

PLATE DLXVIL 



t 



CERATONIA 



SI LI QUA. 



Pod-bearing Ceratonia. 



CLASS XXIII 



ORDER II 



POLYGAMIA DICE CIA. Many Nuptials on separate Plants 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Hermaph. Calyx 5-partitus. Corolla 0. Sta- 

 mina 5—8. Stylus filiformis. Stigma ca- 

 pitatum. Legumen coriaceum, pulpa pie- 

 aum, polyspermum. 



Hermaph. Empalement 5-parted. Blossom 

 none. Chives 5 to 8. Shaft thread-shapedr 

 Summit headed. Pod leathery, full of pulp, 

 and many- seeded. 



I 



REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 



1 . A flower shown from the outside. 



2. A dry pod a little opened, one seed detached 



I n stead of a new plant, we here submit to our readers one that according to the Kew Catalogue has 

 been an inhabitant of our gardens 239 years: but neither Mr. Aiton nor Mr. Miller had ever seen it 

 blossom, nor during all this long period have we any account of its flowering in this country. Its 

 male flowers however appeared in the Cambridge Botanic Garden the beginning of last February, and 

 from a specimen communicated by Mr. Donn to A. B. Lambert, esq. the present drawing was taken. 

 Mr. Bonn's plant was between 4 and 5 feet high, moderately branched, and had the same treatment as 

 his other green-house shrubs. We are uncertain whether the hermaphrodite or female plant be yet in 

 this country; but as the propagation is principally from seed, w& think it is very probable. The sta- 

 mens in our specimen vary in number, being commonly 5, sometimes 6, and more rarely 8. The fruit 

 is added from a dried legume m the Lambertian collection, which was sent from Spain by the late Abbe 

 Cavanilles, who in his lames Plantarum, vol. 2. p. 8. and tab. 113. (in addition to what was formerly 

 known of the Ceratonia) informs us, that it grow r s spontaneously on little hills and dry fields in Valen- 

 cia, and is yet more impatient of cold and moisture than the olive, vast numbers being sometimes 

 killed there by the frost in severe winters. It is in this province also, that the principal cultivation of 

 this useful plant in Spain is situated. The propagation is from seeds, and the dioecious plants are always 

 selected in preference to the hermaphrodites, being better bearers. Some of the more skilful cultivators 

 engraft a male bough upon their female plants for their impregnation, and by this means have no sterile 

 plants in their collections. They flower twice a year, first in February, and again more plentifully in 

 August and September j which is also the time of the fruit's ripening, and the trees are seen at the same 

 time adorned with blossoms, and laden with ripe fruit. Eighty pounds of legumes are sometimes col- 

 lected from a single tree. They are known to be mature by their putting on a chesnut colour, and are 

 then beaten from the trees by canes of the Arundo Donax from 1 6 to 20 feet long, with part of their 

 crooked roots left, which serve as hooks. Rain is said to be beneficial to the ripe fruits, and even to 

 improve them after they are laid in heaps on the ground. They are finally dried and stored up in barns 

 for use. The cultivators enumerate three varieties, which they call Melars, Llandars, and Costelluts. 

 The last they distinguish by having larger leaves and of a deeper green, with legumes often a foot long, 

 but with little solidity or sweetness; the second has shorter legumes, but more solid and very sweet; 

 the leaves also are shorter. The first are called Melars {quasi Mel/eas) from Mel honey, of which the 

 fruit contains small drops, and sometimes in such abundance that it distils upon the ground, and is fed 

 upon by the bees. The fruits are the principal food of the cattle in the province of Valencia, and also 

 >rm part of the sustenance of the poor people. The leaves are used in the preparation of leather. 



Monsieur Olivier also intorms us in his 7 ravels in the Ottoman Empire, that the Carob-tree grows 

 over the Island of Crete, and delights most in stony grounds and the clefts of rocks; that the fruits are 

 conveyed thence to Constantinople, to Syria and Egypt, and serve for food to the poor and to children, 



They an also an ingredient in the sherbets of which the Mussulmans make daily use. 





