RHAMNACEAE. 257 



3. SARCOMPHALUS P. Br. ; Raf. Sylva Tell. 29. 1838. 



Shrubs or trees, often spinescent, with flat glabrous coriaceous entire 

 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; stigma obtuse. 

 Fruit a small, nearly dry, ovoid or oblong drupe, the bony pit 2-celled, 2-seeded. 

 [Greek, fleshy navel.] About 8 species, natives of the West Indies. Type 

 species: Sarcomphalus retusus Raf. 



1. Sarcomphalus Taylor! Britton, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 3: 445. 1905. 



A glabrous, densely branched shrub, 2 m. high or less, or a tree up to 6 m. 

 high, some of the branches long and prostrate, the bark gray, the twigs green, 

 angled, unarmed, or occasionally with a spine 1-2 em. long in the upper axils. 

 Leaves alternate, obovate, bright green on both sides, but a little paler beneath 

 than above, 1.5-2.5 cm. long, 2 cm. wide or less, emarginate or rounded at the 

 apex, narrowed at the base, 3-nerved just above the base, the veins elevated on 

 the upper surface, and impressed on the lower; petioles about 2 mm. long; 

 flowers in small clusters at the ends of the branches, green, glabrous, 3 mm. 

 broad, on pedicels 2 mm. long; calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, the lobes ovate, 

 acute, 1 mm. long; petals clawed, hooded, about as long as the calyx-lobes and 

 the stamens ; ovary oblong, .tipped with two slightly divergent styles ; fruit 

 oblong, about 8 mm. long. 



Low rocky coppices and rocky scrub-lands, Allen's Cay, Rose Island, Eleuthera, 

 Little San Salvador, Cat Island, Conception, Watling's, Ship Channel Cay, Cay north 

 of Wide Opening, Great Exuma, Fortune Island, East Caicos, South Caicos, Grand 

 Turk, Little Inagua and Inagua : Mona. TAYLOR'S SARCOMPHALUS. 



4. COLUBEJiSTA 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 

 spreading. Disk angled or lobed. Petals 5, 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. Drupe small, 3-lobed or 3-grooved, 

 splitting into 3 nutlets, its flesh thin. Seeds smooth and shining, the endo- 

 sperm thin. [Latin, coluber, a serpent.] About 15 species, 1 of them 

 Asiatic, the others of tropical America. Type species: Coliibrina ferruginosa 

 Brongn. 



Leaves thin, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate acute, glabrous, or nearly so. 1. C. reclinata. 

 Leaves thick. 



Leaves oblong or elliptic, velutinons on both sides. 2. C. cubensis. 



Leaves ovate to elliptic, pointed, smooth above, ferruginous 



beneath. 3. C. colulirinn. 



I. Colubrina reclinata (L'Her.) Brongn. Ann. Sci. Nat. I. 10: 369. 1827. 

 Ceonothus reclinatus L 'Her. Sert. Angl. 6. 1788. 



A tree, sometimes 20 m. high with a trunk diameter up to 1.5 m., usually 

 much smaller, with orange-brown furrowed bark which exfoliates in thin layers, 

 the young twigs finely pubescent. Leaves elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, rather 

 thin, 4-8 cm. long, acute or blimtish at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the 

 2-glandular base, the slender petioles 5-15 mm. long; flower-clusters pubescent, 



