1-celled; ovule solitary, rising from the bottom of the cell; fruit
inclosed in the thickened calyx; leaves persistent.
XIV. POLYGONACEÆ.
Trees, with alternate coriaceous stalked leaves, their stipules
sheathing the stem. Flowers perfect; calyx 5-lobed; stamens 8; ovary
3-celled; ovule orthotropous. Fruit a nutlet, inclosed in the thickened
calyx-tube; seed erect; embryo axillary in ruminate farinaceous albumen;
radicle superior, ascending, turned toward the hilum. Of this, the
Buckwheat family with thirty widely distributed genera, only Coccolobis
is arborescent in North America.
1. COCCOLOBIS P. Br.
Trees or shrubs. Leaves coriaceous, entire, orbicular, ovate, obovate,
or lanceolate, petiolate, their stipules inclosing the branch above the
node with membranaceous truncate entire brown persistent sheaths.
Flowers jointed on ebracteolate pedicels, in 1 or few-flowered fascicles
subtended by a minute bract and surrounded by a narrow truncate
membranaceous sheath, each pedicel and those above it being surrounded
by a similar sheath, the fascicles gathered in elongated terminal and
axillary racemes inclosed at the base of the sheath of the nearest leaf
and sometimes also in a separate sheath; calyx cup-shaped, the lobes
ovate, rounded, thin, white, reflexed after anthesis, and thickening and
inclosing the nutlet; stamens with filiform or subulate filaments
dilated and united at base into a short discoid cup adnate to the tube
of the calyx; anthers ovoid, introrse, 2-celled, the cells parallel,
opening longitudinally; ovary free, sessile, 3-angled, contracted into a
short stout style, divided into three short or elongated stigmatic
lobes. Fruit ovoid or globose, rounded or acute and crowned at apex by
the persistent lobes of the calyx, narrowed at base; flesh thin and
acidulous, more or less adnate to the thin crustaceous or bony wall of
the nutlet often divided on the inner surface near the base into several
more or less intrusive plates. Seed subglobose, acuminate at apex,
3—6-lobed; testa membranaceous, minutely pitted, dark red-brown, and
lustrous.
Coccolobis is confined to the tropics of the New World, with about one
hundred and twenty species distributed from southern Florida to Mexico,
Central America, Brazil, and Peru. It possesses astringent properties
sometimes utilized in medicine. Many of the species produce hard dark
valuable wood.
_Coccolobis_, from κοκκος and λοβός, is in allusion to the character of
the fruit.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Fruits crowded, in drooping racemes; leaves broadly ovate to
suborbicular, cordate at base.
1. C. uvifera (D).
Fruits not crowded, in erect or spreading racemes; leaves ovate to
oblong-lanceolate.
2. C. laurifolia (D).
1. Coccolobis uvifera Jacq. Sea Grape.
[Illustration: Fig. 307]
Leaves broadly ovate to suborbicular rounded or sometimes short-pointed
at apex, deeply cordate at base, with undulate margins, thick and
coriaceous, minutely reticulate-venulose, dark green and lustrous above,
paler and puberulous below, 4′—5′ long, 5′—6′ wide, with a stout often
bright red midrib frequently covered below with pale hairs, and about 5
pairs of conspicuous primary veins red on the upper side, arcuate near
the margins and connected by cross veinlets; gradually turning red or
scarlet and falling during their second or third years; petioles short,
stout, flattened, puberulous, abruptly enlarged at base, leaving in
falling large pale elevated orbicular or semiorbicular scars; stipular
sheath ⅛′ broad, slightly puberulous, persistent during 2 or 3 years.
Flowers appearing almost continuously throughout the year on slender
puberulous pedicels ⅛′ long, in 1—6-flowered subsessile fascicles, in
terminal and axillary thick-stemmed many-flowered racemes 6′—14′ in
length; calyx ⅛′ across when expanded, the lobes puberulous on the inner
surface and rather longer than the red stamens; ovary oblong, with short
stigmatic lobes. Fruit crowded, in long hanging racemes, ovoid to
obovoid, ¾′ long, gradually narrowed into a stalk-like base, purple or
greenish white, translucent, with thin juicy flesh, and a thin-walled
light red nutlet.
A tree, in Florida rarely more than 15° high, with a short gnarled
contorted trunk 3°—4° in diameter, stout branches forming a round
compact head, and stout terete branchlets, with thick pith, light orange
color, marked by oblong pale lenticels, gradually growing darker in
their second and third years; frequently a shrub, with semiprostrate
stems; in the West Indies often 50° tall. Bark about 1/16′ thick,
smooth, light brown and marked by large irregular pale blotches. Wood
very heavy, hard, close-grained, dark brown or violet color, with thick
lighter colored sapwood; sometimes used in cabinet-making.
Distribution. Saline shores and beaches; Florida, from Mosquito Inlet to
the southern keys on the east coast, and from Tampa Bay to Cape Sable on
the west coast; common on the Bermuda and Bahama Islands, in the
Antilles, and in South America from Colombia to Brazil.
2. Coccolobis laurifolia Jacq. Pigeon Plum.
[Illustration: Fig. 308]
Leaves ovate, ovate-lanceolate or obovate-oblong, rounded or acute at
apex, rounded or cuneate at base, with slightly undulate revolute
margins, thick and firm, bright green above, paler below, 3′—4′ long,
1½′—2′ wide, with a conspicuous pale midrib and 3 or 4 pairs of remote
primary veins connected by prominent reticulate veinlets; petioles
stout, flattened, ½′ in length, abruptly enlarged at base; stipular
sheath glabrous, ½′ wide. Flowers in early spring, on slender pedicels
¼′ long, in few or 1-flowered fascicles on racemes terminal on short
axillary branches of the previous year, and 2′—3′ in length; calyx ⅛′
across, the cup-shaped lobes rather shorter than the stamens, with
slender yellow filaments enlarged at base, and dark orange-colored
anthers; ovary oblong, with elongated stigmatic lobes. Fruit in erect or
spreading sparsely-fruited racemes, ripening during the winter and early
spring, ovoid, narrowed at base, rounded at apex, dark red, ⅓′ long,
with thin acidulous flesh and a hard thin-walled light brown nutlet.
A glabrous tree, 60°—70° high, with a tall straight trunk 1°—2° in
diameter, spreading branches forming a dense round-topped head, slender
terete slightly zigzag branchlets usually contorted and covered with
light orange-colored bark, becoming darker and tinged with red in their
second or third year. Wood heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, brittle,
close-grained, rich dark brown tinged with red, with thick lighter
colored sapwood; occasionally used in cabinet-making.
Distribution. One of the largest and most abundant of the tropical trees
of the seacoast of southern Florida from Cape Canaveral to the keys and
on the west coast from Cape Romano to Cape Sable; common on the Bahama
Islands, on many of the Antilles, and in Venezuela.
XV. NYCTAGINACEÆ.
Trees with alternate stalked persistent leaves without stipules. Flowers
perfect or unisexual; calyx corolla-like, 5-lobed; stamens 5—8; ovule
campylotropous. Fruit anthocarpus, crowned by the persistent teeth of
the calyx. Seed erect; cotyledons unequal, folded round the soft scanty
albumen; radicle short, inferior, turned toward the hilum. A family of
about twenty genera widely distributed chiefly in the warmer and
tropical parts of the New World, with a single arborescent
representative in North America.
1. TORRUBIA Vell.
Glabrous or pubescent unarmed trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite or rarely
alternate, entire, short-stalked. Flowers perfect, or rarely unisexual;
calyx tubular or funnel-shaped, elongated, 5-lobed, the lobes plaited in
the bud, erect or spreading; stamens inserted on the base of the calyx
under the ovary, minute or rudimentary in the unisexual pistillate
flower; filaments folded in the bud, filiform, unequal, free; anthers
oblong, introrse, 2-celled, the cells parallel, opening longitudinally;
ovary oblong-ovoid, sessile, 1-celled, gradually narrowed into a
columnar style; stigmas capitate, lacerate. Fruit fleshy, cylindric,
costate, smooth; utricle elongated, with a thin membranaceous wall
confluent with the thin transparent coat of the erect seed.
Torrubia, with about 15 species is confined to tropical America, one
species extending into southern Florida. The genus was named in honor of
Joseph Torrubia, a Spanish naturalist of the 18th century.
1. Torrubia longifolia Britt. Blolly.
_Pisonia longifolia_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 309]
Leaves oblong-obovate, rounded or occasionally emarginate at apex,
gradually narrowed at base, 1′—1½′ long, ½′ wide, thick and firm, with
slightly thickened undulate margins, light green and glabrous, paler on
the lower than on the upper surface, with a stout midrib and obscure
veins; petioles stout, channeled, ½′ in length. Flowers perfect or
unisexual, autumnal, greenish yellow, short-pedicellate, in terminal
long-stalked few-flowered panicled cymes, with slender divergent
branches, the ultimate divisions 2 or 3-flowered; bracts and bractlets
minute, acute; calyx funnel-shaped, divided nearly to the middle into
acute erect lobes about half as long as the stamens and as long as the
style. Fruit ripening in the winter or early spring, prominently costate
with ten rounded ribs, fleshy, smooth, bright red, ¾′ long; utricle
terete, light brown.
A tree, occasionally 30°—50° high, with an erect or inclining trunk,
15′—20′ in diameter, stout spreading branches forming a compact
round-topped head, and slender terete branchlets light orange color when
they first appear, later often producing numerous short spur-like
lateral branchlets, light reddish brown or ashy gray, and marked by
large elevated semiorbicular or lunate leaf-scars; usually much smaller;
often shrubby. Bark about 1/16′ thick, light red-brown, and broken into
thin appressed scales. Wood heavy, rather soft, weak, coarse-grained,
yellow tinged with brown, with thick darker colored sapwood.
Distribution. Sea-beaches and the shores of salt water lagoons; Cape
Canaveral, Florida to the southern keys, attaining its largest size in
Florida on Elliott’s Key and Old Rhodes Key; on the Bahama Islands and
in Cuba.
_Subdivision 2._ Petalatæ. Flowers with both calyx and corolla (_without
a corolla in Lauraceæ, in Liquidambar in Hamamelidaceæ, in Euphorbiaceæ,
in some species of Acer, in Reynosia, Condalia, and Krugiodendron in
Rhamnaceæ, in Fremontia in Sterculiaceæ, in Calyptranthes in Myrtaceæ,
and in Conocarpus in Combretaceæ_).
Section 1. Polypetalæ. Corolla of separate petals.
A. Ovary superior (_partly inferior in Hamamelidaceæ; inferior in Malus,
Sorbus, Cratægus and Amelanchier in Rosaceæ_).
XVI. MAGNOLIACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, branchlets lengthening by large
terminal or the flower-bearing branchlets by upper axillary buds, the
other axillary buds obtuse, flattened, and rudimentary, bitter aromatic
bark, and thick fleshy roots. Leaves alternate, conduplicate and
inclosed in their stipules in the bud, feather-veined, petiolate.
Flowers perfect, large, solitary, terminal, pedicellate, inclosed in the
bud in a stipular caducous spathe; sepals and petals imbricated in the
bud, inserted under the ovary, deciduous; stamens and pistils numerous,
imbricated in many ranks, the stamens below the pistils on the surface
of an elongated receptacle ripening into a compound fruit of 1—2-seeded
follicles or samara; ovules 2, collateral, anatropous. Four of the ten
genera of the Magnolia family are represented in North America; of these
two are arborescent.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.
Anthers introrse; mature carpels, fleshy, opening on the back at
maturity, persistent; seed-coat thick, pulpy, and bright
scarlet; leaves entire, or auriculate at base.
1. Magnolia.
Anthers extrorse; mature carpels dry, indehiscent, deciduous;
seed-coat dry and coriaceous; leaves lobed or truncate.
