215 



has for a long time been a matter of doubt. Since the year 1910 

 H.M. Minister at Caracas, Yenezuelaj and H,M. Consuls at 

 Puerto Cabello and Maracaibo have been unremitting in their 

 efforts to obtain herbarium specimens and corresponding samples 

 of the timber of Venezuelan boxwood on behalf of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens. 



In the year 1911 in reply to our request for specimens of the 

 tree yielding West Indian boxwood H.M. Minister at Caracas 

 kindly forwarded some specimens of wood with the following 

 information supplied by Mr. Vice-Consul Schroder of Mara- 

 caibo : 



*' The West Indian boxwood is a prodxict of the district of 

 Maracaibo only and therefore exported only from here. If at any 

 time the genuine boxwood has been shipped from Curasao or 

 Puerto Cabello, it had been originally shipped from Maracaibo. 

 The boxwood is a yellowish hard wood used mostly for turning. 

 It is cut in j)i^ces about two yards long and from 4-8 inches 

 thick. The best time for cutting the wood is during the months 



of December to June,^' 



Mr. Schroder promised in the course of his despatch to send 

 herbarium specimens in addition to the samples of wood^ but it 

 was not until May of this year that specimens of branches with 



leaves and flowers of the boxwood tree, together with pieces 

 of the wood were received at Kew, Oar best thanks are due to 

 H.M. Minister at Caracas for his kind help, and especially to 

 Mr. Yice-Consul Schroder for the keen interest he has taken in 

 this matter. 



The Tree. — The abundant supply of flowering and leafy twigs 

 has enabled the Maracaibo boxwood tree to be identified as 

 Casearia fraecox^ Griseb.,* a species hitherto recorded only from 

 Cuba. 



C, fvaecom has been collected, however, in the district of Santa 

 Marta, Colombia, by Mr. H. H. Smith, No. 789, distributed as 

 ** CaseaTia TainifioTay Vahl (?).'^ 



The genus Casearia was assigned by Bentham and Hookerf to 

 the family Saviydaceae, which is merged by Engler and PrantlJ in 

 the Flacoxirtiaceae, The leaves of most species show pellucid 

 dots and dashes when held up to the light, owing to the presence 

 of secretory cavities in the mesophylL These cavities are present 

 in the leaves of C. jrraecoXy but are rather small, and hardly visible 

 in a dried state owing to the opacity of the leaves, and were over- 

 looked by Grisebach. The sepals of C, praecox exhibit refracting 

 dots due to the presence of secretory cavities. According to 

 Eichler§, the sepals are less frequently dotted in species of 

 Casearia than the leaves. 



The flowers of Casearia are apetalous, with 4-6 sepals, and 

 6—12 stamens alternating with the same number of staminode- 

 like bodies. The latter are considered by some authors as 



* Cat. PL Cub. p. 10 (1866). 



t Genera Plantarum, vol. i. p. 796. 



Nat. Pflanzenfam. vol. iii. 6. A. p. 50. 



Mart. Fl. Bras. vol. xiii. paiii 1, p. 458. 



