla L., Caracol, Snail-flower, of South America, has
been grown in Porto Rico for ornament; it is a long twining perennial, with ovate
acute leaflets, and large showy yellow-purple, racemose flowers, the keel coiled
like the shell of a snail.
Phaseolus multiflorus Willd., a Mexican species, was listed by Krebs as
formerly growing in St. Thomas, with the English name French Bean, probably
mistaken for some other plant of this family.
Urban records a Phaseolus with deformed flowers cultivated near Lares, the
species undetermined.
45. VIGNA Savi, Mem. Phas. 3: 7.
1826.
Herbaceous
vines,
or sometimes
erect
herbs,
with
pinnately
3-foliolate
stipulate leaves, the leaflets broad.
Flowers clustered at the end of long axillary
peduncles, yellowish or purplish, the rachis of the head or raceme knotty, the
bracts and bractlets early deciduous.
Calyx 4-5-toothed, or the 2 upper teeth
united.
Standard
nearly
orbicular,
auricled
at the
base; wings shorter than
1.
FABACEAE
423
Twining, glabrate, up to 2 m. long or longer.
Stipules triangular-lanceolate,
acuminate, 3-4 mm. long; leaflets ovate to elliptic or suborbicular, obtuse and
rounded or emarginate, 4-10 cm. long; peduncles elongated, retrorsely pubescent
at the end and corymbosely or racemosely few-several-flowered; flowers yellow;
calyx about 4 mm. long,
its teeth triangular-ovate; standard about
1 cm. long;
pods linear, reflexed, about 5 cm. long and 6 mm. thick, glabrous when old.
Punta
Cangrejos,
Porto
Rico,
collected by
J.
A.
Stevenson
in
1914:—-Florida;
Jamaica
(?); Cuba.
Native of the Old World tropics and subtropics.
Recorded by
Krebs from St. Thomas.
4. Vigna antillana (Urban) Fawcett & Rendle,
Fl. Jam.
i~: 69.
1920.
Phaseolus anlillanus Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 309.
190.5.
Sparingly
pubescent,
twining, up
to
7 m.
long.
Stipules
ovate-oblong,
obtuse or acutish, 3-4 mm. long;
leaflets ovate to ovate-oblong, 5-7 cm.
long,
acute or acuminate,
short-pilose or nearly glabrous; peduncles elongated,
fevv-
several-flowered
; pedicels 3-4 mm. long in fruit; bractlets 2-4 mm. long; flowers
blue or purple; calyx 5-6 mm.
long, the lobes ovate, the upper one truncate;
standard about 2 cm. long; pod linear, a little curved, 8-13 cm. long, 4-5 mm.
thick, long-beaked.
[V. miguiculaia of PiY>ev.]
Banks and thickets at lower and middle elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico;
Vieques; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Martinique; St. Vincent.
5. Vigna peduncularis (H. B. K.) Fawcett & Rendle,
Fl. Jam.
4=: 68.
1920.
Phaseolus peduncularis H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 6: 447.
1824.
Twining
or
trailing,
slender,
sparingly
pubescent
or
glabrous.
Stipules
oblong-lanceolate, about 4 mm. long; leaflets ovate or triangular-ovate, 2-5 cm.
long, acute or acuminate; peduncles as long as the leaves, or much longer; raceme
few-several-flowered
; pedicels 1-2 mm. long
; flowers purplish, violet or pinkish
calyx about 4 mm. long, its teeth ovate, the upper one rounded; standard 1-1.5
cm. long; pod linear. 6-8 cm. long, 3-5 mm. thick.
Collected by F. L. Stevens at Aguada in 1913:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Trini-
dad; continental tropical America.
6. Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. Rep. 1: 779.
1842.
Dolichos unguiculatus L. Sp. PI. 725.
17.53.
Dolichos sinensis L. Cent. PI. 2: 28.
17.56.
Dolichos sesquipedalis L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 1019.
1763.
Dolichos Catjang L. Mant.
1: 259.
1767.
Dolichos monichalis Brot. Fl Lusit. 2; 125.
1804.
Vigna Catjang Walp. Rep.
1: 779.
1842.
Vigna sinensis Endl.
; Hassk. PI. Jav. Rar. 386.
1848.
Erect or nearly so, or twining or trailing, glabrous, or somewhat pubescent.
Stipules ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, auricled, 2 cm. long or less; leaflets
ovate, acute or blunt. 5-15 cm. long; stipels about 3 mm. long; flowers few and
nearly sessile at the end of a long peduncle, purplish or greenish yellow; calyx
about 8 mm.
long; standard about 2 cm.
long; pods various,. 1-4.5 dm.
long,
7-10 mm. wide, rather fleshy.
Subspontaneous, after ciUtivation
in several races for
its
seeds, Porto Rico;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas.
Widely cultivated
in
tropical regions; native of tropical
Africa.
Fkijoles.
Lextejas.
Bl.\ck-eyeu Pea.
Cow Pea.
Halifax Pea.
46. CACARA Rumph.; Thouars, Diet. Sci. Nat. 5: 35.
1805.
Twining,
her):)aceous
.vines,
often
with
large
tuberous
roots,
the
leaflets
pinnately
3-foliolate,
the
rather
large
flowers clustered-racemose,
white,
blue
or
violet.
Calyx
4-lobed,
the
upper
lobe
emarginate.
Standard
rounded,
424
FABACEAE
auricled
at the base; wings oblique, about as long as the standard; keel
little
curved.
Vexillar stamen free from the others.
Style flattened above, bearded
on the inner side; stigma lateral, subglobose.
Pod linear, flat, impressed between
the
seeds.
Malayan
name.]
Three
or
four
species
of
tropical
distribution.
Type species: Dolichos bulbosus L.
1. Cacara erosa (L.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI.
16.5.
1891.
Dolichos erosus L. Sp. PI. 726.
1753.
Dolichos bulbosus L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 1021.
1763.
Pachyrrhizus angulatus L. C. Rich.; DC. Prodr.
2: 402.
182.5.
Pachyrrhizus erosus Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 311.
1905.
Sparingly pilose or glabrate, slender, 1-2 m. long.
Leaflets thin, 6-12 cm.
long, coarsely angulate-dentate or nearly entire, the lateral ones obliquely rhom-
bic-ovate,
the terminal one
cuneate-flabellate,
usually broader than
long,
the
teeth mostly acute or acuminate, sometimes
aristate-tipped
; peduncles
^tout,
commonly longer than
the leaves; raceme
1-2 dm.
long;
flowers
blue,
nearly
sessile; calyx velvety, about 8 mm.
long,
its lower teeth acuminate; standard
12-16 mm. long; pod nearly straight, 10-12 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. wide.
Woodlands, hillsides and tliickets at lower and middle elevations in moist districts,
Porto Rico; St. Thomas;—West Indies; continental tropical America.
Widely cultivated
in tropical regions for its seeds.
Habilla.
Cacara tuberosa
(Lam.)
Britton, Yam
Beaist,
[Pachyrrhizus
tuberosus
Spreng.
;
Dolichos tuberosus Lam.], occasionally cultivated
in
Porto
Rico,
of
unknown geographic origin, has similar
foliage, but the
leaflets mostly entire,
ihe flowers white; it is widely cultivated in tropical regions.
47. DOLICHOS L. Sp. PI. 725.
17.53.
Climbing or trailing
vines, with
3-foliolate
stipellate leaves, and white to
purple flowers variously clustered or sometimes solitary,
their bracts small or
caducous.
Calyx campanulate,
its two upper
teeth
united.
Standard subor-
bicular; wings obovate, curved, adnate to the incurved keel.
Stamens 9 and
1,
their anthers all alike.
Ovary several-many-ovuled
; style bearded or penicillate
below the terminal stigma.
Pod flat, mostly somewhat curved, beaked.
Seeds
subglobose or flattened.
[Greek name of some bean, referring to its long pods.]
About 30 species, of tropical distribution.
Type species
: Dolichos Lablab L.
1. Dolichos Lablab L. Sp. PI. 725.
1753.
Lablab vulgaris Savi,
Diss.
19.
1821.
Dolichos benghalensis Jacq. Hort. Vind. 2: 57.
1772.
Sparingly pubescent, climbing or trailing, 5 m. long or
less.
Leaves long-
petioled.
Leaflets ovate, acute or acuminate, 4-10 cm. long, the terminal one
equilateral and long-stalked, the others inequilateral and short-stalked; racemes
axillary, several-flowered, longer than the leaves; flowers short-pedicelled, 1.5-2
cm. broad, white to purple; pods about 7.5 cm. long, nearly 2.5 cm. wide, the
upper edge nearly straight, the lower curved and glandular-serrulate; seeds some-
what compressed, black with a white linear strophiole, about 1 cm. long.
[Dioclea
Jacquiniana of Bello, not of de Candolle; Dolichos Lablab albiflorus of Millspaugh.]
Spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:
—widely cultivated for
its seeds and locally spontaneous in tropical and subtropical
regions.
Probably native of tropical Africa.
A bushy race
is sometimes cultivated.
Black Bean.
Chicharros.
Frijoles caballeros.
Dolichos sphaerospermUS
(L.)
DC.
[Phaseolus
sphaerospermus
L.]
Black-eyed Pea, has been cultivated for its seeds in the Virgin Islands.
FABACEAE
425
48. MUCUNA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 325.
1763.
Woody vines, with pinnately 3-foIiolate leaves, and large, pedicelled flowers
in
axillary, long-peduncled clusters.
Calyx campanulate,
its two upper
teeth
connate.
Standard folded, auricled at the base; wings incurved, longer than the
standard; keel as long as the wings or longer,
its apex cartilaginous or acute.
Stamens diadelphous
(9 and
1)
; anthers alternately longer and shorter.
Ovary
sessile,
usually
villous; ovules few; style naked,
filiform; stigma terminal and
small.
Pod
thick,
coriaceous,
linear or oblong, 2-valved, usually covered by
stinging hairs, at least when young.
Seeds orbicular, or oblong, few, large, with
a thick testa and linear hilum.
[Brazilian name.]
About 25 species, mostly
tropical.
Type species: Dolichos wrens L.
Leaflets elliptic, glabroiis beneath.
1. M. urens.
Leaflets ovate, silky-pubescent beneath.
2. M. Sloanei.
1. Mucuna urens (L.) DC. Prodr. 2: 405.
1825.
Dolichos urens L. Syst. ed. 10. 1162.
1759.
Dolichos altissimus Jacq. Enum. 27.
1760.
Stizolobium altissimum Pers. Syn. 299.
1807.
Mucuna altissima DC. Prodr. 2: 405.
1825.
High-climbing, up to 10 m. long or longer, glabrous.
Petioles as long as
the leaflets or shorter; leaflets thin, glabrous on both sides, oblong to elliptic-
lanceolate, 8-16 cm. long, abruptly acuminate; inflorescence pendulous; peduncle
slender, up to 1.5 m. long, l-several-flowered at the end; pedicels 2 cm. long or
less, thickened in fruit; calyx about 1.5 cm. long; standard bluish purple, 3-4 cm.
long; wings long-clawed, purple; keel yellowish, a little longer than the wings;
pod woody, 8-20 cm. long, about 5 cm. wide, hispid with stinging hairs and finely
pubescent, or nearly glabrous when old; seeds compressed-globose, 3-4 cm. in
diameter.
[Forests and woodlands, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet
districts:—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Kitts
to
Trinidad;
continental
tropical
American
Recorded by Krebs as foimd in St. Thomas prior to 1851.
Tortera.
Ox-
eye Bean.
2. Mucuna Sloanei Fawcett & Kendle, Journ. Bot. 55: 36.
1917.
Dolichos urens Jacq. Enum. 27.
1760.
Not L. 1759.
High-climbing, the young shoots app essed-pubescent.
Petioles sparingly
pubescent;
leaflets
rather
thin,
ovate, 6-10 cm.
long,
sparingly pubescent or
glabrous and reticulate veined above, densely silky-pubescent beneath, acute or
short-acuminate; peduncle as long as the petioles or somewhat longer, subum-
bellately few-several-flowered; pedicels about
1 cm. long or less; calyx nearly 2
cm.
long, the lowest tooth nearly as long as the tube; corolla yellow; standard
about 3 cm. long; wings
.'i-6 cm. long, short-clawed, the keel a little longer; pod
woody, 10-15 cm. long, 4-5 cm. wide, hispid with stinging hairs and pubescent;
seeds round, compressed. 2-3 cm. broad.
Woods and thickets in moist parts of the western districts of Porto Rico:—Florida;
Jamaica;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; continental
tropical America;
tropica
Africa.
Matos.
Ojo de buev.
Horse-eye Bean.
49. STIZOLOBIUM P. Br.; Medic. Vorles. Chur. Phys. Ges. 2: 399.
1787.
Annual vines, herbaceous or slightly woody, with thin, pinnately 3-foliolate
leaves, and
large
short-pedicelled
flowers
in
axillary
racemes.
Wings
longer
than the curved .standard; keel mostly longer than the wings.
Stamens dia-
delphous
(9 and
1);
alternate anthers
longer.
Ovary
sessile,
usually
villous;
426
FABACEAE
style
filiform,
glabrous;
stigma
small,
terminal;
ovules
several-many.
Pod
linear, 2-valvecl, densely covered with stinging hairs or glabrous.
Seeds oblong,
shining, the testa thin, the hilum short.
[Greek, referring to the stinging hairs.]
Perhaps 20 species of tropical distribution.
Type species: Dolichos pruriens L.
1. Stizolobium pruritum (Wight) Piper, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 30: 54.
1917.
Mucuna prurita Wight in Hook. Bot. Misc. 2: 348.
1831.
Stizolobium pruritum officinale Piper, loc. cit. 57.
1917.
Slender, high-climbing, pubescent.
Petioles as long as the leaflets or shorter:
leaflets thin, appressed-pubescent, somewhat
silvery beneath, the terminal one
rather long-stalked, ovate or rhombic ovate, the lateral ones short-stalked, ob-
liquely
ovate,
inequilateral; racemes several-many-flowered,
elongated;
calyx
silvery-silky, about
1 cm. long,
4-cleft; corolla blue or purple; standard ovate;
\\ings and keel about twice as long as the standard, 2-3 cm. long; pods narrowly
oblong,
slightly curved, 4-9 cm. long and
1 cm.
thick,
densely covered with
brittle stinging hairs, pendent in
clusters; seeds oblong, brown,
shining, 8-10
mm. long.
[Mucuna pruriens of authors, not of Medicus.]
Thickets, woodlands and
river banks
at
lower
elevations, Porto Rico;
Vieques;
St. Croix; St. Thomas:—West Indies ; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Cow-itch.
Pica-pica.
Stizolobium Deeringianum Bort,VET.VET Bean, Asiatic, experimentally
planted in Porto Rico, resembles
S. pruritum, but the pods are nearly or quite
devoid of stinging hairs.
50. NEORUDOLPHIA Britton.
[RuDOLPHiA Willd., not Medic]
A woody vine, with pilose-pubescent twigs, petioles and inflorescence, small
subulate
stipules,
petioled
1-foliolate
leaves, and showy bright
red, racemed
flowers.
Calyx tubular, minutely 2-bracteolate
;
its 2 broad upper teeth united
except near the tips, the lateral teeth much smaller, the lanceolate lower tooth
as long as the upper ones.
Standard oblong,
folded, short-clawed; wings and
keel-petals small, similar, linear, distinct; stamens diadelphous (9 and 1)
; anthers
ovate,
all
alUce.
Ovary short-stipitate, many-ovuled; style slender, somewhat
hooked at the apex, the stigma obsolete.
Pod linear, nearly sessile,
flat, short-
beaked, 2-valved, the valves coriaceous,
finely pubescent, elastically dehiscent.
Seeds numerous,
obovate,
or
oblong, somewhat compressed,
shining.
[Com-
memorates Carl Asmund Rudolphi, 1771-1832, Danish botanist.]
A monotypic
Porto Rican genus.
1. Neorudolphia volubilis (Willd.) Britton.
Rudolphia volubilis Willd. Neue Schrift. Ges. Nat. Fr. BerUn 3: 4.52.
ISOl.
Erythrina portoricensis Desv. Tabl. 191.
Hyponym.
1804.
Butea volubilis Pers. Syn. 2: 279.
1807.
Rudolphia scandens Poir. Diet. Sci. Nat. 46: 419.
1827.
Rudolphia portoricensis Sweet, Hort. Brit. ed. 2, 161.
Hyponym.
1830.
Rudolphia sericea Steud. Nom. ed.
2.
1: 240.
Hyponym.
1840.
Climbing to a length of 5 m.
or more.
Petioles 1.5-8 dm.
long; stipules
about 3 mm. long; stipels nearly
filiform,
1.5-2 mm.
long;
leaflet
ovate, 4-12
cm. long, cordate or rarely truncate at the base, acuminate at the apex, rather
thick in texture, glabrous or pubescent above, sparingly pubescent or glabrous
on the veins beneath; racemes 8-15 cm.
long,
floriferous nearly
to the
base-
FABACEAE
427
pedicels 3-7 mm. long; bracts and bractlets lanceolate, acuminate, about 2 mm.
long; calyx cherry-red,
1.5-2.5 cm. long; standard emarginate,
rose, 4-4.5 cm.
long; wiiigs about
1 cm. long,
1 mm. wide, a little longer than the similar keel-
petals; pod 6-8 cm. long, about 1 cm. wide; seeds about 6 mm. long.
Woodlands and thickets in moist or wet districts of Porto Rico, ascending to liiglier
elevations.
Endemic.
Bejuco de al^mb-ic.
Bejuco Colorado.
Bejuco prieto.
51. ERYTHRINA L. Sp. PI. 706.
1753.
Trees, shrubs, rarely erect herbs, often with prickly stems and branches, the
pinnately 3-foliolate leaves glandular-stipella'e, the stipules small, the large and
showy red, yellow to orange flowers racemose, usually in pairs or clustered at
the nodes of the racemes, the bracts and bractlets small or none.
Calyx various,
truncate, spathaceous or toothed.
Standard
large, broad or elongated,
sessile
or clawed, not appendaged; wings small, sometimes none; keel smaller than the
standard
but
larger
than
the
wings,
its
petals
distinct
or
united.
Stamens
monadelphous or diadelphous; anthers all alike.
Ovary stipitate, many-ovuled;
style incurved, not isearded; stigma small and terminal.
Pod linear,
stipitate,
curved, constricted between the seeds, mostly 2-valved.
[Greek,
red, referring
to the flowers of the typical species.]
About 30 species, natives of tropical and
warm-temperate regions.
Type species: Erythrina Corallodendron L.
Standard narrowly oblong, elongated.
Calvx trimcate, 6-12 mm. long, campanulate.
Leaves nearly or quite imarmed; standard 5-6 cm. long.
1. E. Corallodendrum.
Leaves armed with prickles; standard 4-.t cm. long.
2.
E. horrida.
Calyx abovit 2 cm. long, tubular, its limb oblique.
3. E. Bertcroana.
Standard oblong to elliptic.
.
.
Leaflets broadly rhombic-ovate, acute or acuminate, thin.
4. E. Poeppigiana.
Leaflets ovate to elliptic, obtuse, coriaceous.
5. E. glauca.
1. Erythrina Corallodendrum L. Sp. PL 706.
1753.
A tree, up to 8 m. high, but often shrubby, the trunk and stout branches
armed with sharp
prickles sometimes 2 cm.
long.
Leaves
glabrous;
petiolos
rather slender, 3-15 cm.
long;
leaflets rhombic-ovate,
to rhombic-orbicular er
broader than long, acute or acuminate at the apex, obtuse or rounded at the base,
5-15 cm. long; racemes 1-3 dm. long, several-many-flowered; pedicels very short;
calyx campanulate, truncate, 7-12 mm.
long;
corolla
coral-red, .5-6 cm.
long,
the wings
little
longer than
the
calyx; standard narrowly oblong or oblong-
oblanceolate; keel-petals distinct, shorter than the calyx; stamens shorter than
the
standard; pod
moniliform, somewhat
flattened,
beaked,
10-15 cm.
long,
1-1.5 cm. Avide; seeds scarlet, usually with a black spot.
Thickets and rockv hillsides, Porto Rico, mostly in dry districts at lower altitudes;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas";
St. Jan:—Jamaica; Cuba;
St.
Kitts
to Tobago;
continental
tropical America.
PiNON espinoso.
Coral-tree.
Batjmortel.
2. Erythrina horrida Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus. 13: 45.
1879.
A tree, up to 10 m. high, or sometimes shrubby, similar to E. Corallodendrum,
perhaps not specifically distinct, the trunk and branches copiously armed with
stout prickles.
Foliage like that of E. Corallodendrum, but the petioles and veins
of both surfaces of the leaves armed with yellowish straight prickles 4-8 mm.
long; racemes about 10 cm. long; calyx campanulate, truncate, 6-8 mm. long;
standard red, 4-5 cm. long, the wings and keel very small; pod 1-2 dm. long,
long-beaked; seeds bright red, without a black spot.
Arrovos, southern dry districts, and on coastal limestone rocks, Quebradillas, Porto
Rico; Vie'ques; St. Thomas; recorded by Eggers from St. Jan and St. Croix.
Endemic.
This
is probably the tree recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas as Erythrina spinosa.
COCK'S-SPUR.
428
FABACEAE
3. Erythrina Berteroana Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 370.
1908.
An unarmed glabrous tree up to 8 m. high.
Petioles 8-18 cm. long; leaflets
ovate to rhombic-ovate, 5-14 cm. long, acuminate or acute at the apex, obtuse,
broadly cuneate or subtruncate at the base, pale beneath; racemes 3 dm. long or
less; pedicels very short; calyx tubular. 18-23 mm. long, its limb oblique; standard
coral-pink, 6-8 cm. long, linear-oblong, folded; wings about
1 cm. long, about as
long as the oblong keel-petals; stamens shorter than the standard; pod moniliform,
curved, about 10 cm. long,
1 cm. wide over the seeds, its subulate beak 2-4 cm.
long; seeds oblong, vermillion, not spotted.
Roadsides, planted for fence-posts and naturalized in Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola;
Colombia.
Machete.
4. Erythrina Poeppigiana (Walp.)
O.
F. Cook,
Bull. U.
S. Dept. Agric. 25:
27.
lltOl.
Micropteryx Poeppigiana Walp. Linnaea 23: 740.
1850.
Erythrina micropteryx Poepp.
; Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 327.
1899.
A tree, up to 25 m. in height, the bark nearly smooth, the trunk and branches
armed with stout prickles, or tho.se of the trunk deciduous.
Leaves often 3 dm.
long, glabrous; leaflets broadly rhombic-ovate or sometimes broader than long.
7-16 cm. long, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, broadly cuneate to truncate
at the
base, the texture rather thin; racemes 1-2 dm.
long,
finely puberulent;
pedicels rather stout, 5-9 mm. long; calyx turbinate, 5-7 mm. long, puberulent,
truncate; standard oval to elliptic, 3-4 cm. long, orange; wings about 1 cm. long;
keel-petals united, except at the tips, a little shorter than the standard, shorter
than the style and stamens; pod compressed, 13 cm. long or less, 1-1.5 cm. wide,
narrowed at both ends, slender-ljeaked
; seeds flat, dark brown, about 1 cm. long.
[Erythrina u?nbrosa of Bello, not of H. B. K.]
Widely planted for coffee-shade, and along roads and locally spontaneous in Porto
Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Guadeloupe; Martinique; Trinidad.
Native of Peru.
Bucare.
Palo de boyo.
Bois immortelle.
5. Erythrina glauca Willd. Neue Schrift. Ges. Nat.
Fr. Berlin 3: 428.
1801
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the trunk and branches armed with prickles, at
least when
young.
Leaves often
3 dm.
long;
leaflets ovate
to
ovate-elliptic,
6-12 cm. long, glabrous, pale beneath, coriaceous in texture, mostly obtuse and
rounded
at
the apex, rounded or very broadly cuneate
at
the
base; racemes
puberulent, 1-2 dm. long; pedicels stout,
1 cm. long or less; calyx broadly cam-
panulate,
puberulent, somewhat
oblique, about
1 cm.
long; standard
orange,
rhombic-suborbicular, folded, 5-6 cm. long, narrowed into a claw; wings oblong,
))rown with crimson tips, 2-2.5 cm. long; keel brown, somewhat longer than the
wings, its petals united; stamens and style much longer than the keel; pod flat-
tened, 2.5 dm. long or less, about 1.5 cm. wide; seeds oblong, subterete, 1.5-1.8
cm. long, about 6 mm. thick, rounded at both ends.
River banks and roadsides, northern districts of Porto Rico, appearing as
if intro-
duced;
St. Tiiomas (ex Krebs):—Cuba; Guadeloupe; Martinique; St. Vincent; Tobago;
Central America and Venezuela.
Its wood is soft, light and weak.
Bucago.
Erythrina indica Lam.,
Asiatic, planted as a roadside tree in the Virgin
Islands, is a tree 10 m. high or higher, the branches prickly, the glabrous unarmed
leaflets broadly ovate, the spathaceous calyx large, the petals scarlet, the standard
ovate, the stout pods up to 2 dm. long and 2 cm. thick.
Erythrina Crista-galli
L., Cockspur Coral-tree. South American,
oc-
casionally planted for ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
is a small
tree,
with
slender, sometimes
vine-like
branches,
the
glabrous,
ovate-oblong,
acute
leaflets 6-8 cm.
long, the slender-pedicelled, showy, crimson and scarlet
flowers in large clusters, the broad standard reflexed.
FABACEAE
429
Coursetia arborea Griseb., a small pinnate-leaved
tree of Trinidad and
Venezuela,
is recorded by Grisebach from St. Jan, presumably an error in record
or determination.
Codariocalyx gyrans
(L.f.)
Hassk., Telegraph Plant, East Indian,
is
occasionally planted for interest in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
It
is a
perennial
herb,
1 m.
high
or
less, with
3-foliolate
leaves,
the terminal
leaflet
oblong, 3-8 cm.
long, the lateral ones similar in form but much smaller, and
continuously moving in sunlight; the small flowers are in terminal racemes; the
fruit is a linear, straight loment with quadrate joints.
[Hedysarum gyrans L.f.;
Desmodium gyrans DC.]
Lourea vespertilionis
(L.) Desv. East Indian, planted
for ornament on
St. Croix and St. Thomas, was recorded by Eggers as naturalized in gardens, but
it does not appear to have spread beyond cultivation.
It is a puberulent, slender
perennial herb, 5-6 dm.
high, the curious leaf-blades much broader than long,
somewhat 2-lobed,
the white flowers
in terminal racemes,
the
fruit a loment.
[Hedysarum vespertilionis L.]
Pisum sativum
L., Pea, of Old World origin, cultivated for its seeds in
Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
is an annual herbaceous vine, with pinnate
leaves terminated by a tendril, rather large white or reddish flowers, the oblong
swollen pods containing several globular seeds.
Lathyrus
odoratus
L., Sweet
Pea.,
Sicilian,
occasionally
grown
in
Porto Rico flower gardens,
is an herbaceous vine,
the
leaves with one
pair of
leaflets and a branched
tendril, the showy flowers white, red or yellow.
The
early or winter-flowering varieties grow lu.xuriantly.
Robinia Pseudacacia
L., Black Locust, North American Acacia, of
the eastern United States, experimentally planted by Mr. E. Murray Bruner in
the Forest Service Nursery at Rio Piedras, Porto Rico, had
in 1923 attained a
height of about one meter, and flowered when only
six months
old.
It
is a
pinnate-leaved
tree, becoming, under favorable conditions, at least 20 m. high;
the bark
is very rough,
rigid and furrowed,
the wood
durable;
the
fragrant
white
flowers are
l)orne
in drooping racemes.
It can scarcely survive
in the
continuously warm climate of Porto Rico.
Hedysarum coronarium L., European, experimentally grown at the Insular
Agricultural Experiment
Station,
Rio
Piedras,
1923-1924, did
not appear to
thrive.
Dalbergia
Sissoo
Roxl).,
Asiatic,
seen
at
the
Agricultural
Experiment
Station at Mayaguez,
is a tree with very slender branches, the leaves with 3-5,
glabrous,
broadly oval or suborbicular,
cuspidate
leaflets 2.5-5 cm.
long,
the
rachis zigzag; the yellowish flowers are about 8 mm. long, in small axillary pan-
icles; the hnear few-seeded pod is flat, 4-10 cm. long.
Brya Ebenus
L., West Indian Ebony,
a
small,
yellow-flowered,
hard-
wooded
tree of Jamaica and Cuba, was erroneously recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas.
A pinnate-leaved tree about 10 m. high, the 5 leaflets ovate-elliptic, glaljrous,
*8-17 cm. long, the flat and thin, oblong 1-seeded fruits about 8 cm. long and 3
cm. wide
is apparently a species of
Platymiscium, planted
in the
park at
St.
Thomas.
430
OXALIDACEAE
Order 13.
GERANIALES.
Herbs, shrubs or trees, usually with petals, and these separate (wanting
in most Euphorbiaceae, and in some species of Zanthoxylum in Rutaceae);
sepals mostly distinct; stamens few, rarely more than twice as many as the
sepals,
opposite them when
as many; ovary
superior, mostly compound;
ovules pendulous, the raphe toward the axis of the ovary.
Petals present, usually as many as the sepals.
(See Zanthoxylum.)
Flowers regular or nearly so (except in Balsaminaceae)
.
Tissues of the plant devoid of secreting cells or
glands.
Filaments imited below or at the base.
Petals xmappendaged
; leaves compoimd.
Petals appendaged
; leaves simple.
Filaments separate.
Caly.x
irregular;
one
sepal
sp\irred
or
saccate.
Calyx regrular.
Styles imited: leaves compound.
Styles mostly separate: leaves simple.
Tissues
of
the
plant
with
secreting
cells
or
glands.
Leaves punctate.
Leaves not pmictate.
Carpels separate.
Carpels imited.
Filaments separate.
Trees
or
slu'ubs
with
bitter
oil-
bearing bark.
Resiniferous trees and shrubs.
Filaments united.
Flowers very irregular; petals
.3; stamens mostly 8.
Flowers often apetalous, monoecious; carpels mostly 3.
Fam.
Fam.
OXALIDACEAE
431
1. lonoxalis intermedia (A. Kich.) Small, N. A. Fl. 25: 43.
1907.
Oxalis intermedia A. Rich. Ess. Fl. Cub. 315.
1845.
Scape 1-3 dm. high, sparingly pubescent, slender, as long as the leaves or
longer.
Petioles sparingly pubescent
; leaflets 3, obdeltoid, 2-5 cm. wide, bright
green and
glabrous
above,
paler and somewhat pubescent
beneath,
2-lobed;
cymes 4-13-flowered
; pedicels glabrous, 1-2 cm. long; sepals 4-5 mm. long, bearing
1 pair of apical tubercles; petals violet, 11-14 mm. long; shorter filaments slightly
pubescent, the longer ones copiously pubescent.
[0. latifoUa of Millspaugh.]
Cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; St. Croix:—Florida; Bahamas; Cuba; Guadeloupe;
Martinique.
2. lonoxalis Martiana (Zucc.) Small, Fl. SE. U.
S. 665.
1903.
1 Oxalis corymhosa DC. Prodr.
1: 696.
1824.
Oxalis Martiana Zucc. Denks. Acad. Muench. 9: 144.
1825.
Scape 1.5-3 dm. high, pubescent, usually longer than the leaves.
Petioles
pubescent; leaflets 3, suborbicular or orbicular-obovate, 2.3-5.8 cm. wide, dark-
green and usually with scattered hairs above, pale green and more or less pubescent
beneath,
2-lobed; cymes compound,
usually many-flowered;
pedicels
1-3 cm.
long, appressed-pubescent
; sepals 4.5-6 mm. long, bearing 1 pair of thick apical
tubercles; petals violet or rose-purple 11.8-15 mm. long; shorter filaments mostly
glabrous, longer filaments pubescent, unappendaged.
[O.
latifolia of Urban.]
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, locally a troublesome, although beautiful,
weed; St. Croix; St. Thomas:—Florida; Bermuda; West Indies.
Native of continental
tropical America; introduced into the Old World tropics.
Vixagrillo mor.\do.
2. XANTHOXALIS Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 666.
1903.
Caulescent, annual or perennial herbs, rarely shrubs, with alternate, long-
petioled, 3-foliolate leaves, the leaflets sessile, notched or obcordate, the yellow
flowers in peduncled cjTnes.
Sepals
5.
Petals
5.
Stamens
10, the filaments
united into a tube at the base.
Ovary oblong to linear; styles filiform or subulate.
Capsule oblong or columnar, usuaUy narrowed
to
the summit,
erect.
Seeds
transversely ridged
or
tubercled.
[Greek,
yellow
Oxalis.]
About 50 species,
widely distributed.
Type species: Oxalis comiculata L.
1. Xanthoxalis corniculata (L.) Small,
Fl. SE. U. S. 667.
1903.
Oxalis corniculata L. Sp.
PI. 435.
1753.
Oxalis repens Thunb. Oxal. 16.
1781.
Oxalis pilosiuscula H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 243.
1821.
Pubescent
or
nearly
glabrous,
annual
or
perennial,
deep-green,
freely
branching from the base; stem 2.5-15 cm.
long, the branches
diffuse, mainly
procumbent and often creeping.
Leaflets 8-12 mm. wide; petioles dilated at the
base into oblong, rounded or truncate stipules; peduncles 1-3-flowered; flowers
5-10 mm. wide; pedicels strigillose, more or less reflexed; capsule oblong, 1-1.8
cm. long, appressed-pubescent; seeds compressed, transversely ridged.
[? Oxalis
Lyoni of Krebs.]
River banks, slopes, waste and cultivated grounds at lower and middle elevations,
Porto Rico; St. Croix:
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—widely distributed in temperate
and tropical regions of both liemispheres.
Vixagrillo.
Yellow Wood Sorrel.
Oxalis frutescens Bello, described from a plant observed without flower
or fruit at Guanica, has not been further identified.
[Not Oxalis frutescens L.]
432
ERYTHROXYLACEAE
Averrhoa Carambola
L., Carambold, East Indian,
of which a tree was
seen at Loiza, Porto Rico, in 1915, and also recorded by Krebs as grown in
St.
Thomas prior to 1851, is a small tree with alternate odd-pinnate leaves, the 5-11
ovate, acute
leaflets 2-7 cm.
long, the small white flowers, with 5 stamens,
in
axillary
panicles,
the oblong acid
berries sharply
.5-angled,
yellow;
the
seeds
arillate.
Averrhoa Bilimbi L., Bimbling, also East Indian, recorded by Krebs as
formerly grown in St. Thomas and listed by Cook and Collins as grown in Porto
Rico,
is a similar tree, the flowers with 10 stamens, the fruit bluntly angled, the
leaflets mostly lanceolate.
Pelargoniums, in various races, herbs of the related family Geraniaceae,
are commonly grown for ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands under
the garden name Geranium; most of them are hybrids between P. zonale and
P. inquinans, their white to scarlet flowers often double.
Pelargonium peltatum
(L.) Ait., Ivy-leaved Geranium, South African,
occasionally grown in flower gardens, is a trailing or straggling plant often 6 dm.
long, the nearly orbicular peltate leaves 4—7 cm. broad, the red or white flowers
few, on long peduncles.
Pelargonium ficifolium, listed by Krebs from
St. Thomas, is probably
a misprint of P. fissifolium Pers., a South African acaulescent plant with pimiati-
sect leaves.
Family 2.
ERYTHROXYLACEAE A. Rich.
Coca Family.
Glabrous trees or shrubs, with mostly alternate simple stipulate entire-
margined petioled leaves and small, often heterostylous pedicelled flowers
solitary or fascicled in the
axils, the pedicels bracted at the base.
Calyx-
persistent, mostly
5-cleft.
Petals as many as the calyx-lobes, appendaged
by a 2-lobed ligule within.
Stamens
10, in 2 series, their filaments united
below into a tube.
Ovary 3-celled, rarely 4-celled; ovules 1, rarely 2, in each
cavity, pendulous;
styles
3, rarely 4; stigmas
capitellate.
Fruit a drupe,
usually
1-celled
and
1-seeded.
Seed-coat
thin,
endosperm
farinaceous;
embryo straight.
Only the following genus and the African Aneidophus.
1. ERYTHROXYLON L. Syst. ed. 10, 1035.
1759.
Leaves
alternate.
Petals
short-clawed.
[Greek
red-wood.]
About
200
species of tropical and subtropical distribution, the Porto Rico ones known as
JiBA.
Type species: Erythroxylon areolatum L.
Leaves
small,
mostly not
over
3
cm.
long,
the under
surface
scarcely areolate.
Leaves sliining above, prominently reticiilate-veined.
1.
E. Uroani.
Leaves dull, not prominently reticulate-veined.
Petioles only 1-2 mm. long.
2. E. brevrpes.
Petioles 2.5-5 mm. long.
3.
E. rotundifolmm.
Leaves larger, 5-13 cm. long, the imder siu-face distinctly areolate.
4. E. areolatum.
1. Erythroxylon Urbani O. E. Schulz in Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 314.
1905.
A shrub about
1 m. high.
Leaves obovate, cuneate or acute at the base-
rounded or emarginate at the apex, coriaceous, 2-3.5 cm. long, strongly reticulate,
veined, bright green and shining above, pale green or glaucescent beneath; the
ERYTHROXYLACEAE
433
petioles 2.5-3.5 mm.
long; stipules triangular,
acute, 2-setulose at the apex, 3
mm. long or less; flowers solitary in the axils; pedicels about
1 mm. long; calyx
about
1 mm. long, cleft to about the middle, its lobes ovate, acute; petals white,
2.5 mm. long, obtuse, the claw nearly as long as the blade, the ligule-lobes acute,
one-third as long as the blade.
Wooded limestone hills near Manati, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
2. Erythroxylon brevipes DC. Prodr.
1: 573.
1824.
A shrub or a small tree up to 5 m. high, much bi'anched, many of the twigs
short and
rigid.
Leaves obovate,
2.5 cm.
long or
less, subcoriaceous,
dull or
faintly shining above, pale beneath, rather inconspicuously reticulate-veined, the
apex obtuse or emarginate, the base narrowed, the petioles 2 mm. long or less;
stipules triangular-ovate, acute, about as long as the petioles; flowers 1-4 in the
axils, white, about 5 mm. broad; pedicels 2-8 mm. long; calyx-lobes ovate, acute;
petals oblong,
the claw shorter than
the
blade,
the
ligule-lobes
erose; drupe
oblong, red, obtuse, 6-9 mm. long.
[E. ovatum of Eggers, of Millspaugh and of
Kuntze; E. areolatum of West, not of Linnaeus.]
Thickets,
hillsides and arroyos at low
elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; Culebra;
St. Croi.\: St. Thomas; Virgin Gorda;—Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Martin; St. Barts; Guade-
loupe.
Brisselet.
3. Erythroxylon rotundifolium Lunan, Hort. Jam. 2: 116.
1814.
Erythroxylon obuvatum Macf.
Fl. Jam.
1: 143.^
1837.
Erythroxylon suave O. E. Schulz in Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 197.
1907.
Erythroxylinn suave aneurum O. E. Schulz, loc. cit. 199.
1907.
A shrub or a small tree up to 7 m. high, with slender flexible branches, the
bark smooth.
Leaves obovate
to oblong-obovate
or
elliptic,
firm
in
texture,
0.5-3 cm.
long, obtuse or emarginate, dark green above,
pale beneath, incon-
spicuously
reticulate-veined,
the
petioles
2.5-5 mm.
long;
stipules
ovate
or
ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 1-1.5 mm. long; flowers 1-4 in the axils;
pedicels mostly as long as the petioles or longer; calyx cleft to about the middle,
about
1 mm. long,
its lobes triangular-ovate, acute; petals white, oblong,
1..5-2.5
mm. long, obtuse, the ligule about one-third as long as the blade, its lobes irregu-
larly toothed; drupes oblong, red, obtuse, 4-6 mm. long.
[E. spinescens of O. E.
Schulz, not of Richard.]
Coastal
thickets, dry southwestern
districts of Porto Rico:—Bahamas; Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola.
Rat-wood.
4. Erythroxylon areolatum L. Syst. ed. 10, 1035.
17.59.
A shrul) or a small tree up to 6 m. high.
Leaves oblong to obovate, rather
thin, 5-13 cm. long, 3-5.5 cm. wide, obtuse or emarginate at the apex, narrowed
at
the
base,
dark
dull-green
above,
pale beneath and
areolate by two
lines
parallel with the prominent midvein, the petioles 4-6 mm. long; stipules trian-
gular,
acute, about 2 mm.
long;
pedicels
fascicled,
as long as the petioles or
shorter; flowers appearing with the leaves of the season, or before them, fragrant;
calyx cleft to about the middle, nearly 2 mm.
long,
its triangular-ovate lobes
acute; petals white or yellowish white, oblong, obtuse, 2-3 mm. long, the ligule
about one-fourth as long as the blade; drupes red, oblong, 6-9 mm. long.
Thickets and
hillsides along the coast, dry southwestern districts of Porto Rico;
Mona; doubtfully recorded from
St. Thomas:—Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
Colombia.
False Cocaine.
Erythroxylon obovatum Bello, described from a plant observed at Lares
prior to 1881, requires further investigation and rediscovery; no specimens were
preserved, apparently.
[Not E. obovatum Macf.]
434
BALSAMINACEAE
A barren specimen, apparently of a species of Erythroxylon,
collected at
Maricao
(Stevens 7885)
has broadly
elliptic, obtuse or emarginate, coriaceous
leaves 8-10 cm. long, 5-6 cm. wide.
Family 3.
BALSAMINACEAE Lindl.
Jewel-weed Family.
Annual
or
perennial succulent
herbs, with
alternate
simple
petioled
leaves.
Flowers
showy,
irregular.
Sepals
3,
rarely
5,
imbricate,
the
posterior one petaloid, saccate, spurred.
Petals
5, or 3 with 2 of them 2-
cleft
into
dissimilar
lobes.
Stamens
5;
filaments
usually
short,
distinct;
anthers
short,
thick,
united
around
the
stigmas.
Ovary
5-celled;
style
short or none; stigma 5-toothed or 5-lobed; ovules 2-many in each cavity.
Seeds pendulous, anatropous.
Endosperm none; embryo nearly
straight;
cotyledons
flat.
Cleistogamous
flowers,
if
present,
smaller
and
more
regular.
The family
consists
of
the
following genus and
the monotypic
Asiatic genus Hydroccra.
1. IMPATIENS L. Sp. PI. 937.
17.53.
Characters of the family.
[Name in allusion to the elastically bursting pods.]
About 220 species, most abundant in tropical Asia.
1. Impatiens Balsamina L. Sp. PI. 938.
1753.
Balsamma hortensis Desp. Diet. Sci. Nat. 3: 485.
1805.
Annual, the succulent stems 3-6 dm. high, more or
less pubescent.
Leaves
oblanceolate, 4-15 cm.
long, sharply serrate, acute to acuminate at the apex,
cuneate at the base; petioles short, glandular;
floA\ers solitary or geminate in the
axils of the leaves; pedicels 1-2 cm. long, puberulent; lateral sepals ovate, 2-3
mm. long, the posterior sepal rose or ptu-ple, broadly conic, 5-8 mm. deep, 10-15
mm
. wide, with an arcuate spur 1-1.5 cm. long; anterior petal broadly obovate,
8-10 mm. long, the lateral and posterior ones obovate, 2-2.5 cm. long; capsule
ovoid, villous, 15-20 mm. long, about 8 mm. wide.
Escaped from cultivation at middle elevations in Porto Rico.
Commonlj- grown for
ornament in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens, the petals mostly white.
Escaped
from gardens in the southeastern states and Jamaica.
Native of southern Asia.
Gardex
Balsam.
Espuelo de galan.
Impatiens Sultani
llook.
f., Red Balsam, from
Zanzibar,
a succulent
herb 3-6 dm. high, with elliptic or lanceolate slender-petioled acute leaves 6 cm.
or more long, the scarlet flowers solitary on axiUary peduncles,
is grown com-
monly in flower-gardens in Porto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Races with white
or pink flowers are sometimes found in cultivation.
Tropeolum majus L., Jacinto, Garden Nasturtium, South American, of
the family Tropeolaceae, grown for ornament in Porto Rico and Virgin Island
flower-gardens,
is a weak, glabrous, succulent, spreading herb with stems about
3 dm. long, the long-petioled, peltate flaccid, nearly orbicular leaves 3-10 cm. in
diameter; the showy irregular yellow to orange flowers are solitary on peduncles
about as long as the petioles; the 5-lobed calyx is produced posteriorly into a spur
2-2.5 cm. long; the 5 petals are slightly unlike, 1.5-3 cm. long; there are 8 stamens
with declined unequal fllaments; the ovary
is 3-celled and 3-lobed, the united
styles filiform; the fleshy indehiscent white fruits are depressed-globose, 3-lobed,
about 12 dm. broad, and are used for pickles.
ZYGOPHYLLACEAE
435
Family 4.
ZYGOPHYLLACEAE Lindl.
Caltrop Family.
Herbs, shrubs, or some tropical species trees, the branches often jointed
to
the
nodes.
Leaves
opposite
or
alternate,
pinnate,
digitate,
or
rarely
simple,
the
leaflets
entire.
Stipules
persistent.
Flowers perfect, axillary,
peduncled.
Sepals usually 5, distinct, or united bj^ their bases.
Petals the
same number as the sepals, or none.
Stamens usually 8 or 10, inserted on
the base
of the
receptacle,
the
alternate ones sometimes
longer; anthers
versatile, longitudinally dehiscent; filaments usually with a small scale at
the base
or
near the middle.
Ovarj' 4-12-celled;
style terminal; stigma
usually simple; ovules 1-numerous in each cavity, pendulous or ascending.
Fruits various, dry or quite fleshy.
About 20 genera and 160 species, widely
distributed in warm and tropical regions.
Trees or shrubs; flowers blue or piirple.
1. Guaiacum.
Herbs; flowers yellow.
Carpels spinose.
2.
Tribulus.
Carpels tuberculate.
3. Kallstroemia.
1. GUAIACUM L. Sp. PI. 381.
1753,
Evergreen trees or shrubs, with hard resinous wood, the branches stout, the
nodes often swollen.
Leaves opposite,
petioled, abruptly pinnate, the leaflets
2-several
pairs,
entire,
inequilateral,
reticulate-veined,
the
stipules
minute.
Flowers
clustered,
peduncled,
the peduncles subtended by minute deciduous
bracts.
Sepals 4 or 5, somewhat united at the base.
Petals 4 or 5, blue or purple.
Stamens 8 or 10; filaments filiform; anthers cordate or sagittate.
Ovary stalked,
2-5-lobed,
2-5-celled;
style subulate; ovules 8-10 in each cavity, anatropous.
Fruit coriaceous, with 2-5 wing-like angles.
Seeds ovoid or elUpsoid; embryo
nearly straight.
[From the aboriginal name.]
About 8 species, natives of tropical
and subtropical America.
Type species: Guaiacum officinale L.
Petals tomentiilose
; fruit broadly obcordate; leaflets mostly 4.
1.
G. officinale.
Petals glabrous; fruit broadly obovoid; leaflets mostly 6-10.
2.
G. sanctum.
1. Guaiacum officinale L. Sp.
PI. 381.
17.53.
A tree, up to 10 m. high, the bark smooth and gray, the branches flexuous.
Leaves 3-9 cm. long; leaflets 4 or 6, mostly 4, oval to obovate, glabrous, 1-5 cm.
long, rounded at the apex, sessile or nearly so, coriaceous at maturity; stipules 1
mm. long, pubescent, caducous; flowers few or many, terminal, the slender pe-
duncles pubescent
; sepals ovate to orbicular, 5-7 mm. long, tomentulose on both
sides;
petals
blue, narrowly obovate, about
12 mm.
long, tomentulose
at the
apex,
rounded
or
mucronate;
fruit
usually
2-carpellary,
broadly
olicordate,
yellowish, 17-20 mm. long; seeds
ellipsoid, brown, 10-12 mm.
long, 5-6 mm.
broad, the aril cream-colored.
Woodlands, tliickets, plains and hillsides at low elevations in the dry soutliern and
southwestern districts of Porto Rico; Vieques; Culebra; St. Thomas; St. Croix; St. Jan;
but nearly exterminated on the Vu-gin
Islands, except where planted;—West Indies;
continental tropical America.
The yellowish brown, very hard and heavy wood is valued
for rollers, hubs,
cogs, and pulleys;
it
is strong and fine-grained, sinking in water,
its
specific gravity being about 1.25.
The trmiks of old trees reach about 5 dna. in diameter.
GuAYACAx.
Lignum Vitae.
2. Guaiacum sanctum L. Sp. PL 382.
1753.
A
tree, sometimes
10 m.
high,
the bark
pale, the branches spreading or
pendulous.
Leaves 4-10 cm. long; leaflets 4-10, oblong to obovate or oblance-
olate, 2-3.5 cm. long, sessile, glabrous, coriaceous at maturity, usually apiculate
436
ZYGOPHYLLACEAE
or mucronate; stipules about 3 mm. long, pubescent, usually caducous; flowers
solitary or several, on pubescent peduncles shorter than the leaves; sepals obovate
or oblong-obovate, .5-7 mm. long, pubescent; petals blue or purple, broadly obo-
vate, 7-11 mm. long, glabrous, rounded at the apex; fruit broadly obovoid, yellow
to orange, 14-17 mm. long; seeds elhpsoid, dark brown or black, 10-11 mm. long,
3-3.5 mm. broad, the aril scarlet.
Coastal
hillside.s and thickets, southwestern dry districts of Porto Rico; Mona:-
Florida; Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; Yucatan.
Its wood resembles that of the pre-
ceding species.
Guayacancillo.
Guayacan blanco.
Lignum Vitae.
2. TRIBULUS L. Sp. PI. 386.
17.53.
Herbs, with evenly pinnate leaves and peduncled
axillary yellow
flowers.
Sepals 5, persistent.
Petals
.5, deciduous.
Stamens 10, the alternate ones some-
what longer.
Ovary sessile, .5-lobed, 5-celled, hairy, the hairs erect; style short;
stigma 5-ridged; ovules 3-10 in each cavity, pendulous.
Fruit 5-angled, spiny,
splitting into 5, 3-5-seeded segments.
[Greek, three-pronged, Caltrop, from the
resemblance of the fruit to that implement.]
About 12 species, of warm and
tropical regions.
Type species: Tribulus terrestris L.
1. Tribulus cistoides L. Sp. PI. 387.
1753.
Tribulus terrestris cistoides Oliver, Fl. Trop. Afr. 1: 284.
1868.
Perennial; roots thick, woody; stems diffuse, procumbent, 3-10 dm.
long,
pubescent, becoming glabrate.
Leaves 1-5 cm. long; leaflets 6-8 pairs, obliquely
oblong or
elliptic,
acutish
or obtuse and mucronulate, 4-15 mm.
long,
silky-
pubescent beneath; stipules subulate, 5-8 mm. long; peduncles about as long as
the leaves,
solitary; sepals lanceolate, half as long as the petals; petals yellow,
about 2 cm. long; carpels pilose, tubercled, each with 2 stout divergent spines and
sometimes with several scattered smaller ones.
Naturalized on
banks, San Juan and vicinity, and recorded
as formerly foimd at
Guanica, Porto Rico;
St. Croix; St. Thomas (ex Krebs); Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—south-
eastern United States; West Indies, south to Martinique; continental tropical America
and Old World tropics.
Large Yellow Caltrop.
Abrojo.
3. KALLSTROEMIA Scop. Introd. 212.
1777.
Mostly annual pubescent
herbs,
with
opposite
stipulate,
evenly
pinnate
leaves, and solitary axillary peduncled yellow flowers.
Sepals 5 or 6.
Petals 4-6,
obovate
or
oblanceolate,
deciduous.
Stamens
twice
as many
as
the
petals.
Ovary sessile, 8-12-celled; ovule usually solitary in each cavity, pendulous; styles
united, columnar, or subulate from a conic base; stigma capitate.
Fruit
verti-
cally 8-12 angled, muricate, roughened, or
tuberculate,
separating
into
8-12,
indehiscent,
1-- rarely 2-seeded
nutlets.
[In honor of Kallstroem.]
About 20
species, widely distributed in warm and tropical regions.
Type species: Tribidus
maximus L.
Fruit glabrous; sepals lanceolate.
1. K. maxima.
Fruit strigose; sepals linear-lanceolate.
"
2. K. caribaea.
1. Kallstroemia maxima (L.) T. & G.
Fl. N. A. 1: 213.
1838.
Tribulus maximus L. Sp. PI. 386.
1753.
Branches
slender,
prostrate,
1..5-4.5
dm.
or
more
long.
Leaves
short-
petioled; stipules subulate; leaflets 3-4 pairs, oval or oblong, inequilateral, rounded
or subcordate
at the
base, 5-20 mm.
long; peduncles slender,
1.2-4 cm. long;
MALPIGHIACEAE
437
sepals lanceolate, acuminate, pubescent,
persistent; petals light yellow, fading
darker, obovate, 7-8 mm. long; fruit glabrous, the beak conic at the base, about
as long as the body, 4-5 mm. long; carpels tuberculate and cross-ridged on the
back, usually reticulate on the faces.
Fields, roadsides, banks and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations, mostly in drv districts; Vieques; Culebra;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tortola:—southeastern
United
States;
West
Indies;
continental
tropical
America.
Abbojo.
Caltrop.
2. Kallstroemia caribaea Rydberg, N. A.
Fl. 25: ill.
1910.
Branches diffuse or ascending 2.5-5.5 dm. long, hirsute.
Leaves 1.5-5 cm.
long; leaflets 2-4 pairs, obliquely elliptic or oval,
0..5-2.5 cm. long, 0.5-1.5 cm.
broad; fruiting peduncles slender,
1.5-3 cm. long; sepals narrowly linear-lance-
olate,
hispid, 5 mm. long; petals yellow, obovate, 6-7 mm. long; fruit strigose;
beak 4 mm. long, conic at the base, about equalling the carpels; nutlets tuberculate
on the back and reticulate on the faces.
Sandy soil near Salinas, Porto Rico; St. Thomas; Tortola:—Lesser Antilles; Florida;
Central America and northern South America.
Family 5.
MALPIGHIACEAE Vent.
Malpighia Family.
Shrubs,
tree.s or woody vines, mostly with opi^osite leaves, and perfect
clustered, or sometimes solitarj^, nearly regular flowers.
Calyx of 5, usually
glandular sepals.
Corolla
of
5, usually clawed
petals.
Stamens 5 or
10;
filaments
united
below,
or
di.stinct.
Ovary
sessile,
mostly
3-car]iellary;
styles mostly
distinct;
stigmas minute.
Fruit
drupaceous,
nut-like,
cap-
sular or a samara.
About 60 genera, including over 700 species, natives of
tropical and subtropical regions.
Fruit samaroid; woody vines.
Samaras 4-winged, the wings X-like, the two upper wings usually
larger than the lower ones.
1.
Tetrapteris.
Samaras with a single dorsal wing, reduced to a crest in Brachyp-
teris.
Stigmas clavate or trtmcate.
2.
Banisleriopsis.
Stigmas on the ventral edge of the dilated style-tips.
Carpels crested, not winged.
3.
Brachyptcris.
Carpels winged.
Wing thickened on the lower margin.
4.
Banistcria.
Wing thickened on the upper margin.
5. Stigmaphyllon.
Friut a drupe, or a capsule; erect siu-ubs or trees.
Fruit a capstde.
6.
Thryallis.
Fruit a drupe.
Styles thick-tipped.
Styles distinct.
7. Malpighia.
Styles imited.
8.
Bunchosia.
Styles" subulate-tipped.
9. Byrsonima.
1. TETRAPTERIS Cav. Diss. 433.
1790.
Woody climbers with much-branched stems.
Leaves coriaceous or mem-
branous,
mostly
enti
e,
the
stipules
inconspicuous,
deciduous.
Inflorescence
terminal.
Calyx usually 8-glandular.
Petals 5.
Stamens 10, all antheriferous.
Ovary 3-lobed.
Styles 3, distinct.
Samaras 1-3, crested on the back, each 4-
winged, the wings X-like, the two upper wings usually larger than the lower ones.
[Greek, referrmg to the four-winged samaras.]
Over 60 species, natives of the
West
Indies and
continental
tropical America.
Type
species;
Tetrapteris
in-
aequalis Cav.
438
MALPIGHIACEAE
1. Tetrapteris inaequalis Cav. Diss. 433.
1790.
Banisteria bracteata DC. Prodr. l: 590.
1824.
Tetrapteris paniculata Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 245.
1881.
Stem up to 6 m. or more long.
Leaves oblong-ovate to ovate, 6-16 cm.
long, 2.3-8.3 cm. wide, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, usually rounded and
often somewhat cordate at the base, glabrous, or with scattered hairs beneath,
especially when young; sepals ovate or oblong-ovate, .3-4 mm. long, the glands
about one half the length of the sepal-body; petals yellow, ovate to suborbicular,
6-7.5 mm. long; samaras 3-4 cm. long, pubescent, with a median ridge.
[T. citri-
folia of Urban, not of Persoon.]
Thickets, woodlands,
river banks and arroyos, Porto Rico,
at lower and middla
elevations; Vieques; St. Thomas (according to Krebs)
; St. Croix (according to Niedenzu)
—Hispaniola; Antigua to Tobago.
Bejuco de paralejo.
Bejuco de sopl.\.
2. BANISTERIOPSIS C. B. Robinson; Small. N. A.
Fl.
25:
131.
1910.
Woody vines with slender, often much branched stems.
Leaves opposite,
often more or less coriaceous.
Calyx 8- or 10-glandular, or glandless; sepals
5,
persistent.
Petals
5.
Stamens
10,
the
filaments
unequal.
Ovary
3-lobed.
Styles
3.
Stigmas terminal.
Samaras 1-3 together, each with a dorsal wing.
[Resembling
Banisteria.]
Many
species,
natives of
tropical America.
Type
species: Banisteria brachiata L.
1. Banisteriopsis lucida (Rich.) Small, N. A.
Fl. 25: 133.
1910.
Banisteria lucida Rich. Ann. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 109.
1792.
Stigmatophyllum nigrescens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 89.
1891.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, or obovate, 5.5-16 cm. long, 2-5.5 cm.
broad, acuminate at the apex, acute at the base, glabrous and lustrous above,
often more or
less ferruginous-pubescent
l^eneath,
short-petioled
;
sepals 2.5-3
mm. long; corolla about 2 cm. in diameter; petals yellow, the larger ones 11-13
mm. long; samara 4.5-5.5 cm. long.
Porto Rico, collected by Kuntze (according to Niedenzu)
; St. Vincent (according to
Small)
; northern South America.
3. BRACHYPTERYS A. Juss. Ann.
Sci. Nat. II. 13: 290.
1840.
Vines or small shrubs.
Leaves opposite.
Flowers solitary in the leaf-axils
or borne
in
peduncled bracted
umbel-like
corymbs.
Calyx
8-glandular,
the
sepals
5,
persistent.
Petals
5,
yellow.
Stamens
10,
all antheriferous.
Ovary
3-lobed.
Styles
3,
distinct.
Samaras 2 or 3
together,
or sometimes
solitary,
the
body
thick,
the
wings
beak-like,
flat.
[Greek,
short-winged.]
Aljout
2
species,
natives of the West
Indies and continental
tropical America.
Type
species: Stigmaphyllon paralias A. Juss.
1. Brachypterys ovata (Cav.) Small, N. A. Fl. 25: 138.
1910.
Banisteria ovata Cav. Diss. 429.
1790.
Brachypterys borealis A. Juss. Ann. Sci. Nat. II. 13: 291.
1840.
Stigmaphyllon ovatum Ndz. Gen. Stigmat. 31.
1900.
A vine or weak shrub with slender branches.
Leaves ovate to lanceolate,
3.5-12 cm. long, 2-5.5 cm. broad, acute or somewhat obtuse at the apex, usually
rounded at the base, dark green and glabrous above, paler and often pubescent
beneath, the petioles 0.7-1.5 cm. long; bracts ovate to orbicular-ovate,
1.5 cm.
or more long; sepals ovate, 3.5-4 mm.
long, the glands more than one half the
length of the sepal-body; larger petals 11-13 mm. long; samaras 1.5-2 cm. long,
the wing usually shorter than the body.
MALPIGHIACEAE
439
Coastal thickets, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
4. BANISTERIA L. Sp. PL 427.
1753.
[Heteropteris H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 5: 163.
1822.]
Woody vines, or sometimes shrubs or trees.
Leaves opposite, coriaceous or
membranous,
with
or without
glands on
the
petioles.
Flowers
often
small-
borne in
panicled, often leafy-bracted cymes.
Calyx S-glandular or glandless"
the sepals persistent.
Petals yellow, orange or purple.
Stamens 10, all perfect;
the filaments subulate.
Ovary 3-lobed.
Styles
3,
distinct.
Samaras
2
or 3
together, or solitary, the wing thickened along the dorsal side.
[Commemorates
John Banister, English missionary and naturalist, who collected plants in Jamaica
and Virginia, and died about 1692.]
About 80 species, natives of tropical America,
a few in tropical Africa.
Type species: Banisteria brachiata L.
Sepals with erect tips.
Petals purplish; mature leaves glabrous or nearly so beneath.
1.
B. purpurea.
Petals vellow; mature leaves red-sericeous beneath.
2.
B.
Wijdleriana.
Sepals with recurved tips; petals yellow; mature leaves glabrous or
nearly so beneath.
3.
B. laurtfoha.
1. Banisteria purpurea L. Sp. PI. 427.
1753.
Banisteria parmfolia Vent. Choix des Plantes
pi. 51.
1803.
Heteropteris purpurea H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 164.
1822.
Heteropteris parvifolia DC. Prodr.
1: 591.
1824.
Heteropteris purpurea antillana Ndz. Arb. Bot. Inst. Braunsberg 2: 15.
1903.
A rather slender vine, sometimes 5 m. or more long, the leaves elliptic to oval
or suborbicular or ovate, 1-5 cm. long, 0.6-2.7 cm. broad, round or retuse and
occasionally mucronate at the apex, usually rounded at the base, glabrous in age,
short-petiol'ed;
branches
of the
inforescence pubescent
or
glabrous;
pedicels
jointed below the middle; sepals elliptic or ovate, 2.5-3 mm.
long, the glands
more than one half the length of the sepal-body
; petals purple, the larger ones
up to 5.5 mm. long; samaras 2-3 cm. long, striate-veined, pubescent.
[B. micro-
phylla Sesse & Mocino, not Jaccjuin.]
TWckets, woodlands and arrovos at lower elevations. Porto Rico; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Eustatius
to Trinidad; northern South America.
Bull Withe.
2. Banisteria Wydleriana (A. Juss.) C. B. Robinson; Small. N. A. Fl. 25: 137
1910.
Heteropteris Wydleriana A. Juss. Ann. Sci. Nat. II. 13: 275.
1840.
Banisteria chrysophylla Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 245.
1881.
Stigmaphyllon chrysophyllum Stahl, Estud. 2: 147.
1884.
Heteropteris Bellonis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 330.
1889.
Heteropteris chrysophylla Cook & CoUins, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb.
8: 159.
1903.
A slender vine, up to 10 m. long, or longer, the leaves ovate, oblong-ovate or
oblong-elliptic, 4-10 cm. long, 2-7.3 cm. broad, acute, short-acuminate or obtuse
at the apex, rounded or subcordate at the base, lustrous and reticulate-veined
above, red-sericeous beneath, the petioles 6-10 mm. long, sepals ovate, 3-4 mm.
long, the glands more than one half the length of the sepal-body; petals yellow;
samaras 4.5-5.5 cm. long, the wing red-sericeous.
Thickets and river banks at lower and middle elevations, western districts of Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
Ahorca caballo.
440
MALPIGHIACEAE
3. Banisteria laurifolia L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 611.
1762.
Banisleria pubijlora DC. Prodr.
1: 391.
1824.
Heteropteris laurifolia A. Juss. Ann. Sci. Nat.
II. 13: 276.
1840.
Heteropteris pubiflora Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 24.5.
1881.
Heteropteris laurifolia antillana Ndz. Arb. Bot. In-st. Braunsberg 2: .52.
1903,
A vine, sometimes 5 m. long, or shrub-like.
Leaves oblong,
elliptic, lance-
olate or ovate, occasionally obovate, 5-1.5 cm. long, 2-9 cm. broad, acuminate at
the apex, obtuse, rounded or acute at the base, reticulate-veined, pubescent with
reddish-hairs when young, glabrous or nearly so except on the veins beneath
at maturity; sepals oblong or lanceolate,
2. .5-4 mm. long, sometimes glandless;
petals yellow, the larger ones 5-7 mm. long, samaras 3.5-4 cm. long.
[B. lanci-
folia of West.]
Thickets,
woodland.s,
forests,
river banks and arroyos,
Porto Rico, ascending
to
higher
elevations:
St.
Croix
(according
to
Niedenzu):—Jamaica:
Cuba:
Hispaniola.
Mexico and Central America.
Bejuco de buby.
Pau.vlejo velludo.
5. STIGMAPHYLLON
.\.
.hiss,
in A.
St.
Hil.
Fl. Bras. Merid.
3: 48.
1833.
Woody vines, with opposite, coriaceous or membranous, petioled leaves, and
bright
yellow
flowers,
in
axillary peduncled
umbel-like corymbs.
Receptacle
pyramidal.
Calyx 8-glandular; sepals persistent.
Petals
5,
their blades erose
or
fimbriate.
Stamens
10,
only
6
of them
antheriferous;
filaments
unequal,
united at the base or up to the middle; anthers short.
Ovary 3-lobed; styles 3.
distinct, unequal, sometimes foliaceous above. Samaras 2 or 3 together or solitary,
with a
flat
dorsal wing.
[Greek, leafy stigma.J
About 50
species,
natives of
tropical America, in Porto Rico known as Bejuco de faralejo.
Type species:
Banisteria auriculata Cav.
Style-tips truncate or foot-like: leaves acute or rounded at the apex.
Anterior
style
very
slender
beaked, much
shorter
than
the
posterior ones.
Leaves of an ovate type, often cordate at the base, brownish
in drying: primary veins usually distinct.
1.
S. cordifolium.
Leaves often of a linear, oblong, elliptic or oval type, usually
not cordate at the base,
silvery gray
in drying: primary
veins often not distinct.
2.
S. ledifolium.
Anterior style
not
slender
beaked,
slightly
shorter
than
the
posterior ones.
Leaves
tomentose
beneath,
not
reticulate-veined
above;
flower-stalk jointed near the base.
.3.
S. tomentosum.
Leaves glabrous or nearly so at maturity,
reticulate-veined
above;
flower-stalk
jointed
between
the
base
and
the
middle.
4.
S. Ungulatum.
Style-tips expanded, foliaceous; leaves acuminate.
5.
S. puhcrum.
1. Stigmaphyllon cordifolium Ndz. Gen. Stigmat.
1:
8.
1899.
A
slender
vine,
the
twigs
and
peduncles
clothed
with
appressed-hairs.
Leaves oblong-ovate
to ovate or orbicular-ovate, 2.5-8 cm.
long,
1.5-4.7 cm.
broad, abruptly pointed or mucronate at the apex, rounded or cordate at the ba.se;
petioles 4-10 mm.
long;
sepals oval or suborbicular, 2.9-3.8 mm.
long; larger
petals
10..5-13 mm. long; samaras 1.7-2 cm. long, the ventral edge of the wing
with an obliquely rounded auricle at the base.
St.
Thomas,
collected by Read
(according
to
Niedenzu):—St.
Kitts;
Antigua;
JVIontserrat; Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique; Trinidad.
2. Stigmaphyllon ledifolium
(11. B. K.) Small, N. A. Flora 25:
141.
1910.
Banisteria ledifolia H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 5:
1.59.
1822.
Banisteria diversifolia H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp.
5: 159.
1822.
Stigmaphyllon diversifolium A. Juss. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
II.
13: 290.
1840.
MALPIGHIACEAE
441
A vine, sometimes 8 m.
lonp:.
Leaves linear to oval or suhorbicular, or oc-
casionally somewhat
()l)()vat(\ 2
'.) cm.
Ions,', 0.^-4.5 cm. broad, obtuse or acute at
the apex, acute or rounded
at
the base, lustrous above and t,dabrous or nearly
so in age, pubescent beneath or glabrous, short-i)etioletl; peduncles and i)edicels
sparingly i)ubescent;
sepals oval
to
suborbicular,
.i-i nun.
long;
larger
petals
8-12..') mm. long; samaras 2-2.5 cm. long.
Near Fajanlo. Porto Kico. (Sinlcnis 1130). according to Niedenzu and to Urban:
Hispaniola (accordii'g to Niedenzu); Cuba.
3. Stigmaphyllon tomentosum (Desf.) Ndz. Gen. Stigmat.
l:
5.
1S«)9.
Banislcria rmaruinata C'av. Diss.
42.''), in part.
1790.
? Banisteria Jlorihunda DC. Prodr.
1:
.')S9.
1824.
Banisteria lomrutosn Desf.; DC.
I'rodr.
1:
.'-)S9.
1824.
Stigmaphyllon cmardinntum A. .luss. Aim. Sci. Nat. II. 13: 290, in part.
1840.
Sliomaphyllon floribundum Stahl,
lOstud.
2:
147.
1SS4.
Heteropteris nitida obtusifolia Kuntze, Kev.
Cien.
PI. S8.
1891.
Banisteria rotundifolia Sesse & Mo?. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 110.
1894.
A vine .3-4 m. or more long, the young growth and twigs densely pubescent.
Leaves ovate to oval or suborbicular,
.'')~1.') cm. long, 3-11 cm. broad, round and
often notched and nuicronate at the apex, rounded or subcordate at the base,
glabrous or pubescent above near the base, loosely tomentose beneath; peduncles
and pedicels tomentose; sepals suborbicular or sonitnvhat reniform,
2..'')-3 mrn.
long; larger petals 10-12 mm. long; samaras 2..') cm. long.
IStiomaphi/llon. diiicrsi-
foliitm of Cri.sebach, in part, not of A. .Ju.ss; Tctraptcris paniculata of Stahl, not of
Bello.)
Thickets
woodlands,
forests and
river
lianks
at lower and middle elevations
in
Porto Kico; St. Thomas (ex Krebs); St. Jan; Virgin (iorda.
Kmlcnuc.
4. Stigmaphyllon lingulatum (Poir.) Small, N. A.
Fl. 25: 140.
1910.
Triupteris lintjidala Poir.
in Lam. Kncyd. 8: 104.
1808.
Banisteria peri plocijalia Desf.; D(\
Prodr.
1:
.'J89.
1824.
Stigmaphyllon periplocifolium A. Ju.ss. Ann. Sci. Nat.
11. 13: 290.
1840.
A vine, sometimes 4 m. or more long, the twigs strigose.
Leaves narrowly
to broadly ovate ov oval,
2..'')-10 cm.
long,
1
O cm.
broad, occasionally
larger,
rounded and emargiiiate and often nuicronate at the apex, rounded or cordate
at the base, glabrous or m^arly so at maturity, reticulate-veined; petioles 0.4-2
cm.
long; sepals ovate to suborbicular,
3
4 mm.
long;
petals
It)
13 cm.
long;
samaras
1..5-2 cm. long.
[S. Sagraeanuni and S. divcrsi/oUuni of JVlillspaugh.l
Thickets
woodlands and
hillsides. Porto Rico, at lower elevations: Mona; Icacos;
Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. .Ian: Tortola; Virgin C.orda
; Anegada:
Jamaica; Tlispaniola; St. Martin to St. Lucia.
.5. Stigmaphyllon puberum (L. C. Rich.) A. Juss. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
11. 13: 289.
ISIO.
Banisteria pubera L. C. Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 109.
1792.
A vine with slender branches, the twigs, peduncles and petioles clothed with
appresised brownish
hairs.
Leaves
ovate,
acuminatti
at
the apex, rounded
or
truncate at the base, glabrous or nearly so above, appressed-pubescent l)en(Nit h
petioles
1..5-4 cm.
long; sepals ovate,
3-3..5 mm. long; larger petals 9-11 mm.
long, the mar^jin fringed; samaras 2.5-3 cm. long, the ventral edge of the wing
scarcely aurlcled, the dorsal edge decurrent on the samara body.
Eastern Porto Kico, collected bv Schwanockc (according to Urban)
:—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola; (iuadeloupc to Trinidad; Panama; South America.
Stigmaphyllon ciliatum (Lam.)
A.
Juss. recorded by Niedenzu
as
col-
lected on
St. Thomas by Finlay was
really from Trinidad.
[Banisteria
riliata
Lam.]
442
MALPIGHIACEAE
6. THRYALLIS L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 554.
1762.
[Galphimia Cav.
Ic. 5: 61.
1799.]
Shrubs, the leaves opposite, entire, petioled or sessile, with a marginal gland
on each side near the base, or on the upper part of the petiole.
Flowers in simple
or branched raceme-like panicles.
Calyx 5-cleft, without glands, or rarely with
small glands.
Petals
yellow.
Stamens
10,
all
antheriferous.
Ovary 3-lobed:
styles
3,
distinct.
Stigmas minute.
Capsule 3-lobed; epicarp
slightly
fleshy;
endocarp hard and brittle; embryo bent round a fold o
the seed coat; cotyledons
incumbent; radicle rather long.
[Greek name for a kind of mullein.]
About 15
species, natives of continental tropical America.
Type species: ThryalUs brasi-
liensis L.
1.
Thryallis glauca (Cav.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 89.
1891.
Galphimia glauca Cav. Ic. 5: 61.
1799.
Galphimia gracilis Bartl. Linnaea 13: 552.
1839.
Thryallis gracilis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 89.
1891.
A small or medium sized shrub with much-branched stems.
Leaves ovate,
oblong or oval, 1-7 cm. long, 0.5-4 cm. broad, obtuse or acute at the apex, often
acutish at the base, membranous, glaucous, especially beneath, glabrous; panicles
usually many-flowered, the rachis pubescent or glabrous; sepals oblong, 3.5-4.5
mm. long; larger petals 7-12 mm. long; capsule 3.5-4.5 mm. long; seeds dark
brown, 3-3.5 mm. long.
Occasionally spontaneous after cultivation and naturalized in Porto Rico; St. Croi.x;
St. Thomas; commonly planted for ornament in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens:—
widely grown and locally spontaneous in Florida, the West Indies and continental tropical
America.
Native of Mexico.
Lluvl\. de org.
Consulita.
Galphimia.
Reseda.
7. MALPIGHIA L. Sp. PI. 425.
17.53.
Shrubs or small
trees, with opposite leaves usually bearing stinging hairs
beneath,
the white pink
or red flowers
in
axillary peduncled cymes.
Calyx
6-10-glandular, persistent.
Petals 5, the blades undulate or fimbriate.
Stamens
10, all antheriferous; filaments united to the middle or below; anthers short, often
didymous.
Ovary
glabrous,
3-lobed;
styles
distinct; stigmas
small.
Fruit
a
fleshy drupe, usually depressed-globose.
[In honor of Marcello Malpighi, 1628-
1693,
Italian botanist.]
Over 30 species, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species
: Malpighia glabra L.
Leaves entire.
Leaves elliptic or lanceolate to ovate, oval or suborbicular.
^Mature leaves glabrotis.
Umbels
sessile
or
subsessile;
styles
unequal;
leaves
obtuse or rounded and often em'arginate.
Leaves 2-7 cm. long; fruit 1-1.6 cm. in diameter.
1. M. punicifolia.
Leaves 6-9 cm. long; fruit about 2 cm. in diameter.
2. M. Thompsoni.
Umbels peduncled;
styles nearly equal; leaves usually
acute or acuminate.
3.
A/, glabra.
Mature leaves with two-branched stinging hairs beneath.
Leaves acute or rounded at the base, the margin some-
times furnished with parallel bristles.
Inflorescence peduncled, few-flowered.
Stamens
opposite
the
lateral
petals not
longer
than those opposite the sepals;
styles swollen
at the ape.x.
4.
]\T. fucata.
Stamens
opposite
the
lateral
petals longer than
those opposite the sepals; styles hooked at the
apex.
5.
^T. pallens.
Inflorescence fascicled, many-flowered.
6. M. Shaferi.
Leaves cordate at the base, the margin bristly ciliate.
7. M. infestissima.
Leaves linear, armed with stinging hairs.
8. M. linearis.
Leaves
sijiuate-dentate,
tlie teeth armed
with
bristles,
or some-
times individually entire on some of the branches.
9.
i\/. coccigera.
MALPIGHIACEAE
443
1. Malpighia punicifolia L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 609.
1762.
M. punicifolia lancifolia Ndz. Gen. Malp. 8.
1S99.
M. punicifolia vulgaris Ndz. Gen. Malp. 8.
1899.
M. punicifolia obovata Ndz. Gen. Malp. 8.
1899.
A shrub
or
small
tree.
Leaves
elliptic, oblong,
or obovate
or
narrowly
oblanceolate, 2-7 cm. long, 0.8-4 cm. broad, obtuse or rounded and often emar-
ginate at the apex, acute or cuneate at the
base, glabrous when mature,
the
petioles 1.5-4 mm. long; cymes sessile or short-peduncled, the branches usually
pubescent; sepals ovate, 2.8-3 mm. long, pubescent; petals pink or violet, the
larger ones up to 9 mm. long; drupes globose, ovoid or subglobose, 1-1.6 cm. in
diameter, scarlet.
[M. glabra of ISIillspaugh, not of Linnaeus.]
Occasionally spontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico for
its fruit;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas:—St. Martin to Trinidad, Margarita and Ciira<;ao. northern South America.
Cereza colorada.
West Indian Cherby.
Chereese.
2. Malpighia Thompsoni Britton and Small, sp. nov.
A shrub 2.5 m. tall or less, the foliage glabrous, except the young twigs and
unfolding
leaves,
the bark
gray.
Leaves oval
or
elliptic,
varying
to
slightly
broadest above the middle or below
it, 5-9 cm.
long, usually rounded at the
minutely pointed or notched apex, deep green above,
paler beneath with the
midriV:) ]jrominent, very short-petioled
: cymes sessile or nearly so, the branches
1-2 cm.
long, sparingly pubescent,
several-flowered: bractlets minute: flowers
short-pedicelled:
sepals
broadly
ovate,
about 3 mm.
long,
obtuse,
sparingly
pubescent: glands oval, more than half as long as the sepal: petals above 8 mm.
long, the claw and the Ijlade nearly equal in length: androecium nearly 3 mm.
long, the free part of the fliaments stout-subulate, as long as the tube or shghtly
longer: anthers ellipsoid, nearly 1.5 mm. long; ovary ovcid; styles 3, stout, ob-
liquely
filiated
at the apex; drupe about 2 cm.
in diameter; stones orbicular-
ovate, about 1.5 cm. long, with thin edges and three dorsal crests, the umbal one
finely toothed, the lateral ones lobed.
Rust-up-Twist,
St.
Croix, J.
B.
Thompson. September
1st,
192.3,
283,
in
flower;
December 2,
192.3, 578, in fruit.
Related to M. punicifolia L. but larger in a.U its parts.
The leaf-blades are almost uniformly broad at the base.
The cymes are more copiously
flowered and the pedicels shorter; the sepals are broader, the fliaments and styles stouter,
and the fruit larger.
3. Malpighia glabra L. Sp. PI. 425.
17.53.
Malpighia glabra antillana Urban
«& Ndz.; Ndz. Gen. Malp.
5.
1899.
A shrub 1..5-3 m. tall, or a small tree.
Leaves elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or
ovate, 3-9 cm. long, 0.7-3.5 cm. broad, acute to acuminate, rarely obtuse at the
apex,
acute
at
the
base,
glabrous when mature,
the
petioles
1-2 mm.
long;
cymes peduncled,
the branches appressed-pubescent or glabrous; sepals oblong
to ovate-oblong, 2. .5-3 mm. long, glabrous or pubescent on the back; petals pink,
the larger ones 6-7.5 mm. long; drupes depressed-ovoid, 0.8-1 cm. in diameter,
scarlet.
Thickets, St. Croix; St. Thomas:—West Indies; southern Texas; conttaental tropical
America.
4. Malpighia fucata Ker, Bot. Reg. under pi. 189.
1817.
Malpighia macrophylla Desf. Cat. Hort. Par. ed. 3, 232.
1829.
Malpighia fucata macrophylla Ndz. Gen. Malp. 11.
1899.
Malpighia fucata longifolia Ndz. Gen. Malp. 11.
1899.
Malpighia fucata elliptica Ndz. Gen. Malp.
11.
1899.
Shrub
or
small
tree.
Leaves
oblong,
elliptic,
lanceolate
or
occasionally
ovate or obovate, 6-20 cm. long, 2-12 cm. broad, acute or obtuse at both ends,
deep green and glabrous above,
paler and
hispid beneath with two-branched
444
MALPIGHIACEAE
hairs,
the
petioles 5-10 mm.
long; cymes peduncled,
the branches
sparingly
pubescent; sepals ovate or oval, 2.5-3 mm. long; petals whitish or pink, the larger
ones 6-11 mm.
long; drupes subglobose,
12-15 mm.
in diameter.
[M.
urens
Bello, not of Linnaeus.]
Thickets and woodlands at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques
(ac-
cording to Urban)
; St. Thomas (according to Krebs)
; St. Croix (according to Eggers)
:
Jamaica.
OLu\ga.
Palo bronco.
5. Malpighia pallens Small, N. A. Fl. 25: 157.
1910.
A shrub about 2 m. high or a small tree with brownish bark.
Leaves oblong
or
elliptic, or somewhat obovate,
.3..S-8 cm. long,
1.5-4 cm. broad, rounded or
acutish at
both ends,
light green and glabrous
above, scarcely paler beneath
with few or many persistent hairs, short-petioled; cymes peduncled; sepals ovate,
2-2.5 mm. long; drupes subglobose, 14-16 mm. in diameter, red.
[M. urens of
Millspaugh
^ and of Eggers.]
Coastal
thickets,
St.
Croix.
Endemic.
The leaves are usually copiously armed
beneath with long yellowisli stinging hairs and contact witli them is highly u-ritating.
6. Malpighia Shaferi Britton and Wilson, Bull. Torr. Club 43: 456.
1916.
A shrul) 2-2.5 m.
tall, with grayish-brown twigs.
Leaves oblong-elliptic to
elliptic or somewhat oblong-lanceolate, 13-17 cm. long, 4.5-8.5 cm. broad, acute,
or rounded and mucronate, or occasionally retuse at the apex, rounded or acute
at the base, reticulate-veined above, armed beneath with closely-appressed sting-
ing
hairs, the margin
revolute;
petioles
stout, 8-12 mm. long; cymes
sessile;
sepals elliptic to broadly ovate, 2-3 mm. long,
1.2-1.5 mm. broad; petals pink,
the larger ones 10-11 mm. long; drupes red.
Ravines, Vieques.
Endemic.
7. Malpighia infestissima (A. Juss.) Rich.; Ndz. Gen. Malp. 15.
1899.
M. urens infestissima A. Juss. in Walp. Repert. 5: 151.
1845.
A shrub 2 m. high, or sometimes a small tree.
Leaves ovate to oval. 4-12
cm. long, 2-8.5 cm. broad, rounded and sometimes retuse at the apex, or acute,
rounded or cordate at the base, often more or less bristly hispid on both surfaces,
short-petioled or subse.ssile; cymes peduncled; sepals oblong to oval-oblong, 3-3.5
mm. long; petals white or pink, the larger ones 9-13 mm. long; drupes ovoid,
11-16 mm.
in diameter.
[M.
urens of West and of Krebs,
not of Linnaeus;
M. Cnide of Eggers, not of Sprengel.]
Hillsides and coastal tliickets, Culebra; Vieques; Water Island, St. Tliomas; St. Jan;
Virgin Gorda; Anegada; St. Thomas is the type locaUty.
Endemic.
Cowhage Cherry.
8. Malpighia linearis Jacq. Enum. 21.
1760.
Malpighia angustifolia L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 610.
1762.
Malpighia angustifolia oblongata Ndz. Gen. Malp.
9.
1899.
Malpighia angustifolia linearis Ndz. Gen. I^Ialp. 9.
1899
A shrub 2.5-3 m. high, or a small tree.
Leaves linear or linear-oblong, 4-10.5
cm.
long, 2.5-15 mm.
broad, abruptly acute or short-acuminate
at the apex,
acutish
at the
base, glabrous above,
hispid beneath with two-branched
hairs,
the
petioles
1-3 mm.
long; cymes peduncled,
the branches pubescent;
sepals
lanceolate. 2.5-3 mm. long, pubescent: petals white or purplish, the larger ones
6-8 mm. long; drupes globose-ovoid, 8-11 mm. in diameter,
red.
[? M. urens
lanceolata of Eggers.]
Tliickets,
Vieques
(according
to
Eggers); Water
Island,
St.
Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Anegada:—St. Martin to Montserrat.
Stinging bush.
MALPIGHIACEAE
445
9. Malpighia coccigera L. Sp. PI. 426.
1753.
Malpighin coccigri/a L. Sp.
PI. ed. 2, 611.
1762.
Malpighia coccigera coccigrya Ndz. Gen. Malp. 19.
1899.
A shrub
T m. high or less.
Leaves oval, suborbicular, ovate or obovate in
outline, 0.5-3 7 cm. long, 0.4-3.4 cm. broad, obtuse or rounded and sometimes
emarginate at the apex, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base, prominently
sinuate-dentate, the teeth armed with bristles, or sometimes entire, lustrous and
veiny above, dull beneath, glabrous at maturity; the petioles 1 mm. long or less;
cymes short-peduncled: sepals oblong or ovate-oblong, 3-3.5 mm. long; petals
pink, the larger ones 9-10 mm. long; drupes subglobose, 9-10 mm. in diameter.
Thickets, woodlands and
forests, Porto
Rico,
at lower and middle elevations in
wet
or
moist
districts:—Ctiba;
Hisjjaniola;
^Martinique
to
St.
Lucia.
Occasionally
grown
for ornament and
interest
in Porto Rico gardens.
Recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas.
Azota caballo.
Malpighia oxycocca corymbosa, forma Grisebachiana Ndz., recorded
by Niedenzn as collected by Eggers on St. Croix, is known to us from description
only.
It may be referable to one of the preceding species.
Malpighia setosa Spreng., a species endemic in Hispaniola, was recorded by
Krebs from St. Thomas, in error.
A shrub on Maguey
Island near Parguera, southwestern coast of Porto
Rico, with very short-petioled, stellate-puberulent, ovate thin entire leaves, 4-6
cm. long, the apex obtuse or acutish, the base cordate, the upper surface bright
green, the under surface pale green, with long scattered 2-iOrked stinging hairs,
is probably another species of Malpighia: the shrub was barren at the time of
our visit to this island on Feb. 24, 1924 (Britton, 8059).
8. BUNCHOSIA Rich.; A. Juss. Ann. Mus. Paris 18: 481.
1811.
Shrubs or trees, with opposite, usually coriaceous, petioled or nearly sessile
leaves, and yellow or white flowers in terminal panicles.
Calyx 8-10-glandular,
the
5
sepals
persistent.
Petals
5,
their
broad
blades
undulate
or
toothed.
Stamens
10,
all antheriferous; filaments partly united, glabrous; anthers short.
Ovary 2-3-lobed
; styles united
; stigma 3-lobed or capitate.
Drupe ovoid, globose
or reniform.
[Said to be derived from an Arabic name for coffee.]
Thirty species
or more, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species: Malpighia odorata
Jacq.
Ovary and style glabrotis.
Drupes usually
less than
1 cm.
in diameter; leaves
1-3.5 cm.
broad.
1.
B. glandulosa.
Drupes usually over 1 cm. in diameter; leaves 2-7 cm. broad.
2.
B. nitida.
Ovary and style pubescent.
Z. B. glandulifera.
1. Bunchosia glandulosa (Cav.) DC. Prodr.
1: 581.
1824.
Malpighia glandulosa Cav. Diss. 8: 411.
1789.
Bunchosia glandulosp, latifolia Ndz. Gen. Bunch.
11.
1898.
A shrub, or ometimes a tree up to 8 m. high.
Leaves oblong to oblanceolate
or elliptic-obovate, glabrous, 3-11 cm. long, 1-3.5 cm. broad, obtuse or acute at
the apex, na rowed or acute at the base, bright green, somewhat paler beneath
than above, the petioles 5-12 m. long; panicles often many, as long as the leaves
or shorter; pedicels finely pubescent when young, becoming glabrous; sepals oblong
or ovate-oblong, about 3 mm. long: petals yellow, the larger 6-7.5 mm. long, with
suborbicular, erose or denticulate blades; ovary and style glabrous; drupes ovoid,
red or orange, 2-lobed, 8-10 mm. in diameter.
