LEGUMINOSAE. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 127 
LYSILOMA. 
FLowers perfect or polygamous, in globose heads or cylindrical spikes; calyx 
d-toothed, the teeth valvate in estivation; petals 5, valvate in exstivation ; stamens 
indefinite, united at the base; ovary many-ovuled. Legume tardily dehiscent by the 
separation of the valves from the persistent margins. Leaves abruptly bipinnate. 
Lysiloma, Bentham, Hooker Lond. Jour. Bot. iii. 82. — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 595. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. ii. 70. 
Trees or shrubs, with slender unarmed branches. Leaves bipinnate, long-petiolate, the petiole often 
marked by a large conspicuous gland; leaflets small, in many pairs, or sometimes large, in few pairs ; 
stipules large, membranaceous, persistent, or deciduous. Flowers perfect or rarely polygamous, numer- 
ous, minute, usually white or greenish white, produced from the axils of minute bractlets more or less 
dilated at the apex, and collected into globose heads or cylindrical spikes. Peduncles axillary, solitary, 
or fascicled, or occasionally shortly racemose, and then developed from the axil of a deciduous bract, and 
furnished near the middle with a minute bractlet. Calyx campanulate, dentate. Corolla funnel-shaped, 
the petals united for more than half their length. Stamens indefinite, generally twelve to thirty, 
exserted ; filaments filiform, united at the base into a column free from the corolla; anthers minute, 
ovate, attached on the back, versatile, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally. Ovary free in the 
bottom of the calyx, sessile or shortly stipitate, many-ovuled, contracted into a slender subulate style ; 
stigma terminal, minute ; ovules suspended in two ranks from the inner angle of the ovary, superposed, 
anatropous, the micropyle superior. Legume linear or broad, straight or falcate, compressed, submem- 
branaceous, the valves at maturity separating from the undivided margins or rarely dehiscent on the 
inner margin, continuous within ; exocarp thin and papery, dark-colored ; endocarp rather thicker, pale 
yellow. Seed ovate, compressed, destitute of albumen, transverse, suspended by a long slender funicle, 
the hilum near the base ; testa thin, crustaceous. Embryo filling the cavity of the seed ; cotyledons 
oval, flat; the radicle straight, slightly exserted. 
Ten species’ of Lysiloma, inhabitants of the West Indies, Mexico, Lower California,’ Central 
America,’ and Bolivia,‘ are distinguished. Lysiloma latisiliqua, a tree widely distributed through the 
Antilles, reaches the coast of southern Florida. Some of the species produce valuable timber, especially 
Lysiloma Sabicu,> a large tree of Cuba and the Bahama Islands. 
The genus was established by Bentham to receive a number of plants previously referred to Acacia, 
1 Bentham, Trans. Linn. Soc. xxx. 533 (Rev. AMim.). has sometimes caused sabicti to be mistaken for rosewood. It 
2 Brandegee, Proc. Cal. Acad. ser. 2, ii. 153 (Pl. Baja Cal.).— seasons slowly without shrinking or splitting, and is very solid, 
Vasey & Rose, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. No. 3, 69. although sometimes injured by cross fractures of the fibre in the 
8 Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 356. interior of the logs. It is little affected by exposure to the weather, 
4 Lysiloma polyphylla, Bentham, J. c. 535. even when unprotected by paint or varnish. Sabicti was once 
Acacia polyphylla, C. Gay, Fl. Chil. ii. 254. largely employed in shipbuilding for beams, keelsons, stern-posts, 
§ Bentham, Hooker Jour. Bot. & Kew Gard. Misc. vi. 236; Trans. pillars, and cleats; and is now much used, especially in England, 
Linn. Soc. l. c. 534. by cabinet-makers, and for the treads of stairs. In the Bahamas, 
Acacia formosa, Richard, Fl. Cub. ii. 205 (not Kunth). where Lysiloma Sabicu does not grow to so large a size = it does a 
Leucena formosa, Grisebach, Cat. Pl. Cub. 82. Cuba, it is called Horseflesh Mahogany, and the wood is used in 
Sabicti or savicti, as the wood of this tree is called in Cuba and in _ the islands in construction and for shipbuilding, and is exported to 
commerce, is one of the most valuable of all tropical timbers. It is England in small quantities. (rey of pean y. . 704. — Las- 
hard, heavy, strong, and close-grained, with only a thin layer of lett, Timber and fuaeuieaioal 164.— Kew Bull. . No. 12, 4, t.— 
sapwood. The fibre, which is often twisted or curled, gives a wavy Jackson, Commercial Botany of the 19th Century, 154.) 
or figured appearance to the dark chestnut-colored surface, and 
