304 Britton : The generic name Bucida 



monstrous size, being seldom under three inches in length, though 

 never above a line and a half in diameter ; and something in the 

 form of a bull's horn." 



The tree, known in Jamaica as the black olive, is valuable for 

 its timber and grows commonly in swamps and along streams near 

 the coast throughout the West Indies, extending north to south 

 Florida and the Bahamas. 



While boating on the Ferry River, a few miles west of King- 

 ston, Jamaica, one of the places where Browne studied this tree, 

 in company with Mr. William Harris, on April 10, 1908, I was 

 much interested in observing a tree whose limbs hung over the 

 water, bearing quantities of the structures referred to by Browne 

 as " fructifications," and I easily obtained good specimens from it. 

 On this tree the peculiar outgrowths are borne near the ends of 

 the spikes, as illustrated by Browne on his plate 23, fig. 1 ; they 

 are linear, elongated, and vary from 8 to 16 cm. in length, with a 

 diameter of from 2 to 3 mm. when young, characteristically curved 

 and very nearly circular in cross-section ; when old, they split ir- 

 regularly along one side, after becoming about 4 mm. in diameter, 

 and expose a black internal mass, which suggested to me a possi- 

 ble fungal origin of the outgrowth ; I requested Dr. Murrill to 

 examine the specimens, but he could find no fungus, though he did 

 find mites, whereupon we sent specimens to Professor Mel. T. 

 Cook, who has recently furnished us with the following account of 

 his examination of them. The accompanying figure represents a 

 typical form of these interesting galls, remaining attached to the 

 upper end of the inflorescence after the fruits have fallen away. 



New York Botanical Garden. 



♦ 



