12 



SEEDS AXD PLANTS IMPORTED. 



35139 to 35141. 



From Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies. Presented by Dr. 

 J. N. Rose, U. S. National Museum. Received March 17, 1913. 

 Quoted notes by Dr. Rose, except as otherwise specified. 



35139. Abrus praecatorius L. Jequirity. 

 "Normal form." 



"A twining vine with alternate, abruptly pinnate leaves; leaflets small, 

 linear oval, obtuse at apex and base, in 8 to 20 pairs; flowers pale purple to 

 white, in axillary racemes; legumes oblong, compressed, containing 4 to 6 hard, 

 glossy, scarlet seeds marked with a little black spot. Like many other legumi- 

 nous plants, it is very sensitive to changes in the intensity of light, the leaflets 

 hanging down vertically at night, as though asleep, and rising with the dawn. 

 These movements are also caused in a measure by the overclouding and clear- 

 ing of the sky. When ripe the pods burst open, displajang the pretty, bright- 

 colored seeds, which are very conspicuous in the tangled undergrowth of the 

 forest. The plant is of wide distribution in the Tropics. 



"In India the seeds are used by the jewelers and druggists as weights, each 

 seed weighing almost exactly 1 grain. The plant derived its specific name 

 ' praecatorius ' from the fact that rosaries are made of the seeds. The Germans 

 call them ' Paternostererbse. ' In many tropical countries they are made into 

 necklaces, bracelets, and other ornaments. 



"The seeds, known in pharmacy as jequirity beans, contain two proteid 

 poisons, which are almost identical in their physiological and toxic properties 

 with those found in snakes' venom, though less powerful in their effects. In 

 India the seeds are ground to a powder in a mortar, into which the natives dip 

 the points of their daggers and the wounds inflicted by daggers thus prepared 

 cause death . WTien a small quantity of the powdered seeds is introduced beneath 

 the skin fatal results follow; less than 2 grains of the powder administered in 

 this way to cattle causes death within 48 hours. One of these poisons, called 

 'abrin.' is a toxalbumin. It is easily decomposed by heat, and in Egypt the 

 seeds are sometimes cooked and eaten when food is scarce, though they are 

 very hard and indigestible. The root has been used as a substitute for licorice. ' ' 

 {Safford, Useful Plants of Guam.) 



35140. Annona squamosa L. Anona. 

 "Only one tree said to grow on the island and that owned by Mr. Zadray 



Keating. Supposed African origin." 



35141. CoccoTHRiNAX GARBERi (Chapm.) Sarg. Palm. 

 {Thrinax garheri Chapm.) 



"Teyer tree. A beautiful fan-leaved palm common in the Virgin Islands 

 and much prized as an ornamental tree. I have never seen it in the States, 

 although, of course, it may be quite common in the South or in California." 



35142 and 35143. Carica candamarcensis Hooker f. 



Mountain papaya. 



From Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. Presented by Dr. A. Robertson Pros- 

 chowsky. Received February 17, 1913. 

 "Mountain pawpaw. A small semiherbaceous tree with a crown of large, coarse, 

 palmate leaves, native of Colombia and Ecuador, similar to the pawpaw of the low 

 country, but with fruit only about one-fourth or one-sixth the size of that of the latter. 

 It has been introduced at Hakgala Gardens, Ceylon, in 1880, and is now commonly 

 grown in hill gardens for the sake of its fruit, being often found in a seminaturalized 



