41'2 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



86. SAPINDACEAE. Soapberry Family. 



Shrubs or trees with alternate pinnate leaves; inflorescence lateral or terminal, 

 mostly paniculate; flowers white or pink, polygamous, usually conspicuous; sepals 

 4 or 5; petals 4 or 5, regular or irregular; stamens 7 to 10, inserted on a disk; ovary 2 to 

 4-celled; fruit a capsule or berry-like. 



KEY TO THE GENERA. 



Trees with small white flowers; fruit berry-like, with a single 



seed 1. Sapindus (p. 412). 



Shrubs with large pink flowers; fruit a 3-celled capsule with 



3 seeds 2. Ungnadia (p. 412) 



1. SAPINDUS L. Soapberry. 



Tree 7 or 8 meters high or less, with rather smooth yellowish gray bark and thick 

 foliage; leaves with 8 to 19 narrowly lanceolate leaflets 4 to 8 cm. long, somewhat 

 falcate, acuminate, glabrous above, soft-pubescent beneath; flowers white, small, 

 numerous, in terminal panicles; sepals and petals 4 or 5, the latter twice as long as 

 the former and more or less lacerate; fruit consisting of a globose, yellow, fleshy to 

 leathery pericarp about 1 cm. in diameter, containing a single globose seed, drying 

 black. 



1. Sapindus drummondii Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beechey Voy. 281. 1840. 



Type locality: Texas. 



Range: Kansas, Arkansas, and Louisiana to Arizona. 



New Mexico: Mangas Springs; Fairview; Fort Bayard; Black Range; Carrizalillo 

 Mountains; Dog Spring; east of Deming; Organ Mountains; Roswell; Albert. Canyons, 

 in the Lower and Upper Sonoran zones. 



A single species occurring in the mountains and foothills of the southern part of the 

 State, sometimes cultivated. Young plants are commonly bushy, with several stems 

 from the root, and will be recognized only by the leaves, since they do not bloom. 

 The Spanish name for this is "jaboncillo." 



2. UNGNADIA Endl. New Mexican buckeye. 



Branched shrubs 2 meters high or less, with reddish twigs and large leaves with 3 to 9 

 leaflets; leaflets usually 7, broadly lanceolate, acuminate, irregularly serrate; flowers 

 rather large, bright pink, numerous, appearing before the leaves, irregular, polyga- 

 mous; sepals 5; petals 4 or 5; stamens 5 to 10, exserted; capsule long-stipitate, coriaceous 

 to woody, 3 to 5 cm. in diameter, 3-celled; seeds globose, brown, smooth, shining, 

 about 10 mm. in diameter. 



1. Ungnadia speciosa Endl. Atact. Bot. pi. 36. 1833. 



Type locality: Not ascertained. 



Range: Central Texas to southern New Mexico. 



New Mexico: Organ Mountains; Guadalupe Mountains. Rocky hills, in the 

 Upper Sonoran Zone. 



Order 32. RHAMNALES. 



KEY TO THE FAMILIES. 



Sepals evident; petals involute; fruit capsular or 



drupaceous; shrubs or trees 87. RHAMNACEAE (p. 413). 



Sepals minute or obsolete; petals valvate; fruit a 



berry; vines with tendrils 88. VITACEAE (p. 415). 



