jaouNTAiN HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. i>25 



three-wingcd, three-celled ; cells accompanied by a 1 tteral, resiniferous canal ; 

 bceds soliian', oblong, tliree-suled. One species is a native of Jamaica. 



SIMPLEX. SIMPLE. 



jlc'eri aut palluro ajjinis arbor anidice von I'amoso^ fcUis sorbi sjjh 

 resins, J/oribus penfapelalis racivwsis spcciosis purpurcis, fracUi, 

 suro tribus, mcinbranulis extant ibus alato. Sloanc, v. 2, p. 1:8, 

 t. 171. 



This tree rises by a single slender stem like the palms, and bears all its oval leaves m 

 a pinnated order, Qn moderate ribs disposed closely togethcT about the top ; the leaflets 

 are six or seven inches long, and about two broad in the middle. The branches grow 

 Irom all sides at the top ui a spiral order, for about two feet in a tree fifty feet high ; 

 they spread horizontally, the lowest about five feet long, but diminishing in size as 

 they approacii tue summit. . A& the old ones drop they leave triangular protuberant 

 marks on the body of the tree, which may^ be observed running spiiady its whole length. 

 A tree which measured lifty feet high was only seventeen inches in circumference about 

 tour feet ironi the ground, and the tree leaned considerably from the v,'eigbt of the py- 

 ramid of flowers, which issued from its summitj close to the foliage, and had a most 

 jnagnificent appearance ; the base branches of this pyramid measured upwards of eight 

 i'eet from the point of one to the point of the opposite ; it was six feet high, and thickly 

 covered with beautiful bright purple flowers, about half an inch 111 diameter, when ex- 

 panded, which, as the tree generally overtops all other trees in the woods, may be 

 seen at a very great distanc.;. The wood is white, soft, brittle, and of no use in build- 

 ing. Gartner describes the fruit very accurately, as follows: "A juiceless drupe, 

 ovate-three-sided, smooth, bay-coloured; rind' mcnibi-anaceous, fungous, widening- 

 out into rigid brittle wings ; shell three-seeded, stony, ovate-acuminate, peduic'ed 

 with a long rigid bristle, rounded, threo-cornercd ; the corners and cells accompanied 

 by a roundish appendiele, protnineut above into a dagger point, internally channelled, 

 and abounding in a resinous fluid. Seeds in each cell one, sub-cylindric, acuminate 

 at both ends, on the side towards the resiniferous channel, slightly marked with a groove, 

 of a red rusty colour, cohering with the outer side of the cells. <Jn the same tree are 

 other fruits, compressed like a lens, having two wings only, and tvvo>-cel!ed, but in the 

 rest of their structure resembling the otners." Browne calls this inaidtn-pluin trce^ 

 from its resemblance to the comocladui, which is a very different tree. 



MOUNTAIN REED GRASS. APLUDA." 



Cl. 23, on. l.^^Poli/gamia monoeeia. Nat. or. Graviina. 

 Of.N. CHAR. Calyx a eomni'on bivalve giume ; female floret sessile, males pedun-' 

 cled; no male calyx; corolla bivalve; stamens three; no femile calyx ; corolla 

 bivalve; one style; one-cove-red seed. On-e species is a native of Jamaica. 



ZEUGITES. 



ArundinaceuSf ramosus^ minor, rufescens ; panicula sparsa tehnmalL 

 Browne, p. 341. 



Lea.ves 



