Eysenhardtia 



561 



0.87. It is very durable, takes a fine polish and is a favorite in Florida for boat 

 building, fuel and charcoal. The bark, especially of the root, contains a sedative 

 principle somewhat similar in its action to morphine; and the fluid extract is used 

 to some extent in American medical practice. 



The genus is monotypic, and was established by Patrick Browne, by reference 

 to Linnasus' name for the tree, and by a good description of it. Its name is from 

 the Greek in reference to the use of the bark of its roots as a fish poison, the 

 Caribs having used it to stupefy fish, a practice still carried on by negroes. 



VIII. EYSENHARDTIA 



GENUS EYSENHARDTIA HUMBOLDT, BONPLAND AND KUNTH 

 Species Eysenhardtia orthocarpa S. Watson 



jlYSENHARDTIA contains 5 species of shrubs and small trees grow- 

 ing naturally from the southwestern United States to Guatemala. 

 fl It is named in honor of Karl Wilhelm Eysenhardt, Professor of 

 Botany at Konigsberg (1794-1825); the type species is Eysenhardtia 

 amorphoides Humboldt, Bonpland and Kunth, a shrub of wide distribution from 

 New Mexico to Guatemala. Our tree 

 species, E. orthocarpa, occurs from Ari- 

 zona and western Texas to Oaxaca and 

 Hidalgo; it is not known to exceed 7 

 meters in height, with a trunk 2 dm. 

 thick. 



The bark is thin, light gray and 

 scaly, the young twigs finely hairy, be- 

 coming smooth and red-brown. The 

 deciduous leaves are stalked, equally 

 pinnate, with 10 to 24 pairs of leaflets, 

 the leaf-axis grooved on the upper side 

 and finely hairy; the leaflets are thin, 

 oblong to oval, 2 cm. long or less, 

 blunt or slightly notched at the apex, 

 short-stalked, very glandular and hairy on the under side, smooth or nearly so and 

 light green on the upper; the minute stipules are subulate. The small white 

 flowers are in axillary hairy spikes, which appear in Arizona in May, but speci- 

 mens from central Mexico show flowers collected in July and in October; the 

 spikes are densely many-flowered, 10 cm. long or less; the calyx is ribbed, glan- 

 dular and hairy, about 3 mm. long; the petals are 6 to 8 mm. long, oblong to 

 spatulate, clawed, the standard only a little wider than the wings and keel; there 

 are 9 stamens united by their filaments into a tube, and one separate shorter sta- 

 men; the ovary contains 2 to 4 ovules and is tipped by a hooked style. The pods 



Fig. 519. — Eysenhardtia. 