2. Liriodendron.
1. MAGNOLIA L. Magnolia.
Trees, with ashy gray or brown smooth or scaly bark, branchlets
conspicuously marked by large horizontal or longitudinal leaf-scars and
by narrow stipular rings, and large terete acuminate or often
obtusely-pointed more or less gibbous winter-buds usually broadest at
the middle, their scales large membranaceous stipules adnate to the base
of the petioles and deciduous with the unfolding of each successive
leaf, the petiole of the outer stipule rudimentary, adnate on the
straight side of the bud, and marked at its apex by the scar left by the
falling of the last leaf of the previous season. Leaves entire,
sometimes auriculate, persistent or deciduous, often minutely punctate,
their numerous primary veins arcuate and more or less united within the
margins. Flowers appearing in the American species after the leaves,
their stipular spathes thin and membranaceous; sepals 3, spreading or
reflexed; petals 6—12 in series of 3’s, concave, erect or spreading;
stamens early deciduous, their filaments shorter than the 2-celled
introrse anthers and terminating in apiculate fleshy connectives; ovary
sessile, 1-celled; style short, recurved, stigmatic on the inner face;
ovules horizontal. Fruit a scarlet or rusty brown cone formed of the
coalescent 2-seeded drupaceous persistent follicles opening on the back;
seeds suspended at maturity by long thin cords of unrolled spiral
vessels; seed-coat thick, drupaceous, the outer portion becoming fleshy
and at maturity pulpy, red or scarlet, the inner crustaceous; embryo
minute at the base of the fleshy homogeneous albumen, its radicle next
the hilum; cotyledons short and spreading.
Magnolia with about thirty species is confined to eastern North America,
southern Mexico, and eastern and southern Asia, seven species growing
naturally in the United States. All the parts are slightly bitter and
aromatic, and the dried flower-buds are sometimes used in medicine.
Several species from eastern Asia and their hybrids producing flowers
before the appearance of the leaves are favorite garden plants in the
United States.
The genus is named in honor of Pierre Magnol (1638—1715), professor of
botany at Montpellier.
CONSPECTUS OF NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Styles deciduous from the follicles of the fruit; petals greenish or
yellow; winter-buds silky tomentose.
Petals greenish; branchlets glabrous.
1. M. acuminata (A, C).
Petals canary yellow; branchlets pubescent.
2. M. cordata (C).
Styles persistent on the follicles of the fruit.
Petals white.
Leaves coriaceous, persistent; fruit and branchlets tomentose.
3. M. grandiflora (C).
Leaves thin, deciduous (semipersistent in 4).
Leaves cuneate at base.
Leaves scattered along the branches, pale and pubescent below;
winter-buds glabrous or silky pubescent.
4. M. virginiana (A, C).
Leaves crowded at the ends of the flowering branches, green
and glabrous below; winter-buds glabrous.
5. M. tripetala (A, C).
Leaves cordate at the narrow base; fruit tomentose; winter-buds
hoary-tomentose.
6. M. macrophylla (C).
Petals pale yellow or creamy white; leaves obovate-spathulate,
auriculate, crowded at the ends of the flowering branches;
winter-buds glabrous.
Leaves acute; petals pale yellow; tips of the mature carpels
elongated, straight or incurved.
7. M. Fraseri (A, C).
Leaves bluntly pointed; petals creamy white; tips of the mature
carpels short, incurved.
8. M. pyramidata (C).
1. Magnolia acuminata L. Cucumber-tree. Mountain Magnolia.
[Illustration: Fig. 310]
Leaves oblong-ovate, oblong-obovate or elliptic, abruptly short-pointed
at apex, rounded, cuneate or rarely slightly cordate at base, when they
unfold densely villose below and slightly villose above, and at maturity
thin, yellow-green and glabrous on the upper surface, paler and glabrous
or villose-pubescent on the lower surface, 6′—10′ long, and 4′—6′ wide,
with often undulate margins; turning dull yellow or brown in the autumn
before falling; petioles slender, pubescent early in the season,
becoming glabrous, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers on hairy soon glabrous
pedicels ½′—¾′ long, bell-shaped, green or greenish yellow covered with
a glaucous bloom; sepals membranaceous, acute, 1′—1½′ long, soon
reflexed; petals 6, ovate or obovate, concave, pointed, erect, 2½′—3′
long, those of the outer row rarely more than 1′ wide and much wider
than those of the inner row. Fruit ovoid or oblong, often curved,
glabrous, dark red, 2½′—3′ long, rarely more than 1′ thick; seeds
obovoid, acute, compressed, about ½′ long.
A pyramidal tree, 60°—90° high, with a trunk 3°—4° in diameter,
comparatively small branches spreading below and erect toward the top of
the tree, and slender branchlets coated at first with soft pale caducous
hairs, soon bright red-brown, lustrous, and marked by numerous small
pale lenticels, turning gray during their third season. Winter-buds:
terminal, oblong-ovoid, acuminate, thickly covered with long lustrous
white hairs, ½′—⅗′ long, and about three times as long as the obtuse
compressed lateral buds nearly surrounded by the narrow elevated
leaf-scars conspicuously marked by a double row of large fibro-vascular
bundle-scars. Bark ⅓′—½′ thick, furrowed, dark brown, and covered by
numerous thin scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close-grained,
durable, and light yellow-brown, with thin lighter colored often nearly
white sapwood of usually 25—30 layers of annual growth; occasionally
manufactured into lumber used for flooring and cabinet-making.
Distribution. Low mountain slopes and rocky banks of streams; southern
Ontario, western New York, central to western Pennsylvania, southern
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and along the Appalachian Mountains to
northern Georgia and to central Kentucky and Tennessee; banks of the
Savannah River above Augusta, and in the neighborhood of Lumpkin,
Stewart County, Georgia; northern Alabama, northeastern, northwestern
and south-central Mississippi; Eagle Rock, Barry County, and on bluffs
of the Mississippi River, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, and Baxter
County, Arkansas; in eastern Oklahoma (Page, Le Flore County); in West
Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, represented by var. _ludoviciana_ Sarg.
differing in its broadly obovate, oval or ovate leaves, and in its
larger flowers, 3½′—4′ long, the outer petals 1½′ wide. Rare at the
north; most abundant and of its largest size at the base of the high
mountains of the Carolinas and Tennessee up to altitudes of 4000°.
Often planted as an ornamental tree in the eastern states and in
northern and central Europe.
2. Magnolia cordata Michx.
_Magnolia acuminata_ var. _cordata_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 311]
Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic, abruptly short-pointed or rounded at
apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate, broad-cuneate or rarely rounded at
base, when they unfold villose-pubescent more densely on the lower than
on the upper surface, at maturity dark green, lustrous and glabrous
above, paler and covered below with short matted pale hairs, 4′ or 5′
long, 2½′—3½′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib and primary veins;
remaining green until late in the autumn and turning brown and falling
after severe frost; petioles slender, covered when they first appear
with matted silky white hairs, becoming glabrous, ½′—¾′ in length.
Flowers on stout pedicels, ¼′—⅓′ long and covered with long silky white
hairs, cup-shaped, bright canary yellow; sepals ovate, acute, soon
reflexed; petals 6, erect and spreading, 1½′—1¾′ long, ½′—¾′ wide. Fruit
oblong, often curved, glabrous, dark red, 1′—1½′ long, ½′—¾′ thick.
A shrub, 4°—8° high, flowering freely when not more than half that size;
or in gardens a tree sometimes 20°—30° tall with a trunk 12′—15′ in
diameter, spreading branches forming a round-topped head, and slender
dark dull red-brown branchlets thickly covered during two years with
short pubescence and marked by small pale lenticels. Winter-buds
oblong-obovate, often falcate, bluntly pointed, thickly covered with
matted pale hairs, the terminal ½′ long and ¼′ thick, the axillary ⅙′—¼′
in length and nearly surrounded by the narrow leaf-scars marked by an
irregular row of minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Bark dark brown,
and covered with small closely appressed scales.
Distribution. Dry Oak-woods, valley of the Savannah River, Georgia;
Spears Plantation six miles south and Goshen Plantation sixteen miles
south of Augusta, Richmond County, near Mayfield, Hancock County, and
Bath, Richmond County. Often cultivated, and preserved in gardens for
more than a century; not rediscovered as a wild plant until 1913 (_L. A.
Berckmans_); hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.
3. Magnolia grandiflora L. Magnolia.
_Magnolia fœtida_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 312]
Leaves elliptic to oblong-obovate or ovate, acute and bluntly pointed or
acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, coriaceous, bright green and shining
above, more or less densely coated below with rusty tomentum, 5′—8′
long, 2′—3′ wide, with a prominent midrib and primary veins, deciduous
in the spring at the end of their second year; petioles stout,
rusty-tomentose, 1′—2′ in length. Flowers on stout hoary-tomentose
pedicels ½′—1′ long, opening from April or May until July or August,
fragrant, 7′—8′ across, the petaloid sepals and 6 or sometimes 9 or 12
petals abruptly narrowed at base, oval or ovate, those of the inner
ranks often somewhat acuminate, concave, and coriaceous, 3′—4′ long and
1½′—2′ wide; base of the receptacle and lower part of the filaments
bright purple. Fruit ovoid or oval, rusty brown, covered while young
with thick lustrous white tomentum, at maturity rusty-tomentose, 3′—4′
long, 1½′—2½′ thick; seeds obovoid or triangular-obovoid, more or less
flattened, ½′ long.
A tree, of pyramidal habit, 60°—100° or rarely 120°—135° high, with a
tall straight trunk 2°—3° or occasionally 4°—4½° in diameter, rather
small spreading branches, and branchlets hoary-tomentose at first,
slightly tomentose in their second year, and much roughened by the
elevated leaf-scars displaying a marginal row of conspicuous
fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds pale or rusty-tomentose, the
terminal 1′—1½′ in length. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, gray or light brown, and
covered with thin appressed scales rarely more than 1′ long. Wood hard,
heavy, creamy white, soon turning brown with exposure, hardly
distinguishable from the sapwood of 60—80 layers of annual growth;
little used except for fuel.
Distribution. Rich moist soil on the borders of river swamps and
Pine-barren ponds, or rarely on high rolling hills; coast of North
Carolina southward to De Soto County, Florida, extending across the
peninsula, and in the neighborhood of the coast through the other Gulf
states to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, ranging inland to
central Mississippi and to southern Arkansas, and northward on the
bluffs of the lower Mississippi River to the mouth of the Yazoo River,
Mississippi; best developed and most abundant on the bluff formation of
the lower Mississippi River, and of its largest size in West Feliciana
Parish, Louisiana.
Largely cultivated as an ornamental tree in all countries of temperate
climate; in the eastern United States precariously hardy as far north as
Trenton, New Jersey. Numerous varieties, differing in the form of the
leaf and in the duration of the flowering period, have appeared in
European nurseries; of these, the most distinct is the variety
_exoniensis_ Loud., with a rather fastigiate habit and broadly elliptic
leaves densely clothed with rusty tomentum on the lower surface; this
variety begins to flower when only a few feet high.
4. Magnolia virginiana L. Sweet Bay. Swamp Bay.
_Magnolia glauca_ L.
[Illustration: Fig. 313]
Leaves oblong or elliptic and obtuse or oblong-lanceolate, covered when
they unfold with long white silky deciduous hairs, at maturity bright
green, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface, finely pubescent and
pale or nearly white on the lower surface, 4′—6′ long, 1½′—3′ wide, with
a conspicuous midrib and primary veins; falling in the north late in
November and in early winter, at the south remaining on the branches
with little change of color until the appearance of the new leaves in
the spring; petioles slender, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers on slender
glabrous pedicels ½′—¾′ long, creamy white, fragrant, globular, 2′—3′
across, continuing to open during several weeks in spring and early
summer; sepals membranaceous, obtuse, concave, shorter than the 9—12,
obovate often short-pointed concave petals. Fruit ellipsoidal, dark red,
glabrous, 2′ long and ½′ thick; seeds obovoid, oval, or suborbicular,
much flattened, ¼′ in length.