[Malpighia Swartziana of Eggers;
? Bunchosia media of Krebs.]
446
MALPIGHIACEAE
Coastal woodlands and thickets, and on hillsides near the coasts, Porto Rico; Icacos;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Bahamas; Hispaniola; St. Barts to Martinique;
Yucatan.
2. Bunchosia nitida (Jacq.) DC. Prodr. 1: 582.
1824.
Malpiahia nitida Jacq. Enum. ?1.
1760.
Bunchosia polystachya DC. Prodr.
1: 581.
1824.
A shrub or
tree.
Leaves elliptic-oblong,
elliptic or somewhat lanceolate,
4-16 cm.
long, 2-7 cm. broad, acute to acuminate, or occasionally obtuse and
emarginate at the apex, acute or obtuse at the base, glabrous in age, short-peti-
oled; panicles equalling or shorter than the
leaves;
pedicels pubescent; sepals
oblong to ovate; 4-5 mm. long; larger petals suborbicular, 6.5-8 mm. long, glan-
dular-toothed; ovary and style glabrous; drupes yellow, 2-lobed, 14-16 mm.
in
diameter.
Woodlands near Guanica and near Mayaguez (according to Urban, determined from
barren specimens):—Hispaniola; Montserrat to Grenada and Barbados.
Recorded by
Krebs from St. Thomas.
3. Bunchosia glandulifera (Jacq.) H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 154.
1822.
Malpighia glandulifera Jacq. Coll. 4: 207.
1790.
A small tree.
Leaves ovate to oval, 5-17 cm. long, 3-10.5 cm. broad, acute to
acuminate at the apex, obtuse or rounded at the base, glabrous above, sparsely
pubescent
beneath,
the
petioles
0.7-1
cm.
long,
often
bearing two
or more
elevated glands near the top; panicles shorter than the leaves; pedicels pubescent;
sepals ovate-oblong, 3.5-4.5 mm. long; larger petals 7-8 mm. long; ovary and
style pubescent; drupes 2-lobed, 10-14 mm. in diameter, red.
Forests, Sierra de Yabucoa:—Montserrat; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
Trinidad
(?);
Venezuela.
Cafe Forastero.
9. BYRSONIMA Rich.; A. Juss. Ann. Mus. Paris 18: 491.
1811.
Shrubs
or
trees, with
opposite, petioled
or
sessile
leaves, the
flowers
in
terminal
panicles
or
racemes.
Calyx
10-glandular,
or
glandless,
of 5
broad
persistent sepals.
Petals
5, the blades suborbicular to reniform.
Stamens
10.
all antheriferous
; filaments short, sUghtly imited at the base.
Ovary 3-lobed;
styles 3, slender; stigmas subulate.
Drupes ovoid to globose.
[Greek, tanning.]
About 100 species, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species
: Malpighia
spicata Cav.
Leaves
small,
spatulate
to
obovate,
1.5-9
cm.
long,
0.9-4.5
cm.
Panicles' 2-6 cm. long; larger petals 5-7 mm. long; petioles 2-5
Petals'white to red; leaves 6 cm. long or less.
1.
B. ciineata.
Petals light yellow; leaves 4-9 cm. long.
.,
.„
2. B. Morneana.
Panicles 5-9 cm. long; larger petals S-10 mm. long; petioles 5-9
,„,„„vn7„
mm
long; leaves 6 cm. long or less.
•i-
a. opinncoia.
Leaves various, averaging much larger.
,
^,
.
,
,
^
._^ ^„
Bracts 3 mm. long or
less,
silky on both sides; leaves often pu-
bescent
beneath,
especially
along
the margin,
with rusty
or
.
-^
^ .,„
grayish strigose hairs.
,
^
,
^,
i
„
spwaia.
Bracts over 3 mm. long, tomentose beneath, glabrous or nearly so
above;
leaves
often
pubescent,
especially
along
the midvem,
.,„„,w^;,-^
with rusty curly hairs.
5.
B. crassifolia.
1. Byrsonima cuneata (Turcz.) P. Wilson, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 8: 394.
1917.
Malpighia lucida Sw. Prodr. 74.
1788.
Not Miller.
1768.
Byrsonima lucida DC. Prodr.
1: 580.
1824.
Malpighia cuneata Turcz. Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 31»: 390.
1858.
Byrsonima porioricensis Stahl, Estud. 2: 143.
1884.
MALPIGHIACEAE
447
A shrub, 2.5 m. high or less, sometimes a small tree up to 8 m. high, the twigs
slender, mostly short.
Leaves spatulate to obovate, rather thin in texture,
flat,
1.5-5. .5 cm. long, glabrous, rounded or abruptly acute at the apex, narrowed or
cuneate at the base, lustrous above,
dull beneath, the petioles 2-5 mm.
long;
pedicels sparingly pubescent or glabrous; sepals ovate or oblong, about 3 mm.
long; petals white to red, the larger 5-7 mm. long; drupes globose, brown, 9-12
mm. in diameter.
Thickets, woodlands and hillsides at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Mona;
Vieques;
St. Thomas (according to de CandoUeand listed by Krebs)
; Anegada:—Florida; Bahamas;
Cuba; Hispaniola; Barbuda to Barbados.
The dark brown wood, used for furmture, is
heavy, flne-grataed, hard and strong.
Palo de doxcell.\.
Guano-berry.
Candle-
berry.
2. Byrsonima Horneana Britton & Small, sp. nov.
A tree 5 m. tall or less, the twigs with red tomentum which ultimately turns
gray.
Leaves obovate
to
elliptic, 4-9 cm.
long,
1.5-4.5 cm.
broad, abruptly
pointed, acute, sometimes cuneate at the base, glabrous, or with scattered hairs
on and about the midrib on both sides; sepals ovate, 3-3.5 mm. long, the glands
about half as long as the sepal-body; petals
light yellow, or fading reddish,
the
larger 6-7 mm. long; drupe globose, 10-12 mm. in diameter.
Thickets, Guanajibo, Porto Rico (Britlon SOS't, type)
; collected also by Mrs. Frances
W. Home.
Endemic.
3. Byrsonima ophiticola
Small,
Bull.
Torr.
Bot. Club
43:
456.
1916.
A tree, 8 m. tall or taller, with grayish branches, the young twigs clothed with
a reddish-brown tomentum.
Leaves clustered at the ends of the branches, ob-
ovate, 2-6.5 cm. long, 0.9-2.2 cm. broad, rounded or sometimes acutish at the
apex, cuneate or acute at the base, pubescent on both sides when young, the
hairs sometimes persisting in age; petioles 5-9 mm. long, pubescent with reddish
hairs; inflorescence 5-9 cm. long
; pedicels 5-10 mm. long, pubescent; sepals ovate,
2.5-3 mm. long, obtuse or acutish; petals 8-10 mm. long, yellow, turning scarlet.
Serpentine slopes, Guanajibo, near Mayaguez.
Endemic.
4. Byrsonima spicata (Cav.) DC. Prodr.
1: 580.
1824.
Malpighia spicata Cav. Diss. 8: 409.
1790.
A tree, sometimes 25 m. high, the young twigs clothed with reddish tomen-
tum. Leaves elliptic, oblong or somewhat lanceolate, 6-13 cm. or more long, 1.5-5
cm. broad, acutish, acuminate, or obtuse at the apex, acute at the base, pubescent
when young, glabrous or nearly so when mature; sepals ovate, 2.5-3 mm. long;
' larger petals 5-6 mm. long; drupes globose, 9-11 mm. in diameter.
[Malpighia
undnlala Sesse & Mocino, not A. Juss.
; Byrsonima coriacea of MiUspaugh, not of
de CandoUe.]
Woods and forests at lower and middle elevations in wet and moist districts, Porto
Rico- St
Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Cuba; Hispaniola; continental tropical
America.
The record by Small
of
the
species
B. martiniccnsis Krug &
I rban from
St
Crcix, applies to this tree.
Occasionally planted in Porto Rico.
Its wood
is reddish
brown,- hard, strong and heavy, valued for furniture and for construction; the astringent
bark is sometimes used in tannmg.
Its trimk reaches 3 dm. in diameter or more, with
smooth gray bark.
Maricao.
6. Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) H. B. K. Nov. Gen.
5: 149.
1822.
Malpighia crassijolia L.
Sp.
PI. 426.
1753.
Byrson ma cuhensis A. Juss. Ann. Sci. Nat. 11. 13: 333.
1840.
Byrsonima crassijolia
typica Ndz. Gen. Byrs. 2: 16.
1901.
A tree or shrub, the twigs clothed with reddish tomentum.
Leaves oblong-
elliptic, ovate, lanceolate, narrowly oblong or obovate, .5-17 cm. long, 2-12 cm.
broad, acute, acuminate or obtuse at the apex, acute or rounded at the base, glab-
448
RUTACEAE
rous or nearly so above when
mature, rusty pubescent
beneath,
or glabrous,
short-petioled
; pedicels red-tomentose; sepals ovate, 3.5-4.5 mm.
long, petals
yellow, the larger ones 7-10 mm. long; drupes globose, 9-12 mm. in diameter.
.Slope.s, northwestern and western districts of Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba: Hispani-
ola; Dominica; Barbados; Trinidad; northern South America.
Maricao cimarron.
Byrsonima coriacea (Sw.) DC, endemic in Jamaica, was recorded from
St. Thomas by Krebs, evidently in error; Krebs gives for
it the English name
Locust-berry Tree.
[M alpighia coriacea Sw.]
Byrsonima laevigata DC, of Guiana, was also recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas.
Spachea littoralis A. Juss., described by A. Jussieu as from
St. Thomas,
collected by Finlay, was really collected in Trinidad.
Hiraea faginea
(Sw.) Ndz., recorded by Niedenzu from
St. Thomas,
is
probably an error in locality.
Triopteris jamaicensis L. {T. Hgi-ia Sw.^ of the Bahamas, Cuba and His-
paniola, is mentioned by Stahl in his Flora of Porto Rico, with the explanation,
however, that he had not seen a specimen.
It probably does not occur within
our area, although it was also recorded by Krebs as found in St. Thomas prior to
1851.
Family 6.
RUTACEAE Juss.
Rue Family.
Aromatic trees or shrubs, often armed with prickles, rarely herbs, with
heavy-scented and glandular-punctate foliage, pinnately or digitately com-
pound,
unifoliolate,
or
simple
leaves, and
perfect
or polygamo-dioecious
flowers.
Sepals 4 or 5, or none.
Petals 4 or
5, hypogynous or perigynous.
Stamens of the same number, or twice as many or sometimes more, distinct,
inserted on the receptacle; anthers 2-celled, mostly versatile.
Disk annular.
Carpels
1-5, or more,
sessile or stipitate, free or united.
Fruit various, a
capsule,
berry or
follicle.
Seeds oblong or reniform; endosperm generally
fleshy, sometimes none.
About 110 genera and 950 species, most abundant
in South Africa and Australia.
Fruit dry, a follicle or capsule.
Corolla gamopetalous; filaments adnate to the corolla-tube.
1. Bavenia.
Corolla polypetalous; filaments free from the petals.
Stamens as many as the petals; ovtiles
1 or 2 in each carpel.
Flowers dioecious or polygamous; disk inconspicuous.
2.
Zanthoxylum.
Flowers perfect; ovary immersed in a fleshy disk.
3.
Pilocarpus.
Stamens twice as many as the petals; ovules 5 or more in each
carpel; herbs.
4.
Ruta.
Fruit fleshy, a drupe or berry.
Fruit a drupe; style persistent.
5. Amyris.
Fruit a berry; style deciduous; ovary several-celled.
Stamens 6-10.
Stamens 6; caly.x 3-lobed; leaves trifoliolate.
6.
Triphasia.
Stamens 8 or 10; caly.x 5-fld or.5-parted; leaves odd-pinnate.
7.
Chalcas.
Stamens numerous; carpels several-seeded; leaves unifoliolate.
8.
Citrus.
1. RAVENIAVell. Fl. Flum.20.
1825.
Shrubs or trees, with opposite, simple or compound, entire leaves.
Inflor-
escence terminal and
axillary,
few-flowered.
Flowers perfect, showy.
Sepals
4 or
5, imbricate, unequal, the two outer larger than the inner ones.
Corolla
funnel-shaped, the lobes 4 or 5, unequal.
Stamens 4 or 5, the two inferior fertUe,
RUTACEAE
449
the superior ones sterile; filaments adnate to the tube of the corolla, the tips of
the sterile ones free, linear or subulate
; anthers longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary 4-
or .5-lobed, 4- or 5-celled, immersed in the cup-shaped disk; style filiform, stigma 4-
or 5-lobed.
Ovules 2 in each
cell.
Fruit composed of
1-5, 2-valved
carpels.
Seeds
1
or 2 in each carpel; embryo curved; cotyledons 2-lobed, conduplicate.
[In honor of Jean Francois Raven, a French physician, who collected rare plants
in South America, died in Africa.]
About 6 species, natives of the West Indies
and South America.
Type species
: Ravenia infelix Veil.
1. Ravenia Urbani Engler; Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 552.
1896.
A tree, sometimes 16 m.
high.
Leaves simple,
elliptic to suborbicular or
ovate, 5-15 cm. long,
3. .5-8.5 cm. broad, rounded, obtuse, retuse, acute, or acu-
minate at the apex, rounded and slightly cordate at the base, dark green above,
paler beneath, glabrous, coriaceous, glandular-punctate, short-petioled or sessile
inflorescence 3-7-flowered;
pedicels short; outer sepals linear or oblong-linear,
6-13 mm. long, 2-4 mm. broad, the three inner elliptic, oval, or ovate, 1..5-4 mm.
long, 3-4 mm.
broad;
corolla rose-pink,
den.sely
glandular,
the cylindric tube
1-1.8 cm. long, the lobes unequal, oblong to ovate, 10-20 mm. long, 5-13 mm.
broad; carpels compressed; seeds tuberculate.
High forests of the eastern mountaixis of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
ToRTUGO prieto.
2. ZANTHOXYLUM [Catesby] L. Sp. PI. 270.
1753.
Trees or shrubs with alternate, equally pinnate, odd-pinnate, or unifoliolate,
evergreen or deciduous leaves, the twigs and petioles commonly prickly.
In-
florescence terminal or axillary, cymose, paniculate, racemose, spicate, glomerate,
or rarely 1-flowered.
Flowers whitish or greenish, small.
Sepals 3 or 5, or none.
Petals 3-5.
Staminate flowers with 3 or 5 hypogynous stamens.
Pistillate flowers
1-5-carpellary.
Carpels 2-ovuled.
Follicles 1-5.
Seeds oblong, ovoid, or glo-
bose, black or reddish,
shining.
[Greek, yellow-wood.]
About 150 species, of
temperate and
tropical
regions, known
as Espino,
Espino
rubial, Prickly
Ash and Yellow-wood.
Type species: Zanthoxylum Clava-Herculis L.
Inflorescence congested, scattered in the axils of the leaves, or rarely
terminal on the same branches, few-flowered.
Sepals, petals, and stamens 3; petioles and rachis wingless.
Pistillate
flowers
2-carpellary
;
follicles
3. .5-4. 5 mm.
long;
lateral leaflets 2-8 cm. long, 1-4 cm. broad.
1.
Z. punctatum.
Pistillate
flowers
3-carpellary
;
follicles
7-8
mm.
long;
lateral leaflets 1.5-2.5 cm. long, 1.3-2 cm. broad.
2.
Z. thomasianum.
Sepals, petals and stamens 4; petioles and rachis wing-margined.
3.
Z. spinifex.
Inflorescence terminal, or lateral in the axils of the upper leaves,
commonly many-flowered
; sepals, petals and stamens 5.
Leaves unifoliolate.
4.
Z. monophyllum.
Leaves several-foliolate.
Sepals
suborbicular,
strongly
imbricate
in
flower;
plant
glabrous or nearly so; pistillate flowers 5-carpellary.
5.
Z. caribacum.
Sepals
triangiilar
"or
triangular-ovate,
not
strongly
im-
bricate in flower.
Yoimg growth, branches of the inflorescence and often
the petioles and under sm-face of the leaflets pubescent
.
.
with simple hairs; pistillate flowers 5-carpellary.
6.
Z. martimrense.
Young growth, branches of the Inflorescence and often
the petioles and mider surface of the leaflets minutely
stellate canescent
; pistillate flowers 1 -3-carpellary.
7.
Z. flavum.
1. Zanthoxylum punctatum Vahl; West, Bidr.
St. Croix 310.
1793.
Fagara trifoliota Sw. Prodr. 33.
1788.
Zanthoxylum ternatum Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 1: 570.
1797.
Tohinia tcrnata Hamilt. Prodr. 57.
1825.
Tohinia punctata Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I.
137.
18.59.
Xanthoxylum
trifoliotum Krug & Urban; Urban,
Bot.
Jahrb.
21:
584,
as
synonym, 1896.
Not L.
1753.
450
RUTACEAE
A shrub, or small tree sometimes 8 m. tall, the flowering branches and their
leaves usually unarmed, the sterile branches with petioles, rachis and midrib of
the under surface
of
the
leaflets
nearly always armed
with
straight slender
brownish prickles.
Leaves odd-pinnate or occasionally equally-pinnate; leaflets
2-7, commonly 3, or sometimes 9-19 on leaves of the sterile branches, broadly
obovate or elliptic-lanceolate, 2-8 cm.
long, 1-4 cm. broad, short-petioluled or
subsessile, emarginate, rounded, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, acute to
cuneate at the base, minutely crenulate
; inflorescence axillary, short
; calyx about
1 mm. broad;
sepals
3, semiorbicular to triangular-ovate; petals
3,
elliptic to
orbicular-ovate, 1.7-2.5 mm. long, 1-2.2 mm. broad, the staminate flowers with
3 stamens; pistillate flowers 2-carpellary
; follicles
1 or 2, globose or subglobose,
3.5-4.5 mm. long, 3-3.8 mm. in diameter; seeds globose, reniform, 2.9-3.2 mm.
long, 2.2-2.7 mm. broad.
Thickets at low elevations in the dry southwestern districts of Porto Rico; Mona;
St. Croix:—Hispaniola;
St.
JNIartin to Trinidad.
2. Zanthoxylum thomasianum Krug & Urban; P. Wilson, N. A. Fl. 25: 182.
1911.
Fagara tho7nasiana Krug & Urban; Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 583.
1896.
A shrub, 2 m. high or higher, with minutely papillose twigs, the flowering
branches and twigs prickly.
Leaves 3-6 cm. or more long, odd-pinnate; leaflets
5-9,
sessile, ovate or orbicular, the terminal one obovate and short-petioluled,
1.5-2.5 cm. long, 1.3-2 cm. broad, rounded or subtruncate and apiculate or very
short-acuminate at the apex, obtuse or rounded at the base
; inflorescence lateral,
sessile, glomerate, few-flowered; sepals about 1 mm. long; petals oval, 2.5-3 nun.
long, 2 mm.
broad; staminate flowers with 3 stamens;
pistillate flowers 3-car-
pellary
; follicles 3, sometimes 2 or 1 abortive, ovoid, 7-8 mm. long, 5 mm. broad
seeds ovate, 5 mm.
long, 4 nun. broad,
black.
[Z.
spinosujn of Krebs, not of
Swartz.; Tobinia spinosa of Eggers, not of Hamilton.]
Mountain forests, St. Thomas; St. Jan.
Endemic.
3. Zanthoxylum spinifex (Jacq.) DC. Prodr.
1: 728.
1824.
Fagara spinifex Jacq. Fragm.
10.
1809.
Fagara microphylla Desf.
; Hamilt. Prodr.
21.
1825.
Zanthoxylum microphyllum Desf. Cat. Hort. Paris ed. 3, 256.
1829.
A shrub,
1-3 m.
high,
or a small
tree,
the branches,
petioles and
rachis
unarmed or armed with straight slender brownish prickles 3-8 mm. long; leaves
1-4.5 cm.
long,
odd-pinnate;
leaflets 3-11,
linear-oblong
to
elliptic
or
ovate,
occasionally obovate, 0.3-1.5 cm. long,
1-5.5 mm.
broad, sessile or ve y short-
petioluled, rounded or truncate and sometimes emarginate at the apex, callus-
bearing, cuneate to slightly rounded at the base, entire; petioles and internodes of
the rachis winged; flowers solitary or glomerate in the axils of the leaves; sepals
triangular, obtuse,
0.5 mm.
long; petals
4, ovate to
elliptic; staminate flowers
with 4 stamens;
pistillate flowers 2-carpellary; follicles sessile or short-stipitate,
united below, globose or globose-obovoid, 2.5-3.4 mm. in diameter; seeds ovoid
or
subglobose,
2.5-3 mm.
long.
[Fagara
tragodes
of West,
not
of Jacqm'n;
Zanthoxylum tragodes of Krebs, not of de Candolle.]
Hillside
tliickets and arroyos at lower elevations in the dry southern
districts of
Porto Rico: St. Croix;
St. Thomas (according to Krebs); Buck Island,
St. Thomas
(ac-
cording to Eggers. but not seen there by us in 1913):—Cuba; Hispaniola, Antigua to
St. Lucia and Barbados; Venezuela.
Nlvrag.\.to.
4. Zanthoxylum monophyllum (Lam.) P. Wilson, Bull. Torrey Club 37: 86.
1910.
Fagara monophylla Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 334.
1791.
Zanthoxylum simplicifolium Vahl, Eclog. 3: 45.
1807.
RUTACEAE
451
Zanlhoxylum Ochroxylum DC. Prodr.
1: 725.
1824.
Zanthoxylum rnacrophyllum Ryan; Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus. 13: 38, as
synonym.
1879.
A shrub or small tree, the branches unarmed or armed with flat-pyramidal,
sharp-tipped or rounded prickles 2-9 mm. long.
Leaves unifoliolate, the leaflet
oval or elliptic-oval, 3-14 cm.
long,
1..5-5.4 cm. broad, those on sterile shoots
larger,
acute,
obtuse
or short-acuminate,
rarely long-acuminate
at
the
apex,
acute or sometimes rounded at the base, entire or obscurely crenulate, glabrous;
petioles 0..5-1.5 cm. long; panicles terminal, or often on lateral branches, 2-5 cm.
long, the branches more or less hispidulous; calyx 1-1.3 mm. broad; petals ellip-
tic-oblong or ovate, 2-2.6 mm. long, 0.8-1.5 mm. broad; staminate flowers with
5, rarely 4 stamens, about
as long as the petals;
pistillate flowers 2- or 3-carpel-
lary;
follicles globose or globose-obovoid, 3.-5-4.5 mm. long; seeds globose-reni-
form, 3.4 mm. long, 2.7-3.3 mm. broad, black.
Woodlands,
thickets,
hillsides and arroyos at lower elevations, Porto Rico, most
abundant in
the dry southern
districts; Vieques;
St.
Croix:
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:
Hispaniola; Montserrat to Trinidad; Costa Rica; northern South America.
Carubio.
MoPURiTO.
RuBiA.
Yellow Prickle.
"5. Zanthoxylum caribaeum Lam. Encyc. 2: 39.
1786.
Fagara caribaea Krug & Urban; Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 562.
1896.
A shrub, or tree up to 20 m.
tall, the glabrous branches armed with short
straight, dark brown prickles.
Leaves 1.5-2.8 dm. long, equally pinnate or odd-
pinnate; leaflets 7-13, eUiptic-oblong to oval or ovate, 4.5-12 cm. long, 2.5-5 cm.
broad, short-petioluled or subsessile, rounded, obtuse or short-acuminate at the
apex, somewhat cordate, rounded or acute at the base, equilateral or inequilateral,
depressed-crenate
or nearly
entire,
pellucid-glandular;
panicles terminal, 4-20
cm. long, the branches corky-thickened; sepals 5; semiorbicular or suborbicular,
rounded at the apex, 0.7-1 mm. long, 0.9-1.5 mm. broad, nearly entire or fimbriate;
petals elliptic to elliptic-ovate, or somewhat obovate, 3-5 mm. long, about 1 mm.
broad
; staminate flowers with 5 stamens
; pistillate flowers 5-carpellary
; follicles
4..5-8 mm. long, 4-6 mm. broad, the base stipe-like, the body reniform, obliquely
orbicular or obliquely obovoid; seeds 4-5 mm. long, black.
[Z. aromaticum of
Bello and of Stahl, not of Willdenow.]
Woods and hillsides at low elevations, southern and western districts of Porto Rico
:
Guadeloupe; Martinique; Barbados; Mexico and northern South America.
6. Zanthoxylum martinicense (Lam.) DC. Prodr.
1: 726.
1824.
Fagara martinicensis Lam. Tabl. Encycl. l: 334.
1792
Zanthoxylum lanceolatiim Poir.in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 2:^293.
1811.
Zanthoxylinn jitglandijolium Berterianum DC. Prodr.
1: 727.
1824.
A tree, often 20 m. high, armed with stout pyramidal or conic prickles some-
times 5,5 cm. long and 6.5 cm. broad, the twigs hispidulous, armed or unarmed.
Leaves odd-pinnate or occasionally equally pmnate, 1-3.5 dm. long; leaflets ^15,
oblong,
oblong-lanceolate,
obovate,
elliptic,
or
rarely
ovate,
3-13
cm.
long.
1.5-4.3 cm. broad, often
sessile or nearly
so,
acute, obtusely short-acuminate,
rounded or emarginate at the apex, obliquely rounded or acute at the base, in-
equilateral,
glossy and often somewhat
hispidulous especially on
the midvein
above, paler and hispidulous on the veins beneath; petioles and rachis unarmed
or armed with brownish
prickles,
hispidulous,
panicles terminal and axiUary,
0.6-1.5 dm. long, the branches hispidulous; calyx 1-1.4 mm. broad; petals ovate
or elliptic-ovate, 2-3 mm. long, 1-1.3 mm. broad; staminate flowers with 5 sta-
mens; pistillate flowers 5-carpellary; follicles close together, sessile, connate below
or to the middle, 4-6 mm. long, 3-4 mm. broad; seeds 3-4 mm. long, 2.5-3 mm.
broad, black.
[Z. Clava-Herculis of Krebs, of Eggers, of Bello and of Stahl, not
of Linnaeus;
? Z. acuminatum of Bello, not of Sw.
;
? Fagara pterota of Cook and
Collins, not of Linnaeus.]
452
RUTACEAE
Wooded
hills,
forests, river valleys and arroj os, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations in moist and dry districts; Vieques: St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola;—
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Montserrat to Trinidad; also in South America.
The light
yellow wood used for furniture, in carpentry and in construction
is hard and strong, its
specific gravity about 0.93.
Cenizo.
White Prickle.
7. Zanthoxylum flavum Vahl, Eclog. 3: 4S.
1S07.
Xanthoxylon cribrosum Spreng. Syst.
1: 946.
1825.
Fagara flava Krug & Urban; Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: .571.
1896.
Zanthoxylon jucundum Duchass.
; Eggers, Viden.sk. Medd. 1876: 108, as syno-
nym.
1876.
An unarmed tree, reaching a maximum height of about 12 m. with a trunk
about 4 dm. in diameter, usually smaller, sometimes shrubby, the light gray bark
nearly smooth, the twigs finely stellate-pubescent when young, soon glabrous.
Leaves 1-2.5 dm. long, odd-pinnate, finely stellate-canescent when young; leaflets
3-11, mostly 5 or 7, ovate or lanceolate to elliptic, very nearly sessile, obtuse or
acutlsh
at the apex, rounded, subtruncate,
or somewhat acutish
at the
base,
creiiiate or nearly
entire,
pellucid-punctate;
panicles
terminal, many-flowered,
5-15 cm.
long; pedicels and rachis stellate-canescent; calyx 1-1.4 mm. broad;
petals elliptic-lanceolate or oblong-ovate, 2. .5-4 mm. long; staminate flowers with
5, rarely 4 stamens about as long as the petals; pistillate flowers 1-3-carpellary
:'
follicles obovoid, 5-9 mm. long; seeds black, shining, 4-5 mm. long, black.
[Z.
Sumach of Eggers, not of Macfadyen.]
Hillsides at low elevations, southwestern districts of Porto Rico and near Quebra-
dillas; Bordeaux
PJills,
St. Jan (nearly extinct, according to Eggers, and not seen by us
in
St. Jan in 1913):—Florida; Bermuda: Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba: Hispaniola; Mont-
serrat to
St. Lucia.
The yellow wood, now scarce, valued for cabinet work, furniture
and veneer, is hard, strong and heavy, its specific gravity about 0.9.
Yellow Sander.
Satinwood.
Zanthoxylum Fagara
(L.)
Sargent,
a very prickly shrub or small
tree,
was listed by Krebs, with the English name Bastard Iron-w^ood, as found in
St. Thomas, apparently in error, as it is not known within the limits of this Flora.
[Schi?ius Fagara L.
; Zanthoxylum Pterota H. B. K.]
3. PILOCARPUS Vahl, Eclog. l: 29.
1796.
Trees or shrubs with mostly
alternate,
simple or compound
leaves.
In-
florescence terminal or axillary, racemose or spicate.
Flowers perfect.
Calyx 4-
or 5-lobed.
Petals 4 or 5.
Stamens 4 or
5, inserted under the disk; filaments
subulate, glabrous; anthers ovate.
Ovary 4- or 5-lobed; 4- or .5-celled, immersed
in the annular disk; style short, simple or 5-parted at the base; stigma capitate,
4- or 5-lobed; ovules 2 in each cavity.
Fruit composed of 1-5 nearly distinct
carpels which are concentrically ridged, 1-seeded, splitting above the middle into
2
valves.
Testa
membranous;
cotyledons
pear-shaped.
[Greek,
cap-fruit,
from the shape of the fruit.]
Type species
: Pilocarpus racemosus Vahl.
1. Pilocarpus racemosus Vahl, Eclog. 1: 29.
1796.
Pilocarpus laurifalius Vahl; Eggei's, Bull. U. S. Nat. ]Mus. 13: 37, as synonym.
1879.
A shrub or small tree.
Leaflets
1-5, narrowly elliptic to oval or obovate,
4-17.5 cm. long, 2-9 cm. broad, retuse at the apex, cimeate or somewhat rounded
at the base, entire, coriaceous; racemes 1.5-3.5 dm. long; pedicels 7-13 nim. long;
petals ovate or oblong-ovate,
3. .5-4 mm. long, 2-2.5 mm. broad, acute; filaments
subulate; anthers ovate; follicles 8-11 mm. long, 6-8 mm. broad, dark brown or
blackish; seeds black.
Mountain woodlands, northwestern
districts
of Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
St. Jan;
Cuba; Montserrat; Guadeloupe: Martinique.
RUTACEAE
453
Pilocarpus pauciflorus
St.
Hil., a Brazilian tree, was recorded
bj- Krebs
in 1852 as an element of the strand vegetation of St. Thomas; this is an error of
some kind.
4. RUTA [Tourn.] L. Sp. PL 383.
17.->3.
Perennial,
strong-smelling
herbs, sometimes woody
at
the
base.
Leaves
alternate, simple or much divided.
Flowers perfect, terminal in corymbose or
panicled cymes.
Sepals 4 or
5,
persistent.
Petals 4 or
5, yellow or greenish.
Disk 8- or 10-lobed.
Stamens 8 or 10, inserted at the base of the disk.
Ovary
4- or 5-celled, more or less 4- or 5-lobed.
Ovules several in each cavity.
Capsule
4- or 5-celled, 4- or 5-lobed.
Seeds angled; endosperm fleshy; embryo slightly
curved;
cotyledons sometimes
2-parted.
[Classical name
of rue.]
About 40
species, natives of the Old World.
Type species: Ruta graveolens L.
1. Ruta chalapensis L. :Mant. 69.
1767.
A glaucous herb, 3-6 dm. high or more.
Leaves twice or thrice pinnately
divided, the segments linear to elliptic or obovate, rounded or notched at the apex
sepals ovate, crenulate, 3.5-4 mill, long; petals with an involute margin and apex,
fringed, 7.5-9 mm. long; ovary with pointed lobes; capsule ovoid, 7-9 mm. wide,
the apex of the lobes pointed.
Locally spontaneous
after
cultivation
in Porto Rico
gardens:—.Tamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola"; continental tropical America.
Native of the Mediterranean region.
Ruda.
5. AMYRIS [P. Br.] L. Syst. ed. 10.
996, 1000.
1759.
Shrubs or trees with opposite or alternate compound (sometimes unifoliolate),
petioled leaves, and small white perfect flowers in terminal and axillary corymbi-
form
panicles,
the
pedicels
2-bracteolate.
Calyx
4-5-lobed,
Petals
4
or
5.
Stamens twice as many as the petals, borne on the disk
; filaments filiform
; anthers
longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary
1-celled; ovules
2, pendulous;
style short or
none; stigma capitate or
flat.
Fruit
a
.small drupe.
Seed-coat membrano'us;
cotyledons thick, fleshy.
[Greek, much balsam.]
About 15
species, natives of
tropical and subtropical America.
Type species: Amijris balsamifera L.
Ovary glabrous; fruit globose, 5-8 mm. long.
L A. elemifera.
Ovary hispidulous; fruit obovoid or ellipsoid, 6-14 mm. long.
2. A. balsamifera.
1. Amyris elemifera L. Syst. ed. 10, 1000.
1759.
Aynyris maritima Jacq. Enum.
19.
1760.
Amyris sylvatica Jacq. Sel. Am. Hist.
107.
1763.
Elemifera maritima Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 100.
1891.
A shrub or tree, sometimes 17 m. high, glabrous or the young twigs and in-
florescence minutely pubescent.
Leaves opposite, or mostly so; leaflets 3 or 5,
coriaceous, lanceolate to ovate or rhombic-ovate, 2-7 cm. long, 1-4.5 cm. broad,
acute, acuminate or rounded at the apex, cuneate, rounded or subtruncate at the
base, crenulate or entire, petioluled; panicles several-many-flowered; calyx-lobes
ovate; petals obovate or oval, 2-3.5 mm. long; ovary glabrous; stigma sessile;
drupe globose, black, 5-8 mm. long, glaucous.
Thickets,
hillsides and arroyos,
at low elevations, Porto Rico, most abimdant in
the dry southern
districts; Mona;
Desecheo;
Icacos; Cidebra: Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas; St. Jan: Anegada:—Florida; West Indies south to Grenada; Central America.
Its wood, used for furniture and for torches,
is light yellow, hard, durable and strong,
with a specific gravity of about 1.00.
Tea.
Torchwood.
454
RUTACEAE
2. Amyris balsamifera L. Syst. ed. 10, 1000.
1759.
Elemifera balsamifera Kiintze, Rev. Gen. PI. 100.
1891.
A shrub
or medium-sized tree, tlie branches of the inflorescence hispidulous,
at
least when young.
Leaves opposite;
leaflets 3-7,
coriaceous, lanceolate to
ovate or rhombic-ovate, 3-13 cm. long, 1.3-6 cm. broad, acute to long-acuminate
at the apex; cuneate or somewhat rounded at the base, entire or crenulate
; panicles
often many-flowered; calyx hispidulous; petals obovate or oval, 3-3.5 mm. long,
1.5-2 mm. broad; ovary hispidulous; stigma sessile or stipitate; drupe oblong-
ovoid
to obovoid, often tapering at the base into a short neck, 6-14 mm. long,
3.5-9 mm. thick.
Woodlands
near
Guanica,
Porto
Rico:—Florida;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Honduras; northwestern South America.
6. TRIPHASIA Lour.
Fl. Coch. 1:
1.52.
1790.
Evergreen shrubs, mostly with spiny branches.
Leaves alternate, trifoliolate,
or occa.sionaIly 1- or 2-foliolate.
Flowers sohtary, or several in axillary cymes.
Calyx 3- or 4-lobed.
Petals 3 or 4.
Stamens
6, in.serted on a fleshy disk
;
fila-
ments compressed
; anthers oblong.
Ovary 3- or 4-celled, style deciduous
; stigma
3- or 4-lobed.
Ovules solitary in each
cell.
Berry 1-3-seeded.
Seeds oval or
subglobose;
testa
fleshy;
cotyledons
plano-convex,
rather
thick;
occasionally
lobed; embryo straight.
[Greek, triple, from the usually 3-parted flowers.]
One
species, or more, native of Asia, the following one widely cultivated and natural-
ized in tropical regions.
Type species; Triphasia Aurantl.ola Lour.
1. Triphasia trifolia (Burm.
f.)
P. Wilson, Torreya 9: 33.
1909.
Limonia trijolia Burm.
f.
Fl. Ind.
103.
1768.
Limnnia trifoliata L. Mant. 237.
1771.
Triphasia Auranti
la Lour. Fl. Coch. 1: 153.
1790.
Triphasia trijoliata DC. Prodr.
1: 536.
1824
A shrub, sometimes 2 m. or more in height, with puberulent twigs, the spines
axillary, paired, 5-17 mm. long.
Leaflets crenate, ovate to oval, the lateral ones
1-3.5 cm. long, 1-2.7 cm. broad, obtuse or rounded and emarginate at the apex,
cuneate or sometimes rounded at the base, the terminal
leaflet larger; petioles
short, puberulent; flowers short-peduncled
; calyx puberulent, the lobes broadly
triangular,
ciliate; petals oblong, white, 12-16 nmi. long, 5-6 mm. broad; berry
oval or subglobose, red, 10-16 mm. long.
Spontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico and locally naturalized;
often planted
in Porto Kican and Virgm Island gardens, and luxuriant; Vieques: St. Croix; St. Thomas;.
St.
Jan;
Tortola:—southern
United
States:
widely
naturalized
in
tropical
America.
Native
of
the
East
Indies.
Chixita.
Limoncillo.
Limoncillo
de
Jerusalem.
China forastera.
Sweet Lime.
7. CHALCAS L. Mant.
11, 68.
1767.
[MuRRAEA Koenig; L. Mant. 554, 563.
1771.]
Shrubs or small
trees with unarmed branches.
Leaves alternate or sub-
opposite
Flowers solitary, or several in terminal axillary cymes.
Calyx 4- or
5-lobed.
Petals 4 or 5.
Stamens 8 or 10, inserted on the disk; filaments linear-
ligulate;
anthers
small.
Ovary
2-5-celled;
style
deciduous;
stigma
capitate.
Ovules
solitary or 2
in each
cell, superposed or
collateral.
Berry
1-5-celled.
Seeds
1-several;
testa woolly
or glabrous.
Cotyledons plano-convex.
[From
Greek
for copper,
as the wood has a copper-colored
grain.
About
4
species,
natives of the East Indies.
Type species; Chalcas pafiictilata L.
KUTACEAE
455
1. Chalcas exotica (L.) Millsp. Field. Col. Mus. Bot. l: 25.
1895.
Murraea exotica L. Mant. 563.
1771.
Camuniujii exoticum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 99.
1891.
Shrub
or
small
tree.
Leaflets
3-9,
ovate,
oval,
or sometimes
obovote,
1.5-5 cm. long, 0.7-2.3 cm. broad, obtuse or obtusely acuminate and frequently
emarginate
at the apex, cuneate at the base, short-petioled
; flowers fragrant;
sepals
triangular,
obtuse,
glabrous
or puberulent;
petals
white,
oblanceolate,
obovate, or spatulate, 1.2-2.3 cm. long, 3.5-7 mm. broad; ovary glabrous; berry
ovoid or subglobose, 1-1.6 cm. long, red.
Jjocally spontaneous after cultivation in Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas; Tortola:
—widely cultivated for ornament and occasionally spontaneous ia tlie West Indies and
in continental tropical America.
JvIirto.
Cafe de l.\ Indl\.
8. CITRUS L. Sp. PI. 782.
1753.
[LiMON Mill. Gard. Diet. Abr. ed. 4.
1754.]
Aromatic
shrubs
or
small
trees,
mostly with
thorny
branches.
Leaves
alternate, usually persistent and unifoliolate, pellucid-glandular.
Petioles winged
or
wingless.
Flowers
perfect,
white
or
purplish-pink,
sweet-scented.
Calyx
3-5-toothed.
Petals
4-8,
glandular.
Stamens
16-60,
united
or
separate.
Ovary
several-celled,
the
styles
united,
deciduous.
Ovules
several
in
each
cavity.
Fruit an oblong, globose or pear-shaped berry with a leathery rind and a
juicy pulp, often edible.
Seeds several in each cavity.
Testa white, leathery.
Cotyledons
fleshy.
[Ancient name of a fragrant African wood.]
A genus of
many species and varieties, natives of southern Asia, but widely cultivated in
tropical and subtropical regions and often naturahzed.
Type
species:
Citrus
medica L.
Fruit of an ellipsoid type, commonly mamillate at the apex.
Fruit large, 12-20 cm. long, 9-15 cm. in diameter, the rind 3-7
„
, ,
,.
cm. tliick; pulp scant; petiole usually wingless.
1.
C. Alcdica.
Fruit
smaller,
the
rind
relatively
thin;
pulp
well
developed;
petioles winged or wingless.
,
,
^
Fruit 6-lOcm. long, 3.5-8 cm. thick; pulp light colored; leaflets
often pointed ; flowers 3-5 cm. broad
; petioles often wingless.
2.
C. Limonum.
Fruit 3.5-6.5 cm. long, 2.8-5 cm. thick; pulp greenish;
leaf-
lets commonly rounded
at
the
apex;
flowers
2-2.5 cm.
broad, petioles commonly winged.
3.
C. aurantijona.
Fruit globose or subglobose, not mamillate; petioles usually wmged.
.
Petioles sUghtly winged
; friiit with a solid core.
4.
C. sinensis.
Petioles broadly winged; fruit with a hollow core.
o.
C. Auranttum.
1. Citrus Medica L. Sp. PI. 782.
1753.
A shrub or small tree, with long irregular branches, unarmed or armed with
stout thorns 1-3.5 cm. or more long; petioles wingless; leaflet oblong to elliptic,
occasionally
somewhat
oblong-obovate,
12-20
cm.
long,
4-6
cm.
broad,
acutish, or rounded and sometimes emarginate a
the apex; the margins serrulate-
crenate; flowers axillary in compact clusters; petals oblong, white within, tinged
with purple on the outside; berry oblong to nearly globular, 12-20 cm. long, 9-15
cm. in diameter, often mamillate at the apex, smooth or coarsely wrinkled, lemon-
yellow; rind 3-7 cm. thick; pulp scant and often rather dry, acid and somewhat
bitter.
Sparingly natm-alized after cultivation
ija Porto Rico; widely cultivated In tropical
and subtropical regions.
Native of southern Asia.
Cidra.
Citron.
2. Citrus Limonum Risso, Ann. Mus. Paris 20: 201.
1813.
Citrus Medica Limon L. Sp. PI. 782.
1753.
A shrub or small tree, with grayish bark and smooth angular or roundish,
usually
thorny
branches;
petioles
wingless,
sometimes
narrowly
margined;
456
RUTACEAE
leaflet oblong-elliptic to ovate-oval, 5-11 cm. long, 3-5 cm. broad, crenate, acute
or acuminate at the apex; flowers 3-5 cm. broad, solitary or in pairs, axillary;
petals white within, purplish on the outside; berry ellipsoid to oval or ovoid,
6-10 cm. long, 3.5-8 cm. broad, often mamillate at both base and apex, smooth
or coarsely wrinkled, light yellow, the rind often thin, the pulp usually abundant,
juicy and acid; seeds oval, pointed.
Thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, naturalized after cultivation.
Cultivated and natiu-alized in most tropical and subtropical regions.
Native of southern
Asia.
LiMOX.
Lemon.
A
well-established
Chinese Dwarf Lemon was
seen
at
the
Insular Agricultural Experiment Station, Rio Piedras, Porto Rico.
3. Citrus aurantifolia (Christm.) Swingle, Journ. Wash. Acad. 3: 465.
1913,
Limonia aurantifolia Christm. in L. Pflanzensystem.
1777.
Limon spinosum Mill. Gard. Diet.
ed. 8.
1768.
Not Citrus spinosa S. G.
Gmel.
? Citrus Limonia Osbeck, Eeise Ostind. China 250.
1765.
Citrus Lima Lunan, Hort. Jam. 451.
1814.
Citrus spinosissima Meyer,
Fl. Esseq. 247.
1818.
Citrus acida Roxb.
Fl. Ind. 3: 390.
1832.
Citrus Limmetta Wight, Ic. 3^: 4, in part.
1845.
Not Risso.
Citrus Hystrix acida Bonavia; Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 321.
1905.
A shrub or small tree, sometimes 6 m. tall, the branches usually armed with
sharp thorns, the petioles winged.
Leaflet oblong-elliptic to oval, 6.5-9 cm. long,
1.7-5 cm. broad, commonly rounded at the apex, the margin crenulate; flowers
2-2.5 cm. broad, in axillary clusters of 3-10; petals white; berry ellipsoid or oval,
3.5-6.5 cm. long, 2.8-5 cm. in diameter; frequently mamillate at the apex, light
yellow, the rind thin, smooth or more or less roughened, the pulp greenish, acid;
seeds oval, pointed.
. [C. medica Limonum of Eggers.]
Woodlands,
thickets and
hillsides, Porto
Rico;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
St.
Croix;
naturalized
after
cultivation.
Cultivated and naturalized
in most
tropical and sub-
tropical regions.
Lima.
Lime.
4. Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck, Reise Ostind. China 250.
1765.
Citrus Aurantium sinensis L. Sp. PI. 782.
1753.
Citrus Aurantium of authors, not of Linnaeus.
A tree, sometimes 12 m. high, with light green, glabrous twigs, the branches
smooth, grayish-brown, often armed with small sharp thorns, the petioles com-
monly narrowly winged, or wingless.
Leaflets oblong-ovate
to ovate or oval,
6.5-13 cm. long, 3-10 cm. broad, acute or sometimes rounded at the apex, cuneate
to rounded at the
base, dark green and
lustrous above,
palei* beneath,
entire
or crenulate; petals oblong, 11-18 mm. long, white on both sides; berry globose or
subglobose, 6-9 cm. long, 6. .5-9. 5 cm. broad, the rind usually thin, the pith solid,
the pulp usually sweet, not bitter.
Occasionally spontaneous after planting in Porto Rico;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:
extensively cultivated for its fruit in all tropical and subtropical regions, and one of the
most important fruits of Porto Rico.
Its wood is light
yellow, hard, strong, tough and
durable;
it is used for furniture, canes, in cabinet work, and for various small articles.
China.
China dulce.
Sweet Orange.
5. Citrus Aurantium L. Sp. PL 782.
17.53.
Citrus buxifolia Poir in Lam. Encycl.
4: 580.
1797.
Citrus vulgaris Risso, Ann. Mus. Paris 20: 190.
1813.
Citrus bigaradia Loisel. Nouv. Duham. 7: 99.
1819.
Citrus Aurantium bigaradia Hook. Fl. Br. Ind.
1: 515.
1872.
A medium-sized
tree, the branches armed with sharp thorns, the petioles
often broadly winged.
Leaflets ovate, 6-12 cm. long, 3.5-10 cm. broad, more or
less acuminate at the apex; flowers axillary, single or clustered, sweet-scented;
SURIANACEAE
457
sepals often bluntish; petals oblong, white on both sides; berry globose or sub-
globose, 7-9 cm. in diameter, with a hollow core when fully ripe, the rind thick,
more or less roughened, the pulp acid and bitter.
Spontaneous after planting in Porto Rico;
St. Thomas;
St. Croix:—cultivated and
nattiralized in tropical regions.
The wood is similar to tliat of the Sweet Orange.
N.\-
RANJA.
Sour Orange.
Forbidden Fruit.
Citrus grandis (L.)
Osi^eck., Toronja, Pomelo, Shaddock, Grapefruit,
of Asiatic origin, cultivated in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands for its fruit, and
one of the most important crops of Porto Rico,
is a small tree, the young shoots
and leaves sparsely pubescent, the petioles broadly winged, the globose or some-
what pyriform fruit 9-18 cm. in diameter, lemon-yellow or flesh-colored, the rind
usually smooth, the pulp acid and often bitter.
[C. Aurantium grandis L.;
C.
Aurantium decumana L.; C. decumana L.]
Citrus Limetta Risso, Limon dulce. Sweet Lime,.of Old World origin.
Is
sometimes cultivated in Porto Rico.
It
is a small spiny-armed tree, the sub-
globose fruit with a sweet insipid juice; supposed to be of hybrid origin.
Citrus nobilis
Lour., King Orange, Mandarin, Tangerine,
differing
from other citrus fruits in the rind being loose and readily separable from the
pulp, grown in Porto Rico in several races, is a small tree with dark green leaves,
the petioles narrowly margined.
Fortunella margarita
(Lour.)
Swingle, Kumquat, Chinese, occasionally
grown for its fruit in Porto Rico, is a usually unarmed shrub or small tree, with
oblong-lanceolate
leaves,
small
white
axillary
flowers
and
yellowish-orange
oblong fruit 2.5-3 cm. long.
YCitrus margarita Lour.]
Clausena lansium
(Lour.)
Skeels, East
Indian, has been cultivated on
St. Croix.
It is a small tree with odd-pinnate leaves, 1-3 dm. long, the elliptic
or elliptic-ovate leaflets 3.5-10 cm. long, 2-5.5 cm. broad, the small flowers are in
terminal panicles.
[Cookia punctata Sonnerat; Quinaria lansiuyn Lour.; Cookia
Wampi Blanco; Clausena Wampi Oliver; Clausena punctata Rehder
«& Wilson,
not Voigt.]
Casimiroa tetrameria Millsp., Central American, a fruit tree planted at the
Insular Agricultural Experiment Station, Rio Piedras, Porto Rico, in 1923, has
digitately
3-5-foliolate
leaves,
clustered
small 4-6-parted
flowers,
the
drupe
mostly 5-celled.
Atalantia trimera Oliver [Triphasia monophylla DC], a Malayan
tree of
this family was recorded by Krebs as grown in St. Thomas prior to 1851.
Family 7.
SURIANACEAE
l.indl.
Bay Cedar Family.
The family consists only of the following genus:
1. SURIANA [Plum.] L. Sp.
PI. 284.
1753.
A branching shrub or small tree, with simple alternate entire leaves.
Flowers
perfect,
solitary,
or
in
few-flowered
terminal
clusters.
Calyx
of 5
persistent
sepals.
Corolla of 5 imbricated petals.
Stamens 10; filaments nearly distinct,
those opposite the petals shorter.
Disk adnate to the base of the calyx, or ob-
458
SIMAROUBACEAE
solete.
Carpels
5,
distinct;
ovules
2,
collateral,
ascending;
styles
5,
latera'
filiform;
stigmas
capitate.
Fruits
achene-like.
Embryo
thick,
horse-shoe-
shaped.
[Named for Joseph Donat Surian, of Marseilles.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Suriana maritima L. Sp. PI. 284.
1753.
A shrub, 2 m. high or less, or sometimes a small tree, the twigs densely leafy,
pubescent.
Leaves linear-spatulate, 1-4 cm. long, 2-6 mm. wide, rather fleshy,
sessile, densely pubescent, obtuse; flowers few, in short clusters; sepals lanceolate
to ovate, 6-10 mm. long, acuminate; petals obovate, yellow, 7-9 mm. long, erose
near the apex; fruit 8-10 mm. broad, the achene-like carpels 4-5 mm. long, flnely
pubescent.
Coastal sands and rocks, Porto Rico; Mona; Icacos; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Florida; Bermuda; West Indies; con-
tinental
tropical
America
and
Old
World
tropics.
Temporana.
Gitakan.
Bay
Cedar.
Tassel-plant.
Family 8.
SIMAROUBACEAE DC.
Quassia Family.
Trees and shrubs, the bark usually bitter and containing oil-sacs, with
pinnate (rarely simple), mostly alternate leaves and small, dioecious or poly-
gamous, panicled, racemose, or sometimes solitary, axillary flowers.
Calyx
of 3-7 distinct or partly united sepals.
Corolla of 3-7 distinct imbricate or
rarely valvate petals, or wanting.
Stamens as many or twice as many as
the
petals, rarely more numerous.
Carpels 2-5, distinct or united;
.styles
distinct, united or none; ovules mostly 1 or 2 in each cavity.
Fruit various,
usuall}^
1-seeded.
About 30 genera, comprising some 150 species, mostly
tropical, a few in the temperate zones.
Carpels 1-ovuled.
Filaments appendaged.
Stigmas distinct.
1. Simarouba.
Stigmas united.
2.
Quassia.
Filaments unappendaged.
Stamens 8
; leaves simple.
3.
Castelaria.
Stamens 4; leaves compoiuid.
4.
Aeschrion.
Carpels 2-ovuIed.
5. Picramnia.
1. SIMAROUBA Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 859.
1775.
Shrubs or trees, usually with bitter bark, the leaves alternate, pinnate, the
leaflets entire, the
small, terminal or
axillary panicled
flowers monoecious or
dioecious.
Sepals 4-6, partly united.
Petals 4-6, much longer than the calyx.
Stamens 8-12, often represented by dilated staminodia in the pistillate flowers;
filaments
subulate, appendaged
at
the
base;
anthers narrow.
Ovary
sessile,
usually 5-celled
; carpels distinct.
Fruit drupaceous.
[Guiana name.]
About 5
species of tropical and subtropical America.
Type
species: Simarouba amara
Aubl.
1. Simarouba Tulae Urban, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 4: 245.
1886.
A medium-sized tree, up to about 18 m. high, the trunk 3-5 dm. in diameter,
with furrowed bark, and light yellow, hard, fine-grained wood, sometimes shrub-
like.
Leaves
1..5-3.5 dm.
long,
glabrous,
the
leaflets 6-10, oblong
to
elliptic,
5-11 cm. long, 2-4.7 cm. wide, acuminate at the apex, acute at the base, bright
green and somewhat lustrous above,
yellowish-green and
dull beneath,
short-
petioluled; panicle 0.7-2 dm. long, sparingly branched; calyx-lobes ovate or tri-
SIMAROUBACEAE
459
angular-ovate, acutish; petals elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 9-11 mm. long, 3 mm.
broad, obtuse or emar^'inate at the apex; drupes broadly obovoid, flattened, 2.5-
3.4 cm. long, 1.3-2.5 cm. in diameter.
[S. amara of Bello, not of Aublet.]
Mountain
forests of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Its wood, now scarce,
is strong and
durable, with a specific gravity of about 0.85.
Aceitillo.
2. QUASSIA L. Sp. PI. ed.
2,
5.53.
1762.
Trees with bitter wood, the leaves alternate, equally or unequally pinnate,
the leaflets few.
Flowers perfect, mostly in terminal racemes or panicles.
Sepals
5,
distinct, deciduous.
Petals
5,
distinct, many times longer than the
sepals.
Stamens 10, inserted at the base of the disk, the filaments slender, elongate, with
short appendages.
Ovary immersed in the disk, deeply 5-parted; styles united.
Drupes
5, spreading, slightly
flattened.
[Aboriginal name.]
About 5
species,
natives of tropical America and Africa.
Type species: Quassia amara L.
1. Quassia amara L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 5.53.
1762.
A small
tree with
glabrous
twigs.
Leaves
1-3 dm.
long, the
rachis and
petioles broadly winged, the leaflets 3 or 5, elliptic, oval or obovate, 5.5-12 cm.
long 2-5 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, often more or less contracted at the
base'
sessile or nearlv
so, glabrous; panicles erect, 1-3 dm. long; sepals ovate,
2-2.5 mm. long, about 1.2 mm. broad, ciliolate; petals linear or linear-lanceolate,
2.5-3 cm. long, 4-5 mm. broad, scarlet; drupes oval or obovoid-oval, 1-1.5 cm.
long.
Planted for ornament and mterest in Porto Rico, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. Jan:
occasionally spontaneous after cultivation, as elsewhere in the West Indies.
Native ot
Trinidad and continental tropical America.
Qu.\ssia wood.
3. CASTELARIA Small, N. A. Fl. 25: 230.
1911.
Shrubs or small trees, with numerous branches, the branchlets often thorn-
like.
Leaves alternate, simple, entire or obscurely toothed.
Flowers dioecious,
small,
solitary or few together
in the
axils.
Sepals
4,
distinct or nearly
so.
Petals 4, imbricate.
Stamens 8, as long as the petals or nearly so in the staminaie
flowers; filaments subulate or stout; anthers oblong or ovoid.
Ovary composed
of 4 carpels cohering at the apex; styles wanting or very short.
Drupes
1-4,
fleshy; endocarp hard.
Endosperm scant or wanting; cotyledons thick, plano-
convex.
[Similar to Castela.]
About 10 species, of warm-temperate and tropical
America, the following typical.
1. Castelaria Nicholsoni (Hook.) Small, N. A. Fl. 25: 231.
1911.
Castela Nicholsoni Hook. Bot. AIusc. 1: 271.
1830.
A much-branched, erect, virgate, usually thorny shrub, 1-2.5 m. high with
stiff
velutinous
branches and
twigs, the
foliage dense.
Leaves oblong
to
el-
liptic or somewhat obovate,
1-2.5 cm.
long, 3.5-12.5 mm.
broad, rounded
or
abruptly short-pointed
at the apex, acutish or i-ounded at the base, gray-green
and glabrous or nearly so above, hoary-tomentulose beneath,
sessile or nearly
so;
flowers
whitish,
short-pedicelled
;
sepals
triangular-ovate;
petals
obovate,
2.5 mm. long; drupes 6-10 mm. long.
[Castela erecta of Eggers and of Millspaugh,
not of Turpin.]
Thickets and
hillsides,
eastern and
southern dry
parts
of
St.
Croix:—Antigua:
Venezuela.
460
STMAROUBACEAE
Neocastela depressa (Turpin) Small, endemic in Hispaniola, was recorded
by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas.
4. AESCHRION Veil.
Fl. Flum. 58.
1825.
[PiCRAENA Lindl.
Fl. Med. 208.
1838.]
Trees with
bitter sap.
Leaves alternate, odd-pinnate, the
leaflets opposite,
entire or rarely toothed.
Inflorescence
axillary, corymbose.
Flowera polyga-
mous.
Sepals 4 or 5.
Petals 4 or 5, those of the pistillate flowers larger than
those of the staminate.
Stamens 4 or 5; filaments slender; anthers short.
Ovary
2-5-lobed; styles united below, free above; ovules solitary in each ceil.
Drupes
solitary or 2-5 together; endocarp hard and
brittle.
[Commemorates a Greek
physician.]
About
4
species,
natives
of
tropical
America.
Type
species:
Aeschrion crenata Veil.
Staminate flowers 6-7 mm. wide: drupes 11-13 mm. in diameter.
1. A. aniillana.
Staminate flowers 3-4 mm. wide; drupes 6-7.5 mm. in diameter.
2. A. excclsa.
1. Aeschrion antillana (Eggers) Small, N. A.
Fl. 25: 233.
1911.
Rhus antillana Eggers, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus. 13: 41.
1879.
Picrasma antillana Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 378.
1908.
A tree, 10 m. high or higher, the twigs pubescent.
Leaves 2.5-4 dm. long,
the rachis pubescent;
leaflets 7-13, oblong, to ovate-oblong, 6-8 cm. long, 3.5-
6.5 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, the tip obtuse, more or less inequilateral
and obtuse or rounded
at the base, often somewhat pubescent on the
veins;
corymbs short-peduncled; sepals narrowly ovate or oval,
1 mm. long, pubescent;
petals elliptic, those of the staminate flowers 2.5-3 mm. long; drupes globose or
globose-obovoid,
11-13 mm.
in diameter.
[Quassia excelsa of West; Picraena
excelsa of Eggers and of Millspaugh.]
Forests, St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—^Lesser Antilles.
Bitter Ash.
2. Aeschrion excelsa (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI.
103.
1891.
Quassia excelsa Sw. Prodr. 67.
1788.
Picraena excelsa Lindl. Fl
Med. 208.
1838.
Picrasma excelsa Planch. Lond. Jour. Bot.
5: 574.
1846.
Aeschrion
excelsa microcarpa Krug & Urban; Urban,
Bot. Jahrb.
15: 306.
1892.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the twigs, petioles and rachis pubescent.
Leaves
1.5-3.5 dm.
long, the leaflets 9-13, oblong, oblong-ovate, lanceolate or elliptic,
4.5-12 cm.
long, 2-4 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex,
the
tip obtuse,
often
somewhat inequilateral and acutish at the base, minutely pubescent, especially
on the veins beneath; corymbs long-peduncled
; sepals ovate, 0.6-0.9 mm. long,
pubescent; petals oblong or oblong-elliptic, those of the staminate flowers 1.5-2
mm. long, those of the pistillate flowers 2.8-3 mm. long
; drupes globose or globose-
obovoid, 6-7.5 mm. in diameter.
Plains and
arroyos.
vicinity
of Coamo
Springs,
Porto
Rico:—Jamaica;
Santo
Domingo.
Bitter Wood.
5. PICRAMNIA Sw.
Fl. Ind. Occ. 1: 217.
1797.
Trees or shrubs,
with
alternate,
unequally pinnate
leaves, and
small
di-
oecious
flowers
in narrow
panicles.
Sepals 3-5,
slightly united
at
the
base.
Petals 3-5,
or sometimes wanting.
Stamens 3-5, in the
pistillate flowers
re-
presented by small staminodia; filaments slender, unappendaged
; anthers broad
3URSERACEAE
461
Ovary
2-3-celled,
sessile; stigmas 2
or
3,
spreading; ovules 2 in each cavity,
pendulous.
Fruit baccate, globose to oblong or obovoid, the pulp juicy.
[Greek,
bitter shrub.]
Some thirty species, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type
species: Picramnia Antidesma Sw.
1. Picramnia pentandra Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. l: 220.
1797.
Tariri pentandra Baill. Hist. PI. 4: 441.
1873.
A shrub, or a small tree up to 10 m. high, the trunk sometimes 3 dm.
in
diameter, the young twigs and leaves finely appressed-pubescent, the wood hard,
fine grained and heavy.
Leaflets 5-9, chartaceous, oblong to ovate or lanceolate,
3-12 cm. long, acute, acuminate, or obtuse at the apex, narrowed at the base,
shining above, becoming glabrous on both sides,
the petiolules short; panicles
slender, loosely branched, 7-15 cm. long; sepals
5, ovate, acute, about 2 mm.
long;
petals
linear-lanceolate;
about
as long
as
the sepals; stamens
5;
berries
globose to oblong or obovoid, red or scarlet, 9-15 mm. long.
Woodlands, river vallevs and arroyos, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations;
St. Thomas (ex Krebs): Tortola:—Florida; West Indies.
HUESO.
Guarema.
Bitter-
bush.
Family 9.
BURSERACEAE Kunth.
Gumbo-limbo Family.
Shrubs or tree.s, mostly resiniferous or aromatic, with alternate, mostly
pinnate, deciduous leaves, and small regular perfect or polygamo-dioecious
flowers, usually panicled.
Sepals 3-5, somewhat united below.
Petals as
many as the sepals and alternating with them.
Stamens twice as many as
the
"petals;
filaments
distinct,
short;
anthers
2-celled.
Ovary
superior,
mostly 3-5-celled; ovules normally 2 in each cavity, pendulous; style usually
very
short;
stigma
broad.
Fruit
drupaceous.
Seed-coat
membranous;
endosperm none.
About 20 genera and over 300 species, mostly of tropical
distribution.
Petals 4 or 5, distinct, imbricated Ln the bud; calyx free.
1. Elaphrium.
Petals valvate in the bud.
.
Petals 4 or
.5, luiited: calyx free.
•
2.
Trlragastns.
Petals 3, distinct; calyx adherent to the ovary.
3. Dacryudcs.
1. ELAPHRIUM Jacq. Enum. 3.
1700.
[Terebinthus p. Br. Hist. Jam. 345.
1756.
Not Miller.
1754.]
Leaves
various,
compound
or
simple.
Inflorescence
axillary.
Flowers
polygamo-dioecious.
Calyx
4-5-lobed,
the
lobes
spreading.
Petals
4
or
5
ovate to oblong, much larger than the calyx- lobes, imbricated in the bud, inserted
at the base of the
disk.
Stamens 8 or
10,
distinct, inserted with the petals.
Disk an entire ring.
Ovary sessile, 3-celled.
Fiiut a globose or 3- angled drupe,
the epicarp splitting into 2 or 3 coriaceous
valves, the bony stone enclosed in
fleshy pulp.
[Greek, light; the wood
is
light
in weight.]
About 80 species, of
tropical and subtropical America.
Type species: Elaphrium tomentosum Jacq.
1. Elaphrium Simaruba (L.) Rose, N. A.
1 L 25: 246.
1911.
Pistacia Simaruba L. Sp. PI. 1026.
1753.
Bursera gummijera L. Sp. PI. ed.
2, 471.
1762.
Bursera Simaruba Sarg. Gard. & For. 3: 260.
1890.
Terebinthus Simaruba W. F. Wight; Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 10: 122.
1906.
462
BURSERACEAE
A tree, reaching a maximum height of about 20 m. with a trunk up to
1 m.
In diameter, usually much smaller, the branches spreading, the thick red-brown
smooth and shining bark peeling off in thin layers.
Leaves glabrous or some-
times pubescent, petioled, 1-2 dm. long; leaflets 3-7, ovate to obovate, firm in
texture, 3-8 cm. long, acute or acuminate; racemes glabrous or pubescent, 5-10
cm. long; pedicels 4-8 mm. long; calyx-lobes about
1 mm. long; petals greenish,
2-2.5 mm. long, ovate to oblong-lanceolate; drupes oblong, 3-angled, 5-10 mm.
long, splitting into 3 valves; seed white.
Woodland.s,
hillsides and arroyos at lower and middle elevations, most abimdant
in dry districts, Porto Rico; Mona; Desecheo; Icacos; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix;
St.
Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; West Indies; Mexico; continental tropical America.
Often planted as a roadside shade-tree, and for fence-posts, growing promptly from cut-
tings.
Its light brown wood
is
soft, weak,
light,
its
specific gravity only about
0.3.
Almacigo.
Gximbo-limbo.
West Indian Birch.
Turpentine Tree.
Gum Tree.
2. TETRAGASTRIS Gaertn. Fr. & Sem. 2: 130.
1791.
[Hedwigia Sw. Prodr.
4: 1788.
Nol Ehrh. 1781.]
Trees with alternate odd-pinnate leaves.
Inflorescence axillary, paniculate.
Flowers polygamous.
Calyx free, 4- or 5-lobed, the lobes imbricate in the bud.
Petals 4 or 5, more or less united.
Stamens 8 or 10, equal.
Ovary 4- or 5-celled,
the style short, the stigma 4- or 5-lobed.
Ovules 2 in each cell.
Fruit a drupe,
2-4-celled.
Testa
coriaceous
or
membranaceous;
cotyledons
fleshy;
radicle
short.
[Greek, referring to the fruit which
is often 4-celled.]
About 4 species,
natives of the West Indies and
continental
tropical America.
Type
species:
T. ossea Gaertn.
1. Tetragastris balsamifera (Sw.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 107.
1891.
Hedwigia balsamifera Sw. Prodr. 62.
1788.
Tetragastris ossaea Gaertn. Fr. & Sem. 2: 130.
1791.
A tree, sometimes 20 m. high, with a pale bark, the young twigs puberulent.
Leaves 2-3.5 dm. or more long, the leaflets 3-9, lanceolate to elliptic or elliptic-
ovate, 7-15 cm. long, 3-7 cm. broad, sometimes larger, acuminate at the apex,
acute or rounded
at the base,
entire,
glabrous,
reticulate-veined beneath;
in-
florescence as long as the leaves or shorter; calyx-teeth acute; corolla 2.5-3 mm.
long, the lobes oblong or elliptic-oblong, puberulent on the outside, inflexed; ovary
glabrous; drupes
1.7 cm. or more in diameter, 2-4-Iobed.
[Ephielis fraxinea of
Sprengel, not of Willdenow;
? Idea altissima of West.]
Forests, woodlands and arroyos at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, mostly
in wet or moist districts: St. Croix (according to West);—Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe.
The wood, used in carpentry,
is light, strong, durable and fragrant.
Masa.
Palo DE
ACEITE.
3. DACRYODES Yahl, Skr. Nat. Selsk. 6: 115.
1810.
Resinous forest trees with odd-pinnate leaves, the leaflets coriaceous, entire.
Inflorescence axillary, paniculate.
Flowers dioecious.
Calyx cup-shaped, sub-
truncate.
Petals 3,
di.stinct, valvate in the bud, thick.
Stamens 6, inserted at
the base of the disk, the filaments short.
Disk thick.
Style short; stigma flat
Ovary adherent to the calyx, abortive in the staminate flowers.
Drupe 1-celled,
1-seeded.
[Greek,
tearful,
referring
to
the exuding
resin.]
Only
1
species,
native of the West Indies.
1. Dacryodes excelsa Vahl, Skr. Nat. Selsk. 6. 117.
1810.
Amyris hexandra Hamilt. Prodr. 34.
1825.
Bursera acuminata DC. Prodr.
2: 78.
1825.
Not Willd.
1806.
Dacryodes hexandra Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 174.
1859.
Pachylobus hexandrus Engler, in E. & P. Nat. Pfl. 3^: 243.
1S96.
MELIACEAE
463
A tree, up to 25 m. high or higher, with a nearly smooth gray bark, the trunk
0.6-1.5 m. thick.
Leaves 1-3 dm. long, the leaflets 5-7, oblong-elliptic
to
oval,
6-12 cm. long, 2-7.5 cm. broad, occasionaUy larger, rounded or short-acuminate
at the apex, acute or somewhat rounded at the base, glabrous, reticulate-veined;
panicle 0.7-2 dm. long, the branches puberulent when young; calyx 2.5 mm. wide;
petals broadly ovate, 2-2.5 mm. long, 2-2.2 mm. broad; drupe oblong-ellipsoid,
2.5-3 cm. long, about 1.3 cm. in diameter.
Forests, mostly at higher elevations, the most majestic tree of Porto Rico
:—Mont-
serrat to Clrenada.
The brown wood
is hard, heavy and strong, used for furniture, in
carpentry and
constriictioti.
The trunks and roots exude a white fragrant
resin,
used
for candles and torches.
Tabanuco.
Candle-tree.
Icica altissima Aubl., a tree of French Guiana, was recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas, evidently in error.
Family 10.
MELIACEAE Vent.
Mahogany Family.
Mostly tropical shrubs or trees, or sometimes shrubby herbs.
Leaves
alternate,
rarely
opposite,
without
stipules,
pinnately
or
digitately com-
pound, or rarely simple.
Inflorescence axillary or terminal.
Flowers perfect
or polygamo-dioecious, regular.
Calyx with 4 or 5 lobes or sepals, rarely
more or fewer.
Petals i or 5, rarely 3 or
7, imbricated or valvate, free, or
occasionally adnate to the lower part of the staminal tube.
Stamens 8-10,
or rarely fewer or more; filaments united into a tube, rarely free; anthers
sessile
or
stalked.
Carpels
2-5,
united; ovary
2-5-celled;
styles
united.
Ovules 2-many in each cavity, anatropous.
Fruit a berry, capsule or drupe.
Seeds sometimes winged; endosperm wanting or fleshy; embryo with leafy
cotyledons.
About 50 genera, including some 600 species, mostly tropical.
Filaments more or less imited into a tube; petals not keeled.
Ovules not biseriate,
1 or 2 in each cavity of the ovary.
Fruit a drupe; leaves twice or thrice pinnately compound.
1.
Melia.
Fruit a 2-5-celled capsule; leaves once pinnate, digitately several-
foliolate or luiifoliolate.
Capsule 2- or 3-valved; radicle superior.
2.
Trichilia.
Capsule mostly 4-valved; radicle lateral.
3.
Guarea.
Ovules biseriate, several in each cavity of the ovary.
4.
Swietenia.
Filaments free
; petals keeled to the middle or below on the midrib of the
inner face.
5.
Cedrela.
1. MELIA L. Sp. PI. 384.
17.53.
Trees, with
alternate, pinnate or pinnately compound leaves, the
leaflets
stalked and serrate, the showy white to purple flowers numerous, in large axillary
panicles.
Calyx 5-6-parted, the lobes imbricated.
Petals as many as the calyx-
lobes, oblong or spatulate, spreading.
Stamen-tube nearly cyUndric, dilated and
cleft above, bearing 10 or 12 erect anthers.
Disk annular.
Ovary 3-6-celIed;
ovules 2
in each cavity; style slender; stigma 2-6-lobed or capitate.
Fruit a
small drupe, its stone 1-5-celled.
[A Greek name of the Ash.]
About 25 Asiatic
species, the following typical.
1. Melia Azedarach L. Sp. PI. 384.
1753.
Melia sempervirens Sw. Prodr. 67.
1788.
A tree, sometimes 20 m. high, with a trunk up to 2 m. in diameter, usually
much smaller, the reddish brown bark furrowed when old, the branches spreading.
Leaves
bipinnate,
petioled,
glabrous,
or
nearly
so, 2-4 dm.
long,
deciduous;
leaflets numerous, ovate
to
elliptic,
thin, acuminate
at the apex, rounded or
464
MELIACEAE
narrowed at the base, 3-7 cm. long, sharply serrate and sometimes lobed; panicles
peduncled, 2-3 dm. long; pedicels slender, 4-10 mm. long; sepals acute, about 2
mm.
long; petals purplish, oblong, obtuse, about 10 mm.
long; drupes yellow,
globose, smooth, 1.5-2 cm. in diameter.
Commonly spontaneous after planting in Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tortola:^—southeastern United
States; Bernnida; West
Indies; Mexico; con-
tinental tropical America.
Native of southeastern Asia.
A race with drooping branches
is occasionally planted.
The brownish wood is weak, soft, coarse-grained;
it is used for
handles of tools and implements.
La Lila.
Pasilla.
Pride of India.
Hog Bush.
Called Lilac in the Virgin Islands.
2. TRICHILIA P. Br.; L. Syst. ed. 10, 1020.
17.59.
Trees or shrubs, the alternate leaves odd-pinnate, equally pinnate, digitately
several-foliolate or unifoliolate.
Leaflets opposite or alternate,
often
pellucid-
dotted.
Flowers
perfect.
Calyx
3-5-lobed,
or
rarely
of
distinct
or
nearly
distinct sepals.
Petals 4 or 5, rarely only 3,
free or sometimes connate at the
base.
Stamens 4-10, the filaments often united into a cvip- shaped stamlnal tube.
Disk annular.
Ovary 2-3-celled, sometimes immersed in the disk; stigma capi-
tate, 2- or 3-lobed.
Ovules 2 in each
cell, occasionally solitary.
Fruit a 2- or
3-celled,
2- or 3-valved capsule,
loculicidally dehiscing from the apex.
Seeds
inverted; testa thin, coriaceous; cotyledons fleshy; radicle superior.
[Greek, in
threes, the flowers are sometimes trimerous.]
Over 130 species, natives of tropical
America, a few in tropical Africa.
Type species; Trichilia hirta L.
Leaflets or their lobes spine-tipped.
1.
T. triacantha
Leaflets not spine-tipped.
Inflorescence
sessile,
occasionally
appearing
panicle-like;
through
the undevelopment of one of the lateral branches;
calyx-lobes
and petals 4.
2.
T. pallida.
Inflorescence long-pedtmcled
; calyx-lobes and petals
5.
3.
T. hirta.
1. Trichilia triacantha Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 329.
1899.
Acanthotrichilia triacantha Cook & Coll. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: 65.
1903
A shrub, occasionally
10 m.
tall, with grayish-brown branches, the young
twigs densely puberulent.
Leaves odd-pinnate, the leaflets 3-7, obovate-cuneate
or cuneate, 1-3 cm. long, 0.5-1.5 cm. broad, broadest at the spinulose, 3-toothed
apex, sessile or subsessile, reticulate-veined; inflorescence racemose or paniculate;
calyx-tube short, cup-shaped, the margin obsoletely toothed; petals 4 or
5,
in
aestivation valvate, ovate or elliptic, 2-2.5 mm. long, coriaceous, minutely pilose
on the back; staminal tube 2 mm. high; style a
little shorter than the ovary;
stigma capitate; disk wanting; ovary globose,
tapering into the
style,
pilose;
fruit unknown.
Woodlands and
thickets at
low
elevations in
the dry southwestern
districts
of
Porto Rico.
Endemic.
2. Trichilia pallida Sw. Prodr. 67.
1788.
? Trichilia portoricensis Spreng. Syst. 3: 68.
1826.
A shrub, or tree sometimes 15 m.
tall, the yoimg growth hirsute, the twigs
brown, often scarred with elevated elliptic or oval lenticels.
Leaves odd-pinnate,
12-25 cm.
long, the petioles somewhat channeled above;
leaflets 3-7, oblong-
elliptic to elliptic, oblanceolate or obovate, 3.5-15 cm. long, 2-6 cm. broad, the
terminal leaflet often larger, all acute or sometimes rounded at the apex, acute or
cuneate at the base, glabrous on both
sides, the veins prominent beneath;
in-
florescence umbel-like,
lateral,
axillary, the branches hirsute; flowers long-pedi-
celled, the pedicels dilated at the apex and jointed with the base of the calyx;
calyx with 4 triangular acute lobes, petals usually 4,
elliptic, 4.5-6.5 mm. long.
MELIACEAE
465
2.5-3 mm. broad, clothed on the back with appressed hairs
; stamina! tube lobed
to the middle or below, the lobes hirsute; ovary hirsute; capsule ovoid, 1-1.5 cm.
long, 7-9 mm. broad, hirsute; seeds ellipsoid or ovoid, 5.5-7 mm. long, 4-6 mm.
broad.
[Pholacilia
diversijolia of Stahl,
not of Grisebach;
Trichilia
diversi/olia
of Cook & Collins, not of Jussieu; Trichilia simplicifolia of Cook & Collins, not of
Sprengel.
Woodlands, forests, and valleys, Porto Rico, ascending to liigher elevations:—Cuba;
Hispaniola.
Caracolillo.
Gaeta.
Ramoncillo.
3. Trichilia hirta L. Syst. ed. 10, 1020.
1759.
Trichilia spondioides Jacq. Enum. 20.
1760.
? Trichilia Wawrana antillana C. DC. in DC. Monog. Phan. 1: 667.
1878.
A tree, up to about 15 m. high, the gray bark scaly, the twigs more or less
strigose.
Leaves odd-pinnate, about 3 dm. long, the petioles and rachis often
hirsute; leaflets 9-21, occasionally only 3 or 7, oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lance-
olate, acute to acuminate at the apex, the tip obtuse, inequilateral and acutish or
rounded at the base, tomentulose beneath or glabrous; inflorescence paniculate,
the branches loosely hirsutulous to glabrous; flowers long-pedicelled
; calyx-lobes
triangular or triangular-ovate, glabrous or nearly so; petals oblong to elliptic or
somewhat obovate, 5-6 mm.
long,
2-2.5 mm.
broad,
glabrous, staminal tube
lobed to below the middle, the lobes oblong, 2-toothed,
villous within; anthers
villous or glabrous; ovary pubescent, sessile on the disk; capsule globose or sub-
globose, 1-1.3 cm. broad, velutinous, occasionally with long scattered hairs inter-
mingled.
[T. havanensis of Cook & CoUins, not of Linnaeus.]
Hillsides, thickets, river banks and arroyos at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St
Tlionias; St. Croix; St. .Ian:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
The stems
of yoimg
trees
are used
for broom handles.
Cabo DE Hacha.
Guaita.
Retamo.
JOBILLO.
MOLIXILLO.
BliOOMSTICK.
Trichilia moschata Sw.,
a tree native
in Jamaica, was
listed by Krebs
from
St. Thomas in error, unless, perhaps,
it had been planted there.
Trichilia emarginata Krebs, listed from St. Thomas without description,
has not been identified by subsequent botanists.
3. GUAREA AUamand; L. Mant.
1.50, 22S.
1771.
Trees or shrubs, the leaves equally pinnate or rarely odd-pinnate.
Leaflets
opposite or alternate,
entire, with or without slender elongate curved pellucid
lines.
Inflorescence
axillary,
or sometimes
borne on
the
branches.
Flowei-s
perfect; calyx 4-lobed, the lobes imbricated or valvate, or of 5 distinct sepals.
Staminal tube cylindric or urn-shaped, entire or sliallowly lobed.
Disk obsolete
or
stipe-like.
Ovary
4- or
5-celled.
Ovules
1
or 2
in each
cell,
superposed.
Fruit a 4-5-celled, 4-5-valved, coriaceous or woody capsule, loculicidally dehisc-
ing from the apex.
Seeds
1 or 2 in each cell;
testa coriaceous or membranous;
cotyledons
fleshy;
radicle
lateral.
[From Guara, the Cuban
name.]
About
90 species, mo-stly natives of tropical America, a few in tropical Africa.
Type
species: Guarea trichilioides L.
Leaflets
8-20,
obscurely
reticulate-veined;
ovary
pubescent
with
HiT)Dressed
liciirs
kjiKitiI',
Leaflets 2-6; reticulate-veined on both sides; ovary glabrous.
2.
G. ramiflora.
1. Guarea Guara (Jacq.) P. Wilson, N. A. Fl. 25: 272.
1924.
Melia Guara Jacq. Enum. 20.
1760.
Trichilia Guara L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 551.
1762.
466
MELIACEAE
Guarea trichilioides L. Mant. 2: 228.
1771.
? Trichilia quadrijuga Spreng. Syst. 3: 67.
1826.
Guarea pauciflora Sesse & Moc- Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 92.
1894.
A tree, sometimes 20 m. or more tall.
Leaves equally pinnate, 1-3 dm. long,
the
leaflets 8-20,
elliptic to
elliptic- lanceolate or somewhat obovate, 8-24 cm.
long, 3-8 cm. broad, punctate with slender, often curved pellucid lines, usually
short-acuminate at the apex, acute and equilateral at the base, glabrous on both
sides,
obscurely
reticulate-veined;
panicles
5-20 cm.
high,
the
branches pu-
bescent; flowers short-pedicelled ; calyx-lobes half orbicular,
entire or toothed,
pubescent;
petals oblong,
5-7.5 mm.
long, 2-3 mm.
broad,
free,
densely pu-
bescent with short, closely-appressed hairs; staminal tube urn-shaped; glabrous
or sometimes puberulent, entire or shallowly lobed; disk elevated; ovary ellipsoid
or subglobose, closely sessile on the disk, pubescent with appressed hairs; capsule
obovoid or globose-obovoid, 1.5-1.9 cm. in diameter, glabrous.
[Guarea Swartzii
of Stahl and of Cook and Collins.]
Woodlands, forests, river banks and arroyos at lower and middle elevations, mostly
in moist districts, Porto Rico; recorded from
St. Croix, perhaps in error:—Cuba; His-
paniola; continental
tropical America.
The reddish brown wood, used
in carpentry,
for wagons and implements, and in construction,
is hard, strong, tough and dm-able.
GUARAGUAO.
2. Guarea ramiflora Vent. Choix des Plantes 41.
1803.
Guarea humilis Bert.; DC. Prodr. 1: 624.
1824.
Shrub or small tree, rarely attaining a height of 20 m.
Leaves equally pin-
nate, 4-17 cm. long, the leaflets 2-6, oblong to broadly elliptic or somewhat ovate,
occasionally obovate, 7-22 cm.
long, 3-8 cm. broad, punctate with numerous
small pellucid dots, acuminate at the apex, acutish or somewhat rounded at the
base, glabrous above, hirsute beneath on the midrib and lateral veins, reticulate-
veined on both
sides; panicles 3-9 cm.
long,
the branches hLspidulous; calyx
loosely hispidulous, the lobes broadly half triangular-orbicular, abruptly short-
pointed; petals oblong, 6-8.5 mm. long, 2-4 mm. broad, adhering to the base of
the staminal tube; staminal tube cyhndric, glabrous, minutely papillose on the
outside; disk elevated; ovary short-ovoid, glabrous; capsule more or less flattened
and somewhat angled, the edges rounded, or occasionally 1-celled and subglobose,
'1.7-2 cm. broad.
Forests and woodlands at middle and higher elevations in wet or moist districts of
Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Its wood is similar to that of the preceding species.
Guara-
GUADILLO.
Guarea glabra Vahl, of the Lesser Antilles,
is recorded by de Candolle as
collected
l)y Ryan on
St.
Croix
prior
to
1800.
We have no evidence of its
existence there at the present time.
4. SWIETENIA Jacq. Enum. 4, 20.
1760.
Evergreen trees,
^\ith hard reddish brown wood, and pinnate leaves with
opposite acuminate leaflets, the small flowers in terminal and axfllary panicles.
Calyx 5-cleft,
its lobes imbricated.
Petals 5, spreading.
Filaments united into
an urn-shaped, 10-toothed tube; anthers
10.
Disk saucer-shaped or shallowly
cup-shaped, fluted on the outside, the margin crenate.
Ovary 5-celled; stigma
discoid,
.5-rayed; ovules numerous
in each
cavity,
pendulous.
Capsule
large,
woody,
5-celled,
septicidally
5-valved.
Seeds many,
imbricated
in
2
series.
[Named
for Gerard von
Swieten,
1700-1772.]
About four
species,
natives of
tropical regions, the following typical.
MELIACEAE
467
I. Swietenia Mahagoni Jacq. Enum. 20.
1760.
A medium size or large forest tree, buttressed at the base, the reddish bark
scaly, the branches spreading, the angular twigs smooth.
Leaves evenly pinnate,
1-2 dm. long, the slender petiole enlarged at the base; leaflets 4-10, coriaceous,
ovate or ovate-lanceolate, inequilateral, 3-8 cm. long, dark green, glabrous and
shining above, paler green and glabrous or sparingly pubescent beneath; panicles
axillary, 6-15 cm. long; calyx-lobes rounded; petals white, spreading, about 4 mm.
long; stamen tube glabrous; ovary ovoid;
style erect; stigma 5-rayed; capsule
ovoid, woody, 6-10 cm. long, splitting from the base into 5 thick valves, the 5-
winged axis persistent
; seeds 5-6 cm. long.
Abundant on hillsides and in valleys, at lower elevations,
St.
Croi.x;
St. Thomas;
apparently not an element of the original forests, however
; it has occasionally been planted
in Porto
Rico;
it
is probably not native anywhere within the
limits of our
flora;
Florida; planted in Bermuda; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
The wood, one of
the most valuable forest products of tropical America, esteemed for furniture and many
other purposes,
is brown, strong, hard and tough, with a specific gravity of about 0.7.
Hon. Carlos E. Chardon has communicated to us an extract from the "Revista de
Agricultura Industria y Comercio" of 1880, presumably written by Dr.
Stalil, in which
it is stated that the tree was introduced on St. Thomas but was not known to the writer
to grow in Porto Rico.
It occurs on several of the lesser Antilles, but is not certainly
native on any of them.
In 1793, West (Bidr. St. Croix 285) states that it was ctdtivated
in a couple of gardens on St. Croix, but did not seem to thrive.
Caoba.
Mahogany.
Swietenia Candollei
Pittier, Venezuelan Mahogany,
Venezuelan,
ex-
perimentally planted
for forestry purposes some years ago at the Agricultural
Experiment Station at Mayaguez, and more recently at the Forest Station, Kio
Piedras, Porto Rico, forms a large tree with wood similar to that of the West
Indian Mahogany, its leaflets larger and less oblique, its fruit about 15 cm. long.
Swietenia macrophylla King, Honduras Mahogany, Central American,
also planted
for forestry purposes in Porto Rico, grows more rapidly than
;S.
Mahagoni and has larger and broader leaflets and much larger fruit.
5. CEDRELA P. Br.; L. Syst. ed. 10, 940.
1759.
Large trees with light colored wood.
Leaves equally pinnate, the leaflets
many-paired,
mostly
opposite.
Flowers
perfect,
in
terminal
or
subterminal
panicles.
Calyx small, 4- or 5-lobed.
Petals 4 or 5, erect, keeled to the middle
or below on the midrib of the inner face, the keel adherent to the disk through
the groove.
Disk thick or elevated.
Stamens 4-6, the fllaments subulate, free,
inserted above on the edge of the disk; anthers versatile.
Ovary 5-celled, sessile
on the top of the disk
; style filiform
; stigma discoid.
Ovides pendulous, biseriate,
8-12
in each
cell.
Fruit a
5-celled,
5-valved
coriaceous
capsule,
septicidally
dehiscing from the apex to near the base.
Seeds samaroid, imbricated downward
in 2 rows
in
each canity.
Endosperm
fleshy.
Embryo straight.
Cotyledons
flat, subfoliaceous.
[From
Cedrus, the wood resembling that of that genus of
conifers.]
Twelve or more species, natives of tropical America.
Type species:
Cedrela odoruta L.
1. Cedrela odorata L. Syst. ed. 10, 940.
1759.
