164 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Antigua, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent, Bequia, Cannouan (Kew Bull. no. 

 81, p. 248), Union (do.), Barbados (Grisebach), Grenada, Trinidad (Grisebach), Mar- 

 garita. Tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres. In the Old World, 

 however, it is a cultivated plant. 



From the bark and leaves is made a medicament used in all wasting diseases; from 

 the flowers and seeds another used for intermittent fever. The bast is employed in 

 the manufacture of paper. Its whitish, close-grained wood is used for fuel and also 

 makes good charcoal. 



The plant is easily recognized on account of its peculiar habit. The primary 

 petioles are very short, the pinnae extremely long and spine-pointed, the leaflets 

 minute and sometimes almost abortive. 



Local names, palo de rayo, flor de rayo. Jerusalem thorn (Cook and Collins). 



22. EAEMATOXYLUM L. 



Haematoxylum L. Sp. PL 1 : 384. 1753. 



Calyx with a short receptacle; segments 5, subequal, deeply imbricate; petals 5, 

 oblong, spreading, nearly equal, imbricate in estivation; stamens 10, free, nearly 

 erect; filaments slightly pilose at the base; ovary subsessile, free, 2 or 3 ovulate; style 

 filiform; stigma small, terminal; legume lanceolate, compressed, membranous, adher- 

 ing at the sutures, separating lengthwise in the middle of the valves into 2 boat-shaped 

 false valves; seeds transverse, oblong, the ehalaza ventral, albuminous. Glabrous 

 trees, the leaves paripinnate or bipinnate, the leaflets obovate, paucijugate; stipules 

 sometimes spinous, sometimes small and caducous; flowers yellow, small, in lax 

 axillary racemes; bracts small, caducous; bracteoles wanting. 



1. Haematoxylum campechianum L. 



(Urban, 277.) 



Tree 5 meters high, the branches white-barked, often spiny; leaves paripinnate; 

 leaflets 3 or 4-jugate, obovate, retuse, glabrous, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long; flowers yellow; 

 calyx 4 mm. long; petals oblong-obovate, 6 mm. long. 



Near Ponce, on the seashore; near Cabo Rojo, toward Puerta Real, on roadsides; 

 near Mayaguez, on Mount Mesa; near Isabela, in forests near the seashore. Bahama, 

 Cuba, Jamaica, Cayman, Haiti, St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, St. Bartholomew 

 (Stockholm Herbarium), Antigua (Grisebach), Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. 

 Lucia (Grisebach), St. Vincent, Bequia, Mustique (Kew Bull. no. 81, p. 248), Grenada, 

 Tobago, Trinidad. This tree is indigenous in Mexico and in Central America. It is 

 widely diffused, however, either under cultivation or naturalized, in the West Indies, 

 especially Jamaica, and in the northern part of South America, as well as in some 

 parts of tropical Asia. 



From the blood-red heartwood of the tree (which becomes black on exposure to the 

 air) is made logwood (campeachy-wood), an exceedingly valuable dyestuff. The 

 important crystalline principle of this wood, haematoxylin (C 16 H 14 8 ),is much use 

 as a dyestuff to produce blue, violet, and black. The most valuable logwood comes 

 from the west coast of Yucatan, the least valuable from the Antilles. The wood is 

 of value in cabinet work, and the bark contains a gum from which one kind of India 

 ink, also called ( 'hinese ink, is made. In the countries where the tree is indigenous the 

 the bark, bast, and legumes are used by the people medicinally. 



Local names, palo de campeche, campechc. 



