Britton : Studies of Wk.st Indian i-lants A'.IU 



2. THE GENUS CASSIPOUREA IN JAMAICA 



Cassipourea was proposed by Aublct (Mist. PI. Giiian. i: 52<S) 

 in 1775 for a tree of l^'rciich Guiana, his Cassipourea guiancnsis 

 bein^ the type of the genus. Swartz (Prodr. 84) pubhshed the 

 generic name Legnotis, including in it two species, L. clliptica 

 from Jamaica and L. Cassipourea, based on Aublet's Cassipourea 

 guianensis ; he assigns no reason why his name thus published in 

 1788 should replace Aublet's Cassipourea of 1775. Poiret (Lam. 

 I^ncycl. Suppl. 2: 131) properly adopted the older generic name 

 and transferred the Legnotis elliptiea of Swartz to it. A number 

 of additional species from tropical America and Africa have since 

 been added by several authors, including Cassipourea alba Griseb. 

 from the island of Dominica. That Cassipourea Aublet and Leg- 

 notis Swartz are the same genus seems evident from an examina- 

 tion of specimens. 



Cassipourea elliptiea (Sw.) Poir. is a shrub or small tree, some- 

 times reaching 6 meters in height, and grows in Jamaica on rocky 

 wooded hillsides. Its elliptic long-pointed leaves are as brilliantly 

 shining as those of any plant known to me, and individuals seen 

 in contrast to the duller luster of other trees and shrubs stand out 

 as most striking elements in the landscape. Mr. Harris, Dr. Rol- 

 lick, and I, while botanizing near Kempshot, at an altitude of 

 about 500 meters in the parish of St. James, western Jamaica, on 

 March 23, 1908, had our first opportunity of studying this won- 

 derfully beautiful plant in the field, and were fortunate enough to 

 see its bright white flowers with strikingly laciniate petals, and it 

 was an experience long to be remembered. The lustrous leaves 

 and pediceled flowers distinguish Cassipourea elliptiea from the two 

 species to be described below. A remarkable feature of an indi- 

 vidual tree found by us near Kempshot on March 24, 1908, is the 

 development of the lower branches, which droop and bear leaves 

 not more than one half the size of those on the flowering branches 

 above, the twigs of these drooping branches being very slender 

 and repeatedly forked. We preserved herbarium specimens of this 

 curious bud-sport ; if cuttings from such a branch could be prop- 

 agated, they would doubtless yield a weeping Cassipourea. 



