Picrodendron EUPHORBIACE.^ • 273 



6. PICRODENDRON Planch. 



Small trees. Leaves deciduous, alternate, digitately 3-foliolate. 

 Stipules small, inconspicuous, soon falling. Flowers dioecious, 

 without petals. Male flowers : Calyx wanting. Stamens in 

 clusters of 3-54 on a convex receptacle which may be formed of 

 the union of the bases of the filaments, subtended by one or 

 more(-7) imbricate bracts ; clusters on peduncled axillary spikes 

 crowded at the ends of young twigs and appearing with the young 

 leaves. Filaments short. Anthers 2-celled, basi fixed, dehiscing 

 longitudinally ; pollen minutely muriculate. Rudiment of ovary 

 wanting. Female flowers stalked, solitary, axillary. Pedicel 

 expanded at the apex into a concave receptacle-. Calyx of 4-5 

 unequal valvate free sepals, bearing minute glands at the base. 

 Staminodes absent. Ovary superior, 2-celled, outer wall con- 

 taining numerous vesicles. Style terminal, slender, bearing two 

 large spreading stigmas. Ovules two in each cell, pendulous 

 from the apex of the central axis, anatropous, raphe ventral, 

 integuments two ; a reddish-brown cushion-like outgrowth 

 (obturator) springing from the placenta just above the insertion 

 of the pair of ovules and closely roofing over the two micropyles. 

 The obturator does not develop with the growth of the seed, but 

 becomes withered. Fruit a drupe, the thin fleshy exocarp full 

 of vesicles containing a very bitter juice, the v/oody brittle 

 endocarp marked with four equidistant longitudinal lines con- 

 taining generally one, occasionally two seeds, one in each cell. 

 Seed pendulous from the top of the cell, without endosperm. 

 Testa membranous infolded between the folds of the cotyledons. 

 Radicle superior. 



Species 3, one a native of Jamaica, a second of the Bahamas 

 and Cuba, and a third of San Domingo. 



P. baceatum Kr. & TJrh. in Engl Jahrh. xv. 308 (1892) ; 

 Small in Journ. N. York Bot. Gard. xviii. 180 ; Fawc. & Hendle 

 in Journ. Bot. Iv. 268. P. arboreum Planch, in HooJc. Journ. Bot. 

 V. 580 (1846). P. juglans Griseh. Fl. Br. W. hid. 177 (1859). 

 Nux juglans trifolia &c. Sloans Cat. 128 & Hist. ii. 1, /. 157, /. 1. 

 Juglans foliis cblongis &c. Browne Hist. Jam. 346. Juglans 

 baccata L. Syst. ed. 10, 1272 (1759) & Sp. PI. ed. 2,1416 (1763). 

 Rhus arborea Maef. Jam. i. 225 (1837) (excl. syn.) (uon DC). 

 (Fig. 90.) 



Jamaica Walnut. 



St. Jago de la Vega savanna ; banks of Rio Cobre ; Sloane Herb. v. 49 1 

 Ferry, Browne; " I'alls on the Windward road; near Hanson's Salt 

 Pond " ; Macfadyen 1 March 1 Ferry Pen, Campbell ! Ferry River ; Great 

 Goat Is. ; Harris 1 Fl. Jam. 6277, 6293, 6436, 9046, 9313. 



Tree 25-40 ft. Leaflets elliptical to lanceolate, 4-11 cm. 1.; veins 

 IV. T 



