EXCiECARIA.t 
Natural Order , Euphorbiacea,. Linnsean Classification , 
Duecia, Monadelphia. 
Dioecious or Monoecious. — Male flowers in cylindric aments, 
solitary, or by 3’s, subtended by single scales; the filament of 
the stamens 3-parted at the summit. Female flowers solitary 
or in spikes, with a calyx of scales. Capsule tricoccous. 
§. Gtmnanthes. (Gymnanthes, genus. Swartz.) Monoecious. 
Female flowers solitary, pedicellate, the pedicel articulated 
and terminated by a minute toothed calyx, its base surrounded 
by embracing scales. Male flowers by 3’s. — Trees of tropical 
America, with alternate, entire, sempervirent leaves. 
SHINING-LEAVED POISON WOOD. 
EXCiECARIA lucida, jloribus foemineis subsolitariis pedi- 
cellatis; masculis tripartitis spicatis; foliis cuneato-ellip- 
licis, lanceolatisve subserratis. 
Excjscaria lucida, monoica, floribus pedicellatis, stamini- 
bus trichotomis, femineis pedunculalis, foliis ellipticis sub- 
serratis. Swartz, Prod. p. 1122. 
Ricini fructu glabro, arbor julifera, lactescens, folio myr- 
tino. Sloane, Catal. Hist., vol. 2. p. 131. tab. 158. fig. 2. 
According to Dr. Blodgett, this plant, in Key West, 
becomes a tree of 30 to 40 feet in height. It is also indi- 
genous to Jamaica and Cuba, and a broad leaved variety 
was collected by Poiteau in St. Domingo. The wood 
is yellowish-white, hard and close grained, but of its uses, 
or the economy of the plant, we are as yet ignorant. 
The branches are covered with a grey and somewhat 
rough bark. The leaves are alternate, shortly petiolate, 
f From excaecare, to blind. The juice of the plant being so 
acrid as to cause blindness. 
