BLAKE: REVISION OF ICHTHYOMETHIA 25 1 



first listed by Hermann,^ in 1689, ^s "Coral arbor polyphylla non 

 spinosa." Sloan, ^ in 1696, gave a long list of trees, mentioned by still 

 older writers and travellers as fish poisons, which he doubtfully referred 

 to this species. Ray,^ in 1704, gave a good description of the plant 

 and mentioned its use. A figure of the leafless flowering branch and of 

 a portion of the fruit, with an account of this species and of other fish 

 poisons, was also given in Sloane's Natural History of Jamaica.^" 



Ichthyomethia piscipula is readily distinguished by the pubescence of 

 its leaves, and is probably confined as a native to Jamaica, where it is 

 known as "dogwood." In the National Herbarium is a sheet from 

 Key West, collected in 1896 by A. H. Curtiss (no. 5656), and another 

 collected in Florida in 1877 by Garber. It is probable that both these 

 specimens were taken from cultivated trees. 



8. Ichthyomethia cubensis (Urban) Blake. 



Piscidia cubensis Urban, Symb. Antill. 7: 229. 191 2. 



Shrub, I to 1.3 meters high; young branches greenish, densely rufes- 

 cent-strigillose, the older branches gray, lenticellate, glabrate; leaves 

 5 to 9-foliolate, 2.5 to 4.5 cm. long; petiole (3 to 7 mm. long), rachis, 

 and petiolules (i mm. long) densely rufescent-strigillose ; leaflets i to 

 2 cm. long, 6 to II mm. wide, oval to oblong, emarginate, apiculate, at 

 base rounded to subcordate, coriaceous, prominulous-reticulate be- 

 neath, above light green, lucid, sparsely strigillose toward margin or 

 glabrous, beneath obscurely strigillose chiefly along the veins; panicles 

 rufescent-strigillose, 2 to 2.5 cm. long; pedicels 2 to 4 cm. long; calyx 

 rufescent-strigillose, 4 mm. long, the lobes of lower lip deltoid, broadly 

 rounded; corolla "pink or white" or "yellowish white;" vexillum 12.5 

 mm. long, subsericeous-strigose when young; lateral petals 13 mm. long 

 (the claws 7 mm.), the limbs sparsely pubescent at base, sparsely ciliate 

 at apex; keel 12.5 mm. long, (the claws 6.5 mm.), the limbs of the petals 

 sparsely pubescent below toward base; vexillar stamen free for one- 

 third its length ; fruit hnear, straightish, rufescent-strigillose, sometimes 

 constricted between the seeds, i to 6-seeded, 2 to 4.8 cm. long, 5 to 7 

 mm. wide; wings 4, only i mm. wide; stipe equaling calyx; seeds olive- 

 fuscous, 4.8 mm. long. 



Type Locality: Riverside to Minas, Camaguey, Cuba. 

 Specimens Examined: 



Cuba: Dry savanna, Riverside to Minas, Camaguey, April i, 1909, 

 Shafer 1171 (type collection; N. Y. Bot. Card.). Rocky soil, Palm 

 Barren, Santa Clara, March, 191 1, Britton & Cowell 10179 (N. Y. Bot. 

 Card.). Rocky sides of arroyo. Palm Barren, April, 1912, Britton & 

 Cowell 13293 (N. Y. Bot. Card.). 



7 Par. Bat. Prodr. 328. 1689. 

 * Cat. PI. Jam. 143. 1696. 

 » Hist. PI. 3 (lib. xxxi.): 108. 1704. 

 1" Voy. Jam. 2: 39. pi. 176. f. 4-3. 1725. 



