CAESALPINIACEAE. 173 



7. CAESALPINIA L. Sp. PI. 380. 1753. 



Unarmed or prickly shrubs or trees, with bipinnate leaves and racemose 

 yellow bracted flowers, the bracts commonly early deciduous. Calyx-tube 

 short, its 5 segments imbricated. Petals 5, broad, imbricated, more or less 

 unequal. Stamens 10, distinct, declined, short-exserted ; anthers all alike, longi- 

 tudinally dehiscent. Ovary sessile, glabrous or pubescent; style mostly fili- 

 form; stigma terminal. Pod linear to oblong, dehiscent or indehiscent, flat or 

 swollen. Seeds transverse; endosperm none. [Commemorates Andreas Caes- 

 alpini 1519-1603, famous Italian physician and botanist.] Thirty species or 

 more, of tropical and subtropical regions. Type species: Caesalpinia Irasili- 

 ensis L. 



Leaflets few pairs, obovate. 



Legume indehiscent. 1. C. vesicaria. 



Legume dehiscent. 



Prickly throughout : leaflets scarcely reticulated. 2. C. bahamensis. 



Unarmed or with a few prickles at the base ; leaflets 



strongly reticulated. 3. 0. reticulata. 



Leaflets matiy pairs, linear-oblong. 4. C. coriaria. 



1. Caesalpinia vesicaria L. Sp. PL 381. 1753. 



Caesalpinia lijuga Sw. Obs. 166. 1791. 



A much-branched shrub or tree up to about 7 m. high, the twigs and leaves 

 glabrous, armed with few prickles 4-8 mm. long, or unarmed. Leaves 1-2.5 

 dm. long; .petioles 1-3 cm. long; pinnae 2 or 3 pairs, stalked; leaflets 1-3 pairs, 

 obliquely cuneate-obovate, subcoriaceous, 1-4 cm. long, subtruncate or emargi- 

 nate at the apex, narrowed or obtuse at the base, dark green and shining above, 

 pale and rather dull beneath; racemes simple or compound, mostly as long as 

 the leaves or longer; pedicels slender, jointed near the top, 6-9 mm. long; calyx 

 8-9 mm. long; petals a little longer than the calyx; stamens about as long as 

 the petals, the filaments densely villous; pod oblong, straight, coriaceous, inde- 

 hiscent, 4-6 cm. long, 1220 mm. wide, about 4 mm. thick, pubescent when 

 young, becoming glabrous; seeds few, orbicular, shining, brown. 



Coastal thickets and rocky coppices, Great Guana Cay, Long Island and Great 

 Ragged Island : Cuba ; Jamaica ; Yucatan. BEASILETTO. 



2. Caesalpinia bahamensis Lam. Encycl. 1: 461. 1783. 



Caesalpinia Crista Griseb. Fl. Br. W. I. 205. 1860. Not L. 1753. 

 Caesalpinia, Eugeliana Urban, Symb. Ant. 2: 278. 1900. 



A prickly shrub, 1.5-2.5 m-. high, or rarely a small tree up to 4 m. high, the 

 young twigs and leaves brownish tomentulose or glabrate, becoming glabrous, 

 the leaves unarmed, or bearing a few prickles. Leaves 8-25 cm. long; petioles 

 1-3 cm. long; pinnae 2-4 pairs, stalked, 15 cm. long or less; leaflets 36 pairs, 

 short-petioluled, obovate to elliptic, 1-4 cm. long, subcoriaceous, emarginate or 

 rounded at the apex, narrowed or obtuse at the base, reticulate-veined, shining 

 above, dull beneath; racemes mostly as long as the leaves or longer; pedicels 

 1-2.5 cm. long, jointed above; calyx about 9 mm. long; petals yellowish green, 

 shorter than the calyx; stamens curved, 2-3 times as long as the calyx; pod 

 flat, broadly linear, 5-7 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. wide, glabrous, short-stipitate, 

 acuminate. 



Coppices and scrub-lands, Andros, New Providence, Eleuthera, Great Guana 

 Cay : Cuba. Recorded by Schoepf as C. brasiliensis L. BAHAMA CAESALPINIA 

 Catesby, 2 : pi. 51. 



