Addisonia 31 



(Plate 240) 



XYLOPHYLLA EPIPHYLLANTHUS 

 Hardhead 



Native of the West Indies 

 Family Euphorbiaceae Spurge Family 



Phyllanthus Epiphyllanthus L. Sp. PI. 981. 1753. 



Xylophylla falcata Sw. Prodr. 28. 1788. 



Phyllanthus falcatus Sw. Fl. Ind. Occ 1115. 1800. 



Xylophylla Epiphyllanthus Britton; Small, Fl. Florida Keys 76. 1913. 



The genus Xylophylla (Greek, woody-leaf) includes ten species of 

 shrubs and trees, the one here described and illustrated being very 

 widely distributed through the West Indies, and one occurring in 

 Brazil, while about nine are confined to Jamaica. They are charac- 

 terized by having flat, somewhat leaf -like leathery branches, on which 

 the small flowers are borne in clusters in marginal notches ; seedling 

 plants, however, and sometimes shoots from cut stumps, bear true 

 leaves. On account of their peculiar flat branches, called phyllodes, 

 they are of especial interest, and the remarkable development of 

 species on the one island, Jamaica, has often induced comment; 

 there the several kinds grow under varied climatal conditions, some 

 inhabiting very dry districts, others the wet forests, some at low 

 elevations, others in the mountains. Some have narrowly linear 

 phyllodes, some broad; some have green flowers, some white, some 

 red. The cause of this differentiation of the genus into species in 

 Jamaica, while Xylophylla Epiphyllanthus only occurs in the other 

 West Indian islands, is a highly interesting subject for conjecture. 



Our illustration was made from a plant collected in rocky soil 

 near Quebradillas, Porto Rico, by N. Iy. Britton and J. F. Cowell 

 in 1914, which has since flowered frequently in the greenhouses of 

 the New York Botanical Garden. 



Xylophylla Epiphyllanthus is a shrub, up to about six feet in 

 height, usually lower; its phyllodes vary much in shape, from 

 lanceolate to rhomboid, from two to twelve inches long and from a 

 quarter inch to nearly an inch wide, and are often curved; the 

 small reddish flowers are monoecious with a 5-parted or 6-parted 

 calyx, the staminate ones with stamens in a short column, the 

 anthers opening transversely; the pistillate flowers have a three- 

 celled ovary and three slender cleft styles; the capsular fruit is 

 globose, about one and one half lines in diameter. In the Bahama 

 Islands the plant is known under the name of Abraham-bush, Scipio- 

 bush and Sword Bush. 



N. L. Britton. 



