X Y L 



X Y L 



cave lra8eas. Calyx fmall, three-cleft. Three outir petals 

 longeft, Ppreading at the points. Capfules corrugated, not 

 burftiiig. Seeds one or two. Dunal. De Cand. 



5. X. glabra. Smooth Bitter-wood. Linn. Sp. PI. 

 1367. Willd. n. 3. De Cand. n. 4. " Dunal Monogr. 

 121. t. 19." Lunan Hort. Jam. 97. (Xylopicrum n. 2 ; 

 Browne Jam. 251. Xylopicron arbor, barbadenfibus Bitter- 

 luood ; Pluk. Pliyt. t. 238. f. 4. ) — Leaves ovate-oblong, 

 pointed, quite fmooth on both fides. Stalks fingle-flowered, 

 folitary or in pairs. Fruit fmooth. — Brought from Bar- 

 badoes by Mr. James Reede, who was fent to the Weft 

 Indies by the earl of Portland, to procure plants for the 

 royal garden at Hampton-Court. Plukenet. This fpecies, 

 therefore, may have been alive in England. Dr. Patrick 

 Browne met with it in the mountains, at the back of Bull- 

 bay, in Jamaica, where it grew to a confiderable fize, being 

 fifty or fixty feet high. He never faw the flowers in perfec- 

 tion. " The wood, bark, and berries," fays this author, 

 '- have an agreeable bitter tafte, not unlike that of the 

 orange-feed ; and would probably prove excellent medicines. 

 Wild pigeons feed much upon the berries, and owe their 

 delicate bitterilh flavour to this food. I have eaten many of 

 the berries juft off the tree, and found them agreeable to the 

 palate, and grateful to the ftomach. The bark and wood 

 are agreeably bitter while frefli, but that delicacy diminifiies 

 greatly after they are dried. The wood is eafily wrought, 

 and good timber, but muft not be expofed to the weather." 

 Bromne. Mr. Lunan, in his Hortus Jamaicenjis, adds no- 

 thing to this account, but carefully diftinguifhes this Bitter- 

 wood from Quassia, (fee that article,) with which fome 

 perfons have confounded it. M. De Candolle obferves, that 

 the branches of X. glabra are round, fmooth, fcarcely 

 dotted ; and that even the young leaves are fmooth on both 

 fides : the full-grown ones are two inches long, and one 

 broad, obtufe with a point. Calyx fmooth, with three 

 very obtufe lobes. Unexpanded pelals oblong, clothed ex- 

 ternally with clofe-preffed pubefcence, their length four 

 lines. Plukenet reprefents the fiontier-Jlalks folitary, oppo- 

 fite to each leaf. 



6. X. nit'ida. Shining-leaved Bitter-wood. " Dunal 

 Monogr. 122. t. 20." De Cand. n. 6. — " Leaves oblong- 

 lanceolate, fmooth ; pohlhed on the upper fide. Stalks 

 branched, many-flowered. Calyx nearly entire." — Found 

 by Jofeph Martin, on the Oyac mountains of Cayenne, 

 Hoping down to the fea. A tree of a middhng fize, with 

 llraight, round, rugged, not hairy or downy, branches. 

 Leaves fomewhat elliptical, two or three inches long, and 

 nine or ten lines broad ; green, fmooth, and very (hining 

 above ; veiny, pale, and rather filky, with minute clofe 

 hairs beneath ; the margin a little revolute. Clujlers fmall, 

 ' orymbofe, of four or d^Q Jloiuers, whofe ftalks are em- 

 braced by little roundifh braSeas. Calyx coriaceous, brown, 

 jitcher-lhaped, fcarcely divided. Bud of the petals oblong, 

 riangular, acute, /^rai/ unknown. De Cand. 



7. X. acuminata. Long-pointed Bitter-wood. " Dunal 

 Monogr. 122. t. 16." De Cand. n. 7 " Leaves oblong- 

 elliptical, very long-pointed, perfeftly fmooth. Capfules 

 on long ftalks, fingle-valved, with two feeds." — Native of 

 Cayenne. Branches round, rugged, fmooth. Leaves on 

 very (hort footftalks, four to fix inches long, two inches 

 wide, remarkably pointed, revolute, rather coriaceous ; a 

 Httle (hining above. Flowers unknown. Capfules ovate, 

 nfje or ten lines in length, pointed, each tapering down 

 'nto a long ftalk, imperfedly bivalve, fmooth and even. 

 i'eeds obovate, black, foetid, convex at the outfide, flat at 



!ie inner. De Cand. 



