106 IIORTUS JAMAICENSIS. ftfrocarpus 



cutgrly ; he remarks, in general, that they areall very common in Jamaica, growing 

 best in rich shady soil ; that they are for the most part shrubby, and rise generally 

 from six to seven feet : that the leaves are opposite in all, and the footstalks generally 

 supported by stipules ; the flowers are commonly in loose clusters, and terminate the 

 stalks and branches ; and that the seeds in all the species are pretty much like those of 

 coffee. Tnese plants were unknown to Linneus. The corolla differs in form in the 

 species, being tubular, salver, or funnel-shaped ; with the opening in some villose, 

 in others naked. The inflorescence in almost all is raceme-panicled. The berry one 

 or two-celled. 



No English Name. PTERO CARPUS. 



Cl. 17, or. 4. Diadelphia, decandria. Nat. or. Papilionace<e. 

 This name is derived from two Greek words for a wing and a fruit, as the fruit is 

 winged. 



GiN. char. Calyx a one-leafed perianth, five-toothed; cwrolla papilionaceous j 

 stamens ten filaments, with roundish anthers; the pistil has a roundish germ, 

 awl-shaped style, and simple stigma; the pericarp a sickle-shaped legume; seeds 

 few, solitary. One species is a native of Jamaica. 



ECASTAPHYLT.UM. 



Frutescens, reclinatum ; foliis ovato-acuminatis, integris, alternis, 

 Browne, p. 299, t. 32, f. 1. 



Leaves simple, ovate-acuminate, silky' underneath. 



This is a shrub or a small tree, with a branched even stem, and spreading even 

 branches; brancblets flexuose, round, pubescent, villose; leaves petioled, alternate, 

 spreading in a double row, entire, nerved, pubescent ; petioles short, round, thick, 

 pubescent. Racemes scarcely longer than the petioles, axillary, almost simple, before 

 flowering time convoluted ; flowers numerous, directed one way, on very short pedun- 

 cles, white. Calyx ferruginous and silky on the outside; the two upper teeih ap- 

 proximating ; the three lower equal and acute ; standard of the corolla roundish, en- 

 tire, somewhat compressed, covering the wings, veined ; wings sickle-shaped, conti- 

 guous to the keel, which is ovate, concave, bifid at the base, emarginate at the tip ; 

 filaments in two bodies, five in each, distinct at top ; anthers minute, roundish ; germ 

 elongated, round ; style curved in, ascending, the length of the keel ; legume sub- 

 orbicular compressed like a leaf, opening; containing one compressed seed. Sw. 

 This shrubby plant is not uncommon in the lowlands about Kingston ; it grows chiefly 

 in swampy places, and runs generally to the length of seven or eight feet, in an oblique 

 direction from the root. When the plant is young, the more tender leaves are beset 

 with down, which falls off as they grow more hardy, and in time they appear quite 

 smooth ; they are always single. Browne. 



ruDDiNG-WiTHE See Virgins Bower. 

 Pumkin See Pompion. 



PURGING 



