5i6 



The Cats-Claws 



2. BLACK BEAD Pithecolobium guadalupense Chapman 



N\i">i7/^ A small unarmed tree or shrub growing 



in sandy or rocky soil of the Florida Keys 

 and the Bahamas, where it attains a height 

 of 6 meters, with a trunk diameter of 1.5 dm. 

 The branches are irregular, forming a 

 flattish topped, irregular head. The bark 

 is about 5 mm. thick, slightly fissured, red- 

 brown internally and dark gray externally. 

 The twigs are stout, roughened by numer- 

 ous lenticels, red-brown or grayish brown. 

 The leaves are persistent, evenly bipinnate; 

 their leaf-stalk is 2 to 3 cm. long, deeply 

 grooved, with a large conic gland at the end ; 

 there are 2, sometimes 4 pinnae, with stalks 

 I to 2 cm. long, abruptly thickened at the 

 base ; the sessile leaflets are thick and leath- 

 ery, obliquely obovate to nearly orbicular, 

 Fig. 476. Black Bead. 4 to 7 cm. long, roundcd, shallowly notched 



or seldom bluntly pointed, rounded or tapering at the unequal base, entire and 

 revolute on the margin, light green and veiny, with stout prominent midrib. The 



Fig. 477. Black Bead, Inagua, Bahamas. 



