MALPIGIACE^E 631 



The generic name is from the Carib Guaiaco or Guayacon, the aboriginal name of the 

 Lignum-vitse. 



1. Guaiacum sanctum L. 



Leaves 3' or 4' long, with 3 or 4 pairs of obliquely oblong or obovate mucronate subses- 

 sile leaflets, membranaceous, light green and puberulous below when they first appear, 

 becoming subcoriaceous, glabrous, dark green and lustrous on both surfaces, 1' long and 

 nearly \' wide, persistent until the appearance of the new growth in March or early April 

 of the following year; stipules acuminate, tipped with a short mucro, pubescent, \' long. 

 usually caducous, but sometimes persistent during the season. Flowers ' in diameter, 

 opening almost immediately after the appearance of the new growth, and continuing to 

 open during several weeks, solitary on a slender pubescent pedicel shorter than the leaves 

 and usually produced 3 or 4 together at the end of the branches from the axils of the upper 

 leaves, their bracts acuminate, minute, the 2 lateral rather smaller than the others; calyx- 

 lobes obovate, slightly pubescent, especially on the outer surface near the base, and smaller 



Fig. 575 



than the blue petals twisted below from left to right, and thus appearing to be obliquely in- 

 serted; filaments naked; ovary obovoid, prominently 5-angled, glabrous, contracted at 

 base into a short stout stalk. Fruit broad-obovoid, f ' long, \' wide, bright orange color, 

 opening at maturity by the splitting of the thick rather fleshy valves; seeds black, with a 

 thick fleshy scarlet aril-like outer coat. 



A gnarled round-headed cree, sometimes 25-30 high, with a short stout trunk occa- 

 sionally 2f-3 in diameter, slender pendulous branches, and branchlets conspicuously 

 enlarged at the nodes, sligjitly angled, pubescent when they first appear, becoming in 

 their second year glabrous, nearly white, and roughened by numerous small excrescences. 

 Bark of the trunk rarely more than ' thick, separating on the surface into thin white 

 scales. Wood dark green or yellow-brown, with thin clear yellow sap wood. 



Distribution. Keys of southern Florida from Key West eastward; on the Bahama 

 Islands and on several of the Antilles. 



XXV. MALPIGIACEJE. 



Trees, shrubs or vines with opposite simple entire often stipulate persistent leaves; 

 stipules deciduous or 0. Flowers usually perfect or dimorphous, on pedicels articulate 

 near their base from the axils of a bract and furnished below the articulation with two 

 bractlets, in terminal racemes, corymbs or umbels; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes generally im- 



