ANACARDIACEAE | 299 
1. ANACARDIUM Linnaeus 
Small trees with alternate, petioled, simple, entire leaves. Panicles ter- 
minal. Flowers small, polygamous. Calyx 5-partite, segments erect, im- 
bricate. Petals 5, linear-lanceolate, recurved. Disk filling the base of the 
calyx. Stamens usually 9, all fertile, one larger than the rest, filaments 
connate and adnate to the disk. Ovary obovoid; style filiform, excentric; 
stigma minute; ovule 1, ascending. Fruit kidney-shaped, seated on a large, 
fleshy, pyriform body formed of the enlarged disk and top of the peduncle; 
pericarp cellular and full of oil. Seed kidney-shaped. (Greek “resem- 
bling” and “heart,” from the shape of the fruit.) : 
A genus of about 8 species, of tropical America, one now cultivated, 
and often naturalized, in many other tropical countries. 
*1. A. OCCIDENTALE L. Casoy (Sp.-Fil.) ; Cashew. 
A small tree, the trunk usually small, crooked. Leaves obovate, rounded 
or retuse at the apex, 10 to 20 em long. Panicles as long as or exceeding 
the leaves, pubescent. Flowers small, crowded at the tips of the branches, 
yellow to yellowish-white, the petals usually with pink stripes. Fruit 
about 2 cm long, kidney-shaped, the pyriform, fleshy, edible receptacle 
yellowish, 5 to 7 cm long. (FI. Filip. pl. 116.) 
Cultivated for its edible fruit, fl. Dec—Feb.; common throughout the 
Philippines, introduced from tropical America at an early date. Cul- 
tivated in all tropical countries. 
2. SEMECARPUS Linnaeus filius 
Shrubs or trees with simple, entire, coriaceous leaves, usually pale 
beneath. Flowers small, polygamous or dioecious, in terminal panicles. 
Calyx 5- or 6-parted. Petals 5 or 6, imbricate. Disk broad, annular. 
Stamens 5 or 6, inserted at the base of the disk, imperfect in the pistil- 
late flowers. Ovary 1-celled; styles 3; ovules pendulous from a basal 
funicle. Drupe fleshy, oblong or subglobose, oblique, seated on a fleshy 
receptacle formed of the thickened disk and calyx-base; pericarp with an 
acrid resin. (Greek “mark” and “fruit,” the juice of some species used to 
mark clothes.) 
Species about 40, tropical Asia, Malaya, and Australia, about 10 known 
from the Philippines, one in our area. 
1. S. cuneiformis Blanco (S. perrottetii March.). Ligas (Tag.). 
A shrub or small tree 3 to 8 m high. Leaves somewhat crowded at 
the apices of the branches, lanceolate-obovate to oblong-obovate, sub- 
coriaceous, pubescent and whitish beneath, 10 to 25 em long, the apex 
rounded, acute, or slightly acuminate. Panicles usually longer than the 
leaves, diffuse. Flowers whitish, glomerate, 2 to 2.5 mm long. Drupe 
small, ovoid, somewhat oblique, about 1 cm long, the fleshy receptacle 
pyriform, purplish, about as long as the drupe, edible. (FI. Filip. pl. 75.) 
In thickets, not uncommon, fl. Jan._March; widely distributed in the 
Philippines at low altitudes, and also reported from Celebes. 
This species, like the poison-oak (Rhus) of the United States is a 
violent contact-poison to many persons, while others are immune. The 
rash caused by it is very irritating, is similar to that produced by poison- 
oak, and is probably caused by similar agencies. 