A slender tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk rarely more than 15′—20′ in
diameter, with small mostly erect ultimately spreading branches and
slender bright green branchlets hoary-pubescent when they first appear,
soon glabrous, marked by narrow horizontal pale lenticels, gradually
turning bright red-brown in their second summer; usually a low shrub.
Winter-buds covered with fine silky pubescence, the terminal ½′—¾′ long.
Distribution. Deep swamps; Magnolia, Essex County, Massachusetts, Long
Island, New York, and southward from New Jersey generally in the
neighborhood of the coast to southeastern Virginia and occasionally in
North and South Carolina and Georgia; in Pennsylvania as far west as the
neighborhood of Chambersburg, Franklin County. In the southern states
usually replaced by the var. _australis_ Sarg., differing in the thick
silky white pubescence on the pedicels and branchlets. Leaves persistent
without change of color until spring, elliptic to ovate, oblong-obovate
or rarely lanceolate, 1′—4′ wide; petioles puberulous, pubescent or
tomentose.
A tree, 60°—90° high, with a tall straight trunk occasionally 3° in
diameter, small short branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and
branchlets usually becoming glabrous in their second year; in southern
Florida often much smaller and on the Everglade Keys shrubby, and
generally not more than 10° tall. Wood soft, light brown tinged with
red, with thick creamy white sapwood of 90—100 layers of annual growth;
used in the southern states in the manufacture of broom handles and
other articles of wooden ware.
Distribution. Borders of Pine-barren ponds, in shallow swamps and on
rich hummocks usually in the neighborhood of the coast; swamps of the
lower Cape Fear River near Wilmington, New Hanover County, North
Carolina, to southern Florida; common in the interior of the Florida
peninsula, and westward to the valley of the Nueces River, Texas;
ranging inland to Cuthbert, Randolph County, western Georgia, to
Tuskegee and Selma, Alabama, Tishomingo County, northeastern
Mississippi, and to Winn and Natchitoches Parishes, western Louisiana;
less abundant west of the Mississippi River than eastward.
The northern form is often cultivated as a garden plant in the eastern
states and in Europe.
× _Magnolia major_ or _Thompsoniana_, a probable hybrid between
_Magnolia virginiana_ and _Magnolia tripetala_, raised in an English
nursery a century ago, and still a favorite garden plant, is
intermediate in character between these species.
5. Magnolia tripetala L. Umbrella-tree. Elkwood.
[Illustration: Fig. 314]
Leaves obovate-lanceolate, narrowed at the ends, acute or bluntly
pointed at apex, when they unfold nearly glabrous above, covered below
with thick silky caducous tomentum, at maturity membranaceous, glabrous,
18′—20′ long, 8′—10′ wide, with a thick prominent midrib and numerous
slender primary veins; falling in the autumn with little change of
color; petioles stout, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers on slender glabrous
pedicles covered with a glaucous bloom and 2′—2½′ long, cup-shaped,
white; sepals narrowly obovate, 5′—6′ long, 1½′ wide, thin, light green,
becoming reflexed; petals 6 or 9, concave, coriaceous, ovate,
short-pointed, erect, those of the outer row 4′—5′ long and sometimes 2′
wide, much longer and broader than those of the inner rows; filaments
bright purple. Fruit ovoid, glabrous, 2½′—4′ long, rose color when fully
ripe; seeds obovoid, ½′ long.
A tree, 30°—40° high, with a straight or often inclining trunk rarely
more than 18′ in diameter, stout irregularly developed contorted
branches wide-spreading nearly at right angles with the stem or turning
up toward the ends and growing parallel with it, and stout brittle
branchlets green during their first season, becoming in their first
winter bright reddish brown, very lustrous, and marked by occasional
minute scattered pale lenticels, and by the large oval horizontal
slightly raised leaf-scars with scattered fibro-vascular bundle-scars,
brown during their second and gray during their third season; generally
much smaller, sometimes surrounded by several stems springing from near
the base of the trunk and growing into a large bush surmounted by the
head of the central stem. Winter-buds: terminal, acute or bluntly
pointed, purple, glabrous, covered with a glaucous bloom, usually about
1′ long; axillary globose, the color of the branch. Bark ½′ thick, light
gray, smooth, and marked by many small bristle-like excrescences. Wood
light, soft, close-grained, not strong, light brown, with creamy white
sapwood of 35—40 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Deep rather moist rich soil along the banks of mountain
streams or the margins of swamps, and widely distributed in the
Appalachian Mountain region, but nowhere very common; valley of the
Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania (Lancaster and York Counties), to
southern Alabama, middle Kentucky and Tennessee, and northeastern
Mississippi; in central and southwestern Arkansas; and in southeastern
Oklahoma (near Page, Le Flore County, _G. W. Stevens_), extending in
Virginia and North Carolina nearly to the coast; of its largest size in
the valleys along the western slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains in
Tennessee up to altitudes of 2000°.
Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and in
northern and central Europe.
6. Magnolia macrophylla Michx. Large-leaved Cucumber-tree.
[Illustration: Fig. 315]
Leaves obovate or oblong, acute or often abruptly narrowed and acute or
rounded at apex, narrowed and cordate at base, bright green and glabrous
on the upper surface, silvery gray and pubescent, especially along the
stout midrib and primary veins on the lower surface, 20′—30′ long,
9′—10′ wide; falling in the autumn with little change of color; petioles
stout, 3′—4′ in length, at first tomentose, becoming pubescent. Flowers
on stout hoary-tomentose pedicels 1′—1½′ long, soon becoming glabrous or
puberulous, cup-shaped, fragrant, 10′—12′ across; sepals membranaceous,
ovate or oblong, rounded at apex, much narrower than the 6 ovate concave
thick creamy white petals with a rose colored blotch at base, 6′—7′ long
and 3′—4′ wide, at maturity reflexed above the middle, those of the
inner row narrower and often somewhat acuminate. Fruit ovoid to nearly
globose, pubescent, 2½′—3′ long, bright rose color when fully ripe;
seeds obovoid, compressed, ⅔′ long.
A tree, 30°—50° high, with a straight trunk 18′—20′ in diameter, stout
wide-spreading branches forming a broad symmetrical round-topped head,
and stout brittle branchlets hoary-tomentose when they first appear,
light yellow-green, pubescent, and conspicuously marked during their
first winter by the large irregularly shaped sometimes longitudinal
slightly raised leaf-scars with many scattered fibro-vascular
bundle-scars, turning reddish brown during their second and gray during
their third season. Winter-buds: terminal, bluntly pointed, covered with
a thick coat of snowy white tomentum, 1¾′—2′ long, ½′—¾′ thick; lateral,
much flattened, brownish, pubescent, ⅛′—¼′ long. Bark generally less
than ¼′ thick, smooth, light gray, divided on the surface into minute
scales. Wood hard, close-grained, light, not strong, light brown, with
thick light yellow sapwood of about 40 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Sheltered valleys in deep rich soil; nowhere common, and
growing generally in isolated groups of a few individuals; Piedmont
region of central North Carolina to middle and western Florida, southern
Alabama, southern and northeastern Mississippi to the valley of the
Green River, Kentucky; in eastern and western Louisiana; probably most
abundant in south-central Mississippi.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern states, and
in the temperate countries of Europe; hardy as far north as eastern
Massachusetts.
7. Magnolia Fraseri Walt. Mountain Magnolia. Long-leaved Cucumber-tree.
[Illustration: Fig. 316]
Leaves obovate-spatulate, acute or bluntly pointed at apex, cordate and
conspicuously auriculate at base, bright green and often marked on the
upper surface when young with red along the principal veins, glabrous,
10′—12′ long, 6′—7′ wide, or on vigorous young plants sometimes of twice
that size; falling in the autumn without change of color; petioles
slender, 3′—4′ in length. Flowers on stout glabrous pedicels covered
with a glaucous bloom and 1′—1½′ long, pale yellow, sweet scented,
8′—10′ across; sepals narrowly obovate, rounded at apex, 4′—5′ long,
deciduous almost immediately after the opening of the bud, shorter than
the 6 or 9 obovate acuminate membranaceous spreading petals contracted
below the middle, those of the inner rows narrower and conspicuously
narrowed below. Fruit oblong, glabrous, bright rose-red when fully ripe,
4′—5′ long, 1½′—2′ thick, the mature carpels ending in long subulate
persistent tips; seeds obovoid, compressed, ⅝′ long.
A tree, 30°—40° high, with a straight or inclining trunk 12′—18′ in
diameter, often undivided for half its length or separating at the
ground into a number of stout diverging stems, regular wide-spreading or
more or less contorted and erect branches, and stout brittle branchlets
soon becoming bright red-brown, lustrous, marked by numerous minute pale
lenticels and in their first winter by the low horizontal leaf-scars
with crowded compressed fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and grayish in
their second year. Winter-buds: terminal, glabrous, purple, 1½′—2′ long,
½′ thick; axillary, minute and obtuse. Bark rarely more than ⅓′ thick,
dark brown, smooth, covered by small excrescences, or on old trees
broken into minute scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong,
light brown, with thick creamy white sapwood of 30—40 layers of annual
growth.
Distribution. Valleys of the streams of the southern Appalachian
Mountains from southwestern Virginia and northeastern Kentucky to
northern Georgia; in northern Alabama and in West Feliciana Parish,
Louisiana (Laurel Hill, _R. S. Cocks_); in South Carolina eastward to
the neighborhood of Aiken, Aiken County; probably most abundant and of
largest size on the upper waters of the Savannah River in South Carolina
up to altitudes of 4000°.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the eastern states,
and in the temperate countries of Europe; hardy as far north as eastern
Massachusetts.
8. Magnolia pyramidata Pursh.
[Illustration: Fig. 317]
Leaves obovate-spatulate, the apex usually abruptly narrowed into a
short blunt point, auriculate at base, with more or less spreading
lobes, thin, glabrous, light yellow-green on the upper, pale and
glaucous on the lower surface, particularly while young, 5½′—8½′ long,
from 3½′—4½′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib, numerous slender forked
primary veins and conspicuously reticulate veinlets; petioles slender,
1¼′—2½′ in length. Flowers creamy white, 3½′—4′ across when fully
expanded; sepals oblong-obovate, abruptly narrowed to the short-pointed
apex, much shorter than the oblong-acuminate petals gradually narrowed
from near the middle to the base. Fruit oblong, 2′—2½′ long, bright rose
color, the mature carpels ending in short incurved persistent tips;
seeds ovoid, compressed.
A slender tree, 20°—30° high, with ascending branches, slender
branchlets bright red-brown and marked by small pale lenticels and by
the small low oval leaf-scars with many crowded fibro-vascular
bundle-scars, later becoming ashy gray.
Distribution. Low rich soil in the neighborhood of streams; near
Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia; near Mariana, Jackson County, and
Bristol, Liberty County, Florida; valleys of the Choctawhatchee River,
Dale County, and of the Pea River, Coffee County, and near Selma, Dallas
County, Alabama; rare and local.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in western Europe.
