214 SAPINDACEiE. 



which it fills, globose ; the hilum inferior, naked (not arillate) ; 

 the testa bony-crustaceous, smooth, black ; the tegmen mem- 

 branaceous or fleshy. Albumen none. Embryo incurved 

 (rarely straight) ; the cotyledons thick and fleshy, incumbent: 

 RADICLE very short, inferior or descending, near the hilum. 



Trees, with alternate abruptly pinnate leaves, destitute of 

 stipules (the leaflets alternate or opposite), and small polyga- 

 mous flowers in axillary racemes or panicles, or, by the abor- 

 tion of the uppermost leaves, in ample compound panicles 

 terminatino; the branches. Corolla white or whitish. 



Etymology and Properties. The name is compounded of sapo (soap) 

 and Indus ; in allusion to the detersive properties and use of the soapberry, 

 the fruit of S. saponaria, which lathers freely in water and is used in the 

 West Indies as a substitute for soap. It is said that " a few of them will 

 cleanse more linen than sixty times their weight of soap." Pounded and 

 thrown into water they intoxicate fish. The bark is bitter and tonic, but the 

 berries of some African and Indian species are edible. 



Geographical Distribution. Natives of the tropics in the Old and 

 New World. There are two or three species along our Southern confines. 

 One, which is common in Florida and Texas, and in Northern Mexico, ex- 

 tends northward to Arkansas and Georgia. 



Note. The fruit of Sapindus is usually described as a drupe ; but what 

 is taken for the endocarp is certainly a bony testa in the species here figured, 

 and in a Brazilian Soapberry I have examined. 



PLATE 180. Sapindus marginatus, WiUcL; — branch with a leaf and 

 one small panicle, of the natural size ; from a Texan specimen.* 



1. Diagram of a perfect flower, with the bractlet (anterior). 



2. A perfect flower, magnified. 



3. Inside view of a magnified petal, showing its two-cleft scale. 



4. A magnified stamen, seen from the outside. 



5. The same, seen from the inside. 



6. Pistil (fructified), with the disk, magnified. 



7. Vertical section through the pistil, disk, calyx, &c., showing the 



ovules, the insertion of the stamens, petals, &c. 



8. An ovule more magnified. 



9. Fruit of the natural size, the two abortive carpels at the base. 



10. Vertical section of the fruit, seed, and embryo. 



11. An entire seed, of the natural size. 



* The narrowly winged rachis of the leaf, sometimes only obscurely mar- 

 gined, is not shown in tlie figure. 



