LEGUMINOS^E 



587 



the short stout petiolules and between the orbicular or broad-oblong leaflets, rounded 

 and rarely emarginate at apex, rounded on one side and cuneate on the other of the oblique 

 base, entire, thin or somewhat coriaceous, reticulate- veined, bright green and lustrous on 

 the upper surface and paler on the lower surface, \'-%! long, and \'-\\' wide. Flowers 

 polygamous, pale yellow, glabrous or slightly puberulous, opening in Florida in March and 

 continuing to appear until midsummer, in globular heads on slender peduncles V-\\' long 

 fascicled in the axils of upper leaves or collected in ample terminal panicles, their bracts 

 lanceolate, acuminate, chartaceous, \' long, caducous; calyx rather less than T V long, 

 broadly toothed, one quarter as long as the acuminate petals barely exceeding the tube 

 formed by the union of the filaments; stamens purple, \' long; ovary glabrous, long-stalked, 

 minute or rudimentary in the sterile flower. Fruit slightly torulose, stipitate, rounded or 

 acute at apex, 2'-4' long, \'-\' wide, the valves reticulate- veined, thickened on the margins, 

 bright reddish brown and after opening greatly and variously contorted; seeds irregularly 

 obovoid or sometimes nearly triangular, compressed or thickened, dark chestnut-brown, 

 lustrous, marked by faint oval rings, \' long, surrounded at base by the enlarged bright red 

 ariloid funicle; seed-coat thin, cartilaginous. 



A tree, sometimes 20-25 high, with a slender trunk 7'-8' in diameter, ascending and 

 spreading branches forming a low flat irregular head, and slender somewhat zigzag branch- 

 lets slightly striately angled when they first appear, becoming terete, light gray-brown or 

 dark reddish brown, covered with minute pale lenticels, and armed with the straight per- 

 sistent rigid stipular spines broad at base and \' long, or rarely minute; more often a shrub, 



Fig. 538 



with many vine-like almost prostrate stems. Bark of the trunk \' thick, reddish brown 

 and divided by shallow fissures into small square plates. Wood very heavy, hard, close- 

 grained, rich red varying to purple, with thin clear yellow sapwood. The bark is astringent 

 and diuretic, and was once used in Jamaica as a cure for many diseases. 



Distribution. Florida, Captive and Sanibel Islands and Caloosa, Lee County to the south- 

 ern keys; most abundant in its arborescent form on the larger of the eastern keys, and 

 probably of its largest size in Florida on Elliott's Key; often forming shrubby thickets; on 

 the Bahamas, and common and widely distributed through the Antilles to Venezuela and 

 New Granada. 



2. Pithecolobium brevifolium Benth. Huajillo. 



Zygia bremfolia Sudw. 



Leaves 2'-S' long, 2' wide, with eight to ten 10-20-foliolate pinnae and slender terete 

 petioles 1 ' in length and furnished near the middle with a dark oblong gland, when they 