8. X. prinoides. Winter-berry Bitter-wood. «' Dunal 



Monogr. 122. t. 15." DeCand. n. 8 — « Leaves oblong, 

 lanceolate, fmooth, membranous, pointed ; bluntifti at the 

 extremity. Flowers folitary. Capfules with two valves." 

 — Native of Cayenne. Branches wand-like, (lightly rugged. 

 Leaves on (hort ftalks, fmooth on both fides, three or four 

 inches, (the author, by miftake as we prefume, fays three 

 or four lines,) in length, and from twelve to fifteen lines 

 broad ; fliining above ; rather glaucous beneath. Stalis 

 fingle-flowered, axillary, very (hort, each bearing an ex- 

 tremely minute bradea. Calyx deeply three-cleft. Petals 

 ovate, acute, fcarcely two lines long, being the fmalleft of 

 this genus, or perhaps natural order. Capfules (talked, im- 

 perfedly bivalve. Seeds two, flat at the inner fide, convex 

 at the outer. De Candolle. 



XYLOPICRUM. See XYLOPiA/«/ra. 

 XYLOPOLIS, in Ancient Geography, a town of Mace- 

 donia, in Mygdonia. Ptolemy. 



XYLOSMA, in Botany, from |i/Xov, wood, and ca-fir,, a 

 fmell, a name given by Dr. George Forfter to the My- 

 roxylon of his father ; the latter appellation having been 

 appropriated by Linnsus to a different genus. (See My- 

 ROXYLON.) — Forft. Prodr. 72. Schreb. Gen. 703. Willd. 

 Sp. PI. V. 4. 834. Mart. Mill. Dift. v. 4. Poiret in La- 

 marck Dia. V. 8. 817. Lamarck lUuftr. t. 827. (My- 

 roxylon ; Forft. Gen. t. 63. JufT. 444. Lamarck Did. 

 V. 4. 192.) — Clafs and order, Dioecia Polyandria. Nat. 

 Ord. uncertain. Julf. 



Gen. Ch. Male, Cal. Perianth in four or five deep, 

 roundifh, minute, fpreading fegments. Cor. Petals none. 

 Neftary minute, aimular, finely crenate, furrounding the 

 ftamens. Stam. Filaments numerous (20 — 50), capillary, 

 twice the length of the calyx ; anthers roundi(h, fmall. 



Female, on a diftinft tree, Cal. as in the male. Cur. 

 Petals none. Ncftary as in the male, furrounding the 

 germen. Pijl. Germen fuperior, roundi(h-ovate ; ftyle very 

 (liort, cylindrical ; ftigma obtufe, flat, obfcurely three -cleft. 

 Peric. Berry ? dry, oblong, imperfeftly divided into two 

 cells by a partition from the bottom. Seeds two in each, 

 triangular, convex at the back, flat at the fides. 



E(f. Ch. Male, Calyx in four or five deep fegments. 

 Petals none. Neiflary annular, crenate. Stamens from 

 twenty to fifty. 



Female, Calyx and Neftary as in the male. Style very 

 (hort. Stigma flightly three-cleft. Berry dry, of two in- 

 complete cells. Seeds two to each cell. 



1. X. fuavcolens. Serrated Sweet-wood. Forft. Prodr. 

 n. 380. Willd. n. I. ( Myroxylon fuaveolens ; Forft. Gen. 

 63. n. I.) — Leaves ovate, ferrated — Native of the Society 

 iflands of the South feas. The inhabitants employ this 

 wood, to give a fragrant fcent to cocoa-nut oil, for anoint- 

 ing their hair. We know not whether this be the precious 

 Red Sanders Wood of the South fea iflands, for a fpecimen 

 of which we are indebted to fir Jofeph Banks, whofe fcent 

 refembles that of the Eaft Indian wood of the fame name. 

 The tree which produced it was, as long as poffible, kept 

 from the knowledge of our European voyagers. 



2. X. orbiculatum. Entire-leaved Sweet-wood. Forft. 

 Prodr. n. 381. Willd. n. 2. (Myroxylon orbiculatum; 

 Forft. Gen. 63. n. 2.) — Leaves roundiih, entire. — Native 

 of Savage ifland. We have never feen a fpecimen of either 

 fpecies. 



XYLOSTEON, a name by which fome authors have 

 called the fmall red-berried double-fruited ckamecerafus. 



XYLOSTEUM, Dod. Pempt. 411. Tourn. 609. t. 379. 



Juff. 212. Pur(h 161. ( Chamsecerafus ; Tourn. ibid. }, a 



word formed of |iXoj, tvood, and orsov, bone, being fyno- 



nymous with a Swifs name for the fame fhrubs, which 



E 2 alludes 



