10 IIORTUS JAMAICENSIS. n.vm 



ALDER OR BUTTON TREE. CONOCARPUS. 



Cl. .5, OR. I. Fenlandria monogi/nia. Nat. oR. xlggregattc. 

 This tal;cs its name from two words, signifyinc; cone-fiiiited. 



Gkn. ctiar. Calyx onc-lcafed, very small, five-parted; corolla five-petalled, con- 

 verginij, or none; stamina five or ten, .subulate, erect, anthers ojobose ; germen 

 larsT'', stvle short ; no pericarpium ; seeds solitary, ohovatc, with a menihranace- 

 ous thi('k maroin, on fiicii side. The flowers, are aggregate. Tiierc are tiiree 

 Bpecie.s, two of wi.ich are natives of Jamaica. 



1. ERECn'.V. 



Jlvifruc'v. laurlfoUa arhor viarilima. Rlpnne, v. 2, p. IR. t. 16!, 

 f ?. Foliis oblovgis, petiolis brevrbus, Jioribus in caput conicum 

 tollectis. Erowne, p. 159. 



Tills tree grows erect, nearly thirty feet ; with lanceolate leaves,- v.liich are greasy 

 'to the touch. The younger branches are angular. It is esteemed a. good fire-wood. 

 'Slonne de=;rribes it as foUo.vs : " It has a ti'unk as thick as one's thigh, having a smooth 

 'whitish or cjrey bark. The leaves are nlmost oval, onl}- somewhat broader towards their 

 cnci ; towards the tops of the branches, among the flowers, they are narrow and pointed, 

 of a vellow'sh green colour. The tops of the twigs re branched, sustaining at first 

 some small rovmdish heads, no Wgifer than those of pins, grawing larger, hairy, do'.rnv, 

 or mu'^osp, of a yellowish green or rod colour. They augment to so many round red 

 Vn'U, like alder cones or i)Uttons, sticking to tlie branch by a quarter of an in'-h lonor 

 footstalk, each of wliich is made up of a great many reddisli cornered seeds, sticking 

 o'l a fnne uis matter on its outside, and regarding its centre, so that by their means it 

 is rough or erhinated. It grows near the sea-side by Passage-Fort and Old-Harbour^ 

 among the mangroves. ; Butterflies swarm very much about this tree." 



2. RACEMOSA. 



Man.<T}!'foilix rir'pficis ex adverso nascevfibus. Sloane, v. 2, p. GG. t. 

 lS7,f. 1. Foliis elliptico-ovaiis, petiolis biglandulatis, racemis la.vis^ 

 frdctihus sejtmctis. Browne, , 159. 



Leaves lanceolate-ovate bluntish ; fruits segregate. 



This is a lofty and branching tree, growing from thirty to forty feet high, sometimes 

 di'i ling into three or four trunks, close to the ground. T'he younger branches are 

 shining, re', and opposite. Leaves quite entire, shining, thickish, greasy to the touch, 

 deep green, opposite, three inches long, on a red petiole, with two glands at the top 



-of it. Racemes simple, terminating, commonly by threes. The flowers are small and 

 sessile, and have a shght net unpleasant smell. Tiie petals are whitish. Stamens ten, 

 five alternately shorter, prob^hlv s jmetimes overlooked ; (hence Browne only attributes 



fivpstame-is to the flower). The seed inclosed witiiin a coriaceous pericarp, is composed 

 of tw^ greeni'ih ovate lamel'>, wrapped up into a round body, and involved in a very 

 thin memkrane. The Irmir^; rr in the ha5e of the pericarp become a round olitnsc, shin- 

 ing boily. for ning the a^is of the seed, destined to put forth the roots : for, when the 

 capsule falls to the ground, it penetrates the crowned apex, and, when the fibres take 

 possession of the soil, it constitutes the ruJiment of the future trunk ; then the lamellae 

 increasing in bulk, burst the capsule, and become thv radical leaves. Sometimes there 



are 



