STANDLEY — TKEES AND SHRUBS OF MEXICO. 145 



Glabrous ; leaves thick and firm, with prominent venation. " Corrimieuto " 

 (Tabasco). 



14. CASUARINACEAE. Beefwood Family. 



1. CASUARINA L. Amoen. Acad. 4: 143. 1759. 



1. Casuarina equisetifolia L. Amoen. Acad. 4: 143. 1759. 



Commonly cultivated in Mexico and often growing without cultivation. 

 Native of tropical Asia and Australia ; naturalized also in southern Florida. 



Large pinelike tree, sometimes 20 meters high, with a trunk 1 meter in 

 diameter, with slender verticillate spreading branches ; bark gray ; young 

 branchlets drooping, pale, resembling the stems of Eqmsetnm, the leaves 

 reduced to whorled scales ; staminate flowers in slender terminal spikes ; fruit 

 conelike. 1 to 2 cm. in diameter ; wood very hard, strong, close-grained, flesh- 

 colored or in age brown, its specific gravity about 0.93. "Pino" (Yucatan, 

 Cuba); " cipres " (Yucatan); " pino de Australia" (Cuba); "sauce" (Nica- 

 ragua). Known in English-speaking regions as beefwood. 



A common and handsome tree in parks in Mexico. In regions where the 

 tree is native the bark is used for tanning and dyeing, yielding a reddish or 

 blue-black dye. The bark is used in medicine for its tonic and astringent 

 properties. 



15". PIPERACEAE. Pepper Family. 



The genus Peperomia is the only other Mexican representative of the family. 

 Its species are mostly low herbs. Some of them may be shrubs, but there is no 

 satisfactory evidence that they are. 



1. PIPER L. Sp. PI. 28. 1753. 



Reference: C. De Candolle in DC. Prodr. 16': 240-388. 1869. 



Shrubs or small trees; leaves alternate, entire, stipulate; flowers perfect or 

 unisexual, small, greenish, sessile in very dense terete spikes, or sometimes 

 racemose ; fruit a small berry. 



The species are widely distributed in the moist and tropical regions of 

 Mexico, but they are more abundant farther south. They are separated by 

 rather small differences, and, as so limited, most of them are of very limited 

 distribution. In some localities the plants are used medicinally, for various 

 purposes. The plants are more or less aromatic. The leaves are used for 

 seasoning, and the fruit of some species is edible. Piper nigrum L., of the 

 East Indies, furnishes the black pepper of commerce, which Is widely used as a 

 condiment. It is cultivated in the East Indies, Asia, Philippines, West Indies, 

 and elsewhere. P. cubeba L., also of the East Indies, furnishes the cubeb 

 berries of commerce, which are used in medicine for various catarrhal affec- 

 tions. Piper betJe L. is the betel pepper, whose leaves are chewed by the natives 

 of the Pacific Islands.' In South America some of the species have a wide repu- 

 tation for the cure of snake bites. 



The species of Piper are most commonly known in Mexico by the name of 

 " cordoncillo." 

 Spikes of flowers congested at the ends of axillary branchlets. 



Subgenus 1. Heckeria. 



' See Safford, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 9 : 353-354. 1905. 



