139 
HiEMATOXYLUM CAMPECHIANUM. 
Logwood Tree. 
Class Decandria. Order Monogynia. 
Nat. Ord. Lomentace^, Linn. Leguminos^, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Calyx five-parted. Petals five. Capsule lanceo- 
late, one-celled, two-valved, with the valves boat-shaped. 
This tree, which is the only species of the genus Haematoxylum * 
yet discovered, is a native of South America, and attains to the 
highest perfection at Canipeachy, in the Bay of Honduras, flowering 
in March and April. In the year 1715, the seeds were introduced 
into the Island of Jamaica, for the purpose of propagating this tree 
as an article of commerce, and we are told that from its quick 
growth, it now abounds in that island ; in the neighbourhood of 
Savannah le Mar it is said to grow so luxuriantly, that in the course 
of three years it will rise to the height of ten or more feet, and by 
this rapid growtl^ it soon overruns aud destroys the neighbouring 
plants and shrubs. f This tree was first cultivated in this country 
by Mr. P. Miller, in the year 1739, and for some years subsequently 
appears to have thriven with great perfection ; but in the present 
day few plants are to be met with in our hot houses. 
This tree seldom exceeds twenty or twenty-five feet in height ; the 
trunk and branches are usually extremely crooked, the former does 
not often measure more than twenty inches in diameter: both trunk 
and branches are covered with a rough bark of a dark brownish colour; 
the smaller branches, which are very numerous, are beset with sharp 
spines; the leaves are abruptly pinnated, and consist of four or five 
pair of obcordate, obliquely nerved, sessile leaflets ; the flowers are 
produced in terminal spikes or racemes; the calyx is divided into 
five oblong, obtuse segments, of a brownish purple colour; the 
corolla consists of five obtusely lanceolate, spreading petals, of a 
* The specific name, Campechianam, probably originated from Paalo Campechio, the 
Spaniard who first discovered the plaut. — Ed. 
t Long's History of Jamaica. 
