314 



the most refreshing fruited Bell-apple (pornme liane), that makes 

 a liane of some substance when old. The amount of fruit obtained 

 from it is altogether disproportionate to it's ugly wooded tangle. 

 A woody- vined gourd, FeuiUea cordifolia of Cucurhitacece, 

 whose fruit, globose, 5 or 6 inches through, soft-shelled, contains 

 a "number of large, compressed, S-shaped, bitter nuts, 1|^ to 2 

 inches long, having an oil which preserves the edges of 

 fine tools and instruments from oxidation. The nut is valued 

 locally as an alexiteric, against snake-poison, and, it is 

 said, other parts of the plant are alexiphasmic in a case 

 of vegetable poisoning. Ebenacece, grows the toothbrush stick 

 (hois canique, or hois hrosse ct dents). The milky, poisonous-juiced 

 Apocynece, in whose beautiful flowers an orangy yellow or creamy 

 white generally prevails or monopolises, is the parent of the 

 golden AUamandas and the lovely Odontadenias. Bignoniacece 

 embracing our lovely Pouis, the soundest wood in the Island, has 

 at least two lianes or bushropes, the liane crabbe, dedicated as 

 Macfadyena, to the author of the Flora of Jamaica, a work unfor- 

 tunately left unfinished by Dr. McFadyen's untimely death. There 

 are three species natives in Trinidad, thevl/. corymbosa, Gr., gathered 

 by Schach and Criigei-, the yellow-flowered M. tmcinata, A. de 

 Cand., found by Griiger, and a rosy and white-flowered kind 

 (the liane crabbe) grov/ing on a hedge in the Belmont Road. 

 The second native liajie is the Bignonia tmguis, appropriately 

 called Claw vine, as its fine, recurved hooks enable it freely to 

 hold to and climb any trunk. It sends out a wealth of clustered 

 golden poui-flowers, hard to tell from the rich flowers of the 

 Black Poui. The once tiny stems gain a thickness of 2 or 2h 

 inches. The pod is thin, narrow, ribandy, running to 3 and even 

 3i feet long. Among the Palms a native genus is found which 

 condescends to play the climber, armed with fierce, metal-like 

 hooks. It is called ' wait-a-minute ' by the English, and croc-chien 

 or dog tusk by the Creole woodmen. Tne East Indian Rattans 

 (^Calamus, perfectly at home in the Botanic Gardens) may be 

 considered the counterpart of our Desmoncus, of which Trinidad 

 has two species, D. major of Or. and D. rainor of H. Prestoe. 

 One of these is pi'obably the D. polyacanthus, Mart, (native of 

 Trinidad, St. Vincent, Tobago, British Guiana and Brazil) ; a 

 thin-stemmed D. which bears knotting like a supplejack, is 

 common. This may be Prestoe's undescribed D. minor. Can it 

 be the Brazilian D. pruni/er of PcBppig 1 



The following Errata occurred in Mr. Carr's Notes in No. 

 11 : At foot of page 273, instead of ratrajo, I'ead rasirajo. 

 In note (u), instead of 287, read 297. 



END OF VOL. I. 