Surenus Brownii Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 111.
1891.
Cedrela Sintenisii^C. DC. Ann. Cons. Jard. Bot. Geneve 10: 169.
1907.
A tree, sometimes 30 m. high, with a trunk up to nearly 2 m. in diameter,
the gray bark flssured.
Leaves up to 4 dm. long, the petioles and rachis glabrous;
leaflets 10-16, rather firm in texture, oblong-ovate to ol)liquely ovate-lanceolate
or obliquely ovate, 8-14.5 cm. long, 3-6 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded
468
POLYGALACEAE
and inequilateral at the base, short-petioled, glabrous; inflorescence
1.5-2 dm.
or more
high,
its
branches
finely puberulent;
flowers
short-pedicelled
;
calyx
puberulent, the lobes ciliolate, acute or occasionally rounded; petals rather thick,
oblong, 5.5-6.5 mm.
long, velvety puberulent; filaments glabrous,
the anthers
ovate; ovary glabrous, rather abruptly contracted into the slender style; capsule
ellipsoid, 4-4.5 cm. long.
Forests, hillsides, river valleys and arroyos, Porto Rico; local and highly prized for
its valuable wood:—Jamaica; continental
tropical America.
The reddish "brown
fra-
grant wood, now scarce, is iised for cigar boxes, in carpentry, for furniture, and for various
small articles;
it is soft, durable and rather strong with a specific gravity of about 0.5.
A highly desirable and available tree for reforestation.
Cedro.
Cedro hembra.
West
Indian Cedar.
Spanish Cedar.
Family 11.
POLYGALACEAE Rchb.
Milkwort Family.
Herb^, or sometimes shrubs or small trees in tropical regions.
Stipules
none.
Pedicels generally 2-bracted at the base.
Flowers perfect, irregular.
Sepals 5, the two lateral inner ones (wings) large, colored, the others smaller.
Petals 3 (or 5), hypogynous, more or less united into a tube, the lower (keel)
often crested.
Stamens generally 8, united in
1 or 2 sets.
Ovary 2-celled;
style simple; stigma curved, dilated or lobed; ovules
1 in each
cavity, ana-
tropous.
Fruit mainly capsular.
Seeds generally caruncled; embryo straight.
About 10 genera and 1000 species, widely distributed.
Ovary 2-celled; fruit a capsule, sometimes winged.
Herbaceous plants.
1. Polygala.
Shrubs or trees.
Leaves
many-veined,
the
veins
nearly
parallel;
capstile
winged on both sides.
2.
Phlebotaenia.
Leaves few-veined; capsule coriaceous, winged only on one
side.
3. Badiera.
Ovary 1-celled; fniit a samara; vines or elongated shrubs.
4.
Elsota.
1. POLYGALA L. Sp. PI. 701.
1753.
Herbs, annual or perennial.
Flowers racemose, spicate or capitate, rarely soli-
tary and axillary, sometimes also cleistogamous and subterranean.
Sepals unequal,
the two lateral ones (wings) large and petaloid.
Petals 3, united into a tube which
is split on the back, and more or less adnate to the stamens.
Stamens 8 or 6,
monadelphous below, or diadelphous; capsule membranous, compressed, dehiscent
along the margin.
Seeds 1 in each cavity, generally hairy.
[Greek, much milk.
A genus of about 450 species, of Avide distribution.
Type species; Polygala vul-
garis L.
Keel blunt, without a beak or crest.
1.
P. brizoidcs.
Keel beaked or crested.
Inflorescence narrowly racemose; seeds not silky-comose.
Annual, single-stemmed; racemes loose, slender.
2.
P. paniculate.
Perennial, several-stemmed; racemes dense, stout.
3.
P.
hecatantha.
Inflorescence glomerate, subglobose; seeds silky-comose.
4. P. longicaulis.
1. Polygala brizoides St. Hfl. Fl. Bras. JMerid. 2: 44.
1829.
Polygala angustifolia H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 405.
1821.
Not Gilib.
1781.
Annual; pubescent; stems erect, simple or branched, about 3 dm.
high, or
less.
Leaves lanceolate to linear, 1.5-4.5 cm. long, 2-9 mm. wide, 1-nerved, the
apex
acute
or
acuminate,
the
base
narrowed;
racemes
few-several-fiowered,
1.5-7 cm. long; pedicels 2-5 mm. long; flowers greenish purple; sepals narrowly
ovate, obtuse, about 1.5 mm. long; wings obovate, inequilateral, cuneate, retuse,
3-4 mm. long; keel about 4 mm. long; blunt; capsule oval, about 3 mm. long;
seed 2.5 mm. long.
POLYGALACEAE
469
Thickets,
southern
side
of
St. Thomas:—Cuba;
Trinidad;
Curagao;
continental
tropical America.
2. Polygala paniculata L. Syst. ed.
10, 1154.
1759.
Animal; stems single, slender, usually branched, densely minutely glandular,
4 dm.
high or
less.
Leaves linear or hnear-spatulate, mucronate, 7-18 mm.
long, usually less than 2.5 mm. wide, the lowest verticillate, the others alternate;
racemes slender, loosely flowered, 2-10 cm. long; pedicels
1 mm. long or
less;
flowers rose, purple or white; sepals ovate, obtuse, about
1.3 mm. long; wings
obovate, 2-2.5 mm. long; rounded, the ba.se cuneate; keel about 2.5 mm. long,
with a crest of 3 or 4 lobes on each side; capsule
elliptic, nearly 2 mm. long;
seed pubescent.
Grassy banks,
hillsides and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations
' in moist
districts:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe
to Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
Orosne.
3. Polygala hecatantha Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 331.
1999.
Perennial by a woody root, glabrous; stems several or numerous, slender,
nearly erect, about 6 dm. high or
less, simple or with few branches.
Leaves
linear to linear-lanceolate, 1-2.5 cm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, the lowest ver-
ticillate, the others alternate; racemes dense, nearly cylindric, 2-4 cm. long or
perhaps sometimes
longer;
pedicels only about
0.5 mm.
long;
flowers
white;
sepals
oval,
obtuse, about
1.5 mm.
long; wings ovate,
retuse,
3.5 mm.
long;
keel about as long as the wings, with a crest of lobes on each side; capsule about 3
mm. long; s^eed pilose, the aril 2-lobed.
Hillsides in the dry southwestern districts of Porto Rico; sand dimes on Anegada:
Hispaniola.
4. Polygala longicaulis H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 396.
1821.
Polygala stellera DC. Prodr.
1: 327.
1824.
Annual; stems simple or few-branched, erect or nearly so, glabrous or spar-
ingly minutely glandular above, 2-6 dm.
high.
Leaves Unear
to
lanceolate,
6-15 mm. long, 1-3 mm. wide, cuspidate, scattered and alternate or the lowest
verticiUate;
inflorescence
glomerate,
subglobose;
pedicels about
2 mm.
long;
flowers white to purple; sepals ovate, cuspidate, about 2 mm. long; wings elliptic,
4-5 mm.
long, cuspidate, 3-nerved; keel about 5 mm. long, crested with 3 or 4
lobes on each side; capsule about 3 mm. long; seed silky, comose, about 2.5 mm.
long.
[P. trichosperma of Triana & Planchon, not of Linnaeus; P. adenophora of
Bello, not of de CandoUe; P. variabilis of Bello, not of Kunth.]
Sandy soil and grassy slopes, northern and western districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba;
Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
2. PHLEBOTAENIA Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad. II. 8: 156.
1860.
Trees,
with
coriaceous
leaves,
theu-
lateral
veins numerous
and
nearly
parallel, the showy purple flowers racemose or paniculate.
Sepals unequal, free,
deciduous, the 2 interipr ones (wings) large.
Petals 3, the 2 exterior distinct or
adnate to the base of the stamen-tube.
Stamens 8, their filaments united into a
split sheath.
Capsule large, compressed, broadly 2-winged on one side, narrowly
2-winged on the
other.
[Greek, referring
to
the
leaf-venation.]
Two known
species, the following, and the typical P. cuneata of Cuba.
1. Phlebotaenia Cowellii Britton, Torreya 7: 38.
1907.
Phlebotaenia portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 382.
1908.
Polygala Cowellii Blake, Contr. Gray Herb. 47: 10.
1916.
470
POLYGALACEAE
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the trunk up to 2 dm. in diameter, the bark smooth
and
gray,
the slender twigs
puljerulent.
Leaves
elhptic
to ovate or
elliptic-
obovate, 5-12.5 cm. long, glabrous or the midvein with a few hairs, deciduous,
the apex acute or short-acuminate, the base narrowed or rounded, the very many
slender lateral veins straight, reticulate-anastomosing, the petioles 5-10 mm. long;
flowe s purple,
in short racemes or panicles, appearing before the leaves of the
season or before the leaves of the previous year have fallen
; pedicels 4-10 mm.
long; sepals
elliptic, rounded, unequal,
ciliolate,
2..5-4 cm.
long; wings oljlong-
obovate, obtuse, about 15 mm. long; keel about as long as the wings,
3-lobed,
with a rounded fold on each side; capsule flat,
its larger membranous wings 2-3
cm. long.
Hillsides, woodlands and arroyos at lower elevations in the dry southern districts
of Porto Rico, ascending to about 600 meters near Aibonito, and near Utuado.
Endemic.
Palo de Tortuga.
Carocolillo.
Violet Tree.
One of the most elegant of
trees
wlien in flower in February or March, the leafless branches bearing ixmumerable flowers
very conspicuous in the landscape.
The wood is yellowish.
3. BADIERA DC. Prodr. 1: 334.
1824.
Evergreen shrubs or trees, with alternate entire subcoriaceous leaves, and
small
or minute greenish
or white
flowers
in
short
axillary
racemes.
Sepals
distinct, nearly equal, the two inner (wings) somewhat larger than the others,
but not petal-like.
Petals 3, the upper ones about twice as long as the wings,
adnate to the stamen- tube at the base.
Stamens
8, the filaments united into
a tube.
Ovary 2-celled, often pubescent.
Capsule 2-celled, but one of the cells
often
abortive,
coriaceous, margined,
compressed.
Seeds pubescent or nearly
glabrous.
[Dedicated to Badier, an early French botanical
collector.]
About
10 species, of the West Indies.
Type species; Polygala diversifolia L.
Capsule ciliolate; flowers white.
1-.
B. portoricensis.
Capsule hispidulous; flowers greenish yellow.
2.
B. Penaea.
1. Badiera portoricensis Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 42: 494.
1915.
Polygala jwrtoricensis Blake, Contr. Gray Herb. 47:
14.
1916.
A tree. 4-6 m. high, the trunk up to 1.5 dm. in diameter, the branches virgate,
the twigs hispidulous.
Leaves obovate to elliptic-obovate, scabrous, 3 cm. long
or less, the apex rounded or emarginate, the base cuneate, the petioles 1-2 mm.
long; racemes
1 cm. long or less; pedicels 2-2.5 mm. long; flowers white; sepals
ovate, nearly
truncate,
1-1.3 mm.
long; wings ovate, rounded,
nearly
2 mm.
long; keel about as long as the wings; capsule cuneate-quadrate, broader than
long, about 6 mm. long, notched, ciliolate, the sides nearly glabrous at maturity.
[B.
domingensis of Bello, not of de Candolle; Polygala domingensis of Urban,
not of Jacquin.]
Hillsides and raoimtain slopes, vicinity of Mayaguez and Maricao.
Endemic.
2. Badiera Penaea (L.) DC. Prodr. 1: 335.
1824.
Polygala Penaea L. Sp. PI. 2: 703.
1753.
A shrub, or a small tree up to about 5 m. in height, the twigs hispidulous.
Leaves obovate or oblong-obovate, scabrous, 1.5-3 cm. long, the apex obtuse or
rounded,
mucronulate,
the
base
cuneate,
the
petioles
1.5 mm.
long
or
less
racemes 2-3 cm. long; pedicels 1-2 mm. long; flowers greenish yellow; sepals ovate,
rounded, about 1 mm. long; wings ovate, obtuse, nearly 1.5 mm. long; keel 2.5-3
mm. long; capsule oblong to oblong-cuneate, notched or subtruncate, hispidulous,
4-5 mm. long, short-stipitate.
Dry limestone hills near Ponce and Guayanilla, Porto Rico
; mountain thickets, Virgin
Gorda:—Hispaniola.
EUPHORBIACEAE
471
4. ELSOTA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 358.
1763.
Woody vines, shrubs or trees, with alternate leaves, often with small stipular
glands, the petioles short, the usually pink or purplish flowers in terminal and
axillary racemes or panicles.
Sepals
5, the 3 outer herbaceous, the two inner
ones (wings)
petal-like.
Petals 3, the lower one
(keel) convex, clawed, with a
fimbriate
crest,
the two upper ones adnate
to
the base
of the stamen-tube-
Stamens
8,
their filaments united into
a
split
sheath.
Ovary
l-celled;
style
curved; stigmas 2, the upper one tufted.
Fruit a samara with a large wing,
1-
seeded, the seed exarillate.
[Name unexplained.]
Twelve species or more, of
tropical America.
Type species: Securidaca scandens L.
Leaves oval, 7-20 mm. long.
1-
^- ^^^"iffnUn
Leaves ovate to oblong, 4-12 cm. long.
^-
^- anersiiona.
1. Elsota virgata (Sw.) Kuntze. Rev. Gen. PI. 46.
1891.
Securidaca virgata Sw. Prodr. 104.
1788.
A branched, vine-like shrub, the slender, wand-like branches up to 7 m. long,
spreading and
arching,
the
twigs
hispidulous
or
glabrous.
Leaves
scattered,
oval,
small,
few-veined.
7-20 mm.
long,
hispidulous
or
strigillose,
the
apex
rounded or emarginate. the base narrowed or obtuse, the petioles
1 mm. long or
less;
flowers showy,
usually
numerous,
in
slender,
elongated,
often
panicled
racemes, the slender pedicels 4-8 mm. long; outer sepals 2-4 mm. long, obtuse;
wings suborbicular, pink or purple, 8-9.5 mm. broad; petals yellow; keel about
8 mm.
long; samara 3-4 cm.
long, the fruit-body
reticulate-veined,
the wing
oblong-obovate. Bbout
1 cm. wide near the middle.
Thickets, forests and arroyos at lower and middle elevations; Porto Rico; Vieques:^
Cuba; Hispaniola.
Bejuco de sopla.
Jaboncillo.
2. Elsota diversifolia (L.) Blake. N. A. Fl. 25: 372.
1924.
Polygala diversifolia L. Sp. PI. 703.
1753.
Securidaca erecta Jacq. Enum. 27.
1760.
A woody vine, trailing or high-climbing, the slender twigs finely puberulent.
Leaves of the branches ovate to oblong. 4-12 cm. long. hispidulou> or puberulent.
the
lateral veins 6-10
pairs,
the apex acute or obtuse, the base narrowed or
rounded, the petioles 2-7 mm. long; leaves of the twigs similar but much smaller,
racemes slender, puberulent, 6-12 cm. long; pedicels 4-7 mm. long; outer sepals
oval, 2.5-3.5 mm. long, the suborbicular. pink or purple wings 8-12 mm. broad;
keel about 8 mm. long; samara 4-6 cm. long, the fruit-body reticulated, the wing
narrowly obliquely obovate.
12-17 mm. wide about the middle.
[<S'. scandens
of AVest;
?
S.
virgata of Krebs.]
Thickets,
St. Croix; St. Thomas:—Guadeloupe to Trinidad; Mexico to Ecuador.
Family 12.
EUPHORBIACEAE
.J. St. Hil.
Spurge Family.
Monoecious or dioecious herbs, shrubs or trees, with acrid, often millvy
sap.
Leaves opposite, alternate or
verticillate.
Flowers sometimes much
reduced and subtended by an involucre which resembles a calyx (Euphorbiae),
the number of parts in the floral whorls often differing in the staminate and
pistillate
flowers.
Ovary usually
3-celled;
ovules
1
or
2
in each
cavity,
pendulous; stvles mostly 3, simple, divided, or many-cleft.
Fruit mostly a
3-lobed capsule, separating, often elastically, into
3, 2-valved carpels from
a
persistent
axis.
Seeds anatropous; embryo
in fleshy or oily endosperm,
the broad cotyledons almost filling
the seed-coats.
About 2,50 genera and
over 4000 species, of wide distribution.
472
EUPHORBIACEAE
A. Ovules 2 in each ovary-cavity.
1. Staminate flowers axillary, in sliort clusters or solitary.
a.
Flowers, at least the staminate, petaliferous.
Disk of distinct glands.
Disk annular.
b. Flowers apetalous.
*Fruit capsular or baccate; styles not dilated.
tStaminate flowers with a rudimentary ovary; spiny
slu-ub or small tree.
ttStaniinate
flowers
without
a
rudimentary
ovary;
plants not spiny.
JTrees, shrubs or woody vines.
§Leaves normal.
Stamens 5-9; stigma sessile.
Stamens 2-4.
Staminate
caly.x 4-6-parted; stamens 3
or 2, the filaments more or less united.
Staminate
calyx
4-parted;
stamens
4,
distinct.
Flowers
in
leafy-bracted
panicles;
fruit indehiscent.
Flowers axillary; fruit capsular.
§Leaves
obsolete;
branches
flattened
into
cladophylls.
ttAnnual or perennial herbs; stamens mostly 3.
**Fruit drupaceous; st.vles dilated.
2. Staminate flowers in panicled racemes; leaves lepidote.
B. Ovule only
1 in each ovary-cavity.
1. Flowers not in an involucre (See Dalechampia)
a. Filaments inflexed at the top.
b. Filaments straight.
Flowers in forked cymes.
Calyx 5-toothed or 5-lobed.
Petals coherent.
Petals distinct.
Calyx irregularly rupturing
**Flowers not in forked cymes.
fLobes of the staminate calyx valvate.
IStaminate flowers petaliferous.
Stamens 2-3-verticillate.
Staminate flowers with a rudimentary ovary.
Staminate
flowers
without
a rudimentary
ovary.
Stamens
1 -verticillate.
JtFlowers of both kinds apetalous.
IStamens few or many, distinct or united.
IStyles distinct, or connate only at the base.
A Anther-sacs globose to oblong.
Anthers 4-celled.
Anthers 2-celled.
Anther-sacs pendulous or adnate.
Anther-sacs
ascending,
div^aricate.
Staminate flowers without a
rudimentary ovary.
Staminate
flowers
with
a
rudimentary ovary.
A A Anther-sacs elongated, often flexuous.
U ^Styles more or
less united;
oiu* species
vines.
Flowers without an involucre.
Flowers subtended by
a
foliaceous
in-
volucre.
§§ Stamens very many, the filaments repeatedly
forked.
ttLobes of the staminate calyx imbricated or calyx
wanting.
tFlowers in branched racemes.
tJFlowers spicate, or in simple racemes.
§ Bracts small, sometimes 2-glandular.
Calyx of the staminate flowers cleft or lobed
(luiknown in Ditta).
Styles 2-lobed.
Styles not 2-lobed.
Filaments distinct.
Filaments connate.
Calyx of the staminate flowers none or rudi-
mentary.
§§Bracts
large, membranous;
tree with cordate
leaves.
2. Flowers in a more or less cyathiform involucre.
a.
Involucre calceiform, the glands uiternal.
b.
Involucre regular, the glands external.
1.
2.
EUPHORBIACEAE
473
Plants fleshy, cactus-like, mostly leafless.
34. Euphorbia.
Plants normally leafy.
.
r,
Glands of the involucre unappendaged.
3o.
foinseltia.
Glands of the involucre appendaged.
Plants with
jointed
branches;
leaves opposite or
verticillate.
Glands of the involucre transverse, 2-lipped, the
lower lip appendaged; herbs.
36. Dichylium.
Glands of the involucre not transverse; shrubs
or trees.
37. Aklema.
Branches not jointed; mostly low herbs, with op-
posite, inequilateral leaves.
38.
Chamaesyce.
1. ANDRACHNE L. Sp. PI. 1014.
1753.
Herbs, or shrubby plants, with diffusely branching stems.
Leaves alternate.
Flowers monoecious,
axillary, the staminate often
clustered, with a 5-6-lobed
calyx, 5 or 6 petals, and 5 or 6 stamens;
pistillate flowers solitary, with a 5- or
6-lobed calyx, minute petals, or these wanting; styles 2-cleft or2-parted; ovules 2
In each cavity.
[From the Greek for Portulaca.]
About 10 species, of wide dis-
tribution.
Type species: Andrachne T lephioides L.
]. Andrachne cuneifolia Britton, Mem. Torr. Club 20: 72.
1920.
A glabrous shrub or small
tree, 4 m. high or
less, with slender, elongated
leafy branches.
Leaves obovate, cuneate, 5-15 mm. long, delicately pinnately
veined, dark green and shining above,
pale green and dull beneath,
the apex
rounded or subtruncate, the petiole about 1 mm. long; fruiting pedicels capillary.
12-20 mm. long, the 6 persistent, spreading or reflexed sepals about 1 mm. long;
capsule
glabrous,
subglobose, about
3 mm.
in diameter,
dry,
splitting;
seeds
obliquely oblong, 2.5-3 mm. long.
Hillsides and plains at low elevations in the dry southern and southwestern districts
of Porto Rico:—Cuba.
The staminate flowers are as yet unknown.
2. SAVIA Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 771.
1806.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate s ipulate leaves, the inflorescence racemose
or
short-cymose.
Flowers
petaliferous,
dioecious
or
monoecious.
Staminate
flowers
: sepals 5, subequal, imbricated; petals small; stamens 5, alternate with the
petals; filaments separate above their insertion; anthers erect; rudimentary ovary
slightly
3-fld.
Calyx
of the
pistillate
flowers
as
in
the
staminate.
Capsule
3-celled, the cocci 2-valved; seeds exarillate: endosperm fleshy; cotyledons plane.
[(Commemorates Gattano
Savi,
professor at
Pisa, died
1844.]
About
6 West
Indian specie
.
Type species: Croton sessiliflorum Sw.
1.
Savia sessiliflora (Sw.) Willd. Sp.
PI. 4: 771.
1806.
Croton s ssiliflorunvSw. Prodr. 100.
1788.
A shrub,
or a small
tree up to about 8 m.
high, with slender, pubescent
twigs, the gray-brown bark striate-flssured.
Leaves ovate
to ovate-lanceolate,
4-8 cm. long, pale green, acuminate or acute at the apex, rounded or subcordate
at the
base,
entire,
chartaceous,
reticulate-veined,
glabrous,
except
the short
petiole and the base of the midvein beneath; inflorescence axillary; staminate
flowers about 1.5 mm. long, the pistillate larger; fruiting pedicels 3-8 mm. long;
capsule greenish, about 10 mm. broad; seeds nearly 5 mm. long, smooth.
Banks,
hills, thickets and woodlands. Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations,
mostly
in dry
districts:
De.secheo:
Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:
St. Jan:—Cuba;
Hispaniola.
Recorded from Jamaica.
474
EUPHORBIACEAE
3. SECURINEGA Comm.; Gmel. Syst. 1008.
1791.
Shrubs,
the leaves
alternate,
entire,
often
small,
the flowers clustered or
solitary In the axils, monoecious or dioecious, ape' alous.
Staminate flowers
: sepals
5, imbricate; lobes of the disk, or glands, 5, alternate with the stamens ;s amensSor
rarely fewer, filaments free, opposite the sepals; anthe s erect, their cells distinct,
longitudinally dehiscent; rudimentary ovary more or
less evident,
slightly
or
markedly 2-3-fid.
Pistillate calyx like the staminate
; disk subentire
; ovary 3-celled
styles distinct, recurved,
2-fid; ovules 2
in each
cell.
[Greek,
referring to the
hard wood of the typical species.]
About 8 species of tropical and subtropical
distribution.
Type species: Securinega durissima Gmel.
1. Securinega Acidoton (L.) Fawcett, Joui'n. Bot. 57: 68.
lOin.
Adelia Acidoton L. Syst. ed. 10, 1298.
1759.
Flueggia Acidothamnus Griseb. Nachr. Gesell. Wiss. Goett. 1865: 164.
186.5.
Securinega Acidothamnus Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. 15: 451.
1866.
An intricatel,^ much-branched shrub 3 m. high or less.
Branches strongly
flexuous, delicately and sharply spinous; stipules ovate-lanceolate, minute, cadu-
cous;
leaves
petiolate,
broadly
obovate,
obtusely
rotund,
rigid,
densely
and
prominently reticulate-veiny, pale beneath, 6-8 mm. long, 2-6 mm. broad
; staminate
flowe-s glomera e-fasciculate;
pistillate
flowers
solitary;
styles connate below,
bifid,
the branches broadly 2-3-lobed;
fruit
at
first
fleshy,
obtusely
trigonal;
seeds smooth, pallid.
Dry hillsides, Coamo Springs, Porto Rico; Muertos;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; Little
St. James Island, St. Jan:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
4. ASTERANDRA Kl. in Erichs. Arch. 7: 200.
1841.
A small
tree, with alternate
distichous, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, entire,
short-petioled leaves and small, solitary or fascicled, axillary monoecious apetal-
ous, short-pedicelled flowers.
Calyx-segments 5 or 6, nearly equal.
Staminate
flowers with 6 stamens, rarely fewer, their fllament
connate.
Pistillate flowers
with a 3-celled ovary, the styles united,
the stigma dilated,
peltate.
Fruit a
3-lobed, hard capsule, at length splitting.
[Greek, a male star, referring to the
stamens.]
A few species of tropical America.
Type species: Phyllanthus corni-
folius H. B. K.
1. Asterandra grandifolia (L.) Britton, ^Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. 1: 61.
1918.
Phyllanthus grandifulius L. Sp. PL 981.
1753.
Phyllanthus juglandifalius Willd. Suppl. 64.
1813.
Phyllanthus quinquifidus Sesse & Moc-
Fl. Mex. ed.
2, 212.
1894.
Trunk
slender,
erect,
horizontally
branched,
2-8 m.
high,
the
branches
slender, glabrous or minutely puberulent, somewhat angled.
Leaves chartaceous,
5-15 cm. long, glabrous, the apex acute, obtuse or acuminate, the base obtuse,
rounded or subcordate; pedicels as long a
the petioles or twice as long; calyx of
the staminate flowers about 4 mm. long;
apsule depressed, 10-12 mm. in diam-
eter; seeds 5-6 mm. long.
[Savia laurifolia of Bello, not of Gri.sebach.]
Thickets, wooded hills and river banks at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas (according to Urban):—Cuba; Hispaniola; Mexico: nortliern South America.
J.\GUEYILLO.
TOBILLO.
Urban suggests (Symb. Ant. 4: 338) that the plant ILsted by Bello, without
description, as Phyllanthns nutans
not P. nutans Sw.), and called Jobillo, may
be a lanceolate-leaved race of this species; it is known only frcm a drawing made
by Krug.
EUPHORBIACEAE
475
5. CONAMI AulM. PI. Guian. 2: 926.
1775.
Shrubs or trees, mostly with distichous
leaves, the small
apetalous, mostly
monoecious flowers clustered or solitary in the a.xils.
Calyx 5-6-parted. Stamens
mostly
3,
the filaments more or
less united.
Ovules 2
in each ovary-cavity;
styles slender, connate at the base.
Fruit capsular.
[Guiana name.]
Twenty
species or more, of tropical distribution.
Type species: Conami brasiliensis Aubl.
1. Conami portoricensis (Kuntze) Britten.
Diasperiis portoricensis Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 602.
1891.
Phyllanthus portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
4: 338.
1905.
A glabrous, apparently dioecious shrub, 4 m. high or less, with weak slender
branches.
Stipules triangulai'-lanceolate, about 2 mm. long; leaves thin, obovate,
3-6 cm. long, obtuse or short-pointed, pinnately veined, the base cuneate, the
slender petioles .5-10 mm. long; pedicels 2-4 mm.
long, calyx greenish yellow;
pistillate flowers about
1 mm. long, the sepals 5 or 6; styles 2-5-lobed, distinct;
fruit globose, white, 6-7 mm. in diameter; seeds 3-angled, smooth.
Between Cayey and Guayama, Porto Rico, collected only by Dr. Otto Kuntze in
1874:—Jamaica (Hope Grounds; perhaps not native).
We made careful search for
tliis
interesting plant in 1922 and
1923, along the whole of the road between Cayey and
Guayama, but failed to find
it.
The type specimen is preserved in the herbarium of the
New York Botanical Garden.
Conami Conami
(Sw.) Britton
[Phyllanthus Conami Sw.;
P. acuminatus
Vahll, a similar shrub or small
tree, with ovate, acuminate leaves, the capsules
about 4 mm. in diameter,
is recorded by Mueller from St. Thomas, on the evi-
dence of an old specimen in the Candollean herbarium, but it is not knowni there
at the present time.
It inhabits Jamaica (where there is a Parish of St. Thomas)
Cuba; Martinique; St. Vincent; Trinidad; and continental tropical America.
6. CICCA L. Mant.
l: 17, 124.
1767.
A tree with distichous entire leaves and small monoecious flowers in leafy-
bracted
lateral
panicles.
Calyx
4-parted,
the segments unequal,
imbricated.
Petals none.
Staminate flowers with 4 distinct stamens, the anthers extrorse.
PistiUate flowers with a .several-celled ovary, the styles 2-cleft
; ovules 2 in each cell.
Fruit baccate, indehiscent.
Seeds angular, pendulous.
[Greek, wonderful tree.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Cicca disticha L. Mant. 1: 124.
1767.
Phyllanthus distichus Muell. Arg. in DC Prodr. 15: 413.
1866.
A
tree, up
to
12 m.
high,
the hard wood
nearly
white.
Leaves
ovate,
pointed, 5-7.5 cm. long.
Flowers panicled, the panicles many-flowered, lateral,
arranged along aphyllous branches,
the male and female mixed
in
the same
fascicles;
fllaments
alternating with
exterior glands;
ovary
4-(3)-celled;
fruit
depressed-globose, angled, the angles as many as there are seeds; smooth.
Roadsides and waste grounds, Porto Rico, spontaneous after planting;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Widely planted for its fnut in tropical regions.
Perhaps
native of the East Indies.
The wood is tough, strong and durable; the fruit is much used
for preserves.
Cereza amarilla, Grosella.
Otaheite Gooseberry.
7. MARGARITARIA L.f. Suppl. 66, 428.
1781.
Trees, shrubs or woody vines, with glabrous alternate entire leaves, and small
dioecious flowers, solitary or few together in the axils.
Calyx usually 4-parted.
476
EUPHORBIACEAE
Disk urceolate.
Stamtnate flowers usually with 4 distinct stamens.
Pistillate
flowers with a 3-5-celIed ovary and 3-5 distinct styles; ovules 2 in each cavity.
Fruit
capsular, 3-5-lobed.
Seeds
angled,
smooth.
[Greek,
pearl-like.)
Four
known species, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species: Margaritaria
nobilis L.f.
1. Margaritaria nobilis L.f. Suppl. 428.
1781.
Cicca antillana A. Juss. Tent. Euph. 108.
1824.
Phyllanthus nobilis Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr.
15^: 414.
1866.
Phyllanthus nobilis antillanus Muell. Arg.
loc.
cit. 415.
1866.
A tree, up to 14 m. high, the slender twigs glabrous,
lenticillate, the wood
white, hard and tough.
Leaves thin,
elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 4-15 cm. long,
pinnately veined, short-petioled, rather bright green above, pale green beneath,
the apex acute or acuminate, the base narrowed or obtuse; staminate flowers
clustered, the 4 sepals about 1.5 mm. long, the 4 stamens about as long; pistillate
flowers soUtary or few together, long-pedicelled, the calyx 2 mm. long, the ovary
4-5-celled, the 4 or 5 styles united below with lobed or cleft stigmas; capsule
subglobose, fleshy but at length dehiscent, about 8 mm. thick.
Thickets, hillsides and forests in wet or moist districts of Porto Rico, at lower and
middle elevations;
St.
Croix
(according to Eggers);
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to Grenada.
HiGTJiLLO.
MiLLO.
AVISPILLO.
AJVIORTIGUADO.
GONGI.EHOUT.
ROEHOUT.
8. XYLOPHYLLA L. Mant. 2: 147, 221.
1771.
Aphyllous tree-like shrubs, with flat leaf-like coriaceous branches (cladophylls).
Male and female flowers mingled in glomerate or fasciculate clusters in the ser-
ratures of the cladophylls; calyx 5-6-parted; staminal column entire or divided,
siu"rounded by
as many
glands
as
stamens;
anthers
transversely
dehiscent;
o^Tiles 2 in each ovary-cavity; styles
3, depressed, lacmiate or
2-cleft.
Fruit
capsular.
Seedlings, and sometimes shoots from stumps,
bear small normal
leaves.
[Greek, woody-leaf.]
About 10 species of the West Indies and BrazU.
the following typical.
1. Xylophylla Epiphyllanthus (L.) Britton; Small, Fl. Florida Keys 76.
1913.
Phyllanthus Epiphyllaidhus L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 1392.
1763.
Phyllanthus falcatus Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 1115.
1800.
A shrub, 0.75-2 m. high.
Cladophylls svibcompressed, scattered or distichous,
lanceolate to rhomboid, serrate above. .5-13 cm.
long, 0.8-2 cm. broad: sepals
red;
staminal column
entire
or
trifld:
anthers
subsessile,
spreading,
the
cells
distinct, ovoid-globose; styles slender, recurved above,
2-4-fid; capsule
sessile,
subglobose, about 3 mm. in diameter.
Limestone hills and
cliffs, northern districts and near Ponce, Porto Rico; St. Thomas
(ex
Krebs);
Virgin
Gorda:—West
Indies.
Lengua de
vaca.
Hardhead.
Sword-
BtJSH.
Boxwood.
9. PHYLLANTHUS L. Sp. PI. 981.
1753.
Annual
or
biennial
herbs.
Leaves
alternate,
entire,
distichous,
often
so
arranged as to appear like the leaflets of a compound leaf.
Flowers monoecious,
apetalous,
a staminate and
pistillate one often together
in
the
axils.
Calyx
ostly 5- or 6-parted, the lotes or sepals imbricated.
Stan-ers usually 3.
Ovules
EUPHORBIACEAE
477
2 in each cavity; styles 3, each usually 2-cleft.
[Greek,
leaf-flower. J
Over 50
species, of wide distribution.
Type species: Phyllanthus Niruri L.
Herbaceous annuals.
Filaments distinct, or connate at the base; capsule 3 mm. broad.
1.
P. lalhyroides.
Filaments imited into a column: capsule 2 mm. broad.
2.
P. Niruri.
Perennials, the stems more or less woody.
Leaves elliptic or elliptic-obovate; stem branched above, elongated.
3.
P. diffusus.
Leaves orbicular-obovate; stems much branched at the base, short.
4.
P. polycladuSi
1. Phyllanthus lathyroides H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 2: 110.
1817.
Annual; glabrous; herbaceous; stem erect or ascending, branched, 3-6 dm.
high.
Stipules
linear-lanceolate;
leaves
elliptic,
obtuse, 7-12 mm.
long,
pin-
nately veined, nearly sessile, pale beneath; pedicels 2-4 mm. long; calyx 2-3 mm.
long; filaments distinct or connate at the base; style 2-parted ; capsule about 3 mm.
broad
; seeds puncticulate in longitudinal Unes.
Grassy situations, roadsides and cultivated grounds in moist districts, Porto Rico;
Guadeloupe; Martinique; Barbados; continental tropical America.
2. Phyllanthus Niruri L. Sp. PI. 981.
1753.
Annual; herbaceous; stem erect, 6 dm. high or less, branched.
Leaves 6-1.5
mm. long, subsessile, obovate-oblong, rounded at the apex or mucronate, glabrous,
pale beneath; stipules setaceous; pedicels from 1-6 times exceeded by the leaf;
calyx-segments ovate; anthers sessUe on the top of the stamen column, globose,
contiguous;
styles
short,
included;
capsule
depressed-globose,
2 mm.
broad;
seeds evenly striated on the back.
Roadsides, banks, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
Tortola:—Florida; Bermuda; "West Indies; continental tropical America and Old World
tropics.
Often a troublesome weed.
Niruri.
Gale of wind.
3. Phyllanthus diffusus Klotzsch; Seem. Bot. Herald 105.
18.52-.57.
Perennial; glabrous; stems somewhat woody, 3-4 dm. long, branched above,
the branches very slender.
Stipules subulate; leaves elUptic or elliptic-obovate,
green on both
sides, 3-7 mm.
long, rounded, pinnately veined, nearly
sessile;
pedicels much shorter than the leaves; calyx 2-3 mm. long; stamens 2 or 3, the
filaments connate; styles short, 2-cleft; capsule about 2 mm. broad; seeds longi-
tudinally papillose-striolate.
Monte
Cienega near
Adjtmtas,
collected by
Sintenis
(according
to
Urban); in-
complete specimens collected by Stevens and Hess at Jndiera Fria, near Maricao. may
belong here, as also a specimen collected by Thompson on St. Croix
:—Guadeloupe (accord-
ing to Mueller)
; continental tropical America.
4. Phyllanthus polycladus Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 333.
1899.
Perennial; glabrous, much branched from the base, the branches very slender^
15 cm. long or
less.
Stipules setaceous with a broader base; leaves orbicular-
obovate, 3-5 mm.
long, pale green, rounded, obscurely veined, short-petioled
pedicels very short
; calyx of the staminate flowers scarcely
1 mm. long, that of
the
pistillate
larger; stamens
2, with
filaments connate to about the middle:
styles 2-cleft; capsule about 1.5 mm. broad; seeds striate.
On
limestone
rocks
in
the dry southwestern
districts
of Porto
Rico;
Muertos:
Icacos
; Anegada
:—Cuba
; Hispaniola.
Phyllanthus Emblica
L., Emblic Myrobalan, Asiatic, seen in the col-
lections
at
the
Agricultural Experiment
Station,
IMayaguez,
is
a
small
tree,
perhaps generically distinct from the herbaceous species ot Phyllanthus; its slender
branches bear numerous linear 2-ranked leaves about 15 mm. long; the minute
478
EUPHORBIACEAE
greenish flowers are
sessile in the
axils; the globose fleshy
fruits,
1-1.5 cm.
In
diameter, are used as a purgative medicine.
10. DRYPETES Vahl, Eclog. 3: 49.
1807.
Shrubs
or
trees.
Leaves
coriaceous
or
subcoriaceous,
glabrous;
stipules
deciduous; flowers
axillary,
fasciculate, dioecious.
Calyx 4-6-parted,
Its lobes
Imbricated.
Petals none.
Stamens 2-8, distinct; anthers ovoid, Introrse.
Ovary
2-1-celled,
its cells 2-ovuled.
Fruit drupaceous, usually monospermous by ab-
ortion.
[Greek, a drupe.]
About
10
species,
of
Florida, the West Indies and
Brazil.
Type species: Dry petes glauca Vahl.
Ovary
1 -celled.
Leaves spinulose-serrate; drupe 2 cm. long.
1. D. ilicifolia.
'
Leaves entire or repand; drupe 8-18 nam. long.
Filaments
much
longer
than
the
sepals;
drupe
obliquely
obovoid, 8-10 mm. long.
2. D. alba.
Filaments as long as the calyx; drupe oblong-obovoid,
12-18
mm. long.
3. D. glauca.
Ovary 2-celled; filaments much longer than the sepals; drupe subglobose.
4. D. lateriflora.
1. Drypetes ilicifolia Krug & Urban, Hot. Jahrb. 15: 352.
1892.
Gomphia
ilicifolia Bello, Anal.
Soc. Exp.
Hist. Nat.
12:
130.
Hyponym.
1883.
Not DC.
A shrub, or a small tree up to about 8 m. high, the twigs and leaves glabrous.
Leaves oblong or elliptic-oblong, coriaceous, 6-15 cm. long, coarsely spinulose-
dentate, acute or acuminate, reticulate-veined on both. sides, the petioles short:
staminate flowers in axillary fascicles, the pedicels about 2 mm. long, the sepals
2.5-3 mm. long; the filaments not longer than the sepals; pistillate flowers as yet
unknown; drupe obovoid, a little oblique, about 2 cm. long,
1-celled, the stigma
sessile.
[Ilex (?) of Stahl.]
Sand dimes and limestone
hills, northern districts of Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Er-
roneously recorded from Jamaica.
Encinillo.
2. Drypetes alba Poit. Mem. Mus. Paris l: 157.
1815.
Guatteria Berteriana Spreng. Syst. 2: 635.
1825.
A tree, 10-20 m. high, glabrous, or the young twigs finely pubescent.
Leaves
ovate to lanceolate or ovate-elliptic,
suljcoriaceous,
.5-12 cm.
long,
reticulate-
veined beneath, entire or undulate, the apex acute or acuminate, the base nar-
rowed or subcuneate and more or less oblique, the rather slender petioles 6-9 mm.
long;
staminate
flowers
yellow-green,
numerous, somewhat
shorter than
the
pedicels, or as long, the 3-6 stamens much longer than the sepals; ovary 1-celled;
stigma 1; drupe obliquely obovoid, short-stalked, white, tomentulose. 8-10 mm.
long.
Forestsof Porto Rico in wet or moist districts;—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Antigua;
Guadeloupe.
The wood, used for hubs and for charcoal,
is yellowish, hard and tough,
fine-grained and difficult to spUt.
Cafeillo.
Palo de vaca.
3. Drypetes glauca Vahl, Eclog. 3: 49.
1807.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the bark nearly white, the young twigs puberulent.
Leaves ovate-lanceolate
to
elliptic-lanceolate,
subcoriaceous,
entire or repand,
8-15 cm. long, glaucescent, reticulate-veined on both sides, acute or acuminate,
the base narrowed or rounded, sometimes a little oblique, the petioles 10-16 mm.
long;
staminate
flowers
several
or numerous
on
short,
yellowlsh-tomentose
pedicels, the sepals puliescent, about as long as the 6-8 stamens; pistillate flowers
few or
solitary,
slender-pedlcelled
; ovary
1-celled; stigma
1,
nearly
terminal:
EUPHOEBIACEAE
479
drupe nearly regularly oblong-obovoid, 12-18 mm. long,
at length glabrous,
its
stalk about 2 cm. long.
Woodlands and forests in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico, mostly at higher eleva-
tions;
St. Croi.x (according to Eggers):—Jamaica; Hispaniola;
St. Kitts to St. Vincent.
Palo blaxco.
Varital.
4. Drypetes lateriflora (Sw.) Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 15: 3.57.
1892.
Schaefferia lateriflora Sw. Prodr. 38.
1788.
A shrub, or sometimes a tree up to 13 m. high, the trunk sometimes 2.5 dm.
thick.
Leaves
petiolate,
oblong or
elliptic,
5-11.5 cm.
long,
acute
or
short-
acuminate at base and apex, entire or those of shoot
; from cut stumps spinulose-
serrate,
shining,
delicately
reticulate-veined beneath;
flowers
in dense, axillary
clusters; pedicels shorter than the petioles; sepals oblong to ovate, about 2 mm.
long,
obtuse, pubescent without; stamens 3-5,
longer than
the
sepals; ovary
2-celled; stigmas
2, nearly terminal,
stipitate; drupe subglobose, 6-11 mm.
in
diameter, dark brown, tomentulose.
Wooded
hills near Bayamon,
Porto
Rico:—Florida; Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola.
The wood is heavy, dark brown, fine-grained, rather weak and brittle, with
a specific gravity of about 0.9.
Gul\xa Plum.
11. HYERONIMA Allem. Diss. 1848.
Trees, with alternate, pinnately veined, entire petioled lepidote leaves and
small dioecious apetalous
flowers
in
axillary panicles.
Staminate flowers with
a 3-6-toothed calyx, a cupulate disk and 2-5 stamens opposite the caly.x-teeth.
Pistillate flowers with calyx and disk similar to the staminate, the ovary 2-celled
with 2 ovules in each cavity; styles usually
2, each
2-cleft.
Fruit subglobose,
small, somewhat
fleshy,
the endocarp hard,
usually, containing a single seed.
[Commemorates Je^onimo Serpa.]
About 12 species, of tropical America.
Type
species; Hyeronima alchorneoides Allem.
1. Hyeronima clusioides (Tul.) Muell. Arg. Linnaea 34: 66.
1865.
Stilaginella clusioides Tul. Ann.
Sci. Nat. III. 15: 245.
1851.
A tree, up to 20 m. in height, the twigs, leaves and inflorescence brownish-
lepidote.
Petioles rather stout, 1-6 cm. long; leaf-blades subcoriaceous, elliptic,
obtu.se or acute, 7-15 cm. long, sometimes pubescent on the veins beneath, the
base narrowed or rounded, the upper side finely reticulate-veined; panicles 6-8
cm. long; staminate flowers less than
1 mm. long, the disk about half as long as
the sepals; calyx of the pistillate flowers a little larger; fruit about 2 mm. long,
the styles persistent.
[H. alchorneoides of Grisebach and of Cook and
Collins,
not of Allem.]
Mountain
forests h\ wet or moist districts, Porto Ricoi^Dominica;
St. Vincent;
Grenada.
Cedro m.\cho.
12. CROTON L. Sp. PI. 1004.
1753.
Herl3s, shrubs or trees, often strong-scented, and stellate-pubescent.
Leaves
mostly alternate, sometimes with two glands at the base of the blade.
Flowers
spicate or racemose.
Staminate flowers uppermost; calyx 4-6-p rted
(usually
5-parted);
petals usually
present but small
or rudimentary,
alternating with
glands; stamens 5 or more.
Pistilla e flowers; calyx 5-10-parted; petals usually
wanting; ovary mostly 3-celled; ovule 1 in each cavity; styles once, twice or many
times cleft.
Fruit capsular.
Seeds carunculate.
[Greek name of the Castor-oil
plant.]
Over 600 species widely distributed.
Type species: Croton Tiglium L.
480
EUPHORBIACEAE
A.
Shrubs, or some species trees.
1. Leaves entire, or nearly so.
a.
Plants erect.
*Leaves without stalked marginal glands.
Leaves silvery-lepidote beneath.
1.
c. poecilanthvs.
Leaves stellate-pubescent beneath, or glabrous.
Leaves densely stellate-pubescent beneath.
Leaves elongated-lanceolate.
2.
C. impressus.
Leaves oblong to ovate-lanceolate.
Mostly
dioecious;
leaves
obtuse, mu-
cronulate.
3.
C. discolor.
Monoecious; leaves obtuse: acute or
acuminate.
Leaf-blades glandular at the base;
capsule subglobose, 5 mm. long.
4.
C. rigidus.
Leaf-blades
glandless;
capsule
ellipsoid, 6-8 mm. long.
5.
C. astroites.
Leaves glabrous or loosely stellate beneath.
Stipules glandular; leaves obtuse.
6.
C. ovalifolius.
Stipules not glandular.
Leaves 4-10 cm. long, acute.
7.
C. lucidus.
Leaves 1-2 cm. long, obtuse.
8.
C. Fishlockii.
*Leaves
tliin,
ovate,
stellate-pubescent,
sometimes
with stalked marginal glands.
9.
C.
humilis.
b. Low, small-leaved shrub with prostrate branches.
10.
C.viimmulariacfolius
2^ Leaves crenate.
11.
C. betulinus.
B. Herbaceous plants.
Leaves deeply lobed.
12.
C. lobatus.
Leaves serrate.
i:i.
C. glandulosus.
1. Croton poecilanthus Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 334.
1899.
A tree, up to 12 m. high, the trunk 2-3 dm. in diameter, or sometimes shrubby,
the bark smooth, the twigs, petioles, under leaf-surfaces and inflorescence densely
brownish-lepidote.
Leaves
elliptic or elhptic-obovat
-,
coriaceous,
entire, 8-15
cm. long, pinnately veined, the apex acute, obtuse or abruptly short-acuminate,
the base obtuse or n; rrowed and 2-glandular, the upper surface glabrous, the
stout petioles 4 cm. long or less; inflorescence simple or branched, usually many-
flowered, 1-2.5 dm. long, wholly staminate, or with pistillate flowers at the base;
staminate flowers white, with a 3-4-lobed calyx, 5 oblong petals 4-5 mm. long,
and about 20 stamens as long as the petals; pistillate flowers with a calyx about
4 mm. long, the style-branches 10-12; capsule ovoid, 10-15 mm. long.
Mountain forests at middle and higher
elevations
in
the eastern wet districts of
Porto Rico.
Endemic.
2. Croton impressus Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 335.
1899.
An erect shrub, about 2 m. high, the twigs, petioles, under leaf-surfaces and
inflorescence
very
densely
and
finely
stellate-pubescent.
Leaves
elongated-
lanceolate, chartaceous, pinnately many-veined, about 11 cm. long or less, 10-15
mm. wide, obtuse or acute, the base obtuse or subcordate, bearing a few small
glands, the margin entire or slightly undulate, the
petioles 1-2 cm.
long, the
veins impressed
in the glabrous upper side; racemes spike-like, 3-5 cm.
long;
staminate flower-; numerous, with distinct sepals nearly 2 mm. long, a little shorter
than the ovate petals, the stamens about 16, with filaments 2.5 mm. long; pistillate
flowers few at the base of the staminate, the styles 2-parted; capsule globose,
4-5 mm. in diameter.
Rio Estero, near Sabana Grande, and wooded
valleys near Maricao, Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
3. Croton discolor Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 532.
1805.
A shrub, about 2.5 m. high or less, erect or struggling, the twigs, petioles,
under leaf-surfaces and inflorescence densely
\\hitish
or
yellowish
stellate-pu-
bescent.
Leaves oblong to oblong-orbicular,
entire, pinnately veined,
firm
in
texture, 2-4 cm.
long, the apex rounded, niucronulate, the upper surface dark
EUPHORBIACEAE
481
green and glabrous, the petioles 5-25 mm. long: the base beiring 1 or few glands;
plants commonly, but not always dioecious
; staminate flowers in slender racemes,
often longer than the leaves, the 5-parted calyx about 2.5 mm. long, the
petals
a little longer, the stamens about 15; pistillate flowers larger, with 3-parted styles;
capsule globose, about 6 mm. long.
Hillsides and thickets at low elevations in the dry southwestern districts of Porto-
Rico: Mona: Vieques: Culebra: St. Croix: St. Thomas; Anegada:—Hispaniola.
Leche-
CILLO.
Erroneously recorded from the Bahamas.
4. Croton rigidus (Muell. Arg.) Britton.
Croton flavens rigidus Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. 15-: 613.
1866.
An odorous shrub, 0.5-3 m. high, rarely a small tree, up to 4 m. high, the
twigs,
leaves and
inflorescence densely
stellate-tomentose.
Stipules
obsolete;
leaves oblong to lanceolate or ovate, various in size and in length of the petioles,
2-10 cm.
long,
entire, obtuse, acute
or acuminate, the rounded
or narrowed
base glanduliferous
; racemes commonly as long as the leaves or longer, the pistil-
late floAvers below the staminate; staminate flowers with a calyx 2-2.5 mm. long
and
12-16 stamens;
pistillate
flowers
larger,
the
styles
2-cleft;
capsule
sub-
globose, about 5 mm. long.
[C. balsamifer of Bello and of Eggers, not of Jac-
quin; C. tomentosus of Sessg and Mocino, not of Link.]
Thickets and hillsides at low elevations, Porto Rico, mostly in dry districts; Culebra,
Culebrita; Vieques; St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola, Virgin Gorda.
Endemic.
Consists of several races, differing in form and size of leaves, in pubescence and in color
of twigs.
Adormida.
Guayacanillo.
Yellow Bals.\m.
Sage.
Soldier Whip.
5. Croton astroites Dryand. in Ait. Hort. Kew 3: 375.
1789.
Croton phlomoides Pers. Syn. 2: .585.
1806.
Croton venosus Spreng. Neue Entd. 3: 24.
1822.
A shrub, up to about 3 m. high, or a small tree sometimes 6 m. high, the twigs,
petioles,
leaves and inflorescence densely stellate-pubescent.
Stipules minute,
subulate
; leaves ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, eglandular, 3-8 cm. long, entire,
pinnately-veined, the apex acute
oi- acuminate, the base i5-7-nerved, rounded or
subcordate, the petioles 1-4 cm. long; inflorescence 2-6 cm. long, the staminate
flowers above the pistillate; staminate flowers with a calyx about 3 mm. long
and about 16 stamens; pistillate flowers with an accrescent calyx up to 8 mm.
long, the styles 2-3-cleft; capsule eUipsoid, 3-lobed, about as long as the calyx.
Hillsides.
Cataeza de San Juan, and roadside at
Aguadilla,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
Culebra;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgia Gorda.—St. Martin to Guade-
loupe.
Maran.
6. Croton ovalifolius Vahl in West, Bidr.
St. Croix. 307.
1793.
Croton diffusus Griseb. Crot. Mon. 41.
1807.
Oxydectes ovalifolia Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL 612.
1891.
Shrubby, branched, slender, 5 dm. high or
less, the branches, petioles and
under leaf-surfaces pilose w ith long stellate hairs.
Leaves oval, oblong or elliptic,
slender-petioled, glandless, 1-3.5 cm. long, entire, or creiuilate toward the rounded
apex,
the
base mostly narrowed,
the upper surface
glabrous;
stipules
linear,
glandular, small; staminate flowers with a calyx about 2 mm. long, the petals
about as long, the stamens with pubescent filaments; pistillate flowers pediceUed
at the base of the staminate, the glandular-fringed calyx-segments 4-6 mm. long,
the styles 4-6-parted; capsule globose, a little shorter than the calyx.
Hillsides
St
Croix:
St. Thomas:
St. Jan: Tortola: Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica: His-
paniola;
Guadeloupe;
Alargarita;
Bonaire;
Curacao;
Aruba;
Venezuela;
Colombia.
Yerba.
482
EUPHOKBIACEAE
7. Croton lucidus L. Syst. ed.
10, 1275.
1759.
Croton portoricense Vahl; Steud. Nomen. ed. 2,
1: 447.
1840.
Croton Hookerianus Baill. Etiid. 363.
1858.
Croton lucidus puhigerus Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 40.
1859.
Croton lucidus polytrichus Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 335.
1890.
A shrub, 1.5-2 ni. hifih; branchlets mostly glabrous or glabrescent.
Leaves
elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 5-15 cm. long, 2-4 cm. wide, eglandular, glabrous or
pubescent, miiuitely pelhu-id-punctate, entire, narrowing to a roundish base and
apex; petiole about one-fourth the length of the blade; stipules ephemeral.
In-
florescence
in terminal
racemes.
Staminate flowers:
sepals ovate, imbricated,
much snuiUer than those of the pistillate, ciliate on the margin; pistillate flowers:
calyx-lobes oblong, blunt, margin reduplicate, somewhat persistent at the base;
styles 4-partite, the branches bifid to near the base.
Limestone
liills, coa.stal woods and tliickots in the dry .southwestern districts, Porto
Rico:
Mona;
Miiertos:—Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Cayman
Islands.
FiRE-BUSH.
8. Croton Fishlockii Britton, Torreya 20: 84.
1920.
A low, much branched shrub,
the young twigs sparingly
long-pilose,
the
Internodes
short.
Leaves
broadly
elliptic
to
suborbicular,
6-22 mm.
long,
rounded or obtuse at both ends, pinnately few-veined, sparingly long-pilose and
with copious black stellate hairs, the pilose petioles 2-8 mm. long; flowers few.
In small terminal clusters, or solitary.
Staminate flowers: sepals ovate to ovate-
elliptic, about 3 mm. long, stellate-pubescent; petals obovate, 3 mm. long, villous
within; stamens 12, the filaments villous near the base.
On the summit of the moimtain, Virgin Gorda, about 400 m. altitude, collected only
by Fishlock.
Endemic.
9. Croton humilis L. Syst. ed. 10, 1276.
1759.
A usually much branched, aromatic shrub, 2 m. high or less, the slender twigs,
the petioles, the inflorescence and under leaf-surfaces stellate-tomentose.
Leaves
thin,
ovate
or
ovate-lanceolate,
pinnately
veined,
2-6 cm.
long,
entire,
the
margin sometimes with distant, stipitate glands, the apex acute or acimiinate, the
base rounded or subcordate, the slender petioles often nearly as long as the blade;
stipules glandular-incised, or minute and glandular-lobed
; racemes 2-4 cm. long;
flowers white; staminate flowers with a calyx about 2.5 mm.
long, the elliptic
petals about as long, the stamens numerous; pistillate flowers at the base of the
staminate, the calyx 4-5 mm. long, the styles 4-parted; capsule 3-lobed, 5-6 mm.
long.
Thickets and hillsides, Porto Rico
; in the dry southwestern districts near the coast
St. Thomas:—.Tamaica; Hispaniola; Yucatan.
Porto Rico specimens are mostly without
marginal glands.
Yerba bell.\ca.
Pepper-bush.
10. Croton nummulariaefolius A. Rich; in Sagra, Hist. Cub. 11: 211.
1850.
Much branched from a deep woody root, the branches very slender, prostrate
or ascending, somewhat woody, 1-3 dm. long, leafy, stellate-pubescent.
Leaves
suborbiciUar,
very
small,
only 2-7 mm.
broad, sometimes broader than
long,
entire or sparingly crenulate, stellate-pubescent on both sides, the petiole shorter
than the blade; stipules ovate, minute, deciduous; raceme small, few-flowered;
staminate flowers with about 6 stamens; calyx of the pistillate flowers aljout 2
mm. long; capsule subglobose, about 3 mm. long.
Rocky coastal thicket, Guanica, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola.
11. Croton betulinus Vahl, Symb. 98.
1791.
A shrub, 0.5-3 m. high, the very slender twigs, the short petioles, the under
leaf-surfaces and the inflorescence stellate-pubescent.
Stipules minute or want-
EUPHORBIACEAE
483
Ing;
leaves
small, 8-20 mm.
long,
ovate or
ovate-lanceolate,
rather
coarsely
crenate-dentate, the apex obtuse or acute, the base rounded or subcordate, the
dark green upper surface
scabrous-stellate; racemes
as long
as the
leaves or
longer, few-several-flowered; staminate flowers with a calyx about
1 mm. long
and about 10 short stamens; pistillate flowers with a calyx 2-2. .5 mm. long, the
styles 2-parted with 2-lobed or 2-cleft divisions; capsule subglobose, about 3 mm.
long.
Tliickets along and near the coasts, Porto Rico; Mona; Muertos; Icacos; Culebra;
Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada;—Cuba; His-
paniola; Anguilla to Martinique.
12. Croton lobatus L. Sp.
PI. 1005.
17.53.
Croton trilobatus Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 556.
1805.
Oxydectes lobata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 612.
1891.
A low herb, 3-6 dm. high, the branches and branchlets pilose, the longer
hairs simple.
Leaves membranous, 3-5-lobed, glabrous, papiUate, the segments
elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, serrate; petioles nearly as long as the
blades.
Pistillate flowers: calyx-lobes spathulate-lanceolate, glanduliferous and
with a few long acicular hairs; styles free or nearly so, 3-8-fid at the apex.
Stam-
inate flowers: sepals glabrous; petals lanceolate.
Capsule globose-eUipsoid, the
cocci with a number of scattered acicular hah-s; seeds ochre-color, quadrangular-
cylindric, 5 mm. long, 3 mm. broad.
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan;
Tortola:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
13. Croton glandulosus L. Syst. ed. 10, 1275.
1759.
Croton affinis Vahl; Spreng. Syst. 3: 870.
1826.
Croton glandulosus glahratus Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 336.
1899.
Herbaceous, annual,
loosely stellate-pubescent or glabrate, erect or nearly
so, branched, 8 dm. high or less.
Leaves oblong to ovate, coarsely serrate, 2-7
cm. long, obtuse or acute, with 2 glands at the base of the blade; petioles slender,
1-2 cm. long; staminate flowers splcate, the calyx about 2 mm. long, the petals
very small, the 8-10 stamens about as long as the calyx; pistillate flowers few or
several at the base of the staminate, the styles 2-cleft; capsule subglobose, about
5 mm. long; seeds about 4 mm. long.
[Included by MlUspaugh In C. trinitensis
Millsp.]
Sandy and gravelly
soil at lower elevations, Porto Rico;
St. Croix:—southeastern
United States; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; continental tropical America north to Mexico.
Croton hastatus West, of St.
Croix, listed by West without description,
Is not identified.
Croton corylifolius Lam.,
listed by Krebs from
St. Thomas In
1851,
is
not otherwise reported within the limits of this Flora;
his record
Is probably
erroneous.
Croton buxoides Vahl, also listed by Krebs,
is an unpublished name, not
associated with any known species.
Eggers recorded an arboreus Croton, found on Flag HIU, St. Thomas, not In
flower when observed by him.
13. CURCAS Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 356.
1763.
Glabrous or nearly glabrous trees or shrubs with petloled, lobed or entire
leaves, and monoecious flowers In compound or simple cyTnes.
Calyx 5-lobed or
484
EUPHORBIACEAE
5-parted.
Corolla gamopetalous,
the
petals
united
to
or above
the
middle.
Stamens about 10, in 2 series.
Ovary 2-3-celled; ovules 1 in each cavity.
Fruit
a capsule, splitting into 2 or 3 valves.
[Malabar name.]
Perhaps 10 species,
natives of tropical regions, the first following typical.
Cymes contracted; capsules 3-4 cm. long.
1.
C. Curcas.
Cymes dichotomous; capsules about 1.5 cm. long.
2.
C. hernandiifolius.
1. Curcas Curcas (L.) Britton &-Millspaugh, Bahama Fl. 225.
1920.
Jatropha Curcas L. Sp. PL 1006.
1753.
Curcas indica A. Rich; in Sagra, Hist Cub. 11: 208.
1850.
A
small
tree
or sometimes
shrubby,
2-5 m.
high.
Leaves
subcordate,
roundish, angular or obsoletely 3-5-lobed, glabrous or glabrate, the petiole about
as long as the blade; stipules deciduous; inflorescence in contracted cymes; calyx
5-partite;
corolla yellow,
5-partite,
villous within, twice
as long as the calyx;
stamens 10-15;
styles
bifid, cohering below; Capsules oval,
slightly
fleshy, 3-4
cm. long; seeds oblong, nearly 2 cm. long.
Hillsides, waste ground and woodlands, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations;
often planted and spontaneous
after
cultivation;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan:
Bermuda
; West Indies and continental tropical America.
The seeds are used medicinally.
Tartago.
Physic-nut.
2. Curcas hernandifolius (Vent.) Britton.
Jatropha hernandifolia Vent. Jard. Malm.
1: 52.
1803.
Louriera peltata Desf. Cat. Hort. Paris ed. 3, 411.
1829.
Curcas peltata Baill. Etud. Euph. 315.
1858.
Curcas portoricensis Baill. Etud. Euph. 314.
1858.
Jatropha portoricensis Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 59.
1900.
Jatropha hernandifolia portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 349.
1905.
Jatropha hernandifolia peltata Pax,
Pfir. 42: 75.
1910.
A glabrous shrub, 2-4 m. high, the twigs rather slender.
Petioles slender,
2-7 cm. long
; leaf-blades thin, peltate or epeltate, 4-10 cm. long, palmately veined,
entire
or
3-lobed,
glaucous
beneath,
the apex acute
or acuminate,
the
base
rounded
or
cordate;
stipules
subulate; cymes
dichotomously compound,
the
branches very slender; sepals ovate, obtuse, about 3 mm. long; petals white, ob-
tuse, coherent to about the middle, 5-6 mm. long; stigma 2-parted; capsule el-
lipsoid, about 1.5 cm. long, rugulose; seeds compressed, about 1 cm. long, finely
mottled.
[Jatropha heterophylla of Sesse and Mogino, not of SteudeL]
Hillsides and thickets at lower elevations, Porto Rico, mostly near or along the
coasts:—Jamaica; Hispaniola.
14. ADENOROPIUM Pohl,
PI. Bras, l: 12.
1827.
Monoecious or rarely dioecious perennial herbs, or shrubs, with entire lobed
or divided leaves, the flowers in cymes.
Staminate flowers on the upper parts
of the cymes, with a corolla-like 5-lobed calyx, 5 distinct petals, the stamens
usually several or numerous.
Pistillate flowers in the lower-forks of the cymes.
Capsule ovoid or subglobose, easily separating into 2-valved
carpels.
[Greek,
glandular bush.]
Eighty species or more of tropical and subtropical distribution.
Type species: Adenoropium elHpticum Pohl.
Herbaceous; petioles glandular; leaves 3-5-lobed.
1. A. gossypifolium.
Shrub or small tree, glabrous throughout; leaves palmately several-
many-parted.
2. A. muUifidum.
EUPHORBIACEAE
485
1. Adenoropium gossypifolium (L.) Pohl, Pi. Bras.
1: 16.
1827.
Jatropha gossypifolia L. Sp. PI. 1006.
1753.
Herbaceous; stem 6-10 dm. high, branched.
Leaves ciliate or gland uliferous
on the margm, 3-o-partite or 3-5-lobed, petioled, pubescent, glabrescent beneath
or glabrous,
the segments ovate,
pointed,
denticulate
or
entire;
petiolar and
stipular glands branched;
inflorescence
in contracted cymes;
corolla
twice as
long as the calyx; petals obovate, deep purple, spreading; stamens 8-12; stigmas
2-branched
; capsule truncate at both ends, 3-sulcate, about 1 cm. in diameter.
Fields,
hillsides, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico,
at lower and middle
ele%'ations; Desecheo; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas: St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda-
Florida
; West Indies ; continental tropical America.
Tua-Tua.
Higuerita cimarrona.
2. Adenoropium multifidum (L.) Pohl, PI. Bras, l: 16.
1827.
Jatropha multifida L. Sp. PI. 1066.
1753.
A glabrous shrub or small tree up to 6 m. high, the branches stout.
Stipules
setaceous-dissected, 1-2 cm. long; leaves long-petioled, nearly orbicular in out-
line, deeply several-many-parted,
1.5-3 dm,
in diameter, the lobes pinnately
incised or entire, long-acuminate, green above, white-glaucous beneath; cymes
long-stalked, compound, compactly many-flowered; flowers scarlet; sepals ovate;
petals 4-7 mm. long, spatulate; capsule subglobose, yellow, 2-3 cm. long.
Occasionally spontaneous after cultivation,
in Porto Rico, perhaps native
in the
southwestern districts; much planted for ornament; roadsides, St. Croix; St. Thomas:
West Indies; continental
tropical America, introduced by planting in the Old World
tropics.
Don To^L\s.
Tartago emetico.
Mana.
Coral Plant.
Coral Bush.
Adenoropium hastatum
(Jacq.)
Britton &
Wilson,
Cuban, grown
for
ornament in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens,
is a glabrous or puberulent
shrub, the leaves various, ovate to obovate, entire, dentate, lobed or panduriform,
the rose-colored flowers in terminal, long-peduncled cymes, with petals 11-15
mm. long.
[Jatropha hastata Jacq.; J. pandurijolia Andr.]
15. ALEURITES Forst. Char. Gen. 111.
1776.
Trees, with large, 3-5-lobed or entire, 5-7-nerved, petioled leaves, and mostly
monoecious,
petahferous
flowers
in
terminal
panicled
cymes.
Calyx
nearly
globular,
splitting
into
2
or 3
lobes.
Petals narrow,
longer than the
calyx.
Staminate flowers numerous, with several or many stamens.
Pistillate flowers
mostly soUtary hi the forks of the cymules, the ovary 2-5-celled, the styles 2-5,
each 2-divided; ovules solitary in the ovary-cavities.
Fruit large, fleshy, edible,
indehiscent.
Seeds ecarunculate, with hard endosperm.
[Greek,
like
meal.]
Four known species of the Old World tropics, the following typical.
1. Aleurites moluccana (L.) Willd. Sp. Pi. 4: 500.
1805.
Jatropha moluccana L. Sp. PI. 1006.
1753.
Aleurites triloba Forst. Char. Gen. 112.
1776.
Camirium moluccanum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 595.
1891.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the gray-brown bark shallowly fissured, the stout
twigs and inflorescence densely stellate-scurfy, the wood light yellow, weak and
soft.
Leaf-blades various, sharply 3-5-lobed or entire, ovate to suborbicular,
8-25 cm. long, stellate-pubescent beneath, the base subtruncate; petioles rather
stout, mostly as long as the blades or longer; panicles many-flowered, 8-15 cm.
long, scurfy-stellate; petals white, about 8 mm. long; fruit greenish, subglobose,
a little wider than long, 4-6 cm. thick; seeds 1 or 2.
Sparingly spontaneous after cultivation,
yielding a valuable
oil, Porto Rico;
St.
Croix; St. Thomas:—widely planted and locally spontaneous in the West Indies.
Native
of the East Indian region.
NuEZ de Indl\.
Ot.\heite Walnut.
Candle-nut.
486
EUPHORBIACEAE
16. CAPERONIA St. Hil. Hist. PI. Rem. 244.
1824.
Annual or perennial herbs, with alternate stipulate leaves, the .small, bracte-
olate, mostly monoecious, petaUferous flowers in axillary spikes or narrow racemes,
the pistillate below the staminate.
Staminate flowers with 5 or 6 valvate calyx-
segments and about 10 stamens.
Pistillate flowers with 5 or 6 imbricated sepals,
the ovary 3-celled, the
short
styles
fimbriate;
ovules
1
in each ovary-cavity.
Capsule muricate or spinulose, dry, splitting.
Seeds ecarunculate.
[Commemor-
ates Caperon, a French pharmacist.]
About 30 species of tropical America and
Africa.
Type species: Croton castaneifalius L.
1. Caperonia palustris (L.) St. Hil. Hist. PI. Rem. 245.
1824.
Croton palustris L. Sp. PI. 1004.
1753.
Annual
; stem erect, branched, setulose-hispid and usually glandular at least
above, 4-10 dm.
high.
Leaves
linear,
lanceolate, ovate or
elliptic-ovate, pin-
nately veined,
serrate,
glabrate or pubescent on the veins beneath, 4-12 cm.
long, the apex acute, obtuse or rounded, the petioles 5-20 mm. long; spikes 4-10
cm. long, very slender; staminate flowers usually many, with lanceolate segments
about
1 mm. long; pistillate flowers usually few, larger than the staminate, with
obovate, acuminate
sepals,
the
styles 3-8-parted; capsule muricate, 6-7 mm.
broad; seeds minutely foveolate.
[C. castaneifolia of Bello, not of St. Hilalre.]
Wet grounds
at
lower
elevations,
Porto
Rico:—Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe;
Martinique; Tobago; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Recorded by Krebs as
found in St. Thomas prior to 1851.
17. DITAXIS Vahl; Juss. Euphorb. 27, 110.
1824.
Monoecious or dioecious perennial herbs, or shrubs.
Leaves alternate, often
strongly nerved.
Flowers racemed or solitary, usually bracted.
Staminate flowers
often crowded at the ends of the racemes; calyx 4- or 5-lobed, the lobes or sepals
valvate; petals 4 or 5, alternate with the calyx-lobes and with the lobes of the disk;
stamens of the same number as the petals or two or three times as many, united
Into a column.
Pistillate flowers with the calyx-lobes or sepals imbricated and
smaller petals, the ovary 3-celled.
Capsule 3-lobed. depressed.
Seeds ecarun-
culate, sometimes crested.
[Greek, double-ranked,
in allusion to the stamens.]
About 40 species, natives of temperate and tropical regions, the following typical.
1. Ditaxis fasciculata Vahl; A. Juss. Tent. Euph. 110.
1824.
Argyrothamnia fasciculata Muell. Arg. Linnaea 34: 146.
1865.
An
erect shrub,
0.5-1.5 m.
high, with nearly white bark,
branched,
the
branches
stiff,
glabrous, the young twigs sparingly
pilose.
Leaves oblong-ob-
lanceolate to spatulate, 1-3 cm. long, entire, nearly sessile, glabrous or nearly so,
the apex rounded,
obtuse
or emarginate,
the base narrowed,
3-nerved,
both
surfaces reticulate-veined
; racemes few-flowered, much shorter than the leaves,
or flowers, soUtary, bright white; sepals 5.
pilose, lanceolate, those of staminate
flowers about 3 mm. long, those of pistillate flowers 4-5 mm. long; stamens 10,
in 2 series, with a few short staminodes; styles
2-cleft, pilose; capsule 5-6 mm.
broad, pilose.
Hillsides and thickets at lower elevations, Porto Rico, in the dry southern and south-
western districts; Muertos;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—
St. Martin.
Recorded by Mueller and by Pax from Cuba.
EUPHORBIACEAE
487
18. ARGYTHAMNIA Sw. Prodr. 39.
1788.
Low monoecious shrubs containing purple pigment.
Leaves simple, entire
or dentate, stipulate.
Inflorescence in few-flowered, axillary subsessile racemes;
flowers greenish, short-pedicellate, the 1-3 inferior pistillate.
Calyx 4- or 5-parted,
valvate.
Petals of staminate flowers 4 or 5; stamens 4 or 5, cohering at the very
base and surrounding a central rudiment,
anthers subglobose,
introrse; discal
glands 4 or
5.
Pistillate
flowers with or without petal
;
styles
cut into 3-8
branches.
Capsule 3-coccous.
[Greek, silvery bush.]
About 8 species, of the
West Indies.
Type species
: Argythamnia candicans Sw.
Leaves, at least the upper, acute; both staminate and pistillate flowers
petaliferous.
1. A. candicans.
Leaves rounded or obtuse; pistillate flowers apetalous.
2. A. Stahlii.
•
1. Argythamnia candicans Sw. Prodr. 39.
1788.
A shrub, up to
1.5 m.
high, usually lower and often straggling or nearly
prostrate, the slender branches glabrous, gray. Leaves purplish or green, lance-
olate to ovate-oblong, distantly denticulate, 2-8 cm. long, appressed-pubescent at
least beneath, acute, acuminate or the lower obtuse, the base narrowed, 3-5-
nerved, the petioles 1-3 mm. long; stipules about
1.5 mm. long; racemes 8-10
mm. long, with 1-5 pistillate flowers at the base; staminate flowers with 4 sepals
about 2 mm. long and 4 obovate shorter petals; pistillate flowers with 5 sepals
2.5 mm. long and 5 much shorter petals; capsule vfllous, 5-6 man. long.
Sandy and rocky
soil at lower elevations, Porto Rico, Ln moist and dry districts;
Mona;
Icacos; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tor tola:—.lamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Martin; St. Barts.
2. Argythamnia Stahlii Urban, Symb. Ant. l: 336.
1899.
A low shrub, with .'lender, sometimes prostrate branches about 3 dm. long
or shorter, the twigs appressed-pubescent.
Leaves ovate to elliptic, 1..5-3.5 cm.
long, entire, sparingly pubescert, the apex obtuse or rounded, the base narrowed,
the petioles 4 mm. long or less; stipules about 1 mm. long; racemes few-several-
flowered, about 5 mm. long, usually with only 1 pistillate flower; staminate flowers
with 4 elliptic sepals about 1 mm. long and 4 broad petals of about the same length
pistillate flower with 5 oblong or lanceolate sepals
1..5-2 mm. long, the petals
wanting; capsule 3-4 mm. long, pilose.
Woodlands and thickets, dry southwestern districts of Porto Rico; Anegada.
En-
demic.
19. ADELIA L. Syst. ed.
10, 1298.
1759.
[Bernardia P. Br. Hist. Jam. 361.
Hyponym.
1756.^j
Shrubs with
serrate stipulate leaves pubescent with simple
hairs, and
di-
oecious flowers. Staminate flowers in axillary amentaceous spikes, each flower <essile
In the
axil of a bract; calyx 3-5-parted; stamens 15-20,
distinct, the interior
central and mixed with some glands; anthers cruciate-globose,
4-celled, 2
cells
anterior.
Pistillnte flowers few or solitary, subterminal, 3-bracteate; calyx 5- or
6-parted, biseriate; styles 3, short, lacerate-crenate.
[Greek, referring to the in-
conspicuous flowers.]
A few species of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Adelia Bernardia L. Syst. ed.
10, 1298.
1759.
Croton dichotomus Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 537.
1805.
Bernardia carpinifolia Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 45.
1859.
488
EUPHORBIACEAE
Bernardia dichotoma Mull. Arg. Linnaea 34: 172.
1865.
Bernardia Bernardia Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 58.
1900.
A tomentose shrub .75-3 m. high.
Leaves petioled, ovate-oblong, 4-8 cm.
long, rounded at the biglandular base, tapering from the middle to a bluntish
point, obtusely serrate, tomentose beneath, primary veins distant, promlnulous
beneath; stipules setaceous, 2 mm.
long.
Staminate spikes
sessile, 6-12 mm.
long, tomentose; bracts oval, acute; calyx-lobes 3-5, ovate, acute, nearly equalling
the stamens; central disk minute; anthers yellow.
Capsule densely appressed-
pubescent- seed ovate,
acute, about 5 mm.
long, nearly smooth, brown with
darker brown markings.
Hillsides and thickets in the dry southern and southwestern districts of Porto Rico
:
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Cayman Islands; Hispaniola; St. Vincent.
20. RICINELLA Muell. Arg. Linnaea 34: 153.
1865.
Dioecious, apetalous shrubs or small trees, the branches mostly spinescent,
the leaves alternate or
fascicled on short
twigs,
entire,
pellucid-puncticulate.
Flowers borne on
lateral
pulvini.
Staminate
flowers
densely
clustered,
very
short pedicelled, the calyx valvately 4- or 5-part.ed, the 8-17 stamens more or less
connate, the disk annular.
Pistillate flowers solitary or several together, long-
pedicelled, with 5-7, narrow reflexed sepals, the ovary 3-celled, the 3 styles dis-
tinct, laciniatc; ovules
1
in each ovary-cavity.
Fruit a 3-lobed, dehiscent, pu-
bescent
capsule.
Seeds
ecarunculate.
[Diminutive
of
Ricinus.]
About
10
species of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Ricinella Ricinella (L.) Britton; P. Wilson, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 8: 395.
1917.
Adelia Ricinella L. Syst. ed.
10, 1298.
1759.
Ricinella pedunculosa Muell. Arg. Linnaea 34: 153.
1865.
A shrub, or a tree up to 10 m. high, the twigs slender, glabrous, the bark
nearly white, many of the branchlets usually bearing spines 2 cm. long or less.
Leaves membranous, oblong to obovate, 1-7 cm. long
glabrous above, pubescent
in the axils of the veins beneath, the petioles 1-5 mm. long, the apex obtuse,
rounded or acutish, the base narrowed; staminate flowers with pedicels about as
long as the calyx, the sepals 2-3 mm. long, the 8-1 5 stamens borne on a central
knob; pistillate flowers on pedicels 1-5 cm. long, the sepals about 3 mm. long,
the ovary tomentose; capsule deeply 3 lobed, 6-8 mm. in diameter: seeds brown,
globose.
Hillsides and thickets, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations, mostly in dry
districts; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St. Martin; Grenada;
Curagao.
Espinillo,
Escambron.
Rici-
nella.
21. ALCHORNEA Sw. Prodr. 98.
1788.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate
petioled
stipulate
3-5-nerved leaves and
dioecious or monoecious
small, greenish or yellowish, apetalous flowers in lateral
or axillary spikes or narrow racemes, the staminate spikes often panicled, the
pistillate simple.
Staminate flowers several together in the axil.= of small bracts,
with a globose calyx valvately parting into 2-5 segments and about 8 stamens, the
filaments connate below.
Pistillate flowers 1-3 in the axils of bracts, the 3-6
sepals imbricated, the ovary 2- or 3-celled, the 2 or 3 styles simple or rarely 2-lobed
at
the
apex;
ovules
1
in each
ovary-cavity.
Capsule
dry,
splitting.
Seeds
ecarunculate.
[Commemorates Alchorn, an English botanist.]
About 45 species,
of tropical regions, the following typical.
EUPHORBIACEAE
489
1. Alchornea latifolia Sw. Prodr.
6, 98.
1788.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, glabrate, or the young twigs and leaves minutely
stellate-pubescent,
the wood
soft.
Leaves
subcoriaceous,
the
petioles rather
stout, 4-12 cm. long, the blades ovate to broadly elliptic, 8-25 cm. long, dentate
with gland-tipped teeth, the apex short-acuminate or obtuse, the base obtuse or
subcordate, 2-4-glandular, 3-nerved, the lateral veins few; spikes slender, 6-20
cm. long, the staminate panicled, the pistillate simple; staminate flowers about
3 mm. in diameter;
pistillate
flowers in drooping spikes 10-16 cm.
long, with
simple styles 1-2 cm. long, connate below; capsule about 10 mm. in diameter;
seeds 5-6 mm. in diameter, echinate.
Forests and wooded hills in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending to at least
700 m.; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Me.Kico and Central America.
AcHio-
TiLLo.
Palo de Cotorra.
22. ALCHORNEOPSIS Muell. Arg. Linnaea 34:
1.56.
1865.
Dioecious trees with glabrous foliage, alternate petioled, entire or undulate,
3-nerved leaves, the small flowers in simple, slender, axillary spikes.
Staminate
flowers solitary or clustered, the calyx globose, splitting into 3 or 4 valvate seg-
ments; stamens usually 6, the filaments distinct.
Pistillate flowers few or several
In the spikes, with 4 sepals, the ovary 3-ceUed, the 3 styles short, simple
; ovules
1 in each ovary-cavity.
Capsule dry, splitting.
Seeds ecarunculate, reticulated.
[Greek,
resembluig
Alchornea.]
Two known
species,
the
following and
the
typical A. floribunda Muell. Arg.
1. Alchorneopsis portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 337.
1899.
A tree, up to about 15 m. high, the young twigs puberulent.
Leaves char-
taceous, glabrous,
elliptic to obovate- elliptic, 5-10 cm. long, or those of shoots
larger, undulate, slender-petioled, the apex short-acuminate, the base obtuse or
narrowed, both sides reticulate-veined; spikes 3-6 cm. long, puberulent ; staminate
flowers 1—4 together, with 3 or 4, ovate puberulent segments about 1.5 mm. long
and 5-8 stamens- capsule about 5 mm. in diameter; seeds 3 mm. long
lenticular.
Mountain forests of Porto Rico at higher elevations:—Hispaniola. Palo de gallina.
Perhaps not speciflcaUy distinct from A. floribunda of northern South America.
23. ACALYPHA L. Sp. PI. 1003.
1753.
Monoecious
or dioecious herbs or
shrubs.
Stems mostly
erect.
Leaves
alternate, stipulate.
Flowers in spikes or spike-like racemes; staminate clusters
often peduncled, each flower in the axil of a minute bractlet, with a 4-parted calyx
and 8-16 stamens united at their bases.
Pistillate flowers subtended by a foli-
aceous bract, which often equals or overtops the staminate, the calyx 3-5-parted;
petals wanting in both kinds of flowers.
Capsule usually of 3, 2-valved carpels,
each
1-seeded.
[Greek,
nettle.]
About 250 species, mostly tropical and sub-
tropical.
Type species: Acalypha virginica L.
Herbaceous annuals.
Inflorescence densely cylindric.
1. A. alopecoidea.
Inflorescence narrowly spicate.
Bracts of pistillate flowers cleft to the base.
2. A. setosa.
Bracts of pistillate flowers cleft to about the middle
3. A. ostryaefolia.
Shrubs or perennial herbs.
Low perejinial herb, much branched from the base, the branches
somewhat woody.
4. A. chamaedrifolia.
Erect shrubs.
Leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate.
5. A. portoricensis.
Leaves ovate.
Leaves long-petioled
; tall shrub.
6. A. bisetosa.
Leaves short-petioled ; low shrub.
7. A. Berteroana.
490
EUPHORBIACEAE
1. Acalypha alopecuroidea Jacq. Ic. Rar. 3: 19.
1793.
Herbaceous, annual,
1-3 dm.
high.
Leaves broadly ovate,
.5-7 cm.
long,
appressed-pubescent, membranous,
flaccid, truncate or slightly cordate
at the
base, .5-nerved, cuspidate-acuminate, serrate, the petiole as long as the blade or
longer; spikes cylindric, closely flowered, 5 cm. long; bracts of the pistillate (lowers
membranous,
ovate-triangular, 7-9 mm.
long, 3-5-lacerate to the base; calyx-
lobes ovate,
acute; ovary hirsute above;
styles elongated,
delicate,
attenuate,
entire or shortly bifid; carpels slightly keeled; seeds ovoid, apiculate,
1 mm. long,
reddish-brown.
Waste groiinds, Palo Seco. Porto Rico (J. A. Stevenson, 1914):—Bermiida; Bahamas;
Jamaica; Cuba; Trinidad; Mexico and continental tropical America.
2. Acalypha setosa A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 11: 204.
1850.
Ricinocarpus setosus Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 618.
1891.
An erect annual, 3-6 dm. tall, the younger parts pubescent.
Leaves ovate,
thin, 3-5-nerved, 4-7 cm. long, the base obtuse or slightly cordate, apex short-
acuminate, margin finely serrate; inflorescence monoecious, in cylindric spikes, the
staminate
axillary,
lax-flowered,
the
pistillate
terminal,
dense-flo\\ered,
3-5
cm. long; bracts of the pistillate flowers ovate, 5-6 mm. long, 7-13-partite, the
divisions
laciniate;
calyx-lobes
ovate-lanceolate,
ciliate;
styles
shoi't,
thick,
2-6-laciniate
above;
seeds
reddish-brown,
ovoid-globose,
apiculate,
1.5 mm.
long; testa densely punctate.
.
Waste and
cultivated
grounds,
Porto
Rico,
at
lower and
middle
elevations:
Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Lucia; Mexico to Costa Rica.
3. Acalypha ostryaefolia Ridd. Syn.
Fl. W. States 33.
1835.
Acalypha
caroliniana
Ell.
Bot.
S.
C. &
Ga.
2:
645.
1824.
Not
Walt.
1788.
Acalypha persimilis Muell. Arg. Linnaea 34: 25.
1865.
Ricinocarpus persimilis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 618.
1891.
An erect, rather stout annual, minutely pubescent, 2-8 dm.
tall.
Leaves
thin or membranous, ovate, 5-10 cm. long, base obtuse or cordate, apex short-
acuminate, margin closely and sharply serrate; petiole often as long as the blade;
inflorescence spiciform, the staminate axillary, the pistillate terminal; bracts of
the
pistillate
flowers
lobed;
capsule
depressed,
short;
seeds
reddish-brown,
ovoid-globose, apiculate, the testa warty-wrinkled.
[A.
setosa of Bello, not of
Richard; A. polystachya of Grisebach, not of Jacquin.]
Fields, waste and cultivated groimds at lower elevations, Porto Rico; St. Thomas
(according
to
Eggers):—southeastern
United
States
to Mexico; Bahamas;
.Jamaica;
Cuba.
4. Acalypha chamaedrifolia (Lam.) Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. Id^: 879.
1866.
Croton chamaedrifolius Lam. Encycl. 2: 215.
1786.
Acalypha reptans Sw. Prodr. 99.
1788.
Ricinocarpus chamaedrifolius Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 617.
1891.
A
suffrutescent
perennial, much
branched from
the
base,
the
branches
pubescent or glabrate, 1-3 dm.
long.
Leaves ovate,
1-3.5 cm.
long,
the base
blunt or rounded, apex acute, margin crenate-dentate; petioles about one-third
the length of the blades; inflorescence in cylindric terminal subsessile androgynous
racemes, sometimes with similar superaxillary racemes; bracts roundish, dentate
or crenate, the teeth ovate, seeds ovate-globose, apiculate, brown, about 3 mm.
long; testa very minutely pitted.
Banks, rocky places, hillsides and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower elevations;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas; Tortola:—Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica
(?); Cuba; Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe.
EUPHORBIACEAE
491
5. Acalypha portoricensis :Muell. Arg. Linnaea 34: 22.
1865.
Ricinocarpus portoricensis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 618.
1891.
An erect monoecious shrub, about 2 m. high or less, the twigs and petioles
softly pubescent.
Leaves lanceolate,
thin, 5-12 cm.
long,
1-5 cm. wide, 5-7-
nerv'ed and pinnately veined,
serrate,
the apex acute or acuminate,
the base
rounded or subcordate, pubescent or glabrate, the petioles 1-5 cm. long; spikes
4-7 cm. long, the staminate axillary; bracts of the pistillate flowers 11-13-incised.
5-6 mm. long; staminate spikes slender.
Thickets, forests and rocky stream-banks, Porto Rico; at lower and middle elevations,
mostly in relatively dry districts:—St. Croix.
Endemic.
6. Acalypha bisetosa Bert.; Spreng. Syst. 3: 879.
1826.
Ricinocarpus biselosus Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 616.
1891.
An erect, dioecious, or perhaps monoecious, shrub, 1-5 m. high, the twigs and
leaves more or
less pubescent.
