RECORD: BOXWOODS OF COMMERCE 299 
by Ernst as Aspidosperma Vargasii and by others as Tabebuia 
pentaphylla was in reality Casearia praecox or some closely related 
species of this genus. 
“ZAPATERO”” AND ‘‘ AMARILLO”’ OF VENEZUELA 
The present writer finds that instead of one there are at least 
three so-called West Indian boxwoods-on the market. The 
principal one is, as Sprague and Boodle state, Casearia praecox. 
This is the “‘zapatero”’ of Venezuela. Whether or not Ernst was 
right in referring the particular specimen he described to Aspido- 
sperma Vargasii (his description indicating Casearia), it seems 
definitely established that this species has produced considerable 
quantities of boxwood, though it is now almost if not entirely 
out of the American market. There is evidence available that 
there is at least one other species of Aspidosperma in Venezuela 
producing ‘‘amarillo,”’ as the wood of that genus is locally known. 
There are still other species in Brazil which are in the boxwood 
class, particularly A. eburneum All., the ‘‘piquia marfim.” sen- 
beckia Atata Pittier (Rutaceae) has many properties in common 
with the zapatero and the amarillo but, so far as known to the 
writer, this wood is not on the market. 
“BarTtoa”’ OR SAN DOMINGAN BOXWOOD 
The third West Indian boxwood is from Santo Domingo. 
This first came to the writer’s attention in 1918 in the form of a 
battery commander’s ruler. The wood proved to have the same 
structure as the ‘‘palo lanza”’ or “‘guayabi amarillo”’ of northern 
Argentina. Through the courtesy of the Director of the New 
York Botanical Garden the writer was able to establish the identity 
of these woods as Phyllostylon brasiliensis Capanema (= Phyl- 
lostylon rhamnoides Taubert = Samaroceltis rhamnoides Poisson) 
of the family Ulmaceae. This identification has since been 
confirmed by Mr. C. D. Mell, who at the writer’s suggestion made 
some observations on the species while on a trip to Haiti. This 
tree, of which there is supposed to be only a single species, is 
known to occur in Argentina, Brazil, eastern Cuba, Santo Domingo 
and Haiti. See Fic. 1. 
_ The wood reaches the New York market in considerable quan- 
