220 FLORA OF JAMAICA Byrsonima 



FAMILY XLIX. MALPIGHIACE^E. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite and entire in Jamaican 

 species (but dentate-spiny in Malpigliia coccigera). Inflorescence 

 indefinite, generally terminal. Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx 

 5-cleft, imbricate, 4(-5) of the lobes with 2 glands outside, rarely 

 wanting. Petals 5, clawed, convolute. Stamens 10, hypogynous 

 or almost perigynous ; filaments generally more or less united at 

 the base. Carpels 3, more or less united into a 3-celled ovary, 

 or separate, each with one ovule. Styles 3, separate, but united 

 into one style with a 3-lobed stigma in Bunchosia. Ovules 

 ascending from a broad pendulous funicle, straight or curved ; 

 raphe ventral ; micropyle superior. Fruit sometimes more or less 

 fleshy (drupe) containing a single 3-celled stone, or 2 or 3 (or 1) 

 separate stones, each with one seed (pyrenes) ; sometimes more 

 or less dry, either a capsule with each of its 3 segments opening, 

 or each carpel, when ripe, is dry and winged, not splitting open 

 (samara). Seed hanging obliquely from below the apex of 

 the cell. 



Species, nearly 600, of which the greater part are natives of 

 Brazil and Guiana, the rest of tropical America, Africa, and 

 Asia, very few being found in warm regions beyond the tropics 

 of N. and S. America and of S. Africa. 



1. Erect shrubs or trees. Fruit a drupe. 



Filaments bearded at the base. Styles free. 



Drupe with a single 3-celled stone 1. Byrsonima. 



Filaments glabrous. Styles free. Drupe with 



3 (or 2) crested pyrenes 2. Malpigliia. 



Filaments glabrous. Styles united. Drupe 



with 3 (2-1) smooth pyrenes 3. Bunchosia. 



[ 2. Erect shrub. Leaves with 2 glands on the margin 



near the base. Fruit a capsule Thryallis.] 



3. Woody trailing climbers, growing over rocks and 

 trees. Fruit : carpels 3(-l), separate, not 

 opening, each with a single dorsal wing or 

 crest. 



Wing thickened on the lower margin 4. Heteropteris. 



Carpels crested, not winged 5. Brachypteris. 



W T ing thickened on the upper margin 6. Stigmaphyllon. 



4. Woody trailing climbers, growing over rocks and 

 trees. Fruit : carpels 3(-l), separate, not 

 opening, laterally winged as well as dorsally 

 winged or crested. 



Wing 3-lobed, Y-shaped 7. Triopteris. 



Wings 4, diverging, X-shaped 8. Tetrapteris. 



Wings obversely deltoid or semicircular 9. Mascagnia. 



1. BYRSONIMA L. C. Rich, ex Juss. 



Trees or erect shrubs. Leaves without glands ; stipules 

 usually united in the axil, persistent. Inflorescence a terminal 



