Piscidia
(from piscis, a fish, and coedo, to kill or destroy; the leaves, bark, and twigs, are bruised, and thrown into ponds or rivulets, for the purpose of intoxicating fish, by which means they are easily taken). Fish Poison-tree; Jamaica Dogwood. ORD. Leguminosae. A monotypic genus, the species being a stove, evergreen tree, having the flowers, foliage, and habit, of Lonchocarpus, but the pod bears four projecting, longitudinal wings. The species requires a compost of sandy, fibry loam. Cuttings of half-ripened shoots will root in sand, under a glass, in heat.
P. erythrina (red). fl. white and mixed with blood-colour, above 1/2in. long, appearing before the leaves; calyx teeth broadly triangular; standard silky-hoary outside, the claw almost equalling the calyx; panicles lateral, sometimes ovate and dense-flowered, scarcely 3in. long, sometimes elongate-thyrsoid, 6in. to 12in. long. May. l. alternate, pinnate, exstipellate; leaflets seven to eleven, oval, obovate, or broadly oblong, obtuse or shortly acuminate, at length coriaceous, 2in. to 4in. long, on stalks 1/4in. long. h. 30ft. West Indies, 1690.