57^ 



The Prickly Ashes 



Fig. 525. Yellow Wood, Inagua, Bahamas. 



hairs when young, becoming thick, leathery and smooth, dull yellowish green, with 

 numerous large glands. The dioecious flowers, which appear in Florida during 

 June, in Bermuda in September, are in panicles of small cymes, the pedicels and 

 bracts whitish-hairy; calyx about i mm. broad, its sepals triangular-ovate; petals 

 5, oblong or oblong-ovate, 2.5 mm. long, greenish-white, recurved and thickened; 

 stamens longer than the petals; ovary glandular- punctate. The fruit is an ovoid 

 capsule 6 mm. long, also glandular-punctate, containing a single seed which is 

 about 4 mm. long, black and shining. 



The wood is very hard but weak and brittle, fine-grained, orange-yellow and 

 susceptible of a fine polish; its specific gravity is about 0.90; it is largely used for 

 furniture, and for tool handles. 



3. SOUTHERN PRICKLY ASH Xanthoxylum ClavaHerculis Linnaeus 



Xanthoxyliim carolinianum Lamarck. Fcif;ara Clava-Herciilis Small 



This very spiny tree or shrub occurs most abundantly near the coast from 

 Virginia to Florida, extending westward into Texas, and north to xA.rkansas, attain- 

 ing a height of 17 meters, with a trunk diameter up to 5 dm. It is also known 

 as Toothache tree, Pepperwood and Hercules' club. 



The trunk is rather stout, the branches numerous and outspreading, forming 

 a round head. The bark is about 2 mm, thick, hght gray with numerous broad 



