Doctor's Club 



51^ 



The twigs arc 



and corky based conic prickles often over 5 cm. in diameter, 

 brown-hairy at first, becoming smooth, 

 gray, and bear stout, sharp, brown 

 broad -based prickles about 2 cm. 

 long. The winter buds are short and 

 blunt, dark brown. The leaves are de- 

 ciduous, unequally pinnate, 2 to 3 dm. 

 long, including the stout, often prickly 

 stalk; leaflets 7 to 19, rarely as few 

 as 3, ovate to lanceolate, 3 to 7 cm. 

 long, short-stalked or sessile, taper- 

 pointed, shallowly toothed, abruptly 

 narrowed at the base, the lateral ones 

 unequal and sometimes curved; they 

 are bright green and shining above, 

 paler and sometimes slightly hairy be- 

 neath. The flowers, appearing in the 

 spring, are dioecious, in cymose pani- 

 cles I to 2 dm. long, their calyx about 

 I mm. long; petals 3 mm, long, con- 

 cave, thickened and blunt at the apex ; 

 stamens longer than the petals, their 

 filaments smooth. The fruit is in dense clusters, the capsules obliquely globose- 

 obovoid, 5 to 6 mm. in diameter, rough, minutely tipped and brown; seed black, 

 shining. 



The wood is rather soft, close-grained and hght brown; its specific gravity is 

 about 0.50. The bark, together with that of the Northern prickly ash, Xanthoxy- 

 lum americanum Miller, is official in the United States Pharmacopoeia under the 

 name of Xanthoxylum, but most of that found in commerce is obtained from 

 this southern species. 



Fig. 526. Southern Prickly Ash. 



4. DOCTOR'S CLUB Xanthoxylum coriaceum A. Richard 

 Tobinia emarginata Grisebach. Fagara coriacea Krug and Urban 



Also called Hercules' Club, this is a spiny shrub or small tree growing in south- 

 em peninsular Florida and the adjacent Keys, the Bahamas and many other 

 islands of the West Indies. It reaches a maximum height of about 7 meters, but 

 is usually much smaller. 



The trunk is usually fluted at the base, and like the branches, is usually 

 armed with broad corky-based spines. The bark is very thin and close, brownish 

 gray with lighter blotches. The twigs are quite smooth and dark brown. The 

 leaves are also smooth, equally pinnate, i to 2 dm. long, including the smooth or 

 rarely prickly stalk with a shghtly enlarged base; the 4 to 12 leaflets are in oppo- 



