194 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



(Eggers), Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Lucia (Grisebach), St. Vincent (do.). Tropical 

 America and western Africa. 



This plant grows chiefly near the seashore and is noticeable on account of its short, 

 sharply recurved spines and its pod, which is so bent that the point touches the base. 



Local names, palo de hoz, escambron. 



47. PTEROCARPTJS L. 



Pterocarpus L. Sp. PL ed. 2. 2: 1002. 1763. 

 Moutouchi Atjbl. PL Gui. 2: 748. pi 299. 1775. 

 Moidouchia Benth. Ann. Wien Mus. 2: 94. 1838. 



Calyx campanulate, often incurved, narrowed at the base, the two upper teeth 

 more or less connate; standard broadly ovate or suborbicular; wings obliquely 

 obovate or oblong; keel with its petals resembling or shorter than the wings, free or 

 shortly connate on the back; stamens all connate in a sheath slit above or both above 

 and below, or the upper one free; ovary sessile or stipitate, 2 to 6-ovulate; style fili- 

 form, slightly incurved; stigma small, terminal; pod compressed, indehiscent, orbicu- 

 lar or broadly ovate, more or less oblique, the style lateral or terminal, seminiferous 

 in the center and there more or less incrassated, with a wing round the border; 

 seeds 1 or 2, oblong or subreniform, if 2 separated by a hard septum. Trees; leaves 

 imparipinnate, leaflets alternate or almost opposite; flowers usually showy, yellow, 

 rarely white or violet, in terminal or axillary, simple or compound racemes; bracts 

 and bracteoles small, caducous. 



1. Pterocarpus officinalis Jacq." 



(Urban. 296.) 



Trees 25 to 30 meters high; leaflets 5 to 9, alternate, ovate or oblong, acuminate, 

 shiny, 5 to 10 cm. long, 3 to 5.2 cm. wide, the veins on both sides conspicuous, sub- 

 coriaceous, glabrous, the petiolules 6 mm. long; flowers in compound racemes, yellow; 

 calyx strongly oblique, 4 to 5 mm. deep, turning black in drying; corolla 1.3 cm. 

 long; standard violet-colored on the edge, at the middle; pod glabrous, stipitate, 

 corky-rugose, with a very oblique axis, 1-seeded, surrounded by a narrow wing, 

 ' which is less distinct on the carinal edge, 3 to 5 cm. in diameter; wing 6.5 to 8.5 mm. 

 broad on vexillar edge. 



Near Bayamon in swampy localities; Sierra de Luquillo, in the woods of Mount 

 Jimenez; near Mayaguez. Jamaica (Grisebach), Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Lucia, 

 St. Vincent, Trinidad. Tropical America, Central America. 



From Pterocarpus officinalis, the only species found in Porto Rico, is obtained a 

 kind of kino known as "American dragon's blood." The tree is tapped and the sap 

 collected, which when dried in the sun forms a hard mass that is used in medicine 

 as an astringent and in tanning and dyeing. Large pieces of the substance are dark 

 red, while smaller pieces are transparent. 



Local name, palo de polio. 



48. LONCHOCARPTJS H. B. K. 



Lonchocarpus H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 6: 383. 1823. 

 Sphinc tolobium Vog. Linnaea 11: 417. 1837. 

 Neuroscapha Ti i. Ann. Sc. Nat. II. 20: 137. 1843. 



Calyx often cupuliform, truncate, the teeth very short or wanting; standard orbicu- 

 lar, obovate, more rarely oblong, with 2 auricles at the base above the claw; wings 

 obliquely oblong or falcate, slightly adhering to the keel above the claw; keel arcuate 



Cook and Collins, p. 226, as Pterocarpus draco. 