2. LIRIODENDRON L.
Trees, with deeply furrowed brown bitter bark, and slender branchlets
marked by elevated leaf-scars and narrow stipular rings, and compressed
obtuse winter-buds, their scales membranaceous stipules joined at the
edges, accrescent, strap-shaped, often slightly falcate, oblique at the
unequal base, tardily deciduous after the unfolding of the leaf. Leaves
recurved in the bud by the bending down of the petiole near the middle,
bringing the apex of the blade to the base of the bud, sinuately
4-lobed, heart-shaped, truncate or slightly cuneate at base, truncate at
apex by a broad shallow sinus, and minutely apiculate. Flowers appearing
after the unfolding of the leaves, cup-shaped, conspicuous, inclosed in
the bud in a 2-valved stipular membranaceous caducous spathe; sepals
spreading or reflexed, ovate-lanceolate, concave, greenish white, early
deciduous; petals erect, rounded at base, early deciduous; filaments
filiform, half as long as the linear 2-celled extrorse anthers adnate to
the outer face of the connective terminating in a short fleshy point;
pistils imbricated on the elongated sessile receptacle into a
spindle-shaped column; ovary inserted by a broad base; style narrowly
acuminate, laterally flattened, appressed; stigmas short, recurved at
the summit; ovules 2, suspended from near the middle of the ventral
suture. Fruit a narrow light brown cone formed of the closely imbricated
dry and woody indehiscent carpels consisting of a laterally compressed
4-ribbed pericarp, the lateral ribs confluent into the margins of the
large wing-like lanceolate compressed style marked vertically by a thin
sutural line, the carpels deciduous when ripe in the autumn from the
slender elongated axis of the fruit persistent on the branch during the
winter. Seeds suspended, 2 or single by abortion; testa thin,
coriaceous, and marked by a narrow prominent raphe; embryo minute at the
base of the fleshy albumen, its radicle next the hilum.
Liriodendron, widely distributed in North America and Europe during the
cretaceous period, is now represented by two species, one in eastern
North America, the other _L. chinensis_ Sarg. in central China.
_Liriodendron_, from λίριον and δένδρον, is descriptive of the lily-like
flower.
1. Liriodendron Tulipifera L. Yellow Poplar. Tulip-tree.
[Illustration: Fig. 318]
Leaves dark green and shining on the upper, paler on the lower surface,
5′—6′ long and broad; turning clear yellow in the autumn before falling;
petioles slender, angled, 5′—6′ in length. Flowers 1½′—2′ deep, on
slender pedicels ¾′—1′ long; petals green conspicuously marked with
orange at base. Fruit 2½′—3′ long, about ½′ thick, ripening late in
September and in October, the mature carpels ½′—1½′ long and about ¼′
wide.
A tree, sometimes nearly 200° high, with a straight trunk 8°—10° in
diameter, destitute of branches for 80°—100° from the ground, short,
comparatively small branches forming a narrow pyramidal, or in old age a
broader spreading head, and slender branchlets light yellow-green and
often covered with a glaucous bloom during their first summer, reddish
brown, lustrous, and marked during their first winter by many small pale
lenticels and roughened by the elevated orbicular or semiorbicular
leaf-scars marked by numerous small scattered fibro-vascular
bundle-scars, and dark gray during their third year. Winter-buds dark
red covered by a glaucous bloom, the terminal ½′ long, much longer than
the lateral buds. Bark thin and scaly on young trees, becoming deeply
furrowed, brown, and 1′—2′ thick. Wood light, soft, brittle, not strong,
easily worked, light yellow or brown, with thin creamy white sapwood;
largely manufactured into lumber used in construction, the interior
finish of houses, boat-building, and for shingles, brooms, and wooden
ware. The intensely acrid bitter inner bark, especially of the roots, is
used domestically as a tonic and stimulant, and hydrochlorate of
tulipiferine, an alkaloid separated from the bark, possesses the
property of stimulating the heart.
Distribution. Deep rich rather moist soil on the intervales of streams
or on mountain slopes; Worcester County, Massachusetts, to southwestern
Vermont (Pownal, Bennington County), and westward to southern Ontario,
southern Michigan and northeastern Missouri, and southward to Orange
County (Rock Spring Run), Florida, southern Alabama, Mississippi and
Louisiana, southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas; most
abundant and of its largest size in the valleys of the lower Ohio basin,
and on the slopes of the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee up to
altitudes of 5000°.
Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern states, and in
western and central Europe.
XVII. ANONACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, slender terete branchlets marked by
conspicuous leaf-scars, and fleshy roots. Leaves alternate, conduplicate
in the bud, entire, feather-veined, petiolate, without stipules. Flowers
perfect, solitary, axillary or opposite the leaves; sepals 3, valvate in
the bud; petals 6, in 2 series, imbricated or valvate in the bud;
stamens numerous, inserted on the subglobose or hemispheric receptacle,
with distinct filaments shorter than their fleshy connectives
terminating in a broad truncate glandular appendage; anthers introrse,
2-celled, opening longitudinally; pistils inserted on the summit of the
receptacle; ovary 1-celled; ovules 1 or many, anatropous. Fruit baccate
or compound. Seeds inclosed in an aril; seed-coat thin, crustaceous,
smooth, brown, and lustrous; albumen ruminate, deeply penetrated by the
folds of the inner layer of the seed-coat; embryo minute; radicle next
the hilum. Two of the forty-eight or fifty genera of the Custard-apple
family, confined almost exclusively to the tropics and more numerous in
the Old World than in the New, occur in North America.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA.
Petals imbricated in the bud; ovules numerous; fruit developed from
one pistil.
1. Asimina.
Petals valvate in the bud; ovule solitary; fruit developed from
several confluent pistils.
2. Anona.
1. ASIMINA Adans.
Trees or shrubs, emitting a heavy disagreeable odor when bruised, with
minute buds covered with cinereo-pubescent caducous scales, and
branchlets marked by conspicuous leaf-scars. Leaves membranaceous,
reticulate-venulose, deciduous. Flowers, solitary pedicellate, nodding;
sepals ovate, smaller than the petals, green, deciduous; petals
imbricated in the bud, hypogynous, sessile, ovate or obovate-oblong,
reticulate-veined, accrescent, the three exterior alternate with the
sepals, spreading, those of the interior row opposite the sepals, erect,
and much smaller than those of the outer row; stamens linear-cuneate,
densely packed on the receptacle; filaments shorter than the fleshy
connective; anther-cells separated on the connective; pistils 3—15,
sessile on the summit of the receptacle, projecting from the globular
mass of stamens; ovary 1-celled; style oblong, slightly recurved toward
the apex and stigmatic along the margin; ovules 4—20, horizontal,
2-ranked on the ventral suture, the raphe toward the suture. Fruit
baccate, sessile or stipitate, oval or oblong, smooth. Seeds in 1 or 2
ranks, ovoid, apiculate, compressed, marked at the base by a large pale
hilum.
Asimina is confined to eastern North America. Six species are
distinguished; of these one is a small tree; the others are low shrubs
of the south Atlantic and Gulf regions.
_Asimina_ is from _Asiminier_, the old colonial name of the French in
America for the Pawpaw.
1. Asimina triloba Dunal. Pawpaw.
[Illustration: Fig. 319]
Leaves obovate-lanceolate, sharp-pointed at apex, gradually and
regularly narrowed to the base, when they unfold covered below with
short rusty brown caducous tomentum and slightly pilose above, and at
maturity light green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface,
10′—12′ long, 4′—6′ wide, with a prominent midrib and primary veins.
Flowers nearly 2′ across when fully grown, on stout club-shaped pedicels
from axils of the leaves of the previous year, 1′—1½′ long and covered
with long scattered rusty brown hairs; sepals ovate, acuminate, pale
green, densely pubescent on the outer surface; petals green at first,
covered with short appressed hairs, gradually turning brown and at
maturity deep vinous red and conspicuously venulose, those of the outer
row broadly ovate, rounded or pointed at apex, reflexed at maturity
above the middle and 2 or 3 times longer than the sepals, those of the
inner row pointed, erect, their base concave, glandular, nectariferous,
marked by a broad band of a lighter color. Fruit attached obliquely to
the enlarged torus, oblong, nearly cylindric, rounded or sometimes
slightly pointed at the ends, more or less falcate, often irregular from
the imperfect development of some of the seeds, 3′—5′ long, 1′—1½′ in
diameter, greenish-yellow, becoming when fully ripe in September and
October dark brown or almost black, with pale yellow or nearly white
barely edible flesh on some plants and on others with orange-colored
succulent flesh; seeds separating readily from the aril, 1′ long, ½′
broad, rounded at the ends.
A shrub or low tree, sometimes 35°—40° high, with a straight trunk
rarely exceeding a foot in diameter, small spreading branches, and
slender glabrous or rusty pubescent, light brown branchlets tinged with
red and marked by longitudinal parallel or reticulate narrow shallow
grooves. Winter-buds acuminate, flattened, ⅛′ long, and clothed with
rusty brown hairs. Bark rarely more than ⅛′ thick, dark brown, marked by
large ash-colored blotches, covered by small wart-like excrescences and
divided by numerous shallow reticulate depressions. Wood light, soft and
weak, coarse-grained, spongy, light yellow shaded with green, with thin
darker colored sapwood of 12—20 layers of annual growth. The inner bark
stripped from the branches in early spring is used by fishermen of
western rivers for stringing fish. The sweet and luscious wholesome
fruit is sold in large quantities in the cities and towns in those parts
of the country where the tree grows naturally.
Distribution. Deep rich moist soil; western New Jersey and western New
York (Greece, Monroe County) to the northern shores of Lake Ontario,
westward to southern Michigan, southwestern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska,
eastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma, and southward to Western Florida
(Taylor County), central Alabama, and through Mississippi and Louisiana
to eastern Texas (near Marshall, Harrison County, and Dennison, Grayson
County); comparatively rare in the region adjacent to the Atlantic
seaboard; very common in the Mississippi valley, forming thick forest
undergrowth on rich bottom-lands, or thickets many acres in extent.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states, and hardy as far north as
eastern Massachusetts; interesting as the most northern representative
of the Custard-apple family and its only species extending far beyond
the tropics.
2. ANONA L.
Trees or shrubs, with glandular often reticulated bark, terete
branchlets marked by conspicuous leaf-scars, and often pubescent during
their first season. Leaves coriaceous, often glandular-punctate,
persistent or tardily deciduous. Flowers nodding on bracted pedicels;
calyx small, 3-lobed, green, deciduous; petals 6 in 2 series, valvate in
the bud, hypogynous, sessile, ovate, concave, 3-angled at apex, thick
and fleshy, white or yellow, the exterior alternate with the lobes of
the calyx, those of the inner row often much smaller than those of the
outer row; stamens club-shaped, densely packed on the receptacle;
filaments shorter than the fleshy connective; anther-cells confluent;
pistils sessile on the receptacle, free or united; ovary 1-celled; style
sessile or slightly stipitate, oblong, stigmatic on the inner face;
ovule 1, erect; raphe ventral. Fruit compound, many-celled, fleshy,
ovoid or globose, many-seeded. Seeds ovoid to ellipsoidal; cotyledons
appressed.
Of the fifty species of Anona widely distributed in the tropics of the
two worlds, a single species reaches the coast of southern Florida. Of
exotic species, _Anona muricata_ L., the Soursop and _Anona reticulata_
L., of the West Indies, and _Anona Cherimolia_ Mill., of western
tropical America, are now occasionally cultivated as fruit-trees in
Florida.
_Anona_ is the name given by early authors to the Soursop.
1. Anona glabra L. Pond Apple.
_Anona palustris_ Small, not L.
[Illustration: Fig. 320]
Leaves elliptic or oblong, acute, tapering or rounded at base, bright
green on the upper, paler on the lower surface, coriaceous, 3′—5′ long,
1½′—2′ wide, with a prominent midrib; deciduous late in the winter;
petioles, stout ½′ in length. Flowers nodding on short stout pedicels
thickened at the ends, opening in April from an ovoid 3-angled bud;
divisions of the calyx broad-ovate, acute; petals connivent, acute,
concave, pale yellow or dirty white, those of the outer row marked on
the inner surface near the base by a bright red spot, and broader and
somewhat longer than those of the inner row. Fruit ripening in November,
broadly ovate, truncate or depressed at base, rounded at apex, 3′—5′
long, 2′—3½′ broad, light green when fully grown, becoming yellow and
often marked by numerous dark brown blotches when fully ripe, with a
thick elongate fibrous torus and light green slightly aromatic insipid
flesh of no comestible value; seeds ½′ long, slightly obovoid, turgid,
rounded at the ends, their margins contracted into a narrow wing formed
by the thickening of the outer coat.
