132 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. LEGUMINOS&. 
the United States; one of these, Pithecolobium Guadalupense, is a tall stout shrub of the Florida 
keys; the others are small trees. 
Several species of Pithecolobium produce hard and valuable timber. The pods of Pithecolobium 
dulce,’ a native of the tropical regions of southern Mexico, contain a sweet pulp which is cooked and 
eaten. This tree was early introduced by the Spaniards into the Philippine Islands and then into 
India, where it is now largely cultivated along the railroad lines, and as a hedge plant. It is also grown 
in coppice for fuel, and the fruit, known in India as Manilla tamarinds, is cooked and eaten; and oil is 
pressed from the seeds. P. Saman,‘ a native of America from Venezuela to Peru, is now planted in 
most tropical countries as a shade tree, for which purpose its handsome foliage and rapid growth make 
it valuable,’ and its edible pods are used as fodder. The bark of the West Indian and Floridian 
P. Onguis-cati is astringent and tonic. 
Pithecolobium differs from Inga in its bipinnate leaves. It differs in its pods from Calliandra and 
Albizzia, which it resembles in its flowers, and from Acacia in the union of the stamens into a tube 
surrounding the ovary. 
The generic name, from ify and éAAd63.0r, relates to the shape of the contorted fruit of some 
of the species. 
1 Chapman, F7. 116. 8 Brandis, Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 173. 
Inga Guadalupensis, Desvaux, Jour. Bot. v. 70. — Nuttall, Sylva, 4 Bentham, Hooker Lond. Jour. Bot. 1. c. 216; Martius Fl. Bra- 
ii. 40, t. 55. sil. 1. c. 442. 
P. Unguis-cati, Bentham, Trans. Linn. Soc. l. c. 572 in part. 5 Gamble, Man. Indian Timbers, 145. — Hillebrand, Fl. Haw. Is. 
2 Bentham, Lond. Jour. Bot. iii. 199; Trans. Linn. Soc. 1. c. 115. 
372. — Beddome, F?. Sylv. S. Ind. i. t. 188. 
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES. 
Pinnz one or unequally two-jugate; legume curved or circinate, the valves contorted after 
dehiscence ; seed surrounded by the enlarged ariloid funicle. 
Pinnz one-jugate ; legume subtorulose, glabrous. . . . . . . . .. =... =. Jd. P. UNouis-catt. 
Pinne one or many-jugate ; legume flat, straight, separating into membranaceous somewhat 
coriaceous valves more or less interrupted within. 
Pinnz three to five-jugate ; legume shortly stipitate, the valves submembranaceous, only 
imperfectly divided within . . . . 2. 2. 6. 1 ee we ee ee ee ee «OC SP. BREVIFOLIUM. 
Pinnz two or three-jugate ; legume sessile, the valves thick and woody, tardily dehis- 
cent 6 Ge «¢ © Be ew we ee Sw a we eH we we ww « S % «w « Oe Ps PLURXICAULE. 
