safford: lignum nephriticum 515 



cloned for the reason given above, and that of Eysenhardtia H.B.K. 

 substituted for it. 



The general range of the genus Eysenhardtia is from Guatemala 

 to Texas and Arizona. On account of their great variability it is 

 difficult to delimit the species. It is quite certain, however, that the 

 low shrubby Eysenhardtia texana Scheele, with erect appressed falcate 

 seed-pods, the type of which was collected by Lindheimer in the vi- 

 cinity of New Braunfels, Texas, is a valid species quite distinct from 

 E. polystachya of central and southern Mexico, which often attains the 

 size of a tree; and it is quite probable that the more robust E. adeno- 

 stylis Baillon, of Guatemala, is also a valid species. On the other 

 hand E. orthocarpa Watson, of western Texas and southern Arizona, 

 approaches so closely to forms of E. polystachya collected in the Valley 

 of Mexico, Jalisco, and Michoacan, that it may prove to be specifically 

 identical with them. A critical study of the genus Eysenhardtia is 

 greatly to be desired. The group of low scrubby plants including 

 Eysenhardtia spinosa Engelm., E. parvifolia Brandeg., and E. penin- 

 sularis Brandeg., is so distinct from tj^pical Eysenhardtia that it is 

 quite possible it may have to be removed from this genus. 



Eysenhardtia polystachya, as understood by the author, is remark- 

 ably variable in size and form of leaves, density of pubescence, and 

 appearance of seed pods. It sometimes occurs as a stunted bush 

 with very small leaflets, sometimes as a spreading shrub with straight 

 stems, and sometimes as a slender tree 5 to 7 meters high, the wood 

 of which is prized by cabinet makers on account of its hardness, dura- 

 bility, and fine, dense, straight grain. In the vicinity of Mexico City 

 on the pedregales, or lava beds, sometimes called the malpais, a form 

 with small pubescent leaves is the most prevalent. In the northern 

 Mexican states it occurs on elevated dry plateaus in the form of shrubs 

 about 2 meters high with relatively small leaflets. A distinction has 

 been made between the forms having reflexed pedicels and those with 

 ascending or spreading pedicels; but in the barrancas of Jalisco forms 

 very closely allied are found almost side by side, some with mature 

 pods reflexed, and others with them ascending but never closely ap- 

 pressed as in E. texana. In this region also there are subglabrous forms 

 with seed pods at least twice as large as those of the type. 



In addition to the localities mentioned, specimens of Eysenhardtia 

 polystachya, or of forms so closely allied to it as to be scarcely distin- 

 guishable, have been collected on the volcanoes of Cohma, near the 

 Pacific coast of Mexico, and Orizaba, near the Gulf coast; on the high 

 water-shed between Chilapa and Tixtla, in the State of Guerrero; in 