A tree, 40°—50° high, with a short trunk often 18′ in diameter above the
swell of the thickened tapering base sometimes enlarged into spreading
buttresses, stout wide-spreading often contorted branches, slender
branchlets brown or yellow during their first season, becoming in their
second year brown and marked by small scattered wart-like excrescences.
Bark ⅛′ thick, dark reddish brown, divided by broad shallow fissures,
separating on the surface into numerous small scales. Wood light, soft,
not strong, light brown streaked with yellow.
Distribution. Florida: Indian River on the east coast, and the shores of
the Manatee River on the west coast to the southern Keys; in shallow
fresh water ponds, on swampy hummocks, or on the borders of fresh water
streams flowing from the everglades; of its largest size on the shores
of Bay Biscayne near the Miami River, growing in the shade of larger
trees; forming a pure forest of great extent on the swampy borders of
Lake Okechobee; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.
XVIII. LAURACEÆ.
Aromatic trees and shrubs, with slender terete or angled branchlets,
naked or scaly buds, and alternate punctate leaves without stipules.
Flowers small, perfect or polygamo-diœcious, yellow or greenish; calyx
6-lobed, the lobes in 2 series, imbricated in the bud; corolla 0;
stamens 9 or 12, inserted on the base or near the middle of the calyx in
3 or 4 series of 3’s, distinct; anthers 4-celled, superposed in pairs,
opening from below upward by persistent lids; ovary 1-celled; stigma
discoid or capitate; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the
cell, anatropous. Fruit a 1-seeded berry; seed without albumen; testa
thin and membranaceous, of 2 coats; embryo erect; cotyledons thick and
fleshy; radicle superior, turned toward the hilum, included between
thick and fleshy cotyledons. The Laurel family with about forty genera,
confined mostly to the tropics, is represented in North America by seven
genera; of these five are arborescent.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.
Leaves entire, persistent; stamens 12, those of the inner row reduced
to staminodes.
Calyx-lobes persistent under the fruit, in our species.
1. Persea.
Calyx-lobes deciduous.
Flower cymose in axillary or subterminal panicles.
2. Ocotea.
Flowers in axillary many-flowered umbels inclosed before anthesis
in an involucre of deciduous scales.
3. Umbellularia.
Leaves entire or lobed, deciduous; stamens 9 in the American species;
flowers in few-flowered drooping racemes.
4. Sassafras.
Leaves entire, persistent; stamens 9, those of the outer row fertile
and united in a column inclosing the pistil; flowers in terminal
or axillary cymose panicles.
5. Misanteca.
1. PERSEA Mill.
Trees, with naked buds. Leaves revolute in the bud, alternate,
scattered, penniveined, subcoriaceous, rigid, tomentose or rarely
glabrous, persistent. Flowers perfect, vernal, in short axillary or
axillary and terminal panicles on slender peduncles from axils of the
leaves of the year, pedicellate, their pedicels bibracteolate near the
middle, the lateral flowers of the ultimate divisions of the
inflorescence in the axils of small deciduous lanceolate acute bracts;
calyx campanulate, divided nearly to the base into 6 lobes, those of the
outer series shorter than the others, deciduous, or enlarged and
persistent under the fruit; stamens about as long as the inner lobes of
the calyx; filaments flattened, longer than the anthers, hirsute, those
of the third series furnished near the base with 2 nearly sessile
orange-colored glands rounded on the back and slightly 2-lobed on the
inner face; anthers ovoid, flattened, erect, those of the outer series
introrse or subintrorse, those of the third series extrorse or laterally
dehiscent, the upper cells rather larger than the lower; staminodes
large, sagittate, stipitate, 2-lobed on the inner face, beaded at apex;
ovary sessile, subglobose, glabrous, narrowed into a slender simple
style gradually enlarged at apex into a discoid obscurely 2-lobed
stigma. Fruit ripening in the autumn, oblong-obovoid to subglobose, more
or less fleshy. Seed globose, pendulous, without albumen; testa thin and
membranaceous, separable into 2 coats, the outer cartilaginous, grayish
brown, the inner gray or nearly white, closely adherent to the thick
dark red cotyledons.
About one hundred species of Persea are distinguished. They are
distributed in the New World, from the coast region of the southeastern
United States and Texas to Brazil and Chile, and occur in the Canary
Islands and in tropical and subtropical Asia. _Persea americana_ Mill.,
the Avocado or Alligator Pear, a native of the Antilles and cultivated
for its edible fruit in all tropical countries, is now sparingly
naturalized in southern Florida. Many species yield hard dark-colored
handsome wood valued in cabinet-making.
_Persea_ was the classical name of a tree of the Orient, transferred by
Plumier to one of the tropical species of this genus.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Calyx persistent under the fruit (_Tamala Raf._ Persea, sec. Eupersea
Benth. _Notaphoebe_ sec. _Eriodaphne_ Meisn.)
Peduncles short; leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, obscurely
veined, glabrous; branchlets puberulous.
1. P. Borbonia (C).
Peduncles elongated; leaves elliptic to lanceolate, conspicuously
veined, tomentose on the lower surface; branchlets tomentose.
2. P. palustris (C).
1. Persea Borbonia Spreng. Red Bay.
[Illustration: Fig. 321]
Leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, entire, often slightly contracted
into a long point rounded at apex, gradually narrowed below, when they
unfold thin, pilose, and tinged with red, and at maturity thick and
coriaceous, bright green and lustrous above, pale and glaucous below,
3′—4′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide, with thickened revolute margins, a narrow
orange-colored midrib, remote obscure primary veins arcuate near the
margins, and thin closely reticulated veinlets; unfolding early in the
spring, gradually turning yellow a year later, and falling during their
second spring and summer; petioles stout, rigid, red-brown, ½′—⅔′ in
length, flattened and somewhat grooved on the upper side, in falling
leaving small circular leaf-scars displaying the end of a single
fibro-vascular bundle. Flowers: peduncles glabrous, ½′—1′ in length;
calyx pale yellow or creamy white, about ⅛′ long, with thin lobes
ciliate on the margins, the outer broadly ovate, rounded and minutely
apiculate, puberulous, about half as long as the oblong-lanceolate acute
lobes of the inner series covered within by long pale hairs. Fruit ½′
long, dark blue or nearly black, very lustrous; flesh thin and dry, not
readily separable from the ovoid slightly pointed seed.
A tree, 60°—70° high, with a trunk 2½°—3° in diameter, stout erect
branches forming a dense shapely head, thick fleshy yellow roots, and
branchlets many-angled, light brown, glabrous or coated with pale or
rufous pubescence when they first appear, becoming in their second year
terete and dark green; usually much smaller. Winter-buds coated with
thick rufous tomentum, ¼′ long. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, dark red, deeply
furrowed and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges separating on
the surface into small thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, very
strong, rather brittle, close-grained, bright red, with thin lighter
colored sapwood of 4 or 5 layers of annual growth; occasionally used for
cabinet-making, the interior finish of houses, and formerly in ship and
boat-building.
Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps in rich moist soil, or
occasionally in dry sandy loam in forests of the Long-leaved Pine;
southern Delaware (Cypress swamp near Dogsboro, Sussex County, teste
_Nuttall_); coast region from Virginia to the shores of Bay Biscayne and
Cape Romano, Florida, along the Gulf coast to the valley of the Brazos
River, Texas, and northward through Louisiana to southern Arkansas.
2. Persea palustris Sarg. Swamp Bay.
_Persea pubescens_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 322]
Leaves elliptic or lanceolate, entire, often narrowed toward the apex
into a long point, gradually narrowed at base, when they unfold dark
red, thin and tomentose, at maturity pale green and lustrous above, pale
and pubescent and rusty-tomentose on the midrib and primary veins below,
4′—6′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide, with thick conspicuous veins and slightly
revolute margins; persistent until after the beginning of their second
year and then turning yellow and falling gradually; petioles stout,
rusty-tomentose, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers: peduncles tomentose, 2′—3′ in
length; calyx pale yellow or creamy white, often nearly ¼′ long, with
thick firm lobes coated on the outer surface with rusty tomentum, those
of the outer series broadly ovate, abruptly pointed at apex, pubescent
on the inner surface, about half as long as the ovate lanceolate lobes
of the inner series slightly thickened at the apex and hairy within.
Fruit nearly black, ¾′ long.
A slender tree, occasionally 30°—40° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding
a foot in diameter, and stout branchlets terete or slightly angled while
young, coated when they first appear with rusty tomentum reduced in
their second season to fine pubescence persistent until the end of their
second or third year. Bark rarely exceeding ¼′ in thickness, dull brown,
irregularly divided by shallow fissures, the surface separating into
thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, soft, strong, close-grained, orange
color streaked with brown, with thick light brown or gray sapwood of
36—40 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Pine-barren swamps, often almost to the exclusion of other
plants, usually in the neighborhood of the coast from southeastern
Virginia (Dismal Swamp) to the valley of the Caloosahatchee River and
the Everglades Keys, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi; extending inland
to the neighborhood of Wilmington, North Carolina, Aiken, South
Carolina, western Georgia (Meriwether County), the interior of the
Florida peninsula and to Autauga, Chilton and Tuscaloosa Counties,
Alabama (_R. H. Harper_).
2. OCOTEA Aubl.
Leaves scattered, alternate or rarely subopposite, penniveined,
coriaceous, rigid, glabrous or more or less covered with pubescence.
Flowers glabrous or tomentose on slender bibracteolate pedicels from the
axils of lanceolate acute minute bracts, in cymose clusters in axillary
or subterminal stalked panicles; calyx-tube campanulate, the 6 lobes of
the limb nearly equal, deciduous; stamens of the inner series reduced to
linear staminodes, with minute abortive anthers; filaments inserted on
the tube of the calyx, those of the outer series opposite its exterior
lobes, shorter or sometimes rather longer than the anthers, glabrous or
hirsute, furnished in the third series near the base with two
conspicuous globose stalked yellow glands; anthers oblong, flattened,
4-celled, introrse in the 2 outer series, extrorse, subextrorse, or very
rarely introrse in the third series, in the pistillate flower
rudimentary and sterile; ovary ovoid, glabrous, more or less immersed in
the tube of the calyx, gradually narrowed into a short erect style
dilated at apex into a capitate obscurely lobed stigma; in the staminate
flower linear-lanceolate, effete or minute, sometimes 0; raphe ventral;
micropyle superior. Fruit nearly inclosed while young in the thickened
tube of the calyx, exserted at maturity, surrounded at base by the
cup-like truncate or slightly lobed calyx-tube; pericarp thin and
fleshy. Seed ovoid, pendulous; testa thin, membranaceous.
Ocotea with nearly two hundred species is confined principally to the
tropical region of the New World from southern Florida to Brazil and
Peru, with Old World representatives in the Canary Islands, South
Africa, and the Mascarene Islands. One species grows naturally in
Florida.
Ocotea produces hard, strong, durable, beautifully colored wood often
employed in cabinet-making.
The name is derived from the native name of one of the species of
Guiana.
