Soapberr? HORTUS JAMAICENSI9. 17? 



Tliis grows from five to six feet high; leaves opposite, glabrous, pointed ; petafc> 

 white, concave, ending in a thread ; calyx glabrous. 



SOAP-BERRY TREE. SAPINDUS. 



Cl. 8, or. 1. Octandriamonogynia. Nat. or. Trihilata, 



en. cbau. See Licca Tree, v. 1, page 443. 



SAP0NAR1A. SOAPBERRY. 



Prunifera racemosa, folio alata, costa media membranulis atrinquc. 



eitantibus donatu, fractu saponario. Sloane, v. 2, p. 131. Folds 



oblongis, xix pctiolatis, per cobtum ample alatam dispositis. Browne, 

 p. 206. 



Unarmed, leaves pinnate, leaflets lanceolate, rachis winged. 



Mr. Anthony Robinson, after examining, he says, two forenoons with a microscope, 

 describes the characters of this plant as follow, differing considerably from the general 

 characters of the genus : The calyx is a perianth, consisting of five subovate, concave, 

 and deciduous, green little leaves, placed scale-fashion, two of which are exterior and 

 less than the interior ones ; corolla five lanceolate petals, equal, with fimbriated mar- 

 gins, longer than the cup ; nectarium eight flat glands, of a triangular make, placed 

 vertically, and forming a salver ; the germ trilobous, extremely small, and placed in 

 the centre of^be nectarium ; the style short and simple ; stamens eight equal subula- 

 ted filaments, hairy, longer than the petals, and placed round the nectarium ; an- 

 thers five, didymous, and prolific, the other stamens bearing three barred triangnlar 

 glands. It blossoms in the latter end of the year. 



This rises with a woody stem from twenty to thirty feet high, about the thickness of 

 the human thigh, covered with an ash-coloured bark, sending out branches towards the 

 top, garnished with winged leaves, composed of three, four, or five, pairs of spear- 

 shaped leaflets, which are from three to four inches long, and an inch and a quarter 

 broad in the middle, drawing to a point at both ends. The midrib has a membrana- 

 ceous or leafy border running on each side from one pair of the leaflets to the other, 

 which is broadest in the middle between the leaflets; they are of a pale green colour, 

 and pretty stiff. The flowers are produced in loose spikes at the ends of the branches, 

 small and white, making no gieat appearance.; they are succeeded by oval berries, as 

 large as middling cherries, sometimes single, sometimes two, three, or four, are joined 

 together ; they have a saponaceous skin or cover, inclosing a very smooth roundish nut 

 of the same form, and shining black when ripe. This tree is common in all the south 

 side hills in Jamaica. Browne says " the seed-vessels of this plant are very detersive 

 and acrid ; they lather freely in water, and are frequently used instead of soap ; for a 

 few of them will cleanse more linen than sixtj times their weight of that composition; 

 but they are rather too sharp and observed to corrode or burn linen in time, and the 

 water in which the tops or leaves have been steeped or boiled is observed to have the 

 same quality in some degree. The seeds are round and hard, take a fine polish, and 

 are frequently made into buttons. The whole plant, especially the seed capsules, be- 

 7ng pounded, and steeped in ponds, rivulets, or creeks, are observed to intoxicate and 

 lill fish." The seeds pounded and infused for some time in proof spirit, the mixture is 



Vol. II. Z used 



