74 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
mm. long), with yellow filaments and purple anthers. Female flowers provided at 
the back with two additional bracts, smaller than the outer one, irregularly fringed 
or denticulate and bearing at the base within several finger-like, dark glandules; 
perianth 3-lobulate, the lobules more or less ovate-rounded or acuminate, though 
never acute, at the tip, 1 to 1.5 mm. long, free to the base or almost so ; ovary globose, 
glabrous, 3-locular; styles shortly adnate at the base, up to 5 mm. long, thick, arcuate, 
green, with a brownish stigmatic surface. 
Capsules sessile or very short-pedicellate, coriaceous, 11 mm. long by 13 mm. in 
diameter, finely rugose and brownish gray outside, 3-celled and each cell monosperm, 
with both the carpellary divisions and the lines of dehiscence deeply furrowed (the 
latter yellowish in dry specimens). Seeds medium-sized, with a red pseudoaril, 
black, lenticular, finely tuberculate, cristate along the margin, distinctly apiculate; 
length 5.6 mm., breadth 5 mm., thickness 3.6 mm. 
Jamaica: Hope Gardens, a tree derived from a seedling obtained at Medellin, 
Department of Antioquia, Colombia, and presented by the late Consul Ch. Patin in 
September, 1899. 
I am indebted to Mr. William Harris, superintendent of the Public Gardens of 
Pr o% or, _ Kingston, for herba- 
ar 4 SZ rium specimens, mate- 
rials in alcohol, and 
interesting notes on 
this remarkable 
species. Tothe Hon, 
H. H. Cousins, Di- 
rector of Agriculture 
of Jamaica, I owe also 
an acknowledgment 
for the communica- 
tion of the original 
photograph of plate 45. 
From Mr. Harris’s 
letters I extract the 
Fic. 81.—Female flower of Sapium hippomane. a, Young flower, front view, following information: 
showing glands {and bract; b, same, back view, showing small bracts and : 
glandules; c, mature pistil; d, perianth in situ; e, bractlets and glandson . We have a Sapium 
back of flower. All scale 6. here which was pre- 
_ sented to us by the 
late Mr. Chas. Patin in 1899. He called it S. biglandulosum. It is evidently not that 
species, but may be 8S. utile or an allied species. (July 15, 1910.) 
The leaves drop off the branches in drying and it is difficult to get nice specimens, 
but no doubt they will answer your purpose. I may mention that the leaves of the 
wee yer much larger when it was younger, say three or four years ago. (August 11, 
We sent flowering specimens of this tree to Kew in 1907 and they referred it doubt- 
fully to S. obtusilobum. It did not seem to agree with the figure given in Bull. Herb. 
Boiss. 6, p. 357 (fig. 17), and I named the tree provisionally 8. utile. This is the first 
year that the tree has fruited with us and consequently the first time that we could 
get complete material for identification. 
You will notice in the figure of 8. obtusilobum in Bull. Herb. Boiss. that the petiolar 
glands are shown to be at the base of the leaf blade, whereas in our tree these glands 
are 7 or 8 mm. below the base of the leaf blade. The apical gland is an important 
character. I find that the capsules are not all sessile, but occasionally one is furnished 
with a short, thick pedicel. 
I hope to send you a photogra h of our tree in a few days. Our specimen is a 
round-headed tree 35 feet high, with a trunk girth of 24 inches at 3 feet from the ground. 
It is furnished with numerous leafy branches, the lower ones drooping and touching 
the ground. All parts of the tree, but especially the young shoots and leaves, contain 
an abundance of milky juice. We received the young plant from the late Mons. 