1. Ocotea Catesbyana Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 323]
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire, slightly contracted above into a long
point rounded at apex, when they unfold thin, membranaceous, light green
tinged with red, and sometimes puberulous on the lower surface, at
maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, pale
below, 3′—6′ long, 1′—2′ wide, with thickened slightly revolute margins,
a broad stout midrib, slender remote primary veins arcuate and united
near the margins and connected by coarsely reticulate conspicuous
veinlets; petioles broad, flat, ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers perfect,
appearing in early summer in elongated panicles, their peduncles
slender, glabrous, light red, solitary or 2 or 3 together from the axils
of the leaves of the year or from those of the previous year, and 3′—4′
long; calyx nearly ¼′ across when expanded, puberulous on the outer
surface, hoary pubescent on the inner surface and on the margins of the
lobes, about twice as long as the stamens; filaments of the 2 outer
series slightly hirsute at the base and shorter than their introrse
anthers; filaments of the third series as long or longer than their
extrorse anthers. Fruit ripening in the autumn, ovoid or subglobose, ⅔′
long, lustrous, dark blue or nearly black, the thickened cup-like tube
of the calyx truncate or obscurely lobed and bright red like the
thickened pedicels; flesh thin and dry; seed with a thin brittle
red-brown coat, the inner layer lustrous on the inner surface and marked
by broad light-colored veins radiating from the small hilum; embryo ⅓′
long, light red-brown.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 18′ in diameter,
slender spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and thin
terete branchlets glabrous and dark reddish brown when they first
appear, soon becoming lighter colored, and in their second year light
brown or gray tinged with red and often marked by minute pale lenticels,
and in their second or third year by small semiorbicular leaf-scars,
displaying a single central fibro-vascular bundle-scar. Bark about ⅛′
thick, dark reddish brown, and roughened on the otherwise smooth surface
by numerous small excrescences. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, rich
dark brown, with thick bright yellow sapwood of 20—30 layers of annual
growth.
Distribution. Shores and islands of Florida south of Cape Canaveral on
the east coast and of Cape Romano on the west coast; comparatively
common except on some of the western keys, and most abundant and of its
largest size in the rich wooded hummocks adjacent to Bay Biscayne; in
the Bahamas.
3. UMBELLULARIA Nutt.
A pungent aromatic tree, with dark brown scaly bark, slender terete
branchlets marked in their second and third years by small semicircular
or nearly triangular elevated leaf-scars displaying a horizontal row of
minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars, naked buds, and thick fleshy brown
roots. Leaves alternate, involute in the bud, lanceolate or
ovate-lanceolate, acute or rounded at the narrow apex, cuneate or
somewhat rounded at base, entire with thickened slightly revolute
margins, petiolate, coated when they appear on the lower surface with
pale soft pubescence and puberulous on the upper surface, at maturity
thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, dull and paler
below, with a slender light yellow midrib, and remote, obscure, arcuate
veins more or less united near the margins, and connected by conspicuous
reticulate veinlets. Flowers perfect in axillary stalked many-flowered
umbels, inclosed in the bud by an involucre of 5 or 6 imbricated broadly
ovate or obovate pointed concave yellow caducous scales, the latest
umbels subsessile at the base of terminal leaf-buds; pedicels slender,
puberulous, without bractlets, from the axils of obovate membranaceous
puberulous deciduous bracts decreasing in size from the outer to the
inner; calyx divided almost to the base into 6 nearly equal broadly
obovate rounded pale yellow lobes spreading and reflexed after anthesis;
stamens inserted on the short slightly thickened tube of the calyx;
filaments flat, glabrous, pale yellow, rather shorter than the anthers,
those of the third series furnished near the base with 2 conspicuous
stipitate orange-colored orbicular flattened glands; anthers oblong,
flattened, light yellow, those of the first and second series introrse,
those of the third series extrorse; stamens of the fourth series reduced
to minute ovate acute yellow staminodes; ovary sessile, ovoid, often
more or less gibbous, glabrous, abruptly contracted into a stout
columnar style rather shorter than the lobes of the calyx and crowned by
a simple capitate discoid stigma. Fruit ovoid, surrounded at base by the
enlarged and thickened truncate or lobed tube of the calyx, yellow-green
sometimes more or less tinged with purple; pericarp thin and fleshy.
Seed ovoid, light brown; testa separable into 2 coats, the outer thick,
hard, and woody, the inner thin and papery, closely investing the
embryo, chestnut-brown and lustrous on the inner surface.
Umbellularia consists of a single species.
The generic name, a diminutive of _umbella_, relates to the character of
the inflorescence.
1. Umbellularia californica Nutt. California Laurel. Spice-tree.
[Illustration: Fig. 324]
Leaves 2′—5′ long, ½′—1½′ wide, unfolding in winter or early in the
spring and continuing to appear as the branches lengthen until late in
the autumn; beginning to fade during the summer, turning to a beautiful
yellow or orange color and falling one by one during their second
season, or often remaining on the branches until the sixth year;
petioles 1/10′—⅕′ in length. Flowers appearing in January before the
unfolding of the young leaves, the umbels on peduncles sometimes 1′ in
length. Fruit about 1′ long, in clusters of 2 or 3, on elongated
thickened pedicels, persistent on the branch after the fruit ripens and
falls late in the autumn; seeds germinating soon after they reach the
ground, the fruit remaining below the surface of the soil and attached
to the young plant until midsummer.
A tree, usually 20°—75°, occasionally 100°—175° high, with a trunk 3°—6°
in diameter, sometimes tall and straight but usually divided near the
ground into several large diverging stems, stout spreading or rarely
pendulous (var. _pendula_ Redh.) branches forming a broad round-topped
head, and branchlets light green and coated with soft pale pubescence
when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous and yellow-green, and in
their second and third years light brown tinged with red; at high
altitudes, and in southern California much smaller; often reduced to a
large or small shrub, or on bluffs facing the ocean to broad mats of
prostrate stems. Bark ¾′—1′ thick, dark brown tinged with red,
separating on the surface into thin appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard,
strong, close-grained, light rich brown, with thick lighter colored
sapwood of 30—40 layers of annual growth; the most valuable wood
produced in the forests of Pacific North America for the interior finish
of houses and for furniture. The leaves yield by distillation a pungent
volatile oil, and from the fruit a fat containing umbellulic acid has
been obtained.
Distribution. Valley of Coos River, Oregon, southward through the
California coast ranges and along the high western slopes of the Sierra
Nevada to the southern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains up to
altitudes of 2500°; usually near the banks of water-courses and
sometimes on low hills; common where it can obtain an abundant supply of
water; most abundant and of its largest size in the rich valleys of
southwestern Oregon, forming with the Broad-leaved Maple a considerable
part of the forest growth.
4. SASSAFRAS Nees. Sassafras.
_Pseudosassafras_ H. Lec.
Aromatic trees, with thick deeply furrowed dark red-brown bark, scaly
buds, slender light green lustrous brittle branchlets containing a thick
white mucilaginous pith and marked by small semiorbicular elevated
leaf-scars displaying a single horizontal row of minute fibro-vascular
bundle-scars, and stout spongy stoloniferous roots covered by thick
yellow bark. Flower-bearing buds terminal, ovoid, acute, with 9 or 10
imbricated scales increasing in size from without inward, the 3 outer
scales ovate, rounded, often apiculate at apex, keeled and thickened on
the back, pale yellow-green below, dull yellow-brown above the middle,
loosely imbricated, slightly or not at all accrescent, deciduous at the
opening of the bud, much smaller than the thin accrescent light
yellow-green scales of the next rows turning dull red before falling,
and obovate, rounded at apex, cuneate below, concave, coated on the
outer surface with soft silky pubescence, glabrous or lustrous on the
inner surface, reflexed, ¾′ long, nearly ½′ broad, tardily deciduous,
the 2 inner scales foliaceous, lanceolate, acute, light green, coated on
the outer surface with delicate pale hairs, glabrous on the inner
surface, infolding the leaves; sterile and axillary buds much smaller.
Leaves involute in the bud, ovate or obovate, entire or often 1—3-lobed
at apex, the lobes broadly ovate, acute, divided by deep broad sinuses,
gradually narrowed at base into elongated slender petioles,
feather-veined, with alternate veins arcuate and united or running to
the points of the lobes, the lowest parallel with the margins,
conspicuously reticulate-venulose, mucilaginous, deciduous. Flowers
opening in early spring with the first unfolding of the leaves, the
males and females usually on different individuals, in lax drooping
few-flowered racemes in the axils of large obovate bud-scales, their
pedicels slender, rarely forked and 2-flowered, without bracts, pilose,
from the axils of linear acute scarious hairy deciduous bracts, or that
of the terminal flower often without a bract; calyx pale yellow-green,
divided nearly to the base into narrow obovate concave lobes spreading
or reflexed after anthesis, glabrous or pubescent on the inner surface,
those of the inner row a little larger than the others; stamens in the
American species 9, in the Asiatic 12 with those of the inner series
reduced to staminodes, inserted on the somewhat thickened margin of the
shallow concave calyx-tube, those of the outer series opposite its outer
lobes; filaments flattened, elongated, light yellow, those of the inner
series furnished at base with 2 conspicuous orange-colored stipitate
glands rounded on the back, obscurely lobed on the inner face, in the
Asiatic species alternating with 3 staminodes; anthers introrse, oblong,
flattened, truncate or emarginate at apex, 4-celled, 2-celled in the
Formosan species, orange-colored, in the female flower reduced to
flattened ovate pointed or slightly 2-lobed dark orange-colored
stipitate staminodes, 6 in 2 rows in the American species and 12 similar
to the stamens and staminodes of the staminate flower in the Asiatic
species; or occasionally fertile and similar to or a little smaller than
those of the staminate flower; ovary ovoid, light green, glabrous,
nearly sessile in the short tube of the calyx, narrowed into an
elongated simple style gradually enlarged above into a capitate oblique
obscurely lobed stigma; in the staminate flower 0 in the American
species, present, usually abortive, rarely fertile in the Asiatic
species. Fruit an oblong dark blue or black lustrous berry surrounded at
base by the enlarged and thickened obscurely 6-lobed or truncate scarlet
or orange-red limb of the calyx, raised on a much elongated scarlet
stalk thickened above the middle; pericarp thin and fleshy. Seed oblong,
pointed, light brown; testa thin, membranaceous, barely separable into 2
coats, the inner coat much thinner than the outer, dark chestnut-brown,
and lustrous.
Sassafras is confined to temperate eastern North America, central China
and to Formosa where _Sassafras tzumu_ Hemsl. and _S. randaiense_ Rehd.
occur.
_Sassafras_ was first used as a popular name for this tree by the French
in Florida.
1. Sassafras officinale Nees & Ebermaier.
_Sassafras Sassafras_ Karst.
[Illustration: Fig. 325]
Leaves 4′—6′ long, 2′—4′ wide, densely pubescent when they first appear,
pubescent or puberulous below at maturity especially on the midrib and
veins; turning in the autumn delicate shades of yellow or orange more or
less tinged with red; petioles ¾′—1½′ in length. Flowers ⅓′ long when
fully expanded glabrous on the inner surface of the perianth, in racemes
about 2′ in length, stamens 9. Fruit ripening in September and October,
blue, ⅓′ long, on stalks 1½′—2′ in length, separating when ripe from the
thick scarlet calyx-lobes persistent with the stalks of the fruit on the
branches until the beginning of winter.
A tree, occasionally 80°—90° high, with a trunk nearly 6° in diameter,
short stout more or less contorted branches spreading almost at right
angles and forming a narrow usually flat-topped head, and slender
branchlets light yellow-green and coated when they first appear with
pale pubescence, becoming glabrous, bright green and lustrous, gradually
turning reddish brown at the end of two or three years; frequently not
more than 40°—50° tall; at the north and in Florida generally smaller
and often shrubby. Winter-buds ¼′—⅜′ long. Bark of young stems and
branches thin, reddish brown divided by shallow fissures, becoming on
old trunks sometimes 1½′ thick, dark red-brown, and deeply and
irregularly divided into broad flat ridges separating on the surface
into thick appressed scales. Wood soft, weak, brittle, coarse-grained,
very durable in the soil, aromatic, dull orange-brown, with thin light
yellow sapwood of 7 or 8 layers of annual growth; largely used for
fence-posts and rails, in the construction of light boats, ox-yokes, and
in cooperage. The roots and especially their bark are a mild aromatic
stimulant, and oil of sassafras, used to perfume soap and other
articles, is distilled from them. Gumbo filet, a powder prepared from
the leaves by the Choctaw Indians of Louisiana, gives flavor and
consistency to gumbo soup. Passing into the var. _albidum_ Blake, with
glabrous or nearly glabrous young leaves, glabrous often glaucous young
branchlets, and lighter colored less valuable wood; uplands of western
New England to the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern
Tennessee.
