Tas. 4670. 
BRYA EBENUS. 
Jamaica Ebony. 
Nat. Ord. Legumrnos®.—D1apELpPuta (rather MonapeLPatA) DEcaNnDRIA. 
Gen. Char. Sepala 5, in calycem subbilabiatum 5-dentatum concreta. Petala 
5, in corollam papilionaceam disposita. Stamina monadelpha, decimo ad medium 
ceteris concreto. Legumen biarticulatum, articulis monospermis dehiscentibus 
compressis, sutura” superiore recta inferiore convexa, articulo sup. interdum 
nullo.—Arbores Americana, spinis stipularibus, foliis simplicibus congestis (forsan 
potius 3-foliolatis ? foliolis sessilibus). De Cand. 
Brya Hbenus. 
Brya Ebenus. De Cand. Prod. v. 2. p.421. M'Fad. Fl. of Jam. p. 301. 
Amerimnum Ebenus. Sw. Prod. Ind. Oc. p. 104. Spreng. Syst. Veget. v. 3. 
p. 191, ; 
Prerocarpus glabra. Reich. 
Prerocarpus buxifolius. Murr. 
Prerocarrus foliis aggregatis, Plum. ed. Burm. t, 249. f. 1. 
Brya arborescens, etc. Browne, Jam. p. 299. p. 31. f. 2. 
Aspanatuus arboreus, etc. Sloane, Jam. v. 2. p. 3. t. 175. f. 1. 
A well-known West Indian shrub, or rather tree, especially 
common in Jamaica, whence our plant was derived; but it 1s 
little seen in cultivation, by no means so much as it deserves : 
for although in its native country it attains a height of fifteen or 
twenty feet (M‘Fadyen; Sloane says forty feet), yet, cultivated in 
a pot, in a warm stove, it maintains a shrubby character for a 
very great number of years, with pretty, evergreen, box-like 
foliage, bearing copious bright orange pea-shaped flowers m the 
month of May, yielding a delicious perfume. It abounds in the 
savannas and dry hills of Jamaica, where Dr. M‘Fadyen says, 
with its long twiggy branches, it reminds the traveller of the 
Broom of Europe. The wood is hard and ponderous, of a fine 
greenish-brown colour, susceptible of a good polish and used 
SEPTEMBER Ist, 1852. 
