ePAtfisii HORTUS JAMAICENSIS 184 



acuminate at the base> truncate at the top, four-cornered, crowned with three very- 

 short bristles ; chaffs on the receptacle oblong, flat, sharp, membranaceous-, longer 

 than the calyx, after flowering rigid, patulous. Native of Jamaica, in elevated pas- 

 tures, and on the sea coast of the southern parts. Swartz. 



SPANISH PLUM. SPONDIAS, 



Cl. 10, or. 4. Deeandria Pentagynia. Nat. ok. Terebintaccx* 



Gen. CHAK. Calyx a one-leafed perianth, sub-cainpanulate, small, five-cleft, co- 

 loured, deciduous; corolla five oblong, flat, spreading, petals; stamens ten awl- 

 shaped filaments, erect, shorter than the corolla, alternately longer; anthers ob- 

 long; the pistil has an ovate germ, five short, distant, erect, styles, and obtuse 

 stigmas; the pericarp is an oblong drupe, large, marked with five dots, from the 

 fulling of the styles, ten-valved ; seed an ovate woody nut, fibrous, five-cornered, 

 five-celled, covered with a fleshy elastic aril. Two species are natives of- Jamaica. 



1. MOMB1X. 



Mjjrobolanus minor, folio fraxini alato, fructit, purpurco, ossiculo 

 magno fibroso. Sloane, v. 2, p. 126, t. 219, f. i. 4. 5. Diffusa, fo- 

 liis plurimis minoribus pinnatis, penna comprcssa sulcata, fioribus 

 pr.ecocibus. Browne, p. 228. 



Leaves with the common petiole compressed. 



This is an ugly tree, sometimes thirty feet high, but varying much in height ; the 

 bar': is thick, and the wood whitish and brittle; trunk upright; branches thick and ir- 

 regular. Leaves pinnate, alternate, at the ends of the branches, falling off, especial- 

 ly when the fruit is ripening; leaflets sub-ovate, entire, veined, on very short petioles, 

 varying in size, about ten on each side, with an odd one. Racemes short, placed with- 

 out order, often pretty closely, on the branches ; but instead of these there are some- 

 times peduncles with one, two, or more, flowers; these are small and red ; the seg- 

 ments of the calyx blunt, roundish, concave; the petals blunt, and concave at the 

 end ; stigmas simple. Rind of the fruit purple, yellow, or variegated with both ; 

 pulp sweet, slightly acidulated, yellow, thin, having a singular, but tut unpleasant, 

 taste, and a sweet smell. It varies in form, being oblong, sub-ovate, very blunt at the 

 end, or with adarge appendix there. The seed scarcely ever ripens, but it is so easily 

 increased by cuttings, that if a branch laden with,young fruit be set in the ground it 

 will grow, and the fruit will soon come to maturity. Hence, in St. Domingo, they 

 make hedges of the boughs, which flower and bear fruit in a few months. If the tree 

 beheaded, it pushes out very long upright branches, with numerous leaves scattered 

 the whole length, and puts on an appearance so different as hardly to be known for the 

 same tree. Jacqicin. The Spanish plum-tree is small and spreading, its foliage of a 

 dark gloomy green colour, and generally begins to shoot as the blossoms fall. There 

 is a variation of this plum, called the leather-coat, from the appearance of its skin ; 

 but this proceeds from the dry soil in which it is produced. Tins, as well as the hog- 

 plum, and Jamaica plum, the silk-cotton-tree, and some other American plants, ve- 

 getate so easilv, that a limb or branch stuck into the ground seldom fails tu shoot uo 

 anew, and generally appears in a few weeks supplied with roots and leaves like the p~- 

 Vol. II. A a rent 