Distribution. Usually in rich sandy well-drained soil, southern Maine
and eastern Massachusetts, through southern Vermont to southern Ontario,
central Michigan, and southeastern Iowa to eastern Kansas and Oklahoma,
and southward to central Florida (Orange County) and the valley of the
Brazos River, Texas; ascending on the southern Appalachian Mountains to
altitudes of 4000°; in the south Atlantic and Gulf states often taking
possession of abandoned fields.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states as an ornamental tree.
5. MISANTECA Cham. & Schl.
Trees with terete branchlets. Leaves coriaceous, persistent. Flowers
perfect, minute, on slender pedicels, in terminal or axillary cymose
panicles; peduncles and pedicels from the axils of acuminate caducous
bracts and bractlets; perianth fleshy, ovoid or obovoid, 6-toothed;
stamens 9, inserted near the middle of the perianth, those of the outer
rank united into a fleshy column, furnished at base with three pairs of
glands, inclosing the pistil and slightly longer than the perianth,
those of the inner ranks, sterile, short or obsolete; anthers extrorse,
2-celled, the cells united; ovary gradually narrowed into a thick style
as long as the staminal tube; stigma capitate. Fruit baccate,
olive-shaped, surrounded at base by the enlarged ligneous capsular
perianth of the flower much thickened on the margin; pericarp thin and
fleshy; endocarp thin, crustaceous; seed filling the cavity of the
fruit; testa thin, crustaceous; hilum minute, apical; cotyledons
plano-convex, fleshy; radicle superior, minute.
Of the three species of the genus now known one occurs in southern
Florida and Cuba, and the others in tropical Mexico.
The name of the genus is derived from the name of the tree, Palo
Misanteca at Misantha, near the coast of the state of Vera Cruz where
the type species was discovered.
1. Misanteca triandra Mez.
[Illustration: Fig. 326]
Leaves elliptic-lanceolate, ovate or broad-elliptic, entire, abruptly
long-pointed and acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed and acuminate at
base, deeply tinged with red and villose on the under side of the midrib
when they unfold, soon glabrous, and at maturity dark green and lustrous
above, pale below, 3′—4′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, with slightly undulate
margins, a prominent midrib, slender primary veins, and reticulate
veinlets conspicuous on the lower surface; petioles stout, narrow
wing-margined at apex, pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous,
⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers glabrous or puberulous, purplish, about 1/12′
long, in 3—5-flowered cymes on slender peduncles, in pubescent panicles
shorter than the leaves; tube of the perianth funnel-form, the lobes
equal, triangular, acute; column of stamens pilose; ovary glabrous.
Fruit in few-fruited clusters on much elongated and thickened peduncles,
ellipsoidal or slightly ovoid, acute, dark blue, ⅘′ long and ⅗′ thick;
cupule light red, thickened and verrucose, acute at base, the margin
reflexed, thin and entire on the inner edge, thick and crenulate on the
outer edge; seed ellipsoidal, pointed at apex, rounded at base, light
brown, slightly ridged when dry.
A tree in Florida 40°—50° high, with a tall trunk 15′—20′ in diameter,
small spreading and pendent branches forming a broad round-topped head,
and slender red branchlets pubescent when they first appear, soon
becoming glabrous, and marked by numerous large pale lenticels.
Rich hummocks between Miami and Homestead, Dade County, Florida; in Cuba
and Jamaica.
XIX. CAPPARIDACEÆ.
Annual or perennial herbs, trees, or shrubs, with acrid often pungent
juices, alternate or rarely opposite leaves, regular or irregular
usually perfect flowers in terminal cymes or racemes or solitary,
numerous ovules inserted in two rows on each of the two placentas,
capsular or baccate 1-celled fruit, and seeds without albumen. A family
of thirty-four genera, mostly confined to the warmer parts of the world
and widely distributed in the two hemispheres. Of the seven genera which
occur in North America only one has an arborescent representative.
1. CAPPARIS L.
Trees, with naked buds. Leaves conduplicate in the bud, entire,
feather-veined, coriaceous, persistent, without stipules. Flowers
regular, in terminal cymes; sepals 4, valvate in the bud, glandular on
the inner surface; petals 4, inserted on the base of the short
receptacle; stamens numerous, inserted on the receptacle, their
filaments free, elongated, much longer than the introrse 2-celled
anthers opening longitudinally; ovary long-stalked, 2-celled, with 2
parietal placentas; stigmas sessile, orbicular; ovules campylotropous.
Fruit baccate, siliquiform (in the North American species) separating
into 3 or 4 valves. Seeds reniform, numerous, surrounded by pulp;
seed-coat coriaceous; embryo convolute; cotyledons foliaceous, fleshy.
Capparis, with more than one hundred species, mostly tropical, is found
in the two hemispheres, the largest number of species occurring in
Central and South America. Two of the West Indian species reach the
shores of southern Florida, the most northern station of the genus in
America; of these one is arborescent.
_Capparis_, from κάππαρις, the classical name of _Capparis spinosa_ L.,
is derived from the Persian _kabor_, capers, the dried flower-buds of
that species.
1. Capparis jamaicensis Jacq.
[Illustration: Fig. 327]
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, rounded and emarginate at apex, slightly
revolute, coriaceous, light yellow-green, smooth and lustrous on the
upper surface, covered on the lower by minute ferrugineous scales, 2′—3′
long, 1′—1½′ wide, with a prominent midrib and inconspicuous primary
veins; petioles stout covered at first with ferrugineous scales often
becoming nearly glabrous, ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers 1¼′ in diameter,
opening in Florida in April and May from obtuse or acute, 4-angled buds;
sepals ovate, acute, lepidote on the outer surface, furnished on the
inner with a small ovate gland, recurved when the flower is fully
expanded, and about half the size of the round white petals turning
purple in fading; stamens 20—30, with purple filaments villose toward
the base, 1½′—2′ long; anthers yellow; ovary raised on a slender stipe
about 1½′ in length. Fruit 9′—12′ long, terete, sometimes slightly
torulose, pubescent-lepidote, the long stalk appearing jointed by the
enlargement of the pedicel and torus below the insertion of the stipe;
seed light brown, 1¼′ long.
A small slender shrubby tree, 18°—20° high, with a trunk sometimes 5′—6′
in diameter, and thin angled branchlets dark gray, smooth or slightly
rugose, and covered with minute ferrugineous scales. Bark rarely more
than ⅛′ thick, slightly fissured, the dark red-brown surface broken into
small irregularly shaped divisions. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained,
yellow faintly tinged with red, with lighter colored sapwood of about 15
layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Coast of Florida; Cape Canaveral and Cape Sable to the
southern keys; generally distributed, but nowhere abundant; common on
several of the Antilles.
XX. HAMAMELIDACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, slender terete branchlets, naked or
scaly buds, and fibrous roots. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate,
deciduous. Flowers perfect or unisexual; calyx 4-parted or 0; petals 4
or 0; stamens 4—8; anthers attached at the base, introrse, 2-celled;
ovary inserted in the bottom of the receptacle, 2-celled; ovules 1 or
many, anatropous, suspended from an axile placenta; micropyle superior;
raphe ventral. Fruit a woody capsule opening at the summit. Seed usually
1; embryo surrounded by fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, flat, longer
than the terete radicle turned toward the hilum. The Witch Hazel family
with twenty genera is confined to eastern North America, southwestern,
southern, and eastern Asia, the Malay Archipelago, Madagascar, and South
Africa. Of the three North American genera two are arborescent.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.
Flowers usually unisexual, capitate, without petals, limb of the calyx
short or nearly obsolete; capsules consolidated by their base
into a globose head; seed with a terminal wing; leaves palmately
lobed.
1. Liquidambar.
Flowers usually perfect, with calyx and corolla; capsules not
consolidated into a head; seed without a wing.
2. Hamamelis.
1. LIQUIDAMBAR L.
Trees, with balsamic juices, scaly bark, terete often winged branchlets,
scaly buds, and fibrous roots. Leaves plicate in the bud, alternate,
palmately lobed, glandular-serrate, long-petiolate; stipules lanceolate,
acute, caducous. Flowers monœcious or rarely perfect in capitate heads
surrounded by an involucre of 4 deciduous bracts, the staminate in
terminal racemes, the pistillate in solitary long-stalked heads from the
axils of upper leaves; staminate flowers without a calyx and corolla;
stamens indefinite, interspersed with minute scales; filaments filiform,
shorter than the oblong obcordate anthers opening longitudinally;
pistillate flowers surrounded by long-awned scales, the whole confluent
into a globular head; calyx obconic, its limb short or nearly obsolete;
stamens usually 4, inserted on the summit of the calyx; anthers minute,
usually rudimentary or abortive, rarely fertile; ovary partly inferior,
of 2 united carpels terminating in elongated subulate recurved
persistent styles stigmatic on the inner face; ovules numerous. Capsules
armed with the hardened incurved elongated styles free above,
septicidally dehiscent, consolidated by their base into a globose head;
pericarp thick and woody; endocarp thin, corneous, lustrous on the inner
surface. Seeds usually solitary or 2 by the abortion of many ovules,
compressed, angulate; seed-coat opaque, crustaceous, produced into a
short membranaceous obovate terminal wing rounded at the oblique apex.
Liquidambar with about four species is confined to the eastern United
States, southern and central Mexico, Central America, southwestern Asia,
middle and southeastern China, and Formosa. Liquid storax, an opaque
grayish brown resin, is derived from _Liquidambar orientalis_ Mill., a
native of Asia Minor.
Liquidambar from _liquidus_ and _ambar_ in allusion to the fragrant
juices.
1. Liquidambar Styraciflua L. Sweet Gum. Bilsted.
[Illustration: Fig. 328]
Leaves generally round in outline, truncate or slightly heart-shaped at
base, deeply 5—7-lobed, with acutely pointed divisions finely serrate
with rounded appressed teeth, when they unfold pilose on the lower
surface, soon becoming glabrous with the exception of large tufts of
pale rufous hairs in the axils of the principal veins, at maturity thin,
bright green, smooth and lustrous, 6′—7′ across, with broad primary
veins and finely reticulate veinlets; exhaling when bruised a pleasant
resinous fragrance; in the autumn turning deep crimson; petioles
slender, covered at first near the base with rufous caducous hairs, and
5′—6′ in length; stipules entire, glabrous, ⅓′—½′ long. Flowers:
staminate in terminal racemes 2′—3′ long covered with rufous hairs, in
heads stalked toward the base of the raceme and nearly sessile above, ¼′
in diameter, and surrounded by ovate acute deciduous hairy bracts much
larger than the lanceolate acute bracts of the female inflorescence ½′
across and conspicuous from the broad stigmatic surfaces of the recurved
and contorted styles. Fruit 1′—1½′ in diameter, persistent during the
winter, the carpels opening in the autumn; seed ½′ long and rather
longer than its wing, with a light brown coat conspicuously marked by
oblong resin-ducts.
