320 FLORA OF JAMAICA Omphalea 



obscure or wanting. Sepals 4-5, broad, very imbricate. Male 

 flowers : stamens 2-3 ; filaments united into a very short column ; 

 connective of the anthers thick, broad, united into a peltate cap- 

 shaped mass 2- or 3-lobed at the margin, the anther-cells situated 

 on the periphery near the margins of the lobes. Rudiment of 

 ovary none. Female flowers:. Ovary (2-)3-celled ; style thick, 

 column-like, obtuse or very shortly (2-)3-lobed ; ovules solitary. 

 Fruit thick, 2-3-carpous, fleshy outside, with a hard indehiscent 

 endocarp, or at length splitting up into 2-valved cocci. Seeds 

 subglobular, without a caruncle. 



Species 15, of which one is a native of Madagascar, one of 

 Australia, one of the Philippines, the rest tropical American 

 (including the West Indies). 



Leaf narrowed to base ; anthers 3 ; ovary glabrous 1. O. triandra. 



Leaf , base cordate ; anthers 2; ovary tomentose 2. O. diandra. 



1. 0. triandra L. Syst. ed. 10, 1264 (1759) & Amoen. v. 408, 

 382 ; glabrous ; leaves narrowed towards the base ; anthers 3 ; 

 ovary glabrous. — Lodd. Bot. Cab. t. 519; Jussieu Eiiphorb. Tent, 

 t. 17, /. 58; Baill. ttud. Euphorh. t. 7, f. 6-9 ; Griseb. Fl. Br. 

 W. Ind. 50 (in part) ; Muell. Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. pt. 2, 1136 ; 

 Pax in Engl. Pflanzenreich iv. 147. v. 16; Guppy Plants dc. W. 

 Indies, 226. O. nucifera Sw. Prodr. 95 & Obs. Bot. 351, t. 10, 

 /. 6 ; Lunan Hort. Jam. i. 203. O. frondosa Muell. Arg. torn. cit. 

 1137; Pax loc. cit. Omphalandria foliis obovatis &c. Browne 

 Hist. Jam. 335, t. 22, /. 4. O. triandra Ktintze Rev. Gen. ii. 609 

 (1891). 



Cob-nut, Pop-nut. 



Port Antonio and Manchoneal, Brotvne ; Wright ! Broughton 1 Shak- 

 spear ! McNab I Wilson 1 J.P. 1080, Morris ! near Mandeville, Faivcett ! 

 CasCleton, TJwmpson ! also Harris 1 road from Askenish to Dolphin Head, 

 1200 ft. ; Hope, Harris ! Fl. Jam. 7308, 9272, 11,926.— Hispaniola. 



Tree 30-45 ft. high. Leaves 1-3 dm. 1., broadly or narrowly obovate- 

 elliptical or oblong, usually narrowed at the base, usually with a nerve on 

 each side of the base parallel with the margin ; petiole 3-5 cm. 1., glands 

 at apex disk-like. Bracts much longer than the petioles, 6-15 cm. 1., 

 linear-spathulate, narrowed petiolar towards the base, the petiolar part 

 longer than the blade, at length dropping off. Anthers 3. Ovary glabrous, 

 ovoid, acuminate. Capsule 3*5 cm. high, about 7*5 cm. in diam., endo- 

 carp hard, wooden, thick, exocarp thin. Seeds globular, about 2-5 cm. in 

 diam. Pharmacosycea jamaicensis Liebm. (in Bidensk. Selsk. Skrift. ii. 

 331 (1851) ) is referred by Urban (Symb. Ant. vi. 99) and Pax I.e. to this 

 species. We have not seen the specimen which was collected by Oersted 

 near Kingston. Liebmann's description contains no reference to flower 

 or fruit. 



The timber of this tree is of no service in building, being of a soft 

 brittle nature. The kernels of the nuts in the raw state are delicately 

 sweet and wholesome ; they are produced in great abundance, and, when 

 ripe, they burst from the pod and fall to the ground. When roasted, they 

 are equal, if not superior, to chestnuts. By compression they yield a very 

 sweet and fine-flavoured oil. The cotyledons are emetic and purgative. 



