250 BLAKE: REVISION OF ICHTHYOMETHIA ' 



base, while in I. americana they are obtuse or rounded, or rarely slightly 

 acutish at the extreme tip. 



/. acuminata is known as "bois enivrant" and "bois a ^nivrer" in the 

 French Islands of the Lesser Antilles, and as "ventura" in Porto Rico. 



7. Ichthyomethia piscipula (L.) Hitchc; Sarg. Gard. & For. 4:472. 

 Oct. 1891.6 



Erythrina piscipula L. Sp. PI. 2: 707. 1753. 



Piscidia erythrina L. Syst. ed. X. 1155. 1759- 



"Piscidia inebrians Medic. Vorles. Churpf. Phys. Ges. 2: 394. 1787." 



"Piscidia toxicaria Salisb. Prodr. 336. 1796." 



Piscidia piscipula Sarg. Gard. & For. 4: 436. 1891. 



Tree, 12 meters high or less; branchlets rufescent-strigillose, glabrate; 

 leaves 7-foliolate, 22 to 26 cm. long; petiole and rachis rufescent-strigose 

 or strigillose; leaflets 5.5 to 11. 5 cm. long, 4.5 to 7 cm. wide, oval or 

 obovate-oval, rounded or short-pointed, at base rounded to slightly 

 cordate, pergamentaceous, above deep green, strigillose-puberulous, 

 glabrate, beneath slightly paler, prominulous-reticulate, rather densely 

 short-pilose with spreading-ascending, usually somewhat rufescent hairs, 

 these somewhat more numerous and more or less appressed along the 

 costa and primary veins, those along the veinlets crossing them trans- 

 versely and not more numerous than on the surface between them; 

 panicles numerous, 5 to 16 cm. long, strigillose, much branched; pedi- 

 cels 4 to 7 mm. long; calyx 5.5 to 6 mm. long, densely cinereous-strig- 

 illose, the lobes of lower lip deltoid, the lateral ones broadly rounded or 

 obtuse, the middle one acute or acutish; corolla rosy or "white and red;" 

 vexillum 13 mm. long, densely strigillose dorsally, in youth subsericeous ; 

 alae 13.5 mm. long (the claws 6 mm. long), the lamina sparsely pubes- 

 cent along midline; keel 12 mm. long (the claws 5.5 mm. long), the petals 

 pubescent and short-ciliate below, their claws short-ciliate below above 

 the middle; vexillar stamen free for one-fourth its length; fruit 2.5 to 

 7 cm. long, 2.5 to 4 cm. wide, i to 6-seeded, cinereous-pubescent es- 

 pecially on the body, the wings much wider than body, often undulate- 

 divided, the stipe exceeding calyx by 2 to 6 mm. 

 Type Locality: "In America calidiore." Linnaeus's references all 



relate primarily to Jamaica. 

 Specimens Examined: 



Jamaica: Morant Bay, 1850, March (N. Y. Bot. Gard.). Berwich 

 Hill, altitude 760 meters, 1899, Harris 7708. Hope Grounds, altitude 

 640 meters, 1903, Harris 8518 (N. Y. Bot. Gard.). Great Goat Island, 

 1906, Harris 9221. Vicinity of Kingston, 1910, Brown 364 (N. Y. Bot. 

 Gard.). 



The use of this species by the natives of Jamaica as a fish poison 



was known to many of the older writers. The species was apparently 



' This combination was also published in November, 1891, by Kuntze (Rev. 

 Gen. i: 191). 



