Family 14. BURSERACEAE 



By Joseph Nelson Rose 



Shrubs or trees, more or less aromatic. Leaves alternate, usually pinnate, 

 deciduous, the rachis often winged; leaflets entire, toothed, or laciniate ; 

 stipules none. Flowers small, perfect or polygamo-dioecious ; inflorescence 

 various, usually a more or less compound panicle but often consisting of a 

 single flower. Sepals 3-5, united into a short tube. Petals small, as many 

 as the sepals and alternating with them, distinct or rarely united into a 

 short tube, valvate or imbricate in the bud. Disk a more or less prominent ring. 

 Stamens twice as many as petals ; filaments free, naked, short ; sterile stamens 

 none; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, 4- or 5-celled or few r er-celled by 

 abortion. Style distinct but usually very short ; stigma broad. Ovules nor- 

 mally 2 in each cell, pendent. Fruit a drupe containing 1-5 stones; testa 

 of seed membranaceous ; endosperm none ; cotyledons usually membranaceous. 



Petals in the bud imbricate. 1. Elaphrium. 

 Petals in the bud valvate. 



Petals united. 2. Tetragastris. 

 Petals distinct . 



Calyx truncate. 3. Dacryodes. 



Calyx lobed. 4. Icica. 



1. ELAPHRIUM Jacq. Enum. PI. Carib. 3. 1760. 



Terebintlms P. Br. Hist. Jam. 345. 1756. Not Terebinthus Mill. 1754. 

 Bursera Jacq.; L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 471. 1762. Not Bursera Loefl. 1758. 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves various, from simple to twice compound, small to very 

 large, alternate ; leaves or leaflets entire, toothed or even laciniate, smooth to very pubes- 

 cent. Inflorescence axillary, more or less compound or sometimes of only a single flower. 

 Flowers small, polygamous. Calyx small, 4- or 5-lobed, the lobes equal and spreading, 

 more or less persistent. Petals distinct, 4 or 5, inserted on the base of the disk, ovate 

 to oblong, much longer than the calyx-lobes, imbricate in the bud, afterwards 

 spreading. Stamens 8 or 10, distinct, inserted at the base of the disk. Disk an entire 

 ring. Ovary ovoid, sessile, 3-celled. Fruit a drupe, globose, or more or less 3-angled, 

 often oblique ; epicarp glabrous or pubescent, splitting into 2 or 3 leathery valves ; stones 

 hard and bony, more or less covered with a fleshy, weakly aromatic pulp. 



Type species, Elaphrium tomentosum Jacq. 



1. Petiole and rachis wingless. 



A. Leaves simple or unifoliolate, rarely trifoliolate. 

 Leaves toothed. 



Peduncles elongate, several-flowered. 1. E . epinnatum . 



Peduncles short, 1-flowered. 2. E. subtrifoliatum . 



Leaves entire. 



Inflorescence elongate, often quite as long as the leaves. 3. E.jamaicensc. 



Inflorescence short, often consisting of a single flower. 

 Leaves green. 

 Leaves obtuse. 



Petioles short. 4. E. Jonesii. 



Petioles longer (5-15 mm. long). 5. E. Nashii. 



Leaves acute. 



Peduncles short (3-4 mm. long). 6. E. simplicifolium. 



Peduncles long (about 40 mm.). 7. E. cerasifoliitm . 



Leaves glaucous. 8. E.glaucum. 



B. Leaves compound, 

 a. Leaflets entire. 



Leaflets small. 



Volume 25, Part 3, 1911] 241 



