SAPINDACEZ. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
75 
EXOTHEA PANICULATA. 
Iron Wood. 
Exothea paniculata, Radlkofer, Durand Index Generum, 
81; Siz. Akad. Miinch. xx. 276. — Sargent, Garden and 
Forest, iv. 100. 
Melicocca paniculata, A. L. de Jussieu, Wém. Mus. iii. 
187, t. 5. — De Candolle, Prodr. i. 615. — Dietrich, Syn. 
ii. 1278. — Nuttall, Sylva, ii. 74, t. 65. 
Hypelate paniculata, Cambessedes, Mém. Mus. xviii. 32. — 
Ink Wood. 
Don, Gen. Syst. i. 671. — Richard, Fl. Cub. ii. 122. — 
Grisebach, #7. Brit. W. Ind. 127. — Chapman, £7. 79. — 
Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 10th Census U. S. ix. 45. 
Sapindus lucidus, Hamilton, Prodr. Pl. Ind. Occ. 36 (teste 
Radlkofer, 7. c.). 
HK. oblongifolia, Macfadyen, Fl. Jam. 232. — Hooker, Lon- 
don Jour. Bot. iii. 227, t. 7. 
The Exothea sometimes grows in Florida to the height of forty or fifty feet, with a tall trunk 
twelve or fifteen inches in diameter and slender upright branches. The bark of the trunk is from an 
eighth to a quarter of an inch thick, with a bright red surface separating into large brown scales. The 
branchlets are orange-brown when they first appear, becoming red-brown in their second year, and are 
thickly covered with small white lenticels. The leaves, which are borne on stout grooved petioles half 
an inch to nearly an inch in length, appear in Florida in April; the leaflets are four or five inches long 
and an inch and a half or two inches broad. The panicles of sterile and of fertile flowers are produced 
on separate plants. The flowers open in Florida in April, and are half an inch across when expanded. 
The fruit is fully grown by the end of June, and is then dull orange-colored; it remains on the 
branches during the summer and ripens in the autumn, when it is juicy and dark purple.’ 
The Exothea is found in Florida from Mosquito Inlet on the east coast to the southern keys, where 
it is generally distributed, but is nowhere a common tree. 
Jamaica. 
was first noticed in Florida by Dr. J. L. Blodgett. 
1 According to Richard, the fruit of Exothea paniculata is de- 
voured in Cuba by hogs and other domestic animals. (Fl. Cub. ii. 
122.) 
2 Alexandre Poiteau (1766-1850) was one of the most famous 
gardeners of his time. Born at Amblecy near Soissons, he learned 
botany and gardening in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and so dis- 
tinguished himself that he was soon sent to organize a rural insti- 
tution in the Dordogne, and then in 1793 to Hayti, where he was 
Poi- 
teau returned to Paris in 1802, carrying with him many plants and 
made director of the recently established botanical garden. 
seeds, and was placed in charge of the royal nursery-gardens at 
Versailles ; in 1815 he was sent to America again to take charge of 
the Government Gardens in French Guiana, in which position he re- 
It also inhabits San Domingo, Cuba, and 
It was discovered in San Domingo early in the century by the French botanist Poiteau,? and 
mained until 1821. 
head gardener at Fontainebleau, of the gardens of the Ecole de 
Médicine, and of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. 
ered many new plants in America; and was particularly successful 
Returning to France he was made successively 
Poiteau discov- 
in his efforts in improving different fruits. He was the author of 
many works of importance, including Le Jardin Botanique de l’ Ecole 
de Medicine de Paris (1816) ; Histoire des Palmiers de la Guayne 
Francaise (1822) ; Voyageur Botaniste (1829) ; Pomologie Francaise 
(1839) ; Cour d’Horticulture (1847-48) ; and with Risso, Histoire 
Naturelle des Oranges. Some of the volumes of the Bon Jardinier 
were edited by him ; and he contributed articles to scientific peri- 
odicals. Poitea, a genus of leguminous plants of the Antilles, was 
established by Ventenat. 
