NAT. ORDER. 



LomentacecB. 



MYROXYLON PERUIFERUM. SWEET-SMELLING BALSAIVL 



Class X. Decandria. Order I. Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. Calyx, bell-shaped, five-toothed. Petals, five ; the 



upper one larger than the others. Germen, longer than the 



corolla. Legume, with one seed only at the extremity. 



Leaves, coriaceous, persistent, and, as vv^ell as the branches, 



glabrous. Legumes, with the wing thick on one side, veinless 



on the other. Style, deciduous. 

 Sj)e. Char. Leaves, abruptly pinnate, alternate. Leasts, nearly 



opposite. 



This is a very beautiful tree : the trunk rises to a considerable 

 height, is straight, smooth, and covered with a compact, coarse, 

 heavy bark, externally of a gray color, internally of a pale yellow, 

 and abounding with a very fragrant resin, which also pervades 

 every part of the tree ; the branches extend almost horizontally, 

 and are covered, like the trunk, with coarse bark ; the leaves are 

 alternate, and abruptly pinnate ; the leaflets are nearly opposite, 

 petiolate, ovate, lanceolate, with the apex somewhat obtuse and 

 emarginate, entire, very smooth, shining ; the midrib on the under 

 surface, pubescent ; tine common petiole is round and pubescent; 

 the leaflets vary in number, from two to four or five pairs ; the 

 floivers are produced on axillary, erect racemes, longer than the 

 leaves ; the peduncles are slender, roundish, and pubescent, each 

 accompanied by a very small, erect, ovate, concave bractea ; the 

 pedicels are erect ; the calyx is bell-shaped, dark green, and divided 

 into five small, nearly equal segments ; but one of them so far 



Vol. iu. —26. 



