STANDLEY TREES AND SHRUBS OF MEXICO. 655 



notched, smooth, the size of those of the rose, of a rather grayish green color. 

 The fruit is an oblong berry, the size of a filbert kernel, dark red outside, 

 white within, and with an oily and not unpleasant flavor. This fruit has become 

 noted because of its medicinal virtues, especially as a remedy for retention of 

 the urine, resulting from phlegmonous concretions, as an aid to parturition, 

 and as a cure for wounds. The oil obtained from it is an excellent remedy fcr 

 cancer, and since it has a good flavor, some of the people of California use it 

 in salads like olive oil. This plant does not bear fruit every year, but only 

 v/hcn there has fallen at least a heavy shower in the winter." 



78. CORIARIACEAE. Coriaria Family. 



1. CORIARIA L. Sp. PI. 1037. 1753. 



1. Coriaria thymifolia Humb. & Bonpl. ; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 819. 1805. 



Coriaria atropurpurea DC. Prodr. 1: 740. 1824. 



Coriaria ctmeifolia Sesse & Moc. PI. Nov. Hisp. 173. 1887. 



Jalisco to San Luis Potosf, Mexico, and Chiapas. Central America and 

 South America ; New Zealand ; type from Ecuador. 



Slender shrub or small tree, 1 to 4 meters high ; leaves opposite, subsessile, 

 distichous, lance-oblong or oblong-ovate, 1 to 2 cm. long, acute or acutish, 

 puberulent or glabrate ; flowers small, perfect, in long slender racemes, 

 puberulent ; sepals 5, imbricate, persistent ; petals shorter than the sepals ; 

 stamens 10 ; fruit of 5 to 8 laterally compressed cocci, purplish. " Tlalocopetate," 

 " tlalocopetlatl " * (Nahuatl) ; " tisls " (Venezuela). 



The slender lateral branches with the crowded distichous leaves suggest 

 a compound leaf. The plant contains a toxic principle, coriamyrtine, which 

 in animals causes convulsions, increase in the respiratory movement and 

 heart action, and finally death by asphyxiation and nervous exhaustion. Chil- 

 dren have been poisoned by eating the fruit, and in Mexico the plant is used 

 for poisoning dogs and other animals. In Ecuador the fruit is used to make 

 ink, which has a beautiful violet color ; it writes black, but after a few hours 

 reddens, and the writing is said to be indelible. Other species, notably C. 

 myrtifolia L. of the Mediterranean region, have similar properties. C. 

 myrtifoUa is rich in tannin and is employed for tanning skins, and the leaves 

 yield a black dye. 



79. AKACARDIACEAE. Cashew Family. 



Reference: Engler in DC. Monogr. Phan. 4: 171-500. 1883. 



Trees or shrul)s, usually with resinous sap ; leaves alternate, estipulate, 

 simple, trifoliolate, or pinnate ; flowers small, paniculate, perfect, dioecious, 

 or polygamous ; calyx 3 to 5-lobed or parted ; petals 3 to 5, rarely none ; 

 stamens as many as the petals or twice as many ; fruit superior, usually 

 clrupacous. 



Ovary 2 to 5-celled. Leaves pinnate. 

 Petals valvate in bud. Fruit glabrous 1. SPONDIAS. 



Petals imbricate. 



Fruit glabrous ; embryo curved ; leaves nearly glabrous 2. TAPIRIRA. 



Fruit pubescent ; embryo straight ; leaves densely pubescent. 



3. CYRTOCARPA. 



^ The Nahuatl name signifies " dwarf-ocopetlatl," ocopetJatl being a kind of 

 fern. 



