646 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. ' 



fers from //. crepitans iu the structure of the stamens, but otherwise resembles 

 it closely, and it may be presumed that the two species have the same properties. 



The wood is light and soft, whitish, with brown stripes; the specific gravity 

 is about 0.50. It is used for various purposes but not very extensively. In 

 parts of Mexico the trunks have been employed for telegraph poles. The 

 copious milky juice is poisonous in contact with the skin or if taken internally. 

 On the west coast it is much used for poisoning fish. The most curious part 

 of the tree is the large fruit, which resembles a small pumpkin. When ripe 

 the fruit explodes with considerable violence, scattering the sections (which 

 are arranged like those of an orange) with the inclosed seeds in every direc 

 tion. The seeds, which contain about 50 per cent of oil, have violent purgative 

 properties, and are sometimes administered internally, but their use is danger- 

 ous. They are used for poisoning coyotes and other animals. The juice of 

 this and H. crepitans is said to have been used as a remedy for elephantiasis 

 And leprosy. 



The English name usually applied is sandbox tree. This is derived from 

 the fact that in early days the immature fruits were dried, and after the 

 seeds had been removed the capsule was used as a container for the sand 

 employed in drying or blotting ink. 



The tree is figured by Hernandez * and described in a chapter headed " De 

 Quauhtlatlatzin,^ sen arbore Crepitanti II." 



21. MABEA Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 867. 1775. 



1. Mabea occidsntalis Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. 6: 364. 1854. 



Tabasco and Cliiapas. Central America and northern South America ; type 

 from Panama. 



Slender shrub or tree, 2 to 6 meters high ; leaves lance-elliptic or lanceolate, 

 5 to 15 cm. long, cuspidate-acuminate, coriaceous, entire or crenulate, very 

 lustrous on the upper surface, glabrate ; flowers monoecious, purplish, in long 

 raceme-like panicles; capsule trisulcate, about 1.5 cm. long, puberulent. 



The sap is said to yield a kind of rubber. 



22. DALEMBERTIA Baill. Etud. Gen. Euphorb. 545. 1858, 



Reference: Pax in Engl. Pflanzenreich IV. 147'': 268-270. 1912. 



Shrubs, glabrous or pilose with simple hairs ; leaves large, alternate, long- 

 petiolate, entire, dentate, or lobate ; flowers monoecious, apetalous, the spikes 

 bisexual, the pistillate flowers numerous, very densely spicate. 



Pistillate pedicels early reflexed 1. D. populifolia. 



Pistillate pedicels not reflexed. 



Young branches ferruginous-pubescent 2, D. triangularis. 



Young branches glabrous. 



Leaves subentire or irregularly trilobate 3. D. hahniana. 



Leaves deeply 3 to 11-lobate 4. D. platanoides. 



1. Dalembertia popuUfolia Baill. li;tud. Gen. Euphorb. 346. pi. 5, f. 11-15. 1858. 



Alcoceria pringlei Fernald, Proc. Amer. Acad. 36: 493. 1901. 



Guerrero and Oaxaca. 



Shrub, 3 to 5 meters high, glabrous or nearly so ; leaves 5 to 14 cm. long 

 and about as wide, often cuspidate at apex, remotely repand-dentate or 3 or 

 5-lobate, bright green ; flowers purplish ; capsule about 1 cm. wide, borne on a 

 pedicel 1 to 4.5 cm. long. 



^Thesaurus 88. 1651. 



*The Nahuatl name signifies "explosive tree." 



