pbckly* ffORTUS JAMAICENSIS. W 



PRICKLY-YELLOW WOOD. \ XANTHOXYLUM. 



Cl. j, on. 5. Penfandria penhigyma. Nat. or. 

 This generic name is derived from two Greek words signifying yellow and wood. 

 Gen. char. Calyx a one-leafed perianth, small, five-parted, scarcely obversable ; 

 corolla one-petaled, cut almost to the base- into five oblong-ovate, spreading, 

 snail-shaped, segments; stamens five erect spreading' filament:;, with roundish 

 anthers; the pistil has a depressed germ, style scarcely any, stigmas five, erect, 

 oblong, in a circular position ; the pericarp a gibbous five- lobed capsule, divided 

 beyond the middle ; lobes sub-ovate, with one distinct cell in each ; seeds ovate- 

 angular, solitary.; Browne, 



CI.AVA-HERCUU3. HERCULES-CLUB. 



Eronijmo cffinis arbor spinosa, folio alato, fructu sicco pentagonn et 

 pentacocco, ligno Jtavo santali odore. Stoane, v. 2, p. 2S, t. 172.. ' 

 Faliis oblongo ovutis el leviter crenatis, floribus racCmosis,- Caudicc 

 fptnosa, ligno sub-croceo. Browne, p. 189. 



This tree is frequent in Jamaica, and grows to a very considerable size ; it branches 

 pretty much towards the top, and rises frequently to the height of twenty or thirty feet, 

 or better ; it is looked upon by many as a dye-wood, but is generally used in buildings, 

 being a good timber-tree. Browne. It lias a grey whitish coloured bark, having many 

 short thick spines or prickles, on stem and branches, growing to' a 'large size as the 

 tree increases in bulk, so as to become protuberances terminating in spines. Leaves 

 in pairs or without order, composed of four, five, six, or more, pairs of lanceolate leaflets, 

 sometimes opposite, sometimes not ; they are about two'and a half inches long, and 

 about an inch broad near the base, of a dark grass green colour above, paler below, on 

 very short footstalks or none, without an odd one on the leaves that have alternate leaf- 

 lets ; but those with oppposite leaflets have an odd one : multitudes of both kinds are 

 to be found on the same tree. At the end of the branches come the peduncle, branch- 

 ing out and forming a loose panicle, fdoane observes that the greater spurs or prickles - 

 on the trunk, when beaten off, smell not unpleasantly, something like yellow Sanders. 

 The bark is somewhat aromatic. . 



Two spoonfuls of the expressed juice of the young roots, give ease in dry-belly-ache, 

 relieve spasmodic symptom*, epilepsy, &c. Iniusionof the roots a collyriunr. Dan- 

 cer's Med. Asst. p. 3yo. . 



i7eVn<rV?.Wrhis sort of prickly wood is set thicker and fuller of protuberances and 

 prickles, which are also much longer, than the other sorts, so that they look like Her- 

 cules's club, and it is therefore called Hercules.- The wood is very yellow ; its blossom 

 is almost like the cassia fistula ; after which comes a short flat pod, in shape and bigness 

 of a man's thumb : It is first green,- then red* and, when full ripe, very black, con- 

 taining three or four flat seeds, like the Barbadoes flower- fence The root of this tree, 

 finely scraped, and applied likV a poultice to ttie foulest ulcer, will cleanse and heal it; 

 as hath been often experienced, and first discovered, by negroes. Bal-'tam, p. 73. 



The following observation:; and experiments, on the xanthoxylum or prickly yellow 



vrooi 



