PERKINS THE LEGUMINOSAE OF PORTO RICO. 153 



indehiscent; epicarp thin, crustaceous; mesocarp pulpy; endocarp thick and fleshy, 

 forming complete partitions between the seeds; seeds obovate-elliptical or roundish, 

 compressed, with a thick, shining testa, each side marked with a large faintly defined 

 areole; albumen none. Unarmed trees; leaves paripinnate; leaflets multijugate, 

 small, coriaceous, oblong, obtuse, reticulate, subsessile; stipules small, caducous; 

 flowers yellowish or red-striped, in terminal racemes; bracts and bracteoles, ovate- 

 oblong, colored, caducous. 



1. Tamarindus indica L. 



(Urban, 270.) 



Tree 5 to 8 meters high, wholly glabrous or extremities at first thinly pubescent or 

 puberulous, sometimes glaucescent; leaves 6 to 15 cm. long; leaflets 1.5 to 2 cm. long, 

 5 to 6 mm. wide, oblong, 10 to 20-jugate; flowers variegated, racemose; calyx segments 

 11 mm. long, 4 mm. wide; petals 10 to 12 mm. long; legume 5 to 15 cm. long, 1.5 to 2 

 cm. wide, 1 to 4-seeded. 



Seemingly wild, also cultivated, in woods near Bayamon; near Aibonito at Cari- 

 Blanco; near Penuelas; near Mayaguez; near Rincon, in mountain forests around 

 Hacienda Nieve. Bahama (Hitchcock), Cuba (Richard), Jamaica, Haiti, St. Thomas, 

 St. Croix, St. John (Eggers), St. Martin (Stockholm Herbarium), St. Bartholomew 

 (do.), Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent, Bequia (Kew Bull. no. 81, p. 249), Mus- 

 tique (do.), Margarita. 



The tamarind, the only species of the genus, valued on account of the acid pulp of 

 the fruit, would appear to be truly indigenous in tropical Africa. It is widely diffused 

 either under cultivation or naturalized, through the Tropics of both the New and the 

 Old World. According to Grosourdy (cited by Cook and Collins, p. 248) the wood is 

 of good weight and more than ordinarily hard. The texture is rather compact and the 

 grain fine. 



Local name, tamarindo 



18. BAUHINIA L. 



Bauhinia L. Sp. PI. 1: 374. 1753. 



Flowers hermaphrodite, more rarely polygamous; calyx with a short turbinate or 

 tubular receptacle, before anthesis undivided and closed at the top or contracted 

 beneath the top and shortly 5-lobed, at anthesis variously divided, vaginate or with 

 3 to 5 valvate, rarely imbricate, segments; petals 5, usually subequal, more rarely the 

 uppermost differing in form from the others, imbricate in estivation; stamens 10, all 

 fertile, with free or more or less connate filaments and dorsifixed anthers, or reduced 

 to.l to 9 staminodia, or entirely wanting; ovary sessile or stipitate, rarely glandular 

 below, 2 to many-ovulate; style filiform, often very short, usually long; stigma ter- 

 minal, dilated and obliquely peltate or inconspicuous; legume oblong or linear, 

 straight, oblique, or curved, membranous, coriaceous, or almost fleshy, continuous or 

 pulpy between the seeds, seldom septate, indehiscent or 2-valved; seeds compressed, 

 albuminous, subglobular or o\ate; seed coat thin or hard; root short and straight, 

 rarely oblique or slightly curved. Trees or erect or scandent shrubs, unarmed, or with 

 interstipulary prickles, and with round or unequally compressed or broadened and 

 flat trunk and often with branches that are transformed into tendrils; leaves simple, 

 sometimes entire, sometimes 2-lobed or parted, more rarely 2-foliolate; stipules vary- 

 ing, caducous; flowers 2 or 3 together on leaf-opposed or terminal peduncles or collected 

 in simple or compound corymbs, racemes, or panicles, white or rose to purple and 

 yellow. 



The three species of Bauhinia found in Porto Rico are trees or shrubs, with 2-lobed 

 leaves. The calyx is closed at the top or contracted beneath the top and shortly 

 5-lobed, and at anthesis is vaginate. In the section Pauletia, embracing two of the 



