Ouaiacum ZYGOPHYLLACE^ 163 



chiefly of the northern hemisphere, very rare in tropical Africa, 

 wanting in Further India and in the Malay Archipelago. 



Trees. Fruit fleshy at first, angled or winged... 1. Guaiacum, 

 Herbs. Fruit dry. 



Sepals deciduous. Fruit spiny 2. Tribulus. 



Sepals persistent. Fruit tuberculate 3. Eallstroemia. 



1. GUAIACUM L. 



Trees or shrubs, with hard resinous wood ; twigs often with 

 swollen or jointed nodes. Leaves abruptly pinnate ; leaflets 

 leathery, in 2-14 pairs; stipules minute, caducous. Peduncles 

 1 -flowered, solitary or 2 or more, with minute deciduous bracts 

 at the base. Sepals unequal. Petals obovate. Ovary stalked, 

 2-(5) celled ; ovules 8-10 in each cell, pendulous. Fruit some- 

 what fleshy on the outside, composed of 2(-5) cocci ; cocci 

 angled or winged on the back, separating at length, 1-seeded. 

 Endosperm horny, with chinks ; embryo straight ; cotyledons 

 leafy. 



Species 4, natives of tropical and subtropical America. 



G. officinale L. % PL 381 (1753) ; Tussac Fl. Ant. iv. t. 35 ; 

 Dcscourt. Fl. Ant. vii. t. 463 ; Wright Mem. 214; Macf. Jam. i. 

 187 ; Bot. Beg. xxv. t. 9 ; Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 134 ; Berg d 

 Schmidt Off. Gew. ii. t. 14&; Bentl. & Trim. Med. PI. /. 41 : 

 Gooh & Coll. in Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. viii. 150 ; Urb. Symh. 

 Ant. iv. 314 ; Vail in N. Amer. Fl. xxv. 105. G. jamaicense . . . 

 flore albo and G. jamaicense . . . flore subcseruleo Plulc. Phyt. 

 t. 35, /. 34. G. flore &c. Plum. Nov. PI. Amer. Gen. 39. Pruno 

 vel euonymo aflSnis &c. Sloane Cat. 186 & Hist. ii. 133, t. 222, 

 /. 3-6. G. foliis &c. Browne Hist. Jam. 225. (Fig. 52.) Speci- 

 men from Hort. CliflT. in Herb. Mus. Brit. ; and one from 

 Browne in Herb. Linn, named by Linnjeus. 



Lignum Vitae. 



BarJiam in Herb. Sloane clxxxiv. 164 ! Sloane Herb. vii. 78 ! Browne ! 

 Broughton ! Shakspear ! plains on the south side, Macfadyen ! St. Andrew, 

 McNab 1 Parnell ! Purdie ! Port Henderson, Lane ! Prior ! March ! 

 Liguanea plain, J. P. 616, Morris ! Kingston, Hitchcock ; also Plaxton 1 and 

 Clutc ! Long Mountain road, Campbell ! also Harris ! Fl. Jam. 6411, 

 8639 (fls. white), 8640 (fls. blue). — West Indies, northern S. America. 



Tree, usually not more than 12-15 ft. high, with diameter not often 

 exceeding IJ ft. Leaflets in 2(-3) pairs, sessile, elliptical to obovate- 

 elliptical, rarely oblanceolate-elliptical, glabrous, nerves and veins pro- 

 minulous on both sides, l"5-5 cm. 1.; stipules puberulouS; 1 mm. 1. 

 Peduncles few or often crowded, as many as 10 in a cluster, axillary, at 

 ends of twigs, l'5-3 cm. 1. Sepals 5, white-tomentose inside and out, 

 4-5 mm. 1., three outer broader and shorter than the rest. Petals 5, blue, 

 rarely white, puberulous on the inside and sometimes on both sides at the 

 apex, 12 mm. 1. Stamens 10, 7-9 mm. 1. ; anthers recurved after shedding 

 pollen. Fricit usually of 2 carpels, 1 • 6-2 cm. 1. and br., yellow, compressed, 



M 2 



