SYMPtocos HORTUS JAMAICENSTfl. 221* 



converging, length of the calyx ; the pistil has a three-sided germ, length, of the 

 calyx ; style c\ limine three-furrowed upright ; stigma slightly three-cleft, a little 

 acute; pericarp a three-furrowed capsule, inflated, three-celled, with large mem- 

 branaceous corners; seed in twos roundish. There are two species, both natives 

 oi Jamaica. 



1. VISCOSA. VISCOUS. 



Aceri vel paliufo ajjinis, angusto oblongo ligu <iri folio, flore letrapctule 

 herbaeeo. SLoane, v. 2, p. 27, t. 162. f. 3. 



Leaves oblong. 



This tree grows about twelve feet high, sending up from the root several stems, 

 ab .in the bigness >>( a man's leg, covered with a light brown loose bark, like linear. led 

 hemp ; the branches are upright, reddish, brown ; leaves of various sizes from three 

 to lour inches long, surf, spear-shaped, of a light green, growing with their points- 

 upright, on short footstalks ; the flowers are produced at the ends of the branches, in 

 short racemes, each on a slender footstalk about an inch long; they are'of a greenish 

 colour. Gasrtner describes toe capsule as membranaceous, thin, netted with veins, 

 two or three-celled, three-valved ; the valves boat-shaped, the keel widened out into a 

 membranaceous, broad,, rounded, edge ; partitions fastened to the axis of the fruit, 

 which continues after the valves-have fallettoff; it is three-sided, and the seeds are 

 fixed to the middle of it by two very small tubercles : seeds roundish, turgidly lenticu- 

 lar, but very sharp edged towards the back, hard, smooth, black. Sloane says this 

 grows at Old- liai hour by the sea side, and on the red-hills, plentifully .. 



2. ANGUSTIFOUA. NARROW-LEAVED. 



E recta fruticosa, fohis oblong is acuminatis ramulis gracilibus. Browne^ 

 p. 191, t IS, I. 1. Tnoptens 1. 



Leaves linear. 



This resembles the foregoing, only the leaves are lanceolate linear. It is a constant 

 inhabitant 6t the mountains, particularly the red-hills; some of the perianths have 

 five leaves, and the stamens vary from six to nine. This seldom rises more than six 

 feet, and both the trunk and branches are flexile and tapering. The taste of the whole 

 ef these plants is acerb and bitterish. 



No English Name. SYMPLOCOS. 



Cl. 18, or. 4. Potyttdtlphia polyandria. Nat. or. Guaiacaii/e. 



^EM. char. Calyx a one leafed bell-shaped perianth, five-cleft; corolla five o 

 eight petais, erect at the base, spreading a! ove ; stamens very many filaments, in 

 four rows, growing to i he tube of the corolla ; anthers roundish ; the pistil has a 

 superior roundish germ, a filiform style the length of the stamens, and a headed 

 sub-trifid stigma; the pericarp a five-celled drupe; seeds many. Swartz disco- 

 ^ere J on ~ species in Jamaica. 



OCTOPETALA. EIGHT PETALEP, 



glowers eight petaled, 



