12 
BASTARD IRON-WOOD. 
Zanthoxylum Pterota, (Humb. Bompl. and Kunth,) prickly; leaves 
unequally pinnate ; leaflets 3 to 6 pairs, obovate-oblong, obtuse, emar- 
ginate, glabrous, the margins crenate and glandularly-punctate ; petiole 
winged, prickly ; spikes axillary, solitary or by pairs, shorter than the 
petiole ; ovaries 2 ; capsule solitary, prickles in pairs, stipular, hooked. 
Kunth. Synops. vol. 3, p. 325. Torrey and Gray Flor. Suppl. vol. 
1, p. 680. 
Pterota subspinosa, foliis minoribus per pinnas marginato-alatas dispo- 
sitis , spicis geminatis alaribus. Brown, Jamaica, p. 146, tab. 5, fig. 1. 
Lauro affinis iasmini folio alato costa media membranulis utrinque 
exstantibus alata , ligno duritie ferro vix cedens . Sloane, Jamaic. 
Hist. vol. 2, p. 25, tab. 162, fig. 1. 
An Syderoxylum Surinamense Lentiscini minoribus foliis , radchi media 
appendicibus aucto . Pluk. Mant. p. 172. 
An imperfect specimen of this species of Zanthoxylum, 
was collected in Texas by Drummond. It appears also to 
be common on Key West, in East Florida, according to 
Dr. Blodgett. It becomes a small shrubby tree, about 12 
to 20 feet high, so remarkable for the density of its wood, 
which is yellow, and close like Box, that according to 
Sloane it scarcely yields to iron in hardness. Sloane 
remarks, “If this be the Iron-Wood of Ligon , page 41, it 
grows in Barbadoes, and at p. 74, he tells, that ’tis proper 
to make cogs ; that neither sun nor wind hurts it, and that 
it is so hard as to break their tools.” The leaves and 
other parts of the plant have a strong rutaceous odor. 
The branches are either prickly or unarmed, covered 
with a gray bark. The leaves alternate, unequally-pinnate; 
the leaflets from 4 to 6 pairs, are obovate-oblong, and 
crenate on the margin, somewhat notched at the extremity, 
smooth and subsessile, scattered with pellucid punctures ; 
the petiole about 5 inches long, is marginated. The flower- 
ing panicles branched, axillary and terminal. Flowers 4 
to 6 together, subsessile, greenish-yellow and fragrant. 
The calyx small and 4 cleft. Petals 4. Stamens 4, longer 
than the petals, with the anthers yellow. The ovary mostly 
