474 pittier: caesalpiniaceous trees of panama 



to a distance of some 15 meters from the trunk; they are flattened 

 laterally and end in several secondary branches, each of which lies on 

 the flat bottom, forming a succession of bow-like arches, with numerous 

 rootlets growing downward at the lowest points. Around the base of 

 the tree, in parts temporarily submerged, there appear sometimes 

 bunches of thin roots, which are supposed to be pneumatophores. 



The trunk is usually straight with a smooth, dark brownish, peeling 

 bark. It will give logs of 6 to 8 meters, of any diameter up to 1 meter, 

 of a pale brown, tough, close grained wood. The sap once excluded, 

 this wood is, it is claimed, incorruptible and adapted as a substitute 

 for oak or other hard timbers in their various industrial uses. Ac- 

 cording to another statement the wood of the alcornoque is better than 

 any other for structures kept permanently under sea water. 



The crown of the tree is elongated and the main limbs are rather 

 short. The middle-sized specimen which was felled to procure herba- 

 rium material was 31 meters high; the trunk measured 10 meters in 

 length and 75 cm. in diameter; the white sapwood had a thickness of 

 5 to 7 cm.; and the heart was dark reddish. 



Botanically speaking the affinities of Dimorphandra tnegistospenna 

 are with D. excelsa (Schaub.) Baillon, of British Guiana. Its leaves, 

 however, are pinnate, with only 2 pairs of leaflets, instead of the 3 or 

 4 pairs of the latter. The floral spikelets are not paniculate but soli- 

 tary at the end or in the upper axils of the branchlets. In the several 

 ovaries which were dissected a constant number of ovules was found, 

 3, of which only one reaches maturity. The enormous pods, once ripe, 

 open with a twist of the valves without parting from the branchlets, 

 and the seed slips to the muddy ground, where germination starts 

 almost immediately. From the cotyledons the natives extract by 

 infusion a dark red dye. 



The dimensions of the pods and seeds are variable. As reported in 

 the description, the largest specimen found measured 18 cm. in length 

 with a breadth of 12 cm. and a thickness of 8 cm. 



