PEKK1NS THE LEGUMINOSAE OF POETO El Co. 197 



what compressed, with a more or less fleshy mesocarp and a thick subligneous endo- 

 carp; seeds 1, pendulous. Strong trees; leaves imparipinnate; leaflets opposite, rarely 

 alternate, often stipellate; flowers rose-colored or violet, fragrant, in terminal pyram- 

 idal panicles, subsessile, usually crowded; bracts and bracteoles small, deciduous. 



1. Andira jamaicensis (W. Wright) Urb." 

 (Urban, 298.) 



Tree 10 to 20 meters high with firm woody branches, the young twigs slightly gray- 

 pubescent; petioles 5 to 7.5 cm. long; leaflets 9 to 13, the pairs more than 2.5 cm. apart. 

 oblong or lanceolate, or the terminal one obovate, 5 to 7.5 cm. long, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. wide, 

 acuminate or subacute, the base scarcely rounded, subsessile, subcoriaceous, both 

 sides glabrous, dark green, shining; flowers in pyramidal panicles, 15 to 30 cm. long, 

 with distant, spreading, stalked, racemose, closely flowered branches; calyx subsessile, 

 silky, about 4.5 mm. deep, brownish red; corolla reddish, violet, or pale purple, 13 to 

 15 mm. deep, the standard 6.5 to 8.5 mm. broad; ovary stalked, glabrous or slightly 

 ciliate, 3 or 4-ovulate; legume green, subrotundate, about 2.5 cm. in diameter, obtusely 

 carinate; or shortly ovate, or obovate, 3.5 to 4 cm. long, slightly or not at all carinate. 



Near Bayamon in woods; Sierra de Luquillo, in woods between Mavi and Mount 

 Jimenez; in the calcareous mountains near Juncos; near Coamo in woods at Pedro 

 Garcia and at Los Banos; between Coamo and Aguas Buenas on the roadside; near 

 Yauco; near Guanica on Mount Puerco and at Barinas; near Mayaguez ; nearMaricao, 

 in the forests of Mount Montoso; near Utuado in the rocky mountains at Los Angeles. 

 Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, and in related forms (variety sapindoides (Benth., Griseb.), with 

 larger flowers and longer pedicels, St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John (Eggers), St. Kitts 

 (Grisebach), Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, 

 Tobago, Trinidad (Sieber). Tropical America and west tropical Africa; very abun- 

 dant in Central America, Guiana, Venezuela, north Brazil, and eastern Peru. 



The Brazilian and west African specimens are generally rather longer-flowered and 

 stiff er-leaved than those from Guiana, the West Indies, and Central America; but no 

 tangible characters nor constant size in the flowers can be found to separate them even 

 into marked varieties. 



Local names, moca, mora blanca. 



51. ABRUS L. 



Abrus Adans. Fam. 2: 327. 1763. 



Hoepfneria Vatke, Oester. Bot. Zeitsch. 29: 222. 1879 



Calyx campanulate, truncate or shortly and broadly toothed; standard ovate, the 

 short claw adhering to the base of the staminal tube; keel much curved, the petals 

 united from the base, often longer than the wings; stamens 9 united in a sheath open 

 on the upper side, the upper one deficient; ovary sessile, with indefinite ovules; si vie 

 short, incurved; stigma terminal; pod oblong or linear, flat, 2-valved, with cellular 

 partitions between the seeds. Shrubs or undershrubs; stems usually twining or trail- 

 ing, woody at the base; leaves paripinnate, the leaflets many-jugate, the common peti- 

 ole ending in a short point; flowers small, rose-colored or white, in clusters on lateral 

 thickened nodes or in axillary or terminal racemes; bracts small, often persistent; 

 bracteoles 2 on the calyx. 



1. Abrus precatorius L. 



(Urban, 298.) 



Shrub with slender woody wide-climbing glabrous or slightly pubescent branches; 

 leaves abruptly pinnate, 4 to 8 cm. long; leaflets 10 to L5-jugate, oblong or obovate, 



Cook and Collins, p. NO, as Andira inermis. 