Leaves ovate
or oblong-ovate,
thin,
serrate,
5-7-nerved and pinnately veined, 6-12 cm. long, the apex acuminate, the base
rounded or subcordate, the slender petioles 2-7 cm. long; pistillate inflorescence
elongated, slender, described as 10-15 cm. long, the bracts dentate; staminate
spikes 4-7 cm. long, slender.
[A. cuspidata of Grisebach, in part, not of Jacquin;
recorded by Kuntze as Ricinocarpus hernandifalius.]
Wooded
liills, forests and banks of streams in wet or moist districts of Porto Rico,
ascending to higher elevations.
Endemic.
7. Acalypha Berteroana Muell. Arg. Linnaea 34: 33.
1865.
Ricinocarpus Berteroanus Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL 617.
1891.
Shrubby,
softly
pubescent
all
over.
Leaves
ovate
to
ovate-lanceolate.
3-4.5 cm. long, membranous, serrate, the apex bluntly acuminate, the base obtuse
or subcordate, the petioles .5-8 mm. long; spikes axillary, small, sessile; Ijracts of
the pistillate flowers lobed and dentate, 3 mm. long, about twice as wide as long,
the_calyx with ovate, cihate teeth; style 12-14-laciniate.
Maritime thickets, Porto Rico, collected by Bertero; bank above Guayama at 250
ni. altitude.
Perhaps a short-leaved race of A. portoricensis.
Endemic.
Acalypha Wilkesiana
INIuell.
Arg., Primavera, Jacob's-coat, native of
Pacific Ocean islands, planted for ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
is a shrub 3 m. high or less, with ovate, nearly glabrous, variously colored leaves
1-2 dm. long, the slender staminate spikes nearly as long as the upper leaves, the
pistillate sho ter.
Acalypha hispida Burm.
f., Chenili.e Plant, Philippine Medusa Plant,
East Indian, a
tall shrub with
large ovate toothed
leaves and
red drooping
spikes 1.5-2.5 dm. long,
is planted for ornament in Porto Rico gardens.
24. TRAGIA [Plumier] L.
Sp.
PI. 980.
1753.
Monoecious herbs or shrubs, sometimes climbing, usually armed with
stiff
stinging hairs.
Leaves alternate, mostly cordate; flowers in racemes, bracteolate,
apetalous; staminate flowers with a 3-5-parted calyx and 1-3 or rarely numerous
stamens;
pistillate
flowers with 3-8-lobed
calyx,
the segments
entire or pin-
natifld, and 3 styles, often united to above the middle.
Capsule 3-lobed, separating
into 3, 2-valved carpels.
[From
Tragus, the Latin name of Hieronymus Bock,
1498-1553, a German botanist.]
Over 100 species, mostly natives of
tropical
regions, the following typical.
492
EUPHORBIACEAE
1. Tragia volubilis L. Sp. PI. 980.
1753.
A slender perennial twining vine 1-4 m. long, the stems, leaves and capsules
pilose with stinging hairs.
Leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate or ovate, thin,
crenate or serrate, 2-6 cm. long, the apex acute or obtuse, the base rounded or
cordate, the slender petioles as long as the blades or shorter; stipules about 3 mm.
long; racemes slender, 3-7 cm. long, the bracts lanceolate, persistent, 1-1.5 mm.
long; staminate
flowers
several
or numerous,
short-pedicelled,
their sepals 3;
pistillate flowers on elongating pedicels which are jointed near the upper end,
their sepals 6; capsule 6-7 mm. broad, hispid, deeply 3-lobed.
[T. ostryaefolia
of Millspaugh, not of Michaux.]
Thickets, banks and hillsides at lower elevations, in dry or moist districts, Porto
Rico; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—West Indies (except
Bahamas);
conttaental
tropical
America;
western
tropical
Africa.
Pringa-mosa.
Stinging-vine.
Tragia angustifolia L., recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas, has not been
identified ; Linnaeus did not publish any species under that name,
Tragia infesta Mart., also listed by Krebs, is an obscure Brazilian species.
25. DALECHAMPIA [Plumier] L. Sp. PI. 1054.
1753.
More
or
less woody, monoecious, twining vines, with
alternate
stipulate
petioled,
often 3-5-lobed
leaves,
the
inflorescence
axillary,
short-racemose or
subcapitate, usually involucrate by 2 large bracts, the lower or outer flowers
pistUlate, the inner or upper ones staminate, both kinds apetalous.
Staminate
flowers with
a
globose,
4-6-parted
calyx and numerous
stamens.
Pistillate
flowers with a 5-12-parted calyx, the segments laciniate or rarely entire; ovary
3- or 4-celIed ; styles united into a column ; ovules 1 in each ovary-cavity.
Capsule
3- or 4-lobed or angled, splitting into 2-valved cocci.
[Commemorates J. Dale-
champs,
1513-1588, French physician and pharmacologist.]
Sixty
species or
more, of tropical distribution, the following typical.
1. Dalechampia scandens L. Sp. PI. 1054.
1753.
A slender pubescent subherbaceous vine, up to 3 m. long or longer.
Leaves
slender-petioled, deeply 3-lobed, rarely 5-lobed, 6-12 cm. broad, thin, the lobes
acute or acuminate, denticulate, the middle one oblong to obovate, the lateral
ones obliquely ovate; peduncles slender, about as long as the petioles, or shorter;
stipules ovate
to
linear-lanceolate; involucre bracts
broad, about 2 cm.
long,
3-cleft, the lobes acute or acuminate
; segments of the pistillate calyx pectinate
and setose, nearly
1 cm. long in fruit; capsule smooth, about 4 mm. long.
Virg:
Thickets at lower elevations, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola;
in Gorda:—Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Kitts to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
26. RICINUS L. Sp. PI. 1007.
1753.
A
tall stout monoecious herb, glabrous and glaucous, with alternate large
peltate palmately lobed leaves, and numerous small apetalous greenish flowers
in terminal racemes, the pistillate above the staminate.
Staminate flowers with
a 3-5-parted
calyx,
the segments
valvate,
and numerous crowded
stamens;
filaments repeatedly branched.
Pistillate flowers with a caducous calyx.
Cap-
sule subglobose, or oval, separating into 3, 2-valved carpels.
Endosperm fleshy
and oily.
[Latin name of the plant.]
A monotypic genus.
EUPHORBIACEAE
493
1. Ricinus communis L. Sp. PI. 1007.
1753.
Stem erect, 1-5 m. tall, more or less branched, often becoming tree-like with a
stout trunk.
Leaves nearly orbicular in outline. 1-6 dm. broad, 6-11-palmately
lobed, the lobes toothed, acute or acuminate; capsule 12-16 mm.
in diameter,
usually spiny; seeds shining, smooth, black, variegated with -white, or mottled
with gray and brown markings.
Waste and cultivated grounds, spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico; Icacos:
St
Croix- St
Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—southeastern United States; Bermuda; West
Indies; continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Native of the Old World,
much cultivated for its seeds, the source of castor-oil.
HiGUERrro.
Castor-oil Pi^nt.
27. MANIHOT Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 356.
1763.
Monoecious herbs
or shrubs
of vigorous growth,
generally with glaucous
glabrous leaves.
Leaves alternate, the blades entire or palmately 3-7-lobed, the
segments membranous
or
leathery,
entire
or
lobed.
Flowers
apetalous,
in
branched racemes, the staminate with a calyx of 5 partially united sepals; stamens
10, in 2 series
; filaments slender, those of the inner series attached to the lobes
of the disk; anthers opening lengthwise.
Pistillate flowers with a calyx similar
to that of the staminate but the tube often shorter; ovary 3-celled
; styles 3, slightly
united at the base; ovules solitary in each cell.
Capsule 3-celled; seeds solitary
in each
carpel.
[Name
Brazilian.]
About 80
species
of South America,
the
following typical.
1. Manihot Manihot (L.) Cockerell. Bull. Torr. Club 19: 95.
1892.
Jatropha Manihot L. Sp. PI. 1007.
1753.
Herbaceous; stems 0.8-1.5 m.
high, more or
less branched.
Leaves 3-7-
parted, the segments linear to
elliptic or slightly broadest above the middle,
acute or acuminate, entire; petiole about as long as the blade or longer; bracts
shorter than the
pedicels; calyx campanulate, 6-8 mm.
long,
its lobes ovate,
obtuse, about as long as the tube; calyx of the pistillate flowers with a shorter
tube than that of the staminate.
[M. Cassava of Cook and Collins.]
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, occasionally spontaneous after cultivation
for its large starchv roots; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—widely cultivated
for food in
all trop"ical and subtropical regions; native of continental tropical America.
YUCA.
Cassava.
Manihot dichotoma Ule, Brazilian, a plant yielding india-rubber, was grown
experimentally at the Insular Agricultural Experiment Station at Rio Piedras,
in 1923.
28. DITTA Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad. II. 8: 160.
1860.
A resinous, dioecious shrub
or small
tree, with
alternate
coriaceous ob-
lanceolate, pinnately veined, glandular-denticulate or nearly entire leaves, the
pistillate flowers sessile, solitary or geminate in the
axils, the staminate as yet
unknown.
Pistillate
flowers
with
a minute
or
obsolete
calyx;
petals
none;
ovary 2-celled with a single ovule in each cavity; styles 2, short, thick, deeply
2-lobed.
Fruit
subglobose,
2-celled,
coriaceous.
Seeds
roughened.
[Name
Latin, referring to the styles.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Ditta myricoides Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad. II. 8: 160.
1860.
A glabrous small
tree, 4 m. high or less, or a shrub, the twigs and branches
slender.
Leaves 6.5 cm. long or less, 7-20 mm. w ide, reticulate-veined, shining.
494
EUPHORBIACEAE
dark green above,
pale
green beneath,
the marginal glands
small, sometimes
obsolete, the apex acute or blunt,
the base cuneate, the petioles 2-G mm. long;
fruit reddish, about 5 mm.
in diameter, the pericarp subcrustaceous
; style-divi-
sions about
1 mm. long; seeds subglobose, tuberculate.
Rocky river-bank, Rio Prieto, Sierra de Naguabo,
collected by Shafer in 1914:
Cuba; Hispaniola.
29. SAPIUM P. Br.; Jacq. Stirp. Am. 249.
1763.
Glabrous, milky trees and shrubs, with alternate petioled, entire or denticu-
late leaves, often with 2 glands at the upper end of the petiole, the small greenish
monoecious flowers spicate or racemose, the staminate above the pistillate or the
two kinds in separate spikes or racemes.
Staminate flowers about 3 together in
the axils of bracts, with a very small 2- or 3-toothed calyx and 2 or 3 stamens with
distinct filaments.
Pistillate flowers solitary in the
axils of bracts, the calyx
3-lobed or 3-cleft, the ovary 2- or 3-celled, the styles 2 or 3, distinct or united below.
Fruit a fleshy capsule, at length splitting into 2 or 3 cocci.
Seeds ecarunculate.
[Named for the milky
sap.]
Ninety or more
tropical species.
Type species:
Sapium aucuparium Jacq.
1. Sapium Laurocerasus Desf. Cat. Hort. Paris ed.
3, 411.
1829.
Excoecaria Laurocerasus Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. 15^: 1202.
1866.
A monoecious
(or dioecious?) tree, up to 18 m., the bark smooth, the twigs
rather stout.
Leaf-blades
elliptic to oblong, 5-20 cm.
long,
entire, short-acu-
minate or sometimes rounded at the apex, tlie base rounded or acute, the midvein
prominent beneath, the
lateral veins very many,
slender,
transverse; petioles
slender, 1-4 cm. long, with two sessile glands just below the base of the blade;
staminate and pistillate flowers
in separate clusters, the staminate clusters 5-6
cm. long, the pistillate shorter, few-flowered; capsules about 8 mm. long, short-
stalked
; seeds triangular-convex, white.
[.S. aucuparium of Bello, not of Jacquin
(?)
Excoecaria Laurocerasus buxifolia of Eggers.]
Forests and wooded liills in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, mostly at middle and
higher elevations: recorded bv Eggers as occiirring in forests at Cinnamon Bay, St. Jan,
but not seen in flower.
Endemic.
Lechesillo.
Hinxha-huevos.
Tabeiba.
Milk-
tree.
30. HIPPOMANE L. Sp. PI. 1191.
1753.
Trees with glabrous leaves and acrid poisonous milky juice.
Leaves alter-
nate,
coriaceous,
wdth rather long
petioles.
Flowers
in terminal monoecious
amentaceous spikes, the rachis stout, the male above the female in clusters of
8-15, subtended by 2-glandular bracts; calyx membranous, 2-3-lobed; stamens
2 or 3, exserted; filaments more or less united; anthers erect, extrorse.
Pistillate
flowers: calyx ovoid, 3-parted, closely surrounding the ovary and furnished with
several glands; ovary 6-8-celled,
sessile; styles 6-8, recurved, stigmatic on the
inner surface; ovules
1 in each cell, pendulous, anatropous.
Drupe slightly 6-8-
ridged, variegated, the pulp milky, the endocarp bony, 6-8-celled
; seeds elongated,
flattened.
[Greek, horse-poison.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Hippomane mancinella L. Sp. PI. 1191.
1753.
An evergreen
tree, 4-20 m. high, the rather thick bark fissured.
Leaves
shining,
glabrous,
thickish, ovate or oval, 4-10 cm.
long,
blunt or somewhat
narrowed at the base, acute or short-acuminate, undulate or slightly shallow-
EUPHORBIACEAE
495
serrate; principal veins at nearly right angles to the midrib; veinlets delicately
reticulate; petioles slender, somewhat shorter, or at times longer, than the blades;
stipules 4-S mm. long; bracts broader than long, crenulate; calyx of the staminate
flowers with 3 unequal acute lobes, that of the pistillate of ovate or orbicular
sepals; drupe spheroidal when
fresh,
2.5-3.5 cm.
in diameter,
yellowish; nut
depressed, often bearing numerous grouped thorn-hke projections.
Coastal woods, banks and thickets, Porto Rico; Desecheo; Mona; Icacos; Culebra;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
Virgin Gorda:—Florida; West
Indies; Mexico and
continental tropical America.
The milky sap is poisonous to most people, being especially
irritating to the eves and moTith.
The wood
is fine-grained, brown, hard, strong and
durable, used for fiu-nitiire and in construction;
it has a specific gravity of about 0.5.
Manz.^xillo.
M.vxchioneel.
31. GYMNANTHES Sw. Prodr. 95.
1788.
Evergreen trees or shrubs with glabrous leaves and milky juice, the leaves
alternate.
Flowers monoecious or rarely dioecious, the staminate in slender axil-
lary bracteolate racemes, the pistillate solitary, long-peduncled, arising from the
axil
with
the
staminate;
perianth rudimentary or
lacking.
Stamens 2 or 3;
filaments distinct or united at the base, subtended by the rudimentary perianth of
3 scale-like parts.
Styles 3, recurved.
Capsule 3-carpelled; seeds pendulous, the
testa
membrano-crustaceous.
[Greek,
naked
flower.]
About
12
species,
of
tropical America.
Type species: Gymnanthes elliplica Sw.
1. Gymnanthes lucida Sw. Prodr. 96.
1788.
Excoccaria lucida Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 2: 1122.
1800.
An evergreen shrub, or a tree often 10 m. high.
Leaves petioled, glabrous,
coriaceous, oblong or lanceolate-spatulate, 5-11 cm. long, narrowed at the base,
shining above,
the margin undulate and generally obscurely toothed near the
apex; racemes shorter than the leaves, continuous; bracts reniform; stamens 2 or
3, subtended l)y bractlets
; pistillate flowers solitary on curved peduncles somewhat
shorter than the staminate racemes; ovary stipitate; capsule depressed, about
1
cm. broad; carpels rounded; seeds ovoid, about 5 mm. long, gray, striped longi-
tudinally with fine golden-brown lines of irregular width and form.
Thickets, woodlands and
hillsides
at lower and middle
elevations;
Porto
Rico;
Desecheo:
Icacos; Culebra: Vieques:
St. Croix;
St. Tliomas;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:
Florida: West Indies, south to Guadeloupe.
The brown wood is hard, a little heavier
than water.
Yaiti.
Crabwood.
32. HURA L. Sp. PI. 1008.
1753.
Large glabrous trees with milky juice, and large many-carpelled, flattened-
globose fruits, the broad cordate leaves shining, biglandular above the base of the
blade.
Inflorescence monoecious,
in terminal,
oval or oblong, long-peduncled
spikes; staminate flowers densely imbricated above, the pistillate at the base or in
the inferior axils. Calyx cupuliform, irregularly toothed
; staminate column central,
bearing below its verticillate projections an indefinite number of sessile extrorse
anthers.
Style simple, infundibuliform at the apex; stigma mariy-lobed, with
hanging
subulate
branches.
Capsule
deeply
sulcate
into many cocci; seeds
rounded,
compressed.
[Aboriginal
name.]
Two
or
three
species
of
tropical
America, the following typical.
1. Hura crepitans L. Sp.
PI. lOOS.
1753.
A
high, umbrageous
tree, the trunk and branches often prickly.
Leaves
broadly
ovate,
roundish,
about
5-7
cm.
in
diameter,
cordate
at
the
base.
496
EUPHORBIACEAE
abruptly acuminate, serrate or subentire, the blades often shorter than the petiole;
stipules linear-lanceolate, pubescent; anthers usually 1-3-seriate; stigma large,
violet-red; capsule concave at both ends,
splitting noisily when ripe and dry,
7-8 cm. broad, 3-4 cm. high.
Forests and wooded hills, at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, much planted
for shade; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
The brownish-white wood
is soft with a specific gravity of about 0.46, used for canoes
and for construction.
When ripe and dry the fruit splits with a loud report into nu-
merous curved segments.
Javillo.
Sandbox-teee.
Monkey-pistol.
33. PEDILANTHUS Poit. Ann. Mus. Paris 19: 390.
1S12.
Shrubs with fleshy branches and milky juice, alternate, entire or undulate
leaves with the midrib thickened or flanged beneath (rarely leafless), glandular
stipules
(if present), opposite floral leaves, and cymose terminal or axiUary in-
volucres.
Involucres
oblique,
shoe-shaped,
the
tube
more
or
less
fissured
superiorly and notched inferiorly at the bilabiate apex or throat, with 2 lateral
and 1 median accessory lobes more or less closing the fissure, the tube bearing an
appendix on the superior side of its posterior extremity.
Appendix gibbous and
interiorly glandular, its lip notched or 2-3-lobed and extending anteriorly above the
posterior end of the fissure of the tube.
Flowers pedicellate, the staminate nu-
merous, ecalyculate, sometimes with linear bracteoles at the base; pistillate single
with the long style finally protruding and generally declinate from the throat of
the tube; stigmas 3, connate, often separate at the apex and frequently 2-lobed.
Seeds ecarunculate.
[Greek, slipper-fiower.]
About 30 species.
Ts^pe species:
Euphorbia tithymaloides L.
The plants are known as Itama real, Ipecacuana,
FiDDLE-JLOWEH, SuPPER-PlANT.
Pubescent; leaves linear to narrowly oblanceolate, narrow.
1. P. angustifolius.
Glabrous, or the inflorescence pubemlent; leaves broad.
Leaves obovate, roimded.
2. P. padifolius.
Leaves ovate or oblong, acute or aciuninate.
Midvein of the leaves flanged beneath.
3. P. tithymaloides.
Midvein of the leaves not flanged.
4. P. latifolius.
1. Pedilanthus angustifolius Poit. Ann. Mus. Paris 19: 393.
1812.
Tithymaloides angusiifolium Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 620.
1891.
P. tithymaloides angustifolius Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 52.
1859.
Stems often several or many, more or less branched,
finely pubescent, at
least above,
erect or arching, 5-13 dm.
long.
Leaves
linear
to narrowly ob-
lanceolate, short-petioled, 3-10 cm. long, pubescent, obtuse or acute; cymes few-
several-flowered, pubescent; bracts ovate, acute; involucre gibbous, about 1 cm.
long, the tube truncate; appendix 4-glandular, the lip ligulate; capsule 6-8 mm.
long; seeds about 4 mm. long.
Rocky
soil, hillsides and thickets in the dry southern and southwestern
districts,
Porto Rico; Icacos; Culebra; Vieques; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—Cuba; Hispaniola.
2. Pedilanthus padifolius (L.) Poit. Ann. Mus. Paris 19: 391.
1812.
Euphorbia tithymaloides padifolia L. Sp. PI. 453.
1753.
Glabrous, or the inflorescence pubemlent; stems stout, branched, 6-13 dm.
high.
Leaves obovate
or elliptic-obovate,
short-petioled,
65-12 cm.
long, the
apex
obtuse, rounded
or
retuse,
the
base
subcuneate;
cj-mes several-many-
flowered, 4-6 cm. broad; involucre 10-12 mm. long;
lateral lobes of the tube
spatulate; capsule 8-10 mm. long.
Thickets in dry stony groimd, St. Croix; St. Thomas (ex Krebs):—St. Kitts; Antigua;
Guadeloupe; Hispaniola (according to Millspaugh).
EUPHORBIACEAE
497
3. Pedilanthus tithymaloides
(L.)
Poit. Ann. Mus. Paris 19: 390.
1812.
Euphorbia tithymaloides L. Sp. PI. 453.
1753.
Tithymaloides myrtijolium Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 620.
1891.
Branched, 1.2-1.8 m. high.
Leaves glabrous, subsessile, cuneate at the base,
ovate or oblong, 3.5-7.5 cm. long, apex acute or acuminate, margin subundulate,
the mid-vein prominently undulate-flanged beneath, the petioles
short;
cjrmes
terminal, dense; involucres red to purple, 1.1-1.3 cm. long; tube thin, smooth;
appendix 4-glandular; capsule 7.5 mm. long, 9 mm. broad, truncate at base and
apex; seeds ovate, 5 mm. long.
Roadsides, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Bico,
persistent
or
spontaneoxis
after cultivation; much planted for ornament, and as a hedge; Vieques; St. Thomas:
Florida; West
Indies; Panama; northern South America.
Apparently native in the
Lesser AntiUes.
Bejuco de estrella.
4. Pedilanthus
latifolius
IVIillspaugh &
Britton;
Britton,
Ann.
]Mo.
Bot.
Gard. 2: 43.
1915.
Often much branched, glabrous, or the joung parts puberulent, 1-2 m. high,
the twigs zigzag, slender.
Leaves ovate to orbicular-ovate, 5-9 cm. long, short-
petioled, the apex acute, the base rounded or subcordate, the midvein not flanged
beneath; cymes few-several-flowered ; bracts lanceolate, acute; involucres salmon-
red, about 10 mm. long; glands 4, in 2 pairs; capsule not seen.
Waste grounds and roadsides, Porto Rico, spontaneous after planting for hedges;
Mona:—Bermuda; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
34. EUPHORBIA L. Sp. PI. 450.
1753.
Cactus-like shrubs with thick fleshy, generally angular stems, and mostly
with few reduced true leaves or none.
Leaves and stipules generally represented
by spines but often by small or minute caducous bracts.
Cymes lateral or ter-
minal, subsessile, often few-flowered or even single-flowered ; involucres subtended
by dilated bractlets
; glands of the involucre entire, exappendlculate.
Capsules
thick, often
Ligneous;
seeds
ecarunculate.
[Commemorates Euphorbus, King
Juba's physician.]
About 30 species, of the Old World.
Type species : Euphorbia
antiquorum L.
1. Euphorbia lactea Haw. Syn. PI. Succ. 127.
1812.
A
tall, dark green, many-branched,
spinous,
milky-juiced shrub, 2-5 m.
high, the branches 3-angled, the faces 3-8 cm. broad, plano-convex, the angles
repand-dentate, compressed on the margin; spines short, thick, divergent, 4-6
mm. long.
Occasionally persistent after planting in Porto Rico for ornament or for hedges:
Florida; West Indies; Mexico.
Widely planted.
Native of the Old World tropics; often
mistaken for Euphorbia antiquorum L.
Mottled Sptirge.
Euphorbia nereifolia L., East Indian, occasionally planted for ornament
in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, is a shrub or small tree, with fleshy, obovate-
oblong leaves 7-12 cm. long, narrowed into short petioles, the flowers few, axil-
lary, sessile or nearly so.
Eupnorbia
linearifolia L., recorded by Krebs as grown on
St. Thomas
prior to 1851, is recorded as an unarmed race of E. spinosa L., native of southern
Europe.
498
EUPHORBIACEAE
35. POINSETTIA R. Graham, Edin. N. Phil. Jour. 20: 412.
1S36.
Herbs, rarely shrubs, the inflorescence clustered at the tips of the branches,
often subtended by highly colored leaves, the leaves alternate below, opposite
above, the blades similar throughout or very various in form.
Involucral lobes
fimbriate; glands sarcous,
concave,
saucer-, cup-
or
goblet-shaped,
solitary or
rarely 3 or 4, marginal, exappendiculate.
Capsule exserted,
its cocci rounded;
seed narrowed upward, generally tuberculate, ecarunculate or with a mere in-
dication of a caruncular body.
[In honor of Joel Roberts Poinsette of South
Carolina.]
About 12 species, mostly American.
Type species: Euphorbia pul-
cherrima Willd.
Leaves various, often narrow, the upper ones and the bracts red-
blotched at the base; stem slender.
1.
P. heterophylla.
Leaves broad,
fiddle-shaped
or some of them unlobed, the upper
ones
blotched with
wliite,
pink
or
scarlet
at
the
base,
or
imblotched; stem stout.
Leaves fiddle-shaped or dentate.
2. P. cyathophora.
Leaves entire or very nearly so.
3. P. geniculata.
1. Poinsettia heterophylla (L.) KI. & Garcke, Monats. Akad. Berlin 1859: 253.
1859.
Euphorbia heterophylla L. Sp. PI. 4.53.
1753.
Euphorbia graminifolia Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 210.
1803.
Euphorbia heterophylla graminifolia Engelm. Bot. Mex. Bound. 190.
1859.
Euphorbia heterophylla linifolia Vahl; Kuntze, Rev. Gen.
PI. 605.
1891.
Euphorbia calyciflora Sess6 & Mog.
Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 123.
1894.
Annual or perennial, pubescent or nearly glabrous, mostly erect, 3-10 dm.
tall, sometimes woody below; branches ascending or the lower often spreading,
leafy at the ends.
Leaves various even on the same stem, from linear through all
shapes to orbicular, entire, dentate, sinuate or even panduriform, the upper ones
and the bracts red-blotched at the base; involucre-lobes ovate or oblong, laciniate;
capsule about 6 mm. in diameter; seeds ovoid-oblong, pointed, grayish, 2 mm.
long, minutely and irregularly tuberculate in more or less transverse lines.
Hillsides at low elevations, southern districts of Porto Rico; St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
Tortola:—southern United States; Bermuda; West Indies; Mexico and South America.
The species consists of naany sliglitly differing races; the two following plants, described
as species, may, perhaps, be better regarded as such.
2. Poinsettia cyathophora
(Murr.)
Kl. &
Garcke,
Monats.
Akad.
Berlin
1859:253.
1859.
Euphorbia cyathophora Murr. Comm. Goett. 7: 81.
1786.
Euphorbia heterophylla cyathophora Griseb.
Fl. Br. W.
I. 54.
1859.
Annual or perennial, more or
less pubescent, or glabrate; stem
stout,
at
least sometimes hollow, 3-8 dm. high, erect, the branches ascending, leafy towards
the ends or throughout.
Leaves, or some of them, characteristically flddle-shaped
with four acute lobes, thin, sometimes all unlobed, or merely dentate, often lobed
and unlobed ones on the same plant, the uppermost and the bracts with a white,
pink or scarlet blotch at the base; capsule-valves, at least sometimes, with elevated
margins.
Waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thonias;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgm Gorda:—Florida; Bermuda; West
Indies
(except
Balianias)
contmental
tropical America.
Occasionally planted for ornament
in Porto Rico and
Virgin
Island
gardens.
Recorded from Mona and
from Vieques as P.
heterophylla.
Maravilla.
EUPHOEBIACEAE
499
3. Poinsettia geniculata (Ortega)
KI. & Garcke, ISIonats. Akad. Berlin 1859:
253.
1S59.
Euphorbia geniculata Ortega, Hort. Matr. Dec. 18.
1797.
Euphorbia pruni/olia Jacq. Hort. Schoenb. 3: 15.
pi. 277.
1798.
E. heterophylla prunifolia Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 54.
1859.
Annual; herbaceous; glabrate; stem stout, simple or branched below, with
ascending branches.
Leaves
thin,
ovate
to
elliptic,
or the uppermost ovate-
lanceolate, entire or slightly repand-dentlculate, acute or acuminate, the upper-
most and the bracts whitish-blotched at the base, or green throughout.
Cultivated groimd
near
Catano,
Porto
Rico,
1922;
St. Thomas
(ex
Krebs)
:
Florida; Jamaica; Cuba (according to Klotszch and Garcke); Montserrat; Guadeloupe;
Martinique.
Poinsettia pulcherrima (Willd.) Graham.
Flor de Pascua, Poinsettia,
Mexican, luxuriant In Porto Rican and Virgin Island gardens,
is a shrub 2-4 m.
high, with thin, slender-petioled, lobed or entire leaves 10-20 cm. long, the small
yellowish
green, cymose flowers subtended by
large,
lanceolate vermlUion-red
bracts .5-10 cm. long.
[Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd.]
36. DICHYLIUM [Boissler] Britton.
Herbs, with jointed stems and branches, constricted at the nodes, the leaves
opposite or verticiUate, entire, petioled, the stipules gland-like or obsolete, the
inflorescence of loose terminal cymes.
Involucre turbinate, or narrowly cam-
panulate,
the glands
transverse,
plicate,
2-lipped,
the lower
lip appendaged.
Styles short, 2-lobed.
Bractlets fimbriate.
Capsule dry, 3-lobed.
Seeds longi-
tudinally mammillate.
[Greek,
referring
to the 2-lipped
involucre-glands.]
A
few species of tropical America, the following here designated as typical.
1. Dichylium Oerstedianum (Kl. & Garcke) Britton.
Poinsettia Oerstediana Kl. & Garcke, ISIonats. Akad. Berlin 1859: 253.
1859.
Euphorbia Oerstediana Boiss. in DC. Prodr. 15^: 59.
1862.
Stems erect or ascending, glabrous, branched, 6 dm. high or less.
Stipules
obsolete;
leaves membranous,
ovate
to
oblong
or
lanceolate,
pinnately
few-
veined, 2-8 cm. long, glal)rous, or the under surface sparingly pubescent, the apex
acute or acuminate, the base mostly obtuse, the slender petioles 2.5 cm. long or
less, those of the uppermost leaves usually short; cymes terminal, bracteolate,
few-several-flowered; involucres slender-pedlcelled, narrowly campanulate, about
2.5 mm. long, the lobes subtruncate, fringed; capsule puberulent, 3-4 mm. long.
Its cocci rounded.
Grassy
banks,
St.
Croix;
St.
Thiomas:—Jamaica;
Martinique
to
Trinidad
and
British Guiana.
37. AKLEMA Raf.
Fl. Tellur. 4: 114.
1838.
Shrubby or rarely herbaceous plants, the branches jointed.
Leaves equi-
lateral,
entire, penninerved, cuneate at the base, ternate or verticfllate (some-
times opposite), long-petioled
; stipules glanduliform.
Cymes axillary and ter-
minal, corymbose or paniculate
(rarely reduced to a single involucre), the ter-
minal involucres generally hermaphrodite, often many-flowered; glands of the
involucre appendiculate; bracteoles between the male flowers numerous, plumose.
Capsule depressed, deeply trisulcate; seeds Irregularly scroblculate, ecarunculate.
[Greek,
not
explained.]
A
few
species
of
tropical
America.
Type
species.
Euphorbia midijiora Jacq.
500
EUPHORBIACEAE
1. Aklema petiolare (Sims) Millsp. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 2: 43.
1915.
Euphorbia petiolaris Sims, Bot. Mag.
pi. 883.
180-5.
Euphorbia verticillata Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 2: 611.
1811.
Alectoroctonum petiolare Kl. & Gke. Monats. Akad. Berlin 1859: 248.
1859.
Shrubby or tree-like and up to 7 m. high, the branches glabrous, swollen at
the nodes.
Leaves ternate, ovate or orbicular, 1-1.5 cm. long, truncate, rounded
or narrowed at the base, obtuse or slightly emarginate, entire, the petiole slender,
twice or more the length of the blade; inflorescence subtrifloral, shorter than the
leaves; involucres long-pedicelled, hemispheric, smooth; lobes ovate, short-flm-
briate; glands transverse, ovate, stipitate; styles divaricate,
bifld, not thickened
at the apex; capsule smooth; cocci obtusely carinate; seeds ovoid-globose, 3X
2.4 mm ., pointed, white, foveolate with numerous
large shallow
irregular
pits
[E. cotinifolia of West, of Krebs, and of Schlechtendal.]
Hillsides and coastal thickets, eastern and southern districts of Porto Rico, mostly
at lower elevations;
Culebra: Vieques;
St.
Croix
(?);
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola;
Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Bahamas; Hispaniola;
St. Martin; Alartinique; Guadeloupe.
Manchesteel Berry.
Aklema cotinoides
(Miquel) Millsp. [Euphorbia cotinoides Miquel], native
of northern South America, with larger, ovate, cordate leaves, the campanulate
involucres pubescent,
is planted for ornament in Porto Rico gardens.
38. CHAMAESYCE S. F. Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. PI. 2: 260.
1821.
Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, the stems often diffuse at the base, the
branches prostrate or ascending, forking.
Leaves opposite, inequilateral, mor'
or less oblique at the base, entire or toothed
; stipules minute, entire or lacerate.
Inflorescence solitary or cymose,
axillary or terminal; involucre toothed, glan-
dular on the margin; glands 4, appendaged (the fifth gland represented by a sulcus
in the margin of the involucral tube.)
Capsule more or less globose, 3-coccous,
the cocci sharply angled or rounded; seeds minute, ovoid or elongated-ovoid, more
or less quadrangular, the facets smooth or transversely ridged.
[Greek, ground
fig.]
About 225 species, .Icnown as Spurge, widely distributed.
Type species:
Chamaesyce maritima S.
Jf. Gray.
A. Herbs or low shrubs.
1. Annual or perennial herbs, not fleshy, or slightly fleshy.
a. Annuals, mostly weeds.
(See C. hyssopifolia.)
*Glabrous throughout, or merely puberiilent above.
Plants erect or ascending; involucres cymose.
Seeds red; cymes axillary.
1.
C. hypericifoUa.
Seeds black or greenish; cymes terminal.
Leaves oblong to lanceolate-.
2.
C. hyssopifolia.
Leaves broadly oblong.
3.
C. nutans.
Plants prostrate; involucres mostly soUtary.
Leaves entire.
4.
C. serpens.
Leaves denticulate.
5.
C. Blodgettii.
**Pubescent, at least the capsules.
Plants erect or ascending; involucres cymose.
Leaves acute or acutisli, sharply serrate.
6.
C. hirta.
Leaves obtuse, crenulate or denticulate.
Leaves oblong; capsule tomentose.
7.
C. lasiocarpa.
Leaves ovate; capsule pubescent.
8.
C. Berteriana.
Plants prostrate.
Capsule liirsute'on the angles.
9.
C. prostrata.
Capsule puberulent.
10.
C. thymifolia.
b. Perennials.
Plant glabrous.
11.
C. Cowelht.
plants pubescent.
Leaves crenate.
12.
C. monensis.
Leaves entire.
Plant long-pilose; seeds smooth.
13.
C. anegaaensis.
Plant
puberulent
or
short-tomentose;
seeds
costate.
14.
C. portoricensis.
EUPHORBIACEAE
501
2. Fleshy perennial herbs or low shrubs.
Leaves crowded, 8-15 mm. long.
15.
C. buxifolia.
Leaves distant, up to
.3 cm. long.
16.
C.
Vahlii.
B.
Tall, usually erect slu-ub with linear or oblong leaves.
1/. C articulata.
1. Chamaesyce hypericifolia (L.) Millsp. Field ]Mus. Bot. 2: 302.
1909.
Euphorbia hypericifolia L. Sp. PI. 454.
1753.
Annual, erect or ascending, 2-8 dm. high, glabrous or the young parts puber-
ulent.
Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm. long, obliquely truncate at
the base, blunt, more or less serrate, short-petioled, glabrous, sometimes purplish;
stipules ovate, acute, thin, dentate and ciliate on the margin; inflorescence cymose
in the axils; involucres turbinate, thin, glabrous without, hirtellous a
the throat
within
; lobes lanceolate-triangular, lacerate into 3-5 teeth; glands small, roundish,
stalked, the
fifth gland represented by a deep sinus flanked by a larger, more
triangular lobe; appendages white, orbicular or ovate; capsule glabrous, the cocci
carinate; seeds ovoid-quadrangular, red, about 0.8 mm. long, the angles promi-
nent, the facets marked with many transverse broken ridges.
Fields, banks and
cultivated
grounds,
Porto
Rico,
mostly
at lower
elevations;
Mona; Culebra;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola:—Florida; Bermuda; West
Indies; continental tropical America north to Mexico.
2. Chamaesyce hyssopifolia (L.) Small, Fl. SE. U.
S. 712.
1903.
Euphorbia hyssopifolia L. Syst. ed.
10, 1048.
1759.
Euphorbia brasiliensis Lam. Encycl. 2: 423.
1788.
Chamaesyce brasiliensis Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 712.
1903.
Annual, or perennial, sometimes becoming woody, 1-4 dm. high, erect or
ascending, with filiform branchlets, and oblong to lanceola e, entire or serrulate,
often
falcate
leaves
1-3
cm.
long.
Stipules
broadly
deltoid,
bifurcate
into
lacerate lobes; cymes terminal, few-several-flowered; involucres glabrous without
and within, very short-pedicelled, their lobes
riangular, mostly entire; glands
minute, long-stalked, the fifth represented by a very shallow sinus flanked by two
larger involucral lobes; capsule glabrous, strongly 3-coccous; seeds ovoid-quad-
rangular, black, or greenish, about
1 mm. long, the strong, but rounded, angles
white-edged, dorsal fa ets marked by 3 complete transverse ridges.
Banks, roadsides, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations; Icacos; Vieques; St. Thomas;—Florida; Bermuda; West Indies south to Mar-
tinique; contmental tropical America.
3. Chamaesyce nutans (Lag.) Small, Fl. S. E. U. S. 712.
1903.
Euphorbia nutans Lag. Gen. & Sp. 17.
1816.
Euphorbia Preslii Guss. Fl. Sic. Prodr. l: 539.
1827,
Chamaesyce Preslii Arthur, Torreya 11: 260.
1912.
Annual, glabrous or nearly so, usually erect, branched, 6 dm. high or less.
Leave? oblong, or the upper linear-oblong, varying to oblong-lanceolate, more or
levs obUque, serrate or serrulate, obtuse or acutish, short-petioled; stipules tri-
angular, lacerate; cymes terminal, bracted by the small upper leaves; involucres
slender-stalked, glabrous, the 4 glands with orbicular or reniform appendages;
capsule glabrous, about
1 mm. broad; seeds oblong-ovoid, 4-angled, with trans-
verse ridges, nearly black.
Cultivated groimds, Porto Rico;
St. Croix:—Bermuda; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe; Martinique; Grenada; widely distributed in continental America;
natural-
ized in southern Europe.
4. Chamaesyce serpens (H. B. K.) Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 709.
1903.
Euphorbia serpens H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 2: 52.
1817.
Euphorbia pileoides Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 62.
1900.
Annual, prostrate, glabrous; stems very slender, branched, 0.5-30 cm. long.
Stipules triangular, denticulate; leaves suborbicular, entire, rounded or retuse.
502
EUPHORBIACEAE
3-6 mm. long; involucres mostly solitary in the upper axils, the triangular, cleft
lobes dilate, the transversely oblong glands with 2-3-lobed appendages: capsule
glabrous, about
1 mm. long, the cocci sharply keeled; seeds ovoid, 4-angled
Banks,
roadsides and borders of lagoons at low
elevations,
southern and south-
western districts of Porto Rico; Mona;
St. Croix; Icacos;
St. Thomas; Anegada (?):—
Hispaniola; Antigua; Martinique; Grenada; Barbados; widely distributed in continental
America.
5. Chamaesyce Blodgettii (Engelm.) Small, Fl.
S. E. U. S. 712.
1903.
Euphorbia Blodgettii Engelm.; Hitchc. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 4: 126.
1893.
Annual, glabrous, prostrate or ascending, the branches 1-4 dm. long.
Lea\ es
oblong or nearly so, 3-8 mm. long, minutely serrate toward the apex, oblique at
the base, obtuse, petiolate; stipules broadly triangular, acute, ciliate-margined
involucres solitary in the upper axils, campanulate, less than
1 mm. long, short-
pedunculate, glabrous \\ithout, ciliate at the throat within, the lobes triangular;
glands 4, slightly .stalked, orbicular to ovate, the fifth represented by a sinus with
a rounded fundus and flanked by two larger, nearly quadrilateral lobes; append-
ages nearly as broad as the glands, entire or 2-3-crenate; capsule glabrous; seeds
ovoid-quadrangular, pinkish or brownish,
1 mm. long, the angles prominent, the
facets slightly transversely ridged.
Rocky
soil,
Tortola;
Anegada:—Florida;
Bermuda;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Cayman
Islands.
6. Chamaesyce hirta (L.) Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 303.
1909.
Euphorbia hirta L. Sp. PI. 4.54.
(ante).
1753.
Euphorbia pilulifer L. loc. cit.
(post).
1753.
Euphorbia obliterata Jacq. Enum. 22.
1760.
Euphorbia capitata Lam. Encycl. 2: 422.
1786.
Euphorbia pilulifera procumbens Boiss. in DC. Prodr. 15^: 21.
1862.
Annual, ascending or nearly prostrate, pubescent with amber-colored, multi-
cellular hairs; stems 1-4 dm. long, forking or simple.
Leaves ovate to oblong-
lanceolate, more or less falcate, 1-3 cm. long, sometimes blotched with deep-red,
oblique at the base, acute, sharply serrate above the middle, petiolate; stipules
aristate, hairy; involucres capitulate in peduncled clusters, turbinate: lobes large,
triangular, densely long-ciliate; glands 4, stipitate, the fifth replaced by a shallow,
rounded sulcus in the involucral margin; capsule 3-coccous, with short crisped
hairs; seeds salmon-pink, elongated-ovoid-quadrangular, about 0.8 mm. long, the
angles sharp, facets strongly marked with numerous, mostly incomplete, trans-
verse ridges.
Fields, roadsides, banks, waste and cultivated grounds, mostly at lower elevations,
Porto Rico; Muertos; Icacos; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—Florida; Bermuda: West Indies; continental tropical America north to
Mexico.
Races differ in habit, and in size of leaves.
7. Chamaesyce lasiocarpa (Kl.) Arthur, Torreya 11: 260.
1911.
Euphorbia lasiocarpa Kl. Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. 19: Suppl.
1, 414.
1843.
Euphorbia scordifolia Spreng. Syst. 3: 791.
1826.
Not Jacq.
Annual,
erect or nearly
so, branched,
pubescent, 2-9
dm.
high
Leaves
oblong, obtuse, 1-4 cm. long, denticulate, inequilateral, short-petioled, the upper-
most sometimes very small; stipules triangular, about
1 mm.
long; involucres
pubescent, narrowly campanulate,
1-1.5 mm. long, in
small
terminal
bracted
cymes,
their lobes triangular, the
Avhite gland-appendages suborbicular,
entire
or somewhat lobed; capsule nearly 2 mm. long, tomentose; seeds ovoid, 4-angled,
wrinkled.
Banks and roadsides, southern districts of Porto Rico, at low elevations:—Jamaica;
Hispaniola; Grenada; Tobago; continental tropical America north to Mexico.
EUPHOEBIACEAE
503
8. Chamaesyce Berteriana (Balbis) Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 303.
1909.
Euphorbia Berteriana Balbis; Spreng. Syst. 3: 794.
1826.
Euphorbia stipitata INIillsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 65.
1900.
A low, ascending, densely pubescent annual.
Leaves oblong-ovate, obtuse,
1-1.5 mm.
long,
inequilateral and oblique
at the
base,
crenately
denticulate;
stipules cylindro-aristate with a broadened base, glabrous; inflorescence cymose
involucres
minute,
oblong-turbinate,
long-hairy
at
the
throat
without
and
within; lobes triangular,
ciliate; glands
4, minute,
orbicular,
stipitate, with or
without narrow white appendages; capsule crisped-hairy; seed white or pinkish,
ovoid-quadrangular, angles sharp and prominent,
facets with a few prominent
broad, mostly incomplete, transverse ridges.
Fields, banks and hillsides, sandy and rocky soil at low elevations in the dry south-
western
districts
of Porto
Rico;
Muertos:—Bahamas;
Cuba;
Hispanlola;
Antigua;
Guadeloupe.
9. Chamaesyce prostrata (Alton) Small,
Fl. SE. U.
S. 713.
1903.
Euphorbia prostrata Alton, Hort. Kew 2: 139.
1789.
Annual,
prostrate, more or
less pubescent,
or glabrate; branches slender,
5-15 cm. long, forking.
Leaves thin, oblong or ovate, strongly oblique at the
base, 4-7 mm. long, obtuse, more or less serrulate toward the apex, minutely
pubescent on both sides, petiolate; stipules thin, broadly deltoid,
ciliate at the
ape.x;
involucres
glabrous,
axillary, minute;
lobes
elongate-triangular,
ciliate;
glands 4, transversely oval, the fifth replaced by a small glabrous tooth on the
involucral marghi
; appendages about the width of the glands, finely many-crenate;
capsule glabrous except on the keels of the cocci -which bear a fringe of long
hairs; seeds pink, ovoid-quadrangular,
1 mm. long, strongly and sharply sculp-
tured by numerous, transverse ridges.
[E. maculata of Bello, not of Linnaeus;
? E. Chamaesyce of West.]
Banks, roadsides, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations; Culebra; Culcbrita; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:
southeastern
United
States;
Bermuda; West
Indies;
continental
tropical
America;
tropical Africa.
10. Chamaesyce thymifolia (L.) Millsp. Field IMus. Bot. 2: 412.
1916.
Euphorbia thymifolia L. Sp. PI. 454.
1753.
E. maculata thymifolia Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 53.
1859.
Annual, prostrate, pubescent or glabrate, the slender stems 5-20 cm. long,
more or less branched.
Leaves oblong, short-petioled, obtuse, crenulate, 10 mm.
long or
less, inequilateral;
stipules 1 mm. long, lacerate; involucres mostly soli-
tary in the axils, puberulent or glabrous, the triangular lobes ciliate, the glands
small,
the appendages narrow or wanting; capsules puberulent, about
1 mm.
long; seeds oblong, 4-angled, reddish, transversely ridged.
Streets of Mavaguez, collected in 1884 by Sintenis; recorded by Eggers from
St.
Croix, St. Thomas and St. Jan, but not found by other collectors In the Virgin Islands:
Martinique to Trinidad; Curagao; Aruba; continental tropical America and Old World
tropics.
11. Chamaesyce Cowellii Millsp.; Britton,
Bull.
Torr. Club 43: 457.
1916.
Apparently perennial by a woody root; stems several or many, glabrous,
nearly filiform, prostrate, branched, 12 cm. long or less, the nodes swollen. Leaves
thick, ovate, entire, obtuse, glabrous, 2-3.5 mm.
long, inequilateral, oblique at
the rounded or subcordate base, the petioles very short; stipules minute, lacerate;
involucres solitary in the upper axils, turbinate, short-stalked, glabrous without,
densely woolly within, the triangular lobes aristate, ciliate, the glands green, the
narrow appendages crenate; capsule glabrous; seeds about 1 mm. long, the facets
transversely ridged.
Crevices of Umestone rocks, Cayo Muertos.
Endemic.
504
EUPHORBIACEAE
12. Chamaesyce monensis Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 389.
1914.
Perennial by a thick woody root; stems several or many, slender, puberulent,
4-7 cm. long, the nodes swollen.
Stipules triangular, cUiate, about 1 mm. long;
leaves
thick,
purplish-green, ovate to oblong-ovate, 2.5-4 mm.
long,
crenate,
rounded,
subcordate,
oblique,
the
petioles
1 mm.
long or shorter; involucres
solitary at the tips of the branches, campanulate, pilose, the lanceolate lobes ciliate,
the ghinds oval, paired, the appendages minute or none; capsule pUose; seeds
ovoid: angled, transversely ridged.
Limestone plateau, Mona.
Endemic.
13. Chamaesyce anegadensis Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 394.
1914.
Perennial by a woody
root, perhaps sometimes flowering the
first
year;
stems
several, slender, prostrate or nearly
so, densely white-villous, 5-15 cm.
long, more or less branched.
Stipules deltoid, ciliate, very small; leaves elliptic
to suborbicular, 3-6 mm.
long,
entire,
obtuse,
pilose on both
sides,
the base
obliquely cordate, the margin revolute, the petioles about
1 mm. long; involucres
solitary," pilose without and
within,
turbinate,
the
lobes
deltoid,
ciliate,
the
glands oval, the appendages white or pinkish; capsule ovoid, pilose; seed nearly
1 mm. long, sharply angled, smooth.
Rocky plain, Anegada.
Endemic.
14. Chamaesyce portoricensis (Urban) Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 394.
1914.
Euphorbia portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 338.
1899.
E.
portoricensis albescens Urban, loc.
cit. 339.
1899.
Chamaesyce albescens Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 410.
1916.
Perennial, many-stemmed from the top of a woody
root; st^ms slender,
puberulent, short-pubescent or tomentulose, slender, 5-12 cm.
long, branched,
the nodes swcllen.
Leaves ovate
to
orbicular,
entire, 2-6 mm.
long,
obtuse,
puberulent to tomentulose, the base obliquely cordate or subcordate, the petioles
1 mm. long or less; stipules small, lacerate; involucres 1 or few near the ends of
the branches, campanulate,
1 mm. long, the lobes minute, the glands concave;
capsule about
1 mm. long, appressed-pubescent
; seeds quadrangular-ovate, few-
costate.
Rocky and sandy soU at low elevations in the dry southwestern districts of Porto
Rico near the coast; Mona.
Endemic.
15. Chamaesyce buxifolia (Lam.) Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 711.
1903.
Euphorbia buxifolia Lam. Encycl. 2: 421.
1788.
Euphorbia glabrata Sw. Prodr. 76.
1788.
Euphorbia
littoralis H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 2: 54.
1817.
Low,
generally
erect,
glabrous,
shrubby,
fleshy, 2-5 dm.
high; branches
usually many.
Leaves glabrous,
thick, wrinkling in drying, ovate or broadly
oblong, 8-12 mm. long, obUquely subcordate at the base, acutlsh, margin entire,
involute; petioles about 1 mm.; involucres campanulate, about 1.5 mm. long, as
long as the peduncles or shorter; glands transversely oblong; appendages a mere
whitish bordering line; capsule 2 mm. broad, glabrous; seeds white, ovoid-quad-
rangular, somewhat apiculate, about
1 mm. long, the angles very blunt; facets
very shallowly broad-pitted by Indistinct and irregularly anastomosing transverse
ridges.
Coastal rocks and sands, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Florida; Bermuda; West
Indies; contmental
tropical America.
EUPHORBIACEAE
505
16. Chamaesyce Vahlii
(Willd.)
P. WUson,
Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard.
8:. 395.
1917.
Anisophyllum Vahlii Kl. & Garcke, Monats. Akad. Berlin 1859: 36.
1859.
Euphorbia Vahlii Willd.
; Kl. & Garcke, loc. cit. 37.
1859.
A straggling glabrous, much branched shrub 1.5 m. high or less, the twigs
and leaves somewhat fleshy.
Leaves flat, oblong to elliptic or oblong-lanceolate,
entire, 1-2.5 cm. long, green above, pale beneath, the apex rounded or obtuse and
apiculate, the base rounded or subcordate, the petioles about 1 mm. long; stipules
small, laciniate; involucres mostly solitary at the ends of the twigs, about 4 mm.
long, the glands orbicular; capsule about 3 mm. broad.
[? Euphorbia articulata
rotundi/olia of Krebs.]
Coastal rocks and
cliffs, Quebradillas, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas; Little St.
James Island, St. Jan; Virgin Gorda.
Endemic.
17. Chamaesyce articulata (Aubl.) Britton, Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 6: 574.
1916.
Euphorbia articulata Aubl. PI. Guian. l: 480.
1775.
Euphorbia linearis Retz. Obs. 3: 32.
1783.
Euphorbia linearis heterophylla Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 605.
1891.
Shrubljy, glabrous, 1-6 m. high, the branches divaricate.
Leaves glabrous
or slightly canescent, linear or narrowly oblong, 2-6 cm. long, rounded or nar-
rowed at the oblique base, acute or blunt, mucronulate, entire, glaucous beneath;
petioles short; stipules interpetiolar, broadly deltoid, ciUate; involucres single,
terminal-axillary; peduncles more or less winged; involucral lobes wanting, the
margin of the tube thickened; glands 4, cup-shaped, with a nipple-like projection
at the inner edge; bracteoles very numerous, Ugulate below, brush-like above;
stigma 3-furcate above the middle; capsule glabrous; seed pink-ashen, ovoid-
quadrangular, 1.5 mm. long, the facets transversely anastomose-rugose.
Rocky and sandy situations along and near the coasts, Porto Rico; Desecheo; Muer-
tos; Icacos; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda;
Anegada:—St. Martin to St. Vincent.
Codiaeum variegatum (L.) Bhmie, Periqueto; Garden Croton, native
of the Sunda Islands,
is widely grown for ornament in Virgin Island and Porto
Rico gardens and much used as a decorative house-plant, in many races; they
are shrubs up to about 2 m. high, with variously colored and mottled. Linear to
ovate, entire or lobed leaves, the small, greenish flowers in long racemes.
[Croton
variegatus L.]
Triadica sebifera
(L.)
Small. Arbol del cera, Chinese Tallow-tree,
Asiatic, occasionally planted in Porto Rico ajid the Virgin Islands, is a small tree,
with broadly ovate, entire, short-acuminate, long-petioled leaves, small monoe-
cious flowers without petals in narrow panicles, the fruit a fleshy 3-lobed capsule;
. its seeds yield a vegetable wax used for candles.
[Croton sebiferum L.
; Stillingia
sebifera Baill.]
Sterigmanthe splendens
(Bojer)
Kl. &
Garcke, Crown
of Thorns,
Madagascan, a shrub with
slender,
vine-like branches,
copiously armed with
spines
1-2.5 cm.
long,
the
obovate or
spatulate,
entire
petioled
thin
leaves
5-8 cm. long, the involucres in terminal cymes, subtended by 2 ovate, bright red
bracts,
is grown
in
Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens for ornament and
i nterest.
[Euphorbia splendens Bojer.]
Hevea brasiliensis (II. B. K.) INIuell. Arg., Para Rubber, the most valuable
of
all plants yielding India rubber, experimentally planted at the Agricultural
Experiment Station, Mayaguez, had, in 1924, formed trees about 15 m. high.
It
506
EUPHORBIACEAE
has Jong-petioled, 3-foliolate leaves with entire eUiptic-lanceolate leaflets 10-15
cm. long, the small monoecious flowers panicled, the fruit a large capsule with
usually 3 seeds 2-3 cm. long.
[Siphonia hrasiliensis H. B. K.]
Jatropha
podagrica
Hook.,
Tartogo,
Gouty-stalked
Jatropha,
of
Central America, occasionally planted for interest in Porto Rico, has a swollen
fleshy trunk up to 5 dm. high, the petioled ovate-orbicular, peltate, 3-5-lobed
leaves 10-20 cm. long, the small flowers in dense long-stalked cymes.
Jatropha cuneifolia Sesse & Mog.
Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 224.
1894.
Recorded
by Sesse & Mocino as found in dry fields near Coamo,
is known from their de-
scription only
; Ave have failed to find any plant answering the description in the
Coamo region.
Urban suggested that it might be J. spathulaia (Ortega) Muell.
Arg. of Mexico.
Breynhia nivosa (W. G. Smith) Small, Nevada, Snow-bush, Ice-plant, of
the South Sea Islands, planted for ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
is a shrub up to about 2 m. in height, with oval, green white and pink variegated
leaves 2-6 cm. long, and small greenish axUlary pedicelled flowers.
[Phyllanthus
nivosus W. G. Smith.]
Adenorima punicea (Sw.) Raf., [Euphorbia punicea
Sw.], a
very milky,
red-bracted tree endemic in Jamaica, was recorded by Krebs from
St. Thomas,
presumably in error.
Claeoxylon Mercurialis (L.) Thwaites [Tragia MercuHalis,
L.], an annual
weed of the Old World tropics, otherwise unknown in America, was recorded by
Krebs as formerly found in St. Thomas.
Macaranga Tanarius
(L.)
Aluell.
Arg., an East Indian tree with broad
peltate leaves, was recorded by Krebs as growing in St. Thomas, prior to 1851;
it may have been planted there [Ricinus Tanarius L.; Mappa tanaria Spreng.J.
Bischofia trifoliata (Roxb.) Hook., Kainfal, East Indian, represented by
a fine
tree, over 20 m. high, at the INIayaguez Agricultural Experiment Station,
has long-petioled, 3-foliolate leaves with ovate serrulate acuminate leaflets 8-15
cm. long, the numerous minute greenish flowers in axillary panicles.
[Andrnchn.e
trifoliata Hook.)
Synaderium
Granti Hook., African
Milk-bush,
of tropical
Africa,
a
shrub 2-3 m. high, with stout stems and branches, obovate leaves 7-10 cm. long,
the cymes of red involucres tomentose,
is occasional hi Porto Rico gardens.
Order 15.
SAPINDALES.
Mostly trees or shrubs.
Petals usually present and separate.
Sepals
raostly distinct.
Stamens rarely more than twice
as many
as the
sepals,
when'as many or fewer, often opposite them.
Ovary superior, compound.
Ovules pendulous, with the raphe away from the axis of the ovary, or erect
or ascending.
A. Petals wanting; flowers monoecious; leaves opposite,
simple.
Fam.
1. Buxace.\E.
B
Petals present (except in Dodonaeaceae).
1
Ovary mostly 1-celled (3-5-celled in Spondias).
Tissues resiniferons; o\^le
1.
Fam.
2. Anacardiaceae.
Tissues not resiniferous
; ovules 2.
Fam.
3. Icacinaceae.
BUXACEAE
507
2. Ovary 2-several-celled.
Filaments not opposite the petals.
a. Leaves simple, pinnately veined.
0\ailes
1 in each ovary-cavity.
Fruit a small drupe.
Fam.
4.
Ilicace.\e.
Fruit a small capsule.
Fam.
5.
Cyrill.\ce.\e.
Ovules 2 or more in each ovary-cavity.
Flowers with a disk and petals.
Seeds with endosperm.
Fam.
6.
Celastrace.'S.e.
Seeds without endosperm.
Fam.
7. Hippocrateaceae.
Disk obsolete; petals wanting.
Fam.
8. Dodonaeaceae.
b. Leaves compound, sometimes 1-foliolate.
^
„
o,
Leaves opposite: seeds with endosperm.
Fam.
9. Staphyleaceae.
Leaves nearly always alternate; seeds with-
out endosperm.
Fam. 10.
Sapindaceae.
**Filaments opposite the petals.
Fam.
11.
Sablvceae.
Family
1.
BUXACEAE Dumort.
Box Family.
Monoecious or dioecious
trees, shrubs or perennial herbs, with simple
mostly
evergreen
leaves,
the
sap
not
milky.
Flowers
regular,
bracted.
Petals
none.
Staminate
flowers
with 4-7
distinct stamens,
the anthers
2-celled; sometimes with
a rudimentary
pistil.
Pistillate
flowers with
a
2-4-celled (mostly 3-celled) ovary, with 2 or
1 anatropous ovules
in each
cavity;
styles as many as the ovary-cavities, simple.
Fruit a capsule or
drupe, its carpels 1-2-seeded.
Embryo straight; endosperm fleshy, or almost
wanting.
About 6 genera and 40 species of both the Old World and the
New.
1. TRICERA Sw.; Schreb. Gen. 630.
1791.
Evergreen shrubs
or small
trees,
with
opposite
entire
coriaceous
short-
petiolecl
leaves, and small monoecious
flowers
in small,
axillary or terminal,
sessile
or short-stalked
clusters,
the
bracts
small,
herbaceous
or
coriaceous.
Terminal flowers of the clusters usually pistillate, the lower staminate.
Pistillate
flowers usually with 6 imbricated sepals, the ovary 3-celled, the 3 styles separate.
or connate below; ovules 2 in each ovary-cavity, pendulous.
Staminate flowers
with 4 sepals, 4 stamens with oblong anthers, and a rudimentary ovary.
Capsule
2-3-hoTned.
[Greek,
three-horned.l
About
23
species,
natives
of the West
Indies.
Type species: Crantzia laevigata Sw.
Leaves 5-11 cm. long, the apex acuminate.
1-
T.
citrifolia.
Leaves 2-5 cm. long, acute or obtuse, mucronate.
z.
I
.
vatun.
1. Tricera citrifolia Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 338.
1805.
Buxus citrifolia Spreng. Syst. 3: 847.
1826.
Buxus citrifolia fuscescens Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. ISM 15.
1869.
A
shrub,
with
slender
glabrous
branches.
Leaves
ovate-lanceolate
or
elliptic-lanceolate,
5-11 cm.
long,
subcoriaceous,
glabrous,
pinnately
veined,
the apex acuminate, the base narrowed or obtuse, the petioles about 5 mm.
long; inflorescence short, several-flowered; staminate flowers on pedicels about
1 cm. long, the oblong sepals about 4 mm. long; pistillate flowers with distinct
styles.
Eastern Porto Rico, collected only by Wydler, or perhaps also by Bredemeyer:-—
Venezuela.
A rare plant, known to us from Porto Rico only as recorded by Mueller ana
by Urban.
508
ANACAKDIACEAE
2. Tricera Vahlii (Baill.) Britton, BuU, Torr. Club 42: 502.
1915.
Burns Vahlii Baill. Mon. Bux. 67.
1859.
Tricera laevigata sandier ucis Eggers, Vidensk. Medd. 1876: 143.
1876.
A glabrous shrub, 1-.3 m. high, with slender twigs.
Leaves oblong or oblong-
obovate, 2-5 cm. long, subcoriaceous, faintly pinnately veined, the apex acute
or obtuse, sharply mucronate, the base narrowed, the petioles 3 mm. long or
less; inflorescence much shorter than the
leaves,
few-flowered;
pedicels very
short
: sepals about 2 mm. long, ovate-oblong, acute
; capsule about 6 mm. long,
with 3 horns.
[Crantzia laevigata of Vahl, not of Swartz.]
Coastal thickets near Rincon and limestone
hills near Ponce, Porto Rico; Stony
Ground.
St. Croix.
Endemic.
Family
2.
ANACARDIACEAE Lindl.
Sumac Family.
Trees or shrubs, with acrid resinous or milky sap, alternate or rarely
opposite leaves, and polygamo-dioecious or perfect, mainly regular flowers.
Calyx
3-7-cleft.
Petals
of the same number, imbricated
in the bud,
or
rarely none.
Disk generally annular.
Stamens as many or twice as many
as the petals, rarely fewer, or more, inserted at the base of the disk; filaments
mostly
separate;
anthers commonly
versatile.
Ovary
in_ the
staminate
flowers 1-celled.
Ovary in the pistillate flowers 1- or sometimes 4-5-celled;
styles 1-3; ovules
1 in each cavity.
Fruit generally a small drupe.
Seed-
coat bony
or
crustaceous; endosperm
little
or
none;
cotyledons
fleshy.
About 60 genera and 500 species, most abundant in warm or tropical regions,
a few extending into the temperate zones.
Leaves simple.
Fruit a large drupe; stamens 1-5.
1. Mangifera.
Fruit leathery, borne on an enlarged stalk; stamens 8-10.
2. Anacardium.
Leaves compound.
Ovary 1-celled.
Flowers 3-merous.
3.
Comocladia.
Flowers 5-merous.
•
4. Metopium.
Ovary 3-5-ceUed.
5. Spondias.
1. MANGIFERA L. Sp. PI. 200.
1753.
Trees, mostly large, with alternate petioled entire coriaceous leaves, and
small polygamous flowers in terminal panicles.
Calyx 4-5-parted, deciduous,
the lobes imbricated.
Petals 4 or 5, narrow, imbricated.
Stamens 1-5, unequal,
aU poUeniferous or some sterile, the filaments sometimes connate below.
Ovary
sessile, superior, 1-celled, 1-ovuled; style lateral, curved; stigma simple.
Drupe
ovoid, oblique, large,
fleshy, the stone
fibrous.
Seed flattened,
its
testa thin,
the
cotyledons
plano-convex,
usually
lobed,
the
radicle
ascending.
[Latin,
mango- bearing.]
About 14 species of tropical Asia, the foUowing typical.
1. Mangifera indica L. Sp. PI. 200.
1753.
A large tree, sometimes 20 m. high or more, with a trunk up to 2.5 m. in
diameter, the branches spreading, the stout twigs glabrous.
Leaves coriaceous,
lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-25 cm. long, acute, acuminate or sometimes
blunt at the apex, narrowed at the base, glabrous, dark green above, the petioles
about 2.5 cm. long; panicles large, terminal, pubescent, the flowers very numerous,
green, about 4 mm. wide
; fruit pendulous, usually 8-12 cm. long, smooth, greenish
or yellowish, the flesh soft and juicy.
ANACARDIACEAE
509
Hillsides,
fields,
roadsides and
river
valleys,
spontaneous
after
planting;
widely
planted for its fruit and for its wood, and for shade, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St^ Thomas:
St
Jan; Tor tola:—Florida; West Indies;
<;-ontinental tropical America and Old World
tropics.'
Native of tropical Asia.
Mango.
Mango.
2. ANACARDIUM L. Sp. PI. 383.
1753.
Trees
or
shrubs, with alternate
entire
petioled
simple leaves, and small
polygamous flowers in large terminal panicles.
Calyx 5-parted, deciduous, the
lobes imbricated.
Petals
5,
linear.
Torus stipe-like.
Stamens 8-10,
all pol-
leniferotis or some barren ; filaments distinct or connate at the base.
Ovary sessile,
obovate or obcordate; style excentric,
filiform, the stigma very small.
Fruit
leathery, nut-like, indehiscent, borne on an enlarged pyriform stalk.
[Greek,
referring to the fruit.]
A few species, natives of tropical America, the following
typical.
1. Anacardium occidentale L. Sp. PL 383.
1753.
A
tree, up to about 13 m.
high, with spreading branches, the
tAvigs and
leaves glabrotis.
Leaves obovate to elliptic, subcoriaceous, 6-13 cm. long, the
apex rounded or emarginate, the base narrowed or obtuse, the strong lateral
veins widely spreading, the petiole 1.5 cm. long or less; panicle peduncled, many-
flowered, longer than the leaves, puberulent; bracts ovate or ovate-lanceolate,
puberulent; calyx-segments about 4 mm. long; petals about 8 mm. long, ptirple;
fruit reniform, 2-2.5 cm. long, borne on a thick stalk.
Hillsides and
plains at lower elevations
in moist and dry
districts
Porto Rico;
Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
.Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica
Cuba- Hispaniola; St. Martin to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Often planted
for its fruit.
Maeanon.
Cajthl.
Cashew-nut.
.
,
„
The nuts are edible after roasting and shelling, but the shell contains a poisonojis
substance, eUminated by heat; this roasting process must be carefully operated as the
poisonous fumes may otherwise blister the skin and inflame the eyes.
The roasted nuts
are an important product and pass into commerce; they are delicious somewhat resemb-
ling almond seeds in taste.
The trunk of the tree yields a commercial gum. used for mu-
cilage and as a varnish, and the bark may be used for tanning; the astringent sap yields
a kind of ink; the shell of the nut yields cardol oil used in medicme.
The wood is hard
and strong, its specific gravity about 0.49.
3. COMOCLADIA P. Br.; L. Syst. ed. 10, 861.
1759.
Tall or low trees, the trunks usually simple or sometimes few-branched, erect,
crowned with tufts of large alternate unevenly pinnate leaves, the small poly-
gamous flowers glomerulate in axillary panicles, often purple.
Calyx 3-parted,
the segments imbricated.
Petals 3.
Stamens 3, distinct, borne at the sinuses of
the small disk.
Ovary sessile, 1-celled; stigmas 3, sessile or nearly so.
Fruit a
fleshy drupe.
Seed with a membranous testa and fleshy cotyledons.
[Greek,
referring to the tufted leaves.]
About 23 species, of tropical America, mostly
West Indian, those of Porto Rico known as Carasco.
Type species
: Comocladia
pinnatifolia L.
The sap of some species is poisonous.
Leaflets broadly ovate,
1-3 cm. long;
twigs,
petioles and
Ipaf-rachis
,
^ „
,
pilose
I.e. Dodonaea.
Leaflets 'oblong to oblong-lanceolate. 6-10 cm. long; twigs and leaves
„
_
,
.
nearly glabrous.
2.
C. giaora.
1. Comocladia Dodonaea (L.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 360.
1910.
Ilex Dodonaea L. Sp. PL 125.
1753.
Comocladia ilicifolia Sw. Prodr. 17.
1788.
A small virgate slender tree, 2-5 m. high, the twigs, petioles and leaf-rachis
rather densely pilose.
Leaves 1-3 dm. long; leaflets 1 1-21, close together, sessile,
510
ANACARDIACEAE
broadly ovate, 3 cm. long or less and about as wide as long, more or less pu-
bescent,
spinulose-dentate or sometimes
entire,
spinulose-tipped,
prominently
veined
; panicles mostly shorter than the leaves, pilose
; flowers purple, glomeru-
late; calyx about 0.5 mm.
long; petals about
1 mm. long; fruit ovoid-oblong,
about
1 cm. long.
Banks, hillsides and thickets at lower elevations, Porto Rico, mostly near the coasts,
but ascending
to
:300
meters, and most abundant in dry
districts; Mona; Muertos;
Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Hispaniola;
Anguilla
to
St.
Vincent.
Mais
pelado.
Mais
tostado.
Poison
Ash.
Prapra.
COCK'S-SPUR.
2. Comocladia glabra (Schultes) Spreng. Syst.
i: 176.
1825.
Comocladia ilicifolia glabra Schultes, Mant. 1: 350
1822.
Comocladia acuminata M05. & Sesse; DC. Prodr. 2: G5.
1825.
Comocladia glabra acuminata Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 361.
1911.
A tree, up to about 8 m. high, erect or sometimes straggling, the twigs and
leaves glabrous or sparingly pubescent.
Leaves 3-4.5 dm. long; leaflets 11-31,
very nearly sessile, close together or somewhat separated, oblong-ovate or oblong-
lanceolate, 4-10 cm. long or the lower ones shorter, spinulose-dentate, the apex
acute or acuminate and spinulose-tipped,
the base obtuse
to subcordate,
the
prominent
lateral
veins widely spreading;
panicles sometimes
as long
as the
leaves, usually shorter, glabrous; calyx about 0.5 mm. long; petals obtuse, 1 mm.
long; fruit oblong, about
1 cm. long.
Wooded
hills, thickets and forests at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet
districts, Porto Rico:—Cuba?; Hispaniola.
4. METOPIUM P. Br.; Engler in DC. Mon. Phan. 4: 367.
1883.
Poisonous trees, with alternate petioled unevenly pinnate leaves, the several
leaflets
entire,
subcoriaceous,' the small
greenish dioecious
flowers
in
axillary
panicles.
Sepals
5, imbricated.
Petals
5, imbricated, longer than the sepals.
Disk annular.
Stamens 5, the filaments short, subulate, the anthers longitudin-
ally dehiscent.
Ovary 1-celled; style short; stigma 3-lobed; ovule one.
Drupe
oblong, glabrous, pointed, containing a parchment-like stone.
[Greek, forehead,
significance not explained.]
Three species, natives of the West Indian region-
Type species: Rhus Metopium L.
1. M3tDpiuintoxiferum(L.) Krugfe Urban; Urban, Bot.Jahrb. 21:612.
1898.
Amyris toxifera L. Syst. ed. 10, 1000.
1759.
A tree, up to 14 m. high with a trunk sometimes 2 dm. in diameter, the thin
bark
reddish-brown
without,
orange
within,
splitting
into
large
scales,
the
branches widely spreading.
Leaves 3 dm. long or
less, glabrous;
leaflets 3-7,
ovate to suborbicular or obovate, chartaceous,
2. .5-10 cm.
long, acute, obtuse
or emarginate at the apex, narrowed to cordate at the base,
bz'ight green and
shining above, dull beneath, the petioles 1-3 cm. long; panicles many-flowered,
as long as the leaves or longer; pedicels rather stout, 2-4 mm. long; sepals obtuse'
much
shorter than
the
ovate
obtuse
yellowish-green
petals;
drupes
oblong,
orange-yellow, 1-1.5 cm. long, in spreading or drooping panicles.
Coastal woods and
thickets,
western and southwestern
districts
of Porto
Rico:
Mona:—Florida;
Bahamas;
Cuba;
Hispaniola.
Cedro
prieto.
Papayo.
Poison-
TREE.
5. SPONDIAS L. Sp. PI. 371.
1753.
Trees, with alternate, unevenly pinnate leaves, and small polygamous flowers
in
terminal
or
lateral
panicles.
Calyx
4-5-cleft,
deciduous.
Petals
4
or
5.
ANACARDIACEAE
511
Disk cup-like, crenate.
Stamens 8-10.
Ovary sessile, 3-5-celled; styles 4 or 5,
short.
Fruit a drupe with a bony pit and a thin fleshy exocarp.
[Greek name
for
a
plum-tree.]
About
10
species
of
tropical
distribution.
Type
species:
Spo7idias Momhin L.
Inflorescence lateral; leaflets obovate, 2-4 cm. long, very nearly sessile.
1. S. purpurea.
Inflorescence
terminal;
leaflets
ovate
or
ovate-lanceolate,
5-12
cm.
long, distinctly petloled.
2.
S. Mombtn.
1. Spondias purpurea L. Sp. PI. ed. 2,
613.
1762.
A tree, up to about 10 m.
high, usually lower, the often gnarled branches
spreading,
the
gray
bark
tuberculate-roughened when
old,
the
stout
twigs
glabrous.
Leaves about 2 dm. long or
less,
petloled,
glabrous;
leaflets
9-2.5,
thin, obovate,
1.5-4 cm.
long,
sessile or nearly
so, the
lateral ones obliquely
inequilateral, the apex acute or obtuse, the base cuneate; panicles puberulent,
mostly lateral and shorter than the leaves; flowers pink or red; pedicels 2-4 mm.
long; calyx-lobes obtuse;
petals oblong, acuminate, about 3 mm.
long; drupe
ovoid, purple, about 2.5 cm. long.
Hillsides and roadsides, Porto Rico, often planted
for
its fruit and for shade;
St.
Croix- St Thomas;
St. Jan:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Cayman Islands;
St. Martin
to Trinidad;
continental
tropical America.
Jobillo. Jobo
fr.\nces.
Ciruel.\ del
PAIS.
Spanish Plum.
Jamaica Plum.
2. Spondias Mombin L. Sp. PI. 371.
1753.
Spondias lutea L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 613.
1762.
Spondias pseudomyrobalanus Tussac,
Fl. Ant. 4: 97.
1827.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the twigs glabrous or sparingly puberulent, the bark
armed with stout prickles.
L'eaves 2-3 dm. long, petioled;
leaflets 9-19, thin,
ovate to ovate- lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, rather distant, glabrous or the
petiolules puberulent, 5-10 cm. long, acute or acuminate, the lateral ones
in-
equilateral, the petiolules 4-6 mm. long; panicles terminal, often as long as the
leaves, many-flowered;
flowers greenish white; pedicels 2-4 mm.
long;
calyx-
lobes triangular; petals oblong, about 3 mm. long; drupe ovoid, yellow, 3-4 cm.
long.
Woodlands, MUsides, roadsides and river valleys at lower and middle elevations,
Porto Rico, often planted for its fr\iit and for shade;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St
Jan;
Tortola-—West Indies (except Bahamas); continental tropical America and Old World
tropics
The thin pulp of the frmt is pleasantly acid.
The wood is strong, hght brown,
durable, with a specific gravity of about 0.5.
JoBO.
Hog Plum.
Spondias cirouella Tussac {S.
cironella Bello), planted in Porto Rico and
the Virgin Islands, differs from S. purpurea in having yeUow fruit.
Ciruela.
Spondias dulcis
Frost. Jobo de la India, Golden Apple,
planted
oc-
casionally for its fruit on Porto Rico and St. Croix,
is a native of the islands of
the Pacific Ocean; its leaflets are nearly equilateral,
its large yellow fruit 8-10
cm. long.
[.S. citharea Tussac; S. mangifera of Bello, not of Willdenow.]
Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi, Christmas-berry Tree, South Amer-
ican, a shrub with slender elongated branches, pinnate leaves of about 7 sessile
oblong leaflets 3-6 cm. long, the small white flowers in terminal panicles, the
globose drupes red, about 1 cm. in diameter, was seen at the Insular Experiment
Station, Rio Piedras, Porto Rico, in 1924, the plant about 1.5 m. high.
Pistacia chinensis Bunge, Chinese, was seen at the St. Croix Agricultural
Experiment Station in 1923, as seedling plants, and at the Insular Experiment
Station, Rio Piedras, Porto Rico, in 1924.
512
ICACINACEAE
FamilA' 3.
ICACINACEAE Miers.
ICACINA
P'aMILY.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate, mostly entire leaves, the small regular,
perfect or polygamous, 4-parted or 5-parted flowers mostly petaliferous, the
petals distinct or united.
Stamens as many as the petals and alternate with
them.
Ovary 1-celled.
Ovules usuallv 2, pendulous.
Style simple.
Fruit
mostly drupaceous, l-celled, 1-seeded. the seed pendulous with a very small
embryo.
About 40
genera,
includinu: some
110
species
of
tropical
dis-
tribution.
Corolla polypetaloiif?; stamens hypogynuus.
1. Mappia.
Corolla gamopetalous ; filaments adnate to the corolla-tube.
2.
OUoschulzia.
1. MAPPIA Jacq, Hort. Schoenb. l: 22.
1787.
Trees or shrubs with alternate leaves and small cymose-paniculate polygam-
ous
flowers.
Calyx
5-tootlied.
Petals
5,
valvate.
Stamens
5, hypogynous;
filaments slender; anthers oblong.
Disk cupulate.
Style short; stigma thick-
ened.
Drupe
with
a hard
pit.
[Commemorates Marc Mappus,
a German
physician and botanist.]
About 8 species, natives of tropical regions, the follow-
ing typical.
1. Mappia racemosa Jacq. Hort. Schoenb. i: 22.
1797.
A tree, up to about 10 m. high, usually lower, often shrubby, the young twigs
and leaves appressed-pubescent, becoming
glabrous.
Leaves
oblanceolate
or
oblong-lanceolate, rather thin, entire, 6-15 cm. long, obscurely pinnately veined,
glabrous or nearly so when mature, the apex acute or obtuse, the base cuneate,
the slender petioles 1-2.5 cm. long; panicles usually many-flowered, shorter than
the leaves; pedicels very short; flowers about 6 mm. broad, greenish yellow;
drupe ovoid, rounded, about 1.5 cm. long.
Collected by Gundlach near Quebradillas
(according to Urban):—Jamaica; Cuba.
2. OTTOSCHULZIA Urban, Symb. Ant. 7: 272.
1912.
Trees with coriaceous or chartaceous,
alternate
entire
leaves, and small
axillary or lateral flowers, solitary or glomerate.
Sepals
5, united only at the
base.
Corolla gamopetalous, its ovate lobes valvate.
Stamens
5, borne at the
top
of the
corolla-tube;
filaments
fiattened;
anthers
triangular-ovate.
Disk
very small.
Style short; stigma minute.
Drupe ovoid.
[Dedicated to Otto E.
Schulz, German
botanist.)
Three known species of the West
Indies.
Type
species: Poraqueiba cubensis C. Wright.
1. Ottoschulzia rhodoxylon Urban, Symb. Ant. 7: 274.
1912.
Poraqueiba rhodoxylon Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 405.
190S.
Twigs glabrous, the buds minutely pilose.
Leaves orbicular-ovate or oval,
6.5-8 cm.
long,
4.5-6 cm.
wide,
thick-coriaceous,
flat,
the apex rounded
or
obtuse, the base rounded or subtruncate, the petioles 6-8 mm. long.
Collected by Krug near Mayagiiez.
Endemic.
Palo de rosa.
A
little known
species
neither flowers nor fruit collected.
A tree with
tliis Spanish name is reported
from the vicinity of Isabella.
ILICACEAE
513
Family 4.
ILICACEAE Lowe.
Holly Family.
Shrubs or trees, with watery sap, and alternate petioled simple leaves.
Flowers axillary, small, white, mainly polygamo-dioecious, regular.
Stipules
minute and
deciduous,
or none.
Calyx 3-7-parted,
generally
persistent.
Petals 4-7 (rarely more), separate or slightly united at the base, hypogynous,
deciduous, imbricated.
Stamens hypogynous,
as many
as the
petals,
or
sometimes more; anthers oblong, cordate.
Disk none.
Ovary
1, superior,
3-several-celled; stigma discoid or capitate; style short or none; ovules
1 or 2
in each cavity.
Fruit a small berry-like drupe, enclosing several nutlets.
Seed pendulous ; endosperm fleshy ; embryo straight.
Three genera and about
300 species, of temperate and tropical regions.
1. ILEX L. Sp. PI. 125.
1753.
Leaves minutely stipulate.
Flowers cymose or
solitary,
perfect or poly-
gamous.
Calyx small. 4-5-cleft or toothed.
Petals 4-7, somewhat united at
the base, oblong, obtuse.
Stamens of the same number, adnata to the base of
the corolla.
Berry-like drupe globose, with 4-8 bony or crustaceous nutlets.
lAncient name of the Holly Oak.l
About 280 species, mostly natives of America.
those of Porto Rico evergreen, laiown as Cuero de Sapo, their wood hard and
heavy.
Type species: Ilex Aquifolium L.
Leaves
ovate
or
ovate-lanceolate,
serrate,
acute
or
acuminate;
,
,
,
flowers 5-7-parted.
1-
I- Macfadyenii.
Leaves obovate to oblong, rounded or obtuse.
Flowers fascicled in the axils.
Leaves or some
of them crenate,
5-10 cm.
long;
flowers
4-.5-parted.
Leaves entire or obscurely crenulate.
Flowers 5-7-parted.
Flowers 4-parted, rarely 5-parted.
Leaves obovate, 5-12 era. long.
Leaves oval or oval-obovate, 3-8 cm. long.
Leaves obtuse at base.
Leaves narrowed or acute at base.
Flowers solitary or few in the axils; leaves 1-3 cm. long.
1. Ilex Macfadyenii (Walp.) Rehder, Journ. Arn. Arb. 3: 215.
1923.
Prino.s montanus Sw. Prodr. 58.
1788.
Prinos Macfadyenii Walp. Rep.
1: .541.
1842.
Ilex montana Griseb, Mem. Am. Acad. 8: 171.
1860.
Not T. & G.
1840.
A tree, up to about 10 m. high, usually lower, sometimes a shrub, the twigs
and leaves glabrous.
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, subcoriaceous, 3-7 cm.
long, serrate or serrulate, the apex acute or acuminate, the base narrowed or
rounded, the petioles 2-7 mm. long; inflorescence
l-several-flowered, glabrous
or nearly so; flowers 5-7-parted; calyx about 2 mm. broad; petals ovate to el-
liptic, about 2 mm. long; fruit globose, 5-7 mm. in diameter
Wooded valley of the Rio de Maricao:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Kitts to
Martinique.
2.
Ilex nitida (Vahl) Maxim. Mem. Acad.
St. Petersb. VII. 29': 27.
1881.
Prinos nitidus Vahl, Eclog. 2: 26.
1798.
Ilex nitida Alexandri Loesener, Bot. Jahrb. 15: 135.
1892.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, glabrous throughout.
Leaves obovate or oblong-
obovate,
coriaceous,
crenate
or nearly
quite
entire,
.5-10 cm.
long,
the apex
2.
514
ILICACEAE
rounded or obtuse, the base obtuse or narrowed, the petioles 7-12 mm. long:
flowers fascicled in the axils, 4-5-parted; pedicels 4-15 mm. long; calyx about 2
mm. broad; petals ovate or oval, 3-4 mm. long; drupe globular, red to black,
6-7.5 mm. in diameter.
[Ilex dioica of Grisebach, of Bello and of Stahl, not
Prinos dioica Vahl; Ilex macoucoua of Stahl, not of Persoon.]
Wooded hills and forests in wet or moist districts, middle and higher elevations, Porto
Rico;—Jamaica; Montserrat; Guadeloupe, Martinique; Mexico.
HUESO PRIETO.
Brig-
UETA.
Murphy records the wood as used for fuel and for huts.
3.
Ilex sideroxyloides (Sw.) Griseb. Kar. 76.
1857.
Prinos sideroxyloides Sw. Prodr. 58.
1788.
/. sideroxyloides occidentalis forma portoricensis Loesener, Bot. Jahrb. 15: 316.
1892.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, glabrous throughout.
Leaves mostly obovate or
oblong-obovate, coriaceous, entire, 3.5-10 cm., the apex rounded or obtuse, the
base narrowed or cuneate, the petioles 5-12 mm. long; flowers fascicled or rarely
solitary
in the
axils; 5-7-parted;
pedicels 3-12 mm.
long; calyx 3-4 mm.
in
diameter; petals 3-4 mm. long, connate below the middle
; drupe globose or ovoid-
globose, 6-8 mm. in diameter.
Forests, Sierra de Luquillo:—Montserrat to St. Vincent.
Gongolin.
4.
Ilex guianensis (Aubl.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 113.
1891.
Macoucoua guianensis Aubl. PI. Guian 1: 88.
1775.
Ilex macoucoua Pers. Syn. 1: 152.
1805.
A small tree, up to 8 m. high, usually lower, soitietimes a shrub, the twigs
gray, glabrous or minutely puberulent.
Leaves typically oblong-obovate, sub-
coriaceous, glabrous, entire, 6-10 cm. long, the apex rounded or obtuse, the base
narrowed or cuneate, the petioles .5-10 nmi. long
; flowers 4-parted, rarely 5-parted,
fascicled in the axils; pedicels of the staminate flowers up to 10 mm. long; calyx
about 2 mm. broad; petals 1.5-2 mm. long; drupe globose or ellipsoid, 5-6 mm. in
diameter.
Woods near Aguada and near Rincon:—Hispaniola, Trinidad; Mexico
to French
Guiana.
Macoucoua.
5.
Ilex Urbaniana Loes. Bot. Jahrb. 15: 316.
1892.
A shrub, about 3 m. high, or a small tree, the slender twigs puberulent or
glabrate.
Leaves oval
or oval-obovate,
coriaceous,
entire,
glabrous, 4-8 cm.
long, the apex rounded or emarginate, the base obtuse orsubcuneate, the petioles
5-9 mm. long; flowers fascicled in the axils, the peduncles 1-3-flowered, puberu-
lent, about as long as the petioles; flowers 4-parted; calyx about 2 mm. broad;
petals 2-3 mm. long; drupe subglobose, about 6 mm. in diameter.
Forest, Mamey near Utuado, Porto Rico; Tortola.
Endemic.
6.
Ilex Riedlaei Loes. Bot. Jahrb. 15: 317.
1892.
A glabrous shrub or small
tree,
with slender twigs.
Leaves coriaceous,
obovate, shining above, 3-5 cm.
long, obsoletely undulate or entire, the apex
rounded or emarginate, the base acute, the petioles 5-7 mm. long; flowers
4-
parted, fascicled in the axils; pedicels short, 1-3-flowered; calyx about
1 mm.
broad; petals about 2 mm. long; fruit unknown.
Porto Rico, collected by Riedle
; specimens from Monte Alegrillo are referred to tliis
species from Loesener 's description:—Hispaniola.
CYEILLACEAE
515
7.
Ilex Sintenisii (Urban) Britton.
Vaccinium (?) Sintenisii Urban, Synib. Ant. 5: 454.
1908.
A little tree, 2.5-5 m. high, glabrous throughout, much branched, the twigs
slender, angulate.
Leaves obovate or orbicular-obovate, dark green, coriaceous,
entire,
1-3 cm.
long,
the apex rounded, emarginate,
the base narrowed, the
petioles 2-6 mm. long; inflorescence peduncled, few-flowered, much shorter than
the leaves; fruiting pedicels solitary, 4-7 mm. long; calyx about 2 mm. broad,
4-5-parted, the lobes obtuse; drupe globose, about 5 mm. in diameter.
