PERKINS THE LEGTJMINOSAE OF PORTO RICO. L53 



indehiscent; epicarp thin, crustaceous; mesocarp pulpy; endocarp thick and fli 

 forming complete partitions between the 3eeds; seeds obovate elliptical or roundish, 

 compressed, with a thick, shining testa each Bide marked with a large fainl ly defined 

 areole; albumen none. Unarmed trees; leaves paripinnate; leaflets multijugate, 

 small, coriaceous, oblong, obtuse, reticulate, subsessile; stipules small, caducous; 

 flowers yellowish or red-striped, in terminal racemes; bracts and bra ovate- 



oblong, colored, caducous. 



I. Tamarindus indica L. 

 Urban, ! 



Tree 5 to 8 meters high, wholly glabrous or extremities al firsl thinly pubescent or 

 puberulous, sometimes glaucescent; leaves 6 to 15 cm. long; leaflets 1.5 to 2 cm. I"ir_ r . 

 & to 6 mm. wide, oblong, H> to 20-jugate; flowers \ ariegated, racemose; calj \ s< gments 

 II mm. long, 4 mm. wide; petals 10 to 12 mm. long; legume 5 to 15 cm. long, L5 to 2 

 cm. \vi<l<\ I i" l-seeded. 



Seemingly wild, also cultivated, in woods uear Bayamon; near Aibonito al Cari- 

 Blanco; near Penuelas; near Mayaguez; near Rincon, in mountain forests around 

 Eacienda Nieve. Bahama Hitchcock . Cuba Richard . Jamaica, Haiti, St. Thomas, 

 St. Croix, St. John (Eggers), St. Martin (Stockholm Herbarium), St. Bartholomew 

 (do. . Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent, Bequia Kew Bull. no. 81, p. 249 . Mus- 

 tique (do. I, Margarita. 



The tamarind, the only species of the genus, valued on accounl of the acid pulp of 

 the fruit, would appear to be truly indigenous in tropical Africa, li is widely diffused 

 either under cultivation or naturalized, through the Tropics of both the New and the 

 old World. According to Grosourdy (cited by Cook and Collins, p. 248 the wood is 

 of good weight and more than ordinarily,hard. The texture is rather compact and the 

 grain fine. 



I j ical name, tamarindo 



18. BAUHINIA L. 



Bauhinia I.. Sp. PI. 1: 374. 1753. 



Flowers hermaphrodite, more rarely polygamous; calyx with a short turbinate or 

 tubular receptacle, before anthesis undivided and closed at the top or contracted 

 beneath the top and shortly 5-lobed, at anthesis variously divided, vaginate or with 

 3 to 5 valvate, rarely imbricate, segments; petal- 5, usually subequal, mere rarely the 

 uppermost differing in form from the ether-, imbricate in estivation: stamens 10, all 

 fertile, with free or more or less connate filaments and dorsifixed anthers, or reduced 

 to 1 to 9 staminodia, or entirely wanting; ovary sessile or stipitate, rarely glandular 

 below, 2 to many-ovulate; style filiform, often very short, usuallj long; stigma ter- 

 minal, dilated and obliquely peltate or inconspicuous; legume oblong or linear, 

 straight, oblique, or curved, membranous, coriaceous, or almosl fleshy, continuous or 

 pulpy between the seed-, seldom septate, indehiscenl or 2-valved; seeds compressed, 

 albuminous, subglobular or ovate; seed coal thin or hard: root shorl and straight, 

 rarely oblique or slightly curved. Trees or ere< I orscandenl shrubs, unarmed, or with 

 interstipulary prickles, and with round or unequally compressed or broadened and 

 Hat trunk and often with branches thai are transformed into tendrils; have- simple, 

 sometime- entire. sometimes 2-lobed or parte, I. mere rarely 2-foliolate; stipules vary- 

 ing, caducous; flowers 2 or 3 together on leaf-opposed or terminal peduncles or coll 

 in simple or compound corymbs, racemes, or panicles, white or rose to purple and 



yellow. 



The three species of Bauhinia found in Porto Rico are trees or shrubs, with 2-lobed 

 Leaves. The calyx is closed al the top or contracted beneath the top and shortly 

 5-lobed, and at anthesis is vaginate. In the Bection Pauletia, embracing two of the 



