16 
LIGNUM V I T iE TREE. 
(Gayac, Fr.) 
Natural Order , Zygophylle^:, (R. Brown.) Linncean Clas- 
sification , Decandria Monogynia. 
GUAIACUM.* (Plumier and Decand.) 
Calyx 5-parted, obtuse, deciduous, the divisions unequal. Petals 5. Stamens 
10, with the filaments naked or partly appendiculate. Style and stigma 1. 
Capsule substipitate, 2 or 3 to 5 -celled, with 2 to 5 salient angles. Seeds 
solitary, affixed to the axis, pendulous ; albumen cartilaginous, cotyle- 
dons rather thick. 
Trees of moderate elevation, with extremely hard and heavy wood ; the 
branchlets trichotomous, leaves opposite, abruptly pinnated, the leaflets 
entire, peduncles axillarand terminal, few and mostly clustered, 1 -flowered, 
the flowers blue. 
SMALL-LEAVED LIGNUM VITLE. 
GUAIACUM sanctum, foliis 5-7 -jugis, foliolis ovalibus obtusis mucronu- 
latis ; petiolis ramulisque subpubescentibus. Decand. Prod. vol. 1 , p. 
707. 
Guaiacum sanctum, foliolis multijugis obtusis. Linn. Commel. Hort. 
vol. 1, p. 171, tab. 88. Lam. Encyc. vol. 2, p. 615. 
* Derived from a Mexican name altered by the Spaniards into Guay - 
acan . 