Moiintain summits, Sierra de LuquiUo and Sierra de Naguabo.
Endemic.
Ilex paraguayensis St. Hil., Mate, Paraguay Tea, South American, has
been experimentally planted at the Forest Station and at the Insular Experiment
Station at Rio Piedras;
it is a shrub or small tree with obovate dentate leaves,
a decoction of which furnishes a well-known South American beverage.
Family 5.
CYRILLACEAE Lindl.
Cyrilla Family.
Glabrous shrubs, or small trees, with simple entire alternate estipulate
leaves, long-persistent or evergreen, and small regular perfect bracted race-
mose flowers.
Sepals 4-S (mostly 5), persistent.
Petals the same number
as the sepals, hypogynous,
distinct,
or sUghtly united by their bases, de-
ciduous.
Stamens 4-10,
in
1
or
2
series,
distinct, hypogjmous; anthers
introrse,
2-celled,
the
sacs
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
2-5-celled;
ovules
1-4
in
each
cavity,
anatropous,
pendulous;
stjde
short
or none:
stigma
very
small,
or
2-3-lobed.
Fruit
dry,
small,
1-5-seeded.
Seeds
oblong
or
spindle-shaped;
endosperm
fleshy; embryo
central,
cylindric.
Three genera and 6 known species, natives of America.
1. CYRILLA Garden; L. Mant. 1: 50.
1767.
Racemes clustered at the ends of twigs of the preceding season.
Sepals 5,
firm, acute, shorter than the petals.
Petals 5, white, acute, spreading.
Stamens
5, opposite the sepals, the filaments subulate, the anthers oval.
Ovary ovoid,
sessile, mostly
2-celled, sometimes
3-celled; ovules 2-4
in each cavity;
style
short, thick, 2-3-lobed.
Fruit ovoid, 2-3-seeded, the pericarp spongy.
[In honor
of Domenico Cyrillo, professor of medicine at Naples.]
A few species, of south-
eastern United States and tropical America, the following typical.
1.
Cyrilla racemiflora L. Mant. 50.
1767.
Ilex Cyrilla Sw. Prodr. 50.
1788.
Cyrilla antillana Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 158.
1803.
A shrub or small tree, the bark at the base spongy.
Leaves oblanceolate,
obovate or oval, cuneate-narrowed at the base, 5-10 cm. long, 6-25 mm. wide;
racemes narrow, 5-15 cm. long, bearing the very numerous small white flowers
nearly to the base
; pedicels 2-4 mm. long, somewhat longer than the bracts, or
shorter; fruit about 2 mm. long.
Moimtatn forests and thickets, Porto Rico, in wet or moist districts:—southeastern
United States; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe to St. Vincent; northern South
America.
Southern Leatherwood.
616
CELASTRACEAE
Family 6.
CELASTRACEAE.
Staff-tree Family.
Trees or shrubs, some species climbing.
Leaves simple.
Stipules, when
present,
small and
caducous.
Flowers
regular,
generally
perfect,
small.
Pedicels commonly
jointed.
Calyx 4-5-lobed
or
-parted,
persistent,
the
lobes imbricated.
Petals 4 or 5, spreading.
Stamens inserted on the disk.
Disk
flat
or lobed.
Ovary
sessile, mostly
3-5-celled;
style
short,
thick;
stigma
entire or 3-5-lobed; ovules
2
in each
cavity,
anatropous.
Fruit
drupaceous or capsular.
Seeds with endosperm, with or without an
aril;
embryo
large; cotyledons foliaceous.
About 45 genera, and 375
species,
widely distributed.
Fruit a dehiscent capsule; seeds arillate.
1. Maytenus.
Friut indelilscent; seeds not arillate.
Cells of the ovary 1-ovuled.
Sepals connate near the base.
2. Rhacoma.
Sepals distinct or nearly so.
Leaves opposite; ovule pendulous.
3. Gyminda.
Leaves alternate; ovule erect.
4.
Schaefferia.
Cells of the ovary 2-ovuled.
5. Elaeodendrum.
1. MAYTENUS Molina. Sagg. Chile 177.
1782.
Unarmed,
evergreen
shrubs
or
trees,
with
alternate
petioled
coriaceous
leaves, and small polygamous
axillary flowers, soUtary or
in
clusters.
Calyx
5-lobed.
Stamens 5, the filaments subulate.
Disk orbicular, undulate.
Ovary
immersed in the disk, 2-4-celled; ovules 1 or 2 in each cavity, erect; style slender
or none; stigma 2-4-lobed.
Fruit a small coriaceous capsule.
1-3-celled, locu-
licidally 2-3-valved.
Seeds erect, the testa crustaceous
; the aril fleshy
; cotyledons
foUaceous.
[From the Chilean name.]
Type species: Maytenus Boaria Molina.
Flowers umbellate-fascicled or solitary.
Frxdt oblong or obovoid.
Leaves elliptic to orbicular-obovate, about twice as long as wide.
1. M. eUiptica.
Leaves oblong-obovate, about 3 times as long as wide.
2. M. elongata.
Fruit globular.
3. M. ponceana.
Flowers in small cymes.
4. M. cymosa.
1. Maytenus eUiptica (Lam.) Krug. & Urban; Duss. FI. Ant. Franc. 145.
1897.
Senacia eUiptica Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 2: 96.
1793.
Rhamnus laevigatus Vahl, Symb. 3: 41.
1794.
Ceanothus laevigatus DC. Prodr. 2: 30.
1825.
A tree, up to 12 m. high, glabrous throughout, the bark smooth, the slender
twigs angular.
Leaves elUptic to broadly obovate, coriaceous, 3-10 cm. long,
nearly twice as long as wide, the lateral venation rather indistinct, the apex
rounded, obtuse or emarginate, the base narrowed or obtuse, the petioles 3-7
mm. long; flowers 5-parted, fascicled in the axils or sometimes solitary on pedicels
2-7 mm. long; sepals broad, nearly 1 mm. long; petals ovate, about 1.5 mm. long;
filaments subulate
; ovary 2-celled with 2 ovules In each cavity ; fruit 8-12 mm.
long, oval or obovoid.
Forests, thickets and arroyos, at lower elevations in dry or moist districts, recorded
as ascending to higher elevations, Porto Rico;
St
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—St.
Eustatiiis to Grenada; recorded from Hispaniola.
CtJERO DE s.\PO.
Bois Flament.
2. Maytenus elongata (Urban) Britton.
Maytenus eUiptica elongata Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 66.
1904.
A tree, up to 12 m. high, the slender twigs and the leaves glabrous.
Leaves
oblong or oblong-obovate, coriaceous, 4-9 cm. long, entire, about 3 times as long
CELASTRACEAE
517
as wide, narrowed at both ends, the apex acute or obtusish, the petioles 4-5 mm.
long; fruiting pedicels fascicled or sohtary, 4-7 mm. long; fruit obovoid-ellipsoid,
about 9 mm. long.
Forests near Hatillo and along Rio de Maricao.
Endemic.
3. Maytenus ponceana Britton, sp. nov.
A tree, about 12 m. high, with slender, somewhat tortuous, glabrous twigs.
Leaves
oblong
or oblong-obovate, coriaceous, 9 cm. long or
less, indistinctly
few-veined with the midrib rather prominent on both sides, shining above, dull
beneath, the apex bluntly short-acuminate or obtuse, the base subcuneate, the
rather slender petioles G-8 mm. long; fruiting pedicels 3-5 mm. long, solitary
or 2 together in the axils; fruit globose, whitish, 6-8 mm. in diameter.
Hillside, Rio Portugues, north of Ponce, Porto Rico,
(Britton 7818).
In fruit Feb.
12, 1923.
Endemic.
4. Maytenus cymosa Krug & Urban; Urban, Symb. Ant. l: 43.
1898.
A
tree, on Vieques up to 5 m. high, glabrous, the slender twigs angular.
Leaves oval
to obovate,
entire, 3-5 cm.
long,
subcoriaceous,
grayish
green,
rounded or obtuse at both ends or the base somewhat narrowed, the petioles 2-4
mm. long; flowers in small
axillary cymes, subglomerate, the clusters a
little
longer than the
petioles, the pedicels very short; sepals broad, suborbicular,
about
1 mm. broad; petals oval, about as broad as the sepals; ovary 2-ceUed.
[M. elaeodendroides of Eggers, not of Grisebach.]
Thickets, Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas.
Endemic.
2. RHACOMA L. Syst. ed. 10, 896.
1759.
Shrubs
or low
trees,
with
coriaceous small evergreen
leaves, and small
perfect greenish axillary flowers.
Calyx 4-5-lobed.
Disk depressed, 4-5-lobed.
Petals 4 or 5, inserted under the disk.
Stamens 4 or 5.
Ovary 4-celled
; stigmas
4; ovules 1 in each cavity of the ovary, erect.
Drupe with a somewhat fleshy
thin exocarp and a bony stone.
[Name used by PUny for some Old World plant.]
About 12 species, of warm and tropical America.
Type species: Rhacoma Cros-
sopetalum L.
1. Rhacoma Crossopetalum L. Syst. ed. 10, 896.
1759.
Crossopetalum Rhacoma Crantz, Inst. 2: 321.
1766.
Myginda Rhacoma Sw. Prodr. 39.
1788.
Myginda rotundata Lam. Tabl. Encycl. l: 308.
1791.
Myginda pallens J. E. Smith in Rees Cycl. 25: no. 4.
1813.
Crosopetaliim pallens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 116.
1891.
Rhacoma pallens Maza, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 19: 239.
1900.
A shrub or tree, up to 8 m. high, with smooth gray bark and glabrous angular
twigs.
Leaves opposite or whorled, linear to oblong or obovate, short-petioled,
1-4 cm. long, somewhat crenate, glabrous, acutish or blunt at the apex, narrowed
at the base, paler green beneath than above; flowers clustered in the axils, the
clusters slender-peduncled ; calyx urceolate, with 4 obtuse lobes; petals 4; disk
4-lobed, stamens 4, inserted between the lobes of the disk; ovary 4-celled; drupe
about
6 mm. long, slightly oblique,
red.
[Myginda
latifolia of Vahl, not
of
Swartz.]
Thickets, woodlands and hillsides at lower elevations, mostly in dry districts, Porto
Bico; Mona; Muertos; Icacos; Culebra; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin
518
CELASTRACEAE
Gorda;
Anegada:—Florida;
Bermuda;
West
Indies:
Colombia.
Consists
of
several
races, differing in size and shape of leaves; one of these with narrowly oblong leaves in-
aabits
cliffs
of the Arecibo limestone in Porto Rico.
Coral.
Manto.
Maravedi.
Poison Cherry.
Wild Cherry.
3. GYMINDA Sargent, Gard. & For. 4: 4.
1891.
Trees or shrubs, with opposite, short-petioled
leaves, and small gieenish
dioecious flowers in axillary cymose
clusters.
Calyx deeply 4-cIeft.
Petals 4,
longer than the calyx.
Staminate flowers with 4 stamens about as long as the
petals, and a minute abortive ovary.
Pistillate flowers with a 2-celled ovary,
each cavity with a single pendulous ovule; style none; stigma peltate.
Fruit a
small drupe.
Seeds usually
solitary,
with copious endosperm.
[Anagram of
Myginda.]
Two known species, the following typical one, the other Costa Rican.
1. Gyminda latifolia (Sw.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 80.
1904.
Myginda latifolia Sw. Prodr. 39.
1788.
Myginda integrifolia H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 7: 66.
1825.
Gyminda Grisebachii Sargent, Gard. & For. 4: 4.
1891.
A shrub, or a tree with maximum height of about 9 m., the thin bark reddish
brow^n, the trunk seldom over 1.5 dm.
in diameter, the young twags 4-angled,
glabrous.
Leaves oblong or oblong-obovate, subcoriaceous, glabrous, 2-6 cm.
long, obtuse or emarginate at the apex, narrowed at the base, the petioles very
short; peduncles slender, 6-15 mm. long; petals about 2 mm. long; drupe ellipsoid,
obtuse, 4-8 mm. long.
[Elaeodendrum attenuatum of Stahl, not of Richard.]
Thickets, woodlands and hillsides, mostly at low elevations near the
coasts, Porto
Rico; Mona; Muertos; Vieques;
St. Thomas; Anegada:—Florida; Jamaica; Bahamas;
Cuba to St. Vincent; Mexico.
Cocorroncito.
Mala-muger.
False Boxw^ood.
4. SCHAEFFERIA Jacq. Enum.
10, 33.
1760.
Shrubs or trees, with alternate or fascicled, entire, chartaceous or subcori-
aceous leaves (in one species reduced to small scales), and small, mostly dioecious,
white or greenish flowers, solitary or clustered in the axils, the peduncles short.
Calyx 4-parted, the lobes rounded, imbricated.
Petals 4, obtuse.
Stamens
4.
Disk inconspicuous.
Ovary sessile, ovoid, 2-celled; ovules 1 in each cavity, erect;
style short; stigma 2-parted, large.
Fruit coriaceous, indehiscent.
Seeds erect,
exarillate,
with
little endosperm and
flat cotyledons.
[Commemorates
J.
C.
Schaefl'er, a German naturalist.]
Five known species, of tropical and subtropical
America, the following typical.
1. Schaefferia frutescens Jacq. Enum. 33.
1760.
A tree, up to 14 m. high, with a maximum trunk diameter of about 3 dm.,
usually much smaller, commonly a shrub, the bark gray, narrowly Assured, scaly,
the slender twigs glabrous.
Leaves obovate, spatulate or oblong, chartaceous,
glabrous, veiny, 2.5-6 cm. long, acute, obtuse or rarely emarginate at the apex,
narrowed at the base, the petioles 3-8 mm. long; flowers greenish, about 3 mm.
wide; pedimcles slender, mostly somewhat longer than the petioles; fruit globose
or oval, orange-red, grooved, apiculate. 5-6 mm. long.
[Erylhroxylon havanense
of Stahl and of Cook and Collins.]
Thickets, woodlands,
hillsides and arroyos at lower and middle elevations, Porto
Rico; Mona; Icacos; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St
Jan; Tortola; Virgin
Gorda:—Florida; West Indies south to Grenada.
Jiba.
HIPPOCRATEACEAE
519
5. ELAEODENDRUM Jacq.
f .
; Murray, Syst. 241.
1784.
Evergreen trees or shrubs, with opposite or alternate coriaceous leaves, the
very
small
stipules caducous,
and
small,
often
dioecious,
greenish
or
white
flowers in small axillary clusters.
Calyx .5-parted.
Petals .5, spreading.
Stamens
5, inserted under the disk; filaments short; anthers globose.
Ovary adnate to
the disk, 2-5-celled; style short; stigma 2-5-Iobed, ovules 2 in each ovary-cavity.
Fruit a rather large drupe.
[Greek, olive-wood; the fruit resembles an olive in
form.]
About 35 species, natives of tropical regions.
Type species
: Elaeodendron
orientale Jacq.
1. Elaeodendrum xylocarpum (Vent.) DC. Prodr. 2:
11.
1825.
Celastrus polygamus Vahl in West,
St. Croix 276.
Hyponym.
1793.
Cassine xylocarpa Vent. Choix des Plantes 23.
1803.
Rharnnus corymbosa Vahl; R. & S. Syst. 5: 294.
1819.
Elaeodendrum roiundatum DC. Prodr. 2: 11.
1825.
Sageretia corymbosa G. Don, Gen. Syst. 2: 29.
1829.
Cassine rotundata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 114.
1891.
A glabrous dioecious
tree, with maximum height of about 10 m., usually
lower, sometimes shrubby, the bark smooth, the wood hard and
fine-grained.
Leaves
coriaceous,
light
green,
opposite
or some
of them
alternate,
various,
elliptic to oblong or obovate. 1.5-10 cm. long, 1-7 cm. wide, the apex acute or
obtuse, the base narrowed or rounded, the rather stout petioles 8 mm. long or
less,
the margin entire or sparingly crenulate; inflorescence shorter than the
leaves; flowers green; pedicels 3 mm. long or
less; sepals about
1 mm.
long;
petals 2-3 mm. long; fruit globular to ellipsoid, rounded, 1.5-3 cm. long, hard and
yellow
or
greenish
yellow.
[Rharnnus
polygamus
of West,
not
of Jacquin;
Elaeodendrum attenuatum of Cook and Collins, not of Richard.]
Coastal woods and thickets, Porto Rico; IMuertos; Icacos; Vieques; Culebra; Cule-
brita;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola;
Virgin Gorda; Anegada
Endemic.
COSCORRAN.
GUAYAVOTO.
MARBLE-TREE.
SPOON-TREE.
NUT MUSCAT.
Family
7.
HIPPOCRATEACEAE H. B. K.
HipPCCRATEA Family.
Wocdy vines, shrubs or
trees, with simple
stipulate, mosth' opposite,
petioled leaves, and small, perfect and regular flowers in cymes.
Stipules
caducous.
Calyx
5-parted, the
sepals
imbricated,
persistent.
Petals
5:
Disk depressed or cup-like.
Stamens usually
3, inserted near the base of
the disk; filaments flattened.
Ovary trigonous,
superior,
3-celled; ovules
2-10 in each cavity; style short or long; stigma 3-lobed.
Fruit
of 3
flat
woody carpels or in Solatia baccate.
Seeds without endosperm, the coty-
ledons foliaceous.
Two genera, the following and Salacia, including over
150 species of tropical distribution.
1. HIPPOCRATEA L. Sp. PI. 1191.
1753.
Woody
vines, usually tendril-bearing, sometimes high-climbing,
the twigs
mostly terete.
Leaves opposite, pinnately veined, toothed or entire.
Cymes
usually compound or panicled.
Petals green or white, spreading.
Disk some-
what
fleshy.
Filaments
distinct,
short,
the apex recurved;
anthers
extror.se.
Style trigonous, subulate.
Fruiting carpels large, spreading or divergent, nearly
distinct or somewhat connate at the base, compressed, 2-valved or indehiscent,
520
DODONAEACEAE
few-seeded.
Seeds
flat, winged, without endosperm, the cotyledons large, the
radicle very short.
[Commemorates Hippocrates.]
Some 80 species or more
in tropical regions of both the New World and the Old.
Type species: Hippo-
cratea volubilis L.
1. Hippocratea volubilis L. Sp. PI. 1191.
1753.
Hippocratea scandens Jacq. Enum.
12.
1760.
Hippocratea obcordata Lam. Tabl. Encycl.
1: 100.
1791.
Hippocratea ovaia Lara. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 100.
1791.
Hippocratea ovata ohlongifolia DC. Prodr.
l: .568.
1824.
Psidium
(?) Berterianvm Berg. Linnaea 27: 374.
1856.
Guayava Berteriana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 240.
1891.
Climbing, up to 7 m. long or longer, the twigs and inflorescence puberulent,
the tendrils coiled, sometimes 1 dm. long.
Leaves coriaceous or subcoriaceous,
various, elliptic to ovate or ovate-lanceolate, glabrous, crenulate, 4-10 cm. long,
the apex acute, acuminate or obtuse, the base narrowed or rounded, the petioles
5-10 mm. long; inflorescence axillary, shorter than the leaves, peduncled; pedicels
very short; flowers usually numerous, greenish, glomerate; sepals about 0.5 mm.
long; petals 1.5-2.5 mm. long; fruiting carpels oblong to oblong-obovate, 3-6
cm. long, rounded or emarginate; seeds samaroid, the wing about as long as the
body.
Thickets, woodlands, forests, hillsides and arroyos, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations, in moist and dry districts; Vieques; doubtfully recorded by Krebs from
St.
Thomas:—Florida;
Ctiba;
Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe
to
Trinidad;
continental
tropical
America.
Bejuco prieto.
Hippocratea caribaea Urban, SjTub. Ant. 6: 55.
1909.
This was described from specimens collected by Eggers on the Cerro de
Pandura, and from others collected in Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique.
We have not seen authentic Porto Rico specimens,
))ut those from Guadeloupe
and Martinique do not appear to be specifically distinct from H. volubilis.
We
searched for the plant on the Cerro de Pandura in 1922, but failed to find it.
The
fruit is unknown.
A shrub or .small tree at Guayanilla, Porto Rico, with glabrous twigs and
glabrous coriaceous entire opposite, narrowly oblong or oblong-oblanceolate leaves
about 7 cm. long and 1.5 cm. wide, the apex sharply acute, the base narrowed, the
stout petioles about 5 mm. long, may represent another species of this family.
Family 8.
DODONAEACEAE H. B. K.
DoDONAEA Family.
Shrubs
or
trees, commonly sticky with a resinous
excretion.
Leaves
alternate,
without
stipules.
Flowers
clustered,
usually
panicled,
small,
polygamous or polygamo-dioecious.
Sepals 3-5, nearly equal.
Corolla and
disk wanting.
Androecium
of 5-8
regularly inserted stamens;
filaments
distinct; anthers 4-angled.
Gynoecium
of 3
or 4 united
carpels, wholly
superior.
Ovary 3-4-celled; styles united.
Ovules 2 in each cavity, half-
anatropous, often superposed, the upper one ascending and the lower one
pendulous.
Capsule membranous or leathery, reticulated, 2-6-angled, the
angles obtuse, or winged, opening septicidally by 2-6 valves.
Seed sub-
globose or flattened, without an aril; endosperm none; embryo spiral.
Only
the following genus.
STAPHYLEACEAE
521
1. DODONAEA Jacq. Enum.
19.
1760.
Characters of the family, as given above.
[In honor of Rembert Dodoens.
1518-1585,
Dutch
herbaUst.]
About
50
species,
of tropical and
subtropical
regions.
Type species: Dodonaea viscosa Jacq.
Leaves chartaceous, obovate, 6 cm. long or less, slightly viscid.
1. D. Ehrenbergii.
Leaves membranous, broadly oblanceolate, 6-12 cm. long, very viscid.
2. D. viscosa.
1. Dodonaea Ehrenbergii Schl. Linnaea 18: 36.
1844.
? Dodonaea elaeagnoides Rudolphi; Ledeb. & Adlerstam, Diss.
PI. Dom. 18.
1805.
Dodonaea viscosa obovata Hitchc. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard. 4: 73.
1893.
A nearly glabrous shrub or small tree sometimes 5 m. high, the foliage slightly
viscid, the twigs slender.
Leaves oblanceolate to obovate, chartaceous,
1.5-6
cm. long, obtuse, rounded or emarginate at the apex, cuneate-narrowed at the
base, the petioles
1 cm. long or
less; panicles terminal, rather densely many-
flowered, puberulent, not longer than the leaves; pedicels short; flowers yellowish
green, about 5 mm. broad; capsule-wings finely veined, obtuse, 5-8 mm. wide,
papery, shining.
[Referred by Urban to D. spathulala J. E. Smith, of the Sand-
wich Islands.]
Thickets, Mona ; Anegada
:—Bahamas
; Cuba ; Hispaniola ; Desirade.
DoG-WOOD.
2. Dodonaea viscosa Jacq. Enum. 19.
1760.
A viscid shrub, 1-5 m.
high, with slender twigs.
Leaves oblanceolate or
oblong-oblanceolate, membranous, 5-10 cm. long, obtuse or rounded and usually
apiculate at the apex, the base cuneate, the petioles short: panicles terminal,
several-many-flowered, glabrous or nearly so; flowers slender-pedicelled, green-
ish, 5-6 mm. broad; capsules mostly larger than those of the preceding species.
Coastal tliickets, in sandy or rocky soil, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas;—Florida:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Martin to Trinidad
; continental tropical America and Old
World tropics.
Chamiso.
Gitaran.
Family 9.
STAPHYLEACEAE DC.
Bl-\dder-nut Family.
Trees or shrubs, with mostly opposite odd-pinnate or 3-foliolate leaves,
and regular perfect flowers in terminal or axillary clusters.
Sepals, petals
and stamens usually
5.
Carpels mostly
3.
Disk
large,
the stamens
in-
serted at
its base without.
Anthers introrse,
2-celled.
Fruit a dehiscent
bladdery
capsule
or
indehiscent.
Seeds
solitary
or few
in
each
carpel;
testa hard; endosperm
fleshy; embryo straight.
About 5 genera, and 22
species, widely distributed.
1. TURPINIA Vent. Choix des Plantes 31.
1803.
Trees or shrubs, with
opposite,
odd-pinnate
(rarely
simple),
leaves,
the
lateral leaflets opposite, the flowers small, white, perfect and regular, in terminal
panicles.
Calyx 5-cleft, persistent, the sepals imbricated.
Petals 5, suborbic-
ular,
sessile, imbricated.
Disk lobed or crenate. Stamens 5, the filaments flat-
tened.
Ovary 3-lobed,
sessile; styles 3, distinct or connate; stigmas capitate;
ovules
few
or
several,
anatropous.
Fruit
subglobose,
3-celled,
indehiscent.
Seeds flattened, the cotyledons plano-convex.
[Commemorates P. J. F. Turpin,
a French botanist and artist.]
About 10 species, natives of tropical regions, the
following typical.
522
SAPINDACEAE
1. Turpiniapaniculata Vent. Choix des Plantes 31.
1803.
Maurocenia occidentalis leucosperma Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI.
1.50.
1891.
A
tree, up to 20 m.
high, usually lower, the young twigs and leaves pu-
berulent, soon becoming glabrous.
Leaflets 5-11, short-stalked, ovate to oblong-
lanceolate, 3-8 cm. long, crenate or nearly entire, thin in texture, the apex acute
or acuminate, the base rounded or narrowed; panicles glabrous, commonly as
long as the leaves or longer, sometimes over 2 dm. broad, many-flowered; flowers
6-8 mm. broad
; sepals and petals oval, obtuse
; stamens about as long as the petals
fruit depressed-globose, 1-1.5 cm. broad, its lobes rounded.
Forests, in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, mostly at middle or liigher elevations.
Tortola:—Cuba;
Hispaniola; Central America.
Avispillo.
Cedro hembra.
Sauco
CIMARRON.
Turpinia occidentalis (Sw.) G. Don, is described by Bello and is doubt-
fully recorded by Urban as from near Mayaguez from a barren spacimen col-
lected by Krug;
it inhabits Jamaica and the Lesser Antilles.
We have found
only T. paniculata in Porto Rico.
Turpinia glandulosa Bello, Anales Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 250.
1881.
This is known from incomplete description only and remains an uncertain
species.
Family 10.
SAPIN ACEAE R. Br.
Soapberry Family.
Trees,
vines or shrubs, with watery sap, the leaves mostly alternate,
mostly
pinnate
or
decompound,
without
stipules.
Flowers
polygamo-
dioecious, regular or slightly irregular.
Sepals or calyx-lobes 4 or 5, mostly
imbricated.
Petals 3-5.
Disk fleshy.
Stamens 5-10 (rarely fewer or more),
generally
inserted on the
disk.
Ovary
1, 2-4-lobed
or
entire, 2-4-celled;
ovules
1 or more
in each
cavitj-.
Fruit various.
Seeds globose
or com-
pressed; embrj'o mainly convolute; endosperm none.
About 125 genera,
including over 1,000 species, widely distributed in tropical and warm regions.
Vines; mostly climbing by tendrils.
Fruit 3-winged.
1.
Serjania.
Fruit capsular.
2. PaulUnia.
Fruit bladdery.
3. Cardiospermum.
Slirubs and trees.
Fruit samaroid.
4. Thyana.
Fruit drupaceous or capsiilar.
Inflorescence spicate-paniculate or racemose-paniculate.
Leaves 1-3-foliolate; flowers irregular.
5.
Allophylus.
Leaves pinnate; flowers regular.
Fruit capsular, dehiscent.
Stamens short, not exserted; sepals distinct.
6.
Cupania.
Filaments slender, e.xserted; calyx 5-lobed.
7. Matayba.
Fruit drupaceous, indeliiscent.
Drupe saponaceous; seed not arillate.
8. Sapindus.
Drupe not saponaceous; seed ariUate.
9.
Mclicocca.
Inflorescence corymbose-paniculate.
Ovary 2-celled; leaves evenly pinnate.
10. Exothea.
Ovary 3-celled; leaves trifoliolate.
11.
Hypelate.
1. SERJANIA Plum.: Schum. Skr. Natur. Selsk. Kjoeb. 3-: 125.
1794.
Woody vines, with alternate petioled, mostly biternately compound leaves,
and small polygamous white or yellowish flowers, in axillary racemes or panicles,
which often bear tendrils.
Sepals
5, imbricated.
Petals
4, with small scales
SAPINDACEAE
523
between.
Disk undulate or sometimes glanduliferous.
Stamens 8, the filaments
sometimes united at the base.
Ovary 3-celled; styles partly united; stigmas 3,
small
; ovules 1 in each cavity.
Fruit of 3 samaras attached by their backs, each
bearing a seed near the
apex.
[Commemorates Paul
Sergeant.]
About
175
species, of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species: Serjania sinuata (L.)
Schum.
Seed not enclosed by the samara-wing;
leaflets strongly reticulate-
veined.
1.
S. polyphylla.
Seed enclosed in the upper part of the samara-wing;
leaflets not re-
ticulate-veined.
2.
S. diversifolia.
1. Serjania polsrphylla (L.) Radlk. Mon. Serj. 179.
1875.
PauUinia polyphylla L. Sp. PI. 366.
1753.
Paullinia triternata Jacq. Sel. Amer. 110.
1763.
Serjania lucida Schum
Skr. Nat. Selsk.
3"-: 128.
1794.
Serjania triternata Willd. Sp. PI. 2: 466.
1799.
Serjania dubia Spreng. Syst. 2: 247.
1825.
Slender, the branches and leaves glabrous or nearly so, often climbing on
trees or shrubs, 2-10 m. long.
Leaflets ovate to elliptic, 6 cm. long or less, cori-
aceous, acute or sometimes obtuse,
dentate,
reticulate-veined, shining above,
dull beneath; panicles densely whitish-puberulent. commonly longer than the
leaves; pedicels 2-5 mm. long; petals obovate, white, about 5 mm.
long.; fruit
broadly ovate, 1.5-2.5 cm. long, the samara-wing not enclosing the seed.
[Paul-
linia curassavica of West, not of Linnaeus;
(?) P. carlhaghiensis of Krebs.]
Thickets and woodlands at lower and middle elevations in moist and dry districts,
Porto Rico; Muertos; Icacos; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin
Gorda; Anegada:—Hispaniola.
Bejuco de corrales.
Bejuco de costilla.
Black
Withe.
Basket Wood.
The stems are used in basketry.
2. Serjania diversifolia (Jacq.) Radlk. Mon. Serj. 136.
1875.
Paullinia diversifolia Jacq. Enum. 36.
1760.
Slender, often high-climbing on trees, sometimes 10 m. long, the young twigs
puberulent.
Leaflets ovate to obovate, 3-8 cm. long, coriaceous, acute or obtuse,
few-toothed near the apex or entire, shining above, dull beneath
; panicles puberu-
lent, commonly longer than the subtending leaves; pedicels 5-8 mm. long; petals
oblong-obovate, about 5 mm. long; fruit rather broadly ovate, 1.5-2 cm. long,
the seed enclosed in the upper part of the samara-wing.
Primeval
forest,
Cayuco, near Utuado, determined by Radlkofer from a
Ijarren
specimen collected by Siritenis; not seen by lis from Porto Rico or the Virgin Islands:
Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola.
2. PAULLINIA L. Sp. PI. 365.
1753.
Woody vines, with alternate, pinnate or decompound leaves, and small, some-
what irregular flowers in axillary racemes, which usually bear 2 tendrils.
Sepals 5,
imbricated.
Petals 4, with 2 small scales.
Disk annular.
Stamens 8, the fila-
ments distinct or united below.
Ovary 3-celled; styles nearly distinct or partly
united.
Ovule
1
(rarely 2)
in each ovary-cavity.
Fruit capsular, 3-anglod or
3-winged.
Commemorates Simon PauUi, 1608-1680, professor in Copenhagen.
About 125 species of tropical America.
Type species: Paullinia pinnata L.
Petiole and leaf-rachis winged; capsule 3-angled.
1. P. pinnata.
Petiole and leaf-rachis wingless, or the rachis narrowly wing-margined;
capsiile 3-winged.
„
n
n.
•
•
Capsule nearly 2 cm. long, its wings persistent.
2.
/-". flumiert.
Capsule about
1 cm. long, its wings separating.
3. P. fuscescens.
524
SAPINDACEAE
1. Paullinia pinnata L. Sp. PI. 366.
1753.
Usually high-climbing, up to 10 m. long or longer, the branches angular,
somewhat pubescent when young.
Leaves 8-15 cm.
long,
short-petioled, the
petiole
winged,
pubescent;
leaflets
usually
5,
sessile,
ovate
to
elliptic-ovate,
coriaceous, dentate, 6-12 cm. long, nearly glabrous and shining above, usually
pubescent on the veins beneath, the apex acute or short-acuminate, the base
rounded, the rachis winged between them; racemes long-peduncled, narrow, pu-
bescent
; flowers white, about 5 mm. broad; capsule pyriform, 3-angled, 1.5-3 cm.
long, stipitate.
Forests
woodlands and thickets at lower and middle elevations, in moist and dry
districts
Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Thomas; Tortola:—Cuba; Hispaniola; :Martimque to
Trinidad; continental tropical America; tropical Africa.
Bejtuco de costilla.
2. Paullinia Plumieri Triana & Planchon, Ann. Sci. Nat. IV, 18: 360.
1862.
High-climbing, the young branches densely puberulent.
Leaves 5-15 cm.
long,
biternate;
petioles and
leaf- rachis
slender,
wingless, puberulent;
leaflets
ovate, sessile or short-stalked, 3-7 cm. long, remotely dentate, shining above, dull
beneath, glabrous or nearly so on both
sides; racemes puberulent, peduncled,
densely many-flowered as long as the leaves or longer; capsule suborbicular, 3-
winged, puberulent, about 1.5 cm. long.
Hillside, Sage Mountain, Tortola
(Shafer 1158); the specimens are in flower only
and the determination therefore uncertain:—Antigua; Guadeloupe; Martimque.
3. Paullinia fuscescens H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 120.
1821.
Climbing, up to 15 m. long, pubescent or nearly glabrous.
Leaves 7-15 cm,
long,
biternate;
petioles
slender,
wingless;
rachis
wingless or narrowly wing-
margined; leaflets lanceolate, oval or ovate, dentate, the terminal ones 2..5-5 cm.
long; racemes peduncled, 5-15 cm. long, densely pubescent; capsule obovate, 3-
wing'ed, 1-1.5 cm. long, the wings at length separating.
[P. frutescens glabrata
of Millspaugh.]
Thickets
St
Croix:—Cuba; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Perhaps in-
troduced in St. Croix, but locally abtmdant; specimens collected there by Ricksecker were
recorded by Millspaugh as perhaps cultivated.
3. CARDIOSPERMUM L. Sp. PI. 366.
1753.
Vines, with alternate bipinnate or decompound leaves, and small axillary
tendril- bearing corymbs of slightly irregular polygamo-dioecious flowers.
Ten-
drils 2
to each corymb,
opposite.
Pedicels jointed.
Sepals
4, the 2 exterior
smaller.
Petals 4, appendaged at the base, 2 larger and 2 smaller.
Disk 1-sided;
undulate.
Stamens 8; filaments unequal.
Ovary 3-celled; style short, 3-cleft:
ovules 1 in each cavity.
Capsule inflated. 3-lobed or 3-angled.
Seeds glabrous
with a large hilum.
Cotyledons conduplicate.
[Greek, heart-seed.]
About 15
species of warm and temperate regions, known as Balloon-vine and Farolitas.
Type species: Cardiospermum Halicacabum L.
Hilum of the seed cordate-bilobed; herbaceous vines.
ry„u,.„^nh„.rr,
Capsules as long as or longer than broad, 3-3.5 cm. long.
1.
C. Halicacabum.
Capsules as loni as or broader than long, about
1 cm. broad.
2.
C. mtcrocarpum.
Hilum orbicular, not 2-lobed; woody vine.
"J-
C. connaum.
1. Cardiospermum Halicacabum L. Sp. PI. 366.
1753.
Annual or biennial, slender, glabrous or slightly pubescent, 0.6-5 m. long,
usually climbing.
Leaves petioled, biternate, 5-10 cm. long; segments stalked,
ovate or oblong, acute or acuminate, sharply serrate
; peduncles commonly longer
SAPINDACEAE
525
than the leaves; flowers white, 6-8 mm. broad; petals obovate; filaments pubes-
cent; capsule about 3 cm. long, membranous, globose-pyriform, pubescent; seeds
globose, nearly black, about 5 mm. thick, the large hilum cordate.
Banks and
thickets
at lower
elevations;
Porto
Rico;
.St.
Croix;
St. Thomas:
Southeastern
United
States: West
Indies;
continental
tropical
America;
Old World
tropics.
Often planted for ornament.
Faeolitos.
Balloon-vine.
2. Cardiospermum microcarpum H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 104.
1821.
Climbing
to a length
of
1..5-3
m.,
branched,
finely pubescent,
slender.
Leaves thin, biternately compound, slender-petioled, 7-1.5 cm. long and about as
broad
as long,
the ultimate segments ovate to lanceolate in outline, coarsely
lobed,
f^left or incised; peduncles slender, about as long as the leaves; corymbs
several-flowered; flowers white, alDout 4 mm. broad, the upper petals 3 times as
long as the sepals; capsule subglobose, 3-lobed, pubescent, veiny, depressed at
the top, about
1 cm. thick; seeds similar to those of the preceding species but
smaller.
Tliickets
at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Mona;
Vieques;
Culebrita;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas:
St.
Jan:—Florida; Bermuda; West
Indies;
continental
tropical America;
Old World tropin.
3. Cardiospermum corindum L. Sp. PI
ed. 2, 526.
1762.
Cardiospermu?n bipinnatum West,
St. Croix 281.
1793.
Somewhat woody, perennial, climbing or trailing, up to 2 m. long or longer,
pubescent
or glabrate.
Leaves biternately compound;
leaf-segments
various,
ovate to oval or lanceolate, acute or obtuse, 5 mm. to 7 cm. long; corymbs several-
flowered, usually exceeding the leaves; flowers white or whitish, about 8 mm.
broad; petals obovate; capsule subglobose to obovoid, subchartaceous or mem-
branous, 2-3 cm. long; seeds black, the hilum suborbicular or slightly emarginate.
Dry southwestern districts of Porto Rico; Mona; Icacos; St. Croix; St. Thomas (ex
Krebs):"—West Indies
(except Bahamas); Texas; continental tropical America and Old
World tropics.
Cardiospermumi grandiflorum Sw.
is recorded by Radlkofer from
St.
Thomas, but
is otherwise known in the West Indies only in Jamaica, where
there
is a Parish of
St. Thomas.
It
is sometimes planted
for ornament;
its
large capsules are oblong, 6-7 cm. long.
4. THYANA Hamilt. Prodr. 36.
1825.
[Thouinia Poit. Ann. Mus. Paris 3: 70.
1804.
Not L.
1781.]
Shrubs or trees, with alternate 3-foliolate or
1-foliolate leaves and small,
mostly white, regular clustered polygamous or dioecious flowers.
Calyx 4^-5-
parted.
Petals 4 or 5, or wanting.
Disk annular, lobed.
Stamens 8-10, distinct,
the filaments
pilose.
Ovary 3-lobed,
3-celled; ovules
1
in each cavity;
style
slender,
3-cleft or entire.
Fruit samaroid, the samaras usually
3,
coriaceous,
at length separating from the axis.
Seeds exarillate.
[From the Greek name of
an
odoriferous
tree.]
About
15
species,
natives
of tropical America.
Type
species; Thyana simplicifolia (Poit.) Hamilt.
Leaves 3-foliolate. chartaceotis; flowers 2-3 mm. broad.
1.
T. striata.
Leaves mostly 1-foliolate, coriaceous; flowers about 4 mm. broad.
2.
T. portoricensis.
1. Thyana striata (Radlk.) Britten.
Thouinia striata Radlk. in E. & P. Nat.
Pfl. Fam. 3 = : 311.
1895.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the young twigs densely puberulent, the branches
glabrous.
Leaves trifoliolate
; petioles 2-6 cm. long; leaflets chartaceous, or sub-
526
SAPINDACEAE
membranous,
obovate
or oblong-obovate,
serrate,
strongly pinnately
veined,
glabrous or nearly so above, pubescent beneath, the apex acute, obtuse or acu-
minate, the base cuneate or narrowed; flowers 2-3 mm. broad, whitish, in dense
pubescent
axillary thyrsi
or panicles 2-15 cm.
long; pedicels 2-3 mm.
long;
samaras 1-2 cm. long, 4-7 mm. wide.
[Thouinia tomentosa of Bello, not of de
Candolle.]
Hillsides and forests, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations in moist and dry
districts.
Endemic.
Ceboroquillo.
Guava.
Qtjiebra hacha.
The hard tough and
heavy wood is flne-grained and light-colored
2. Thyana portoricensis (Radlk.) Britton.
Thouinia portoricensis Radlk. in E. & P. Nat. Pfl. Fam. 3": 311.
1895.
A shrub or a tree, up to 5 m. high, the young twigs densely puberulent.
Leaves
1-foliolate or sometimes 3-foliolate; petioles 1-4 cm. long; leaflets cori-
aceous,
elliptic,
ovate-elliptic or obovate-elliptic,
serrulate, strongly pinnately
veined, glabrous or nearly so and shining above, tomentose beneath, the apex
rounded or obtuse, the base mostly obtuse; flowers about 4 mm. broad, in dense
pubescent thyrsi 2-5 cm. long; pedicels about 3 mm. long; samaras 12-16 mm.
long, about 4 mm. wide.
Woodlands and thickets at lower elevations in the dry southwestern districts of Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
Serra-suela.
Perhaps not specifically distinct from the preceding
species; specimens apparently intermediate were observ^ed in the Coamo River Valley.
5. ALLOPHYLUS L. Sp. PI. 348.,
1753.
Shrubs
or small
trees, with
alternate
estipulate
1-3-foliolate
leaves,
the
leaflets
broad,
usually punctate
or
lineate,
the
small
subglol3ose, somewhat
irregular,
polygamous
or
dioecious
flowers
in
axillary,
simple
or compound
racemes.
Sepals 4, in 2 pairs, imbricated, hooded, the outer smaller than the
inner.
Petals
4,
small,
or sometimes wanting.
Disk
unilateral, lobed or 4-
glandular.
Stamens
short.
Ovary
excentric,
compressed,
2-celled
or
rarely
3-celled; ovules 1 in each cavity; style stout, 2-3-lobed, or styles 2 or 3.
Fruit
small, dry, leathery or fleshy.
Seeds with a short fleshy aril; cotyledons 2-plicate.
[Greek, exotic]
Eighty species
or more, mostly
of tropical America.
Type
species: Allophylus zeylanicus L.
Leaves 3-foHolate, the leaflets membranous, 7-20 cm. long.
1. A. occidentalis.
Leaves mostly 1-foliolate, the leaflets subcoriaceous, 4-10 cm. long.
2. A. crassinervis.
1. Allophylus occidentalis (Sw.) Radlk. Sitzb. Bayer. Acad. 20: 230.
1890.
Schmidelia occidentalis Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 2: 665.
1800.
A
tree, up to 10 m.
high, the
twigs, fohage and inflorescence pubescent.
Leaves 3-foliolate; petioles rather stout, 6-12 cm. long;
leaflets nearly sessile,
membranous, elliptic to obovate, serrate, 7-20 cm. long, pinnately veined with
the veins ascending, the apex acuminate or acute, the base narrowed or cuneate;
lateral leaflets oblique; panicles slender, many-flowered, mostly shorter than the
leaves; flowers whitish, about 2 mm. broad; fruit sparingly pubescent, red, 6-8
mm. long.
[A. zeylanicus of Sesse & Mocino, not of Linnaeus.]
Woodlands, northwestern districts of Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas and St. Jan
(according
to Eggers):—Cuba;
Hispaniola; Saba
to
St.
Vincent;
continental tropical
America.
Palo blanco.
Quiebra hacha.
2. Allophylus crassinervis Radlk. in E. & P. Nat. Pfl. Fam. 3^: 312.
1895
.
.
A shrub, 2-3 m. high, with slender branches, the twigs, petioles and inflor-
escence
finely pubescent.
Leaves
1-foliolate,
rarely
3-foliolate; petiole 3 cm.
SAPINDACEAE
527
long or less, usually 5-12 mm. long; leaflet subcoriaceous, 10 cm. long or less,
glabrous or nearly so, dentate or nearly entire, strongly pinnately veined with
the veins widely spreading, ovate to elliptic or rhombic-lanceolate, the apex acute
or acuminate, the base cuneate or obtuse, the upper side shining; panicles axillary,
slender, sometimes longer than the leaves, loosely flowered; flowers white, 2-3
mm. broad; fruit glabrous, short-pedicelled, 6-7 mm. long.
Mountain forests of the western districts of Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispanlola.
6. CUPANIA L. Sp. PI. 200.
1753.
Trees
or
shrubs,
with
alternate
petioled
pinnate
estipulate
leaves,
the
leaflets alternate, the small regular polygamous flowers in large terminal panicles
or panicled racemes.
Sepals 4 or 5, imbricated, broad.
Petals 5, accompanied
by 2 broad scales.
Disk annular.
Stamens 8, the filaments short, the anthers
oblong.
Ovary 3-celled; ovules
1 in each cavity; style mostly short.
Capsule
subglobose or turbinate, 3-angled or 3-lobed, dehiscent.
Seeds arillate.
[Com-
memorates Francis Cupani, 1657-1710, Sicilian physician and botanist.]
About
30 species,
natives of tropical and subtropical America, those in Porto Rico
known as Guara.
Type species: Cupania americana L.
Capsule subglobose, bluntly 3-angled.
1.
O. americana.
Capsule acutely 3-angled or 3-lobed.
2.
C. iriquelra.
1. Cupania americana L. Sp. PI. 200.
1753.
Cupania tomentosa Sw. Prodr. 61.
1788.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the nearly smooth bark reddish brown, the wood
soft and light brown, the twigs, petioles, leaf-rachis, inflorescence and capsules
velvety-pubescent.
Leaves 2-4 dm. long; petioles stout, 2-6 cm. long; leaflets
4-8, subcoriaceous, obovate or elliptic-obovate, 7-15 cm. long, dentate, glabrous
or nearly so above, tomentose, at least on the veins beneath, the apex rounded,
the base narrowed or obtuse, the petiolules 3-7 mm. long; inflorescence as long
as the leaves or shorter; flowers white, about 3 mm. broad; capsule subglobose,
obtusely trigonous, short-stipitate, 1.5-2 cm. in diameter; seeds black.
Wooded hills, river-banks and arroyos, Porto Rico at lower and middle elevations:
Cuba; Hispanlola; Martinique; Trinidad; Venezuela.
2. Cupania triquetra A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cub. 10: 119.
1845.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, resembling the preceding species, the twigs, leaf-
rachis and inflorescence tomentose.
Leaves up to 3 dm.
long; petioles stout,
4 cm. long or less; leaflets 4-8, subcoriaceous, obovate or oblong-obovate, 6-12
cm.
long,
usually
nearly
entire,
sometimes
repand-dentate,
glabrous
above,
pubescent or tomentose beneath, the apex rounded, the base narrowed or cuneate,
the petiolules 3-7 mm. long; inflorescence often longer than the leaves; flowers
white, about 3 mm. broad; capsule turbinate, stipitate, sharply 3-angled or 3-
lobed, short-tomentose, 1.5-2 cm. broad.
Forests,
liillsides and
river banks, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations
In
moist districts; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—Hispanlola: Guadeloupe; Martiaique.
Cupania glabra Sw.
is recorded by Urban as found by Sintenis at Far-
rajones near Coamo
; the determination of the species was from a leaf only and
the
tree
is not otherwise known from Porto Rico or the Virgin
Islands.
C.
americana is the only species inhabiting the Coamo River Valley, in so far as we
could ascertain.
528
SAPINDACEAE
7. MATAYBA Aubl. PI. Gulan. l: 331.
1775.
Trees, with alternate or opposite, abruptly pinnate, estipulate leaves, the
subcoriaceous
leaflets alternate or opposite,
the small regular polygamous or
polygamo-dioecious
flowers
in
panicled
racemes.
Calyx
small,
4-5-toothed.
Petals 4 or 5, often rudimentary.
Disk annular.
Stamens 8, the filiform flla-
m.ents villous, the anthers oblong.
Ovary 2-3-celled; ovules
1 In each cavity.
Style usually short.
Capsule 2-3-lobed,
sessile or stipitate, dehiscent.
Seeds
arillate.
[Guiana name.]
About 40 species of tropical and subtropical America,
those of Porto Rico known as Doncella.
Type species: Matayba guianensis
Aubl.
Leaflets obovate, the apex rounded.
1. M. domingensis.
Leaflets oblong, the apex acute or bluntly acuminate.
2. M. oppositifolia.
1. Matayba domingensis
(DC.)
Radlk. SItzb. Bayer. Akad. 9: 535.
1879..
Ratonia domingensis DC. Prodr.
1: 618.
1824.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, with a trunk 2-3 dm. In diameter, the young twigs
minutely puberulent, soon
glabrous.
Leaves
alternate
or some
of them op-
posite;
leaflets 2-8, mostly opposite,
entire, obovate, 4-8 cm.
long,
glabrous,
pellucid-punctate, short-stalked, the apex rounded, the base narrowed or cuneate
panicles lateral, puberulent, mostly shorter than the leaves
; pedicels about 3 mm.
long; calyx deeply lobed, the lobes triangular
; petals only 0.5 mm. long, pubescent;
filaments 2-3 mm. long; stigmas 2 or 3; capsule obcordate, 2-3-lobed, about
1
cm. long, nearly black, stipitate.
Moimtain forests, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispanlola.
The wood Is red, hard, strong
and heavy.
Tea cimarrona.
Raton.
2. Matayba oppositifolia (A. Rich.) Brltton
Cupania oppositifolia A. Rich. In Sagra, Hist. Cub. 10: 292.
1845.
Matayba apetala forma oppositifolia Radlk. in Urban, Symb. Ant.
1: 354.
1899.
A tree, similar to the preceding species.
Leaflets oblong to elliptic-lanceolate,
8 cm. long or less, short-stalked or nearly sessile, glabrous, the apex acute or
obtusely acuminate, the base narrowed
; panicles as long as the leaves or shorter
flowers and fruit closely resembling those of M. domingensis.
Moiintain forests, Porto Rico, but only barren specimens have been collected:
Cuba; Honduras.
8. SAPINDUS L. Sp. PL 367.
1753.
Trees or shrubs, the leaves alternate, mostly odd-pinnate.
Flowers regular,
polygamo-dioecious, in racemes or panicles.
Sepals 4 or 5, Imbricated in 2 rows.
Petals of the same number, each with a scale at its base.
Disk annular, hypo-
gynous.
Stamens 8-10, Inserted on the disk; anthers
versatile.
Ovary com-
monly 3-lobed, with the same number of cavities; ovules 1 In each cavity, ascend-
ing; style slender; stigma 2-4-lobed.
Fruit a globose or lobed berry with 1-3
seeds.
[Name, Sapo Indicus, Indian soap, from the soapy quality of the berries.]
About 10 species, natives of warm and tropical Asia and America, the following
typical
SAPINDACEAE
529
1. Sapindus saponaria h. Sp. PL 367.
1753.
Sapindus inaequalis DC. Prodr. 1: 60S.
1824.
Sapindus stenopterus DC. Prodr. 1: 608.
1824.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, usually lower, the thick gray bark separating in thin
scales, the young twigs puberulent, becoming glabrous.
Leaves 2-4 dm. long,
somewhat pubescent when young, the petioles rather stout, 8 cm. long or less,
the rachis wing-margined between the leaflets or wingless; leaflets chartaceous,
various, oblong to lanceolate, 3-15 cm. long, often falcate, sessile or short-stalked,
acute, acuminate or obtuse; panicles usually large, many-flowered, puberulent,
often as long as the leaves or longer
; flowers white, 5-6 mm. broad
; petals obovate
fruit globular, brown, shining, 1-2 cm. in diameter, the pulp thin, translucent.
Plains and woodlands
at
lower
elevations,
Porto
Rico;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas; St. Jan:—Florida; Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Grenada;
Margarita; Curacao; continental
tropical America.
Jaboncillo.
Soapberry.
Soap
Tree.
The hard, light brown wood has a specific gravity of about 0.8.
Sapindus frutescens Aubl.,
of Guiana, was recorded by Krebs from St.
Thomas, apparently in error.
9. MELICOCCA L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 495.
1762.
Trees, with alternate estipulate equally pinnate leaves, and small polygam-
ous or dioecious, regular flowers in compound or simple racemes at the ends of the
branches.
Calyx 4-5-lobed, the lobes nearly orljicular, thin, imbricated.
Petals
4 or 5, obovate or orbicular.
Disk flattened, 4-5-lobed.
Stamens 8; filaments
filiform, distinct, glabrous
; anthers small.
Ovary 2-3-celled
; ovules 1 or 2 in each
cavity; style short; stigma 2-3-lobed.
Fruit a somewhat fleshy drupe.
Seed
erect,
the
testa
coriaceous,
the
aril
large,
pulpy; cotyledons
thick.
[Greek,
honey-berry.]
Two known
species,
the
following
typical,
the
other
South
American.
1. Melicocca bijuga L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 495.
1762.
A large tree, sometimes becoming 25 m. high, with a trunk up to 1.7 m. In
diameter, the smooth bark brow-n, the branches spreading, the slender twigs,
the leaves and the inflorescence glabrous.
Leaves petioled; rachis winged or
wingless; leaflets 2 pairs, opposite, eUiptic or ovate-elliptic, thin, 4-10 cm. long,
mostly acute or acuminate at the apex, obliquely narrowed at the base, sessile,
pinnately veined
; racemes narrow, many-flowered, 6-10 cm. long, often numerous
in terminal panicles; pedicels spreading, 4-6 mm. long; flowers very fragrant;
calyx-segments about 2 mm. long; petals obovate, obtu.se, greenish white, ciliate,
3-4 mm.
long; drupe
green,
edible,
pleasantly
acid,
subglobose, 2-4 cm.
in
diameter.
Occasionally spontaneous
after
planting
in Porto
Rico;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St
Jan-—Widely naturalized in the West
Indies, planted for
its edible fnut and for
shade;
native
of continental
tropical
America.
GtTEXEPA.
Ginep.
Spanish
Lime.
Jamaica Bullace Plum.
Kanappy.
10. EXOTHEA Macf. Fl. Jam. 1: 232.
1837.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate petioled evenly pinnate leaves, and small
white somewhat irregular, dioecious or polygamous, panlcled flowers.
Sepals 5,
partly united, imbricated.
Petals 5, short-clawed, unappendaged.
Stamens 7
or 8, those of staminate flowers about as long as the petals, those of pistillate
flowers shorter.
Ovary 2-celled, sessile; ovules 2 or 3 in each ca\aty; style very
short, simple, the stigmas glabrous.
Fruit a small globose berry-like drupe, the
530
SABIACEAE
exocarp slightly
fleshy.
Seed
exarillate.
[Greek,
to
expel,
the genus having
been taken from MeUcocca.]
The genus is probably monotypic.
Type species:
Exothea oblongifotia Macf.
1. Exothea paniculata (Juss.) Radlk.; Durand Index Gen. Phan. 81.
1888.
MeUcocca paniculata Juss. Mem. Mus. Paris 3: 187.
1817.
Hypelate paniculata Camb. Mem. Mus. Paris 18: 32.
1829.
Exothea ohlongifolia Macf. Fl. Jam.
1: 232.
1837.
A tree, attaining a maximum height of about 20 m., with a trunk up to. 5
dm. thick, the thin, reddish-brown bark smooth, at length scaly.
Leaves sliort-
petioled; leaflets 2, 4, or 6 (rarely
1 or 3), oblong to elliptic-obovate, 5-13 cm.
long, glabrous or nearly so,
entire, dark green and shining above,
pale green
beneath, acute, obtuse or emarginate at the apex, narrowed to the nearly sessile
base; panicles terminal and axillary, pubescent; sepals ovate, about 3 mm. long;
petals oblong-ovate, about as lon§ as the sepals; ovary pubescent; drupes 10-13
mm. in diameter, purple, the juicy pulp orange.'
Hillsides and nrroyos at lower elevations in dry and moist
districts, Porto Rico;
Mona;
Vieques:—Florida; Bahamas;
.lamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Eiistatius,
St.
Vincent; Guatemala.
Gaita.
Guacaran.
iRONrwooD.
Butter Bough.
The hard
wood is reddish brown, used in cabinet work, and for handles of tools ; its specific gravity
is about 0.95.
11. HYPELATE P. Br.; Sw.' Prodr. 61.
1788.
A tree or shrub, with alternate 3-foUolate petioled leaves, and small, white or
greenish white, panicled, monoecious or polygamo-dioecious flowers.
Sepals 5,
imbricated.
Petals
5, unappendaged,
sessile.
Stamens 8-10 in the staminate
flowers, wanting or imperfect in the
pistillate;
filaments glabrous.
Pistillate
flowers with a 3-celled, sessile ovary, the style short, the stigmas capitate; ovules
2 in each cavity, superimposed.
Fruit a small drupe, with thin flesh.
[Greek
name for Ruscus, the Butcher's Broom.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Hypelate trifoliata Sw. Prodr. 61.
1788.
A tree, sometimes 13 m. high with a trunk up to 5 dm. in diameter, usually
smaller, sometimes shrubby, the thin gray bark smooth or nearly so.
Petioles
1-5 cm. long; leaflets obovate or spatulate, firm in texture, 2-5 cm. long, entire,
glabrous, shining above, rather dull beneath,
flnely veined,
the apex obtuse,
emarginate or acutish; sepals ovate,
ciliate; petals suborbicular, about 2 mm.
long, ciliate. about as long as the sepals; drupes ovoid, black, 5-7 mm. long.
Woodlands and thickets, southwestern dry districts of Porto Rico; Mona; Icacos:
Florida: Bahamas; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Martin; Anguilla.
White Ironwood.
The
dark brown wood is heavy, hard and durable, with a specific gravity of about 0.95.
Blighia sapida Koen., Akeb, African, planted for its fruit in Porto Rico
and the Virgin Islands,
is a large tree with pinnate leaves of 6 or 8 rather thin,
oblong entire leaflets 6—10 cm. long, and small white flowers in axillary panicles,
the petals 5, the stamens 8; the fruit
is a fleshy capsule 7-10 cm. long, bluntly
3-angled, which splits and exposes the large black seeds with a white edible aril.
[Cupania sapida Voigt.]
Family 11.
SABIACEAE Lindl.
Sabia Family.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate, simple or pinnate, estipulate leaves, the
mostly small, perfect flowers,
panicled, cymose,
or
solitary.
Cah'x 3-5-
SABIACEAE
531
parted, the sepals imbricated.
Petals 4 or 5, imbricated.
Stamens 4 or 5,
opposite
the
petals,
with didymous
anthers.
Ovary
sessile,
2-3-celled;
ovules 2 in each cavity.
Fruit drupaceous, dry or fleshy, indehiscent.
Seeds
compressed or globose, with little endosperm or none, the cotyledons pUcate.
About 70 species, of tropical distribution, grouped in 4 genera.
1. MELIOSMA Blume, Cat. Gew. Buitenz. 10.
1823.
Trees or shrubs, more or less pubescent, the leaves of West Indian species
simple, mostly entire, pinnately veined, the flowers paniculate,
the sepals
5.
Petals 5, unequal, the 3 outer ones broader than the 2 inner.
Stamens 5, those
opposite the 3
larger
petals with
flattened
filaments without
anthers,
those
opposite the 2 smaller petals antheriferous; anthers longitudinally or transversely
dehiscent.
Disk annular, dentate or wanting.
Ovules horizontal or pendulous;
styles 2, connate; stigmas 2.
Drupe subglobose or oblong.
[Greek, honey-odor.]
About
4.5 species, of tropical distribution.
Type species: Millingtonia simpli-
cifolia Roxb.
Leaves obovate, rounded
; anther-sacs longitudinally dehiscent
; drupe
about
1 cm. long.
1. M. obtusifolia.
Leaves elliptic to elliptic-obovate, acute or acuminate or some of them
obtuse; anther-sacs transversely dehiscent; drupe 1.5-2 cm. long.
2. M. Herberti.
1. Meliosma obtusifolia (Bello) Krug & Urban, Ber. Deutsche Bot. Ges. 13:
216.
1895.
Atelandra obtusifolia Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 289.
1881.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the young twigs and the inflorescence puberulent.
Leaves alternate, opposite or some of them ternate, glabrous, obovate, 8-20 cm.
long, subcoriaceous, the apex rounded, the base narrowed or cuneate, the petioles
1-3 cm. long; panicles large, terminal and in the upper axils, often longer than
the leaves, the branches slender; flowers subglomerate; sepals nearly orbicular,
about 1 mm. long; petals whitish, the larger ones about 2.5 mm. long; drupe white,
turning black, subglobose, about 1 cm. long.
Mountain
forests, Porto
Rico.
Endemic.
Cacaillo.
Cihalillo.
Guayaroto.
2. Meliosma Herberti Rolfe, Kew Bull. 1893: 244.
1893.
Atelandra laurina Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat.
10: 289.
1881.
Not
M. laurina Blume.
A tree, up to 20 m. high or higher, the twigs and inflorescence densely short-
pubescent.
Leaves alternate, elliptic or elliptic-obovate, glabrous or the veins
short-pubescent, 18-25 cm.
lor,g, subcoriaceous, the apex acute, acuminate or
sometimes obtuse, the base narrowed or cuneate, the petioles 1.5-4 cm.
lon-^;
panicles large, terminal and in the upper axils, often as long as the leaves, the
branches rather short; sepals suborbicular, about
1.5 mm. long; larger petals
1-1.5 mm. long; drupe globose to obovoid, white, turning violet to black, 1.5-2
cm. long.
Forests, Porto Rico, mostly at higher elevations; Tortola:—Guadeloupe to Grenada.
The leaves of shoots are sometimes coarsely dentate.
Cacao BOBO.
Aguacatillo.
Order 16.
RHAMNALES.
Shrubs, vines or small trees, with alternate or sometimes opposite leaves.
Flowers small, regular.
Sepals mostly more or less united.
Petals distinct
or wariting.
Stamens as many as the sepals or calyx-lobes and alternate with
532
RHAMNACEAE
them, opposite the petals when these are present.
Ovary compound, su-
perior; ovules erect.
Shrubs, small trees or vines; petals 4 or
5,
or none; fruit a
drupe or capsule.
Fam.
1. Rhamnaceae.
Vines, climbing by
tendrils, rarely shrubs; petals caducous;
fruit a berry.
Fam. 2. Vitaceae.
Family
1.
RHAMNACEAE Dumort.
Buckthorn Family.
Erect or climbing shrubs, or small trees, often thorny.
Leaves simple,
stipulate, mainly
alternate,
often
3-5-nervecl.
Stipules
small,
deciduous.
Inflorescence commonly
of
cymes
or
panicles.
Flowers
small,
regular,
perfect or polygamous.
Calyx-limb 4-5-toothed or 4-5-lobed.
Petals 4 or 5,
inserted on the calyx, or none.
Stamens 4 or 5, inserted with the petals and
opposite them; anthers
short,
versatile.
Disk fleshy.
Ovary
sessile,
free
from
or immersed
in the
disk, 2-5- (often 3-)
celled; ovules
1 or 2 in each
cavity,
anatropous.
Fruit often
3-celled.
Seeds
sohtary in
the cavities,
erect; endosperm fleshy, rarely none; embryo large; cotyledons flat.
About
50 genera and 600 species, of temperate and tropical regions.
Fruit drupe-like.
Stone
1 -3-celled.
Leaves pinnately-veined.
Endosperm nuninated; pit of the drupe thick-walled.
1. Reynosia.
Endosperm none: pit of the drupe thin-walled.
2. Krugiodendron.
Leaves 3-5-ribbed from the base in the species within our
range.
Inflorescence paniculate; disk iindulate.
3. Sarcomphalus.
Inflorescence cymose; disk 5-10 lobed.
4. Zizyphus.
Stones 2-4, separate.
5. Rhamnus.
Fruit dry, capsiile-like, the carpels separating.
Shrubs or trees; fruit capsular, not crowned with the caly.x.
Unarmed slu-ubs or trees; calyx-lobes deciduous.
6.
Colubrina.
Spiny-armed slirubs; calyx-lobes persistent.
7. Hybosperma.
Woody vines; fruit winged, crowned with the calyx.
8. Gouania.
1. REYNOSIA Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 33.
1866.
Shrubs or small trees, with entire short-petioled opposite leaves, and small
perfect yellowish green flowers in axillary clusters.
Calyx-lobes valvate, spread-
ing.
Disk
fleshy.
Petals
present
or
none.
Stamens
5;
filaments
subulate.
Ovary 2-3-celled;
styles short and
thick; stigma 2-3-lobed; ovules
1
in each
cavity, erect.
Fruit a drupe with thin flesh.
[Dedicated to Alvaro Reynoso,
a Cuban chemist and agriculturist, who died in 1888.]
About 9 species, of the
West Indies and Florida.
Type species: Reynosia retusa Griseb.
Leaves 1-2.3 cm. long, 0.6-1.4 cm. broad, the midrib produced into a
recurved ciisp.
1- R- uncinata.
Leaves 3.5-8 cm. long, 2-6 cm. broad, the midrib sometimes minutely
Leaves ovate, obtuse.
2. R. Krugii.
Leaves elliptic to oval, rounded or emarginate.
3. R. Guama.
1. Resmosia uncinata Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 355.
1899.
A shrub 1.5-3 m. tall, or a small tree, the young twigs minutely pilose, soon
becoming glabrous, the stipules triangular-lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm. long.
Leaves
obovate, oblong-oval or oval, rigid-coriaceous, 1-2.3 cm. long, 0.6-1.4 cm. broad,
rounded or subtruncate and sometimes emarginate at the apex, obtuse or rounded
at the base, glabrous and reticulate-veined on both sides, the midrib impressed
above, prominent beneath and produced into a recurved cusp
; petioles 1-2 mm.
RHAMNACEAE
533
long; flowers long-peclicelled
;
calyx-lobes triangular, about 2 mm. long; petals
broadly obovate or suborljicular,
1.5 mm. long, 1.2-1.5 mm. broad; drupe sub-
globose, 12-15 mm. long, 11-13 mm. in diameter.
[R. mucronata of Eggers, not
of Grisebach.]
Rocky soil in the dry southwestern districts, Porto Rico; Mona; St. Croix; Tortola;
Anegada ;—Anguilla.
Chich.\hron.
2. Reynosia Krugii Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 354.
1899.
A tree, 10 m. tall, the young twigs minutely puberulent, soon becoming gla-
brous,
the
stipules
triangular-lanceolate,
1.5-1.8 mm,
long.
Leaves
ovate,
subcoriaceous, 5-8 cm. long, 2.5-5 cm. broad, obtuse or obtusely acuminate at
the apex, rounded or subtruncate at the
base, glabrous and
finely reticulate-
veined on both sides, the midrib strongly impressed above, prominent beneath
and sometimes minutely excurrent, the petioles slender, 5-7 mm. long; flowers
slender, pedicelled; calyx
1.5 mm.
long,
its lobes triangular, short-acuminate;
petals transversely
elliptic,
0.5 mm.
long;
filaments about
0.5 mm.
long, the
anthers orbicular, drupe oval, 15 mm. long, 10 mm. in diameter.
On the coast near Fa.iardo and in woodlands, Pedro Avila, near Cayey, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
3. Reynosia Guama Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 356.
1899.
A glabrous tree, sometimes 6 m.
tall, the twigs grayish brown, the stipules
triangular, about
1.8 mm. long.
Leaves elliptic to oval, coriaceous, 3.5-8 cm.
long, 2.5-6 cm. broad, rounded and notched at the apex, rounded and occasionally
subcordate at the base, reticulate-veined on both sides, the midrib impressed
above, prominent beneath and sometimes mimitely excurrent; petioles about 6
mm. long; inflorescence subspicate; pedicels 4-6 mm. long; calyx-lobes triangular-
ovate, 1.8 mm. long, acuminate; petals 1 mm. or more broad, broader than long,
notched at the apex, anthers ovate
; fruit globose-ellipsoid.
[R. latifolia of Eggers,
not of Grisebach.]
Hillside thickets,
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Virgin Gorda.
Endemic.
Guama.
2. KRUGIODENDRON Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 313.
1902.
An unarmed evergreen tree or shrub, with entu'e short-petioled leaves, and
small perfect
flowers subumbellate in
the
axils.
Calyx mostly 5-parted,
the
lobes longer than the tube.
Petals wanting.
Stamens as many as the calyx-
lobes; fllaments subulate; anthers obtuse.
Disk annular, crenate.
Ovary short-
conic; style short; stigmas 2, small; ovules 2.
Drupe small, ovoid, the pit thin-
walled.
Testa of the seed adherent to the endocarp; cotyledons semi-globose,
fleshy
; endosperm none.
[Greek, Krug's tree, in honor of Leopold I^ug, a student
of the West Indian flora.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Krugiodendron ferreum (Vahl) Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 314.
1902.
Rhamnus ferreus Vahl in West, St. Croix 276.
1793.
Ceanothusjerreus DC. Prodr. 2: 30.
1825.
Scutia ferrea Brongn. Ann. Sci. Nat.
I. 10: 363.
1827.
Condalia ferrea Griseb Fl. Br. W. I. 100.
1859.
A tree, attaining a maximum height of about 10 m., with a trunk diameter
up to 5 dm., usually much smaller, often shrubby, the bark ridged, the branches
spreading, the young twigs puberulent.
Leaves mostly opposite, ovate to oval,
rather thin, 2-7 cm. long,
1..5-4.5 cm. broad, obtuse to emarginate at the apex,
rounded
or narrowed
at
the
base,
bright green above,
dull
beneath,
nearly
534
RHAMNACEAE
glabrous when mature, the petioles 3-6 mm. long; flowers yellow-green, 4 mm.
wide,
in axillary clusters much shorter than the leaves; calyx-lobes triangular-
ovate; stamens a little shorter than the calyx; drupes globose or ovoid, black,
5—8 mm. long.
[Sarcomphalus laurinus Stahl, not Grisebach;
<S. retusus of Cook
and Collins.]
Tliickets, woodlands and hillsides at lower elevations, mostly in dry districts, Porto
Rico; Mona;
Desecheo;
Icacos;
Culebra;
Vieqiies;
St.
Croix;
St.
Tiiomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola; Anegada:—Florida; West
Indies,
south
to
St.
Vincent;
Bonaire.
Palo de
NiERRO.
Bariaco.
Espejuelo.
Black Ironwood.
Ebony Wood.
3. SARCOMPHALUS P. Br.; Raf. Sylva Tell. 29.
1838.
Shrubs or trees, often spinescent: with
flat palmately or pinnately veined
coriaceous petioled leaves, and small perfect bractless flowers in terminal panicles.
Calyx 5-cleft, the lobes spreading.
Petals 5, with a slender claw and a hooded
limb.
Disk undulate.
Stamens 5, distinct, not longer than the petals; anthers
extrorse.
Ovary immersed in the disk, ovoid, superior; styles 2 or 3; stigma
obtu.se.
Fruit a small, nearly dry, ovoid or ellipsoid drupe, the bony pit 2-celled,
2-seeded.
[Greek, fleshy navel.]
About 8 species, natives of the West Indies.
Type species: Sarcomphalus retusus Raf.
Leaves
glabrous,
finely
retictilate-veined
;
inflorescence and
calyx
glabrous.
1.
S. domingensis.
Leaves ferruginous-pubescent
beneath,
coarsely
reticulate-veined
inflorescence and calyx toraentulose.
2.
S. reticulatus.
1. Sarcomphalus domingensis (Sprang.) Krug & Urban; Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 357.
1899.
Cassine domingensis Spreng. Syst.
1: 939.
1825.
Zizyphus Rignonii Delp. Mem. Acad. Tor. 14: 404.
1854.
A tree, sometimes 10 m. high, with glabrous dark brown or grayish angled
twigs, unarmed, or armed with slender prickles 4-10 mm. long.
Leaves elliptic
to orbicular, coriaceous, 3-10 cm. long, 2.5-9.4 cm. broad, rounded at the apex,
rounded and often cordate at the base, glabrous and finely reticulate-veined on
both surfaces, entire; petioles 4-8 mm. long; calyx glabrous, the lobes triangular,
2 mm. long; petals 1.3 mm. long, the blade less than
1 mm. in diameter; fruit
subglobose or ellipsoid, 9-13 mm. in diameter, dark brown.
Porto Rico, collected by Bertero; Icacos; Vieques; Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:
HLspaniola; Anguilla.
2. Sarcomphalus reticulatus (Vahl) Urban, Symb. Ant.
l: 357.
1899.
Paliurus reticulatus Vahl, Eclog. 3: 6.
1807.
Zizyphus reticulatus DC. Prodr. 2: 20.
1825.
A shrub, 2-4 m. high, or tree up to
1
m., with gray nearly smooth bark, the
twigs angled, usually clothed with a ferruginous tomentum, unarmed, or armed
with slender brownish prickles 7 mm. or more long. Leaves elliptic to suborbicular,
occasionally somewhat ovate, rather brittle, 2.5-6 cm. long, 1.5-5.5 cm. broad,
rounded at the apex, rounded and often subcordate at the base, palmately veined,
glabrous or pubescent above,
the
veins more
or
less impressed,
ferruginous-
pubescent beneath and rather coarsely reticulate-veined, the margin entire or
minutely toothed; petioles 2-5 mm. long; calyx ferruginous-tomentose,
its lobes
triangular, acute, 1.5 mm. long; petals 1.5 mm. long, the blade less than
1 mm.
in diameter; filaments subulate, the anthers elliptic; fruit subglobose,
.1 cm. or
more in diameter, brown.
[Rhamnus rotundifolia of Sesse and Mocino, not of
Persoon; Zizyphus hananensis of Bello, not of H. B. K.]
Thickets, hillsides and plains at lower elevations in the dry southern districts, Porto
Rico; Muertos;
St. Croix, Tortola:—Hispaniola.
Cacao-rojo.
Espejuelo
RHAMNACEAE
535
Sarcomphalus Sarcomphalus
(L.)
Britton, a tree endemic in Jamaica,
was erroneously listed by Krebs as found in St. Tliomas [Rhamnus Sarcomphalus
L.
; Ceaiiothus Sarcoviphalus DC.].
4. ZIZYPHUS [Tourn.] Mill. Gard. Diet. Abr. ed. 4.
1754.
Trees or slirubs, or sometimes
vine-lilve, the brandies unarmed, or armed
witli mostly
short,
straight
or recurved
stipular
prickles.
Leaves
alternate,
3-5-ribbed from the base, serrate or entire.
Flowers fascicled, or in sessile or
peduncled cymes.
Calyx 5-lobed.
Petals 5, hooded, rarely none.
Disk 5-10-
lobed.
Stamens 5.
Ovary immersed in the disk, 2-4-celled; styles 2-4, free or
more or
loss united.
Fruit fleshy or dry, with a woody or bony 1-4-seeded
1-4-celled stone.
[The Arabian name.]
About 40 species, distributed throughout
the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres.
Type species
: Rha7nnus
Zisyphus L.
1. Zizyphus Jujuba (L.) Lam. Encyc. 3: 318.
1789.
Rhaimius Jujuba L. Sp. PI. 194.
1753.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, the twigs, petioles and inflorescence clothed with a
dense brownish tomentum, the branches unarmed, or armed with short straight
or recurved prickles.
Leaves ovate,
elliptic, or broadly oval, 3.5-7 cm.
long,
2-6 cm. broad, usually rounded at the apex, acute or rounded at the base, dark
green and glabrous above, tawny or vvhite-tomentose beneath, the margin finely
toothed, the petioles 0..5-1.5 cm. long: flowers in short- stalked axillary cj-mes,
slender-pedicelled
; calyx-lobes triangular, acute, 1.7-2 mm. long; petals spatulate-
obovate,
about
1.7 mm.
long;
fruit
subglobose
or
ellipsoid,
1.2-L7 cm.
in
diameter.
Coastal thickets and clearings, Culebra: Vieqiies; cultivated in the Virgin Islands:
also in Florida, the West Indies and continental tropical America, and locally natural-
ized.
Native of the tropics of the Eastern hemisphere.
Zizyphus mauritiana Lam., also of Old World tropics, was seen as young
plants at the Insular Experiment Station, Rio Piedras, Porto Rico, in 1924; it is
similar to Z. Jujuba, but the leaves are densely woolly beneath.
5. RHAMNUS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 193.
1753.
Shrubs
or small
trees,
with
pinnately veined
leaves, and small
axillary
cymose, racemose
or
paniculate,
perfect,
polygamous,
or
dioecious
flowers.
Calyx-tube urceolate,
its limb 4-5-toothed.
Petals 4 or
5, mainly emarginate
and hooded,
or none.
Disk
free from the 3-4-celled ovary.
Style
3-4-cleft.
Drupe
berry-like,
containing 2-4
nutlets.
Seeds mainly obovoid; endosperm
fleshy.
[The ancient Greek name.]
About 75 species, of temperate and warm
regions.
Type species: Rhamnus cathartica L.
"
1. Rhamnus sphaerosperma Sw. Prodr. 50.
1788.
Ceanothus sphaerocarpus DC. Prodr. 2: 30.
1825.
Frangula sphaerocarpa Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 99.
1859.
A shrub or medium size
tree, the young twigs pubescent with ferruginous
hairs.
Leaves oblong-elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or ovate, 6-17 cm. long, 2.4—
7.3 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded and occasionally subcordate at
the base, glabrous or sparingly pilose on tiie veins on both sides, reticulate-veined;
petioles 0.5-2 cm. long; calyx pilose, its lobes triangular, acute, about 2 mm. long;
536
RHAMNACEAE
petals broader than
long, deeply notched
at the apex;
fruit (mature ?) sub-
globose or globose-obovoid, 5 mm. in diameter.
Moxmtain forests, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola.
West Indian Buck-
thorn.
Rhamnus glabratus
West,
of
St.
Croix,
is not
understood by modem
botanists.
6. COLUBRINA
Rich.; Brongn. Ann.
Sci. Nat.
I.
10:
368.
1827.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate petioled leaves, and small perfect yellow or
greenish flowers in axillary clusters.
Calyx-tube hemispheric, the 5 lobes spread-
ing.
Disk angled or lobed.
Petals o. hooded.
Stamens 5, the short filaments
slender.
Ovary immersed in the disk, 3-celled, ovules 1 in each cavity; styles 3.
united
below;
stigmas
blunt.
Fruir
slightly
3-lobed,
the
carpels
separating
septicidally and each dehiscent along ihe inner edge.
Seeds smooth and shining,
the endosperm thin.
[Latin, coluber, a serpent.]
About 15 species,
1 of them
Asiatic,
the
others
of tropical America.
Type
species:
Colubrina ferruginosa
Brongn.
Twigs and under surface of the leaves pubescent with light brown hairs
or glabrous.
1.
C. reclinata.
Twigs and under surface of the leaves clothed with a reddish brown
tomentum.
2.
C. colubrina.
1. Colubrina reclinata (L'Her.) Brongn. Ann. Sci. Xat.
I. 10: 369.
1827.
Ceanothus reclinatus L'Her. Sert. Angl. 6.
1788.
Rhamnus ellipticus Sw. Prodr. 50.
1788.
A tree, sometimes 20 m. high with a trunk diameter up to 1.5 m., usually
much smaller, with orange-bro's^'u furrowed bark which exfoliates in thin layers,
the young twigs
finely pubescent.
Leaves elhptic to ovate-lanceolate, rather
thin, 3-9 cm. long, 2-5 cm. broad, acute or blmitish at the apex, rounded or
narrowed at the base, the slender petioles 5-15 mm. long; flower-clusters pubes-
cent, as long as the petioles or shorter; calyx-lobes acute; petals hooded, shorter
than the calyx-lobes; style slender;
fruit globose, orange-red or brownish, 7-9
mm.
in diameter; seeds oblong-ellipsoid or somewhat ovoid, 3.5-5 mm. long,
2.7—3 mm. broad, brownish black.
Woodlands and thickets at lower elevations in the dry southwestern districts, Porto
Rico; Culebra, St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Anegada:—Florida; West Indies
south to St. Vincent; Venezuela.
The wood is hard, dark brown, strong, with a soecific
gravity of about 0.8.
AIabi.
Smooth Snake-bark.
AIaabee.
Naked-wood.
2. Colubrina colubrina (Jacq.) Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 69.
1900.
Rhamnus coluhrinus Jacq. Enum. 16.
1760.
Colubrina ferruginosa Brongn. Ann. Sci. Xat. I. 10: 369.
1827.
Ceanothus coluhrinus Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 2: 90.
1793.
A shrub or tree, 8 m. high or less, rarely up to 20 m., the twigs and young
leaves ferrugmous-tomentulose.
Leaves ovate to eUiptic, subcoriaceous, 5-15
cm. long, 2.5-7.5 cm. broad,
obtusish, acute or short-acuminate at the apex,
rounded or subcordate at the base, the upper surface glabrous when mature,
the under
siu-face permanently tomentulose;
petioles tomentulose, 5-20 mm.
long; flower-clusters mostly shorter than the petioles; calyx-lobes ovate, obtuse;
petals spatulate, yellow, shorter than the calyx-lobes, notched; fruit obovoid-
globose,
6.5-8 mm.
in diameter,
nearly
black; seeds eUiptic to suborbicular,
3-3.5 mm. in diameter.
Woodlands, hillsides and thickets at lower and middle elevations in dry and moist
districts, Porto Rico; Mona; Icacos; Vieques; Ctdebra; St. Crols; St. Thomas; St. Jan;
RHAMNACEAE
537
Tortola; Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Florida; West Indies south to Antigua; Barbados.
[Colubrina ferruginea of Bello.j
The yellowish brown wood is hard, durable and strong,
with a specific gravity of about 0.7;
it is sometimes used
in construction.
Abejuelo.
AcHiOTiLLO.
Raton.
Snake-bark.
Green-heart.
Soap-tkee.
7. HYBOSPERMA Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 358.
1899.
Shrub with alternate leaves, the twigs armed with prickles.
Flowers long-
pedicelled, commonly solitary in the axils of the leaves.
Calyx 5-parted.
Petals
5, hooded.
Stamens 5.
Ovary immersed in the disk, 3-celled
; ovules 1 in each
cavity.
Styles 3, united.
Fruit capsular, 3-carpellary, the carpels dehiscent to
the middle.
Seeds soUtary in each cell, keeled; testa smooth, thick, coriaceous;
cotyledons obovate or suborbicular,
thick.
[Greek, humped seed.]
A mono-
typic genus.
1. Hybosperma spinosum Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 358.
1899.
A shrub, 1.5-5 m.
tall, with slender grayish ferruginous-pubescent twigs
armed with slender grayish prickles 6-12 mm. long, the stipules ovate-oblong,
acute, 1-1.5 mm. long.
Leaves obovate or oval, 5-11.5 mm. long, 4-8 mm. broad,
rounded or subtruncate and often notched at the apex, obtuse at the base, glabrous
at maturity, reticulate-veined, the petioles
1 mm. long or less; pedicels 2.5-6.5
mm. long, rusty pubescent; calyx rusty pubescent, its lobes ovate or triangular-
ovate, acuminate, 2 mm. long, 1.2-1.5 mm. broad; petals 1.8 mm. long; capsule
5 mm. long, apiculate; seed olive-brown. 4 mm. long, 3 mm. broad.
Thickets on the roclcy simunit of Moxint El Mariel, Guanica, Porto Rico:—His-
paniola.
8. GOUANIA Jacq. Stirp. Sel. Am. 263.
1763.
Woody vmes, climbing by tendrils, with alternate petioled leaves, and small
polygamous flowers in panicled spikes or narrow racemes.
Calyx obconic, with
5 spreading lobes.
Disk 5-angled or 5-horned.
Petals 5, hooded.
Stamens 5,
short.
Ovary immersed in the disk, 3-celled; ovules
1 in each cavity; styles 3,
imited at the base
; stigmas very small.
Fruit dry, 3-winged, separatmg into 3
nutlets.
Seeds shining.
[Commemorates Antoine Gouan, 1733-1821, professor
in Montpelher.]
About 40 species of tropical and subtropical regions.
Type
species; Gouania tomentosa Jacq.
Leaves usually glabrous or nearly so beneath, the primary veins taper-
ing at the margins; wings of the mature fruit attached to the body
throughout their length.
1.
G. lupuloides.
Leaves usually tomentose beneath, the primary veins of nearly equal
tliickness throughout; wings of the mature fruits attached to the side
of the body only.
2.
G. polygama.
1. Gouania lupuloides (L.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 378.
1910.
Banisteria lupuloides L. Sp. PL 427.
1753.
Rhamnus doiningensis Jacq. Enum. 17.
1760.
Gouania domingensis L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 1663.
1763.
Gouania glabra Jacq. Stirp. Sel. Am. 264.
1763.
Gouania lupuloides aptera Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 378.
1910.
Lupulus lupuloides domingensis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 119.
1891.
A woody vine, sometimes 7 m. long, cUmbing by coiled tendrils, the branches
glabrous below, loosely pubescent above.
Leaves ovate to elUptic, thin, 3-10
cm. long, 1.8-6.5 cm. broad, glabrous or sparingly pubescent, serrate with blunt
teeth, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, subcordate or rounded at the base,
the petioles 5-15 nun. long; racemes slender, pubescent, 5-18 cm. long; pedicels
538
VITACEAE
clustered, pubescent,
1-3 mm.
long; calyx pubescent,
1-1.5 mm
.
long; petals
yellow, ovate, acute; fruit 8-12 mm. broad including the wings which are broader
than the body, rarely wingless; seeds broadly elliptic to oval, 3-3.5 mm. long,
dark-brown, shining.
[Reissekia smilacina of Stahl, not Endl.]
Woodlands and thickets at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet districts,
Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida;
West Indies
south to Grenada; continental tropical America.
Chew-stick.
Soap-stick.
2. Gouania polygama (Jacq.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 378.
1910.
Rhamnus polygamus Jacq. Enum. 17.
1760.
Gouania tomentosa Jacq. Sel. Stirp. Am. 263.
1763.
Lupulus lupuloides tomentosus Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 119.
1891.
A vine, sometimes 7 m. or more
long,
the branches tomentose.
Leaves
oblong-ovate to broadly oval, 5-14 cm. long, 2.5-8 cm. broad, tomentose beneath,
crenate-serrate, acute to acuminate, or occasionally rounded at the apex, sub-
cordate to rounded at the base, the primary veins of nearly equal thickness
throughout, the petioles 0.8-1.8 cm. long, tomentulose; calyx tomentose, about
1.5 mm. long; fruit 8-13 mm. broad, including the wings; seed ovoid or elliptic,
2-2.5 mm. long, dark-brown, shining.
Woodlands and thickets at lower elevations in the western districts, Porto Rico:
Cuba; Hispaniola; Tobago; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Recorded by Krebs
as formerly found in St. Thomas.
Family
2.
VITACEAE
Liiidl.
Grape Family.
Climbing vines or erect shrubs, with copious watery sap, nodose joints,
alternate petioled leaves, and small regular greenish perfect or polygamo-
dioecious
flowers,
in
panicles,
racemes
or
cymes.
Calyx
entire
or 4-5-
toothed.
Petals 4-5, sejDarate or coherent, valvate, caducous.
Filaments
subulate, inserted at the base of the disk or between its lobes; disk sometimes
obsolete or wanting; anthers 2-celled.
Ovary
1, generally immersed in the
disk, 2-6-celled; ovules 1-2 in each cavity, ascending, anatropous.
Fruit a
1-6-celled berry (commonly 2-celled).
Seeds erect; testa bony; raphe gener-
ally distinct; endosperm cartilaginous; embryo short.
About 10 genera and
over 500 species, widely distributed.
Petals united into a cup, falling away without separating.
1.
Vitis.
Petals distinct, spreading.
2.
Cissus.
1. VITIS [Tourn.l L. Sp. PI. 202.
1753.
Woody vines, rarely shrubby, mostly Avith tendrils.
Leaves simple, often
palmately lobed or dentate.
Stipules mainly small, caducous.
Flowers mostly
dioecious, or polygamo-dioecious, rarely perfect.
Petals hypogynous or perigy-
nous, coherent in a cap and deciduous without expanding.
Disk annular or cup-
shaped.
Ovary 2-celled, rarely 3-4-celled; style very short, conic; ovules 2 in
each cavity.
Berry globose or ovoid, few-seeded, pulpy, edible in most species.
[The ancient Latin name.]
About 40 species, natives of warm and temperate
regions.
Type species: Vitis vinifera L.
