LIGNUM NEPHRITICUM SAFFOED. 



295 



species, sometimes called rosewood, or African rosewood, and after- 

 wards described as new hj Eolfe, who named it P. Vidalianus in 



Fig. 



-Fruits of Philippine Pterocarpus. a, Ptcrocarpus indicus; b, P. Blancoi; c, P. echinatus. 



Natural size. 



Vidal's honor. Major Prain was the first to recognize its true iden- 

 tity. Figure 7 shows pods of the three Philippine species of Ptero- 

 carpus. 



MEXICAN SPECIES OF PTEROCARPUS. 



Owing to the marked fluorescence of infusions of Philippine 

 Pterocarpus woods, Moller assumed that the Mexican species must 

 yield similar infusions, but he had no opportunity of verifying this 

 assumption. Of the wood of the tropical American Pterocarpus 

 officinalis Jacq. {P. draco L.) very little is known. In Porto Rico 

 it grows in swampy places to a height of 40 to GO feet, with a trunk 

 14 to 18 inches in diameter. The wood is described as soft and of a 

 dirty white color, used for fuel and sometimes for making fire 

 screens, and is known locally as j^alo de follo or " chicken wood." 



Pterocarpus puhescens (H. B. K.) Spr. {Amphymenium puhes- 

 cens H. B. K., Pterocarpus amphymerviunh DC), supposed by Moller 

 to be the true lignum nephriticum Mexicanum, and P. orhlculatus 

 DC. are likewise imperfectly known. Figure 1, page 279, shows a 

 Humboldt and Bonpland's type, now in the Paris Museum (collected 



