thers protruding; and vei-y narrow finely hairy 

 pistil 21/4 inches long with stalked ovai-y and nar- 

 row style. 



The pod resembles a string of beads in its ellip- 

 tic swellings aliout % inch across outside each seed 

 and constrict ions between tliese seeds. The curved 

 opened jiods wiili seeds attached remain on the tree 

 after maturity. Several oblong seeds neai'ly % 

 inch long are vei-y con.spicuous when exposed on 

 tlie opened edges of the thin-walled pod. Flower- 

 ing in winter and spring (January to April) and 

 maturing fruit in spring (April-May). 



The wood is whitish, soft, liglitweight (specific 

 gravity 0.3), and weak. It is seldom used for 

 otlier than fuel in Puerto Rico. Elsewhere it has 

 been employed as a substitute for cork and for 

 carving toys and figures. 



Posts root readily, so the tree is a common live 

 fencepost, chiefly in the moist coastal and lower 

 Cordillera regions. Also in Virgin Islands. The 

 plants are propagated also by cuttings. Besides 

 living fence]30Sts and hedges, the trees liave beeJi 

 grown as support for the vines in vanilla planta- 

 tions. However, severe attacks by defoliating in- 

 sects make the species undesirable for this pur- 

 pose. Young bi-anches and leaves are a favorite 

 food of rabbits. Cattle eat the young twigs and 

 leaves. Because of the showy flowers this species 

 is grown for ornament in atklition to shade and 

 has been introduced into Florida. 



In Guatemala the flower buds, young leaves, and 

 young twigs are cooked and eaten like string beans, 

 though it is thought that eating quantities induces 

 sleep and may be injurious. The poisonous seeds 

 of this and other species have been strung into 

 bracelets, necklaces, and novelties. Though per- 

 haps toxic or narcotic, parts of the tree have been 



employed in home remedies. It is reported that 

 the crushed branches serve as fish poison and that 

 the bark yields a yellow dye. 



Range. — Southern Mexico and Guatemala to 

 Panama and Colombia. Also in Cuba and His- 

 paniola, ])erhaps introduced long ago, and natural- 

 ized in Puerto Rico. Planted in southern Florida 

 and Virgin Islands and in the Old World tropics. 



Other common names. — machete, bucayo enano, 

 bucayo sin espiuas (Puerto Rico) ; machete (Vir- 

 gin Islands) ; pihon (Dominican Republic) ; 

 pinon de pito, pinon decerca, bucare (Cuba) ; pito, 

 piton (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) ; 

 miche, machetillos, coralillo (Guatemala) ; ele- 

 queme (Nicaragua) ; gallito, pernilla de casa 

 (Panama) ; pito de peronilla, peronilla, peronio, 

 mata caiman (Colombia) : coralbean (English) ; 

 brucal (Haiti). 



Machete, a common name, is suggested by the 

 flowers with standard petal shaped like a machete 

 blade and the calyx forming the handle. The 

 common name piiion de pito in Cuba refers to the 

 use of the flowers by small boys in making whistles 

 or flutes. The corolla placed in a hollow petiole 

 serves as a reed. 



Besides the 3 species described and illus- 

 trated here, 2 other species of bucare are native, 

 and a few others have been introduced. Piiaon 

 espinoso {Erythrina eggersii Krukoff & Moldenke ; 

 synonym E. horrida Eggers, not DC), native only 

 in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, is distin- 

 guished by the spines on the veins of leaflets and 

 by the narrow red flowers nearly 2 inches long. 



Another species, known as coraltre* or common 

 coralbean {Erythrina coraUodendrutn L.), has 

 leaves nearly spineless and narrow coral-red 

 flowers 2-214 inches long. 



LEGUME FAMILY (LEGUMINOSAE) 

 PEA SUBFAMILY (LOTOIDEAE; FABACEAE) 



83. Bucare, swamp immortelle 



This exotic tree, found in pastures and along 

 roadsides in northeastern Puerto Rico, is charac- 

 terized by : (1) scattered small spines on twigs and 

 stout spines on branches and trunk, at least when 

 young; (2) alternate leaves with 3 slightly leath- 

 ery leaflets elliptic to ovate in shape, rounded or 

 short-pointed at apex and ba.se, shiny yellow green 

 to dark green above and whitish green and finely 

 hairy beneath; (3) numerous clusters of large and 

 broad, showy, pea-shaped, orange or salmon- 

 colored flowers, several erect near the end of a 

 drooping axis; and (4) flattened pod 6-10 inches 

 long and % inch wide, and containing 3-12 brown- 

 ish or blackish poisonous seeds. The whitish un- 

 dersur faces of leaves make the tree recognizable at 

 a distance. 



A deciduous tree 30-50 feet high and 2 feet in 

 trunk diameter, sometimes larger, with broad 

 crown of whitish-green foliage. The bark is light 



Erythrina glauca Willd.* 



brown, smoothish but becoming rough and shal- 

 lowly furrowed. Small trunks have stout spines 

 %-% inch high, a few spines or warts often per- 

 sisting on large trunks. Inner bark is as much 

 as 1 inch thick, light brown, soft, and almost taste- 

 less or slightly bitter. The stout twigs are light 

 green and finely hairy when young, becoming gi'ay, 

 with scattered sharj) spines i/g inch or more in 

 length and with raised leaf scars. 



The leaves are 8-12 inches long, the light green 

 round petioles 2-i inches long, enlarged at base. 

 Leaflets have stout stalks Ys inch long, with round 

 green glands Vie inch in diameter at base. Leaflet 

 blades are 2i/o-6 inches long and li/o-SV^ inches 

 wide, not toothed on edges, in vertical position or 

 folding together at night. 



Flower clusters (racemes) are 4-8 inches long, 

 the finely hairy axis drooping and bearing erect 

 flowers near the end on stout, dark red and green- 



192 



