528 



Lead Trees 



Fig. 488. — Lead Tree. 



base and with or without a conspicuous gland ; there are 3 to 10 pairs of pinnae 6 



to 10 cm. long, and rather far apart, the 

 upper scarcely shorter than the others, con- 

 sisting of 10 to 20 pairs of short-stalked leaf- 

 lets which are narrowly oblong to lanceolate, 

 8 to 15 mm. long, sharp-pointed, obhque at 

 the base, entire, light green, pale underneath. 

 The flowers appear in early spring in globose 

 heads 1.5 to 3 cm. in diameter, in axillary 

 clusters of 2 or 3 or in short terminal ra- 

 cemes, on stout, woolly peduncles 2.5 to 3 

 cm. long. The calyx, subtended by a peltate 

 bract, is obconic, i mm. long, its small lobes 

 short, blunt and hairy; petals 5, hnear-spat- 

 ulate and hairy; stamens 10, nearly 3 times 

 the length of the corolla, with large oval 

 anthers; ovary short-stalked and hairy. The 

 pods are linear, 10 to 15 cm. long, about 1.5 

 cm. wide, flat, usually in clusters of 2 to 10, 

 often of different lengths, thick-margined, 

 abruptly tapering at the apex, gradually narrowed at the base, brown and shin- 

 ing, splitting readily into 2 valves; seeds 

 compressed, obovate, 8 to 10 mm. long, 

 rounded at the apex, narrowed at the base, 

 bright brown and shining. 



The wood is hard, close-grained and 

 hght brown. 



This plant is very common in the Ameri- 

 can tropics; horses are said to lose their 

 tails and manes if they browse on the foli- 

 age. ,The seeds are used as beads with 

 those of Abrus precatorius Linnaeus, Prayer 

 beads, and other seeds, in fancy work on 

 some of the West Indian islands. 



3. GREGG'S LEAD TREE 

 Lencsena Greggii Watson 



A small tree known only from a limited 



area in southwestern Texas and adjacent 



Mexico, where it grows in ravines and along 

 , , , . Fig. 489. — Gregg's Lead Tree, 



the banks of streams. 



The twigs are stout, somewhat zigzag, yellowish hairy at first, becoming quite 



