PERKINS -THE LEGUMINOSAE OF PORTO RICO. 197 



what compressed, with a more or less flesh) mesocarp and a thick subligneous endo- 

 carp; Beeds I. pendulous. Strong trees; leaves Imparipinnate; leaflets opposite, rarel) 

 alternate, often Btipellate; flowers rose-colored or violet, fragrant, in terminal pyram- 

 idal panicles, Bubsessile, usually crowded; bracts and bracteoles small, deciduous. 



1. Audira jamaieensis W. Wright) Urb. a 

 Urban, 298. 



Tree id to 20 meters high with firm woody branches, the young twigs Blightl) 

 pubescent; petioles 5 to 7.5 cm. Long; leaflets 9 to L3, the pairs more than 2.5 cm. apart, 

 oblong or lanceolate, or the terminal one obovate, 5 to 7.5 cm. long, L. 5 to 2.5 cm. wide, 

 acuminate or subacute, the base scarcely rounded, subsessile, Bubcoriaceous, both 

 sides glabrous, dark green, shining; flowers in pyramidal panicles, L5 to 30 cm. long, 

 with distant, spreading, -talked, racemose, closely flowered branches; calyx subsessile, 

 silky, about 4.5 mm. deep, brownish red; corolla reddish, violet, or pale purple, 13 to 

 r> mm. deep, the standard 6.5 to 8.5 mm. broad; ovary stalked, glabrous or slightly 

 ciliate, 3or4-ovulate;legume green, subrotundate, aboul 2.5 cm. in diameter, obtusely 

 carinate; or Bhortly ovate, or obovate, 3.5 to I cm. 1 « • 1 1 _r . Blightly or nol at all carinate. 



Near Bayamon in woods; Sierra de Luquillo, in woods between Mavi and Mount 

 Jimenez; in the calcareous mountains near Juncos; near Ooamo in woods at Pedro 

 Garcia and at !.<>> Banos; between Coamo and A.guas Buenas on the roadside; near 

 Yauco; near Guanica on Mount Puercoandat Barinas; nearMayaguez; near Maricao, 

 in the forests of Mount Montoso; near Utuado in the rocky mountains at Los Vngel s. 

 Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, and in related forms variel y sapindoides Benth.,Griseb.), with 

 larger flowers and longer pedicels, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Si John Eggers), St. Kitts 

 (Grisebach), Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, 

 Tobago, Trinidad (Sieber). Tropical America and wesl tropical Africa: very abun- 

 dant in Central America. Guiana, Venezuela, north Brazil, and eastern Pern. 



The Brazilian and wesl African specimens are generally rather longer-flowered and 

 Btiffer-leaved than those from Guiana, the West Indies, and Central America: but no 

 tangible characters nor constant size in the flowers can be found to separate them even 

 into marked varieties. 



Local names, moca, morn blanca. 



51. ABRUS 1.. 



Abrus A.DANS. Fam. 2: 327. 1763. 



Hoepfneria Vatke, Oester. Bot. Zeitsch. 29: 222. 1^7'.) 



Calyx campanulate, truncate or shortly and broadly toothed; standard ovate, the 

 short claw adhering to the base <<i the stamina! tube; keel much curved, the petals 

 united from the base, often longer than the wings; stamens !» united in a sheath open 

 on the upper side, the upper one deficient; ovary sessile, with indefinite ovules; si vie 

 short, incurved; stigma terminal: pod oblong or linear, flat, 2-valved, with cellular 

 part it ions between the seeds. Shrubs or undershrul s; stems usually t wining or trail- 

 ing, woody at the base; leaves paripinnate, the leaflets many-jugate, the common peti- 

 ole ending in a short point ; flowers -mall, rose-colored or white, in cluster- on lateral 

 thickened nodes or in axillary or terminal racemes; bracts small, often persistent; 

 bracteoles 2 on i he calyx. 



1. Abrus precatorius I . 



Urban, 298 



Shrub with Blender woody wide-climbing glabrous or Blightly pubescent branches; 

 leaves abruptly pinnate. i to ^> cm. Ion-: leaflets 10 to 15-jugate, oblong or obovate, 



"Cook and Collins, p. 80, as Andira inermis. 



