STANDLEY TREES AND SHRUBS OF MEXICO. 483 



which contain lentils, somewhat smaller than lupine seeds and very hard ; they- 

 never shed their leaves and are trees that the Indians value for making hedges 

 about their lands, and for wood for their houses or huts, for they say that it 

 never decays. I tore down a sacrificial building in Nicaragua a quarter of a 

 league or less outside the city of Leon, in the square of the Cacique Mahomo- 

 tompo, who served me ; for to separate the people from the rites and sacrifices 

 and diabolic ceremonies we took from them the temples which, in the language 

 of Charotega, to which that town belongs, they call teyopa; that is to say, houses 

 of prayer. And I had taken to Leon the wooden posts, aU of which were 

 madei'a negra, and made a stable for my horses. When I asked the cacique and 

 the old men who had made that temple, they said it was biiilt many years 

 before; so far as I could understand, it was a hundred years or more; the 

 wood that had been two yards deep in the ground was still as green and fresh 

 as if just cut, and the axes rebounded and were nicked in cutting it. I am 

 often reminded by this wood of the Ark of the Covenant of the Old Testament, 

 made of shittim wood, which was incorruptible, and of the same wood was made 

 the altar of the Lord. I do not know whether this madera negra of Nicaragua is 

 shittim wood ; but I do know that the Indians hold it for a fact that it is im- 

 perishable, unless burnt, and so they affirm." Oviedo treats the tree in another 

 chapter (Lib. VIII, Cap. XXXVIII) under the name " yagaguyt." 



27. WILLARDIA Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 1: 97. 1891. 

 Unarmed shrubs or trees; leaves pinnate, the leaflets numerous, small or 

 large ; flowers showy, in axillary racemes ; fruit flat, dehiscent. 

 Flowers 6 to 8 mm. long ; leaflets 0.8 to 1.5 cm. long ; fruit glabrous. 



1. W. parviflora. 

 Flowers 15 to 25 mm. long ; leaflets 1.5 to 5 cm. long ; fruit pubescent. 



Flowers about 1.5 cm. long, the standard glabrous 2. W. mexicana. 



Flowers 2 to 2.5 cm. long, the standard sericeous 3. W. eriophylla. 



1. Willardia parviflora Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: 313. 1905. 

 Known only from the vicinity of the type locality, Yautepec, Morelos. 

 Shrub, 3 to 4 meters high, much branched; leaflets 11 to 21, subcordi- 



aceous, with revoliite margins ; fruit 4.5 to 7 cm. long, 1.2 cm. wide, acute at 

 each end. 



2. Willardia mexicana (S. Wats.) Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 1: 98. 1891. 

 Coursotia 'mexicana S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 21: 424. 1886. 

 Chihuahua, Sonora, and Sinaloa ; type from Hacienda San Miguel, Chihuahua. 

 Shrub or tree, 3 to 12 meters high, the trunk sometimes 35 cm. or more in 



diameter ; bark smooth ; leaflets 9 to 15 ; flowers lilac ; fruit flat, 5 to 12.5 cm. 

 long. "Nesco," " palo piojo " (Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora); "taliste" 

 (Sinaloa). 



Wood used for mining props, fuel, and for other purposes. A decoction of 

 the bark is employed in Sinaloa to destroy parasites on cows and horses. 



3. Willardia eriophylla (Benth.) Standi. 



Lonchocarpus eriophyllus Benth. Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc. Bot. 4: Suppl. 64. 

 1860. 



Michoacan, Guerrero, and Puebla ; perhaps also in Morelos ; type from Chila, 

 Puebla. 



Tree, 4 to 5 meters high ; leaflets about 13, oblong, obovate, or oval, densely 

 pubescent ; flowers reddish violet. 



Specimens from Morelos have fruit 9 to 13 cm. long and 1.2 to 1.5 cm. wide. 

 It is not certain that they are conspecific with the flowering specimens. The 

 generic position of Willardia eriophylla can not be established with certainty 

 until more material is collected. 



