3G4 



On the American Sumach, 



[April 



tion required will be furnished, and with whom samples may be seen. 

 As the quantity expected is but small, and the arrival of the cargo may 

 be daily looked for, those who wish to become purchasers are requested 

 to be early in their applications. 

 Phjmouth, October 3d, 1834. 



The Ccesalpinia coriaria varies in size according to the richness of 

 the soil from a shrub to a large timber tree; the timber of which is 

 valuable for many purposes of domestic economy and for building. It 

 grows in the hottest, most sandy and arid soils, in which it appears to 

 thrive better than in colder situations. In hot situations plants raised 

 from the seed will flower in the third year of their growth, and will 

 perfect their pods in the following year. In Carthagena, December 

 and January are the flowering months, but the plants raised from seed 

 which I sent to Jamaica in 1829, and which was sown sometime about 

 the month of October, flowered for the first time in August, 1822,* and 

 in the same month in the following year after flowering, the branches, 

 which are slender, were bent down with the weight of pods. In Car- 

 thagena the pods are left on the trees till the high winds in March 

 bring them down, when they must be gathered and housed before the 

 April rains commence. From the experiments made on Oak bark 

 however by Sir Humphry Davy, I should be inclined to think they 

 would be found richer in the tanning principle if gathered by hand 

 about the full moon of the month in which they attain their full growth, 

 but before the sap has begun to descend, and the green colour to give 

 place to the Mahogany hue of maturity. Oak bark is found to contain 

 one quarter more tannin in spring than in autumn. The tannin resides 

 wholly in the brittle exterior coat of the pod, all the rest being compa- 

 ratively worthless ; hence after dyeing, the pods should be ground in a 

 mill and the refuse (amounting to one-fourth of the whole) separated 

 by sifting. This refuse, though not worth the expense of freight, may 

 be applicable to many useful purposes for dyeing, &c. on the place of 

 production. In times of scarcity the pods are eagerly devoured by 

 cattle. While young and soft, the pods are punctured by a small active 

 little winged insect of a greenish colour, which deposits its eggs within, 

 where they are hatched, and the young insects bury themselves in the 

 seeds, the farinaceous portion of which they live upon as in the accom- 

 panying specimens of hollow seeds. This insect is, as Mr. Loudon, to 

 whom I sent some for examination, informs me, a species of Bruchus 

 similar to that which preys on the seeds of the family of Brassicoe, but 

 has not hitherto been described by any Entomologist. I have named 

 it for the present Bruchus Ccssalpiniae, or the Dividivi Bruchus. I 



* Query, 1832.— Ed, Tran.3. 



