STANDLEY TREES AND SHRUBS OF MEXICO. 709 



Nearly throughout Mexico; at low and middle altitudes. Widely distributed 

 in the warmer parts of the western hemisphere. 



Tree, sometimes 16 meters high, with a trunk 60 cm. in diameter, the top 

 broad and dense ; bark gray, fissured and flaky ; leaves pinnate ; leaflets 5 to- 

 17, linear-lanceolate to oblong, 5 to 18 cm. long, pubescent or glabrate, obtuse 

 to long-acuminate ; flowers whitish, about 4 mm. broad, dioecious or polyga- 

 mous, in large terminal panicles; sepals and petals each 5; ovary 2-celled, 

 only one of the cells developing ; fruit a 1-seeded berry, 1 to 1.5 cm. in diameter, 

 with yellow translucent pulp ; seed brown ; wood light brown, dense, the specific 

 gravity about O.SO. " Jaboneillo " (Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Durango, 

 Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, Porto Rico); " palo 

 bianco" (Chihuahua); " matamuchacho " (Sonora) ; " tehuistle," " tehoitzli," 

 " tehuixtle," or " tehuiztle " (Nahuatl) ; " jamoncillo " (Durango, a corruption 

 of jaboneillo, Patoni) ; " amole de bolita " (various localities); " yamolli," 

 "yamole" (Nahuatl; the fruit); "palo de cuentas," "pipe," " pipal " 

 (Oaxaca) ; "amole" (Chihuahua); " bibi " (Oaxaca, Zapotec, Reko) ; 

 " cholulo," " gualulo " (Oaxaca, Reko); " boliche " (Sinaloa) ; " devanador " 

 (Veracruz, Seler) ; "para-para" (Venezuela) ; " palo jab6n " (Argentina). 



The fruits contain as much as 37 per cent of saponin, and when macerated 

 in water they produce suds like soap. They are much used in Mexico and 

 other regions for washing clothes. The seeds are used for necklaces and 

 rosaries, and they are said to have been used in England as buttons on 

 waistcoats. The wood is of little use except for fuel. The fruit has been 

 used as a febrifuge and for rheumatism and kidney diseases. It is said to 

 be used also for stupefying fish. The fruits of some of the African species are 

 edible, but their seeds are reputed poisonous. The tree is described by Oviedo 

 (Lib. IX, Cap. V), who calls the seeds "cuentas del xabon." 



Sapindus saponaria is a variable species, and some writers would divide the 

 Mexican material into two or more species. To the present writer none of the 

 forms appear to be of specific value. In the typical form of the species the 

 rachis is brondly winged, but in the more common Mexican form the rachis is 

 exalate or narrowly marginate. The latter is S. saponaria f. iimequalis (DC.) 

 Radlk. 



90. SABIACEAE. Sabia Family. 



1. MELIOSMA Blume. Cat. Gew. Buitenzorg 10. 1823. 



Reference: Urban, Symb. Antill. 1: 503-518. 1900. 



Trees or shrubs ; leaves alternate, simple or pinnate ; flowers perfect or 

 polygamo-dioecious, in compound racemes; sepals 5, rarely 3; petals 5, the 

 3 outer ones broad, imbricate, the 2 inner ones narrow ; stamens 3, opposite the 

 outer petals ; fruit drupaceous, the stone osseous, 1-celled, 1-seeded. 



Leaves pinnate ; sepals 3 1. M, alba. 



Leaves simple ; sepals 5. 



Flowers pedicellate ; leaves mostly 10 to 15 cm. long or smaller 



Leaves serrate 2. M. dentata. 



Leaves entire 3. M. oaxacana. 



Flowers sessile; leaves 20 to 30 cm. long 4. M. grandifolia. 



1. Meliosma alba (Schlecht.) Walp. Repert. Bot. 2: 816. 1843. 

 Millingtonia alba Schlecht. Linnaea 16: 295. 1842. 



Kingsboroughia alba Liebm. Nat. For. Kjobenhavn Vid. Medd. 1850: 67. 1851. 

 Known only from the vicinity of the type locality, Jalapa, Veracruz. 



