

TREES AND SHRUBS. 



ALYAEADOA, Liebm. 



Alvaradoa, Liebmann, Videnslc. Meddel. Kjoben. v. 100 (Nov. PI Mexic. Gen.) (1853). — 

 Walpers, Ann. iv. 382. — Bentham, PL Hartweg. 343. — Grisebach, Abhandl. k. Gesell. 

 Wiss. Gottingen, ix. 41 (Erldut. Pfl. Trop. Am.). — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 411. — 

 Baillon, Hist. PI. v. 411. — Radlkofer, Sitz. Math.-Phys. Bayer. Acad. Wiss. xx. 138.— 

 Engler, Engler <fe Prantl Pflanzenfam. iii. pt. iv. 229. 



Trees or shrubs, with bitter juices and slender terete pubescent branchlets. Leaves alternate, 

 crowded at the end of the branches, unequally pinnate, long-petiolate, many-foliolulate, persistent ; 

 leaflets alternate, oblong, entire ; stipules and stipels none. Flowers in many-flowered axillary or 

 terminal racemes. Fruit a two or three- winged samara, three-celled below the middle, two-celled 

 above, crowned with the remnants of the styles. Seed erect, compressed ; testa membranaceous, 

 albumen none; embryo oblong-compressed ; cotyledons flat; radicle inferior, very short. 



An anomalous genus, by several authors doubtfully referred to Sapindaceae, but chiefly on 

 account of its bitter properties Alvaradoa has been placed by Engler in Simarubaceae. It consists 

 of three species ; of these Alvaradoa amorphoides, Liebmann, the type of the genus, is distrib- 

 uted from the Bahama Islands and southern Florida, through some of the Antilles to southern 

 Mexico and Central America, and to Argentina. 1 The other species, Alvaradoa Jamaicensis? 

 and Alvaradoa arborescens 3 appear to be confined to the islands of Jamaica and of Cuba. 



c. s. s. 



2 Bentham, PI. Hartweg. 344 (1857). — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 141. — Walpers, Ann. vii. 638. — Radlkofer, Sitz. Math.- 

 Phys. Bayer. Acad. Wiss. xx. 147. 



The leaflets of Alvaradoa Jamaicensis are often emarginate, with strongly revolute margins and prominent midribs, and are 

 light yellow-green and glabrous on the lower surface. The fruit is three- winged, ovate, pointed at the ends, glabrous and bright 

 scarlet when ripe. Alvaradoa Jamaicensis, which grows on the mountains of Jamaica, is described as a shrub or slender tree up 

 to 8 metres high. The branches are only slightly pubescent. 



8 Wright ex Grisebach, Cat. PI. Cuba, 50 (1866).— Radlkofer, Sitz. Math.-Phys. Bayer. Acad. Wiss. xx. 147. 



The leaflets of Alvaradoa arborescens are oval, rounded or acute at the apex, distinctly revolute on the margins, and quite gla- 

 brous. The fruit is two-winged, oblong, rounded at the ends and slightly emarginate at the apex, on short pubescent peduncles. 

 The branches are only slightly pubescent (Wright, No. 2190 in Herb. Gray). Alvaradoa arborescens is described by Wright 

 as a small tree up to 10 metres high. I have not seen the flowers of this little known tree or of Alvaradoa Jamaicensis, and a 

 description of the flowers is not included, therefore, in this account of the genus. 



