5i6 



The Cats-Claws 



2. BLACK BEAD — Pithecolobium guadalupense Chapman 



A small unarmed tree or shrub growing 

 in sandy or rocky soil of the Florida Keys 

 and the Bahamas, where it attains a height 

 of 6 meters, with a trunk diameter of 1.5 dm. 

 The branches are irregular, forming a 

 flattish topped, irregular head. The bark 

 is about 5 mm. thick, shghtly fissured, red- 

 brown internally and dark gray externally. 

 The twigs are stout, roughened by numer- 

 ous lenticels, red-brown or grayish brown. 

 The lea-^-es are persistent, evenly bipinnate; 

 their leaf-stalk is 2 to 3 cm. long, deeply 

 grooved, with a large conic gland at the end ; 

 there are 2, sometimes 4 pinnae, with stalks 

 I to 2 cm. long, abruptly thickened at the 

 base ; the sessile leaflets are thick and leath- 

 er}-, obhquely obovate to nearly orbicular, 

 4 to 7 cm. long, rounded, shallowly notched 

 or seldom bluntly pointed, rounded or tapering at the unequal base, entire and 

 revolute on the margin, Ught green and veiny, with stout prominent midrib. The 



Fig. 476. — Black Bead. 



Fig. 477. — Black Bead, Inagua, Bahamas. 



