326 
CALYCIFLOIt/E. 
seeds osseous, shining, subglobose, exalbuminous. — 
De Cand. 
Named after Melchior Guilandin, a Prussian traveller in 
Africa, demonstrator of Botany at Padua in the 16th century. 
1. Guilandina Bonduc. Oval-leaved Nicker-tree. 
Leaves pubescent or villoso-subvelutine. 
Lobus ecliinatus fructu flavo, foliis rotundioribus, Sloane , II. 
40. — Lobus ecliinatus fructu csesio, foliis longioribus, Sloane, 
If. 41? — Guilandina spinosa, foliis bipinnatis ovatis cum 
acumine, Browne, 228. — G. Bonduc, Ait. Hort. Kew. III. 32. 
HAB. Common along the sea-shore. 
FL. Throughout the year. 
A shrubby tree, 10-20 feet in length: branches long and 
prickly, supported on neighbouring trees and shrubs. Prickles 
in pairs, hooked. Leaves abruptly pinnated : pinnae 7 -jugate : 
leaflets 8-jugate, nearly 2 inches long and 1 broad, oval, sub- 
cordate, obtuse, mucronate, pubescent, of a light green colour : 
petiole armed with single hooked prickles. Racemes a foot or 
more in length : flowers yellow, fragrant, pedicelled, each fur- 
nished at the base with an inch-long lanceolate bractea. Calyx 
with the divisions obtuse, externally glanduloso-pilose. Petals 
somewhat unequal. Filaments subulate, pubescent : anthers 
greenish. Ovary small : style short : stigma bearded. Le- 
gume ovate, rhomboidal, compressed, covered with numerous 
stiff but not pungent herbaceous spines : seeds 2-3, ovato- 
globular, shining, at first yellowish, but afterwards of a greyish 
colour, with the hilum brown. 
The above is the description of the Nicker-tree, common 
along the sea-shore in every district I have visited. There is a 
variety, formerly considered as a distinct species, under the 
name of G. Bonducella, described as being of a smaller 
growth, and with the leaflets ovato-oblong, with which I have 
not met. 
This shrubby tree is to be met with along the shores of the 
tropical regions of the old as well as the new world. It is, 
doubtless, indebted for this extensive diffusion, to the waters 
of the sea conveying the seeds, scattered along their borders, to 
distant coasts. Medicinal properties have been attributed to 
different parts of the tree. A cataplasm of the leaves have 
been applied in hydrocele and other swellings of the scrotum ; 
a decoction of the roots has been recommended for the bites of 
venomous reptiles ; and the seeds which are bitter and act as an 
emetic, have been given in substance as a tonic in intermittent 
fever, and in emulsion for gonorrhoea. 
XLIV. CoULTERI A. 
Calyx turbinate at the base, 5 -fid : the four upper 
