326 CALYCIFLOU.i:. 



seeds osseous, shining, subglobose, exalbuminoiis. — 

 De Cand. 



Named after Melcliior Guilandin, a Prussian traveller in 

 Africa, demonstrator of Botany at Padua in the 16tli century. 



1. Guilandina Bonduc. Omal-leaved Nicker-tree. 

 Leaves pubescent or villoso-subvelutine. 



Lobus echinatus fructu flavo, foliis rotundioribus, Shane, II. 

 40. — Lobus echinatus fructu ca^sio, foliis longioribus, Sloane, 

 II. 41? — Guilandina spinosa, foliis bipinnatis ovatis cum 

 acumine, Browne, 228. — G. Bonduc, Ait. Hort. Kew. III. 32. 



HAB. Common along the sea-shore. 



FL. Throughout the year. 



A shrubby tree, 10-20 feet in length: brandies long and 

 prickly, supported on neighbouring trees and shrubs. Prickles 

 in pairs, hooked. Leaves abruptly pinnated: pinnae 7-jugate : 

 leaflets 8-jugate, nearly 2 inches long and 1 broad, oval, sub- 

 cordate, obtuse, mucronate, pubescent, of a light green colour : 

 petiole armed with single hooked prickles. Racemes a foot or 

 more in length : flowers yellow, fragrant, pedicelled, each fur- 

 nished at the base with an inch-long lanceolate bractea. Calyx 

 with the divisions obtuse, externally glanduloso-pilose. Petals 

 somewhat unequal. Filaments subulate, pubescent : anthers 

 greenish. Ovary small: style short: stigma bearded. Le- 

 gume ovate, rhomboidal, compressed, covered Avith numerous 

 stiff but not pungent herbaceous spines : seeds 2-3, ovato- 

 globular, shining, at first yellowish, but afterwards of a greyish 

 colour, with the hilum brown. 



The above is the description of the Nicker-tree, common 

 along the sea-shore in every district I have visited. There is a 

 variety, formerly considered as a distinct species, under the 

 name of G. Bonducella, described as being of a smaller 

 growth, and with the leaflets ovato-oblong, with which I have 

 not met. 



This shrubby tree is to be met with along the shores of the 

 tropical regions of the old as well as the new world. It is, 

 doubtless, indebted for this extensive difi^usion, to the waters 

 of the sea conveying the seeds, scattered along their borders, to 

 distant coasts. Medicinal properties have been attributed to 

 different parts of the tree. A cataplasm of the leaves have 

 been applied in hydrocele and other swellings of the scrotum ; 

 a decoction of the roots has been recommended for the bites of 

 venomous reptiles ; and the seeds which are bitter and act as an 

 emetic, have been given in substance as a tonic in intermittent 

 fever, and in emulsion for gonorrhoja. 



XLIV. COULTERIA. 



Calyx turbinate at the base, 5-fid: the four upper 



