SAPINDACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 69 
SAPINDUS SAPONARIA. 
Soapberry. 
CALYX-LOBES rounded at the apex ; petals inappendiculate, short-clawed. Petioles 
broadly winged. 
Sapindus Saponaria, Linnzus, Spec. 367. — Swartz, Obs. New Fl. 22. — Nuttall, Sylva, ii. 73. — Richard, Fl. Cub. 
152. — Willdenow, Spec. ii. 468. — Poiret, Lam. Dict. vi. ii. 114. — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 126; Cat. Pl. 
663 (in part).— Lunan, Hort. Jam. ii. 177. — Titford, Cub. 45. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. v. 349, £. 353. — Radlkofer, 
Hort. Bot. Am. 61.— Descourtilz, Fl. Med. Antil. iv. Sitz. Akad. Miinch. 1878, 319. — Chapman, Bot. Gazette, 
121, t. 261. — De Candolle, Prod,. i. 607. — Maycock, FV. ii. 3; Fl. S. States, Suppl. 613. — Sargent, Forest Trees 
Barb. 159. — Don, Gen. Syst. i. 665. — Spach, Hist. N. Am. 10th Census U.S. ix. 45. 
Veg. iii. 53. — Macfadyen, Fl. Jam. 159. — Rafinesque, 
A small tree, sometimes growing to the height of twenty-five or thirty feet, with a trunk which 
rarely exceeds ten or twelve inches in diameter, and erect branches. The bark of the trunk is from 
a quarter to half an inch thick, light gray and roughened with oblong lighter colored excrescences, the 
outer layer exfoliating in large flakes, exposing a nearly black surface. The branchlets are at first 
shghtly many-angled, orange-green, with white lenticular spots; in their second season they become 
terete, and are then marked with large leaf-scars and covered with pale brown bark slightly tinged with 
red. The leaves are six or seven inches in length with about four pairs of leaflets, the lower pair being 
smaller than the others. They appear in Florida in March and April, and remain on the branches 
until the period of growth the following year. The wings of the petioles, which are narrow and often 
nearly obsolete below the lowest pair of leaflets, are sometimes nearly half an inch wide below the 
upper pair; they are broadest above the middle, and are contracted abruptly at the top and gradually 
at the base. The leaflets, which are opposite or alternate, are elliptical or oblong-lanceolate, acute, 
rounded, or occasionally somewhat emarginate at the apex, gradually narrowed at the base, and very 
short-petiolulate. They are three or four inches in length and an inch and a half in breadth, gla- 
brous on the upper surface with the exception of a few hairs along the channel of the midrib when 
they first appear, softly pubescent on the lower surface, and rather coriaceous at maturity; they are 
yellow-green, paler below than above, and prominently reticulated, with yellow midribs and primary 
veins. The panicles, which appear in Florida in November, are terminal and seven to ten inches in 
length, with an angulate peduncle and branches. The flowers are usually produced three together, and 
are short-petioled ; the calyx-lobes are rounded, concave, and ciliate on the margin, the two outer rather 
smaller than those of the inner rank ; the petals are white, ovate, short-clawed, rounded at the apex, and 
covered, especially towards their base, with long scattered hairs; the stamens are included or slightly 
exserted, with hairy filaments broadened at the base. In Florida the fruit ripens in spring or early sum- 
mer; it is two thirds of an inch in diameter, with thin orange-brown semitranslucent flesh, and black 
slightly obovate seeds half an inch across, the hilum surrounded with long pale hairs. 
Sapindus Saponaria is found in Florida on the shores of Cape Sable, on the shores and islands of 
Caximbas Bay, on Key Largo, Elliott’s Key, and the shores of Bay Biscayne; it is generally distributed 
through the West Indies, and occurs in Venezuela. In Florida it is most common on Cape Sable, but 
reaches its greatest development on some of the Thousand Islands. 
The wood of Sapindus Saponaria is heavy, rather hard, and close-grained. It is light brown 
tinged with yellow, with thick yellow sapwood, and contains numerous thin medullary rays. The 
specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.8367, a cubic foot weighing 52.14 pounds. 
