EUPHORBIACE-^. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



35 



HIPPOMANE MANCINELLA. 



Mauchineel. 



Hippomane Mancinella 



Miller. Diet. Prl. 8 T^o 



Jacquin, Enum. PL Carib. 



Hist. Stirp. Am. 250, t. 159 ; Hist. Select. Stirp. 



Ghcian 



Icon. 



Am. 121, t. 238. 



Am. Gewdch. iii. 64, t. 283. — Lamarck, Diet. iii. 694 ; III. 

 iii. 374, t. 793, f. 1. — Fahlberg, Acad. Stockh. nya HandL 

 xi. 221, t. 10. — Swartz, Ohs. 369. — WUldenow, Spec. iv. 

 pt. i. 571. — Persoon, Syn. ii. 589. — Titf ord, Hort. Bot. 

 Am. Suppl. 9, t. 12, f . 5. — Du Mont de Courset, Bot. 

 Cult. ed. 2, vi. 325. — Lunan, Hort. Jam. i. 482. — Hum- 



Nov 



Nat 



XXIX. 



f.54. 



JEquin. i. 394. 



A. de Jussieu, Euphorb. Tent. 90, 1. 16, 

 Link, Emim. ii. 407. — Sprengel, Syst. iii. 805. 



Med 



Fl. Barb. 368. — Spach, Hist. Veg. ii. 524. — NuttaU, 

 Sylva, ii. 54, t. 60. — Bentham, Bot. Voy. Sxdphur^ 169. 



Dietrich, Syn. v. 224. — Richard, Fl. Cub. iii. 200. 

 Baillon, Etude Gen. Euphorb. 540, Atlas, t. 6, f. 12- 

 20. — Chapman, Fl. 404. — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 

 50 ; Cat. PI. Cub. 19. — Kegel, Gartenfiora^ xv. 163, t. 

 510. — Mueller Arg., De Candolle Prodr. xv. pt. ii. 

 1200. — Schnizlein, Icon. t. 243, f. 3. — Le Maout & De- 

 caisne, Traite Gen. Bot. English ed. 693, f. — Eggers, 

 Vidensk. Medd. fra nat. For. Kjobenh. 1876, 145 (Fl. 

 St. Croix) ; Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 13, 92 {Fl. St. 

 Croix and the Virgin Islands). — ■ Hemsley, Bot. Biol. 



Am. Cent. iii. 134. 



N 



Census U. S. ix, 121. — Pax, Engler & Prantl Pflanzen- 

 fam. iii. pt. v. f . 64. — Hitchcock, Rep. Missouri Bot. 



Gard. iv. 129, 169. 



Maycock, Mancinella venenata, Tussac, Fl. Antill. iii. 21, t. 5 



(1824), 



A tree, in Florida rarely exceeding twelve or fifteen feet in height, with a short trunk five or six 

 inches in diameter, but in the West Indies often fifty to sixty feet tall, with a trunk occasionally three 

 feet in diameter, and long spreading pendulous branches which form a handsome round-topped head, or 

 sometimes with stout erect branches. The bark of the trunk varies from a quarter to a half of an 

 inch in thickness, and is dark brown and broken on the surface into small thick appressed irregularly 

 shaped scales j or in the West Indies it is sometimes smooth and light gray or nearly white. The leaves 

 are three or four inches long and an inch and a half to two inches broad, and are raised on petioles two 

 and a half to four inches in length ; unfolding in early spring, they remain on the branches in Florida 

 until the spring of the following year, or until the appearance of the new growth. The flowers open 

 in March before the leaves of the year, and before or after those of the preceding year have fallen. 

 The rachis of the inflorescence is four to six inches long, dark purple, and more or less covered with a 

 glaucous bloom. The fruit, which ripens in the autumn or early winter, and often remains on the 



branches until after the- flowers of the succeeding year appear, is an inch to an inch and a half in 

 diameter, and light yellow or yellow-green with a bright red cheek. 



Hippomane Mancinella is a common inhabitant of sandy beaches and dry knolls in the immediate 

 neighborhood of the ocean, from the keys which stretch along the southern coast of Florida, and the 

 Bahama Islands, through the Antilles to the northern countries of South America, and the eastern 

 and western coasts of Central America and southern Mexico. 



The Manchineel, which resembles a Pear-tree in habit and in the form and color of its leaves, 

 growing in abundance close to the shores and covered with tempting fruit, raised in the breasts of early 

 European travelers in the New World hopes of pleasantness and plenty which were soon to give way to 

 disappointment and dismay ; and many of the narratives of their journeys, beginning with that of the 



second voyage of Columbus,^ who found the Manchin 



the island of Marie Galante, allude to the 



1 "Allf habia frutas salvaglnas de diferentes maneras, de las grande ardor y dolor que parecian que rabiaban, los cuales se reme- 

 quales algunos no muy sabios probaban, y del gusto solamente to- diaban con cosas frias." (Select Letters of Columhusy ed. Major, 23.) 



candoles con las lenguas se les hinchaban las caras, y les venia tan 



"Toman los Venados, empongonando las Balsas donde beben. 



