HYMENÆA, the BASTARD LOCUST TREE: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the decandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 33d order, Lomentaceæ. The calyx is quinquepartite; there are five petals, nearly equal; the style is intorted; the legumen full of mealy pulp. There is but one species, the courbaril, which is a large tree, growing naturally in the Spanish West Indies. The trunk is covered with a light ash-coloured bark, is often more than 60 feet high and three in diameter. The branches are furnished with dark green leaves, which stand by pairs on one common footstalk, diverging from their base in manner of a pair of shears when opened. The flowers come out in loose spikes at the ends of the branches, and are yellow, striped with purple. Each consists of five petals, placed in a double calyx, the outer leaf of which is divided into five parts, and the inner one is cut into five teeth at its brim. In the centre are ten declining stamens, longer than the petals, surrounding an oblong germin, which becomes a thick, fleshy, brown pod, four or five inches long and one broad, with a suture on both edges, and includes three or four purplish seeds, somewhat of the shape of Windsor beans, but smaller. The seeds are covered with a light brown sugary substance, which the Indians scrape off and eat with great avidity, and which is very pleasant and agreeable.—At the principal roots under ground, is found collected in large lumps a yellowish-red transparent gum, which dissolved in rectified spirit of wine affords a most excellent varnish, and is the gum anime of the shops.