636 ORD. XXXIX. Tricoccte.  srpHoNrA ELASTICA. 
Gen. Ch. Masc. Cor. 0. Cal. globoso-campanulatus, semiquin- 
quefidus.. Filament. colum. Anthere. 5, adnate. 
Fem. Cor. 0. Cal. 5-fidus, patens, solitarius, racemum 
terminans. Stylus0. Stigmata 3. Caps. 3-locu- 
laris, lignosa, durissima. 
Sp. Ch. -S. foliis ternatis ellipticis integerrimis subtus canis longe 
-petiolatis. Supp. Plant. 
‘A. LARGE straight tree, growing to the height of fifty or sixty 
feet ; at the.upper part sending off numerous branches, covered 
with rough bark. Leaves on long footstalks, ternate, elliptical, 
somewhat pointed, entire, veined, smooth, on the under side 
whitish. Flowers male and female on the same tree, small, in 
dividing: racemi at the ends of the branches. Male flowers nu- 
merous: calyx globoso-campanulate, five-cleft, segments erect, 
pointed. Corolla none. Filaments in a column, shorter than the 
calyx. Anthere five, united. Female flower solitary, larger than 
the male, and placed at the extremity of the racemus: calyx bell- 
shaped, cut into five teeth, which are acute, patent, or recurved, 
deciduous. Germen roundish, shorter than the calyx. Style none. 
Stigmata three, depressed. Capsule large, three-parted, woody, 
very hard, covered with fibrous bark, three-celled, valves opening. 
Seeds ovate, spotted. 
‘This tree is a native of South America, growing abundantly in 
the woods of Guiana, in the Province of Quito, and along the bor- 
ders of the River Amazons, in the kingdom of Mexico. 
The younger Linnzus admitted this tree into the Supp. Plant. 
under the genus Jatropa, to which its fruit seemed to bear a greater 
affinity than to that of any other; but by the diligence of Richard: 
its characters have been found sufficiently different to constitute 
a new genus, which Schreber calls Siphonia. This we have there- 
fore adopted, still preserving the specific name elastica, 
* Vide Rozier obs. sur la physique, tom, 27, 
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