PRICKLY PISONIA. 
147 
Rhamnus seu lycium , fingrigo jamaicensibus dictum. Pick. Almag. p. 
318, t. 108, f. 2. 
Paliuro affinis ; arbor spinosa, flore herbaceo, pentapetaloide ; fructu 
sicco, nudo, canaliculato, lappaceo. Sloane, Jam. p. 137. Hist. vol. 
2. p. 25, t. 167. Rai, Dend. p. 95. 
This inelegant, but curious trailing branched tree is in- 
digenous to Jamaica, Cuba, and other of the West India 
islands and Brazil, where it attains the height of 12 to 20 
feet, with a diameter of 8 to 10 inches. It has also been 
observed at Key West by Dr. Blodgett. The spiny 
branches droop and trail diffusely, so as to form thickets 
which are very troublesome to traverse ; the spines short and 
crooked seize on the clothing of the traveller and the gluti- 
nous capsules adhere to every thing they happen to touch. 
The wings of some of the birds, particularly the Ground 
Doves, are sometimes so loaded with the burry capsules as 
to render them incapable of flying. With its uses and 
other properties we are unacquainted. Other species, 
allied to the present, also inhabit the West Indies, of which 
the wood is said to be of inferior value. 
The bark of the trunk of this tree is even and of a dark, 
brown. The branches are almost opposite. The leaves 
simple, petiolated, oval, somewhat rigid, often shortly acu- 
minated and acute at the base, nearly opposite, 1J inches 
long, and sometimes nearly as wide ; the midrib beneath is 
often covered partly with short, close hairs. The spines 
are short, stout, and recurved. The campanulate flowers 
appear with the expansion of the leaves towards the ex- 
tremities of the branches, in rounded downy corymbs, they 
are small yellowish-green, furnished at the base with 2 or 
3 small scale-like bractes, and have somewhat the scent of 
Elder flowers; the border is 5-cleft, the segments very 
spreading, short, oval, and acute. The stamens about 6. 
