Guaiacum sanctum L.

Guaiacum guatemalense Planchon, sp. nov
. Guaiacum guatemalense Planch.; A. Gray, PI. Wright. 1 : 59, hyponym. 1852.
A small tree, about 5 m. high ; stems slender, clothed with a somewhat corky bark ; leaves 3^ cm. long or more; leaflets 8-12, linear-oblong, 14-16 mm. long, 4-5 mm. wide, apiculate, glabrous above, minutely strigose beneath, rather strongly veined ; stipules subulate, mostly persisting ; flowers appearing .before the leaves, borne on slender pubescent, peduncles 15-20 mm. long, produced several together from the axils of leaves of preceding years; sepals 5, ovate or oblong, obtuse and rounded at the apex, 5-6 mm. long, the 3 inner nearly glabrous and broader than the 2 outer pubescent ones ; petals 5, oblong-obovate, azure-blue, 10-15 mm. long, raised on a slender claw ; filaments filiform, tapering from a broader flat base; anthers oblong, nearly 2 mm. long; ovary obovate, raised on a slender stalk, tapering at each end ; style slender ; fruit obovate, 10-15 mm. or more long, reddish or orange, with stipe 2 mm. long; seeds solitary, oblong-ovoid, 1 cm. long, pitted, reddish-brown; endosperm thick, bony; cotyledons flat, oblong, thickish, about 6
—mm. long, 3 mm. wide.
Type collected on hot plains of Zacapa, Guatemala, Skinner (herb. N. Y. Bot. Gard.). Distribution : Guatemala.

Guaiacum sanctum L. Sp. PI. 382. 1753
Guaiacum vertical? Ortega, Hort. Matrit. 93. 1798.
Guaiacum mullijugum Stokes, Bot. Mat. Med. 2: 488. 1812.
Guaiacum pannfolium Nutt. N. Am. Svlva 3 : 17. 1849.
Guaiacum Sloahit Shuttlew.; A. Gray, PI. Wright. 1 : 29, as a synonym. 1852.
Guaiacum sanctum pannfolium Nutt.; Sargent, Silva N. Am. 1 : 63, as synonym. 1891.
A small evergreen tree, sometimes 10 m. tall ; trunk short and stout, clothed with a thin pale or white bark ; branches pendulous, enlarged at the nodes, somewhat furrowed; young branches pubescent or glabrate ; leaves 4-10 cm. long ; leaflets 4-10, oblong or obovate or rarely oblanceolate, 2-3.5 cm. long, glabrous, entire, inequilateral, usually apiculate or mucronate, subsessile, at maturity becoming coriaceous ; stipules pubescent, 3 mm. long, acuminate, usually caducous; flowers terminal, one or several borne on slender pubescent peduncles, which are shorter than the leaves, produced at the ends of the branches from the axils of the upper leaves ; sepals 5, obovate or oblong-obovate, 5-7 mm. long, pubescent and occasionally ciliate ; corolla blue or purple, about 2 cm. wide; petals 5, broadly obovate, cuneately narrowed below, 7-11 mm. long, 5-7 mm. broad, rounded at the apex; ovary obovate, prominently 5-angled, glabrous, short-stipitate at the base; fruit broadly obovoid, 14-17 mm. long, 12-14 mm. broad, greenish-yellow to bright-orange, opening at maturity by the splitting of the thick fleshy valves, prominently 5-angled and winged; seeds dark-brown or black, elliptic, 10-11 mm. long, covered with a fleshy scarlet aril; endosperm thick, bony; cotyledons oblong, 6 mm. long, 3-3.5 mm. broad.
Type locality : Porto Rico.
Distribution: Keys, South Florida ; Bahamas; Hispaniola; Porto Rico; Yucatan.