mzof HOHTUS JAMAICENSIS, , 



.. I ire a very wholesome pulse, Barham observes that the juice of the leaves, or dis 

 tiii I water, fro in them, makes an ex< eyewater. 



r t) of tibia species has been introduce 1 into the botanic garden, Ligua 



h> J s; as also two other erotic species of this genus, the (aburn'u a and 



ID si us. 



PIGEON-WOOD. GUETTARDA. 



Cl. 21, oh. 6. Monoecia be-xandria, Nat. or. Trieocca. 



So named by i irmeus in honour of J. E. Guetcard, member of the Academy of 

 Scie;uo:> at Pans, and author of a book on plants, 1717. 



Gem. char. Calyx a onc-leafel cylindric perianth; cacalla o>ie-petaled, funnef- 

 . '. four to six filament*; with linear anthers ; the pistil a fili- 



form style. Female pistil has a roundish inferior germ, a filiform style, and sub- 

 :tigma; the pericarp a dry.drupe ; seed a lobel-nnt. Tvvaspecies are na- 

 tives of J (...aica. 



1. SPECIOSA. BEAUTIFUL. 



Arbor, forte prunifera, folio subratundo gTribro, venis purpur.eis. 

 Sloane, v. _, p. 131, t. 221, f. 2. Arboreseens,fotiis smrotundis 

 siibtus a '..'i.v/;, s; cisjit nan bigemim's, substentaculislongis ala- 

 ribus insidentibuf. Browne, p. 205, t. 2X>, f. 1. 



"Leaves sob-cordate, ovate, obtuse with a point, silky underneath ; flowers with 



six or seven stamen <. 



This tree has the habit of hernandia. The leaves are very large, naked, quite en- 

 tire, with alternate, veins : the petioles are much shorter than the leaves, and com- 

 pressed. The peduncle is opposite to the petiole, but on the upper branches there 

 are two opposite peduncles; they all terminate in a very short dichotomons cyme. 

 The male flowers are sessile, alternate, from the upper side only of tho cyme ; calyxes 

 somewhat tomentose, scarcely apparently two-lobed ; tube of the corolla tomentose; 

 lobes of the border oval oblong, one-third only the length of the tube ; no germ ; 

 style shorter by half than the tube; stigma cylindric-headad, obtuse. The females 

 . flowers are like the males, but have a germ succeeded by a drupe, containing six large 

 woody seels, connected together.-; Linneus. This small tree grows plentifully in 

 Sixteen-Mile- Walk, and may be always seen in the small wood behind the church; 

 the bark ;s smooth, and the leaves large an d roundish ; it seldom rises above eight or 

 ten feet in height, or exceeds three or four inches in diameter, and the disposition of 

 the flowers is very remarkable, as well ar, the texture and form of the leaves. I have 

 not seen any of the fruit in a perfect state. Browne. Dr. Browne named this plant 

 Jutlesia, . after the Kev. Dr. Hales, author of the Vegetable Statics. The fruit of this 

 plant is a moist drupe, unilocular, and of an obscure purple colour, when ripe; it 

 encloses a ligneous quadrilocular nut, containing one seed in eacli cell, and is ripe in 

 October and November. The tree is known by the name of pigeon-wood, and is saui 

 jo be a very hard wood, beautifully grained. In the young plants, the leaves aro 

 Vol. II. I ptirp! ~U 



