SAPINDACEJE. 
159 
have a similar property. This species has usually been con- 
founded with P. Curassavica, from which it differs in several 
particulars. 
IV. Sapindus. 
Calycine sepals 4-5. Petals 4-5, internally glan- 
dulose or bearded. Stamens S, with the filaments 
villous. Style 1 : stigmata 3. Carpels 3, globose, 
fleshy, connate, c 2 of them in general abortive : seeds 
spherical — De Cand. 
Trees without thorns. The Name, is an abbreviation of 
Sapo-Indious, Indian Soap, from the berries of one of the 
species being employed as a substitute for Soap. 
1. Sapindus Saponaria. Soap-berry. 
Rachis of the leaves decurrent broadly winged, 
leaflets lanceolate very entire 4-5 paired, the termi- 
nal ones very much acuminate. 
Prunifera racemosa, folio alato costa media membranulis 
utrinque exstantibus donata, Sloane, II. 131. — Sapindus foliis 
oblongis, Browne, 206. — Nux Americana, foliis alatis bifidis, 
Comm. Ilort. I. t. 94. — Sapindus saponaria, Linn. Sp ■ 526. 
HAB. Common on the South side of the Island. Hills above 
Liguanea. 
FL. September, October. 
A tree from 15 to 30 feet in height, branches erect, round, 
smooth, ash-coloured. Leaves alternate, pinnate, 4-5 paired: 
leaflets subsessile, 3-4 inches long and II, broad, oblongo- lanceo- 
late, acuminate with the apex blunt, membranaceous, sub-glab- 
rous above, velutino-pubescent beneath : common petiole 
winged. Panicle terminal ; peduncle as well as the branches 
angulose, minutely velutino-tomentulose. Flowers small, white, 
numerous, crowded, about 3-together, shortly pedicelled. Se- 
pals of the calyx 5, roundish, concave, the two outermost smaller. 
Petals 5, resembling an inner scale of the calyx, than whose 
sepals they are shorter, clawed, elliptic, fringed with hairs. An 
annular disk formed of yellow connate glandules between the 
stamens and the petals. Stamens 8, filaments subulate, spread- 
ing, villous with white hairs especially near the base ; anthers 
didymous. Ovary small : styles 3, minute, short. Berry size 
of a cherry ; seed black. 
The fleshy covering of the seeds of this tree, and in a less 
degree the root, make a lather in water, and serve all the pur- 
poses of soap, being very generally employed by the lower classes 
in washing their coarse linens. It has been observed, how- 
