558 ORD. XXXII. Gruinales. GvarAcuM OFFICINALE. 
THE Guaiacum tree grows to the height of forty feet, and to 
the circumference of four or five, sending forth several large 
dividing and subdividing knotted branches: the bark of the trunk 
is of a dark grey colour, variegated with greenish or purplish 
specks, but of the branches it is uniformly ash-coloured, striated, 
and marked with fissures; “‘ the roots are very thick in proportion 
to the size of the tree, and run a great way into the ground, in a 
perpendicular direction:” the leaves are pinnated, consisting of 
two, three, and sometimes four pair of pinne, with very short 
footstalks, smooth, shining, veined, of an inversely oval shape, 
and dark green colour: the flowers grow in clusters, er umbels, 
upon long peduncles, which spring from the divisions of the 
smaller branches: the calyx is of five leaves; these are concave, 
oblong, obtuse; patent, unequal, and deciduous; the petals are 
five, elliptical, concave, spreading, and of a rich blue colour; 
the stamina are erect, villous, taper from the base, and are 
crowned with yellowish hooked anthere; the germen is oval, 
angular, and in its capsular state assumes the figure we have 
separately described; the style is short and tapering; the stigma 
is simple, and pointed; the seeds are solitary, hard, and of an 
oblong shape. 
Linnzus makes three species of the Guaiacum, viz. the officinale, 
sanctum, and afrum; the specific difference between the two 
former he fixes wholly on the number of the pinnz of the leaves, 
defining the first foliolis bijugis, and the second foliolis multijugis; 
but the leaves, according to the plant we have figured, commonly 
consist of three, and sometimes four pair of pinne,* so that this 
specific description is by no means distinctly characteristic. Ina 
medical sense, the sanctum has been generally considered synony- 
* There can be no doubt of our plant being the true officinale, we had it with 
several others from Mr. Aiton, whose extensive botanical knowledge is above our 
praise, and only to be equalled by that liberality of mind with which he com. 
municates it. ‘The testimony of Sir Hans Sloane is in opposition to Linneus, for 
he observes that the leayes have sometimes four pair of pinne. 
