LEGUMINOSS. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 51 
ICHTHYOMETHIA. 
FLowers in ample axillary panicles; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in 
estivation ; corolla papilionaceous; ovary 10 to 12-ovuled. Legume linear, longi- 
tudinally 4-winged, indehiscent. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, destitute of 
stipules. 
Ichthyomethia, Browne, Nat. Hist. Jam. 296. Gen. 358. — Meisner, Gen. 89. — Endlicher, Gen. 1305. — 
Piscidia, Linnzus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1155; Gen. ed. 6, Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 550.— Baillon, Hist. Pl. ii. 
367.— Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 326.— A. L. de Jussieu, 327. 
A tree, with red-brown scaly bark and stout terete branchlets marked with many pale lenticular 
spots. Buds obtuse, their thin scales clothed with silky rufous hairs. Leaves alternate, long-petiolate, 
five to eleven-foliolate, deciduous; leaflets opposite, the terminal one distant from the others, oval, 
obovate, or broadly oblong, obtuse or shortly acuminate at the apex, rounded or wedge-shaped at 
the base, with undulate thickened margins and thick pubescent petiolules, at first coated like the 
petioles and young branchlets with rufous hairs, at maturity coriaceous and then glabrous and dark 
green on the upper surface, pale and more or less covered with rufous or canescent pubescence along 
the elevated conspicuous midribs and primary veins on the lower surface, otherwise glabrous or 
sometimes covered with soft silky pubescence. Flowers in axillary canescent ovate densely flowered 
or elongated thyrsoidal panicles with short three to twelve-flowered branches, developed from the 
naked branchlets of the previous year. Pedicels slender, enlarged at the two extremities, bibracteolate. 
Bracts minute, caducous. Bractlets minute, scarious, subelliptical, slightly coriaceous. Calyx cam- 
panulate, canescent, five-lobed, persistent, the lobes short and broad, the two upper subconnate, the 
lower broadly triangular. Petals inserted on an annular glandular disk adnate to the interior of 
the calyx-tube, unguiculate, white tinged with red; standard nearly orbicular, emarginate, hoary- 
canescent on the outer, marked with a green blotch on the mner surface, the claw as long as the calyx; 
wings oblong-falcate, auriculate at the base of the blade on the upper side; keel-petals broadly falcate, 
the claws connate. Stamens ten, the filament of the upper one free at the base only, connate above 
with the others into a closed tube; anthers uniform, versatile, two-celled, the cells opening longitudi- 
nally. Ovary sessile, sericeous, many-ovuled, contracted into a filiform incurved style terminated by 
the capitate stigma; ovules suspended from the inner angle of the ovary, two-ranked, amphitropous, 
the micropyle superior. Legume lnear-compressed, raised on a stalk longer than the calyx, many- 
seeded, slightly contracted between the seeds, tomentose-canescent or glabrate, thin walled, indehiscent, 
longitudinally four-winged ; the wings developed from the dorsal and ventral sutures, broad, continuous 
or interrupted by the abortion of some of the ovules, membranaceous, softly pubescent, laterally many- 
veined, their margins undulate or irregularly cut. Seed oval, compressed, destitute of albumen, laterally 
attached by a short thick funicle; testa thin, crustaceous, red-brown, not lustrous. Embryo filling the 
cavity of the seed; cotyledons plano-convex, oval, fleshy ; radicle short, inflexed. 
The wood of Icthyomethia is very heavy, hard, and close-grained, although not strong, with a fine 
surface susceptible of taking a beautiful polish; it is clear yellow-brown, with thick lighter colored 
sapwood, and is extremely durable in contact with the ground. The specific gravity of the absolutely 
dry wood is 0.8734, a cubic foot weighing 54.43 pounds. It is largely used in Florida in boat-building 
and for firewood and charcoal. 
Icthyomethia, especially the bark of the roots, contains an active principle, Piscidin, which is 