1. Vitis tiliaefolia H. & B.; R. & S. Syst. 5: 320.
1819.
Vitis caribaea DC. Prodr.
1: 634.
1824.
Vitis vinifera tiliaefolia caribaea Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 132.
1891.
Vitis viyiifera tiliaefolia denticulata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 132.
1891.
A vine, sometimes 10 m. or more long, the young branches wooUy-tomentose
or rarely glabrate, striate.
Leaves broadly ovate or orbicular-ovate, thin, 0-17
YITACEAE
539
cm.
long,
6. .5-15 cm.
broad, sinuate with mucronate
teeth, sometimes
lobecl,
glabrous or nearly so above at maturity, brownish tomentose beneath, especially
when young, cordate or occasionally truncate at the base, the petioles 2-9 cm.
long: panicles elongate, 1-2 dm.
long, long-peduncled, branched, the branches
more or less tomentose; berries globose, 10-12 mm.
in diameter, purple; seeds
obovoid, grooved on the back.
Woods and
forest.s
in wet or moist
districts, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas;
St. Croi.x
(according
to
Eggers):—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; also recorded from
St.
Bar ts and Guadeloupe; continental tropical America.
Parra
Wild Gr.\pe.
Bejuco
DE AGTJA.
Vitis vinifera L., Uva, European Grape, European, planted
for its fruit
in Porto Kico and the Virgin Islands,
is a vine several meters long, the young
growth smooth or floccose, the lobed leaves rather thin and either glabrous or
tomentose beneath, the oval or subglobose berries borne in large clusters.
^
Several other species and races of Vitis have been experimentally grown at
the St. Croix Agricultural Experiment Station.
2. CISSUS L. Sp.
PI. 117.
1753.
Mostly climbing vines with
fleshy
foliage.
Leaves
3-foliolate
or simple,
when compound the leaflets commonly separating in drying.
Flowers perfect
or
sometimes
polygamous.
Petals
usually
4,
spreading.
Disk
cup-shaped,
adnate to the base of the ovary, mostly 4-lobed.
Stamens
4, inserted on the
margin of the disk.
Ovary 2-celled, adnate to the base of the disk.
Ovules 2 in
each cavity.
Berries rather .small, often with scant pulp.
[Greek, ivy.]
A large
genus mostly
tropical, known
in Porto Rico
as Card.
Type species: Cissus
vitiginea L.
Leaves simple.
1.
C. sicyoides.
Leaves trifoliolate.
Leaflets very fleshy, incised-dentate above the middle.
2.
C. tiifoUata
Leaflets slightly fleshy or not fleshy, dentate or entire, the teeth
usually acciunbent.
Leaflets
large,
usually
lanceolate
or
ovate,
4-10
cm.
long,
prominently reticulate beneath.
3.
C. erosa.
Leaflets smaUcr,
0.7-4 cm.
long,
not prominently
reticulate
beneath.
Leaflets oblong to oblong-lanceolate.
4.
C. intermrdia.
Leaflets obovate.
Leaflets 7-18 mm.
long,
.5-8 mm.
broad,
the
petioles
often less than 5 mm. long.
5.
C. obovata.
Leaflets averaging larger, the petioles 1-2.5 cm. long.
6.
C. caustica.
1. Cissus sicyoides L. Syst. ed. 10, 897.
1759.
Cissus ovata Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 332.
1791.
Vitis sicyoides Morales, Repert. Fis.-Nat. Cuba 1: 203.
1866.
Vitis vitiginea repens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 138.
1891.
A vine, climbing to a height of 6 m. or more, the foliage and branches pu-
bescent
or nearly
glabrous.
Leaves
simple,
ovate,
broadly ovate
or ovate-
oblong, 2-15 cm.
long,
2-11.5 cm.
broad,
acute, acuminate
or
occasionally
rounded at the apex, truncate or cordate at the base, serrate, the teeth acute or
bristle-tipped, the petioles 1-4 cm. long;
tendrils slender, often as long as the
leaves; cymes peduncled;
berries subglobose or obovoid,
black, 7-10 mm.
in
diameter; seeds solitary, obovoid, 4-6 mm. long.
Woods and
thickets
at lower and middle
elevations, Porto
Rico:
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas;
St.
.Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda;—Florida; West Indies; continental
tropical
America.
Lambrali.
Pinakoop.
Pudding Vine.
540
VITACEAE
2. Cissus trifoliata L. Syst. ed. 10, 897,
1759.
Sicyos trifoliata L. Sp. PI. 1013.
1753.
Cissus acida L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 170.
1762.
A very fleshy vine, up
to 5 m.
long,
glabrous
throughout
Leaves
3-
foliolate; leaflets ovate to obovate or suborbicular, 1-3.4 cm. long, 0.6—2.5 cm.
broad, sharply toothed above the middle, narrowed or cuneate
at the base;
flowers in compound cymes;
berries globose to ovoid, dark purple,
apiculate,
5-7 mm. in diameter, the fruiting pedicels recurved; seeds obovoid, 5-6 mm.
long.
[Cissus obliqua of Sesse and Mocino, not of Ruiz and Pavon.]
Coastal thickets, eastern and southern districts, extending
little beyond saline in-
fluence, Porto Rico: Vieques; Mona; Muertos; Icacos;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tortola;
Virgin
Gorda;
Anegada:—Florida;
Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
recorded south to Martinique; northern South America.
3. Cissus erosa L. C. Rich. Act. See. Hist. Nat. 1: 106.
1792.
? Vitis trifoliata tuberculata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI.
1: 131.
1891.
A vine, sometimes 6 m. long, with 4-angled stems.
Leaves and branches of
the young shoots pubescent with long light brown hairs, glabrous or nearly so in
age.
Leaves 3-foliolate, distinctly petioled; leaflets lanceolate to broadly ovate,
occasionally broadest at the middle or above, 4-10 cm. long, 1.7-5.5 cm. broad,
acute to acuminate, or rarely obtuse at the apex, acute or somewhat rounded at
the base,
sessile or short-petioluled,
reticulate on both
sides,
the veins more
prominent Ijeneath than above, the midvein and primary veins elevated; cymes
usually long-peduncled
; flowers red; berry subglobose or globose-ovoid, 6 mm.
or more in diameter; seed ovoid, 5-5.2 mm. long, 4 mm. in diameter.
[C.
tri-
foliata of Bello, not of Linnaeus.]
Moist banks and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Hispaniola;
St. Vincent; Tobago; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
4. Cissus intermedia A. Rich. Ess. Fl. Cub 1: 311.
1845.
A slender, slightly fleshy vine, sometimes 2 m. long or longer, the branches
and leaves glabrous, the stems and branches sometimes warty or tuberculata.
Leaves slender-petioled,
trifoliolate
;
leaflets oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-4
cm.
long, mostly acute, sparingly serrate, the terminal one equilateral, mostly
cuneate-narrowed at the base, the lateral ones oblique; cymes compound, gla-
brous;
pedicels 2-6 mm.
long;
petals
red,
reflexed,
ovate-lanceolate,
acute;
berry subglobose, black, the pedicels red.
Near Penuelas and Manati
(according
to Urban): Bahamas; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
7 Jamaica.
6. Cissus obovata Vahl, Symb. 3: 19.
1794.
A slender vine, the branches glabrous or with scattered hairs mostly at or near
the nodes.
Leaves trifoUolate, the petioles often less than 5 mm. long; leaflets
obovate, 7-18 mm. long, 5-8 mm. broad, sometimes larger, rounded at the apex,
acute or cuneate at the base, the margin crenulate or with scattered appressed
teeth above the middle; c>-mes small; pedicels slender; petals triangular-ovate.
Porto Rico, collected bv Wydler, according to Planchon; St. Thomas (according to
Krebs); St. Croix:—St. Martin.
6. Cissus caustica Tussac, Fl. Ant. 1: 116.
1808.
A \ine occasionally 15 m. long, the stems clothed with a rusty pubescence,
or nearly glabrous.
Leaves
3-foliolate;
leaflets obovate
to orbicular-obovate,
shining above, 1.2-4 cm. long, 0.6-2.4 cm. broad, sparingly toothed above the
ELAEOCARPACEAE
541
middle with more or less appressed teeth, rounded or acute at the apex, varying
from cuneate to rounded at the
base,
sessile or short-petioluled
: cymes often
long-peduncled
; flowers red;
fruit globose or globose-obovoid,
black.
[C.
tri-
foliata of Krebs, of Eggers and of Millspaugh, not of Linnaeus.]
Forests, Porto Rico; St. Croix;
St. Thomas:—Cuba; Hispaniola.
Often festooning
trees, forming long large masses.
Ampelopsis heterophylla (Thunb.) Sieb. & Zucc, of eastern Asia, grown
by Mr. Fairchild at Louisenhoj, St. Thomas, is a slender vine with small, usually
glabrous, 3-5-lobed leaves, and stalked cymes of small greenish flowers, the small
globose fruits blue, or nearly white.
[Vitis heterophylla Thunb.]
Order 17.
MALVALES.
Herbs, shrubs or
trees, with simple, mostly alternate leaves.
Flowers
regular, usually perfect.
Sepals separate, or more or less united, valvate.
Petals separate, very rarely wanting.
Stamens usually numerous.
Ovary
superior, compound, the placentae united in
its axis.
Disk inconspicuous
or none.
Stamens twice as many as the sepals, or more.
Stamens
in
several
sets;
anthers
2-celled;
embryo
straight.
Petals none or rudimentary; trees or shrubs.
Fam.
1.
Elaegcarpaceae.
Petals usually present, glabroixs.
Fam. 2.
Tiliace.'X.e.
Stamens
monadelplious ;
anthers
1 -celled;
embryo
curved.
Style-branches as many or twice as many as the
carpels or ovary-cavities.
Fam. 3.
Malvaceae.
Stvle entire, or merely lobed.
Fam. 4.
Bombacaceae.
Stamens as many as the sepals; anthers 2-ceUed.
Fam.
5.
Stercxiliaceae.
Family
1.
ELAEOCARPACEAE
Lindl.
Eleocarpus Family.
Trees or shrubs, with
entire,
alternate or opposite,
stipulate
petioled
leaves, and usually perfect and apetalous flowers, mostly clustered.
Sepals
distinct, valvate or imbricatc^d.
Stamens many; filaments distinct.
Ovary
sessile, 2-several-celled ; ovules usually many; styles united.
Fruit capsular.
About 7 genera and 125 species, of tropical distribution.
1. SLOANEA L. Sp. PI. 512.
1753.
Trees, with broad petioled coriaceous leaves, and corymbose or racemose,
rarely solitary, perfect or rarely polygamous small flowers.
Eeceptacle thick,
dilated.
Sepals 3-7 (usually 4), distinct or nearly so.
Petals mostly wanting,
occasionally
4.
Stamens numerous, borne on the receptacle; anthers narrow;
basiflxed, longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovary mostly 4-6-celled; ovules anatropous,
style
4-cleft or simple.
Capsule woody, 4-valved, mostly
1-celled, smooth or
echinate.
[Commemorates Hans Sloane, famous Irish physician and botanist.]
Forty or fifty species of tropical regions.
Type species; Sloanea dentata L.
1. Sloanea Berteriana Choisy in DC. Prodr.
l: 516.
1824.
A tree, up to 30 m. high, the trunk 6-10 dm. in diameter, the young twigs
and loaves finely puberulent, the bark red, slightly fissured, the mature foliage
glabrous or nearly
so.
Stipules hnear, 10 mm. long or
less, caducous; leaves
elliptic or
ovate-elliptic, 2.5 dm. long
or
less,
entire, subcoriaceous, strongly
542
TILIACEAE
pinnately nerved and reticulate-veined, the apex acute, acuminate or obtuse, the
base obtuse or rounded, the stout petioles 2-9 cm. long; inflorescence axillary,
few-flowered, subcorymbose, sessile, the pedicels short; sepals 4, yellow without,
rose within, about 9 mm.
long; petals wanting;
filaments about 3 mm. long;
anthers about 2 mm. long; capsule ovoid, rounded, 3-4 cm.
long, brown,
to-
mentulose; seeds globular, 1-1.5 cm. in diameter.
Forests in wet or moist districts, mostly at middle or higher elevations-—Hispaniola;
Guadaloupf^.
Motillo.
Cacao roseta.
Cacaillo.
The nearly white wood is heavy,
strong and durable
locally used for construction.
Sloanea dentata L. was recorded by West as planted on
St. Croix prior
to 1794.
It has dentate leaves, its fruit densely covered with long soft processes.
Muntingia Calabura
L., West Indian, but not known in the wild state
within the geographical limits of this
Flora, was
listed by Krebs as formerly
observed in St. Thomas, where it may have been planted.
Family 2.
TILIACEAE
Juss.
Linden Family.
Trees, shrubs or herbs, with alternate
(rarely opposite) simple leaves,
mostlj^ small and deciduous
stipules, and soHtary, cymose
or paniculate,
usually perfect flowers.
Sepals 5, rarely 3 or 4, valvate, deciduous.
Petals
of the same number, or fewer, or none, glabrous, mostly imbricated in the
bud.
Stamens mostly 5-10-adelphous; anthers 2-celled.
Ovary
1,
sessile,
2-10-celled; ovules anatropous; styles imited.
Fruit
l-lO-cellecl, capsular,
drupaceous or baccate.
Cotyledons ovate or orbicular; endosperm fleshy,
rarely wanting.
About 35 genera and 275 species, widely distributed.
Fruit a loculicidal capsule without prickles.
1.
Corchorus.
Fruit indeliiscent, prickly, subglobose.
2.
Triumfetta.
1. CORCHORUS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PL 529.
1753.
Herbs or low shrubs, with alternate serrate leaves, and yellow, solitary or
clustered flowers, axillary or opposite the leaves.
Sepals and petals 5, rarely 4.
Stamens twice as many as the petals or more numerous
; filaments filiform, simple
anthers introrse.
Ovary superior, 2-5-celled; ovules numerous in each cavity;
stigma
dilated,
undulate.
Capsule
linear
or
oblong,
many-seeded.
[Greek,
for some bitter plant.]
About 40 species of tropical and subtropical distribution,
known in Porto Rico as Malvate.
Type species: Corchorus olitorius L.
Capsule glabrous or pubescent.
Capsule narrowly oblong,
.3-winged, 3-beaked; sepals cucullate.
1.
C. aestuans.
Capsule linear, not Avlnged; sepals not cucullate.
Capsule acuminate.
Leaves ovate, mostly obtuse.
2.
C. hirtus.
Leaves lanceolate, acuminate.
3.
C. orinocensis.
Capsule blunt.
4.
C. siliquosus.
Capsule densely woolly.
5.
C. hirsulus.
1. Corchorus aestuans L. Syst. ed.
10, 1079.
1759.
Corchorus aculangulus Lam. Encycl. 2: 104.
1786.
Annual, erect or spreading, the branches pilose.
Stipides subulate, shorter
than the
petioles; leaves
thin, ovate to suborbicular, 2-7 cm.
long, sparingly
pilose or glabrate, the apex acute or obtuse, the base rounded or subcordate, the
margin serrate with the lower teeth often setaceous, the slender petioles 2 cm.
TILIACEAE
543
long or less; flowers solitary or 2 together, nearly sessile; sepals cucullate, about
4 mm. long; petals otaovate, about as long as the sepals; capsule narrowly oblong,
3-winged or 3-angled, 1.5-3 cm. long, 3-beaked, glabrous.
Fields and hillsides, vicinity of Coamo. Porto Rico;
St. Croix:
St. Thomas; Tortola;
Virgin Gorda:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Martin to Tobago; Margarita:
Bonaire; continental tropical America and Old "World tropics.
2. Corchorus hirtus L. Sp. Pi. ed. 2. 747.
1762.
Corchorus pilobolus Link, Enum. 2: 72.
1822.
Corchorus hirtus pilobolus Schtim. in Mart;
Fl. Bras.
123:
128.
1886.
Corchorus biflorus Moc. & Sesse, Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 131.
1894.
Herbaceous, perennial, erect or spreading, villous or hirsute, 2-5 dm. high.
Stipules as long as the petioles or shorter
; leaves ovate, petioled,
.' cm. long or less,
dentate, more or less hirsute, the apex obtuse or acutish, the base roimded or
subcordate; flowers mostly solitary, short-peduncled; sepals villous, about 6 mm.
long; petals spatulate, about as long as the sepals; capsule linear, villous, straight
or somewhat curved, actiminate, compressed, 3-5 cm. long.
Fields, roadsides, river-banks and lilllsides at lower elevations, Porto Rico; St. Croix;
St. Thomas
(according
to
Eggers):-—Hispaniola;
Antigua;' Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
Barbados; Tobago; Sotith America.
3. Corchorus orinocensis H. B. K., Nov. Gen. 5: 337.
1821.
Corchorus hirtus orinocensis Schum. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 12*: 12 7.
1886.
Herbaceous, perennial, erect or nearly
so, sparingly
pilose, 2-4 dm. high.
Stipules mostly shorter than the
petioles.
Leaves
thin,
lanceolate
to ovate-
lanceolate, 4-10 cm. long, glabrate, rather sharply dentate, the apex acute or
acuminate, the base rounded; flowers mostly solitary; peduncles about one-half
as long as the petioles; sepals sparingly pilose, about 5 mm. long; petals a little
longer than the sepals; capsule linear, sparingly pubescent, sliglitly curved, com-
pressed, acuminate, 4-7 cm. long.
Fields, vicinity of Coarao:—Jamaica; Cuba; Antigua to St. Vincent; Curacao: Texas
and Mexico to Venezuela and Bolivia.
4. Corchorus siliquosus L. Sp. PI. 529.
1753.
Shrubby, branched, 3-10 dm.
high, glabrous, or the young branches and
leaves puberulent or pubescent, the branches often with a line of hairs.
Leaves
ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 1-5 cm. long, serrate, acute or acuminate at the apex,
mostly rotmded or obtuse at the base, the short petioles slender; flowers solitary
or 2
together, short-peduncled,
the
pedicels
abotit as long as the peduncles;
sepals linear, actite, about 6 mm. long; petals obovate, about 5 mm. long; capsule
linear, glabrous, or when young somewhat pubescent, compressed, .5-8 cm. lon°r,
about 3 mm. thick, 2-celled, blunt, tipped by 2 short bifid teeth.
Fields,
thickets,
woodlands,
waste and
cultivated grovmds
at
lower and
middle
elevations, Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques; St
Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida;
"West Indies; Texas to northern South America.
Escoba blanco.
Broom-weed.
5. Corchorus hirsutus L. Sp. PL 530.
1753.
A shrub, 2 m. high or less, usually erect, but on rocks sometimes nearly
prostrate, the young twigs, the leaves and the inflorescence densely pale scurfy-
tomentulose.
Leaves short-petioled, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, crenate-dentate,
2-6 cm. long, mostly obtuse; flowers in small umbels opposite the leaves, the
peduncle about as long as the pedicels; sepals tomentulose, 5-6 mm. long; petals
obovate,
bright yellow,
or pink, about
as long as the sepals; capsule oblons.
644
TILIACEAE
densely tomentose, obtuse,
4-celled,
as long as the curved pedicels or longer,
about 6 mm. thick.
Sandy and rocky soil at lower elevations along and near the coasts, locally inland,
most abundant in the dry soiuhern
district.s. Porto Rico; Desecheo; Mona; Muertos:
Icacos; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas
.S(. Jan; Tortola: Virgin Gorda; Anegada:
West Indies; Mexico to tropical South
America.
Jack-switch.
M.\LVA\asco.
Corchorus capsularis
L.,
Jitte,
Asiatic, experimentally grown for
fiber
in Porto Rico,
is annual, erect, about 3 m. high, the lanceolate leaves 8-12 cm.
long, serrate, with the basal teeth subulate, the globose rugose pods about 1 cm.
in diameter.
2. TRIUMFETTA L. Sp. PI. 444.
1753.
Herbs
or low
shrubs,
with
alternate
broad
petioled
leaves, and
yellow
clustered flowers, axillary or opposite the leaves.
Sepals 5.
Petals 5, pitted at
the base, or wanting in some species.
Stamens several or numerous, borne on an
elongated receptacle, the filaments filiform, the anthers introrse.
Ovary borne
in the cup-shaped top of the receptacle, 2-5-celled; stigma 2-5-lobed; ovules 2
in each cavity.
Capsule subglobose, echinate.
[In honor of G. B. Triumfetti,
an Italian botanist.]
About 70 species, of tropical and warm regions.
Bur-
bush.
Cadillo.
Type SY>ecies: Triumfetta Lappula
Li.
Petals present.
Fruit tomentose, its prickles glabrous.
'
Leaves rhomboid-ovate; stamens 15.
1.
T. Bartramia.
Leaves reniform; stamens 8-10.
2.
T. excisa.
Fruit glabrous or puberulent, its prickles hispid.
3.
T. semitriloba.
Petals wanting; prickles of the fruit densely hairy.
4.
T. Lappula.
1. Triumfetta Bartramia L. Syst. ed. 10. 1044.
1759.
Bartramia indica L. Sp. PI. 389.
1753.
Not T. indica Lam.
Triumfetta rhomboidea Jacq. Enum. 22.
1760.
Perennial, somewhat woody, erect, branched, 5-10 dm. high, looselj' stellate-
pubescent.
Lower leaves rhomboid-ovate
to
rhomboid-suborbicular,
slender-
petioled, dentate, sometimes 3-lobed, 3-8 cm. long, the base rounded or cuneate;
upper leaves oblong, short-petioled, much smaller; flowers mostly glomerate in
the upper leaf-axils; pedicels very short; sepals 6-7 mm. long; petals oblanceolate,
a little shorter than the sepals; stamens 15; ovary 2-celled; fruit globose, 3-4 mm.
in diameter, tomentose, the prickles somewhat shorter than the diameter of the
body, glabrous, hooked.
In dry soil at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix; Tortola; Virgin Gorda
—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba to Trinidad; Brazil; Old World tropics.
2. Triumfetta excisa Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 413.
1908.
Perennial, branched, somewhat woody,
erect, 3-10 dm.
high, the slender
branches
pilose.
Stem-leaves
reniform,
slender-petioled,
4-7 cm.
wide
and
somewhat wider than long, acutely 3-lobed and irregularly crenate-dentate, the
apex acute, the base shallowly cordate, both surfaces loosely
pilose; branch-
leaves much smaller, ovate
; flowers few or solitary in the upper axils, nearly sessile
sepals 6-7 mm. long; petals 4 or 5, yellow, obovate, 5—6 mm. long; stamens 8-10:
ovary 2-celled
; fruit subglobose, tomentose, about 3 mm. in diameter, the glabrous
hooked prickles somew hat shorter than the diameter of the body.
Thickets at lower elevations in moist districts, Porto Rico; St. Croix; Virgin Gorda.
Endemic.
MALVACEAE
545
3. Triumfetta semitriloba Jacq. Enum. 22.
1760.
Triumfetta althaeoides Lam. Encycl. 3: 420.
1791.
Annual, stellate-tomentulose.
Stems 1-1.5 m.
tall, branched; leaves ovate,
rhombic or suborbicular in outline, 3-6 cm. long, serrate, angulate or often 3-
lobed, rounded or truncate at the base; petioles as long as the blades or shorter;
panicles narrow, elongated; sepals lanceolate, 5-6 mm. long, appendaged below
the
ape.x;
petals
linear
to
cuneate-spatulate,
slightly pubescent
at
the
base;
stamens often 15; fruit 3-5 mm. in diameter, copiously prickly, the hispid prickles
about as long as the diameter of the glabrous or puberulent body, hooked at the
apex.
Banks,
fields,
hillsides and thickets at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; Bermuda; West
Indies;
continental tropical America.
Bur Bark.
Specimens collected by A. E. Ricksecker at Bassin Yard, St. Croix (No. 136, in part)
have the foliage of T. semitriloba, but the fruit densely tomentose, suggesting hybridity
with r. Bartramia.
4. Triumfetta Lappula L. Sp. P?. 444.
1753.
Triumfetta althaeoides Lam. Encycl. 3: 420.
1791.
Perennial, somewhat woody, stellate-tomentulose, 1.5 m. high or less.
Lower
leaves ovate-orbicular, or broadly ovate, long-petioled, 6-15 cm. broad, serrate,
sometimes 3-lobed, the base usually cordate, the apex acute, acuminate or obtuse
upper leaves ovate to oblong, much smaller; panicles narrow; sepals 3-4 mm.
long; petals none; stamens about 10; fruit about 4 mm. in diameter, nearly gla-
brous, the densely hairy prickles about as long as the diameter of the body.
Banks,
fields, hillsides and thickets at lower and middle elevations in moist or wet
districts,
St. Croix; St. Thomas:
St. Jan; Tortola:—Bermuda
(?); West Indies
(except
Bahamas); Mexico and Central America.
Maud
Triumfetta procumbens
Forst.,
Australasian, was
recorded
by Ivrebs
from
St. Thomas, apparently In error.
Family 3.
MALVACEAE Neck.
Mallow Family.
Herbs
or
shrubs, sometimes
trees
in
tropical regions, with alternate
leaves.
Stipules small, deciduous.
Flowers regular, usually perfect, often
large.
Sepals 5 frarely 3 or 4), more or less united, usually valvate; calyx
often bracted or involucrate.
Petals
5, hypogynous, convolute.
Stamens
hypogynous, forming a central column around the
pistil, imited with the
bases
of the
petals; anthers
1-celled.
Ovary several-celled;
styles united
below, distinct above, and generally projecting beyond the stamen-column,
mostly as many as the cavities of the ovary.
Fruit capsular rarely indehiscent,
several-celled, ths carpels falling awaj^ entire or else locuhcidally dehiscent.
Seeds reniform, globose or obovoid; embryo curved; cotyledons large, phcate
or conduphcate.
About 45 genera and 900 species, widely distributed.
A. Fruit of several or many radiately arranged carpels which mostly
separate from each other at maturity.
1. Carpels as many as the stigmas.
Carpels 2-several-seeded.
Carpels leathery or chartaceous.
Carpels 1-celled.
1.
Abutilon.
Carpels 2-celled.
2.
Wissadula.
Carpels membranous, bladdery.
3.
Gayoides.
Carpels only 1-seeded.
Flowers with an involucre.
4. Malvastrum.
5.
6.
7.
MALVACEAE
547
2. Abutilon indicum (L.) Sweet, Hort. Brit. 54.
1826.
Sida indica L. Cent. PI. 2: 26.
1756.
Sida americana L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 963.
1763
Sida piibescens Cav. Obs. 1: 33.
1785.
Abutilon subpapyraceum Hochr. Ann. Cons. & Jard. Gen. 6: 23.
1902.
Perennial,
shrubby,
erect,
usually branched,
1.5 m.
high
or
less,
finely
puberulent.
Leaves
suborbicular,
long-petioled,
3-10 cm.
broad,
irregularly
dentate, softly tonientulose on both sides, the apex acuminate, the base deeply
cordate;
peduncles
axillary,
solitary,
mostly
longer than
the
petioles;
calyx
puberulent, about 10 mm. long, its lobes acute; petals about 15 mm. long, yellow;
carpels about 20, somewhat inflated, black, shining,
1-1.3 cm. long, minutely
2-beaked.
[Sida asialica and S. graveolens of Ki'ebs?]
Near Ponce, Porto Rico, along the coast collected by Sintenis in 1886; sandy waste
grounds.
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; Tortola:—Hispaniola; .Tamaica;
St. Kitts to Trinidad;
continental tropical America; Old World tropics.
3. Abutilon hirtum (Lam.) Sweet, Hort. Brit. 53.
1826.
Sida hirta Lam. Encycl. 1: 7.
1783.
Abutilon indicum hirtum Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 78.
1859.
Abutilon graveolens hirtum Masters, in Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. 1: 327.
1872.
Perennial, somewhat viscid, shrubby, branched, 6-12 dm. high, the stem
and branches densely short-pubescent and
long-pilo.se.
Leaves long-petioled,
the blade suborbicular, 3-15 cm. broad, acute or short-acuminate at the apex,
deeply cordate at the base, irregularly low-dentate, puberulent on both
sides,
the petioles
pilose; peduncles
axillary,
usually
solitary,
pilose,
as long as the
petioles
or
shorter;
calyx densely puberulent,
its
lobes acute
or acuminate;
petals yellow, conunonly with a brownish red or purple base,
1.5-2 cm. long,
about twice as Ion'? as the calyx; carpels mostly 20-30,
flat, very thin, black,
pubescent on the back, mucronulate, about as long as the calyx or a little longer.
[A. indicum of Bello, not of Sweet; A. pauciflorum of Millspaugh, not of St. Hll-
aire; A. gratjeoZeres of Millspaugh; erroneously recorded by Ktmtze as -.4. asiaticum.]
Waste and cultivated grounds at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; St. Croix:
Florida; West Indies; Old World tropics.
Buenas T.\edes.
4. Abutilon abutiloides (Jacq.) Garcke, Bot. Jahrb. 15: 485.
1893.
Sida abutiloides Jacq. Obs.
1: 17.
1764
Sida lignosa Cav. Diss. 1: 28.
1785.
Abutilon lignosum G
Don, Gen. Hist. 1: 501.
1831.
Shrubby, branched, densely stellate-tomentose, erect, 1-1.5 m. high.
Leaves
orbicular-ovate, tomentose on both sides, slender-petioled, dentate or denticulate,
10 cm. long or less, the apex acute or acummate, the base cordate
; flowers axillary,
solitary on peduncles mostly longer than the petioles; calyx about 10 mm. long,
tomentose,
its lobes broadly ovate, acute or acuminate; petals yellow, a little
longer than the calyx; carpels about 10, swollen, beaked, about 15 mm. long.
Roadsides and waste grounds, eastern part of St. Croix (according to Eggers),
St.
Thomas
(according to Krebs):—Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Mexico.
Not
seen by us from within the area of this investigation.
5. Abutilon commutatum Schumann in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
13': 405.
1894.
Abutilon leucophaeum Hochr. Ann. Cons. & Jard. Gen. 6: 15.
1902.
A shrub,
1 m. high or higher, densely velvety-tomentose all over.
Leaves
long-petioled, the blade broadly ovate, 5-12 cm. long, irregularly crerulate, the
apex acute, the base deeply cordate; flowers axillary, solitary or short-paniculate;
548
MALVACEAE
peduncles short, sometimes as long as the upper petioles; calyx about 13 mm.
long, deeply cleft, the lobes ovate, acute; petals white, fading rose, somewhat
longer than the calyx; carpels 12-14, swollen, black, apiculate.
[A. pedunculare
of Bello, not of Kunth.]
Thickets and hillsides, vicinity of Guanica.
Endemic.
Terciopelo.
Abutilon permolle
(Willd.)
Sweet, of Florida, the Bahamas, Cuba and
Jamaica, listed by Ivrebs from St. Thomas, probably in error, is not otherwise
recorded from within the range of this Flora [Sida permollis Willd. J.
2. WISSADULA Medic. Malv. 24.
1787.
Perennial
herbs, somewhat woody,
with
petioled
cordate,
mostly
entire
leaves, and small, yellow or white,
perfect, 5-parted, exinvolucrate flowers in
terminal panicles, or solitary in the axils.
Calyx deeply lobed.
Ovary 5-celled;
ovules mostly 3 in each cavity; style-branches 5.
Carpels 5, each 2-celled, im-
pressed laterally, apiculate or aristate.
Seeds mostly 3 in each carpel, the lower
one often villous.
[East Indian name.]
About 20 species, of tropical distribu-
tion, mostly American.
Type species:
Wissadula zeylanica Medic.
Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, truncate or subcordate, gradu-
ally acuminate; petals wliite.
1.
W. periplocifolia.
Leaves
orbicular-ovate,
deeply
cordate,
mostly long-acuminate;
petals yellow.
2.
W. amplissima.
1. Wissadula periplocifolia (L.) Presl, Eel, Haenk. 2: 117.
1836.
Sida periplocifolia L. Sp. PI. 684.
1753.
Abutilon periplocifolium Sweet, Hort. Brit. 53.
1826.
Perennial, somewhat woody, steUate-piibescent, branched, 5-10 dm. high.
Leaves lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, entire, cordate, gradually long-acuminate,
the lower ones slender-petioled, 5-15 cm. long, the upper short-petioled, much
smaller; flowers soUtary in the axils and in a terminal panicle sometimes 2 dm.
long; pedicels filiform, 2 cm. long or less; calyx about 4 mm
. long; petals white,
about twice as long as the calyx; carpels black, apiculate, 6-8 mm. long.
Plains and hillsides at lower elevations, southern and western districts of Porto Rico;
St. Croix:—Cuba; Trinidad; Margarita; northern South America.
2. Wissadula amplissima (L.) R. E. Fries, Svenska Vet. Akad, Handl. 43*: 48.
1908.
Sida amplissima L. Sp. PI. 685.
1753.
Sida hernandioides L'Her. Stirp. Nov. 2: 121.
1789.
Abutilon hernandioides Sweet, Hort. Brit. 53.
1826.
Wissadula rostrata Planch, in Hook. Niger Fl. 229.
1849.
Wissadula periplocifolia hernandioides Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 25.
1866.
Wissadula hernandioides Garcke, Zeitz. Naturw. 63.
122.
1890.
Abutilon ainplissimum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. S^: 17.
1898.
Perennial, woody
, 'stellate-tomentulose, erect, branched, 1.5 m. high or less.
Leaves broadly ovate, thin, entire, cordate, acute or acummate, the lower ones
slender-petioled, 5-15 cm. long, the upper much smaller, nearly sessile; flowers
sohtary in the upper axils and forming a terminal panicle; pedicels slender or
short, often with large simple or stellate hairs; calyx about 3 mm. long; petals
yeUow, 5-6 mm. long; carpels 7-8 mm. long, short-beaked, puberulent, broAvnish.
Plains and hillsides, Porto Rico, at lower elevations, southern and western districts;
Ciilebra; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; continental
tropical America.
We have been xmable to distinguish W. hernandioides from W. amplis-
sima in Porto Rico.
Pichana.
MALVACEAE
549
3. GAYOIDES Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 764.
1903.
A slender, perennial, finely velvety and often also villous herb, with petioled
ovate
cordate
leaves and
solitary axillary filiform-peduncled whitish flowers.
Involucre none.
Calyx deeply 5-cleft.
Petals
5, distinct.
Carpels numerous,
1-celled, membranous and inflated
in
fruit, the apex rounded; styles slender,
stigmas terminal: ovules 2-6 in each carpel.
Seeds glabrous.
[Similar to the
genus Gaya.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Gayoides crispum (L.) Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 764.
1903.
Sida crispa L. Sp. PI. 685.
1753.
Ahutilon crispum Medic. Malv. 29.
1787.
Usually much branched, the branches diffuse or ascending, 3-10 dm. long.
Leaves thin, broadly ovate, 2-7 cm. long, acute or acuminate at the apex, deeply
cordate at the base, crenate or crenulate, the petioles equalhng the blades, or
shorter, sometimes very short: peduncles as long as the leaves, or shorter, jointed
below the flower; calyx velvety and often villous, its lobes ovate or ovate-lanceo-
ate, acute, 4-6 mm. long; petals pale yellow or whitish, obovate, about twice as
long as the calyx; fruiting head of carpels 12-20 mm. thick, the inflated carpels
somewhat pubescent.
In dry soil near the southwestern coast, and in sand-dunes at Santurce, Porto Rico;
Mona; St. Thomas:—Florida; West Indies, soiith to Grenada; Margarita; Texas and New
Mexico; south into South America; tropical Asia.
4. MALVASTRUM A. Gray, IMem. Am. Acad. II. 4: 21.
1849.
Herbs, with entire cordate or divided leaves, and soUtary or clustered, short-
pedicelled
perfect
flowers.
Calyx
5-cleft,
Bractlets of the involucels small,
1-3
or none.
Cavities
of the ovary
1-ovuled.
Style-branches
of the same
ntmiber, stigmatic at the summit only, forming capitate stigmas; carpels inde-
hiscent or imperfectly 2-valved, falling away from the axis at maturity, their
apices pointed or beaked.
Seed ascending.
[Greek, star-mallow.]
About 75
species, natives of America and S. Africa.
Known as Malvavisco and False
Mallow.
Type species: Malvasirum coccineum (Pursh) A. Gray.
Carpels aristate; flowers mostly solitary in the axils.
1. M. coromandelianum.
Carpels not aristate; flowers in terminal heads or spikes, or also
axillary.
Flowers mostly in short terminal heads or spikes 1-2 cm.
long.
2. M. corchorifolium.
Flowers m dense terminal spikes 5-12 cm. long.
3. M. spicatutn.
1. Malvastrum coromandelianum
(L.) Garcke, Bonplandia 5: 297.
1857.
Malva coromajideliana L. Sp. PI. 687.
1753.
Malva tricuspidata Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, 4: 210.
1812.
Malvastrum tricuspidatum A. Gray, PI. Wright.
1: 16.
1852.
Perennial, strigose-pubescent, branched, 3-10 dm. high.
Leaves ovate to
oblong-ovate, slender-petioled, 2-8 cm.
long,
acute, sharply serrate, the hairs
of the upper surfaces mostly simple
; flowers mostly soUtary in the axils, on pe-
duncles shorter than the
petioles; involucels of 3 small
bractlets; calyx-lobes
triangular, acute, longer than its tube
; petals pale yellow, somewhat longer than
the calyx, obUquely truncate; carpels 8-12, hirsute on top, with an awn near the
inflexed apex and 2 beaks on the back.
[Malva americana of Krebs and of Bello,
not of Linnaeus.]
Banks,
fields, roadsides and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico; Desecheo; Muertos*
Icacos; Culebra
; Vieques
;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tor tola:—southern United
States; Bermuda; West
Indies; continental
tropical America and Old World
tropics
Soap Bush.
'
550
MALA^ACEAE
2. Malvastrum corchorifolium (Desv.) Britton; Small, Fl. Miami 119.
1913.
Malva corchorifolia Desv. in Lam. Encycl. 3: 755.
1791.
Malvastrum Rugelii S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 17: 367.
1882.
Similar to the preceding species, about as pubescent and the leaves much
alike in both, the hairs of the upper surfaces mostly forked.
Flowers mostly in
terminal heads 1-2 cm. long, or some of them solitary in the axils; calyx-lobes
triangular-ovate,
acuminate;
petals
orange
or
yellow,
oblique
or
obcordate,
longer than the calyx; carpels about 10 or fewer, hispidulous, beakless, or some-
times with a blunt protuberance.
Plains and liillsides at lower elevations in the dry southern districts of Porto Rico;
Desecheo;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
Virgin Gorda:—Florida; Bahamas; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Jamaica.
3. Malvastrum spicatum (L.) A. Gray, Mem. Am. Acad. 4: 22.
1849.
Malva spicata L. Syst. ed. 10, 1146.
1759.
Perennial, usually densely stellate-pubescent, erect stout, branched, 0.5-2 m.
high.
Leaves broadly ovate, serrate, stellate-pubescent on both sides, the apex
acute or acuminate, the base subtruncate or obtuse, the lower ones long-petioled,
7 cm. long or less, the upper smaller; flowers in dense terminal spikes 5-12 cm.
long, 1.5-2.5 cm. thick, with sometimes a few in the upper axils; bractlets 5-7
mm. long; calyx about 5 mm. long; petals yellow, about 7 mm. long; carpels
nearly 2 mm. long, beaked, not aristate.
Fields, waste and cultivated grounds at lower elevations. Porto Rico; Mona; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:—West Indies (except Bahamas): conti-
nental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Malvastrum capitatum
(Cav.)
Griseb.,
recorded by
Krebs
from
St.
Thomas, is a species of southern South America [Malva capitata Cav.].
5. SIDA L. Sp. PI. 683.
1753.
Herbs,
rarely shrubs
or
trees, with
serrate crenate or lobed
leaves, and
perfect flowers.
Bractlets of the involucre none.
Calyx 5-toothed or 5-cleft.
Cavities of the ovary 1-ovuled; style-branches of the same number as the cavities,
stigmatic at the summit.
Carpels indehiscent, or at length 2-valved at the apex.
Seed pendulous.
[Greek, used by Theophrastus.]
About 75 species, natives of
the warmer parts of America, Asia, Africa and Australasia.
Known as Escoba
and EscoBiTA.
Type species: Sida alnifolia L.
A. Herbaceous plants.
1. Flowers adnate to the petioles of foliaceous bracts, clustered
at the ends of the branches.
1.
S. ciliaris.
2. Flowers not adnate to petioles, solitary or clustered.
*Calyx distinctly angular.
+Leaves narrowed or rounded or subcordate at the base.
Carpels mostly 5.
Peduncles as long as the calyx or longer.
Velvety-pubescent; carpels long-beaked.
2.
S. erecta.
Sparingly pubescent; carpels short-beaked.
3.
S. spinosa.
Flowers subsessile.
Leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, mostly
acmninate.
4.
S. glomerata.
Leaves ovate, obtuse or acute.
5.
S. jamaicensis.
Carpels mostly 7-12.
Flowers short-peduncled.
6.
S. carpinifolia.
Peduncles about as long as the leaves.
7.
S. rhombifoUa.
tfLeaves cordate at the base.
Stems prostrate or nearly so.
Leaves densely puberulent, obtuse.
8.
S. procumbens.
Leaves
glabrous,
or with a few
scattered
hairs,
acute.
9.
iS. humilis.
Stems erect.
Leaves
softly and densely
velvety or tomentose
on both sides.
Carpels 10-12; pubescence velvety.
10.
S. cordifoUa.
MALVACEAE
551
Carpels 5; pubescence tomentose.
11.
S. aggregata.
Leaves glabrous, glandular or pilose.
Peduncles solitary or 2-3 together in the axils,
some of them flliform and longer than the
calyx.
Calvx-teeth ovate-lanceolate, as long as the
tube.
12.
S. glabra.
Calvx-teeth
broadly
ovate,
shorter
than
the tube.
13.
S. glulinosa.
Flowers glomerate, subsessile.
14.
S. urens.
**Calyx-tube terete.
Leaves ovate to lanceolate, short-petioled.
15.
S. acuminata.
Leaves broadly ovate, long-petioled.
16.
S. pyramidata.
A tree up to 8 m. high; leaves large, ovate, cordate.
17.
S. Eggcrsii.
1. Sida ciliaris L. Syst. ed. 10, 1145.
1759.
Perennial, strigose-pubescent,
diffusely branched at the base from a deep
woody root, the slender liranches prostrate or ascending, 1-3 dm. long.
Leaves
oblong or elliptic, 0.7-3.5 cm. long, obtuse or emarginate at the apex, mostly
obtuse at the base, serrate, mostly above the middle, slender-petioled, usually
glabrous above and stellate-pubescent beneath; flowers clustered at the ends of
the branches, their short peduncles adnate to the petioles of the foliaceous bracts;
stipules
linear or linear-spatulate,
long-ciliate, about as long as the
petioles;
calyx hirsute, its triangular acute lobes about as long as the nearly terete tube
petals red, yellow or purpUsh, blotched at the base, 6-12 mm. long; carpels 5-8,
wrinkled or tubercled, 2 beaked.
Porto Kico (according to Stahl, but not observed by recent botanists)
; in dry soil.
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Ggrda; Anegada:—Florida; Bahamas;
Jamaica; Hispaniola;
St. Martin; Bequia; Margarita; Ctu-agao; Aruba; tropical South
America.
2. Sida erecta Macf. FL Jam. 1 : 86.
1837.
Sida angustijolia Moritziana Schum. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 12^: 336.
1891.
Annual, erect, branched or sometimes simple, 4 dm. high or less, velvety
pubescent.
Leaves oblong or linear-oblong, petioled, 1-4 cm. long, velvety on
both sides, acutish. serrulate, the base narrowed or obtuse; flowers axillary, or
few together in a terminal cluster; peduncles, or some of them as long as the calyx
or longer, mostly longer than the petioles; calyx angled, velvety, about 6 mm.
long,
its teeth triangular, acute; corolla white with a yellow eye, about
1 cm.
broad; carpels long-beaked.
[<S. angustissima of R. E. Fries, not of St. Hilaire.]
Dry soil in the sotithern and southwestern districts of Porto Rico, near the coast;
Culebrita; Muertos; St. Croix; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Colombia.
3. Sida spinosa L. Sp. PI. 683.
1753.
Sida angustifolia Lam. Encycl. 1: 4.
1783.
Sida spinosa angustifolia Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
1. 74.
1859.
Annual, finely pubescent, 3-6 dm. high.
Leaves ovate to oblong-lanceolate,
2-5 cm. long, petioled, truncate or subcordate at the base, crenate-dentate
; flowers
axillary, short-peduncled, yellow; peduncles shorter than the petioles; calyx-teeth
triangular, acute; carpels 5, dehiscent at the apex into 2 beaks; stipules linear;
petioles of the larger leaves with a small
spin..^-like tubercle at the base.
[? S.
spinosa polycarpa of Eggers; S. retusa of Millspaugh.]
Dry
soil at lower elevations near the southern and western coasts of Porto Rico;
Mona;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan; Virgin Gorda:—eastern United
States,. West
Indies, south to Barbados, Grenada and Aruba; continental tropical America and Old
World tropics.
552
MALVACEAE
4. Sida glomerata Cav. Diss, l: 18.
1785.
Sida Bertetiana Balb.; DC. Prodr. 1: 460.
1824.
Somewhat woody, erect, branched, pilose, at least above, 3^15 dm. high.
Leaves thin, oblong-lanceolate, nearly
sessile,
serrate, 2-8 cm.
long, the apex
acute or acuminate, the base narrowed
; flowers several together in nearly sessile,
axillary clusters; calyx campanulate, 5-angled,
10-nerved, about 7 mm. long,
pilose, its triangular lobes acuminate; petals white or whitish, a little longer than
the calyx
; carpels 5, about 2 mm. long, reticulated, obtuse.
[S. jamaicensis of
Bello, not of Linnaeus, j
Fields, banks and hillsides at lower elevations, Porto Eico; Vieques;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Martinique to Trinidad;
continental tropical America.
6. Sida jamaicensis L. Syst. ed. 10, 1145.
1759.
Sida tristis Schl. Linnaea 3: 271.
1828.
Perennial,
erect, decumbent,
prostrate
or
ascending,
branched,
velvety-
stellate, 3-6 dm. high.
Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, short-petioled, crenate or
crenulate, velvety, 2-5 cm. long, the apex acute or obtuse, the base mostly obtuse,
more or less oblique; flowers nearly sessile in the axils, solitary or few together;
calyx 6-7 mm. long, turbinate, 5-angled, its triangular lobes acuminate; petals
white, or light yellow, broad, about as long as the calyx; carpels 5, about 2 mm
.
long, 2-aristulate, reticulated or somewhat tuberculate.
Hillsides, St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Barts; Guadeloupe; Mexico to Colombia; not yet detected on Porto Kico or any of
its islands.
6. Sida carpinifolia L.f. Suppl. 307.
1781.
Sida repanda Roth, Nov. PI. Sp. 328.
1821.
Sida acuta carpinifolia' Schum. in Mart.
Fl. Bras.
12»: 326.
1891.
Sida antillensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 418.
1908.
Puberulent or glabrous.
Stems erect, 3-9 dm. tall, branching; leaves lance-
olate, oblong-ovate or ovate, 2-10 cm. long, acute or acuminate, irregularly ser-
rate, obtuse or subcordate at the base, the petioles 3-7 mm. long; stipules con-
spicuous, narrowly Unear to lanceolate, surpassing the petioles; peduncles mostly
shorter than the pedicels, 1-7 mm. long; calyx 5-10-ribbed, its lobes triangular,
slightly acuminate, about as long as the tube; petals yellow to white, 6-12 mm.
long; carpels reticulate-wrinkled, 2-beaked.
[S.
carpinifolia acuta and
S.
car-
pinifolia antillana of MUlspaugh;
(?)
S.
carpinifolia
brevicuspidata of Eggers;
referred to S. acuta Burm. by Urban.]
Banks, fields and hillsides, mostly at lower elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques; Muertos;
Icacos;
St. Thomas; St. Jan;
St. Croix:—southeastern United
States; Bermuda; West
Indies; continental tropical America.
Wire-Weed.
7. Sida rhombifolia L. Sp. PI. 684.
1753.
Annual, 3-9 dm.
high,
branched, puberulent
or
glabrate,
usually
erect.
Leaves rhombic, elliptic-obovate or oblanceolate, short-petioled, 2-9 cm. long,
acute or obtuse, serrate, except near the usually narrowed or subcuneate base,
somewhat pubescent beneath; flowers soUtary In the axils, slender-peduncled, the
peduncles mostly about as long as the leaves or longer; calyx angled, about 6 mm.
long, its lobes triangular, acuminate; petals yellow, 6-8 mm. long; carpels 10 or
12, subulate-beaked, 3-4 mm. long.
Fields, banks and
hillsides, at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—southeastern United
States; Bermuda; West Indies
(except Bahamas)
: continental tropical America and Old World tropics.
MALVACEAE
553
8. Sida procumbens S\v. Prodr. 101.
1788.
Sida pilosa Cav. Diss. 1: 9.
1785.
Not Retz.
1779.
Sida supina L'Her. Stirp. Nov. 109.
1789.
Branched at the base, the branches slender, prostrate or nearly so, 1-6 dm.
long, densely puberulent, glabrate or pilose.
Leaves ovate or ovate-orbicular,
1-2.5 cm. long, slender-petioled, crenate, obtuse at the apex, cordate at the base,
densely puberulent on both sides; peduncles axillary, soUtary, about as long as the
leaves or shorter, or longer, filiform, sometimes pilose- calyx about 4 mm. long,
puberulent or pilose,
its 5 ovate acuminate
lobes somewhat shorter than the
angled tube; petals pale yellow or white with yellow base, 4-6 mm. long; carpels
mostly 5, reticulate. 2-beaked. about 2 mm. long.
[S. ovata Cav., not Forsk.]
Fields, banks and hillsides, Porto Rico, at low elevations in dry parts of the southern
and southwestern
districts; Mona;
Desecheo; Vieques;
St.
Croix; Anegada:—Florida;
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Martin; St. Eustatius; Saba; Curacao; Aruba;
continental tropical America.
9. Sida humilis Cav. Diss. 5: 277.
1788.
Perennial; stem prostrate or trailing, branched, 2-5 dm. long, slender, gla-
brous or sometimes strigose.
Leaves ovate or orbicular-ovate, rather thin, spar-
ingly stellate-pubescent or glabrous, cordate, acute or acuminate, crenate-dentate,
2-4 cm. long, the petioles very slender
; flowers axillary, yellow, flUform-peduncled,
about 1 cm. broad
; calyx angled, about 5 mm. long, ciliate or sparingly pubescent,
its teeth ovate-lanceolate, acute; carpels short-beaked.
[S. procumbens Bello,
notSwartz; S. s^^pinaof Stahlandof INIillspaugh.notL'Heritier; Sida supina glabra
of Eggers and of Millspaugh; S. hederaeJoUa of I'Crebs; specimens from Maricao
were, apparently, erroneously referred by Urban to S. hederaefolia Cav., but the
application of the name humilis to our plant is not certainly determined.]
Sandy banks at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. CroLx;
St.
Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Hispaniola; Saba; Grenada.
10. Sida cordifolia L. Sp. PI. 684.
1753.
Sida althaeifolia Sw. Prodr. 101.
1788.
Sida conferta Link, Enum. 2: 207.
1822.
Sida portoricensis Spreng. Syst. 3: 114.
1826.
Densely stellate-velvety all over, perennial, somewhat woody; stems erect,
rather stout, 6-15 dm. high.
Leaves ovate to ovate-orbicular., irregularly den-
tate, acute or obtuse, the lower long-petioled, cordate, 8 cm. long or less, the upper
smaller, short-petioled, the base rounded or subcordate; flowers terminal and
axillary, corymbose or subglomerate ; calyx tomentose, 5-angled, about 6 mm.
long, the lobes acute; petals yellow, nearly twice as long as the calyx; carpels
7-12, about 4 mm. long, aristate, their sides reticulated.
[S. cordifolia althaei-
folia of Millspaugh.]
Dry soil on plains and
hillsides, Porto Rico, at lower elevations, mostly near the
coasts; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan: Virgin Gorda:—Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispan-
ola; St. Martin to Trinidad; continental tropical America; Old World tropics.
11. Sida aggregata Presl, Rel. Haenk. 2: 106.
1836.
Sida savannarum Schum. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 12': 308.
1891.
Erect, perennial, more or less branched, stellate-tomentose
all over, 6-15
dm. high.
Lower leaves long-petioled, broadly ovate, irregularly serrulate or
crenate, 3-8 cm. long, the base cordate, the apex acute or acuminate; uppermost
leaves much smaller than the lower; flowers glomerate or subspicate in a terminal
panicle or also in the upper axils, sessile or very nearly so; calyx turbinate, 5-
angled,
densely
ft)mentose, 7-8 mm.
long,
its
lobes
triangular-ovate,
acute;
554
MALVACEAE
petals yellow or saffron, somewhat longer than the calj^x; carpels 5, about 2 mm.
long, obtuse, reticulated.
Roadsides,
St. Croix:—Jamaica; northern South America.
12. Sida glabra Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8.
1768.
Sida itlmijolia Cav. Diss. 1: 15.
1785.
Sida arguia Sw. Prodr. 101.
1788.
Perennial, erect, or with decumbent branches, slender, glabrate. or sparingly
pubescent with mostly simple hairs, 2-7 dm. high.
Leaves slender-petioled or
the upper ones nearly sessile, ovate, serrate, thin, 2-7 cm. long, the base cordate,
the apex acuminate; flowers solitary or 2
or. 3 together in the
axils,
slender-
peduncled; calyx 5-angled, 5-6 mm. long,
its teeth ovate-lanceolate, about as
long as the tube; petals yellow, about as long as the calyx; carpels 5, glabrous,
2-awned.
Plains,
liillsides and
thickets in the southern and southwestern districts of Porto
Rico, at lower elevations; Mona; Deseclieo; Culebra; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:
Tortola; Virgin Gorda:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Martin to Martinique; Central
America to Venezuela.
13. Sida glutinosa Comm.; Cav. Diss. 1: 16.
1785.
Sida nervosa DC. Prodr.
1: 465.
1825.
Erect, 5-10 dm. high, branched, the stem and branches densely tomentulose,
somewhat glutinous, sometimes also with long spreading hairs.
Leaves ovate
to lanceolate, 8 cm. long or less, acuminate at the apex, cordate at the base,
crenulate,
the lower long-petioled,
the upper usually much smaller than the
upper and shorter-petioled
; flowers 1-several in the axils or in terminal panicles;
pedicels flUform, mostly much longer than the calyx, pubescent; calyx angled,
3-5 mm. long, its broadly ovate, sharply acute teeth shorter than the tube; petals
yellow, about twice as long as the calyx; carpels 5, pubescent above, 2-aristate.
[?
<S. nervosa viscosa of Eggers.]
In dry soil, southern and western districts at lower elevations, Porto Rico; St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan:—Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Antigua,
Guadeloupe;
Trinidad; continental tropical America.
14. Sida urens L. Syst. ed. 10, 1145.
1759.
Harshly hirsute, erect, ascending, or prostrate, weak, branched or sometimes
simple, 3-15 dm. high.
Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 2.5-8 cm. long, acute
or acuminate at the apex, cordate at the base, slender-petioled, serrate, loosely
stellate-pubescent;
flowers
subsessile
in
axillary and
terminal,
usually
dense
clusters, or some of them axillary, solitary and short-pedicelled
; calyx hirsute,
5-cleft, angular, 6-7 mm. long,
its triangular-ovate, acute or acuminate teeth
about as long as the tube; petals yellow, reddish at base, or pink, or white;
carpels 5, glabrous, 2-denticulate.
[S. ulmifolia of Stahl, not of Cavanilles.]
Banks, thickets and
hillsides,
at lower and middle elevations in moist districts of
Porto
Rico;
Vieques:—Bahamas;
Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Antigua
to
Trinidad;
continental tropical America; tropical Africa.
15. Sida acuminata DC. Prodr.
1: 462.
1825.
Densely stellate-pubescent, somewhat woody, 5-8 dm.
high, branched or
sometimes simple.
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, rather short-petioled, 2-7
cm. long, acute, obtuse, or acuminate at the apex, roimded or subcordate at the
base, low crenate-serrate
; flowers few or solitary in the axils and often in small
terminal clusters, nearly sessile or flliform-peduncled, the peduncles sometimes
2-3 cm. long; calyx 5-6 mm. long, terete, its 5, broadly ovate, acute teeth some-
what shorter than the tube; petals yellow, 4-5 mm. long; carpels .5-8, stellate-
MALVACEAE
555
pubescent, scarcely beaked.
[S. acuminata
sessilis E. G. Baker;
S. acuminata
Bracei E. G. Baker; S. acum,inata macrophylla and microphylla Schl.]
Hillsides and plains, southern and western districts of Porto Rico, at lower elevations;
Culebra; Mona;
Desecheo; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:
Bahamas; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St. Martin;
St.
Barts,
St.
Kitts,
Antigua; Montserrat
northern South America.
16. Sida pyramidata Desportes; Cav. Diss. 1: ll.
1785.
Sida dumosa Sw. Prodr. 101.
1788.
Sida leiophylla Spreng. Syst. 3: 121.
1826.
Perennial, somewhat woody, branched, erect or nearly so, 6-20 dm. high, the
slender branches puberulent.
Leaves slender-petioled, broadly ovate, glabrous
or puberulent, crenulate-dentate, 3-10 cm. long, the base cordate, the apex acute
or acuminate; flowers in terminal and sometimes axillary narrow panicles often
longer than the leaves; pedicels short; calyx subhemispheric, not angled, pubes-
cent, about 4 mm. long, its triangular lobes sharply acute
; petals yellow or reddish,
a little longer than the calyx; carpels 5-8, glabrous, tuberculate, 2-cuspidate.
Thickets and arroyos in the dry southern districts, Porto Rico:—-Jamaica,; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Martinique; continental tropical America.
17. Sida Eggersii E. G. Baker, Journ. Bot. 30: 139.
1892.
A tree, up to 8 m. high, with a trunk 1.5 dm. in diameter or more, the short,
rather stout twigs densely yellowish-furfuraceous when young, becoming glabrous.
Leaves long-petioled, broadly ovate, rather thick, crenate-dentate, finely velvety
on both sides, 5-15 cm. long, 7-9-nerved, the apex acute or obtuse, the base cor-
date; flowers in rather dense axillary panicles shorter than the leaves; pedicels
very short; calyx broadly campanulate, velvety, not angled, 12-14 mm.
long.
its triangular-ovate lobes acute; petals yellow, somewhat longer than the calyx;
carpels 5 or 6, pubescent, about 3 mm. long, shortly 2-cuspidate.
In a dry valley, Culebra; hillsides. Tortola; perhaps also on St. Thomas (see Eggers,
Suppl.
14).
Endemic.
One of the most interesting species of our Flora.
This may be
the plant recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas as Sida arborea.
Sida purpurea Bello, Anal. See. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 239.
1881.
This is described as a low shrub, with small ovate serrate leaves, and small
subsolitary rose-colored flowers, the capsule 5-celled, recorded by Bello as found
at Aguadilla.
It is known to us only from the description and may not belong
to this genus.
Sida Sessei Lag., Mexican, recorded by Krebs from St. Thomas, must be
an error in identification.
6. ANODA Cav. Diss. 1: 39.
1785.
Herbs, mostly annual, glabrous, or pubescent with simple hairs, the leaves
various, usually lobed, the rather large, perfect, mostly purple,
lilac or violet,
exinvolucrate flowers solitary and peduncled in the
axils.
Calyx 5-lobed,
ac-
crescent.
Petals
5,
oblique.
Styles
5.
Stamen-tube
elongated.
Carpels
many, radiate, 1-seeded, the seed pendulous.
[Greek, without nodes.]
Perhaps
15
species
or more,
of tropical and
subtropical
distribution.
Type
species:
Anoda hastata Cav.
656
MALVACEAE
1. Anoda acerifolia (Zucc.) DC. Prodr. i: 450.
1825.
Sida acerifolia Zucc. in Koemer, Coll. 148.
1809.
Glabrous, or sparingly hirsute above, branched, erect, diffuse or prostrate,
3-8 dm. long.
Leaves slender-petioled, various, ovate-deltoid, entire, dentate or
palmately lobed, 2-7 cm. long, the apex acute or acuminate, the base truncate
or cordate; peduncles slender, mostly as long as the leaves or longer; calyx .5-lobed
to about the middle, 1.5-2.5 cm. broad in
fruit, the lobes ovate, acute; petals
blue or Ulac, obovate,
1-1.5 cm. long; carpels 9-15, setose, tomentose, short-
beaked, about 4 mm. long.
[A. hastata of authors, not of Cavanilles.]
Banks,
fields and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, ascending to higher elevations:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Tobago; continental tropical America.
Violeta.
Anoda.
7. BASTARDIA H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 254.
1821.
Velvety-pubescent or tomentose shrubs or perennial herbs, with petioled
cordate leaves, and small yellow peduncled flowers, soUtary or few in the axils.
Involucre none.
Calyx 5-toothed or 5-cleft.
Petals 5.
Stamen-column divided
into several or many filaments at the apex.
Ovary 5-celled; ovules
1 in each
cavity, pendulous;
style-branches
5;
stigmas
capitate.
Capsule
depressed-
globose,
5-grooved,
3-5-valved.
[Commemorates
the
French
botanist
T.
Bastard.]
Six known
species,
of tropical America.
Type
species:
Bastardia
parvifolia H. B. K.
Pedicels usually longer than the petioles, often longer than the leaves;
.
carpels beakless.
,
,
,.
,
^
o*
"5" Vff^fJ^,
Pedicels short, not longer than the calyx; carpels beaked.
2. U. Ottalvts.
1. Bastardia viscosa (L.) H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 256.
1822.
Sida viscosa L. Syst. ed. 10, 1145.
1759.
Sida foeiida Cav. Diss. 6: 149.
1788.
Sida retrofracta DC. Prodr. 1: 457.
1824.
Finely velvety-pubescent and viscid, sometimes also pilose, erect, branched,
3-7 dm. high.
Leaves ovate, 1-6 cm.
long, acute or acuminate at the apex,
cordate at the base, irregularly denticulate, the slender petioles as long as the
blades or shorter; pedicels nearly filiform, longer than the petioles, often longer
than the leaves, rarely not longer than the calyx
; calyx about 4 mm. long, its 5,
ovate-lanceolate, acuminate teeth about as long as the tube; petals yellow, 4-5
mm. long; capsule about as long as the calyx, its carpel-valves beakless.
[Abutilon
leiospermuni of Stahl, not of Grisebach.]
Plains and hiUsides, at low elevations in the southern and southwestern districts.
Porto Kico; Muertos; Mona;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Virgm Gorda:—West
Indies; Mexico to Colombia and Peru.
Viscid Mallow.
2. Bastardia bivalvis (Cav.) H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 198.
1821.
Sida bivalvis Cav. Diss. 1: 13.
1785.
Velvety-pubescent and viscid with glandular hau-s, branched, 2 m. high or
less.
Leaves broadly ovate, petioled, 7 cm. long or less, crenate-dentate, cordate,
acute or acuminate; pedicels not longer than the calyx, shorter than the petioles;
calyx about 6 mm. long,
its segments lanceolate, acuminate; petals yellow, a
little longer than the calyx; capsule not longer than the calyx, its carpel-valves
with short subulate beaks.
Fields near Coamo, between
Serillos and
SaUnas,
coUected
only by
Sintenis:—
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; tropical America.
Recorded by Krebs as formerly found
on St. Thomas.
MALVACEAE
557
8. MALACHRA L. Sp. PI. ed. 12, 458.
1767.
Hirsute or pubescent perennial herbs or shrubs, with various, mostly long-
petioled, dentate or lobed, subulate-stipulate leaves, and capitate,
axillary or
terminal, bracted, perfect exinvolucrate flowers, or with an involucel of subulate
bractlets
in one
species.
Calyx
5-cleft
or 5-parted.
Petals
5,
ineguilateral.
Stamen-tube shorter than the petals, .5-toothed, bearing 1.5-.30 filaments at about
the middle.
Ovary 5-celled, each cavity with 1 ovule; style subterete; stigmas
10.
Carpels
5,
obtuse,
convex,
reticulated.
[Greek,
mallow.]
About
10
species, mostly of the American tropics.
Known as Malvavisco.
Type species:
Malachra capitata L.
Involucre none.
Plants velvety stellate-pubernlent, sometimes also with long hairs;
petals yellow.
1.
2\/. capitata.
Plants hispid with long simple or also stellate hairs.
Petals yeUow to reddish; stipules 1-1.5 cm. long; bracts cordate.
Bracts acute, the outer 2-2.5 cm. long.
2. M. alceifolia.
Bracts aciuninate, the outer about 1.5 cm. long.
.3. M. urens.
Petals white; stipules 2-3 cm. long; bracts subcordate.
4. M. fasciata.
Involucre of subulate bractlets; petals pink or rose.
5. M. radiata.
1. Malachra capitata L. Syst. ed. 12, 2: 458.
1767.
Sida capitata L. Sp.
PI. 685.
1753.
Malachra palmata Moench, Meth. 615.
1794.
Erect, usually branched, velvety stellate-pubescent and often with some
long whitish hairs, 6-15 dm. high.
Leaves broadly ovate to suborbicular, dentate
or 3-5-lobed, the lower ones up to 12 cm. long, the upper smaller; stipules 15 mm.
long or
less; heads few-several-flowered, mostly on
axillary peduncles; outer
bracts broadly ovate, conduplicate,
cordate,
acute, strongly nerved,
velvety,
2-2.5 cm. long, the inner ovate, smaller; calyx 6-8 mm. long, its lobes ovate-
lanceolate, obtuse; petals yellow, about 1 cm. long; carpels 2.5-3 mm. long.
Fields, roadsides, waste and cultivated groimds, Porto Rico,
at lower and middle
elevations; St. Croi.x:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Dominica; Martinique;
Texas to Central America.
2. Malachra alceifolia Jacq. Coll. 2: 350.
1788.
Malachra rotundifolia Schrank, PI. Rar. Mon.
pi. 56.
1819.
Malachra alceifolia rotundifolia Guerke, in Mart. Fl. Bras. 12^: 462.
1892.
Hispid with long yellowish, simple or stellate hairs, branched, erect, 5-20
dm. high.
Lower leaves suborbicular or reniform-orbicular, cordate, dentate,
or angulately lobed, 7-15 cm. broad, the upper smaller, broadly ovate; stipules
10 to about 15 mm
. long; heads sessile or short-peduncled in the
a.xils, several-
flowered; outer bracts triangular-ovate, cordate, acute, veined, hispid, 2-2.5 cm.
long, the inner smaller; calyx about 6 mm. long, its lobes lanceolate, aristate;
petals yeUow, 12-15 mm. long; carpels about 3 mm. long.
[M. capitata of Ivrebs,
of Grisebach, of Bello, of Stahl and of Eggei's in part, not of Linnaeus.]
Fields
thickets, waste and
cultivated groimds, Porto Rico,
at lower and middle
elevations in moist districts; Mona; Icacos; Vieques, Culebra;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—West Indies (except Bahamas)
; continental tropical America.
Malva
DE Caballo.
Bastard Okra.
3. Malachra urens Poit. ; Ledeb. & Adlerst. Diss. PI. Doming. 22.
1805.
Malachra ciliata Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 3: 578.
1813.
Low, branched, usually less than 5 dm. high, sparingly hispid with simple
hairs, sometimes with stellate ones intermixed.
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate,
558
MALVACEAE
dentate, rarely slightly 3-lobed, 6 cm. Ions; or less, the apex acute or obtuse, the
base usually rounded; stipules 5-15 mm. long; heads subsessile in the axils, few-
flowered; outer bracts triangular-lanceolate, acuminate, 10-15 mm. long, cordate,
the inner smaller; calyx 4-5 mm. long, its lobes lanceolate, aristate; petals red,
orange or yellow, about 15 mm. long.
Recorded as collected by Riedle in Porto Rico (prior to 1800) but not seen by sub-
sequent collectors; also recorded by Eggers from
St. Thomas, perhaps erroneously:
Florida; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola.
4. Malachra fasciata Jacq. Coll. 2: 353.
1788.
Hispid with long yellowish, simple or stellate hairs, simple or branched, 5-25
dm. high.
Leaves suborbicular or ovate-orbicular, dentate, 3-5-lobed, or 3-5-
parted, the lower ones up to 1.5 cm. broad, the lobes acute or obtuse, the base
obtuse
or subtruncate,
the upper leaves much
smaller,
ovate
to
lanceolate;
stipules 2-3 cm.
long; heads few-floweretl,
subsessile in
the
axils; outer bracts
triangular-ovate, acuminate, subcordate, 25 mm. long or less; calyx about 5 mm.
long, its lobes lanceolate, aristate; petals white, about 10 mm. long; carpels about
3 mm. long.
[M. radiata of Krebs, of Grisebach, of Bello and of Stahl, not of
Linnaeus.]
Waste grounds, Porto Rico;
St. Thomas
(according to Guerke)
:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Antigua to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
5. Malachra radiata L. Syst. ed. 12, 459.
1767.
Hispid with stiff yellowish, simple or stellate hairs, branched, 2.5 m. high or
less.
Leaves mostly deeply 3-5-parted, the larger ones (j-12 cm. broad, subor-
bicular in outline, cordate, the lobes oblong, acute or obtuse, dentate; upper
leaves smaller, sometimes merely dentate;
stipules about
1 cm. long or
less;
heads mostly terminal, dense, 10-20-flowered
; involucel of 9-12 nearly filiform
bractlets; calyx about 10 mm. long, its lobes acute; petals rose, a little longer than
the calyx; carpels 3-4 mm. long.
Collected by Stevenson at Canovanas in 1916:—Cuba; Hispaniola; central America
and northern South America; tropical Africa.
9. URENA [Dill.] L. Sp. Pi. 692.
1753.
Shrubs, pubescent or tomentose, with petioled various leaves, entire, serrate,
lobed or cleft, palmately nerved, the midvein and sometimes two of the lateral
veins bearing an oblong gland on the under side at the base, the stipules setaceous.
Flowers rose-colored
to
purple,
axillary, mostly sohtary, and sometimes few
together at the ends of branches, involucrate.
Involucre campanulate, 5-cleft.
Calyx deeply 5-cleft.
Petals obcordate or subtruncate, cuneate.
Stamen-tube
about as long as the petals.
Ovary depressed-globose, tubercled, 5-celled; ovules
1 in each ovary-cavity, ascending; style
10-cleft; stigmas discoid.
Carpels
5,
echinate, glochidiate.
[Malabar namej.
A few slightly differing species, regarded
by some authors as races of a single species, widely distributed in tropical and
subtropical regions, known as Cadillo.
Type species: Urena lobata L.
Leaves, at least the lower, as wide as long or wider.
Leaves angulately lobed.
1.
U. lobata.
Leaves deeply palmately lobed.
2.
U. sinuatn.
Leaves longer than wide, some of them 3-lobed.
3.
U. trilobata.
1. Urena lobata L. Sp. PL 682.
1753.
Urena americana L.f. Suppl. 308.
1781.
Urena reticulata Cav. Diss. 6: 335.
1788.
Urena oiminea Cav. Diss. 6; 335.
1788.
Erect, branched, 5-20 dm. high, the branches stellate-pubescent.
Leaves
suborbicular, commonly somewhat
broader than
long,
angulately lobed and
MALVACEAE
559
dentate, 2-12 cm. long, or the upper ones ovate or oblong and merely dentate,
dark
green above,
whitish- tomentose
beneath,
the
base
cordate, rounded
or
narrowed; flowers short-peduncled' involucre and calyx 5-9 mm.
long; petals
12-15 mm. long; carpels tomentose, about as long as the calyx or somewhat
longer, densely echinate.
Fields,
hillsides, waste and cultivated grounds at lower and middle elevations in
moist districts, Porto Rico; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tortola:
Florida; West Indies
(except Bahamas); continental tropical America and Old World
tropics.
2. Urena sinuata L. Sp. PI. 692.
1753.
Erect, branched, 5-10 dm. high, the branches stellate-pubescent or glabrate.
Leaves reniform-orbicular, mostly wider than long or as wide, the larger ones
about 8 cm. long or less, serrate, palmately lobed or deeply palmatifld, the lobes
acute or obtuse, with rounded sinuses, the middle lobe usually the largest, the
upper side dark green, the under side pale-tomentulose
; flowers and fruit similar
to those of U. lobata, the involucre and calyx sometimes smaller.
[Urena Svartzii
of Krebs.]
Fields, waste and cultivated grounds at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico
St. Thomas;
West
Indies
(except Bahamas);
continental
tropical America
and
Old
World tropics.
3. Urena trilobata VeU. Fl. Flum. 286.
1825.
Similar to the two preceding species, differing by its broadly ovate leaves,
10 cm. long or le.ss, distinctly longer than wide, more or less deeply 3-lobed and
irregularly crenate-dentate, the lobes obtuse or acutish, the sinuses mostly acute.
Waste and
ctiltivated grounds, Porto Rico;
St.
Croix:—-Hispaniola; Guadeloupe;
Guiana and Brazil.
10. PAVONIA Cav. Diss. 3: 132.
1787.
Shrubs or shrubby herbs.
Leaves alternate, stipulate, toothed, angled or
lobed.
Flowers perfect, commonly solitary on
axillary peduncles.
Involucre
of 5-15bractlets.
Calyx 5-lobed.
Petals 5.
Carpels 5, 1- celled; styles 10; stigmas
capitate; ovules solitary.
Mature carpels separating from axis, 1-3-awned on
the back, more or less deeply 2-valved.
Seeds solitary, ascending.
[In honor of
Joseph Pavon, Spanish botanist and explorer.]
Ten species or more, mostly of
tropical distribution, the following typical.
1. Pavonia spinifex (L.) Cav. Diss. 3: 133.
1787.
Hibiscus spinifex L. Syst. ed. 10, 1149.
1759.
Malache spinifex Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 70.
1891.
A branching shrub,
1-3 m.
tall,
hirsute and
strigillose.
Leaves ovate or
oblong-ovate, 5-10 cm.
long,
acute or somewhat acuminate, doubly crenate-
dentate,
truncate or subcordate
at the base
the
petioles densely pubescent;
peduncles axillary, much longer than the petioles; bractlets of the involucre
5,
linear to lanceolate, acute, nearly 1 cm. long; calyx about as long as the bractlets,
its lobes lanceolpte to ovate-lanceolate;
petals
yellow,
2.5 cm.
long, cuneate;
carpels 5-6 mm. high, with
1 medial and 2 lateral retrorsely barbed awns.
Hillsides, banks and thickets, waste and cultivated groimds, Porto Rico, ascending
to liiglier elevations; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan: Tortola:—South
Carolina
to
Florida; Bermuda; West
Indies;
continental
tropical America.
Cadillo
KSPINOSO.
660
MALVACEAE
11. TYPHALAEA Neck. Elem. 2: 412.
1790.
[DiPLOPENTA Alef. Oest. Bot. Zeit. 13: 10.
1863.]
Perennial herbs
or shrubs,
with
alternate,
ovate,
elliptic
or
lanceolate,
dentate, stipulate leaves, and small perfect flowers clustered at the end of long
terminal or axillary peduncles.
Involucel of 5-10 Linear or ovate distinct bract-
lets.
Calyx 5-lobed.
Petals
5.
Carpels
5, each
1-celled;
styles
10; stigmas
capitate.
Fruiting carpels hard, 2-valved, separating from the axis, bearing 3
retrorsely barbed awns.
[Derivation not cited. 1
A few species, natives of tropical
America, the following typical.
1. Tsrphalaea fruticosa (Mill.) Britton.
Sida fruticosa Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8, no. 18.
1768.
Urena Typhalaea L. Mant. 258.
1771.
Pavonia Typhalaea Cav. Diss. 3: 134.
1787.
Diplopenta leptocarpa Alef. Oest. Bot. Zeit. 13; 11.
1863.
Malache Typhalaea Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 70.
1891.
Shrubby, erect or somewhat straggling, few-branched or simple, 5-20 dm.
high, stellate-pubescent.
Leaves elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, petioled, dentate
or crenate-dentate, thin, 8-20 cm. long, loosely stellate-pubescent on both sides,
the apex acuminate, the base narrowed or obtuse
; flowers glomerate at the ends
of long, mostly terminal peduncles;
involucre-bractlets 5 or 6, ovate, acuminate,
8-10 mm. long; calyx campanulate, 6-7 mm. long; petals obovate, white, about
12 mm. long; carpels trigonous, ribbed on the back, their sides smooth, the middle
awn about twice as long as the lateral ones.
Woods and
thickets in wet or moist
districts, Porto Rico,
at lower and middle
elevations,
ascending
into
the
eastern
mountains:—Jamaica;
Cuba; Hispaniola;
St.
Vincent; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Anamu.
Cadillo pequeque.
12. MALACHE B. Vogel; Trew, PI. Sel. 50.
1772.
Tall shrubs or small
trees, with
alternate broad, lobed or nearly entire
leaves, and large peduncled flowers soUtary in the axils, or in terminal racemes.
Involucre
of
several
bractlets.
Calyx
5-lobed.
Petals
5,
broad.
Carpels
mostly 5, 1-celled; styles 10; ovules soUtary.
Carpels 2-valved, knobbed on the
back, not spined, coriaceous, tardily dehiscent.
[Greek, mallow.]
Three known
species, of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Malache scabra B. Vogel; Trew, PI. Sel. 50.
1772.
Pavonia spicata Cav. Diss. 3: 136.
1787.
Pavonia racemosa Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 2: 1215.
1800.
Althaea racemosa Sw. Prodr. 102.
1788.
Malache spicata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 70.
1891.
An
erect,
usually Uttle-branched shrub,
1-5 m.
high,
the branches and
inflorescence densely roughish-pubescent.
Leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, firm
in texture, 5-15 cm. long, paLmately veined, repand-dentate or entire, acuminate
at the apex, subcordate or rounded at the base, the petioles 3-6 cm. long; racemes
loosely several-flowered;
pedicels ascending, 2-5 cm. long;
involucre-bractlets
oblong-lanceolate, about 1 cm. long; calyx as long as or a Uttle longer than the
bractlets,
its lobes ovate, acute; petals yellowish, about twice as long as the
calyx,
finely
pubescent,
longer than
the stamen-column;
carpels somewhat
shorter than the calyx, with 2 short blunt beaks on the upper margins and a
short terminal crest.
Borders of coastal swamps and wet coastal woods, Porto Rico; St. Croix (according
to
Eggers):—Florida; West
Indies;
coasts
of
continental
tropical America.
Swamp
BxJSH.
Cadillo de cienega.
MALVACEAE
561
13. LEBRETONIA Schrank.
PI.
Rar.
Hort. Monac.
pi.
90.
1819.
Herbs or shrubs with alternate stipulate, toothed or lobed leaves and perfect
flowers in panicles, or sometimes solitary.
Involucels of several distinct bractlets.
Calyx 5-lobed.
Petals 5.
Carpels 5; styles 10; ovules solitary.
Fruiting carpels
2-valved, roughened, without spines or awns.
Seeds sohtary.
[Commemorates
F. Le Breton, a French botanist who died about 1790.]
Perhaps 40 species, of
'tropical distribution.
Type species: Lebretonia coccinea Schrank.
1. Lebretonia paniculata (Cav.) Britton.
Pavonia paniculata Cav. Diss. 3:
1.3.5.
1787.
Althaea corymbosa Sw. Prodr. 101.
1788.
Pavonia corymbosa Willd. Sp. PI. 3: 836.
1801.
Malachra cordaia Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 3: 578.
1813.
Malache paniculata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 70.
1891.
Shrubby, branched, erect, 1-3 m. high, the branches hirsute and with small
stellate
hairs.
Leaves broadly ovate to suborbicular, membranous,
petioled,
cordate, crenate-dentate, more or less hirsute, the apex acute or acuminate, the
lower 8-12 cm.
long; flowers corymbose-paniculate, commonly numerous;
in-
volucre-bractlets 6-8, linear, hirsute, a little longer than the calyx; calyx-lobes
triangular, acuminate; petals yellow, about twice as long as the calyx; carpels
3-4 mm. long, ribbed and reticulated, obtuse.
[Pavonia coccinea of Stahl, not of
Cavanilles.]
Wet grounds near Bayamon and Lares, Porto Bico; Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; con-
tinental tropical America.
Cadillo anaranjado.
14. HIBISCUS L. Sp. PL 693.
1753.
Herbs, shrubs, or in tropical regions even small trees, with dentate or lobed
leaves, and showy,
mostly campanulate
flowers.
Bractlets of the involucre
numerous, narrow.
Calyx
5-cleft or 5-toothed.
Column of stamens anther-
bearing below along much of its length.
Ovary 5-celled, the cavities 3-several-
ovuled; style-branches 5, stigmatic at the capitate summit.
Capsule 5-valved.
Seeds reniform.
[An ancient name, used by Dioscorides for the marsh mallow.]
About 180 species, widely distributed, known as Buenos Dias in Porto Rico.
Type species: Hibiscus Trionum L.
A. Seeds covered with cotton-like wool.
1. H. brasiliensis.
B. Seeds glabroiis or pubescent.
1. Calyx and involucre herbaceous; shrubby species.
a.
involucre-bractlets 2-forked at the siunmit.
Leaves not lobed or with low, obtuse lobes; stem not
prickly.
2. H. furcellatus.
Leaves deeply
3-5-lobed,
the
lobes
aciuninate; stem
short^prickly.
3. H. bifurcatus.
b.
Involucre-bractlets not 2-forked.
Capsule not 6-winged.
Involucel-bracts many; leaves lobed.
Sparingly pubescent;
leaves sharply 3-5-lobed;
stem prickly; petals rose, glabrous.
4. H. trilobus.
Densely
velvety;
leaves
obtvisely
lobed;
stem
vmarmed; petals yellow, velvety.
5. H. clypeatus.
Involucel-bracts few; leaves serrate, not lobed.
6. H. Rosa-sinensis.
**Capsule 5-winged; petals yellow with purple bases.
7. H. vitifalius.
2. Calyx and involucre becoming fleshy; herbaceous species.
8. H. Sabdariffa
1. Hibiscus brasiliensis L. Sp. pi. ed. 2. 977.
1763.
Hibiscus phoeniceus Jacq. Hort. Vind. 3: 11.
1776.
Bombicella betulina Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 241.
1881.
Bombicella phoenicea Bello, loc. cit. 1881.
1881.
A shrub, 3-10 dm. high, somewhat stellate-pubescent, or glabrate, branched,
the branches slender.
Leaves thin, petioled, ovate or rhombic-ovate, the larger
562
MALVACEAE
ones 4-8 cm. long, coarsely dentate, the apex acuminate, the base obtuse, sub-
truncate or subcordate; stipules subulate, 4-7 mm. long- flowers sohtary in the
upper axils on slender peduncles often longer than the leaves; involucre-bractlets
9-10, linear, acuminate, 1-2.5 cm. long; calyx about
1 cm. long, its lobes ovate,
acuminate
; petals pink, purple or white, about twice as long as the calyx
; capsule
about 1 cm. long; seeds densely woolly.
Plains,
liillsides and thickets at lower elevations in dry parts of the soiitliern and
southwestern districts of Porto Rico, extending north to Punta Casabe on the western
coast;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Barts; Curagao; con-
tinental tropical America.
Recorded from St. Kitts to St. Vincent; commonly cultivated.
Erroneously recorded from the Bahamas.
Pink-flowered and white-flowered plants some-
times grow side by side.
2. Hibiscus furcellatus Lam. Encycl. 3: 358.
1789.
Shrubby, 1-2 m. high, densely stellate-tomentulose, somewhat branched or
simple, rather stout.
Leaves long-petioled, suborbicular or ovate-orbicular, the
larger 8-12 cm. long, dentate or somewhat 3-5-lobed, the apex acute, the base
deeply cordate,
pale beneath,
stellate-canescent
; upper leaves much smaller;
flowers showy, stout-peduncled in the upper leaf-axils; involucre-bractlets 10-14,
linear, bifurcate, hirsute, 10-16 mm. long; calyx 15-20 mm. long, its triangular-
lanceolate lobes acute; petals 6-8 cm. long, rose-pink; capsule a
little shorter
than the calyx; seeds glabrous, minutely papillate.
[H. tomcntosus of Stahl, not
of Miller; H. fraternus of Sesse & Mocino, not of Linnaeus.]
Moist or wet grounds on the northern coastal plain of Porto Rico and along a stream
up
to 600 m. elevation in the Naguabo Mountains:—Florida; Cuba; Dominica; conti-
nental tropical America; recorded from the Sandwich Islands.
3. Hibiscus bifurcatus Cav. Diss. 3: 146.
1787.
Shrubby, branched, pubescent with simple hairs, at least above, up to 2 m.
high, or vine-Uke and sometimes 5 m. long, the branches and petioles aculeate
with
short,
broad-based
prickles
0.5-1 mm.
long.
Leaves
broad,
sparingly
pubescent, long-petioled, 3-lobed, cordate, the larger up to 10 cm. wide, the lobes
ovate to lanceolate, dentate, acute or acuminate; upper leaves much smaller,
commonly deciduous;
flowers stout-peduncled
in the upper
axils, showy;
in-
volucre-bractlets 9-13, 1.5-2 cm. long, linear, bifurcate, hirsute; calyx about as
long as the involucre, its lobes deltoid, acute; petals pink or rose, sometimes with
a darker base, 7-9 cm. long; capsule sericeous, about as long as the calyx; seeds
glabrous, minutely papillate.
[H. ficulneus of Sesse & Mogino, not of Linnaeus.]
Thickets, flelds and river-banks, in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico, ascending to
higher
elevations:—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Guadeloupe;
Martinique;
Trinidad;
continental
tropical America.
Recorded by Krebs as foimd in St. Thomas prior to 1851.
4. Hibiscus trilobus Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 708.
1775.
Hibiscus domingensis Jacq. Icon. Ear. 3: pi. 550.
1786-93.
Shrubby, somewhat pubescent above, the branches armed with stout prickles
about 2 mm.
long.
Leaves
slender-petioled,
broadly ovate
in
outline,
thin,
glabrate, cordate, 3-lobed, 8 cm. long or less, the lobes ovate, dentate, acute or
acuminate; flowers large, axillary; involucre-bractlets about
12, narrow: petals
rose.
Lake Guanica, near La Plata, Porto Rico:—Hispaniola;
Trinidad, recorded from
Jamaica.
5. Hibiscus clypeatus L. Syst. ed. 10, 1149.
1759.
A velvety-tomentose shrub, 2-5 m. high, with stout branches.
Leaves sub-
orbicular, long-petioled, 6-15 cm. long, cordate, velvety on both sides, angulately
3-lobed, Irregularly dentate, the lobes obtuse or acute; flowers stout-peduncled in
MALVACEAE
563
the upper axils; involucre-bractlets about 10, linear 2-3 cm. long; calyx as long
as or a little longer than the involucre, its broad, ovate lobes acute; petals dull
yellow, velvety, 5-6 cm. long; capsule densely hirsute; longer than the calyx;
seeds globose, glabrous.
Woods and tliickets, vicinity of Guanica, Porto Rico; St. Croix (according to West)
:
Jamaica; Cayman Islands; Hispaniola.
6. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L. Sp. PI. 694.
1753.
A shrub, 2-3 m. high, sometimes becoming a tree up to 5 m. high, glabrous,
or the young twigs sparingly pubescent.
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute
at the apex, rounded or abruptly narrowed at the base, 7-20 cm. long, coai-.sely
unequally dentate; bractlets narrowly linear, about half as long as the calyx;
calyx-lobes lanceolate, pubescent, especially within; petals rose-red, purple or
white, 10-15 cm. long; capsule about 2.5 cm. long.
Occasionally escaped from Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens, wliere
it
is com-
monly planted.
Native of tropical Asia.
Widely cultivated in many races and sub-
spontaneous in tropical and subtropical regions.
Ajl\pola.
C.\xdei^\da.
Pavon.\.
Chinese Rose.
7. Hibiscus vitifolius L. Sp. PI. 696.
1753.
Shrubby, finely velvety and with some longer simple hairs, erect, branched,
6-10 dm. high.
Leaves long-petioled, suborbicular, velvety, cordate, angulately
3-5-lobed, dentate, the larger ones 6-12 cm. wide; flowers slender-peduncled in
the axils; involucre-bractlets about 10, setaceous, 1-1.5 cm. long; calyx somewhat
longer than the involucre, its lobes ovate, acute or subacuniinate; petals yellow
with a purple base, 3-5 cm. long; capsule subglobose, 5-winged, shortfer than the
accrescent calyx; seeds papillose.
