1372 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM 



to tawny. In Hispaniola, although there are some of these trees, they are neither 

 60 numerous nor so well suited as in Tierra-Firme, in the Province of Cueva or of 

 Castilla del Oro, for the making of lances. They produce a fruit as large as a 

 poppy pod, and very similar except in the crown, which the Xagua does not have. 

 It is good to eat when ripe and seasoned; from it is obtained a clear juice with 

 which the Indians bathe their limbs and sometimes the whole body, when tired. 

 And also for their pleasure they paint themselves with the juice, which, aside 

 from being astringent, turns everything it touches as black as fine and polished 

 jet, or even blacker; and this dye can not be removed for 15 or 20 days or more; 

 and often the nails are black until they are renewed if they are wet in the juice; 

 all of which I have seen manj' times. * * * They are accustomed to play a 

 joke upon the women, wetting them carelessly with Xagua juice mixed with 

 other scented ones; and after a little there come out spots over their bodies, 

 and the women, not knowing the cause of the spots, are frightened into seeking 

 a remedy for them; and the remedies are harmful, and likely to burn or blister 

 the face and body where the spots are but not to remove them until the passage 

 of the 20 days, as I have said above, when little by little the dye disappears. 

 When the Indians of Tierra-Firme prepare for battle, they paint their bodies 

 with Xagua and with Bixa, which is a red dye. And the Indian women also 

 when they wish to appear well decorate themselves with one or both colors; 

 but to my eyes they appear little better than devils when they are thus adorned." 



23. ALIBEBTIA A. Rich.; DC. Prodr. 4: 443. 1830. 

 1. Alibertia edulis (L. Rich.) A. Rich.; DC. Prodr. 4: 443. 1830. 



Genipa edulis L. Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris 1: 107. 1792. 



Cordiera edulis Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 1: 279. 1891. 



Oaxaca and Chiapas; reported from Tabasco. Central and South America; 

 Cuba and Martinique; type from French Guiana. 



Shrub or small tree, 1 to 6 meters high; leaves short -petiolate, lance-oblong to 

 oval-ovate, 6 to 20 cm. long, usually short-acuminate, acute to rounded at base, 

 coriaceous, glabrous or nearly so; flowers white, dioecious, terminal, sessile; calyx 

 denticulate; corolla salverform, 2 to 3 cm. long, sericeous, the 4 or 5 lobes acumi- 

 nate; fruit baccate, globose, about 2.5 cm. in diameter, yellowish, containing 2 

 or more cells; seeds numerous, compressed, 5 mm. broad, brownish. "Costar- 

 rica" (Tabasco, Ramirez); "madrono de comer" (Costa Rica); "perita" (Co- 

 lombia); "pitajoni," "pitajoni hembra" (Cuba); "torolillo" (El Salvador); 

 "trompo," "trompito," "madrono" (Panama); "guayaba del monte" (Guate- 

 mala) . 



The fruit is edible but not agreeable in flavor. 



24. BANDIA L. Sp. PI. 1192. 1753. 

 Trees or shrubs, usually armed with spines; flowers small or large, perfect or 

 dioecious, solitary or fasciculate, axillary or terminal, usually white or yellowish; 

 calyx lobate or truncate; corolla funnelform or salverform, the tube short or 

 elongate; fruit baccate, 2-celled; seeds few or numerous, immersed in pulp, usually 

 horizontal, compressed. 



Flowers and fruit large; corolla 2.5 to 14 cm. long; fruit 3 to 9 cm. long, rarely 

 only 2 cm. long (probably immature). 



Fruit covered with long spinelike tubercles 1. R. echinocarpa. 



Fruit smooth. 



Plants unarmed 2. R. laevigata. 



Plants armed with spines. 



Corolla glabrous outside; leaves glabrous beneath or pubescent along the 

 veins; flowers often pedicellate. 

 Tube of the corolla about as long as the lobes; leaves glabrous beneath. 



3. R. longiloba. 