Thickets and waste grounds,
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
Tortola:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; St. Kitts to Barbados; native of the East Indies.
8. Hibiscus sabdarifEa L. Sp. PI. 695.
1753.
Herbaceous, annual or biennial, branched,
erect,
1.5 m. high or
less, the
stem,
branches and
leaves
glabrous.
Leaves
various,
long-petioled,
serrate,
nearly entire, lobed or palmately 3-5-parted, the lower up to 2 dm. broad, the
lobes ovate to lanceolate, acute; upper leaves often narrowly lanceolate; flowers
short-peduncled in the upper axils, the involucre and accrescent calyx becoming
red and fleshy; involucre-bractlets about 10. pubescent below, 10-12 mm. long,
lanceolate, entire; calyx about 2 cm. long in flower, becoming 3-3.5 cm. long in
fruit, its lobes lanceolate, acuminate; petals rose, 4-5 cm. long; capsule ovoid,
2-2.5 cm. long; seeds minutely stellate-pubescent.
Occasionally spontaneoiis after cultivation in Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas:
Florida; Cuba; Guadeloupe to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Native of the
Old World tropics.
Widely cultivated for its fleshy, acid calices wliich are dried and used
in making jellies, sauces and refreshing drinks.
Jamaica or Red Sorrel.
Vin.\.
Hibiscus cannabinus L., Pavona encenida. East Indian, grown in Porto
Rico gai'dens,
is a somewhat prickly, annual or
biennial herb yielding a strong
coarse fiber, the rather slender stems 6-10 dm. high, the leaves various, some of
them palmatifid with 5 to 7 lanceolate, serrate lobes, the short-peduncled axillary
flowers with lanceolate
bristly
sepals, the petals
.5-7 cm.
long, yellow with a
purplish base or purple.
[H. radiaius Cav.]
Hibiscus
schizopetalus
(Mart.)
Hook.
[Hibiscus
Rosa-sinensis
schizo-
pelalus Mart.] Lira, native of tropical Africa,
is a shrub, with foliage similar to
that of H. Rosa-si7iensis, the fiowers with laciniate petals.
It
is grown for or-
nament in Porto Rico and Virgin Island sardens.
564
MALVACEAE
Hibiscus mutabilis L., Maravilla. Changeable Rose, native of tropical
Asia, grown in Porto Rican and Virgin Island gardens, is a large shrub with broad
cordate angular-lobed, stellate-pubescent leaves, and large red flowers changing
to white.
Hibiscus micans Cav., Javan, H. maculatus Lam. and H. domingensis
Jaeq. of Santo Domingo,
all Usted by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas, are ap-
parently errors in record or identification.
A large collection of hybrid Hibiscus, formed by Mr. McClelland, Horticul-
turist of the Mayaguez Experiment Station, was seen with interest and apprecia-
tion in 1924, many of the kinds of great beauty and very desirable
for tropical
gardens.
15. ABELMOSCHUS :Medic.
IVIalv. 45.
1787.
Tall herbs, with broad lobed leaves, and large axillary and terminal flowers.
Bractlets several or numerous, narrow.
Calyx spathaceous, splitting along one
side,
deciduous.
Stamen-column bearing numerous
anthers.
Ovary
5-celled,
its cavities several-ovuled
; style-branches 5, stigmatic at the summit.
Capsule
elongated, 5-valved.
[Name said to be Arabic]
A few species, natives of the
Old World.
Type species: Abelmoschus moschatus Medic.
1. Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench. Meth. 617.
1794.
Hibiscus esculentus L. Sp. PI. 696.
1753.
Annual, erect, little-branched, 1-2 m.
tall, spainngly hirsute.
Leaves long-
petioled. nearly orbicular in outhne, 1-3 dm. broad, deeply 5-7-lobed, the lobes
lanceolate to obovate, irregularly serrate, acute or obtuse: peduncles stout, 1-3
cm. long; bractlets hnear, bristly-hirsute, about 1.5 cm. long; calyx about 2 cm.
long; petals broad, yellowish, purple-blotched at the base, 3-4 cm. long; capsule
angled, 2 dm. long or less, long-tipped.
Occasionally spontaneous
after
cultivation,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Croix:
St. Thomas;
St. Jan.
Native of the Old World tropics; widely ctiltivated for food and locally spon-
taneous
in
tropical
and
subtropical
regions.
Okjia.
Guingambo.
Molondron.
Gumbo.
Kinkamboo.
Abelmoschus Abelmoschus (L.) Cook & CoUins, Algalia, East Indian,
occasionally grown in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens for its musk-scented
seeds,
is annual or biennial, 2 m. high or less, hispid-pubescent, with hastate or
suborbicular,
variously lobed
leaves,
yellow
flowers
8-10 cm.
broad, and
a
bristly capsule 6—8 cm. long.
[Hibiscus Abelmoschus L.
; Abelmoschus moschatus
Medic]
16. PARITI Adans. Fam. PL 2: 401.
1763.
Trees, with broad cordate petioled leaves, large d-eciduous stipules, and large,
terminal or axillary flowers, solitary or few together, the petals yellow or changing
to
red.
Involucre
8-10-toothed.
Calyx
5-toothed.
Style
pubescent
above,
5-cleft, the stigmas broad.
Capsule loculicidally 5-celled, many-seeded, the cells
vertically partitioned by a dissepiment which splits at dehiscence into two mem-
branes.
[Name said to be Malabaric]
A few species of tropical regions, the
following typical.
1. Pariti tiliaceum (L.)
St. Hil. Fl. Bras. Merid. l: 256.
1827.
Hibiscus tiliaceus L. Sp. PI. 694.
1753.
Hibiscus elatus Sw. Prodr. 102.
1788.
Paritium datum G. Don, Gen. Syst. 1: 485.
1831.
A tree, sometimes 18 m. high, the young foliage velvety-tomentose.
Leaves
long-petioled, the blades 7-20 cm. broad, nearly orbicular, cordate at base, ab-
IMALVACEAE
565
ruptly acuminate at apex, shallowly dentate or subentire, the venation promi-
nent beneath; involucre
10-cleft, about 12 mm.
long; petals yellow, obovate,
5-6 cm. long; calyx about 2 cm. long; capsule ovoid, tomentose, 15-18 mm. long;
seeds glabrous or minutely downy.
Banks, thickets and forests borders, Porto Rico, nscanding to higher elevations; St.
Thomas: St. Jan; St. Croix Caccordlng to West):—Florida; Bermuda; West Indies; con-
tinental tropical America, and
Old World tropics.
The hard, strong durable wood
is
greenish, used for furniture, for railroad
ties and in construction.
The fibrous bark is
largely made into ropes and cordage.
Mahoe.
Majagua.
Emajagua.
17. THESPESIA
Soland.;
Correa,
Ann. Mus.
Paris
9:
290.
1807.
Shrubs or trees.
Leaves alteiTiate, entire or merely angulately lobed, com-
monly ample,
usually
cordate,
petioled.
Flowers
perfect, showy.
Involucre
of 3-5 narrow deciduous
bractlets.
Calyx truncate or nearly
so.
persistent.
Petals 5.
Ovary sessile, 5-celled
; styles 5, united or rarely distinct
; stigmas de-
current on the styles.
Ovules few in each cavity.
Capsule firm, woody-leathery,
5-celled,
indehiscent.
Seeds
pubescent;
cotyledons
black-punctate.
[Greek,
marvellous.]
About 8 tropical species, the following typical.
1. Thespesia populnea (L.) Soland.; Correa, Ann. Mus. Paris 9: 290.
1807.
Hibiscus populneus L. Sp. PI. 694.
1753.
A tree, sometimes 20 m. high, with a trunk up to 6 dm. in diameter, usually
smaller, often a shrub, the stout twigs scurfy when young, the wood hard, brown
and heavy, the outer bark gray, shallowly fissured, the inner bark fibrous.
Leaves
firm in texture, slightly fleshy, shining, ovate-orbicular, 5-12 cm. long, acuminate
at the apex, cordate at the base, undulate-margined; petioles nearly as long as
the blades; peduncles shorter than the petioles; calyx subhemispheric, nearly
truncate; petals 4-7 cm. long, yellow with a purple base, changing to purple;
fruit depressed-globose, leathery, 3-4.5 cm. in diameter, 1.5-2 cm. high.
Coastal woods and thickets and borders of mangrove swamps, Porto Rico; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—Florida; Bermuda; West Indies; continental tropical
America and Old World tropics.
The wood has a specific gravity of about O.S.
The tree
Is often planted for shade and ornament in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Cork-
tree.
Spanish Cork.
Emajaguilla.
Palode Jaqueca.
Sant,\Marl\.
Bendy-tree.
Otaheite.
18. MONTEZUMA Sess6 & Mog.; DC. Prodr. l: 477.
1824.
[Maga Urban, Symb. Ant. 7: 281.
1912.]
Trees, with alternate petioled, broadly ovate, cordate entire leaves, small
deciduous
stipules, and
large
perfect showy
solitary
axillary or subterminal
flowers.
Involucre of 3 small deciduous bractlets.
Calyx cyathiform or sub-
campanulate, nearly truncate, circumscissile near the base after flowering, and
deciduous.
Petals 5, very large.
Ovary 3-4-celled, sessile
; styles united
; stigmas
3 or 4, sUghtly dilated; ovules few or several in each cavity.
Fruit fleshy or
leathery,
indehiscent.
Seeds
glabrous;
cotyledons not punctate.
[Dedicated
to the famous Aztec ruler, who died in 1520.]
Two known species, the follow-
ing typical, the other Cuban.
•
1. Montezuma speciosissima Sess6 & Moc.; DC. Prodr. 1: 477.
1824.
Thespesia grandiflora DC. Prodr. 1: 456.
1824.
Maga grandiflora Urban, Symb. Ant. 7: 281.
1912.
A tree, up to about 15 m. In height with a trunk 3 dm. in diameter, the thick
gray bark deeply fissured, the rather stout twigs lepidote when young.
Stipules
566
MALVACEAE
3-4 mm. long; leaves chartaceous, orbicular-ovate, long-petioled, .5-20 cm. long,
5-7-nerved, lepidote beneath, the apex acute or acuminate, the base cordate or
occasionally subtruncate; peduncles stout, mostly longer than the petioles; in-
volucre-bracts linear, 1-2 cm. long, caducous; calyx about 2 cm. long, coriaceous,
lepidote; petals obliquely triangular-obovate, 7-9 cm. long, deep rose shading to
crimson within, tomentulose without; anthers bright yellow, in 5 double rows;
fruit smooth, subglobose, 3-5 cm. in diameter; seeds obovoid.
Woods and hillsides, at lower elevations, central and western districts of Porto Rico.
Commonly planted as a road'^ide shade tree.
Its very showy flowers conspictioiis.
En-
demic.
Erroneously attributed to ISIexico.
Its vahiable wood
is hard, durable, brown,
strong and heavy, used for furniture, interior house-work, musical instruments, posts and
piles.
Maga.
19. CIENFUEGOSIA Cav. Diss. 3: 172.
1787.
Low shrubs, or woody perennial herbs, with petioled, entire or lobed leaves,
caducoiis
stipules and
axillary perfect
solitary long-peduncled
yelloAv flowers.
Involucre
of
£^9
narrow
bractlets.
Calyx
5-parted.
Petals
5,
convolute,
roixnded
or
obcordate,
short-clawed.
Stamen-tube
shorter than
the
petals;
ovary 3-4-celled; ovules 3-5 in each cavity, ascending; style filiform, 3-4-cleft
at
the
apex,
the stigmas
capitate.
Capsule
ovoid,
loculicidally
3-4-valved.
Seeds pubescent or woolly.
[Commemorates Bernard Cienfuegos.]
About 20
species of tropical and subtropical regions.
Type species: Cienfuegosia digitata
Cav.
1. Cienfuegosia heterophylla (Vent.) Garcke, Bonplandia 8: 148.
1869.
Redoutea heterophylla Vent. PI. Cels.
pi. 11.
1800.
Fugosia heterophylla Spach, Hist. Veg. 3: 397.
1834.
A shrub, about 6 dm. high or less, glabrous or sparingly stellulate-pubescent,
the slender branches ascending or decumbent.
Leaves various, linear to oblong,
elUptic or ovate, slender-petioled, entire, 3-5-nerved, 2-6 cm. long, acute or mu-
cronulate; peduncles mostly as long as the leaves or longer;
bractlets of the
involucre S or 9, subulate, much shorter than the calyx; calyx about 15 mm. long,
its lobes lanceolate, acuminate, with rows of black glands; petals cream or yellow,
obhquely pencilled with deep maroon at base, 1.5-3 cm. long; capsule mucronate,
about
1 cm. long; seeds densely woolly.
[Kosteletzkya pentasperma of Eggers,
not of Gri.sebach.]
Banks and
hillsides,
St. Thomas:—Florida; Cuba; Trinidad; Margarita: Curagao;
Aruba; Colombia to Brazil.
20. GOSSYPIUM L. Sp. PL 693.
1753.
Herbs, shrubs or small trees, with alternate petioled, usually lobed leaves.
and large, mostly soUtary, peduncled, yellow or white to purple flowers subtended
by 3 broad, often cordate, incised bracts.
Calyx truncate or 5-lobed.
Stamen-
column usually naked below.
Ovary 5-celled; ovules numerous in each cavity;
style club-shaped, 5-grooved; stigmas 5.
Capsule coriaceous, loculicidally 3-5-
valved.
Seeds usually densely covered with long, white hairs (cotton)
; endo-
sperm thin or none; cotyledons plicate.
[Latin for cotton, perhaps of Arabic
origin.]
About 40 species, of tropical distribution, called Algodon and Cotton.
Type species: Gossypium arboreum L.
Cotton persistently attached to the seed.
Leaf-lobes short-acuminate.
1.
G. hirsutum.
Leaf-lobes long-acuminate
2.
G. peruvianum.
MALVACEAE
567
Cotton readily removed from tlie seed.
Seeds separate; capsule short-tipped.
Twigs strongly angled: petals little longer than the bracts.
3.
G. purptirasccns.
Twigs faintly angled; petals twice as long as the bracts.
4.
G. barbaclcnse.
Seeds glomerate; capsule long-tipped.
5.
G. brasilicnse.
1. Gossypium hirsutum L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 976.
1763.
A shrub,
or
small
tree, up
to
4 m.
high, the young twigs pubescent or
glabrate.
Leaves ovate-orbicular or suborbicular in outline, cordate or nearly
truncate at the base, usually 3-lobed, rarely 5-lobed, or some of them entire, the
lobes short, ovate, acuminate, pubescent beneath, at least when young, nearly
glabrous above; petals 3-6 cm.
long, white or yellowish, sometimes crimson-
blotched at the base, fading pink or purplish; capsule 2-2.5 cm. long; cotton
firmly attached to the seed.
[G. barbadense of Stahl, not of Linnaeus.]
Waste
grounds,
spontaneous
after
cultivation,
Porto
Rico:—Florida;
Baliaraas;
Jamaica: Cuba; Grenada; recorded from other West Indian Islands; cultivated in tropical
regions of the New World and the Old.
Wild Cotton.
2. Gossypium peruvianum Cav. Diss. 6: 313.
1788.
Shrubby, perennial, up to 2 m.
high, the slender twigs glabrous,
striate.
Leaves glabrous or pubescent, cordate, suborbicular
iia outline, 3-5-Iobed or the
upper ones ovate and entire; the lobes long-acuminate or acute; petals white,
fading pink, perhaps sometimes yellow; capsules 4-5 cm.
long, short-bealced
cotton firmly attached to the fuzzy seed, bright white.
Waste groimds, near Coanio Springs, 1922, persistent after cultivation: Vieques:
Cuba; Trinidad.
Native of western South America.
Our West Indian specimens have
been determined by Mr. G. F. Freeman.
Peruvian Cotton.
3. Gossypium purpurascens Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 2: 369.
1811.
Perennial, shrubby or arborescent, up to 6 m. high, the angled twigs purplish,
glabrate.
Leaves suborbicular
in
outline,
3-lobed
or some
of them
5-lobed,
usually somewhat
stellate beneath,
especially on the
veins, 4-10 cm.
broad,
cordate, the lobes acuminate; petals 4-5 cm. long,
little longer than the bracts,
yellow, or tinged with purple; capsule ovoid, pointed, about 3 cm. long; cotton
readily
separable from
the smooth separated
seeds.
[Specimens
referred by
Urban to G. hirsutum and to G. barbadense are cited as this species by Watts in
"Wild and Cultivated Cottons," p. 252.]
Spontaneous
after
cultivation,
Porto
Rico:—Martinique;
Guadeloupe;
South
America and Old World tropics.
Bourbon Cotton.
Porto Rico Cotton.
4. Gossypium barbadense L. Sp. PL 693.
1753.
Perennial, shrubby, flowering as an annual, glabrous or nearly so, 1-2.5 m.
high,
the
twigs sHghtly
angled.
Leaves suborbicular
in
outline,
7. .5-20 cm.
broad, rather deeply 3-5-cleft, the lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate lobes acuminate,
the basal sinus narrow; petals 8-10 cm. long, much longer than the bracts, yellow,
or with orange or red bases, fading pink; capsules 3-5 cm. long; cotton readily
separable from the smooth separated seeds.
Waste grounds and thickets, spontaneous or per.sistent after cultivation, Porto Rico;
Culebra;
St. Thomas:
St.
Croix.
Widely cultivated and spontaneous in tropical and
subtropical regions.
This is the cotton most abimdantly grown in Porto Rico at the
present time.
5. Gossypium brasiliense Macfad. Fl. Jam. l: 72.
1837.
'
Shrubby or subherbaceous,
1.5-2 m.
high,
or sometimes forming a small
tree, glabrous or very nearly so throughout, the twigs angular, purplish.
Leaves
up to 2.5 dm. broad, cordate, deeply 5-lobed, or the upper much smaller and 3-
568
BOMBACEAE
lobed, the lobes ovate or ovate-oblong, acute or acuminate; bracts 5-6 cm. long;
petals yellow with darker bases, fading pink; capsule about 5 cm. long, long-
beaked; cotton bright white, readily separable from the glomerate seeds.
[In-
cluded by Urban in G. harhadcnse L.]
River-banks and waste ground?, spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico:—Cuba;
Jamaica;
Martinique; Tobago;
continental
tropical America and Old World
tropics.
Kidney Cotton.
Gossypium janiphaefolium Bello, Anal. Sec. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 242.
1881.
Described from plants observed on the plains of Cabo Rojo, called "Algodon
DE YucA," because its leaves somewhat resemble those of Cassava (Manihot),
being parted almost to the base into three segments, the middle segment divided
again into 3 or 5 oblong-lanceolate lobes; the seeds are described as green and the
cotton very white and compact.
No specimens have been seen by other botanists.
Search for the plant in the vicinity of Cabo Rojo has been fruitless.
Gossypium vitifolium Lam., Cauto Cotton, was recorded by Schlech-
tendal as naturalized on
St. Thomas; Eggers suggests that
it may have been
cultivated there formerly.
It is an herl^aceous perennial with purple or puiplish
stems, large, subcordate, 3-5-lobed leaves, the cotton readilj' separable from the
black seeds.
Goss3^ium microcarpum Todaro, the "Porto Eico Cotton" of Rohr,
is not known in Porto Rico at the present time.
It is related to G. peruvianum.
Althaea rosea (L.) Cav., Hollyhock, Chinese,
is successfully grown as a
garden flower in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Its wand-like stems are
1.5 to nearly 3 meters high,
its rough suborbicular cordate lobed leaves often
15 cm. broad, its single or double flowers of nearly all colors, nearly sessile in the
axils, 7-15 cm. broad.
[Alcea rosea L.]
Family 4.
BOMBACACEAE Schumann.
BoMBAX Family.
Trees, with palmately compound or simple
leaves and perfect flowers.
Calyx
inferior, mostly 5-toothed.
Petals
5.
Stamens commonly very nu-
merous.
Ovary 2-5-celled;
style simple; stigmas as manj^ as the ovary-
cavities.
Fruit various, dry or
fleshy.
Seeds usually woolly.
About 20
genera and 150 species, of tropical distribution.
Leaves palmately compound.
1.
Ceiba.
Leaves simple.
Fruit drupaceous.
2.
Quarartbea.
Fruit a long capsule.
3. Ochroma.
1. CEIBA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 399.
1763.
Large deciduous trees, with alternate petioled palmately compound leaves,
and large clustered axillary flowers, the trunk buttressed at the base, the branches
and young trunks spiny.
Calyx 5-lobed.
Petals tomentose without, glabrous
within.
Column 5-divided, each division bearing 2 or 3 unilocular anthers at
the top.
Capsule 5-celled,
loculicidally dehiscent, many-seeded.
Seeds long-
woolly.
[Aboriginal name.]
About 12 species, the following typical.
BOMBACEAE
569
1. Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn. Fr. & Sem. 2: 244.
1791.
Bomhax 'pentandrum L. Sp. PL .511.
1753.
Eriodendron anfractuosum DC. Prodr. 1: 479.
1824.
A tree, reaching a maximum height of 60 m. or more, the trunk above the
often immense buttresses sometimes 3 m. in diameter.
Petioles slender, glabrous,
5-15 cm. long; leaflets 5-7, stalked, or nearly sessile, glabrous, entire or serrate,
oblong to oblanceolate, 8-15 cm. long, mostly acute or acuminate at the apex and
narrowed at the base; flowers in many axillary clusters, often appearing before
the leaves; pedicels 4-6 cm. long; calyx obconic, about 1.5 cm. long; petals about
3 cm. long, about as long as the stamens; stigma capitate; capsule oblong, woody,
8-12 cm. long.
Forests,
liilLsides and river-banks at lower elevations, Porto Rico, largest and most
abundant in the drv southern districts; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan:—West
Indies; northern South America; Old World tropics.
Often planted for shade; the woolly
seeds are used for stuffing pillows.
The wood is soft, light brown, weak, light in weight,
not durable: it is used for boats, canoes, tubs, basins and in construction.
Silk-cotton
Tree.
CEmA.
2. QUARARIBAEA Aubl. PI. Guian 2:
691.
1775.
Aromatic trees or shrubs, with alternate simple entire or dentate leaves,
and small sohtary or clustered short-peduncled lateral flowers.
Calyx tubular-
obconic,
3-5-lobed.
Petals
5.
Stamen-column
dentate
at
the
top,
bearing
numerous
sessile anthers.
Ovary 2-3-celled,
sessile; ovules 2
in each cavity:
style very slender ; stigma capitate or slightly lobed.
Fruit subglobose, didymous,
indehiscent, coriaceous.
Seeds without endosperm.
[Guiana name.]
About 10
species, of tropical America.
Type species; Quararibaea guianeiisis Aubl.
1. Quararibaea turbinata (Sw.) Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 636.
1816.
Myrudla turbinata Sw. Prodr. 102.
1788.
A tree, up to about 10 m. high, the foliage glabrous, strongly odorous when
dry,
the
bark
smooth.
Leaves
submembranous,
elliptic,
entire,
pinnately
veined, 7- 15 cm. long, the apex acute, obtuse or acuminate, the base narrowed or
obtuse, the petioles 6-15 mm. long; peduncles shorter than the petioles; calyx
8-12 mm. long; petals nearly white, 8-12 mm. long, about as long as the stamen-
column;
fruit subglobose, striate, 1-2 cm. in diameter, usually 1-celled.
Forests and wooded
hills in wet or moist districts at lower and middle elevations,
Porto
Rico;
St.
Jan;
St.
Croix
(accorfUng
to
West):—Hispaniola;
St.
Eustatius
to
Grenada;
continenta.l
tropical
America.
The
flowers
are
peculiarly
odorous.
Gar-
ROCHo.
Swizzle-stick Tree.
3. OCHROMA Sw. Prodr. 97.
1788.
Eapidly growing
trees, with broad alternate petioled,
entire or angulate-
lobed leaves and very large terminal flowers.
Calyx 5-lobed.
Petals 5.
Stamen-
column 5- toothed, bearing many spiral anthers.
Ovary 5-celled; ovules many in
each cavity; style sulcate above.
Capsule linear, densely woolly within, locuH-
cidally
5-valved.
Seeds immersed
in the
woolly endocarp,
obovoid,
with
a
thin testa, fleshy endosperm and broad cotyledons.
[Greek, referring to the large
white flowers.]
About 8 species of tropical America, the following typical.
1. Ochroma pyramidale (Cav.) Urban, Report. Beihefte 5:
123.
1920.
Bombax pyramidale Cav.; Lam. Encycl. 2: 552.
1786.
Ochroma Lagopus Sw. Prodr. 98.
1788.
Bombax angulata Sesse & Moc Fl. Mex. ed. 2: 154.
1894.
A tree, up to 20 m. high with a smooth trunk sometimes 4 dm. in diameter,
the
twigs,
petioles and under leaf-surfaces
puberulent.
Leaves suborbicular,
570
.
STERCULIACEAE
thin, cordate, entire, dentate or 3-5-lobed, palmately veined, 1.5-3 dm. broad,
the stout petioles about as long as the blades; flowers solitary, stout-peduncled;
calyx obconic, 6-8 cm. long,
finely velvety,
its suborbicular lobes about 2 cm.
broad, with a prominent midvein;
petals nearly white,
obovate,
puberulent.
clawed, veiny, about 10 cm. long; capsule 1..5-3 dm. long, 2-3 cm. thick, the wool
reddish.
Hillsides, forests and woodlands at lower elevations, Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola; Guadeloupe; Martinique;
St. Vincent; Tobago; Trinidad; northern South
America.
The very light wood is nearly white, soft, with a specific gravitv of only about
0.2; it is used for floats, rafts, stoppers and otherwise as a substitute for cork.
The bark
yields tannin, and a brown fiber used in making ropes.
The wooUv interior of the fruit
is used for stiifflng pillows and mattresses.
A tree studied at Coanio reached a height of
about 8 meters in 3 years' growth.
Guano.
Balsa.
Corkwood.
Adansonia digitata
L., Baobab,
African, planted for shade and for or-
nament on
St. Croix and
St. Thomas, and recorded by Eggers as naturalized
prior to 1876 in shaded valleys on St. Croix, is a tree reaching a maximum height
of about 20 meters, with a thick tapering trunk, recorded as up to 8 or 9 meters
in diameter in
its native habitat.
Its leaves are digitately
3-7-foliolate
; the
pendulous white flowers are 1-1.5 dm. broad
; the oblong woody fruit indehiscent,
mealy within.
Two trees were seen in the park at St. Thomas in 1924.
Pachira aquatica Aubl., South American, recorded as formerly planted on
St. Croix,
is a large tree, with long-petioled, digitately compound leaves of five
or seven, oblong-lanceolate, entire acute leaflets, and large soHtary flowers, the
petals 2-3 dm. long, the fllaments very numerous, in clusters, the capsular fruit
about 1 dm. long.
[Carolinea princeps L.f.]
Pachira alba Walpers,
also South American, planted on
St. Thomas,
is
similar to P. aquatica but with .smaller white flowers, the petals about 1 dm. long.
A large tree was seen on the roadside at Bluebeard's Castle in March, 1924, then
leafless.
It has very remarkable and
characteristic rough thick corky
bark,
green and yellow.
Bombax feptenatam Jacq., a Colombian
tree, was recorded by Krebs as
seen in St. Thomas prior to 1851.
Family 5.
STERCULIACEAE H. B. K.
Chocolate Family.
Herbs, shrubs or
trees, with alternate, often stellate-pubescent leaves,
the flowers regular, mostly perfect, in a few genera polygamous or unisexual,
clustered or rarely solitary, usually axillary.
Calyx deeply o-cleft, usually
persistent, the lobes or sepals valvate.
Petals
5, hypogynous, or wanting.
Stamens 5 or more; filaments mostly more or less united below into a cup or
tube; anthers mostly 2-celled, extrorse; staminodia present in some genera.
Ovary superior, 2-5-celled, or sometimes monocarpellary; stjdes usually as
many as the ovary-cavities, distinct or more or less united.
Fruit mostly
capsular
or
follicular,
rarely
indehiscent.
Seeds
various,
the
cotyledons
commonly foliaceous.
About 45 genera and over 600 species, mostly tropical
A. Anthers not borne on an elongated column
(see Ayenia).
Petals flat or convolute.
Petals persistent; annual herb.
1.
Pentapetes.
Petals deciduous or marcescent; shrubs.
Carpels 5.
Fruit capsular.
Involucels none.
2.
Moluchia.
Involucel-bracts 3.
3.
Ricdlea.
Fruit 5-coccous.
4.
Melochia.
STERCULIACEAE
571
Carpel only
1.
5.
Waltheria.
Petals concave or cuciillate.
Perennial herbs or low shrubs; capsule muricate.
6.
Ayenia.
Trees.
Petals entire; fruit larsje, smooth, oblong.
7.
Thrnhroma.
Petals linear, 2-cleft; fruit small, subglobose, muricate.
8. Guazuma.
B. Anthers borne on an elongated column; shrubs; fruit of 5 dehiscent
follicles.
9.
Helicleres.
1. PENTAPETES L. Sp. PI. 698.
17.53.
An annual
herb,
with
alternate narrowly
hastate
leaves, and
large
red
fiowers,
solitary and short-peduncled
in
the
axils, subtended by
3 caducous
bractlets.
Calyx 5-parted, the segments narrow.
Petals
5,
broad.
Stamen-
cup short; stamens 5; anthers 15, in 5 sets of 3, erect, sagittate, borne between
petal-like staminodes.
Ovary 5-ceIled,
sessile; ovules numerous; style slender,
entire.
Fruit a loculicidal capsule.
[Greek, five leaved.]
A monotypic Asiatic
genus.
1. Pentapetes phoenicea L. Sp. Pi. 698.
1753.
Erect,
branched,
6-10 dm.
high,
stellate-pubescent.
Leaves
lanceolate,
petioled,
.5-8 cm. long, crenate-serrate, the apex acuminate, the base hastate;
stipules linear; pedimcles scabrous, shorter than the petioles, nodding; flowers
red-scarlet, 2-3 cm. broad; capsule subglobose.
Grown in Porto Rico gardens for ornament and occasionally escaped from cultivation
to roadsides;—Cuba; Jamaica.
Native of southern Asia.
Flos impius.
2.
MOLUCHIA Medic. Malv. 10.
1787.
Herbs, shrubs or small trees, with toothed leaves, and small, terminal or
axillary, mostly clustered, perfect flowers, the petals flat, marcescent.
Involucels
none.
Calyx 5-cleft, usually campanulate.
Petals 5, narrow.
Stamens 5, the
filaments somewhat
united
below,
opposite
the
petals; staminodia
none,
or
minute.
Ovary 5-celled, each cavity 2-ovuled; styles 5, distinct at least above;
stigmas clavate.
Capsule pyramidal, loculicidally 5-valved, 5-seeded, the seeds
obovold,
ascending.
Endosperm
fleshy;
embryo
straight;
cotyledons
flat.
[Name altered from
Melochia.]
About 6
species,
of tropical and subtropical
regions.
Type species: Moluchia fruticosa Medic.
Densely stellate-pubescent.
\. M. lomentosa.
Glabrous or nearly so.
2. M. pyramidata.
1. Moluchia tomentosa (L.) Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. 1: 69.
1918.
Melochia tomentosa L. Syst. ed.
10, 1140.
1759.
A branched shrub, 2 m. high or less, rarely a small tree up to 4 m. high, the
slender
twigs,
the
leaves,
inflorescence,
calyx and
capsule
densely
stellate-
pubescent or tomentose.
Leaves chartaceous, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 1-6
cm. long, obtuse or acute at the apex, rounded, truncate or cordate at the base,
crenate or serrate, the petioles shorter than the blades; peduncles at the axils of
upper leaves or terminal,
few-several-flowered;
calyx-lobes lanceolate;
petals
violet,
rose-pink or purple, obovate, 10-12 mm.
long; capsule-body 6-8 mm.
long, subulate-beaked, its angles rounded, knobbed.
Hillsides and
thickets,
at low
elevations,
mostly near the
coasts,
southern and
eastern
districts
of Porto
Rico;
Desecheo; Mona;
Muertos;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tortola;
Virgin
Gorda:—Florida; West
Indies;
Texas
to
tropical
America.
Broom-wood.
Bretonica afelfad.^.
572
STERCULIACEAE
2. Moluchia pyramidata (L.) Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. 1: 69.
1918.
Melochia pyramidata L. Sp. PI. 674.
1753.
Subherbaceous,
nearly
glabrous,
the young
foliage somewhat
pubescent;
stems slender, branched, ascending, decumbent or nearly erect, 2-6 dm. long;
the young branches with a line of pubescence.
Leaves membranous, lanceolate,
ovate, or the lower nearly orbicular, 2-6 cm. long, sharply serrate, acute or acu-
minate
at the apex, mostly rounded or subtruncate
at the
base,
the slender
petioles much
shorter than the
blades; peduncles pubescent,
1-few-flowered,
about as long as the petioles, terminal or opposite the leaves; calyx-lobes lanceo-
late, 3-4 mm. long; petals pink, red or lavender, about 6 mm. long, obovate,
capsule
inflated, membranous, 6-7 mm.
long, sharply 5-angled, short-beaked,
each angle cuspidate at the base.
Fields, banks, hillsides and cultivated groimds at lower and middle elevations, Porto
Rico, mostlv in dry districts; Icacos; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas (according to West
and
to Krebs);
Tortola:—Texas; West
Indies; continental
tropical America and Old
World tropics.
Bretonica pyr.\midal.
3. RIEDLEA Vent. Choix des Plantes pi. 37.
1803.
Herbs or low shrubs, the foliage mostly pubescent, the leaves dentate, the
flowers in terminal or axillai-y clusters.
Involucel-bracts 3.
Sepals 5, distinct
or nearly so, scarcely enlarged in fruit.
Petals 5, flat, marcescent.
Stamens 5,
the
filaments united below; staminodia minute
or wanting.
Ovary
5-celled:
ovules 2 in each cavity.
Styles 5, sometimes united below.
Capsule 5-celled,
locuUcidally
and
septicidally
dehiscent.
[Commemorates
Anselme
Riedle,
French botanical explorer.] About 20 species, of tropical and subtropical America,
the following typical.
1. Riedlea hirsuta (Cav.) DC. Prodr. i: 492.
1824.
Melochia hirsuta Cav. Diss. 6: 323.
1788.
Riedlea serrata Vent. Choix des Plantes
pi. 37.
1803.
Melochia serrata St. Hil. & Naud. Ann. Sci. Nat.
II. 18: 36.
1842.
Shrubby or subherbaceous, villous-pubescent, branched, prostrate, ascending
or erect, 2-5 dm. high.
Leaves ovate, 3-7 cm. long, thin, short-petioled, serrate,
the apex acute or obtuse, the base rounded or subtruncate; flower-clusters axil-
lary and forming a terminal spike; involucel-bracts longer than the calyx; calyx-
lobes ovate; petals purple, 7-10 mm. long; capsule about as long as the calyx or
shorter.
Sandy and gravelly soil at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico, in moist dis-
tricts:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Trinidad; continental tropical America.
Breton-
ICA PELUDA.
4. MELOCHIA [Dill.] L. Sp. PI. 674.
1753.
Herbs or shrubs, often stellate-pubescent, with petioled, serrate leaves and
small, perfect flowers in axillary or terminal glomerules or panicles.
Sepals or
calyx-segments little enlarged in fruit.
I'etals convolute, marcescent.
Stamens
5, opposite the petals; filaments more or less united below; staminodia none, or
rarely present and minute.
Ovary 5-celled; ovules 2 in each cavity; styles dis-
tinct, or united near the base.
Fruit small, 5-coccous.
Seeds with fleshy en-
dosperm.
[Arabic name.]
About 25 species, natives of tropical and subtropical
regions.
Type species; Melochia corchorifolia L.
STERCULIACEAE
573
1. Melochia nodiflora Sw. Prodr. 97.
1788.
Mougeotia nodiflora H. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 330.
1823.
A shrub, 2 m. high or less, with slender ascending branches, the young twigs
sparingly pubescent.
Leaves thin, ovate, 3-10 cm.
long,
serrate, glabrous or
nearly so, acute or acuminate at the apex, rounded, truncate, or subcordate at
the base, the slender pubescent petioles 1-3 cm. long: flowers nearly
.sessile, in
dense axillary subglobose clusters; calyx-lobes triangular-lanceolate, acuminate,
2-3 mm. long; petals rose, a little longer than the calyx; filaments united: styles
distinct; ovary .5-celled; young fruit deeply 5-lobed,
at length separating into 5
pubescent carpels about 3 mm. long.
Banks, hillsides and thickets, Porto Rico at lower and middle elevations: Vieques;
Culebra;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—West Indies; continental tropical America.
Bretoxica prieta.
5. WALTHERIA L. Sp. PI. 673.
1753.
Herbs, shrubs or trees, with stellate and simple pubescence.
Leaves toothed
stipules narrow.
Flowers small,
perfect, usually in
axillary clusters or small
cymes.
Involucel of 3 deciduous bractlets.
Sepals 5, united at the base into a
turbinate 10-nerved tube.
Petals 5, spatulate or obovate, convolute, withering-
persistent.
Stamens 5; filaments united below, not accompanied by staminodia;
anthers with parallel sacs.
Ovary
1-celled,
sessile;
style simple, not central;
stigma club-shaped or brush-like.
Ovules 2 in a cavity.
Follicles 1-celled, 2-
valved
lengthwise.
Seed
soUtary,
ascending.
Endosperm
fleshy.
Embryo
straight,
axile.
[In honor of A.
F. Walther, professor
in
Leipzig.]
About 35
American species, mostly tropical, the following typical.
Leaves ovate to oblong: calyx aboiit
.5 mm. long.
1.
W. americana.
Leaves suborbicular; calyx about 8 mm. long.
2.
M-. calcicola.
1. Waltheria americana L. Sp. PI. 673.
17.53.
Waltheria elliptica Cav. Diss. 6: 316.
1788.
Foliage tomentose.
Stems 6-12 dm.
tall,
stiff; leaves ovate to oblong. 1-5
cm. long, serrate, rounded or cordate
at the base, on stout petioles; flowers in
dense sessile or peduncled
axillary clusters; sepals subulate, about 5 mm. long,
villous-hirsute, similar to the bractlets; petals yellow, slightly longer than the
sepals; follicles 2.5-3 mm. long, pubescent at the top.
[W. indica of Cook and
Collins.]
Fields, banks and hillsides, at lower elevations, Porto Rico: Mona: Muertos; Vieques
St.
Croix:
St. Thomas:
St. Jan: Virgin Gorda; Anegada:—Florida: West Indies; con-
tinental tropical America and Old World tropics.
Basora prieta.
2. Waltheria calcicola Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 475.
1900.
Shrubby, 4-8 dm. high, the foUage tomentulose.
Leaves suborbicular, or
obovate-orbicular, 1-3.5 cm. long, rounded or subtruncate at the base, the apex
rounded, the margin crenulate; petioles slender, 1-3 mm. long; flowers capitate
at the ends of branches; calyx-segments about 8 mm. long, triangular-lanceolate;
petals yellow, a little longer than the calyx.
Limestone hills between Penuelas and Tallaboa, Porto RicO:—Jamaica.
6. AYENIA Loefl. Iter. 257.
1758.
Shrubs, some species subherbaceous, with serrate petioled leaves, and axil-
lary, mostly clustered, pedicelled flowers.
Calyx 5-parted.
Petals 5, concave or
574
STERCULIACEAE
hooded,
long-clawed,
the
tip
inflexed,
adnate
to
the stamen-cup.
Filaments
united into a short cup, the anthers solitary in its sinuses, its truncate or rounded
lobes alternate with the petals; anthers 3-celled.
Ovary
5-celled,
its cavities
2-ovuled
; style short
; stigma capitate or somewhat 5-lobed.
Capsule subglobose,
muricate, splitting into 5 carpels, each 2-valved.
Seeds rugose
; endosperm none
cotyledons spirally convolute.
[In honor of the French botanist, Ayen.l
About
10 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species: Ayenia sidaeformis Loefl.
1. Ayenia pusilla L. Syst. ed. 10. 1247.
1759.
A low shrub or suflfrutescent perennial herb, usually much-branched at the
base, the slender branches ascending, erect or prostrate, 1-4 dm. long, puberulent.
Leaves lanceolate,
ovate, oval or suborbicular,
0.8-3 cm.
long, puberulent or
glabrate, sharply serrate, acute or obtuse at the apex, rounded or cordate at the
base, the petioles 1-5 mm. long; pedicels longer than the petioles, sometimes 10
mm. long; calyx about 2 mm. long. Its lobes lanceolate: claw of the petal much
longer than the hooded limb; lobes of the stamen-cup longer than the anthers;
capsule depressed-globose, densely muricate, 4-6 mm. in diameter.
Fields and hillsides at lower elevations, Porto Rico, in the dry southern and south-
western districts; Desecheo; Mona; Muertos; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tor tola; Virgin Gorda:—Florida to Texas; West Indies; continental tropical America.
7. THEOBROMA L. Sp. PI. 782.
1753.
Trees with large entire petloled leaves and small lateral or axillary flowers,
solitary or clustered, on short peduncles.
Calyx 5-cleft.
Petals 5, clawed, the
base concave or cucullate,
the blade spatulate.
Stamen-cup
urceolate,
its 5
lobes narrow, bearing 2 or 3 anthers In the
sinuses.
Ovary
5-celled,
sessile;
ovules numerous;
style
5-cleft.
Fruit
large,
woody,
Indehiscent,
pendulous,
pulpy within.
Seeds numerous, without endospei'm, the cotyledons thick, cor-
rugated.
[Greek, food for the gods.]
About 7 species, natives of tropical Amer-
ica, the following typical.
1. Theobroma Cacao L. Sp. PI. 782.
1753.
A small tree, sometimes 9 m. high, the twigs slender, pubescent.
Leaves
oblong or oblong-elliptic, thin, 1.5-2.5 dm. long, glabrous, pinnately veined and
reticulated, the apex acuminate, the base narrowed or obtuse, the petioles 1-3
cm. long; flowers lateral on tht trunk and branches, usually fascicled; peduncles
very slender, 1-2.5 cm. long; calyx pubescent, about 7 mm. long,
its segments
acute; petals yellowish, about as long as the calyx; fruit oblong or subglobose,
ridged, 1-2 dm. long; .seeds oblong.
Sparingly spontaneous after cultivation for its seeds, Porto Rico; St. Croix.
Widely
cultivated in wet parts of tropical regions.
Native of continental
tropical America.
Chocolate-tree.
Cacao.
8. GUAZUMA Adans. Fam. PI. 2: 382.
1763.
Trees, the young twigs and leaves stellate-tomentose or glabrate, the leaves
alternate, serrate, short-petloled, more or less oblique, the small flowers in short-
stalked, axillary cymes.
Calyx 2-4-parted.
Petals 5, cucullate, the apex inflexed
and 2-cleft, the lobes linear.
Stamen-cup bearing 5 staminodes and 5 sets of 3
anthers; anthers 2-celled.
Ovary .se.ssile, 5-lobed and .5-celled; ovules numerous;
styles 5, more or less united.
Fruit a subglobose Avoody tuberculate or setose
capsule.
Seeds with endosperm.
[Name aboriginal.]
Four or
five species of
tropical regions, the following typical;
STERCULIACEAE
575
1. Guazuma Guazuma (L.) Cockerell, Bull. Torr. Club 19: 95.
1892.
Theobroma Guazuma L. Sp. PI. 782.
1753.
Guazuvia ulmifolia Lam. Encycl. 3: 52.
1789.
Guazuma tomentosa'U. B. K. Nov. Gen. 5: 320.
1821.
Guazuma ulmifolia totnentosa Schum. in Mart. Fl. Bras.
12'': 81.
1886.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, the gray bark irregularly ridged and Assured, the
trunk 3-6 dm. in diameter, the branches usually widely spreading.
Leaves ovate
to oblong-lanceolate, various, serrate, 6-12 cm. long, the apex acute or acuminate,
the base obtuse or subcordate; flower clusters mostly longer than the petioles;
petals whitish or yellowish, 3-4 mm. long, somewhat longer than the calyx; fruit
globose or ellipsoid, purplish black, 1..5-2.5 cm. long, densely muricate.
Fields, hillsides, woodlands and forasts at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:
Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; Tortola;—West Indies
(e.xcept Bahamas); continental
tropical America.
Foliage mostly tomentose in dry regions, glabrate in wet or moist
districts.
Gu.\ciM.\.
Bastard Cedar
West Indl\n Elm.
The fruit is used as fodder for horses
; the brownish soft and tough wood has a specific
gravity of about 0.6 and
is used for posts and stakes; the bark yields a cordage fiber.
Called' J.\CKOC.\L.\LU in St. Thomas.
9.
HELICTERES L. Sp. PI. 963.
1753.
Pubescent shrubs or trees, the pubescence stellate or of branched hairs, with
broad leaves and a.xillary or terminal, clustered or solitary flowers, the bractlets
small, or distant from the calyx.
Calyx tubular, 5-cleft or 5-toothed, somewhat
2-hpped.
Petals
5, clawed.
Stamen-column
slender, elongated, bearing 5 or
10 sessile or short-stalked anthers; anther-sacs divergent or confluent.
Ovary
borne within the ring of stamens, 5-celled, 5-lobed, the cells many-ovuled; style 5,
or united into
1
; stigma small, capitate.
Carpels distinct at maturity, twisted
or straight,
follicular, dehiscent along the ventral suture, many-seeded.
Seeds
warty or smooth; endosperm little; cotyledons foliaceous.
[Greek, referring to
the coiled carpels of some species.]
Thirty species or more, of tropical distribu-
tion.
Type species: Helicteres Isora L.
1. Helicteres jamaicensis Jacq. Enum. 30.
1760.
Helicteres spiralis Northrop, Mem. Torr. Club 12: 50.
pi.
11.
1902.
A shrub, 1.5-3 m. high, or a small tree sometimes 6-7 m.
tall, the foliage
densely stellate-tomentose.
Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong,
5-17 cm. long, mostly acute or acuminate at the apex, cordate or sometimes
rounded at the more or less oblique base, crenulate nearly all around, the stout
petioles 0..5-2.5 cm. long
, the upper surface darker green than the lower
; peduncles
stout, 2-3 cm. long, 1-few-flowered; pedicels short; calyx 1..5-2 cm. long, 5-toothed,
somewhat
2-lipped,
densely tomentose;
petals
white,
inequilateral, somewhat
longer than the calyx; column 6-10 cm. long, decUned; stamens 10; staminodia 5;
ovary tomentose; carpels about 10, spirally twisted; densely tomentose, forming a
cone- like, oblong fruit 2.5-5 cm. long.
TMckets,
liiUsides and woodlands at lower elevations, Porto Rico, mostly in dry
districts;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St.
Jan;
Tortola:—Bahamas: Jamaica; Cuba;
His-
paniola; St. Martin.
Cow-bush.
Huevo de Gato.
Cuernocillo.
Helicteres Isora L., a species of the Old World tropics, was listed in 1852
by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas;
if correctly determined
it must have been
planted there.
Helicteres ovata Lam.,
a Brazilian species, was also recorded from
St.
Thomas by Krebs, presumably in error.
576
DILLENIACEAE
Sterculia
apetala
(Jacq.)
Kai-it., Anacaguitas, Panama Tree,
a
tree
up to 20 m.
high, with spreading
branches, nearly smooth gray bark, nearly
orbicular, peltate, .5-lobed leaves 2-3 dm. broad, and purplish apetalous flowers
in large terminal panicles,
is occasionally planted for sha«Ie
in Porto Rico.
Its
fruit consists of 5 large leathery follicles.
The tree is native of northern South
America.
[Helicteres apetala Jacq.; Sterculia carthaginensis Cav.]
Sterculia foetida
I.., East Indian, a fine tree about
15 meters high, seen
on the University grounds, Rio Piedras. Porto Rico, in 1923, has long-petioled,
digitately 5-7-foliolate leaves, with oblong acuminate leaf-segments 1-2 dm. long;
the panicled pubescent odorous flowers are purplish, about 2 cm. broad.
Sterculia diversifolia G. Don,
Australian,
Avas seen
as seedlings at the
St. Croix Agricultural Experiment Station in 1923.
Dombeya spectabilis Bojer, Madagascan, grown for ornament in Porto
Rico gardens,
is a small tree up to about 6 m. high, with orbicular pubescent
cordate serrate, sometimes slightly lobed leaves 10-1.5 cm. broad, the numerous
white flowers 2 cm. broad, in dense peduncled corymbs.
Order 18.
HYPERICALES.
Herb.s, shrubs, or trees, the flowers mostly complete, perfect and regular
(irregular in Violaceae).
Sepals distinct, or more or less united, imbricated
or convolute.
Petals present and
distinct, or wanting.
Stamens
usually
numerous.
Ovary compound, superior; placentae mostly parietal.
A. Stigmas not many-cleft.
1.
Styles
distinct
or
partly united
or
wanting
(wholly united in some Theaceae).
a. Leaves alternate (rarely opposite in Taonabo).
Ovary of a single carpel or carpels distinct.
Ovary compound.
Torus often enlarged after anthesis.
Torus not enlarged.
Epiphytic or saxicolous woody vines.
Trees or shrubs, not epiphytic.
b. Leaves opposite or verticiUate.
Flowers
mostly
dioecious
or
polygamous;
trees or large shrubs.
Flowers perfect; herbs or low shrubs.
2.
Styles completely united.
Corolla regular.
Anther-sacs opening by pores or valves.
Anther-sacs longitudinally dehiscent.
Stamens monadelphous.
Stamens mostly distinct (See Samyda)
Corolla irregular.
Stigmas many-cleft, brush-like, styles 3.
Fam.
1. DILLENIACEAE.
Fam.
2. OCHNACEAE.
Fam.
.3. Marcgraviaceae.
Fam.
4. Theaceae.
Fam.
5. Clusiaceae.
Fam.
6. Hypericaceae.
Fam.
7. Bexaceae.
Fam.
8. Canell.\ceae.
Fam.
9. Flacoxjrtiaceae.
Fam. 10. Viol.\ceae.
Fam. 11. Turneraceae.
Family
1.
DILLENIACEAE R. Br.
DiLLENiA Family.
Trees, shrubs or woody vines, with alternate simple leaves and perfect,
rarely polygamous
or
dioecious
flowers
varioush^
clustered.
Sepals
3-5,
imbricated,
persistent.
Petals
3-5,
imbricated,
deciduous.
Stamens
10
or more, often numerous; filaments distinct, or united at the base; anthers
2-celled.
Ovary superior, of
1 or several carpels; ovules
1 or many, anatro-
pous;
styles
as many
as
the
carpels.
Fruit
capsular or
baccate.
Seeds
mosth' arillate, with endosperm and thick cotyledons.
About 10 genera and
over .300 species, mostly tropical.
OCHNACEAE
577
1
DOLIOCARPUS Roland, Vet. Akad. Handl. 17: 256.
Hyponym.
17.56.—Gmelin, Syst. 805.
1796.
Shrubs or woody vines, the leaves dentate or entire, pinnately veined, the
small perfect flowers lateral or axillary, solitary or clustered, pedicelled.
Sepals
spreading.
Petals hypogynous.
Stamens many;
filaments
distinct,
filiform;
anthers extrorse, longitudinally dehiscent.
Ovaries 1 or 2; ovules 1 or 2; styles
2. terminal; stigmas subcapitate.
Fruit baccate.
[Greek,
cask-fruit. 1
About
20 species, of tropical America.
Type species: Doliocarpus Rolandri Gmelin.
Ovaries 2; fruit didymous.
1- D. calinoides.
Ovary 1
; fruit subglobose.
2. D. brevtpedicellatun.
1. Doliocarpus calinoides (Eichl.)
Gilg. in E. & P. Nat.
Pfl.
3^: 114.
1893.
Pimona calinoides Eichl. in Mart. Fl. Bras. 13': 71.
1863.
A glabrous vine, 5 m. long or longer, the branches angular.
Leaves elliptic-
ovate or eUiptic-obovate, few-toothed or entire, &-10 cm. long, the apex obtuse,
rounded or acute, the base obtuse or subcordate, the stout petioles 1-2 cm. long;
panicles axillary, several-many-flowered, much shorter than the leaves; pedicels
short; sepals 4, about 2 mm. long; petals 3 or 4, obovate, a little longer than the
sepals; ovaries 2; fruit didymous, about 5 mm. thick.
Forests
of
the
eastern moimtains and
near Utuado,
Porto
Rico:—Guadeloupe;
Trinidad.
Bejuco de agua.
2. Doliocarpus brevipedicellatus Garcke, Linnaea 22: 47.
1849.
A high-climbing woody vine with terete branches, the twigs angular.
Leaves
ovate, coarsely serrate, 4-10 cm. long, slender-petioled, the apex acuminate or
acute, the base narrowed and decurrent on the petiole
; flowers lateral and axillary,
glomerate, the pedicels 1-3 mm. long; sepals about 1 mm. long; petals obovate,
somewhat longer than the sepals; fruit subglobose, 5-6 mm. in diameter, 1-seeded.
Wooded hills near Bayamon and Toa-baja:—Guiana and Brazil.
Davilla rugosa
Poir,
recorded
by Grisebach
from
St. Thomas,
is
pre-
sumably an error in locality.
Dillenia indica L. [D. spedosa Thunb.], East Indian, seen as a fine large
tree at the Agricultural Experiment Station, Mayaguez in 1923, becomes at least
20 m. high, with stout spreading branches, the oblong or lanceolate pubescent
serrate leaves 15-25 cm. long, the large flowers axillary. 10-15 cm. in diameter,
the large globose hard fruit pendulous.
Family 2.
OCHNACEAE DC.
OcHNA Family.
Trees, shrubs or herbs, mostly glabrous, often with glossy foliage, and
bright yellow, orange, purplish or whitish flowers.
Our genera with simple,
alternate,
coriaceous
or membranaceous,
entire or toothed,
finely veined
leaves.
Stipules entire or pectinate-ciliate.
Flowers solitary and axillary,
or in terminal or axillary racemes or panicles.
Sepals 5.
Petals 5.
Petaloid
staminodia, when present, 5, distinct, opposite the petals and separated from
them by a whorl
of
sterile
filaments.
Fertile stamens
5
or
10.
Ovary
3-celled at the base, or 5-6 lobed, the lobes
1-celled.
Fruit a capsule or
drupe.
About
17 genera and around 200 species,
of wide distribution
in
the tropics.
Shrubs or small trees; stamens 10; frmt a drupe.
1-
Ouratea.
Herbs; fertile stamens 5; fruit a capsule.
^'-
i>auvagesia.
578
OCHNACEAE
1. OURATEA Aubl. PI. Guian. 1: 397.
1775.
Shrubs or trees, with simple alternate leaves and yellow flowers mostly in
axillary or terminal
panicles.
Sepals
5.
Petals
5,
imbricated.
Stamens
10,
inserted at the base of the disk
; filaments often very short
; anthers opening by
terminal pores.
Ovary 5-6-lobed,
the
lobes
1-celled.
Styles connate; stigma
simple: ovules solitary in each
cell, erect.
Drupes 1-5, seated on the enlarged
fleshy disk.
Seed erect; embryo without endosperm.
[Derived from the Carib-
bean name.]
Over 100 species, natives mostly of tropical America; a few species
in Asia and Africa.
Type species: Oura^ea gutanensrs Aubl.
1. Ouratea littoralis Urban, Symb. Ant. l: 363.
1899.
A shrub or small tree, occasionally 6 m.
tall.
Leaves elliptic to ovate, 5-12
cm. long, 2-5.5 cm. broad, short-acuminate or occasionally obtuse at the apex,
rounded or acute at the base, glabrous, remotely and rather indistinctly denticu-
late, or entire, short-petioled
; panicles 5-10 cm. high; flowers fragrant; sepals
ovate-oblong or
elliptic, 5-6 mm.
long,
3-3.5 mm.
broad;
petals fan-shaped,
7.5-10 mm.
long,
8-9.5 mm.
broad;
anthers
subsessile,
5 mm.
long;
drupes
obovoid, 7-10 mm. long, 5-6.3 mm.
in diameter.
[Gomphia niiida of Stahl and
of Eggers, not of Swartz.]
Sandy
thickets along the coasts,
eastern
districts and about Laguna
Tortuguero,
Porto Rico, on the northern coastal plain; St. Thomas; Virgin Gorda.
Endemic.
2. SAUVAGESIA L. Sp. PL 203.
1753.
Herbs, sometimes suffrutescent, with mostly small callus-margined leaves,
the stipules pectinate-ciliate.
Flowers rose-purple or violet, occasionally white,
axillary or racemose.
Sepals 5, subequal, appressed to the capsule.
Petals
5,
deciduous.
External stamens sterile, separated from the 5 perfect stamens by
5 petaloid staminodia; anthers
linear or oblong; the fllaments
short.
Ovary
3-celled at the base; style simple; stigma obtuse.
Capsule septicidally 3-valved.
Seeds
numerous,
small;
testa
crustaceous;
almost
fleshy.
[Commemorates
Frangois Boissier de Sauvage.
1706-1767,
physician, and professor
in
:\Iont-
pellier.]
About a dozen species,
natives mostly of the American tropics, the
following typical.
1. Sauvagesia erecta L. Sp. PI. 203.
1753.
Sauvaijesia Adima AuIdI. PL Guian. 1: 252.
1775.
Annual, the stems erect or reclining, often rather slender, 1.5-7 dm. or more
long.
Leaves
elliptic-lanceolate,
elliptic or
oblong-oblanceolate,
0.7-5.5
cm.
long, 3-11 mm. broad, acute at the apex, narrowed
at the base, serrulate, the
petiole 1-4 mm. long; stipules lanceolate, 3-6 mm. long, conspicuously pectinate-
ciliate;
pedicels
axillary,
filiform;
sepals
lanceolate
to
ovate-lanceolate,
4.5-6
mm. long, acuminate and setiferous at the apex; petals obovate, 4.7-6.2 mm.
long, 3-4 mm.
Ijroad;
capsule a
little longer than the sepals;
seeds
ellipsoid,
0.5-0.6 mm. long, deeply pitted.
Grassy banks in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico, ascending to higher elevations;
Hispaniola; Saba to Trinidad; Margarita; continental tropical America.
Yerba de San
Martin.
MARCGRAVIACEAE
579
Family 3.
MARCGRAVIACEAE Choisy.
Marcgravia Family.
Epiphytic or climbing woody vines, with alternate entire leaves, dimor-
phous in the following genus, the perfect and regular flowers in terminal
racemes or appearing umbellate, accompanied by characteristic hooded or
galeate bracts.
Sepals 4 or 5, imbricated.
Petals 4 or
5, in the following
genus connate into a deciduous calyptra.
Stamens numerous.
Fruit
in-
dehiscent or tardily dehiscent.
About G genera and 40 species, natives of
tropical America.
1. MARCGRAVIA
L. Sp. PL 503.
1753.
Epiphytic or saxicolous
Aines,
the
sterile branches creeping, attached
to
trees or roclvs by numerous aerial roots and bearing small thin leaves, the flowering
branches elongated, bearing coriaceous large, ovate to linear leaves and short
racemes of pedicelled flowers, sometimes appearing umbellate, the several central
saccate or galeate bracts usually short-stalked.
Sepals
5, imbricated.
Petals
connate
into a deciduous
calyptra.
Stamens commonly numerous;
fllaments
slightly united at the base, free from the corolla; anthers basifixed, linear.
Ovary
several-celled; ovules several in each
cell; style short or none.
Fruit globose.
Seeds many, small, oblong.
[Commemorates George IMarcgraf, German natural-
ist, born 1610.]
About 20 species, of tropical America.
Known as Bejuco db
palma and Bejuco de rana.
Type species: Marcgravia uinhellata L.
Inflorescence few-flowered
; corolla about 15 mm. long; bracts cylindric-
clavate.
1. M. rectiflora.
Inflorescence many-flowered
; coroUa about 8 nmi. long; bracts galeate,
flattened.
2. M. Sintenisii.
1. Marcgravia rectiflora Tr. & PI. Ann. Sci. Nat. IV. 17: 364.
1862.
M. rectiflora Jacquini Tr. & PL loc. cit. 366.
1862.
A vine, up to 12 m. long, or longer.
Leaves of the flowering branches oblong
or oblong-lanceolate, 6-12 cm. long, the apex acuminate, the base narrowed or
obtuse, the petioles 2-4 mm. long; leaves of the creeping shoots oval to oblong,
2.5 cm. long or
le.ss; inflorescence few-flowered; pedicels stout, 4-6 cm. long,
tuberculate; bracts cylindric-clavate, stalked, about 2 cm. long; sepals rounded;
corolla about 1.5 cm. long, about 3 times as long as the calyx; fruit globose, 1-1.5
cm. in diameter.
[M. umbellata of Bello and of Stahl, not of Jacquin.]
On trees, rocks and cliffs, in moist or wet districts, Porto Rico, ascending to higher
elevations; Tortola:—Cuba; Hispaniola; Dominica.
Pega palma.
2. Marcgravia Sintenisii Urban, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. BerUn 4: 245.
1886.
A vine, 6-10 m.
long.
Leaves of the flowering branches ovate-oblong to
oblong-lanceolate, 5-11 cm. lon^, the apex acute or short-acmninate, the base
obtuse or acute, the petioles 4-7 mm. long; leaves of the creeping shoots subor-
bicular or ovate, obtuse or rounded, 2 cm. long or
less;
inflorescence many-
flowered; pedicels 1-3 cm. long, smooth or sparingly tuberculate; bracts galeate,
compressed, short-stalked, about 1.5 cm. long; pedicels 1.5-3 cm. long, curved,
deflexed;
sepals semiorbicular,
short and
broad,
about 4 mm.
wide;
corolla
about 8 mm. long; fruit globose, about 1 cm. in diameter.
On trees in mountain forests, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
580
THEACEAE
Family 4.
THEACEAE DC.
Tea Family.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate simple, rarely opposite or subverticillate,
pinnately veined leaves and regular, mostly perfect flowers.
Sepals mostly
5, imbricated, the interior ones often larger than the exterior.
Petals usually
5, hjpogynous, distinct, or connate below.
Disk
none.
Stamens mostly
many, distinct, or adnate to the base of the coroUa; anthers 2-c2lled.
Ovary
superior, 2-several-celled ; styles distinct, or united, or none.
Ovules pen-
dulous
or
erect.
Fruit
capsular
or
indehiscent.
Seeds with
or without
endosperm.
About 16 genera, including some 180 species, mostly tropical
and subtropical.
Fruit indehiscent.
Seeds 2-5 in each cell of the fruit, suspended.
1.
Taonabo.
Seeds numerous, on axile placentae.
2. Eroteum.
Fruit a loculicidally dehiscent capsule.
3. Haemocharis.
1. TAONABO Aubl. PI. Guian 1: 569.
1775.
Evergreen, mostly glabrous trees or shrubs, with alternate, opposite or sub-
verticillate leaves, entire in our species, and axillary, mostly solitary, 2-bracte-
olate flowers on usually recurved peduncles.
Sepals 5-7, imbricated.
Petals
mostly 5, connate below or to about the middle.
Stamens many, adnate to the
base of the corolla.
Ovary mostly 2-celled; ovules few, pendulous; styles united,
often short
; stigmas 2-lobed or entire.
Fruit coriaceous, indehiscent, few-seeded,
usually
beaked
or
pointed.
Seeds
with
fleshy
endosperm.
[Guiana
name.)
Thirty or more species, of tropical America and Asia.
Type species: Taonabo
dentata Aubl.
Peduncles elongated, 2.5-9 cm. long.
Leaves obovate, about twice as long as wide.
1.
T. peduncularis.
Leaves oblong, about 3 times as long as wide.
2.
T. luquillensis.
Peduncles short, 12 mm. long or less.
Sepals 7, only 2-4 mm. long, eglandular.
3.
T. heptasepala.
Sepals 5.
rr,
^
;
Flowers subsessile; sepals eglandular, 3-5 mm. long.
4.
T. subsessihs.
Peduncles 5-12 mm. long; sepals glandular, 7-8 mm. long.
Leaves chartaceous
; petals 8-9 mm. long; pedimcles 8-12
mm. long.
5.
T. Stahlii.
Leaves coriaceous; petals about 6 mm. long; peduncles
5-8 mm. long.
6.
T. pachyphylla.
1. Taonabo peduncularis (DC.)
Britton, Mem, Brooklyn Bot. Gard.
1: 70.
1918.
Ternstroemia peduncularis DC. Mem. Soc. Phys. Geneve 1=: 409.
1822.
A tree, up to 10 m. high, usually smaller, sometimes shrubby.
Leaves ob-
ovate to oblong-obovate, subcoriaceous, 4-7 cm. long, the apex rounded or obtuse,
the base narrowed, the petioles 8 mm. long or less; peduncles slender, 2-7 cm.
long; sepals 5, the outer ovate, glandular, 7-8 mm. long, the inner suborbicular,
eglandular, about 9 mm. broad; petals 8-10 mm. long, the apex obtuse; fruit sub-
globose, pointed, about 12 mm. in diameter.
[T. elliptica of West and of Eggers,
not of Swartz.j
Coastal thickets near Fajardo; St. Croix; St. Jan:—St. Martin to Guadeloupe.
2. Taonabo luquillensis (Krug & Urban) Britton.
Ternstroemia luquillensis Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 531.
1896.
A tree, up to 20 m. in height.
Leaves oblong or elliptic-oblong, coriaceous,
6-12 cm. long, acute or acutish at both ends or the apex obtuse, the petioles stout.
THEACEAE
581
6-12 mm. long; peduncles slender, 3-9 cm. long; sepals 5, suborbicular, eglandular,
the inner about
1 cm. in diameter, somewhat larger than the outer; petals ob-
cordate, about 12 mm. long.
Forests of the Sierra de Luqmllo.
Endemic.
Palo Colorado.
3. Taonabo heptasepala (Krug & Urban) Britton.
Ternstroemia heptasepala Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 530.
1896.
A shrub, or a small tree up to 8 m. high.
Leaves elliptic to obovate, cori-
aceous, 2.5-6 cm. long, the apex acute, obtuse or rounded, the base nai rowed,
the petioles 5 mm. long or less; peduncles curved, 10-18 mm. long; sepals 7, sub-
orbicular, eglandular, the inner about 4 mm. broad, twice as large as the outer;
petals obcordate, about 6 mm. long.
Summits of the higher mountains, Sierra de Luquillo.
Endemic.
4. Taonabo subsessilis Britton, sp. nov.
A shrub, 1-2.5 m. high.
Leaves obovate, coriaceous, 3-7 cm. long, revolute-
margined, black-dotted beneath, the apex obtuse or rounded, the base narrowed,
the stout
petioles 4-6 mm.
long;
flowers nearly
sessile;
sepals
5,
eglandular,
suborbicular, the inner about 5 mm. long, the outer shorter; petals about 10 mm.
long; fruit ovoid-conic, pointed, about 10 mm. long.
Stmimits of the liigher moimtains, Sierra de Luquillo.
Type from the summit of
El Yunque {Britton and Bruner 7627).
5. Taonabo Stahlii (Krug & Urban) Britton.
Ternstroemia Stahlii Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 527.
1896.
A small tree, up to 5 m. high.
Leaves obovate to elliptic, subcoriaceous,
5-9 cm. long, the apex rounded or obtuse, the base narrowed or subcuneate,
the rather stout
petioles 10 mm. long or shorter; peduncles 8-12 mm.
long;
sepals 5, the inner suborbicular, 7-9 mm. long, eglandular, the outer oval, glandu-
lar, somewhat shorter; petals oblong, obtuse, about as long as the inner sepals;
fruit ovoid-conic, about 12 mm. long.
[Ternstroemia
elliptica of Stahl, not of
Swartz.]
Sandy soil near Bayamon, and on Monte Mesa, Mayaguez, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
M.\MEY DEL CUBA.
6. Taonabo pachyphylla {Krug & Urban) Britton.
Ternstroemia pachyphylla Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 529.
1896.
A tree, up to 8 m. high.
Leaves obovate, thick-coriaceous, 4-7 cm. long,
the apex rounded, the base narrowed, the stout petioles 4-7 mm. long; peduncles
stout, 5-8 mm. long; sepals ovate, 7-9 mm. long, the inner obtuse, eglandular,
the outer acutish, glandular; petals about 6 mm. long.
Moimtain forests, Maricao, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Ternstroemia
brevipes DC. was
described from
plants grown
in
the
botanical gai-dens at Paris and at Berhn, doubtfully from Porto Rico
; the species
is not known from wild plants, and its geographical origin is uncertain; no plant
conforming with descriptions and the published illustration (CoUa, Hart. Rip.
pi.
38) is known to us.
Ternstroemia verticillata Sesse & Moc., recorded as collected near Arecibo,
has not been certainly identified.
Urban suggested that it might be the same as
T. brevipes DC.
[Not T. verticillata Kl.]
582
THEACEAE
2. EROTEUM Sw. Prodr. 85.
1788.
Trees or shrubs, the leaves mostly alternate and entire, the flowers axillary
or lateral, on 1-flowered peduncles, fascicled or solitary, usually ebracteolate or
the bractlets very small.
Sepals
5, imbricated.
Petals 5, distinct, or connate
only at the base.
Stamens many, adnate to the base of the corolla, the anthers
usually
pilose.
Ovary 2-3-celled;
ovules numerous on
axile placentae;
styles
slender,
united
below;
stigmas
shoit.
Fruit
indehiscent.
Seeds with
fleshy
endosperm.
[Name not explained.]
A few species of tropical and subtropical
America and Asia.
Type species: Eroteum iheoides Sw.
1. Eroteum albopunctatum (Griseb.) Britton.
Ternsiroemia alhopunctata Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 36.
1866.
Cleyera alhopunctata Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 537.
1896.
A tree, with maximum height of about 10 m. the twigs and leaves glabrous.
Leaves
elliptic or elliptic-obovate, coriaceous,
entire, 5-10 cm. long, the apex
rounded or obtuse, the base obtuse or narrowed, the stout
petioles 5-10 mm.
long; peduncles solitary or 2 together, 1-2 cm. long; sepals suborbicular, about
7 mm. broad, glabrous or ciliolate; petals cream-colored, orbicular- obovate, 12-
14 mm. long, with a silky longitudinal band without; fruit subglobose, beaked,
about 8 mm. in diameter.
Sierra de Luqmllo, ascending to the summit of El Yunque, and in
forests near
Maricao, Porto Rico:-—Cuba; Hispaniola.
Teta prieta.
3. HAEMOCHARIS Salisb. Parad. Lond. sub.
pi. 56.
1806.
Trees or shrubs, with chartaceous or subcoriaceous mostly alternate leaves,
the flowers subsessile in the upper axils.
Sepals 5, unequal.
Petals 5, slightly
coherent at the base, imbricated.
Stamens many, the filaments more or less
coherent below, or 5-adelphous.
Ovary 5-10-celled; ovules several in each cell,
pendulous;
styles distinct or nearly
so, short or wanting.
Capsule angled or
ridged,
oblong
or
oval,
loculicidally
dehiscent.
Seeds
without
endosperm.
[Greek,
blood-plant.]
About 15 species,
natives of tropical America and the
East Indies.
Types species: Gordonia haematoxylcn Sw.
1. Haemocharis portoricensis Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 548.
1896.
Wickstroemia portoricensis Blake, Contr. Gray Herb. 53: 40.
1918.
A tree, up to about 20 m. high, with a trunk sometimes 1 m. in diameter, the
old bark fissured, the young twigs puberulent or glabrous.
Leaves elliptic or
obovate-elliptic, chartaceous, crenate, 5-12 cm. long, the apex obtuse, the base
cuneate-attenuate,
the
petioles very short; fiowers very nearly
sessile; sepals
puberulent,
the
larger ones about
12 mm.
in
diameter,
suborbiculai
;
petals
obovate, cuneate, emarginate, bright white, fugacious, about 2 cm. long; ovary
6-10-celled; capsule oval, 6-10-ridged, 2-2.5 cm. long.
Forests of the eastern mountains of Porto Rico, at middle and liigher elevations.
Endemic.
Elegant when in bloom, the wliite flowers conspicuous among the dark green
leaves.
Maricao.
Nino de cota.
Haemocharis haematoxylon
(Sw.)
Choisy,
endemic
in
Jamaica,
was
listed by Krebs as found in St. Thomas prior to 1851
; it may have been planted
there.
[Gordonia haematoxylon Sw.]
CLUSIACEAE
583
Family 5.
CLUSIACEAE Lindl.
Clusia Family.
Shrubs or
trees, mostly evergreen and
glabrous, sometimes epiphytic,
with resinous sap, opposite or verticillate, coriaceous estipulat? entire leaves,
the small or large, regular, polygamous, dioecious or rarely perfect flowers
usually clustered, sometimes bracteolate.
Sepals 2-6, rarely more, strongly
imbricated.
Petals usually as man}^ as th? sepals, sometimes more, hypo-
gynous.
Staminate flowers with numerous hypogynous stamens, the
fila-
ments united or distinct, with or without a rudimentary ovary.
Pistillate
flowers with a 2-several-celled ovarj^ and usually as many stigmas as there
are
ovary-cavities; staminodes
or some
perfect stamens
usually
present.
Fruit baccate, drupaceous or capsular, usuaUy fleshy.
Seeds often arillate;
endosperm none.
About 25 genera and over 250 species, mostly tropical.
Fruit baccate or drupaceous, indehiscent.
Style well developed.
Fruit 2-4-celled.
1.
^^a7nmca.
Fruit 1-ceUed.
'
2.
Calophyllum.
Style very short or none.
3. Rheedia.
Fruit capsular, septicidally dehiscent, stigmas mostly sessile.
4.
Clusia.
1. MAMMEA L. Sp. PI. 512.
1753.
Evergreen
trees, with
thick
rigid
leaves, minutely many-veined and
re-
ticulated, the fragrant polygamous flowers axillary, peduncled, fascicled or soli-
tary.
Calyx closed in bud, splitting into 2 valvate sepals.
Petals 4-6.
Stamens
many;
filaments
filiform,
distinct;
anthers
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
2-4-celled, ovules 1 or 2 in each cavity; style short; stigma peltate, entire or 4-
lobed.
Fruit
a
large
2-4-seeded
drupe.
[From
the
aboriginal
name.]
A
monotypic genus.
1. Mammea americana L. Sp. PI. 512.
1753.
A tree, reaching a maximum height of about 25 m., with a trunk up to about
6 dm. in diameter, the twigs stout, glabrous.
Leaves elliptic or elliptic-obovate,
8-16 cm. long, bright green, glabrous, the numerous slender veins close together,
the apex rounded, the base obtuse or narrowed, the stout petioles 8-15 mm. long;
peduncles solitary or few together, about as long as the petioles or somewhat
longer, 1-flowered; flower- buds globose; calyx 8-10 mm. long; petals white, ob-
ovate, about twice as long as the sepals; drupe globose,
russet, apiculate,
.5-8
cm. in diameter.
Forests and hillsides in moist or wet districts of Porto Kico; St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—West
Indies; continental tropical America.
Commonly planted
in
Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands as in
all tropical regions, for shade and for its edible
fruit.
The reddish brown, hard and durable wood has a specific gravity of about 0.9,
and is used in construction.
Mamey.
Mammee Apple.
2. CALOPHYLLUM L. Sp. PI. 514.
1753.
Trees, with short-petioled, coriaceous, pinnately striate-veined leaves, and
lateral, axillary or terminal, polygamous flowers in racemes or panicles.
Sepals
2-4; petals
1-4,
or wanting.
Stamens many,
distinct, or their bases united;
filaments short; anthers ovate or oblong.
Ovary
1-celled; style long or short,
the stigma peltate; ovule
1,
erect.
Fruit a drupe.
[Greek,
beautiful-leaved.]
About 25 species, mostly of tropical Asia, a few in tropical America.
Type species
Calophyllum Calaba L.
584
CLUSIACEAE
1. Calophyllum antillanum Britton.
Calophyllum Calaba Jacq. Sel. Amer. 269.
1763.
Not L.
1753.
A tree, becoming at least 30 m. high, often branched nearly to the base, the
old bark with deep broad
fissures.
Leaves elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 7-1.5 cm.
long, glabrous, dark gieen, rounded or slightly emarginate at the apex, narrowed
or obtuse at the base, shining, the midvein rather prominent, the lateral veins
very numerous and close together; racemes lateral or axillary, few-flowered, much
shorter than the leaves; pedicels rather stout, 4-10 mm.
long; flowers white,
fragrant, the few petals about twice as long as the orbicular sepals, or petals
wanting; staminate flowers with about .50 stamens; pistillate flower with a short
style, a globose ovary and many staminodes; drupe nearly 2.5 cm. in diameter,
the endocarp crustaceous.
Woodlands,
forests and river-banks at lower and middle
elevations, Porto
Rico,
mostly in wet or moist districts; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas:—West Indies (except
Bahamas)
; naturalized in Bermuda.
Commonly planted for shade and ornament.
The
hard, nearly wliite, durable wood, with a specific gravity of about 0.7 is valued for con-
struction and for posts.
Mari.\.
Palo de Maeia.
Galea.
Cal.\ba.
Santa Maria.
3. RHEEDIA L. Sp. PI. 1193.
1753.
Evergreen glabrous trees or shrubs, with yellow sap, rigid coriaceous, often
spine-tipped leaves,
the
axillary peduncled flowers fascicled or solitary,
poly-
gamous or dioecious.
Sepals 2.
Petals 4, imbricated.
Staminate flowers with
several or many stamens, the filaments distinct.
Pistillate flowers with a few
staminodes and a 3-5-celled ovary, the style very short or none, the stigma pel-
tate;
ovules
1
in
each
cavity.
Fruit
a
1-5-seeded
berry.
[Commemorates
Henri von Rheede, 1635-1691, famous Dutch
botanist.]
About 20 species, of
tropical distribution, mostly American.
Type species: Rheedia lateriflora L.
Leaves elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 5-9 cm. long.
1. R. acuminata.
Leaves narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 cm. long.
2. R. Hessii.
1. Rheedia acuminata (Spreng.) Tr. & PI. Ann. Sci. Nat. IV. 14: 239.
1860.
Clusia acuminata Spreng. Syst. 2: 599.
1825.
Quapoya acuminata Walp. Rep.
1: 393.
1842.
Marialva elliptica Stahl, Estud. 2: 126.
1884.
Rheedia portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 368.
1899.
A tree, up to 20 m. high, or sometimes shrubby, the twigs angled and flattened.
Leaves elliptic to elliptic-obovate, 5-9 cm. long, the apex sharply acute and aris-
tate, the base narrowed, the lateral venation spreading, the petioles 5-10 mm.
Ijng; peduncles about as long as the petioles or longer; sepals broad, 3-4 mm.
long; petals suborbicular, pink, 6-7 mm. long; staminate flowers with about 18
stamens; pistillate flowers with fewer stamens; berry obovoid or ellipsoid, 2.5-
3.5 cm. long.
[Rheedia aristata of Grisebach, in part; Tovomita elliptica of Cook
and Collins, not of Engler.]
Coastal
thickets, eastern
districts, northern
coastal
plain,
on wooded
liills and
ravines near Coamo, and along Rio Icaco,
Sierra de Naguabo, Porto Rico; Vieques.
Endemic.
The tree of the Naguabo Mountains may be specifically distinct from that
of the northern coastal plain.
Guayabacoa.
Sebucan.
2. Rheedia Hessii Britton, Bull. Torr. Club 42: 390.
1915.
Yoiuig branches angled,
slender, the older ones
terete.
Leaves opposite,
coriaceous,
clustered on short
lateral
twigs, narrowly
lanceolate,
1.5-2.5 cm.
long, 6 mm. wide or less, narrowed at the base into stout petioles 2-3 mm. long,
spinulose-acuminate at the apex, the midvein prominent beneath, very indistinct
above, the
lateral venation wholly obscure, the margins thickened
; staminate
CLUSIACEAE
585
flowers solitary in upper axils on pedicels about 4 mm. long; sepals suborbicular,
about 3 mm. broad; petals obovate-elliptic, rounded at the ape.x, 5 mm. long;
stamens numerous, the stout filaments 2-2.5 mm. long; anthers less than 0.5 mm.
broad.
Indiera Fria near Maricao, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Rheedia madruno (H. B.
K.)
Tr. & PL, Colombian, introduced at the
Insular Experiment Station, Rio Piedras, Porto Rico, through the Bureau of
Plant Industry in 1923, had reached a height of 6 dm. in February, 1924, making
vigorous growth.
4. CLUSIA L. Sp. PI. 509.
1753.
Evergreen trees or shrubs with resinous sap, usually glabrous throughout,
often epiphytic or half-climbing on other trees and sometimes strangling them,
the leaves opposite, entire, mostly closely many-veined, the usually polygamous
flowers
solitary
or cymose.
Sepals
4-16,
imbricated.
Petals
4-9,
also
im-
bricated.
Stamens many in the staminate flowers, fewer in the pistillate ones;
anthers hnear.
Pistillate flowers with several or many staminodes; ovary 4-12-
celled; stigmas sessile, radiating; ovules many in each cavity.
Capsule leathery
or fleshy, at length dehiscent.
Seeds arillate, the embryo small, the cotyledons
plano-convex.
[Commemorates Charles de I'Ecluse, a French botanist of the
sixteenth
century.]
About 80
species,
of
tropical and
subtropical America,
known as Cupey or Cupeillo.
Type species: Clusia major L.
Fruit
small,
2.5 cm.
long
or
less; stigmas 5-7; inflorescence few-
many-flowered
; flowers small.
Leaves tliick and rigid; petioles very short, stout.
1.
C. Krugiana.
Leaves chartaceous, fleshy, scarcely rigid
; petioles rather slender.
Fruit oblong; inflorescence many-flowered.
2.
C. Gundlachii.
Fruit subglobose or obovoid; inflorescence few-flowered.
3. C minor.
Fruit large, globose, 5-8 cm. in diameter; stigmas
7-9;
flowers
soli-
tary or 2 together, large.
4.
C. rosea.
1.
Clusia Krugiana Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 367.
1899.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, the twigs stout, slightly angled.
Leaves obovate,
thick, rigid,
shinin-;. 5-11 cm. long, the apex rounded, the base narrowed, the
stout petioles 1-4 mm. long; inflorescence terminal, peduncled, several-many-
flowered, 5-6 cm. long; peduncle 1.5-4 cm. long; sepals 4, ovate, about 4 mm.
long; petals yellow, about 10 mm. long; stigmas 5; fruit globose, about 1.5 cm. in
diameter.
Mountain forests of Porto Rico, ascending to the summit of Monte El Yunque.
Endemic.
2. Clusia Gundlachii Stahl, Estud. 2: 122.
1884.
Clusia calyptrata Vesque, Epharm. 3: 8.
1892.
A vine-like shrub, with long slender subterete branches, recorded as sometimes
forming a tree.
Leaves obovate to oblong-oblanceolate, 6-12 cm. long, char-
taceous, somewhat fleshy, the apex acute, acuminate or obtuse, the base cuneate,
the rather slender petioles 5-15 mm. long; inflorescence terminal, short-peduncled,
6 cm. long or less, many-flowered; sepals 4, about 3 mm. long; petals few, small;
stigmas 5; fruit oblong, 1.5-2 cm. long.
Forests,
hillsides and thickets in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending to
higher elevations.
Endemic.
3. Clusia minor L. Sp. PI. 510.
1753.
Clusia cartilaginea Vesque in DC. Mon. Phan. 8: 97.
1893.
A shrub, or a tree up to about 10 m. high, the branches slender, or vine-like,
the twigs sUghtly angled.
Leaves obovate, cartilaginous, 10 cm. long or
less.
586
HYPERICACEAE
the apex obtuse or rounded, the base cuneate, the slender petioles 10-20 mm.
long: inflorescence few-flowered; sepals 4, 6-7 mm. broad; petals 4 or 5, broadly
ovate, white or pink, 10-12 nun. long; fruit subglobose or obovoid, 1.5-2 cm. long.
[C. venosa Linnaeus, not Jacquin; C. acuminata of Bello, not of Sprengel.l
Forests and river-banks at middle elevations, Porto Rico; erroneously recorded from
St. Thomas:—Cuba; Hispauiola; Dominica to Trinidad; continental tropical America.
4. Clusia rosea Jacq. Enum. 34.
1760.
A tree, attaining a maximum height of about 20 m., the bark smooth, the
roots warty. Leaves obovate, glabrous, thick, coriaceous, rigid, 10-15 cm. long,
7-12 cm. wide above the middle, closely pinnately many-veined, rounded at the
apex, cuneate at the base, the stout petioles about 1 cm. long; flowers solitary or
sometimes 2
together,
short-peduncled
;
sepals
6,
rounded,
1-1.5 cm.
broad;
petals white or rose, broadly obovate or nearly orbicular, 3-4 cm. long, broadly
cuneate at the base; stigmas 7-9; fruit globose, nearly white, .5-8 cm. in diameter.
[? C. alba of West and of Krebs; C. rubra of Krebs.]
Hillsides, woods and river-banks, Porto Eico, mostly at lower elevations; Mona;
Desecheo; Vieques; Culebra: St. Croix (according to West and to Eggers)
; St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola;—West Indies: continental tropical America.
The reddish brown wood
is hard and durable, with specific gravity of about 0.8.
Pitch-apple.
Wild Mammee.
Balsam Fig.
Species of the Old World genus Garcinia have been planted in Porto Eico in
the endeavor to establish there the IVIangosteen, G. Mangostana
L., valuable
for its delicious fruit.
Among these are the following:
Garcinia celebica
L., East Indian, grown by Mr. Harold
I.
Sewell
at
Naguabo, Porto Rico, attaining a height of about 4 meters in 6 year's growth, has
yellow stout twigs, elliptic leaves about 9 cm. long, narrowed at both ends.
Garcinia Benthami Pierre, of Cochin China,
also grown by Mr. Sewell
at Naguabo, reaching a height of about 7 meters in 10 year's growth, has brownish
slender twigs, oblong leaves about 7 cm.
long,
the apex acuminate,
the base
narrowed.
Garcinia Livingstonii T. Anders., of tropical Africa, and G. spicata Hook,
f.. Malayan, were experimentally planted at the Insular Experiment
Station,
Rio Piedras, in 1924.
Family 6.
HYPERICACEAE Lindl.
St. John'.s-wort Family.
Herbs or shrubs, sometimes small trees in tropical regions, with opposite,
or
rarely
verticillate, simple
entire
or rarely
glandular-ciliate
or dentate
estipulate
leaves, and
solitary
or
cymose-paniculate
flowers.
Foliage
pellucid-punctate or black-dotted.
Flowers regular and perfect.
Sepals 5
or 4, imbricated.
Petals of the same number, hypogynous, generally oblique
or contorted.
Stamens
oo, hypogynous,
often
in
sets of 3
or
5; anthers
versatile
or
innate,
2-ceIled,
longitudinally
dehiscent.
Ovary
1-7-celled,
composed of 1-7 carpels; styles as many as the carpels; ovules in 2 rows in
each cavity, anatropous.
Fruit main]}' capsular with septicidal dehiscence;
seeds mainly straight; endosperm none.
About 10 genera and more than
300 species, mainlj^ of temperate and warm regions.
Sepals 4, in unequal pairs; petals 4.
1. Ascyrum.
Sepals and petals 5.
2. Hypericum.
HYPERICACEAE
587
1. ASCYRUM L. Sp. PI. 787.
1753.
Leafy glabrous low shrubs, with small narrow entire black-punctate leaves,
the
flowers bright yellow.
Sepals
4,
in
2
pairs, the exterior ones broad and
round, the interior smaller and nari'ower.
Petals 4, oblique or slightly contorted,
deciduous.
Stamens
oc
,
distinct, or united in clusters.
Ovary
1-celled, with
2-4 parietal placentae; styles 2-4.
Capsule
1-celled, 2-4-valved, dehiscent at
the placentae.
[Greek, not rough.]
About 6 species, natives of eastern North
America, Central America and the West Indies.
Type species: Ascyrum hyperi-
coides L.
1. Ascyrum hypericoides L. Sp. PI. 788.
1753.
Ascyrum Crux-Andreae L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 1107.
1763.
A slender much-branched shrub, 1-8 dm. tall, with erect, ascending or decumb-
ent stems.
Leaves oblanceolate, obovate-oblong, or oblong, 1-3 cm. long, obtuse,
acutish or sometimes minutely mucronate at the apex, narrowed and 2- glandular
at the base; sepals very unequal, the outer ovate or ovate-oblong, 6-10 mm.
long, obtuse or acute at the apex, truncate or subcordate at the base, the inner
decidedly smaller; capsule narrowly ovoid or elhpsoid, about as long as the outer
sepals or shorter.
Sandy soil at lower and middle elevations, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica; Hispaniola;
southern and eastern United States; Mexico.
Aray.^nilla.
St. Andrew's Cross.
2. HYPERICUM L. [Tourn.J L. Sp. PI. 783.
1753.
Herbs or shrubs, with opposite punctate or black-dotted leaves, and mostly
cymose, rarely solitary, yellow flowers.
Sepals 5, equal or nearly so.
Petals 5,
mainly oblique or contorted, convolute or imbricated in the bud.
Stamens
co
distinct, or more or less united in clusters, sometimes with interposed hypogynous
glands.
Ovary
1-celled, with 3-5 parietal placentae which sometimes project
far into the cavity, or 3-5-celled (rarely 6-celled)
; ovules
oo, generally numerous;
styles 3-6.
Capsule
1-5-celled
(rarely
6-celied).
[The Greek name.]
About
210
species,
of wide geographic
distribution.
Type
species: Hypericum
per-
foratum, L.
1. Hypericum diosmoides Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 40.
1866.
Hypericum portoricense Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PL 60.
1891.
A low, densely leafy herb, the slender elongated branches decumbent or
ascending,
glabrous
or
nearly
so.
Leaves
oblong-oblanceolate,
oblanceolate,
or narrowly oblong, 2.5-7 mm. long, 0.6-1.5 mm. broad, obtuse or acutish at the
apex, narrowed at the base, connate; sepals ol)long or oblong-obovate, 2.^3 mm.
long, acute or obtuse; corolla about 5.5 or 6 mm. wide, yellow; capsule ellipsoid,
2-2.5 mm. long, 1.5--1.7 mm. thick; seeds oblong-ellipsoid, 0.5 mm. long, brown.
Moist grassy places at middle and higher elevations, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Hispaniola,
Tamarix indica Willd., T.\marisk. Asiatic, of the FamUy Tamariscaceae,
occasionally planted for ornament in the Virgin Islands, is a shrub or small tree
with very slender branches densely clothed with minute scale-like imbricated
leaves, the small white flowers in many dense spikes, with usually 5 sepals, 5
petals, 10 stamens and 5 sessile stigmas.
Tam.arix articulata Vahl, Arabian, was experimentally grown at the St.
Croix Agricultural Experiment Station, from seeds received from Washington.
588
CANELLACEAE
Hudsonia tomentosa Nutt., of the Family Cistaceae, native of sandy
beaches in the northeastern United
States,
is recorded by Krebs as found on
those of St. Thomas, but this must be an error in determination as the plant
ranges southward only to North Carolina.
Family 7.
BIXACEAE Rchb.
Annatto Family.
Shrub.s or small trees.
Leaves simple, toothed, lobed or entire.
Flowers
perfect.
Calyx of 4 or 5 sepals.
Corolla of as many petals as the sepals,
deciduous.
Stamens numerous.
Ovary
superior,
1-celled, with
2-several
parietal placentae which are sometimes well intruded.
Styles as many as
the placentae, but united.
Ovules several on each placenta.
Fruit a cap-
sule.
Seeds numerous, sometimes hairy.
Four genera and about 20 species,
of tropical regions.
1. BIXA L. Sp. PI. 512,
1753.
Flowers borne in terminal panicles.
Sepals 5, imbricate, deciduous.
Petals
5, contorted in bud.
Anthers opemng by 2 terminal pores.
Ovary
1-celled;
style
slender,
the
stigma
notched.
Capsule
loculicidally
2-valved.
Seeds
numerous; testa pulpy; albumen fleshy; cotyledons flat.
One species, widely cul-
tivated in all tropical and subtropical regions.
[ Derived from the South American
name.l
1. Bixa Orellana L. Sp. PI. 512.
1753.
A shrub, or small tree sometimes 9 m.
tall, with dark brown, usually scaly
twigs.
Leaves ovate, 8-20 cm. long, 4-15 cm. broad, occasionally larger, acu-
minate at the apex, cordate or truncate at the base, entire, often more or less
scaly on both sides when young, glabrous in age, long-petioled
; flowers 4-5.3 cm.
in diameter, sepals broadly oval to suborbicular, the petals pinkish or white,
obovate to broadly oval, 2.4-2.8 cm. long, 0.8-1.8 cm.
broafl, rounded at the
apex; capsule ovoid to globose-ovoid, 3-4 cm. long, 3-4.5 cm. in diameter, usually
densely clothed with long slender soft prickles; seeds obpyramidal, about 5-5.5
mm. long, 4-5 mm. broad.
Woods and hillsides at lower elevations, Porto Rico; much planted for the dye-stuff
annatto,
and
often
spontaneous
after
planting;
Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas:
Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba to Trinidad; Margarita; continental tropical America;
naturaUzed in tropical regions of the Old World.
Its yeUowlsh white wood is weak, Ught
and soft.
Achote.
Annatto.
Maximiliania vitifolia (Willd.) Krug & Urban, planted for ornament in
Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, native of continental tropical America,
is a
tree with palmately- lobed leaves, the showy yellow flowers sometimes 11 cm. or
more in diameter, the numerous seeds clothed with a silky down.
It is placed in
the
related family Cochlospermaceae.
[Bombax
vitifolium
Willd.;
Cochlo-
spermuni vitifolium Sprung.]
Family 8.
CANELLACEAE Mart.
Canella Family.
Aromatic trees or shrubs, with alternate pinnately veined, coriaceous or
subcoriaceous, entire estipulate petioled leaves, and solitary or corymbose
perfect
floAvers.
Sepals
3,
disthict, imbricated.
Petals 4-12,
or wanting.
CANELLACEAE
589
Stamens many, the filaments united into a tube, the anthers extrorse.
Ovary
superior,
1-celled,
with
2-6
parietal
placentae;
ovules
2-several,
nearly
anatropous; style united; stigma 2-6-lobed.
Fruit baccate.
Seeds with a
smooth crustaceous testa; embryo subcylindric, in copious fleshy endosperm.
Five genera and seven known species, of tropical America and Africa.
Petals 5, in 1 row; flowers corymbose, terminal.
1.
^^"^j'"-
Petals 12, in 4 rows of 3 each; flowers axillary, solitary.
2. Fleodenaron.
1. CANELLA P. Br. Hist. Jam. 275.
1756.
An evergreen tree, glabrous throughout, with coriaceous leaves and terminal
bracteolate corymbs of purple, red or violet flowers, the bark and leaves
pleas-
antly aromatic.
Petals 5.
Stamens 10-20, the fllament-tube not appendaged
by scales, the anthers contiguous, longitudinaUy dehiscent.
Ovary with 2 or 3
parietal placentae each bearing 2 ovules; style short; stigma 2-3-lobed.
Berry
globose,
its gelatinous pulp enclosing few, obovoid to orbicular seeds.
[Latin,
cinnamon.]
A monotypic genus.
1. Canella Winterana (L.) Gaertn.
Fr. & Sem.
i: 373.
1788.
Laurus Winterana L. Sp. PI. 371.
1753.
Winterana Canella L. Syst. ed. 10, 1045.
1759.
Canella alba Murray, Syst. Veg. 443.
1784.
A tree, up to 15 m. high, usuaUy much smaller, sometimes shrubby, the trunk
up to 2.5 dm. thick, the bark gray, aromatic.
Leaves oblanceolate or spatulate,
3-10 cm.
long, dark green and somewhat shining
above, rather dull beneath,
rounded or obtuse at the apex, not prominently veined, the slender petioles about
1 cm.
long; corymbs few-several-flowered;
pedicels
slender;
sepals reniform-
orbicular, thick, about 3 mm. long, ciholate
; petals obovate, obtuse, nearly twice
as long as the sepals; stamen-tube 3-4 mm. long; anthers yellow; berry crimson
or nearly black, about 1 cm. in diameter; seeds black.
Thickets, woods, hillsides and arroyos, southern and southwestern dry districts at
lower elevations, and at Cabeza de San Juan, Porto Rico; Mona; Icacos; Vieques;
St.
Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Anegada:—Florida; West Indies, south to Barbados.
The
hard heavy reddish brown wood has a specific gravity of nearly 1.00; the bark yields a
condiment and
is used medicinally as a tonic.
Bakbasco.
Wild Cinnamon.
White
WOOD Bark.
Canella.
Pepper Cinnamon.
Winter Bark.
2. PLEODENDRON van Tieghem, Journ. de Bot. 13: 272.
1899.
Evergreen
trees, with simple alternate
leaves.
Flowers solitary, axillary.
Sepals 3
Petals 12, in 4 rows of 3 each.
Stamens many, united.
Ovary with
6 parietal placentae, each beariiig numerous ovules; stigmas 6.
[Commemorates
F. P16e, who first collected specimens of this tree in Porto Rico.]
A monotypic
genus.
1. Pleodendron macranthum
(Baill.) van Tieghem. Journ. de Bot. 13: 272.
1899.
Cinnamodendron macranthum Baill. Bud. Soc. Linn. Paris 1: 317.
1882.
A tree, 10 m. or more high, with brownish twigs.
Leaves broadly elliptic,
9-13 cm. long, 5-6 cm. broad, obtusely short-acuminate at the apex, acute at the
base, green and glabrous on both
sides,
the primary veins rather numerous,
slender, the midvein impressed above, prominent beneath;
petioles 7-9 mm.
long;
fruiting peduncles 1.5-2.5 cm. long; calyx persistent, somewhat reflexed;
fruit obovoid-globose, 2-2.5 cm. in diameter, apiculate with a short persistent
590
FLACOURTIACEAE
style, green, edible; seeds numerous, subreniform- cordate, 3.5 mm. long, 2.5 mm.
broad, brownish black.
Forests,
Sierra de
Luquillo.
Endemic.
Its wood
is hard,
heavy,
nearly
wliite.
Chupa gallo.
Family 9.
FLACOURTIACEAE Lindl.
Flacourtia Family.
Trees or shrubs, with alternate simple usually dentate leaves, the stipules
minute
or wanting,
the
small
regular
flowers
usually
clustered,
perfect,
dioecious or polygamous.
Cal^'x 3-7-lobed or of 3-7 distinct sspals.
Petals
as many as the calyx-lobes or sepals, or rarely more, or wanting.
Stamens
few
or numerous,
in some genera alternating with staminodia;
filaments
distinct or connate; anthers 2-celled.
Ovary superior,
1 -celled; ovules few
or numerous, on
parietal
placentae.
Fruit
capsular
or
baccate.
About
70 genera, including over 500 species, of tropical regions.
Flowers petaliferous.
Stamens numerous, in several series.
Ovary 3-5-ceIIed.
1.
Prockia.
Ovary 1-celled.
2. Banara.
Stamens in fascicles opposite the petals.
3. Homalium.
Flowers apetalous.
Stamens liypogynous; leaves not pimctate.
4. Myroxylon.
Stamens perigynoxis; leaves often punctate.
Stamens not alternate with scales or staminodia.
5. Samyda.
Stamens alternate with scales or staminodia.
6.
Casearia.
1. PROCKIA P. Br.; L. Syst. ed. 10, 1074.
1759.
Trees or shrubs, with membranous ovate petioled serrate leaves, pahnately
nerved from the base, epunctate, the few, mostly complete flowers long-pedicelled
in terminal racemes or corymbs.
Sepals 3 or 4, valvate, persistent.
Petals short,
as many as the sepals or fewer.
Stamens many, distinct, borne on a small disk;
anthers globose.
Ovary 3-5-celled
; ovules many
; style subulate.
Fruit a many-
seeded berry, the crustaceous seeds with fleshy endosperm.
[In honor of Christian
Lebrecht, baron of Prock, governor of St.
Croix.l
A
few
species
of tropical
America, the foUowing typical.
1. Prockia crucis L. Syst. ed. 10, 1074.
1759.
Trilax crucis Griseb. Goett. Abh.
7: 165.
1857.
A shrub or a small tree, recorded as sometimes reaching a height of 10 m.,
the slender twigs glabrous
or pubescent.
Leaves broadly ovate,
acuminate,
cordate, 3-12 cm. long, glabrous or pubescent, the slender petioles 2 cm. long or
shorter; racemes or corymbs as long as the leaves or shorter; flowers odorous;
pedicels 1-3 cm. long; sepals ovate or ovate-lanceolate, about 5 mm. long, puber-
ulent; petals yellowish; fruit globose, black, 6-9 mm. in diameter.
Woodlands and hills near Aguirre and Cayey, Porto Rico;
St. Croix; St. Thomas;
St. Jan
(according
to Eggers)
:—Cuba;
Hispaniola; Saba
to Tobago;
tropical South
America.
2. BANARA Aubl. PI. Guian. 1: 547.
1775.
Shrubs or
trees with
alternate
petioled, somewhat
inequilateral,
usually
glandular-dentate and punctate leaves, small stipules, and small perfect flowers
in racemes, corymbs or panicles.
Calyx persistent, 3-5-lobed, the lobes valvate.
FLACOURTIACEAE
591
Petals as many as the calyx-lobes, and similar to them, persistent, imbricated.
Stamens many, with
filiform filaments; staminodia none.
Ovary superior,
1-
celled or by intrusion of the placentae nearly several-celled
; ovules many
; style
slender; stigma capitate.
Fruit a fleshy or leathery, indehiscent, many-seeded
berry.
Seed
striate, the endosperm fleshy.
[Guiana name.]
About 15 species,
natives of tropical America.
Type species: Banara guianensis Aubl.
Racemes 5-10-flowered; calyx-lobes and petals glabrous on the back.
1.
B. portoricensis.
Flowers solitary at the ends of the branches; calyx-lobes and petals
tomentose on both sides.
2. B. VanderbiUtt.
1. Banara portoricensis Krug & Urban; Urban Symb. Ant. l: 370.
1899.
A
shrub,
or
tree sometimes 8 m.
tall,
with glabrous
branches.
Leaves
lanceolate to ovate or oval, 5-12.5 cm. long, 2-6.5 cm. broad, acuminate at the
apex, acutish or rounded at the base, reticulate-veined and smooth above, gla-
brous or with scattered appressed hau-s on the midvein beneath, serrate
; petioles
6-12 mm.
long; inflorescence racemose, 5-10-flowered;
pedicels long,
slender;
calyx-lobes 3, ovate, 5 mm. long, glabrous on the back; petals 3,
a little larger
than the sepals, ovate-orbicular, glabrous on the back; fruit subglobose, 6.5 mm.
long, 7-7.5 mm. in diameter; seeds ovate, 1.2-1.5 mm. long, shining.
Mountain forests, Cordillera Central, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
Palo de ramon".
2. Banara Vanderbiltii Urban, Symb. Ant. 3: 320.
1902.
A shrub, 3 m. or more tall, the twigs and branches more or less pubescent with
spreading
hairs.
Leaves elliptic-oblong, lanceolate or broadly elhptic, 4.5-12
cm. long, 2-5 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, obtuse or rounded at the base,
reticulate-veined and softly pubescent on both sides, ultimately scabrous above,
sinuate-dentate;
petioles 4-7 mm.
long;
flowers
sohtary
at the ends
of the
branches; peduncles 13-18 mm. long, tomentose; calyx-lobes 3, triangular,
tri-
angular-ovate, or rhombic-lanceolate, 5-6 mm. long, 3-4 mm. broad, tomentose
on both sides; petals 3, ovate, 6-7 mm. long, 3.5-5 mm. broad, tomentose on both
sides; ovary globose-ovoid, glabrous, the style 6-7 mm. long.
Border of woods near Catano and Martin Pena, Porto Rico.
Endemic.
3. HOMALIUM Jacq. Enum. 5, 24.
1788.
Trees or shrubs, with pinnately veined leaves and small petaliferous flowers
in axillary panicles or racemes.
Calyx-tube short, the 5-7 segments persistent.
Petals 5-7, borne at the mouth of the calyx-tube.
Stamens in fascicles of 2-8
opposite the petals, alternating with glands; filaments filiform; anthers small.
Ovary
half-superior;
styles 2-5,
filiform; stigmas small.
Capsule few-seeded,
2-5-valved
above.
[Greek,
equal,
referring
to
the
equal
stamen-clusters.]
About 30 species, natives of tropical regions, known as Tostado in Porto Rico.
Type species: Homalium racemosum Jacq.
Styles d'stinct to the base; ovary villous.
1. H. racemosum.
Styles united at the base into a short column.
„
,
„
Ovary densely villous.
2. H
pleiandrum.
Ovary glabrous, or with a very few short hairs.
3. H. leiogynum.
1. Homalium racemosum Jacq. Enum. 24.
1760.
Ho7naliu7n racemosum barbellatum Blake, Contr. U.
S. Nat. Herb. 20: 229.
1919.
A tree, reaching a maximum height of over 10 m., usually smaller, often
shrubby, the slender twigs glabrous.
Leaves elUptic to ovate, short-petioled.
592
FLACOURTIACEAE
5-12 cm. long, crenate-dentate, chartaceous, reticulate-veined, glabrous, or bar-
bellate in the axils of the veins beneath, the apex acute or short-acuminate, the
base narrowed, obtuse or rounded
; panicles narrow, glabrous, loosely or densely
many-flowered,
often
longer than
the
leaves;
pedicels
1-4 mm.
long;
calyx
puberulent, its 5-7 segments ovate to ovate-lanceolate, about 3 mm. long; petals
5-7< puberulent on both sides, ovate, about 5 mm. long; stamens in fascicles of
3 or 4; styles 3, distinct to the base; ovary conic, densely pilose.
Wooded hills and forests at lower and middle elevations in moist and dry districts,
Porto
Rico:—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
Antigua;
Guadeloupe;
Martinique.
The
wood is strong, heavy and hard; it is used in construction.
2. Homalium pleiandrum Blake, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 20: 227.
1919.
Homalium brevistylum Blake, loc. cit. 228.
1919.
A tree, 5-6 m. high or higher, or often shrubby, similar to H. racemosum, but
the young twigs sometimes puberulent, the leaves glabrous, or puberulent beneath
in the axils of the veins, sometimes obtuse; flowers like those of H. racemosum
but the stamens sometimes as many as 8 in the fascicles; ovary pilose or villous;
styles 2-4, united below into a short column.
Wooded hiUs and forests, Porto Kico, at lower and middle elevations in wet or moist
districts, ascending to 900 m.
altitude.
Endemic.
H. pleiandrum and H.
brevistylum
do not appear to us to be specifically distinct from each other; whether either of them is
distinct from H. racemosum by the character of partly vmited styles, requires
further
investigation.
3. Homalium leiogynum Blake, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 20: 228.
1919.
Twigs slender, glabrous.
Leaves oblong to elliptic, subchartaceous, 6-9.5
cm.
long,
undulate-crenate,
short-petioled,
reticulate-veined,
glabrous
above,
barbellate in the axils of the veins beneath, the apex acute or short-acuminate,
the base obtuse or narrowed; flowers racemose; racemes puberulent,
several-
flowered, rather shorter than the leaves; pedicels 1.5-2.5 mm. long; calyx nar-
rowed below, its 5-7 segments, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, puberulent, 3-4 mm.
long: petals about 4.5 mm. long; stamens in fascicles of 4-6; styles 3 or 4, glabrous,
united into a short column at the base
; ovary glabrous or bearing very few long
hairs.
In dry woods, Fajardo, Porto Eico, collected only by Heller.
Endemic.
Appar-
ently distinct from related species by its nearly glabrous ovary, somewhat different foliage,
and racemose inflorescence.
4. MYROXYLON Forst. Char. Gen. 126.
1776.
Shrubs or
trees,
often spiny, with usually toothed, sometimes spinulose-
dentate leaves and small, dioecious or polygamous flowers, fascicled or short-
racemose in the
axils.
Sepals 4 or
5, imbricated.
Petals wanting.
Stamens
several or numerous, borne on a glandular disk, the anthers versatile.
Ovary
with 2-6 parietal placentae
; ov ules few or several
; style simple or cleft, sometimes
very short; stigmas dilated, rarely lobed.
Fruit a small, 2-several-seeded berry,
the seeds obovoid.
[Greek, balsam-wood.]
About 30 species, tropical and sub-
tropical in distribution.
Type species: Myroxylon suaveolens Forst.
Leaves reticulate-veined on both sides, 5-11.5 cm. long.
1. M. Schwaneckeanum.
Leaves not reticulate-veined beneath.
Styles 3; leaves ovate, 6-8 cm. long.
2. M. pachyphyllum.
Styles or stigmas 2 ; leaves oblong-obovate to oval, 1.5-5 cm.
long.
3. M. buxifolium.
1. Myroxylon Schwaneckeanum Krug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 15: 296.
1892.
Xylosma Schwaneckeanum Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 371.
1899.
A shrub or small tree, with slender brown twigs.
Leaves oblong-ovate to
ovate, 5-11.5 cm. long, 3-5.5 cm. broad, acuminate at the apex, rounded or obtuse,
FLACOURTIACEAE
593
and often slightly cordate at the base, remotely serrate above the base, coria-
ceous, lustrous above, paler beneath, the lateral venation prominent on both sides;
petioles 3-4 mm.
long; flowers polygamous; sepals suborbicular,
3 mm. long;
stamens in the staminate flowers 40-70, fewer in the perfect flowers, the filaments
about 2 mm. long; styles short, thick, spreading; fruit ovoid, 12-14 mm. long, 8
mm. in diameter.
Forests, Sierra de Luquillo.
Endemic.
PALO DE CANDELA.
Palo Colorado.
2. Myroxylon pach3rphylluin Ivrug & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 15: 297.
1892.
Xylosma pachyphyllum Urban, Symb. Ant. 1: 371.
1899.
A shrub, with brownish or grayish brown twigs.
Leaves ovate, 6-8 cm. long,
3.2-5 .cm. broad, obtuse at the apex, obtuse or subacute at the base, lustrous,
the midvein prominent on both sides, the primary veins rather obscure, slightly
elevated above; flowers unknown; fruiting pedicels 5-6 mm. long; sepals oval,
1.5 mm.
long,
pilose;
fruit (immature) ovoid-globose or subglobose, 7-8 mm.
long, 5 mm. in diameter.
Forests, Monte Alegrillo near Maricao.
Endemic.
3. Myroxylon buxifolium (A. Gray) Kr\ig & Urban, Bot. Jahrb. 15 : 300.
1892.
Xylosma buxifolium A. Gray, PI. "Wright. 1: 155.
1860.
A shrub, or a tree sometimes 10 m. high, the trunk and branches unarmed or
armed with slender simple or branched spines 0.5-3.5 cm. long.
Leaves rigid,
coriaceous, oblong-obovate to obovate or oval, those on sterile shoots sometimes
oval-ovate, 1..5-5 cm. long, 0.9-2.5 cm. broad, rounded or mucronate at the apex,
acute or obtuse at the base, entire or crenulate, lustrous above, paler beneath,
the lateral venation usually obscure, the petioles 1-2.5 mm. long; fascicles 4-8-
flowered; flowers dioecious; sepals lanceolate,
1 mm. long; disk fleshy, annular;
stamens 8-30, the filaments 2-3 mm. long; ovary ovoid; style connate below,
free above; fruit ovoid or subglobose, 4 mm. or more in diameter.
Rocky
liills at lower elevations, northern and we.stern districts of Porto Kico;
St.
Croix; St. Jan:—Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Eustatitos; Guadeloupe.
RosETA.
Myroxylon nitidum (Hell.) Kuntze, of Jamaica, was recorded by Eggers
as naturalized on St. Thomas but recent collectors have not observed it.
[Xy-
losm.a nitidum A. Gray.]
Barren specimens of a tree about 10 m. high in the coastal forest at Sardinera
near Dorado, Porto Rico, with tufts of branched thorns 5-7 cm. long on the trunk,
and obovate or elliptic, coriaceous,
faintly pinnately veined, acute, spinulose-
tipped leaves 4-6.5 cm. long, narrowed at the base, may represent another species
of Myroxylon.
5. SAMYDA L. Sp. PI. 443.
1753.
Shrubs or .small
trees, with punctate distichous leaves, the large axillary
flowers solitary or fascicled.
Calyx campanulate, 4-6-lobed, the lobes imbricated.
Petals none.
Stamens 8-12, borne on the calyx; filaments connate, the anthers
borne at the top of the stamen-tube.
Ovary superior
; style slender; ovules many,
on 3-5 placentae.
Fruit coriaceous, 3-5-valved at the top, many-seeded.
[An-
cient Greek name for some tree.]
About 5 species, natives of tropical America.
Type species; Samyda Guidonia L., which may not be congeneric with the fol-
lowing species.
Leaves glabrous or sparingly pubescent, the weak teeth sometimes
,
appressed or directed toward the margin.
1-
•3,- spinulosa.
Leaves pubescent on both sides, the teeth rigid, spme-hke.
2.
S. dodecanara.
594
FLACOURTIACEAE
1. Samyda spinulosa Vent. Choix des Plantes 43.
1803.
Guayahilla odorata Sesse & Mog. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 113.
1894.
A shrub, 1-4 m.
tall, the young twigs usually densely clothed with rather
stiflf ferruginous hairs.
Leaves oblong to oval, or somewhat obovate, 5-15 cm.
long, 2-6.5 cm. broad, glabrous above or pubescent along the midrib and primary
veins on both sides, acuminate or acute, rarely rounded at the apex, rounded or
sometimes acutish at the base, finely serrulate
; petioles 2-7 mm. long
; calyx white,
1.3-1.6 cm. long, densely pubescent on the inside with more or less appressed fer-
ruginous hairs,
its lobes oval or ovate, 6-7 mm. long; fruit ellipsoid,
its valves
3 cm. long, 1.5 cm. broad; seeds short-ovoid, brown, about 3 mm. long, 2 mm. in
diameter.
[,S. glabrata of Grisebach,
in part, not of Swartz]
Woods,
tliickets and forests, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations in .wet or
moist districts; Crown, St. Thomas (according to Eggers).
Endemic.
G.\ita.
Soldier
Crab Tree.
2. Samyda dodecandra Jacq. Enum. 21.
1760.
Samyda serrulata L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 558.
1762.
A shrub, 2-4 m. tall, occasionally a tree up to 6 m., the young twigs densely
clothed
with
rusty tomentum.
Leaves oblong
to
oval,
ovate
or somewhat
obovate, 3-11 cm. long, 1.5-5.5 cm. broad, more or less velvety-pubescent and
reticulate-veined on both sides, acute to short-acuminate at the apex, rounded
or subtruncate at the base, finely serrulate
; petioles 3-4 mm
. long
; calyx pubescent
on the inside, its lobes elhptic or ovate, 4—5 mm. long; fruit ellipsoid, 2-3 cm. long.
Woodlands, thickets and arroyos at lower elevations, Porto Rico, most abundant in
the southern dry
districts; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin
Gorda:—Cuba; Hispaniola; St. Martin to St. Vincent; Trinidad
(?).
6. CASEARIA Jacq. Enum. 4, 21.
1760.
Shrubs or trees, sometimes spinescent, with alternate, mostly toothed and
punctate or Uneate leaves, small stipules, and small regular green or yellowish
flowers in bracted, lateral fascicles or umbels,
the pedicels jointed at or above
the
base.
Calyx-lobes
4-6,
imbricated.
Petals
wanting.
Stamens
6-15;
filaments
distinct or united
below,
alternating with staminodia.
Ovary su-
perior; ovules many, borne on parietal placentae; style short, undivided or 3-
cleft; stigma capitate.
Capsule dry or fleshy, 3-4-valved, several-many-seeded-
Se eds with a fleshy aril, the testa coriaceous
; endosperm fleshy.
[Commemorates
John Casearius, a Dutch missionary of the seventeenth century.]
Over 75 species,
natives of tropical and subtropical regions.
Type species: Casearia nitida (L.)
Jacq.
Capsule
small,
3-4 mm.
in diameter;
leaves
serrulate,
acuminate,
persistent.
Leaves green on both sides; style 3-cleft.
1.
C. sylvestris.
Leaves pale-tomentuiose beneath; style not 3-cleft.
2.
C. arborea.
Capsule larger, 6-10 mm. in diameter.
Leaves 1.5-3 times as long as wide, mostly narrowed at the base,
mostly deciduous.
Stamens 10; leaves glabrous.
3.
C. decandra.
Stamens 8; leaves pubescent or glabrous.
Branches mostly spinescent; leaves 3-7 cm. long.
4.
C. aculeata.
Unarmed; leaves 5-16 cm. long.
5.
C. guianensis.
Leaves 3-4 times as long as wide, rounded at the base.
6.
C. hicolor.
1. Casearia sylvestris Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 752.
1800.
Samyda parvifiora L. Syst. ed. 10, 1025.
1759.
Not Loefl.
1758.
Casearia parviflora Willd. Sp. PI. 2: 627.
1799.
(?) Anavinga samyda Gaertn.
f. Fr. & Sem. 3: 241.
1807.
FLACOURTIACEAE
595
Casearia punctata Spreng. Xeue Entd. 2: 154.
1821.
C. sylvestris platyphylla DC. Prodr. 2: 49.
1825
Casearia sylvestris Wydleri Briquet, Ann. Cons. Jard. Bot. Gen. 2: 74.
1898.
A shrub, or a tree 6-10 m. tall, occasionally up to 20 m.
Leaves persistent,
lanceolate to ovate or elliptic, 3-14 cm. long, acute to long-acuminate at the apex,
narrowed or rounded at the base, entire or obscurely serrulate, glabrous, punctate
with numerous pellucid dots and lines
; petioles 3-6 mm. long; pedicels articulated
a little below the middle; calyx-lobes oblong to oval,
1.5 mm. long, rounded at
the apex,
ciliate; style
trifid, with 3 capitate stigmas; capsule globose or sub-
globose, 3-4 mim. in diameter.
Woods, forests, thickets and hillsides, Porto Rico, at lower and middle elevations in
moist
or wet
districts; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola:—Jamaica;
Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St. Martin
to Trinidad; continental
tropical America.
Cafeillo
CIMARRON.
SARNA DE PERRO.
2. Casearia arborea (L. C. Rich.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 421.
1910.
Saniyda arborea L. C. Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 109.
1792.
Casearia stipularis Vent. Choix des Plantes 40.
1803.
Casearia incana Bert.; Spreng. Syst. 2: 3.55.
1825.
Samyda virgata Sessg & M05. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 113.
1894.
A tree reaching a height of 15 m., or shrubby.
Leaves persistent, narrowly
oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, 3-10 cm. long, long-acuminate at the apex, nar-
rowed or obtuse at the base, glabrous above, permanently clothed beneath with
a dense pale brown tomentum, finely serrulate; pellucid dots and lines scattered;
petioles 2-3.5 mm. long; pedicels articulated above the middle; caly.x-lobes ovate
to elliptic, 2-2.5 mm. long, rounded at the apex, densely pubescent; style simple;
stigma capitate; capsule ovoid, about 4 mm. in diameter.
Woodlands and forests in wet or moist districts, Porto Rico, ascending to 1000 m.
altitude;
St.
Thomas:—Cuba;
Hispaniola;
northeastern
South
America.
The
St.
Thomas record is based on a specimen from the herbarium of Dr. Otto Ktmtze, -labelled
as collected there bv him in February, 1874; Urban (Symb. Ant.
7: 75) states that this
was probably from Porto Rico, however.
GtA verde.
Rabojunco.
3. Casearia decandra Jacq. Enum. 21.
1760.
Casearia parvifoUa Willd. Sp. PI. 2: 628.
1799,
Crateria Jasciculata Turcz. Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 31: 463.
1858.
Not Pers.
Samyda lancijolia Sesse & Moc Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 113.
1894.
Samyda decandra Jacq. Enum. 21.
1760.
A shrub, 2-3 m.
tall, or tree up to 7 or 8 m.
Leaves deciduous,
elliptic-
lanceolate to elliptic or oval, 3-9 cm. long, 1.5-4 cm. broad, acuminate at the
apex, narrowed or sometimes obtuse at the base, glabrous on both sides or oc-
casionally with tufts of hairs in the axils of the veins beneath, serrulate; pellucid
dots and lines often not very conspicuous; petioles about 3 mm. long;
caly.x-
lobes oblong or oblong-elliptic, 2.5-3 mm.
long, pubescent; stamens
10; style
simple
; stigma capitate
; fruit globose, 8-10 mm. in diameter.
[Casearia ulmijolia
of Bello, not of Vahl; Casearia Samyda of Bello and of Stahl, not of de Candolle;
C. parvifoUa ynicrocarpa of Eggers.]
Woods, thickets and hillsides, Porto Rico, mostly in wet or moist districts, ascending
to middle or liigher elevations; Vieques;
St. Croix
(according to Eggers);
St. Thomas;
St. Jan; Tortola; Virgin Gorda:^St. Martin and Saba to Trinidad; Margarita; northern
South
America.
Gia mausa.
Caracolillo.
Palo
bl.anco.
Wild
Honey-tree.
Wild cherry.
4. Casearia aculeata Jacq. Enum. 21.
1760.
Samyda spinosa L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 557.
1762.
Casearia spinosa Willd. Sp. PI. 2: 626.
1790.
Casearia hirta Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ. 756.
1800.
596
FLACOURTIACEAE
Casearia hirsuta glabrata DC. Prodr. 2: 50.
1825.
•
Casearia Berteriana Tiircz. Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 31': 461.
1858.
Casearia ramiftora spinosa GrLseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 24.
1859.
A shrub or small tree, the branches usually armed with simple or branched
spines 1 .5-3.5 cm. long, usually pubescent with rather stiff straight hairs.
Leaves
deciduous, eUiptic to oval or obovate, 2.5-7 cm. long, obtusely short-acuminate,
acute or obtuse at the apex, narrowed or rounded at the base, glabrous or with
few scattered hairs along the midrib above, densely pubescent with rather long
stiff hairs or nearly glabrous beneath, punctate with numerous pellucid dots and
lines; petioles 1..5-6 mm. long: calyx-lobes oblong, 3-3.8 mm. long; fruit globose
or globose-ellipsoid, 6-8 nmi. in diameter.
[C. ramiflora of Stahl, not of Vahl].
Thickets, woods and hillsides at lower and middle elevations, southern and western
districts of Porto Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; continental tropical America.
6. Casearia guianensis (Aubl.) Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 322.
1902.
Iroucana guianensis Aubl. PI. Guian.
1: 329.
1775.
Casearia ramiflora Vahl, Symb. 2: 50.
1791.
Casearia ulmijolia DC. Prodr. 2: 49.
1825.
Samyda octandra Sesse & Mog. Fl. Mex. ed. 2, 113.
1894.
A shrub, 3-4 m. tall, or a tree up to 10 m. high.
Leaves eUiptic-obovate,
obovate or elliptic, .5-16 cm. long, 2.3-7 cm. wide, abruptly short-acuminate or
occasionally acute or rounded at the apex, inequilateral and acute or rounded
at the base, glabrous or sparingly pilose above, often pilose beneath, especially
along the veins, crenate-serrate, the pellucid dots and lines numerous, the petioles
4- 7 mm
. long
; pedicels articulated below the middle
; calyx-lobes oblong or oblong-
elliptic, 4 mm. long, pilose; style simple; stigma capitate; fruit eUipsoid or sub-
globose, 8-11 mm. long.
[Casearm nj^ida of Stahl and of Kuntze, not of Jacquin;
C. hirta of Millspaugh, not of Swartz.]
Thickets, woods and hiUsides at lower and middle elevations in wet or moist districts
of Porto Rico; Vieques:
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:
St. Jan:—Jamaica; Cuba: Hispaniola;
Guadeloupe to Trinidad; Margarita; continental tropical America.
Cafeillo.
Wild
Coffee.
6. Casearia bicolor Urban, Symb. Ant. i: 372.
1899.
A
tree, 15 m. high, the twigs blackish brown.
Leaves oblong or elliptic-
oblong, 7-14 cm. long, 2.5-4.5 cm. broad, acute to short-acuminate at the apex,
more or less equilateral and rounded or obtuse at the base, serrulate, glabrous,
punctate with pellucid dots and hues, the midrib puberulent; the petioles 4 or 5
mm. long; calyx-lobes oval, those on fruiting specimens 3.5 mm. long, 2 mm.
broad, glabrous on both sides; fruit globose, 9-10 mm. in diameter, glabrous,
seeds short-obovoid, 2.5-3 mm. long, 2 mm. broad.
Primeval forest, Santa Isabel near Utuado,
collected only by Sintenis.
Endemic.
Talantron.
Barren specimens of a tree 15 ru. high in the mountain forest at La Juanita,
near Las Marias,
Porto
Rico, with membranous glabrous
serrulate
pellucid-
dotted leaves 18 cm. long and about 5 cm. wide, the apex long-acuminate, base
rounded or subcordate, the petioles 3 mm. long, may represent another Casearia.
Flacourtia Ramontchi L'Her., Madagascar Plum, Governor's Plum,
Madagascan, occasionally grown for its edible fruit in Porto Rico and the Virgin
Islands, is a tree up to 10 m. high, or higher, with thin, ovate to elliptic, pointed
crenate leaves 5—8 cm. long, the small, mostly dioecious, yellowish flowers race-
mose, the globose black berry-like fruits about 12 mm. in diameter.
Flacourtia cataphracta Roxb., Chinese Plum, occasionally grown for its
fruit in Porto Rico,
is a small spiny
tree with lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate
VIOLACpAE
597
acuminate leaves, small green clustered flowers, andglobose fruit about
l.,5 cm.
in diameter.
Hydnocarpus castanea Hook.
f. & Thoms., East Indian, introduce
I at the
Insular Experiment Station, Rio Piedras, is a tree, with glabrous narrowly oblong
leaves and small dioecious axillary flowers, the large fruit globose.
Taraktogenos Kurzii King, Burmese, the tree yielding chaulmoogra
oil,
a curative for leprosy, was grown as a young plant at the Rio Piedras Station
in 1923.
Family 10.
VIOLACEAE DC.
Violet Family.
Herbs, shrubs, or rarel}' trees, with basal or alternate, simple, lobed or
entire stipulate leaves and solitary or
clustered,
perfect, mostly irregular
flowers.
Sepals 5, hypogynous, imbricated in the bud, the lower one larger
or with a posterior spur.
Stamens 5; anthers erect, connivent or syngan-
esious.
Ovary simple,
1-celled, with 3 parietal placentae.
Fruit usually a
loculicidal
capsule.
Seeds
anatrojxms.
About
15
genera and
over 325
species, of wide distribution.
1. lONIDIUM Vent. Jard. Malm. 27.
1803.
Herbs, rarely small shrubs, with simple opposite or alternate leaves, and
axillary or racemose flowers.
Peduncles or pedicels one-flowered, solitary in the
axils of the leaves or bracts.
Sepals somewhat unequal.
Petals unequal, the
lower one longest, gibbous or saccate at the base, the two upper shorter than the
lateral ones.
Filaments distinct, the lower spurred or glandular; anthers con-
nivent.
Capsule
elastically
3-valved.
Seeds
ovoid-globose,
with
hard
seed-
coats.
[Latin,
slipper-like.]
A genus of about 60 species, mostly natives of
tropical America.
Type) species: lonidium polygalaefolium Vent.
Leaves 4-10 times as long as wide.
1.
I- linearifolium.
Leaves 2-3 times as long as wide.
2.
/. portoricense.
1. lonidium linearifolium (Vahl) Britton.
Viola linearifolia Vahl in West, St. Croix 303.
1793.
lonidium strictum Vent. Jard. Malm. 1: 27.
1803.
Hybanthus linearifolius Urban, Sj^rnb. Ant. 5: 436.
1908.
Calceolaria linearifolia Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard.
1: 70.
1918.
Stems slender, 15-50 cm. high, puberulent.
Stipules linear-subulate, 1.8-2
mm. long; leaves often opposite, oblong-Unear to oblanceolate or obovate, 2-4.5
cm. long, 2.6-10 mm. wide, obtuse or acute at the apex; tapering at the base into
a short petiole; flowers about 5-6 mm. long; sepals lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate,
2-3 mm. long, long-aciuninate; petals bluish or bluish-white
; capsule subglobose
or globose-ovoid, 3.5-4 mm. long; seeds short-ovoid, 1.8-2 mm. long, shining.
On rocks and
hillsides
in the dry
soutliern and southwestern
districts and near
Aguadilla, Porto Rico; St. Croix; Water Island, St. Thomas; Cuba; Hispaniola.
2. lonidium portoricense Krug & Urban (Symb. Ant.
5: 438,
as synonym.
1908).
Hybanthus portoricensis Urban, Symb. Ant.
5: 438.
1908.
Stems 4-15 cm.
high,
puberulent.
Stipules linear-subulate,
0.6-1.3 mm.
long: lower leaves alternate, obovate or elliptic-obovate, 1.2-3 cm. long, 0.6-1.3
cm. broad, obtuse or acute at the apex, tapering at the base, remotely crenulate.
598
TITRNERACEAE
the upper leaves mostly opposite or siibopposite
; flowers 5-6.5 mm. long; sepals
ovate-oblong or somewhat lanceolate, acuminate, 1.5-2 mm. long; petals whitish-
purple
or
white; ovary
ovoid-globose;
capsule
subglobose,
2.8-3 mm.
long;
seeds short-obo void, 1.3-1.8 mm. long.
Fields and thickets near Guanica and Coamo:—Hispaniola.
Viola odorata L., Sweet Violet, European, grown for its fragrant flowers
In Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens, is a low acaulescent herb, spreading by
stolons, the leaf-blades suborbicular, cordate, crenate, about 5 cm.
broad, the
blue or rarely white flowers solitary on slender scapes about as long as the leaves.
Family
11.
TURNERACHAE H. B. K.
TuRNERA Family.
Annual or perennial herbs, or shrubs, with altsrnate simple leaves mostly
serrate and often 2-glandular at the base, the flowers regular, mostly perfect.
Peduncle free or connate with the petiole, often articulated.
Calyx-lobes
or sepals
5, imbricated.
Petals
5, thin, convolute, fugacious.
Stamens 5,
distinct,
opposite
the
sepals;
filaments
compressed
or
subulate;
anthers
oblong.
Ovary superior,
1-celled, with 3 parietal placentae; styles
3,
fili-
form, simple or
2-cleft; stigmas usually flabellate and many-cleft; ovules
many, anatropous.
Fruit a 1-celled capsule, partly or completely 3-valved.
Seeds foveolate, with flesh}^ endosperm and a membranous aril.
Six genera
and over SO species, of tropical and subtropical distribution.
Receptacle of the flower with a corona.
1
.
Piriqusta.
Receptacle without a corona.
2.
Turnera.
1. PIRIQUETA Aubl. PI. Guian. 1: 298.
1775.
Herbs
or
shrubs,
with
glabrous
tomentose
hirsute
or
stellate-pubescent
foliage.
Leaves alternate, entire, toothed or pinnatifid, often biglandular at the
base.
Flowers axillary or in reduced panicles.
Sepals 5, imbricated.
Petals 5,
yellow or purple.
Filaments somewhat flattened, glabrous or somewhat pubes-
cent.
Anthers notched
at the
base, the apex truncate or slightly emarginate,
rarely mucronate.
Stigmas 3, 2-cleft, brush-like.
Capsule 1-celled, loculicidally
3-valved.
Seeds numerous, curved or nearly straight with a roughened testa.
[Guiana name.]
About 20
species,
mostly American,
a few
Asiatic.
Type
species: Piriqueta villosa Aubl.
Flowers yellow.
Leaves usually of an ovate type; seeds curved, tuberculate-ridged.
1.
P. ovata.
Leaves usually of a linear or lanceolate type; seeds nearly straight,
pitted-striate.
2. P. dstoides.
Flowers purple; leaves usually of a lanceolate type; seeds nearly straight,
pitted-striate.
3.
P. viscosa.
1. Piriqueta ovata (Bello) Urban, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 2: 76.
1883.
Turnera ovata BeHo, Ann. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 275.
1881.
Annual, the stem 18-60 cm
. tall, pubescent with long rather stiff", yellowish-
brown
hairs.
Leaves
ovate,
rarely oblong-ovate, 2-4.7 cm.
long,
1.2-5 cm.
broad, obtuse or acutish
at the apex, rounded or obtuse at the base, usually
velvety stellate-pubescent, short-petioled, crenulate; flowers solitary; peduncle
slender, 1.5-3.5 cm. long, the fruiting pedicel 2-4 mm. long; calyx G-7 mm. long,
the lobes lanceolate, obtuse; petals cuneate, about 9 or 10 mm. long,
yellow;
corona
0..5-0.8 mm.
long,
flmbriate-lacerate
;
fllaments
glabrous; capsule 7-9
mm. long; seed curved, tuberculate-ridged, 2 mm. long.
Along the coast near Mayaguez:—Hispaniola; Bonaire; Curagao.
TURNEEACEAE
599
2. Piriqueta cistoides (L.) Meyer; Steud. Nom. ed. 2, 2: 344.
1841.
Turnera cistoides L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 387.
1762.
Piriqueta longifolia Bello, Amer. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 275.
1881.
Piriqueta viUosa Cook & Collins, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: 220.
1903.
Annual, the stem simple or much branched, 12-60 cm.
tall, pubescent with
long stiff light brown hairs.
Leaves linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or occasion-
ally ovate-lanceolate, 2.5-9 cm. long, 0.3-1.5 cm. broad, acute or obtuse at the
apex, rounded or acutish at the base, stellate-pubescent on both
sides, short-
petioled,
serrulate
or nearly entire; flowers axillary, solitary, peduncle 0..S-3.3
cm. long, erect-spreading; pedicels 3-6 mm. long; calyx 4-9 mm. long, the lobes
lanceolate, acute; petals obovate, 6-9 mm. long; corona 0.5 mm. long; filaments
glabrous; capsule ellipsoid to subglobose, 4..5-9 mm. long, 3-7 mm. in diameter;
seeds
oblong-obovoid,
nearly
straight
or
slightly
curved,
1..5-1.8 mm.
long,
pibted-striate.
Fields and hillsides, Porto Rico, at lower elevations:—Jamaica: Cuba; Hispaniola;
St. Eustatius to Trinidad: continental tropical America.
3. Piriqueta viscosa Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 114.
1866.
Annual with simple or branched stems 15-60 cm. tall, pubescent with stellate
and simple
hairs intermixed.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate,
lanceolate
or
ovate,
2-5 cm. long, 0.5-2.2 cm. broad, acute to acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the
base, crenulate or occasionally serrate, short-petioled
; flowers solitary
; peduncle
slender, erect or erect-spreading, 1.5-4 cm. long, the pedicel 3-5 mm. long; calyx
5-7 mm. long, the lobes oblong or lanceolate, acuminate; petals obovate. 5-8 mm.
long, 3-4 mm. broad, purple; corona 0..5
1 mm. long, the margin fimbriate;
fila-
ments glabrous
; capsule subglobo.se, sometimes tuberculate, 5-8 mm. in diameter,
seeds oblong-elhpsoid, 1.8-2 mm. long, pitted-striate.
Hillside thickets,
St. Thomas:—Cuba; South America.
2. TURNERA L. Sp. PI. 271.
1753.
Herbs or low shrubs, with toothed leaves and solitary axillary yellow flowers,
the peduncles often adnate to the petioles.
Calyx 5-cleft.
Petals obovate to
spatulate, borne on the calyx-throat.
Stamens borne below the petals, sometimes
hypogynous.
Ovary sessile; styles fiUform; stigmas several -many-cleft.
Cap-
sule 3-valved to the base, mostly many-seeded, the seeds borne near the middle
of the valves, oblong or cylindric, curved, the aril narrow.
[In honor of William
Turner, herbahst the "Father of EngUsh Botany." died 1568.1
About 60 species,
nearly all of tropical and subtropical America.
Type species
: Tumera ulmifolia L.
Peduncle adnate to the petiole.
.
Anmial; flowers clustered.
l-
^- pumuea.
Perennial: flowers eventually scattered.
2.
I. ulmttoiia.
Peduncle free from the petiole; flowers axiUary; small-leaved shrub.
3.
I
. diffusa.
1. Tumera pumilea L. Syst. ed. 10, 965.
1759.
An annual herb, with ascending or prostrate branches 10-25 cm. long, the
stems and leaves more or less densely villous-hirsute.
Leaves obovate, oblance-
olate, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-6 cm. long, distinctly petioled and coarsely
toothed, acute
at the apex, cuneate and sometimes with glands at the
base;
flowers clustered; calyx 6-7 mm. long; petals a little longer than the calyx-lobes;
seeds obovoid-oblong, curved, the surface deeply reticulate.
Grassy situations and
in cultivated grounds at lower elevations, northern coa=tal
plain and southern dry districts of Porto
Rico:—Jamaica; Cuba; Hi§paniola; Curacau;
South America.
600
PASSIFLORACEAE
2. Turnera ulmifolia L. Sp. PI. 271.
1753.
Turnera angustifolia Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8.
1768.
Turnera ulmifolia angustifolia Willd.
Sp. PI. 1: 1503.
1797.
Turnera ulmifolia iyitermedia Urban, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 2: 140.
1883.
Turnera ulmifolia acuta Urban, Jahrb. Bot. Gart. Berlin 2: 142.
1883.
Turnera scabra Millsp. Field Mus. Bot. 2: 77.
1900.
Shrubby, erect, branched, 3-9 dm. high, more or less pubescent.
Leaves,
lanceolate to ovate-oblong, thin, short-petioled, 2-11 cm. long, serrate, acute or
acuminate at the apex, mostly narrowed at the 2-glandular base- peduncles short;
bractlets as long as or longer than the calyx; calyx deeply 5-lobed, its segments
lanceolate, acute or acuminate;
petals obovate, 1-3 cm. long; capsule 6-10 mm.
long, much shorter than the bractlets, 3-valved above.
[T. cuneiformis of Bello'
not of Poiret.]
Banks, coastal sands, sandy fields, hillsides and waste grounds, Porto Rico, at lower
elevations; Culebra; Vieques; St. Croix; St. Thomas; St. Jan; Virgin Gorda:—Bermuda;
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St.
Martin;
St.
Barts;
St.
Eustatuis;
Saba;
Margarita;
Curacao;
continental
tropical
America.
Planted
for ornament
in
\ irgm
Island gardens.
Races differ in size and shape of leaves, in size of flowers and m pubes-
cence.
M.^iii-LoPEZ.
Yellow Aldeu.
3. Turnera diffusa AVilld.; Schultes. Syst. 6: 679.
1820.
Turnera microphylla Desv.; Hamilt. Prodr. 33.
1825.
Triads microphylla Griseb. Fl. Br. W.
I. 297.
1860.
A pubescent, much-branched shrub, 2 dm.
to
1.3 m.
high,
the branches
slender,
spreading.
Leaves small, 5-20 mm.
long, spatulate or oblanceolate,
firm in texture, coarsely few-toothed, nearly sessile, deeply impressed- veined and
pubescent or glabrous above, pubescent beneath, mostly obtuse at the apex,
cuneate at the base, the margin revolute; peduncles very short; calyx 5-toothed;
petals spatulate, 3-8 mm. long, much longer than the calyx-teeth; stamens very
short: capsule subglobose, about
1.5 mm.
in diameter, 3-valved to the base.
[T. parviflora of Bello.]
Coastal thickets and rocky hiUsides, Porto Rico
in the dry southwestern districts
at lower elevations; Mona; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thpma.s;
St. Jan; Virgin Gorda;—
Bahamas; Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; continental tropical America.
Order 19.
PASSIFLORALES.
Herbs, tendril-bearing vines, shrubby plants, or succulent trees with a
milkj^ sap.
Leaves alternate,
entire or lobed.
Flowers
perfect,
or when
dioecious, the staminate and pistillate very different.
Calyx of 5 more or
less united sepals.
Corolla of 5 distinct or partially united petals, sometimes
accompanied bv a fringed crown.
Stamens 5 or 10 in 2 unequal rows.
Ovary
superior,
1-celled, with 3-5 parietal placentae.
Stigmas entire, notched or
forked.
' Fruit a berry or capsule.
Corolla accompanied by a crown (corona); flowers perfect,
PAssTPT.nRArEAE
aU alike; mostly \anes.
^
.
i
^-
^^™-
^- Passifloraceae.
Corolla not accompanied by a crown; flowers mataly dioe-
n.j,rrArvxv
cious, the staminate and pistiUate different; trees.
Fam. 2. Camcaceae.
Family L
PASSIFLORACEAE Dumort.
Passion-floweh Family.
Vines, climbing by tendrils, or rarely erect herbs, with petioled entire
dentate or lobed leaves, and perfect regular flowers.
Calyx-tube persistent.
Petals usualv
5, inserted on the throat of the calyx, distmct, or
ni some
PASSIFLORACEAE
601
species united, or wanting.
Stamens 5.
Throat of the calyx crowned with
a double or triple fringe.
Filaments subulate or filiform, monadelphous, or
separate.
Ovary
free from
the
calyx,
1-celled;
placentae
3-5,
parietal;
styles
1-5.
Fruit
a
berry
or
capsule,
usually many-seeded.
About
18
genera and 350 species,
of warm and tropical regions, most abundant in
South America.
1. PASSIFLORA
L.
Sp.
PI.
955.
1753.
Climbing tendril-bearing vines, with alternate or rarely opposite leaves, and
axillary flowers, on usually jointed, often bracted peduncles.
Calyx-tube cup-
shaped or campanulate, 4-5-lobed, the lobes narrow, imbricated in the bud, its
throat crowned with a fringe called the corona.
Petals 4 or 5
(rarely none),
inserted on the throat of the calyx.
Ovary oblong, stalked.
Filaments mona-
delphous in a tube around the stalk of the ovary, separate above; anthers narrow,
versatile.
Fruit a many-seeded berry.
Seeds pulpy-arilled,
flat, ovate; endo-
sperm
fleshy.
[Flower of the Cross,
or Passion, as emblematic of the cruci-
fixion.]
About 300
species, mostly of tropical America, a few
in Asia and
AustraUa.
Type
species:
Passiflora incamata
L.
The plants
are known
as
PoRCHA and as Flor de pasion or Passion-flower
A. Flowers involucrate by 3 large foliaceous bracts.
Leaves entire.
Petiole 2-glandular near the middle.
Petiole 2-glandular at the top.
Leaves pedately 5-7-cleft.
B. Flowers subtended by small or pectinate-pinnatifid bracts,
or bractless.
1. Flower-tube
cylindric
or
cylindric-campanulate,
leaves
2-lobed or 3-lobed.
Leaves, at least the upper ones, as long as wide or longer.
Leaves wider than long, the lobes emarginate.
2. Flower-tube short or none.
Petals none.
Petals present.
Flowers subtended by large pinnatisect bracts.
Bracts small, not pectinate-pinnatifid.
Leaves 2-lobed, mostly broader than long.
Flowers
soUtary,
slender-peduncled,
3-4 cm.
broad.
Flowers clustered, 1.5-2 cm. broad, the cluster
short-peduncled.
Leaves entire, longer than broad.
1. Passiflora maliformis L. Sp. PI. 956.
1753.
A w oody vine, up to 10 m. long or longer, the foUage glabrous.
Leaves sub-
membranous or chartaceous, the blade ovate or ovate-oblong, entire, pinnately
veined, 6-15 cm. long, the apex' acute or acuminate, the base rounded or subcord-
ate, the slender petioles 2-glandular at or a little above the middle; peduncles
slender, about as long as the petioles; involucre-bracts ovate, acute or acuminate,
membranous, puberulent within, about 5 cm. long, longer than the variegated
flower; petals 5; crown 3-seriate; berry globose, hard, about 3 cm. in diameter.
Forests and thickets, at lower and middle elevations, in moist "or wet districts, Porto
Rico; St. Thomas (ex Krebs);—Jamaica; Cuba; Hispaniola; Saba to Barbados; northern
South America.
Planted for its fruit in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
PoRCHA
CI.\L\RRONA.
2.
Passiflora laurifolia L. Sp. PI. 956.
1753.
A glabrous woody vine, up to 10 m. long or longer.
Leaves subcoriaceous,
the blade oval to eUiptic-ovate, entire, pinnately veined, 6-12 cm. long, the apex
obtuse or acute, the base rounded or subcordate,
the short stout petioles 2-
glandular at the top
; peduncles 2-3 times as long as the petioles
; involucre-bracts
ovate, glabrous, about 2.5 cm. long, obtuse, with large marginal glands toward the
1.
2.
3.
602
PASSIFLORACEAE
apex; flowers variegated, about as long as the involucre; petals 5; ci'own 3-seriate;
berry oval, hard, yellow, 6-7 cm. long.
Thickets and
woodlands,
St.
Croix;
St.
Thomas;
St.
Jan:—Cuba;
Hispaniola;
St. Barts
to Trinidad and northern South America.
Much planted
in
tropical and
subtropical region.s for its edible fruit; not definitely known to be native in Porto Rico.
Bell Apple.
3. Passiflora serrato-digitata L. Sp. PI. 960.
1753.
Passiflora serrata L. Syst. ed. 10, 1248.
1759.
Passiflora digitata L. Sp. PL ed. 2, 1360.
1763.
An elongated, partly woody, glal^rous vine up to 6 m. long or longer.
Leaves
membranous,
the
blades
suborbicular-reniform
in
outline,
deeply
5-7-lobed,
palmately veined, 8-15 cm. broad, the lobes oblong-oblanceolate, acute or acu-
minate, low-serrate, the long and slender petioles bearing 2 glands at the top and
2 at the middle
; peduncles shorter than the petioles
; involucre-bracts ovate, acute,
entire, 2.5-3 cm. long, about as long as the flower; petals
5; crown 3-seriate;
berry globose to ellipsoid, 4-5 cm. thick.
Tliickets, forests and river-banks, Porto Rico,
at lower and middle elevations:
Guadeloupe to St. Vincent
; Trinidad
; South America.
Tagua-TAGUA.
4. Passiflora Tulae Urban, Symb. Ant. 1 : 374.
1899,
A partly woody vine, 6 m. long or longer, glabrous, or the young shoots
puberulent.
Leaves chartaceous, the blades 4-10 cm. broad and mostly about
as long as broad, 3-nerved, the base rounded, the apex subtruncate, 2-lobed or
3-lobed, the lobes rounded, obtuse or acute, the petioles 1-3 cm. long, slender,
glandless; pedimcles solitary or 2 together, 2-5 cm. long; flowers exinvolucrate;
sepals and petals narrowly oblong, rose-colored, about 4 cm. long; crown yellow,
about one-half as long as the sepals, the outer undulate, not filamentous
; fruit
globose or oval, about 1.5 cm. in diameter.
[Murucuja ocellata of Bello, not of
Persoon; Passiflora Murucuja of Stahl, not of Linnaeus.
Mountain forests at middle and liigher elevations, Porto Rico.
Occasionally some
of the leaves are divergently 2-lobed and wider than long.
Endemic.
5. Passiflora bilobata Juss. Ann. Mus. Paris 6: 107.
1895.
A short slender vine, the young shoots puberulent.
Leaves short-petioled,
subcoriaceous, broader than long, finely reticulate-veined, 3-5 cm. wide, deeply
2-lobed with a rounded sinus, the lobes ascending or divaricate, oblong or obovate,
emarginate or subtruncate; petioles eglandular; flowers solitary or 2 together in
the axils, short-ped uncled; about 1 cm. long; exterior corona of fiUform filaments;
middle corona membranous; gynophore about 5 mm. long; berry globose, nearly
1 cm. in diameter; seeds transversely sulcate.
Limestone
hill,
Peiion,
between
Guayajiilla and
Tallaboa, Porto
Rico,
(Shafer
1995); also recorded by Urban as coUected in Porto Rico by Read;—Hispaniola.
6. Passiflora pallida L. Sp. PI. 955.
1753.
Passiflora minima L. Sp. PI. 958.
1753.
Passiflora hirsuta L. Sp. PI. 958.
1753.
Passiflora suberosa L. Sp. PI. 958.
17.53.
Passiflora parviflora Sw. Prodr. 97.
1788.
Passiflora angustifolia Sw. Prodr. 97.
1788.
Passiflora peltata Cav. Diss. 10: 447.
1790.
Passiflora hederacea Cav. Diss. 10: 448.
1790.
Passiflora lineariloba Hook.
f. Trans. Linn. Soc. 20: 222.
1847.
A
slender
herbaceous
vine,
with
nearly
glabrous
or
pubescent
foliage.
Leaves ovate to linear, 6-15 cm. long,
ciliate, 5-nerved at the broadly cuneate
PASSIFLORACEAE
603
or cordate base, entire, toothed, or 3-lobed to above the middle, the lobes ovate
or
triangular,
acute or acuminate,
the middle one much the
larger;
petioles
5-15 mm. long, each with 2 glands at or above the middle; peduncles surpassing
the petiole?
, commonly in pairs
; calyx greenish, 2-2.5 cm. broad
; sepals lanceolate
or linear-lanceolate; 8-12 mm. long; corolla wanting; crown-filaments purple at
the base, shorter than the sepals; berry subglobose or oval, 10-12 mm. in diameter.
Hillsides, banks, thickets and woodlands, Porto Rico, ascending to higher elevations
;
Icacos; Culebra; Vieques; Miiertos; Mona; Desecheo;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan;
Tortola;
Virgin
Gorda;
Anegada:—Florida;
Bermuda; West
Indies and
continental
tropical America.
Consists of many races, differing in leaf-form and pubescence.
7. Passiflora foetida L. Sp. PI. 959.
1753.
Passiflora hibiscijolia Lam. Encycl. 3:
39.
1789.
Herbaceous,
villous and glandular- viscid,
trailing or climbing, sometimes
2.5 m.
lonji.
Leaves
slender-petioled, broadly ovate or ovate-orbicular in out-
line, 3-lobed or 3-angled,
flaccid, irregularly low-dentate, 3-12 cm. long, cordate
or subcordate at the baSe, acute at the apex, the stipules
5- 10 mm. long, pin-
natisect; peduncles 1-3 in the axils, mostly longer than the petioles, not jointed;
involucre of 3 finely pinnatisect bracts 2-4 cm. long, the ultimate segments nearly
filiform, gland-tipped; calyx 5-parted, 1.5-2.5 cm. long; petals white or pinkish,
about as long as the calyx; crown pink, of three series of segments; berry ovoid.
2-4 cm. long, nearly dry when mature.
Hillsides, thickets, waste and cultivated grounds, Porto Rico, at lower and middle
elevations: Mona;
Culebra; Vieques;
St.
Croix;
St. Thomas;
Tortola:—West
Indies;
continental
tropical
America.
Old World
tropics.
Love-in-the-Mist.
Pop Bush.
Tagua-tagua.
8. Passiflora rubra L. Sp.
PI. 956.
1753.
A softly pubescent slightly woody vine, sometimes 2 m. long or more.
Leaves
thin, eglai.dular, the blade broader than long, 7-12 cm. broad, 5-neryed, deeply
cordate at the base,
l^roadly 2-lobed or subtruncate, the lobes ovate, acute or
acutish, the mid vein excurrent, the petioles 1-4 cm. long; peduncles solitary or 2
in the axils, slender or fihform, longer than the petioles, jointed below the flower;
flowers 3-5 cm. broad, greenish-white, the 5 sepals somewhat longer than the 5
petals
; crown of 3 series of subulate processes, about as long as the petals; berry
oval or subglobose, pubescent, 6-ribbed, 2-4 cm.
in diameter, longer than the
carpophore.
[? P. pubescens of Krebs.]
Woodlands and thickets, Porto Rico, ascending to higlier elevations mostly in wet
or moist districts; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas;
St. Jan:—West Indies; continental
tropical America.
9. Passiflora sexflora Juss. Ann. Mus. Paris 6:
pi. 37.
1805.
A velvety-pubescent, slender, subherbaceous vine up to 6 m. long or longer.
Leaves thin, eglandular, the blade broader than long, 5-12 cm. wide, 3-nerved,
cordate or subcordate, 2-lobed or 3-lobed, the lobes ol^tuse or acute, the petioles
1-3 cm. long; flowers greenish-white, 10-12 mm. Inroad, several together in small,
short-peduncled, axillary cymes; pedicels short; sepals about as long as the 5
petals; crown 3-seriate, about as long as the petals; berries globose,
pubescent,
about 10 mm. in diameter.
Forests and thickets, mostly at higher elevations in wet districts, Porto Rico:
Florida: Cuba;
Hispaniola; recorded from
St.
Kitts; Mexico and
Central America.
10. Passiflora multiflora L. Sp. PI. 956.
1753.
A somewhat woody, slender vine, climbing to a length of 6 m. or more, the
stems and leaves flnely pubescent or glabrous.
Leaves oblong to ovate-oblong.
604
CARICACEAE
5-12 cm. long, entire, pinnately veined and triple-nerved, reticulate-veined be-
neath, obtuse or acute and raucronulate at the apex, obtuse, rounded or subcordate
at the base, the short petiole 2-glandular at the top
; peduncles 2-6 together in
the axils, slender, jointed near the middle, 5-15 mm. long; involucre none; sepals
oblong- lanceolate, greenish-yellow, about 6 mm. long; petals linear, white, shorter
than the sepals; carpophore none; berry globose, 6-10 mm. in diameter.
Woods and thickets at lower and middle elevations in moist districts of Porto Rico;
St. Thomas
(according to Masters); St. Jan; Tortola:—Florida; Bahamas; Cuba; His-
paniola ; recorded from Costa Rica.
Passiflora quadrangularis
L., Granadilla, of Central America, planted
as an ornamental vine and. for its fruit in Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands, has
4-winged stems, large ovate entire leaves, involucrate large variegated flowers,
the fruit ovoid, up to 12 cm. long.
Passiflora incamata L., a North American species, recorded by AVest in
1794 from St. Croix,
is presumably an error in determination.
The plant was
grown from Louisiana seeds by Mrs. Maxwell in her garden at Ensenada, Porto
Rico, in 1923.
Passiflora tuberosa Jacq., of Trinidad and northern South America, was
recorded by Ivrebs as found on St. Thomas, prior to 1851.
It may have been in
cultivation there, or the determination may be erroneous.
Passiflora stipulata Aubl., South American, grown
for ornament in
St.
Thomas gardens in
1923,
is a glabrous vine with subcordate, deeply 3-lobed
leaves,
the foliaceous stipules 1-2 cm.
long; the showy
flowers are 7-10 cm.
broad, purple and white with orange stamens.
Family 2.
CARICACEAE Dumort.
Papaw Family.
Trees, with milky sap, ample broad palmately 7-9-lob3d leaves and uni-
sexual, or rarely perfect flowers.
Calj^x short.
Staminate flowers with a
salver-shaped
corolla,
its tube slender; the lobes
5, valvate or convolute;
stamens
10, inserted in the throat of the corolla; filaments short; anthers
adnate to the filaments,
2-celled.
Pistillate flowers with 5 distinct petals
and no staminodia; ovary compound,
1-celled,
or sometimes imperfectly
5-ce!led,
free,
sessile; stigmas
5,
sessile; ovules numerous, in two or many
series on the 5 placentae.
Fruit a
large fleshy
berry.
Seeds numerous,
flattened, with a roughened testa; endosperm fleshy; embryo axile.
There
are two genera, the following composed of about 25 species of tropical and
subtropical distribution, and Jacaraliaof tropical Africa and America, which
differs from Canea by having the stamens partly united.
1. CARICA L. Sp. PI. 1036.
1753.
Characters of the family.
[Named from the fancied resemblance of the fruit
to that of the Fig.]
Type species; Carica Papaya L.
1. Carica Papaya L. Sp. PI. 1036.
1753.
A small tree, with a simple wand-like stem, 3-6 m.
tall, leafy at the top.
Leaves large,
thick, suborbicular in
outline, 2-6 dm. broad, mostly palmately
7-lobed, pale or glaucous beneath, each lobe pinnately lobed, the segments obtuse
or acute, or the larger ones aciuninate
; petioles stout
; staminate flowers in slender
BEGONIACEAE
G05
panicles 1-several dm. long; calyx of the staminate flowers 1-1. r> mm. long, that
of the pistillate flowers 5-10 mm. long, the lobes longer than the tube; corolla
yellow, that of the staminate flowers 2.5-3 cm. long, its tube slender, dilated near
the top,
its lobes lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, barely as long as the tube;
corolla of the
pistillate flowers longer, the patals distinct, lanceolate, twisted;
berries oblong to subglobose, 0.6-3 dm. long, yellow or orange, with a milky juice.
Hillsides, coastal thickets, woodlands and arroyos, Porto Rico, spontaneous after
cultivation for its fruit, used for food and yielding papain; Mona; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:—widely cultivated and locally spontaneous in tropical America, its original
home unknown.
Consists of many races, differing in the size and quality of the fruit,
that
of plants rim wild much smaller than
the valued
cultivated
kinds.
Papaya.
Lechosa.
Papaw.
Carica portoricensis (Solms) Urban, Symb. Ant. 4: 428, based on speci-
mens collected in a thicket at Montalba, near Guaiuca, by Sintenis, is unknown
to us.
We failed to find any species but C. Papaya in the vicinity of Guanica.
Order 20.
BEGONIALES.
Herbs, mostly succulent, some slightly woody, a few species climbing.
Leaves alternate, entire, toothed or lobed, inequilateral; stipules 2, distinct,
usually caducous.
Flowers showy,
monoecious,
asymmetric, cymose
on
axillary peduncles, bracted, mostly white or rose.
Staminate flowers usually
with 2 opposite sepals, the petals, when present, imbricated; stamens nu-
merous, the anthers continuous with the filaments; ovary rudimentary or
wanting.
Pistillate flowers usually with 2-5 perianth-segments and without
stamens; ovary commonly
3-celed;
styles
2-5, commonly
2-cleft;
ovules
very numerous, anatropous.
Fruit
capsular, dehiscent,
or rarely baccate.
Seeds many, minute, reticulated, with
little endosperm or none.
Only' one
family.
Family
1.
BEGONIACEAE Lindl.
Begonia Family.
Two genera, the following and the monotypic Hillebrandia, of Hawaii.
1. BEGONIA [Plumier] L. Sp. PI. 1056.
1753.
A genus of many species, perhaps 400, widely distributed in tropical regions
of both the Old World and the New.
[Dedicaced to Michel Begon, born 1638,
French governor of Santo Domingo.]
Type species; Begonia obliqua L.
1. Begonia decandra Pav.; DC. Ann. Sci. Nat. IV. 11: 122.
1859.
Begonia acutifolia Balbis; Kl. Begon. 25.
1855.
Not Jacq.
Begonia portoricensis A. DC. Prodr. 15: 295.
1864.
. Herbaceous, 3-20 dm.
high,
the stem branched or simple,
glabrous,
or
sparingly pilose above.
Leaves membranous, purphsh or green; stipules lance-
olate, entire, mucronate, 8-18 mm. long; petioles pilose, 1-6 cm. long; blades
ovate, ciUate, irregularly dentate, 5-12 cm. long, glabrous above, pilose on the
veins beneath, the apex acute or acuminate, the base very obUque, obtuse or
cordate; peduncles elongated,
erect; cymes several-flowered; flowers white to
rose; pedicels fihform, those of the pistillate flowers shorter than those of stami-
nate; pistillate flowers with 5 obovate petals about 10 mm. long; petals of the
staminate flowers about 12 mm. long; capsule about 10 mm. long with a
tri-
angular-lanceolate, thin wing 1-2.5 cm. long.
Motmtain forests, Porto Rico, ascending to higher elevations.
Endemic.
Begonl\.
606
LOASACEAE
Begonia humilis
Dryand., recorded by A. de Candolle
as
collected by
Finlay in St. Thomas, was really from Trinidad.
Several kinds of Begonias are grown in flower gardens in Porto Rico and
the Virgin Islands, among them the following
Begonia heracleifolia C. &
S., Mexican, with stout rootstocks, pubescent,
5-9-lobed leaves 1-3 dm. broad, the lobes toothed, the small many, white or rose
flowers on a peduncle up to 1 m. long.
Begonia nelumbiifolia
C. &
S.,
also Mexican,
with
thick
rootstocks,
broad peltate leaves up to 4 dm. long, pubescent beneath, the many white or rose
flowers rather densely clustered on a long peduncle.
Begonia incarnata L. &
O.,
also Mexican,
is glabrous, branched, up
to
about
1 m. in height, with oblique ovate leaves 1-2.5 dm. long, reddish beneath,
and long-pediuicled clusters of rose-colored flowers.
Begonia nitida Dryand, Jamaican, is glabrous, 2 m. high or less, branched,
with very oblique ovate leaves 10-15 cm. long and peduncled clusters of white or
pink fragrant flowers, cultivated in the variety odorata.
Begonia semperflorens L. & O., Brazilian, has fibrous roots, the stems and
leaves glabrous or the ovate leaves with ciUate margins, the flower axillary.
Order 21.
LOASALES.
Herbs, often armed with" hooked stinging or viscid hairs, with estipulate
leaves, and
regular
perfect white yellow
or reddish
flowers.
Calyx-tube
adnata to the ovary,
its limb 4-5-lobed, persistent.
Petals 4 or 5, inserted
on the throat of the calyx.
Stamens many, inserted with the petals;
fila-
ments filiform, commonly arranged in clusters opposite the petals; anthers
introrse.
Ovary
1-celled
(rarely
2-3-celled), with 2-3
parietal placentae;
ovules anatropous.
Capsule usually
1-celled, crowned with the calyx-limb.
Seeds mostlj^ numerous; endosperm scanty.
Only one family.
Family
1.
LOASACEAE Rchb.
LoASA Family.
Characters
of the order.
About 20 genera and 250
species,
all
Ijut
1
natives of America.
1. MENTZELIA L. Sp. PI. 516.
1753.
Erect or stragghng herbs, with alternate entire lobed or pinnatifld leaves,
and terminal cymose or solitary flowers.
Calyx-tube cylindric, hnear or club-
shaped, the limb
tistially 5-lobed.
Petals
5, convolute in the bud, spreading,
deciduous.
Stamens 20-100.
Ovary
1-celled;
styles
3, more or
less united;
stigmas
small,
obtuse.
Capsule
dehiscent
at
the summit, few-many-seeded.
Seeds mostly prismatic, rough or striate.
[In honor of C. Mentzel, a German
botanist,
died
1701.]
About 35
species,
natives
of America.
Type
species:
Mentzelia aspera L.
CACTACEAE
607
1. Mentzelia aspera L. Sp. PI. 516.
1753.
Straggling, branched, scabrous-pubescent, the stems terete, slender, 1-2 m.
long.
Leaves hastate, lanceolate or triangular-ovate, slender-petioled, unequally
serrate or incised, membranous, 8 cm. long or less, the apex acuminate, the base
narrowed or subtruncate; flowers solitary or few, light yellow,
1..5-2 cm. broad;
calyx-lobes 5, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, about 8 mm. long; petals oval, longer
than the calyx-lobes; stamens about 20, capsule linear-clavate, 2-3 cm. long.
Rocky
soil, drv southern districts and near Rincon, Porto Rico:—Cuba; Jamaica;
Hispaniola; St. Lucia (ex Urban)
; Bonaire; Curagao; Aruba; continental tropical America.
Pegadora.
Loasa triloba
Juss., a Peruvian species, was listed by Krebs as found in
St. Thomas; it may have been planted there.
Order 22.
OPUNTIALES.
Fleshy plants, with continuous or jointed stems, mostly leafless or with
small leaves, generally abundantly spiny, the spines developed from cushions
of
hairs
(areolae).
Flowers mostly
solitary and
sessile,
perfect,
regular,
and showy.
Calyx-tube adnate
to the ovary, its limb many-lobed.
Petals
mostly numerous, imbricated in several rows, distinct, or the flower tubular,
funnelform or campanulate.
Stamens numerous, inserted on the throat of
the calyx.
Filaments
filiform; anthers small.
Ovary 1-ceUed; ovules_ nu-
merous, anatropous, borne on several parietal placentae.
Style terminal,
elongated;
stigmas
or
stigma-lobes
several
or numerous.
Fruit
a
berry,
mostly
fleshy,
sometimes
dry.
Seeds
smooth,
or
tubercled,
the
testa
usually crustaceous or bony; endosperm little, or copious.
Only one family.
Family
1.
CACTACEAE Lindl.
Cactus Family.
Characters of the order.
About 125 genera and not less than 1250 species,
natives of America.
A. Leaves broad and flat; glochids none; flowers stalked.
1.
Percskia.
B.
Leaves terete, small, or altogether wanting; flowers sessile.
1.
Glocliids
present;
leaves
small,
terete,
deciduous
or
fu-
gacious; flowers without a tube.
Stamens much longer than the erect petals.
2. Nopalca.
Stamens shorter than the spreading petals.
3. Opunlia
2.
Glochids none; leaves almost always wanting.
a. Perianth funnelform, salverform or campanulate, large,
the segments several or many; terrestrial cacti.
* Flowers and spines borne at the same areoles
; several-
jointed or many-jointed cacti, the joints elongated,
t Erect or arching cacti, without aerial roots.
Ovary naked.
4.
Ccphalocercus.
Ovary scaly, often also .spiny.
Perianth short-campanulate or short-funnel-
form, its tube short.
Bushv, tree-like or arcliing cacti.
5. Leptocereus.
Columnar cacti.
6. Lemaireocereus.
Perianth fimnelform or salverform, the tube
long.
Joints 3-5-angled;
areoles
of the ovary
spiny or bristly.
7.
Acanthocereus.
Joints
ribbed;
areoles
of
the
ovary
woolly.
S.
Harrisia.
tt Vine-like climbing cacti, with aerial roots.
Ovary and fruit bearing large foliaceotis scales,
not hairy; joints 3-angled or 3-wlnged.
9.
Hylocereus.
Ovary and fruit without foliaceous scales, bear-
ing tufts of hairs; joints ribbed or angled.
10.
Selenicereus.
608
CACTACEAE
** Flowers and spines borne at different areoles; short
or small,
1-jointed cacti, solitary or clustered.
Flowering
areoles
forming
a
central,
terminal,
woolly cephalium.
11.
Cactus.
Flowering areoles at the bases of tubercles,
12. Neomammillaria.
b. Perianth small, rotate; manv-jointed, slender epiphytic
cacti.
13. Rhipsalis.
1. PERESKIA [Plum.] Mill. Gard. Diet. Abr. ed. 4.
1754.
Shrubs, trees or woody vines, with spines in pairs or in chisters at the leaf-
axils, the leaves broad,
fiat,
alternate, somewhat fleshy, deciduous, the rotate
flowers solitary or clustered, usually stalked.
Glochids none.
Spines without
sheaths.
Sepals and petals few or several,
distinct.
Stamens many,
shorter
than
the
petals.
Stigma-lobes
linear.
Fruit
a
berry,
many-seeded.
Seeds
black, smooth, shining, with a brittle testa and a strongly curved embryo.
[Com-
memorates Nicolas Claude Fabry de Peiresc, 1.580-16.37.]
About 20 species, of
tropical America.
Type species: Cactus Pereskia L.
A climbing
vine, the twigs with a pair
of reflexed
spines
at each
areole.
1. P. Pereskia.
A shrub, with straight slender spines.
2. P. grandifolia.
1. Pereskia Pereskia (L.) Karst. Deutsch. Fl. 888.
1882.
Cactus Pereskia L. Sp. PI. 469.
1753.
Pereskia aculeata Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8.
1768.
A slender glabrous woody vine, up to 10 m. in length, the tmgs bearing
paired
reflexed spines 5-10 mm.
long, the stems with longer aeicular spines
solitary or clustered.
Leaves ovate, oblong or lanceolate, 4-7 cm. long, the
apex acute or short-acuminate, the base rounded or narrowed, the petioles short;
flowers corymbose or paniculate, often numerous, white, pinldsh or yellowish,
2.5-4.5 cm. broad; ovary bearing a few leaf-like scales; fruit globose, yellow or
reddish, 1-2 cm. in diameter; seeds few, black.
Spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico; Vieqiies;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas :^West
Indies and continental
tropical America; widely
cultivated in
tropical regions
as an
ornamental vine and for its fruit; known as Barbados Gooseberry and Gooseberry
Shrub.
2. Pereskia grandifolia Haw. Suppl. PI. Succ. 85.
1819.
A shrub or sometimes a small tree, up to 5 m. high, often forming a trunk 1
dm.
in diameter and
copiously armed with formidable
spines,
the branches
glabrous, elongated, somewhat fleshy, with
1 or 2 aeicular spmes at the areoles
or spineless.
Leaves oblong, 8-15 cm.
long, acute or obtuse,
short-petioled
flowers rose or sometimes white, 3-4 cm. broad, in terminal clusters; fruit pyri-
form, with many black seeds.
[P. Bleo of Eggers, of Millspaugh and of Urban,
not of de Candolle.]
Spontaneous after cultivation, Porto Rico; St. Croix; St. Thomas; commonly planted
in Porto Rico and Virgin Island gardens.
Widely planted as an ornamental shrub, and
for hedges in tropical regions.
Native of Brazil.
Hortensia.
Pereskia saccharosa Griseb., Argentinian, grown by Mr. A.
S. Fairchild
at Louisenhoj,
St. Thomas, forms a small tree, the branches bearing straight
slender spines, the leaves lanceolate to oblaneeolate,
12 cm. long or less, the
rose-colored flowers about 6 cm.
Avide, the outer sepals bearing long hairs.
2. NOPALEA Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyek.1849.
63.
1850.
Branched cacti with erect, cyUndric trunks, the branches composed of one
or several flat fleshy joints.
Areoles unarmed or spiny, mostly with few glochids.
CACTACEAE
609
Leaves small, subterete, deciduous.
Flowers solitary and sessile at areoles near
or along the edges of the joints; sepals ovate, erect; petals red or pink,
erect,
approssed against the numerous erect stamens; filaments and style much longer
than the petals; ovary umbilicate.
Fruit a juicy berry.
Seeds arillate.
[From
the Mexican name nopal.]
About 8 species of Mexico and Central America,
the following typical.
1. Nopalea cochenillifera (L.) Sahn-Dyck. Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849.
64.
18.50.
Cactus cochenillifer L. Sp. PI. 468.
1753.
Opuntia cochenillifera Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8.
1768.
Erect, at first simple, at length usually much branched, 2-4 m. high, bright
green, the trunk 1-2 dm. in diameter, usually unarmed.
Joints oblong, 1.5-5 dm.
long, spineless or nearly so
; areoles bearing deciduous glochids and small subulate
deciduous leaves; flowers often numerous, about 5 cm. long; ovarv globose, about
2 cm. long, low-tuberculate ; sepals scarlet; petals scarlet, a Uttle longer than tha
sepals; stamens pinkish, about twice as long as the petals; style longer than the
stamens, the stigma 6-7 lobed; berry red, about 5 cm. long.
Locally persistent or spontaneous after planting
in the southern dry
districts of
Porto Rico;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas:—Widely planted for use in potUtices and
locally
spontaneous in tropical America, its native home unknown.
Tliis is the plant illustrated
by Cook and ColUns on Plate 48 "Economic Plants of Porto Rico."
Tuna de Espana.
Tuna mansa.
Cochineal Cactus.
French Prickly Pear.
3. OPUNTIA [Tourn.]
INIill. Gard. Diet. Abr. ed. 4.
1754.
Succulent plants, with jointed branching stems, the joints flat, or cylindric,
and small, mostly subulate, deciduous leaves, the areolae with tufts of glochids
and usuaUy
spine-bearing.
Flowers
sessile,
usually
lateral.
Calyx-tube not
prolonged beyond the ovary,
its
lobes
spreading.
Petals numerous,
sUghtly
united at the base.
Stamens very numerous.
Ovary cylindric, exserted; style
cylindric, longer than the stamens
; stigma 2-7-rayed.
Berry globose to obovoid,
often spiny.
[Named from a town in Greece where some species grew.]
About
250 species, natives of America.
Type species: Cactus Opuntia L.
Plants low,
spreading or bushy, branching
at or near the base;
flowers large.
Joints small, readily detached ; plants spreading.
Joints oblong, 4 cm. wide or less, very fragile.
Joints 4-S times as long as wide; spines 1-3 cm.
Joints 2-3 times as long as wide; spines 3-5 cm
Joints oblong to obovate, larger, less fragile.
Spines wliite.
Spines yellow, at least when young.
Joints large, not readily detached
; plants bushy.
Spines yellow.
Plant spineless or with a few white spines.
Plants
tall,
erect,
with
a
continuous
trtmk; flowers
si
branches flat, in a terminal crown.
Joints strongly areolate; ovary prominently tubercled.
Joints indistinctly areolate; ovary low-tubercled.
1. Opuntia repens Bello, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat. 10: 277.
1881.
Usually much-branched,
often forming dense low colonies up to 4 m.
in
diameter and not over 3 dm. high, sometimes erect or ascending and 5 dm. high.
Joints readily detached, light green to olive-green, glabrous or puberulent, oblong
to Unear, 5-16 cm. long, 2-3.5 cm. wide, flat or somewhat turgid; areoles small,
bearing wool, several spines and ultimately numerous glochids; spines acicular,
pinkish when young, fading brown or whitish; leaves very smaU; flowers few,
bright yellow, fading to salmon, about 4 cm. broad
; berry red, spiny or spineless,
obovoid, 2-3 cm. long, with
1 seed or few.
[Cactus curassavicus of West, not
long,
long.
610
CACTACEAE
of Linnaeus; Opuntia curassavica of Krebs, of Eggers, of Millspaugh and of Schu-
mann, not of Miller;
? O. i)usilla of Krebs; O. decumbens of Cook and Collins.]
Plains, sand-dunes and hillsides along and near the southern coast of Porto Rico,
from the vicinity of Aguirre, westward; Mona; Muertos; Culetara; Vieques;
St. Croix;
St. Thomas; St. Jan; Tor tola; Virgin Gorda.
Endemic.
Britton and Rose referred the
Culebra plant, when it was first known to them, to O. curassavica, and Britton referred
the Mona plant, when first known, to O.
Taylori of Hispaniola.
The joints
fall apart
readily and are distributed by animals to wliich they become attached, and by the wind.
Ohulaga.
Olaga.
suckers.
2. Opuntia borinquensis Britton «& Rose, Cactaceae 1: 103.
1919.
Sparingly branched, but forming colonies up to 2 m. broad, 5 dm. high or
less.
Joints readily detached, dull green, oblong or oblong-obovate, compressed,
but turgid, 5-8 cm. long, 4 cm. wide or less; areoles small; spines 2 or 3, acicular,
3-6 cm. long, brown, fading white; leaves subulate, 1-2 mm. long; fruit obovoid,
subtruncate, about 1.5 cm. long.
Known only from a limestone swale at Morillos de Cabo Rojo, where it grew with
O. repens.
Endemic.
3. Opuntia triacantha (Willd.) Sweet, Hort. Brit. 172.
1826.
Cactus triacanthos Willd. Enum. Suppl. 34.
1813.
Prostrate and clambering, or ascending, or erect, about 6 dm. high or less,
usually few-branched.
Joints compressed, turgid, oblong to oval, 4-8 cm. long,
mostly about half as wide as long, the upper ones rather readily detached; spines
about 3, acicular, 4 cin. long or less, white, or yellowish-white; flowers 5-G cm.
wide, yellowish or cream-color tinged with pink, the petals obtuse; fruit 2-3 cm.
long, spineless.
Coastal rocks, Punta Melones, Porto Rico; rocky hillsides, Desecheo; Buck Island,
St. Thomas:— St. Martin to St. Kitts and Guadeloupe.
4. Opuntia antillana Britton & Rose; Britton, Mem. Brooklyn Bot. Gard. 1:
74.
1918.
Usually much branched, sometimes forming clumps a meter broad, prostrate
or ascending, 6 dm. high or less.
Joints obovate or oblong-obovate,
flat, 7-20
cm. long, the terminal ones rather readily detached; areoles large, brown-woolly,
with yellow glochids and 3-6 rather stout unequal yellow spines 1-6 cm. long;
spines fading to gray or white; flowers yellow, or reddish, 5-7 cm. broad, the
petals obovate. obtuse; fruit obovoid, red-purple, about 4 cm. long.
[0. polyantha
of Krebs, not of Haworth.]
Plains near the southern coast of Porto Rico from the vicinity of Salinas, westward;
St. Croix; St. Thomas; Tortola:^—Hispaniola; St. Kitts.
Bull Suckers.
5. Opuntia Dillenii (Ker-Gawl.) Haw. Suppl. PI. Succ. 79.
1819.
Cactus Dillenii Ker-Gawl. Bot. Reg. 3:
pi. 255.
1818.
Opuntia horrida Salm-Dyck; DC. Prodr. 3: 472.
1828.
Bushy-branched,
0..5-1.8 m. high, often forming masses 2 m. in diameter.
Joints green, glabrous, mostly obovate and 1-2.5 dm. long, about 8 mm. thick,
not readily detached, crenate, the areoles 2-6 cm. apart, somewhat elevated,
bearing 1-4, stout, somewhat flattened, yellow spines 1-4 cm. long, or spineless,
the num