A tree, 80°—140° high, with a straight trunk 4°—5° in diameter, slender
branches forming while the tree is young a pyramidal head, and in old
age a comparatively small oblong crown, and slender branchlets
containing a large pith, slightly many-angled, covered when they first
appear with caducous rufous hairs, light orange color to reddish brown
in their first winter, marked by occasional minute dark lenticels and by
large arcuate leaf-scars showing the ends of 3 conspicuous
fibro-vascular bundles, developing in their second season corky wings
appearing on the upper side of lateral branches in 3 or 4 parallel ranks
and irregularly on all sides of vertical branches, and increasing in
width and thickness for many years, sometimes becoming 2′—3′ broad and
1′ thick. Winter-buds acute, ¼′ long, and covered by ovate acute
minutely apiculate orange-brown scales rounded on the back, those of the
inner rows accrescent, tipped with red, and about 1′ long at maturity.
Wood heavy, hard, straight, close-grained, not strong, bright brown
tinged with red, with thin almost white sapwood of 60—70 layers of
annual growth; used for the outside and inside finish of houses, in
cabinet-making, for street pavement, wooden dishes, and fruit boxes.
Distribution. Fairfield County, Connecticut, and in the neighborhood of
the coast to southeastern Pennsylvania, southward to Cape Canaveral and
the shores of Tampa Bay, Florida, and westward through southern Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois to southeastern Missouri, and through Arkansas to
eastern Oklahoma and the valley of the Trinity River, Texas; reappearing
on the mountains of central and southern Mexico and on the highlands of
Guatemala; in the maritime region of the south Atlantic and Gulf states
and in the basin of the lower Mississippi River one of the common trees
of the forest, covering rich river bottom-lands usually inundated every
year; in the northern and middle states on the borders of swamps and low
wet swales; at the north rarely more than 60°—70° tall, with a trunk
usually not more than 2° in diameter.
Unsurpassed in the brilliancy of the autumnal colors of the leaves; and
often planted as an ornamental tree in the eastern states.
2. HAMAMELIS L. Witch Hazel.
Trees or shrubs, with scaly bark, terete zigzag branchlets, naked buds,
and fibrous roots. Leaves involute in the bud, more or less
unsymmetrical at base, crenately toothed or lobed, the primary veins
conspicuous; stipules acute, infolding the bud, deciduous. Flowers
perfect, autumnal or hiemal, in 3 or rarely 4-flowered terminal
clusters, from buds appearing in summer, on short recurved peduncles
from the axils of leaves of the year, furnished near the middle with 2
acute deciduous bractlets, covered like their acute bracts and bractlets
with dark ferrugineous pubescence, each flower surrounded by 2 or 3
ovate acute bracts, the outer slightly united at base into a 3-lobed
involucre; calyx 4-parted pale pubescent on the outer surface,
orange-brown, yellow or red on the inner surface, persistent on the base
of the ovary, the lobes reflexed; petals bright yellow, inserted on the
margin of the cup-shaped receptacle, alternate with the sepals,
strap-shaped, falling with the stamens when the ovules are fertilized;
stamens 8, inserted in 2 rows on the margin of the receptacle, the 4
opposite the lobes of the calyx fertile, the others reduced to minute
strap-shaped scales; filaments free, shorter than the calyx, prolonged
into a thickened pointed connective; anthers ellipsoid, opening
laterally from without by persistent valves; ovary of 2 carpels, free at
apex, inserted in the bottom of the receptacle, partly superior,
remaining during the winter without enlarging and surrounded and
protected by the calyx; styles subulate, spreading, stigmatic at apex,
persistent; ovule solitary. Fruit ripening in the autumn, usually 2 from
each flower-cluster, capsular, 2-beaked at apex, surrounded for
one-third or one-half its length by the enlarged persistent calyx
bearing at the base the blackened remnants of the floral bracts, the
thick and woody outer layer splitting from above loculicidally before
the opening of the thin crustaceous inner layer. Seed oblong, acute,
suspended; testa crustaceous, chestnut brown, shining; forcibly
discharged when ripe by the contraction of the edges of the valves of
the bony endocarp; embryo surrounded by thick fleshy albumen; cotyledons
foliaceous; hilum oblong, depressed.
Hamamelis is confined to eastern North America and eastern Asia, with
three American and two or three Asiatic species; of the American species
two are sometimes small trees, and the third _H. vernalis_ Sarg. is a
shrub of southern Missouri, western Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma.
The name is from άµα, at the same time with, and µηλίς, an Apple-tree,
and was applied by the ancients to the Medlar or some similar tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Leaves smooth, conspicuously unsymmetrical at base; flowers autumnal.
1. H. virginiana (A, C).
Leaves roughened by persistent tubercles, slightly unsymmetrical at
base; flowers hiemal.
2. H. macrophylla (C).
1. Hamamelis virginiana L.
[Illustration: Fig. 329]
Leaves obovate, acuminate, long-pointed or sometimes rounded at apex,
very unequal at base, the lower side rounded or subcordate, the upper
usually cuneate and smaller, irregularly and coarsely crenately lobed
above the middle, entire or dentate below, when they unfold coated,
especially on the lower surface of the midrib and veins and on the
petioles and stipules with stellate ferrugineous pubescence, at maturity
membranaceous, dull dark green and glabrous or pilose above, lighter
colored and lustrous below, and pubescent or puberulous on the stout
midrib and 6 or 7 pairs of primary veins, 4′—6′ long, 2′—2½′ wide;
turning delicate yellow in the autumn; petioles slender, pubescent early
in the season, becoming glabrous ⅓′—1′ in length; stipules lanceolate,
acute, coriaceous, ⅓′—½′ long. Flowers opening from the middle of
September to the middle of November; calyx orange-brown on the inner
surface; petals bright yellow; ½′—⅔′ long. Fruit ripening when the
flowers of the season are expanding, ½′ long, pubescent, dull
orange-brown and surrounded for half its length by the large persistent
calyx; seed ¼′ long.
A tree, occasionally 20°—25° high, with a short trunk 12′—14′ in
diameter, spreading branches forming a broad open head, and slender
flexible branchlets coated at first with scurfy rusty stellate hairs,
gradually disappearing during the summer, and in their first winter
glabrous or slightly puberulous, light orange-brown and marked by small
white dots, becoming in their second year dark or reddish brown; usually
a stout shrub sending up from the ground numerous rigid diverging stems
5°—20° tall. Winter-buds acute, slightly falcate, light orange-brown,
covered with short fine pubescence, ¼′—½′ long. Bark ⅛′ thick, light
brown, generally smooth but broken into minute thin appressed scales
disclosing in falling the dark reddish purple inner bark. Wood heavy,
hard, very close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly
white sapwood of 30—40 layers of annual growth. The bark and leaves are
slightly astringent and although not known to possess essential
properties are largely used in the form of fluid extracts and decoctions
and in homœopathic practice, Pond’s Extract being made by distilling the
bark in diluted alcohol.
Distribution. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the valley of the St.
Lawrence River to southern Ontario, southern Wisconsin, southeastern
Minnesota and northeastern Iowa, and southward to central Georgia and
southern Arkansas, growing usually on the borders of the forest in low
rich soil or on the rocky banks of streams; of its largest size and
probably only arborescent on the slopes of the high Alleghany Mountains
in North and South Carolina and Tennessee.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the northern states,
and in western and northern Europe.
2. Hamamelis macrophylla Pursh.
[Illustration: Fig. 330]
Leaves short-obovate or occasionally broad-elliptic, rounded, acute or
rarely acuminate at apex, cuneate, rounded or cordate at the narrow
slightly unsymmetrical base, crenate-lobulate above the middle with
small rounded lobes, covered with short stellate hairs more abundant on
the upper than on the lower surface, and at maturity dark green above,
paler below, and roughened by the persistent tubercle-like bases of the
stellate hairs, 3′—5′ long, 2′—3′ wide, with a slender midrib and five
or six pairs of primary veins; petioles slender, pubescent, ½′—¾′ in
length; stipules lanceolate, acuminate, scarious, hoary-pubescent, ⅕′—⅙′
long. Flowers opening in December, January and February; calyx yellow on
the inner surface; petals light yellow, ½′ long and less than 1/24′
wide. Fruit ripening in the autumn, about ½′ in length; seed dark
chestnut-brown or nearly black.
A tree, often 30°—45° high, producing stoloniferous shoots round the
tall trunk often 1° in diameter, erect and spreading branches, and
branchlets rusty or hoary-tomentose during their first year, becoming
glabrous or nearly glabrous and grayish brown in their second season;
often a shrub. Winter-buds rusty-tomentose, about ⅓′ in length.
Distribution. Rich soil, by streams or along the borders of the forest;
valley of the lower Savannah River, near Savannah, Chatham County, and
along the Wittlocoochee River, Lowndes County, Georgia, to central and
western Florida; through Alabama; in southern and central Mississippi,
and through Louisiana to eastern Texas (Beaumont, Jefferson County, and
Fletcher, Harding County), and southern Arkansas; generally distributed
and most abundant in Louisiana; probably of its largest size on the
bluffs of the Alabama River in Dallas County, Alabama.
XXI. PLATANACEÆ.
Trees, with watery juice, thick deeply furrowed scaly bark exfoliating
from the branches and young trunks in large thin plates, terete zigzag
pithy branchlets prolonged by an upper axillary bud, and fibrous roots.
Winter-buds axillary, conic, large, smooth, and lustrous, nearly
surrounded at base by the narrow leaf-scars displaying a row of
conspicuous dark fibro-vascular bundle-scars, covered by 3 deciduous
scales, the 2 inner accrescent, strap-shaped, rounded at apex at
maturity, marking in falling the base of the branchlet with narrow
ring-like scars, the outer scale surrounding the bud and splitting
longitudinally with its expansion, the second light green, covered by a
gummy fragrant secretion and usually inclosing a bud in its axil, the
third coated with long rufous hairs. Leaves longitudinally plicate in
vernation, alternate, broadly ovate, cordate, truncate, or cuneate and
decurrent on the petiole at base, more or less acutely 3—7-lobed, and
occasionally furnished with a more or less enlarged basal lobe, the
lobes entire, dentate with minute remote callous teeth, or coarsely
sinuate-toothed, penniveined, the veins arcuate and united near the
margins and connected by inconspicuous reticulate veinlets, clothed
while young like the petioles, stipules, and young branchlets with
caducous stellate sharp-pointed branching hairs, pale on the lower and
rufous on the upper surface, long-petiolate; turning brown and withering
in the autumn before falling; petioles abruptly enlarged at base and
inclosing the buds; stipules membranaceous, laterally united below into
a short tube surrounding the branchlet above the insertion of their
leaf, acute, more or less free above, dentate or entire, thin and
scarious on flowering shoots, broad and leaf-like on vigorous sterile
branchlets, caducous, marking the branchlet in falling with narrow
ring-like scars. Flowers minute, appearing with the unfolding of the
leaves in dense unisexual pedunculate solitary or spicate heads, the
staminate and pistillate heads on separate peduncles or rarely united on
the same peduncle; staminate heads dark red on axillary peduncles;
pistillate heads light green tinged with red, on long terminal
peduncles, the lateral heads in the spicate clusters sessile and
embracing at maturity the peduncle, usually persistent on the branches
during the winter; calyx of the staminate flower divided into 3—6 minute
scale-like sepals slightly united at base, about half as long as the 3—6
cuneiform sulcate scarious pointed petals; stamens as many as the
divisions of the calyx, opposite them, with short nearly obsolete
filaments, and elongated clavate 2-celled anthers, their cells opening
longitudinally and crowned by a capitate pilose truncate connective;
calyx of the pistillate flower divided into 3—6, usually 4, rounded
sepals much shorter than the acute petals; stamens scale-like,
elongated-obovoid, pilose at apex; ovaries as many as the divisions of
the calyx, superior, oblong, sessile, surrounded at base by long ridged
jointed pale hairs persistent round the fruit, gradually narrowed into
long simple bright red styles papillose-stigmatic to below the middle
along the ventral suture; ovules 1 or rarely 2, suspended laterally,
orthotropous. Head of fruit composed of elongated obovoid akenes rounded
and obtuse or acute at apex, surmounted by the persistent styles,
1-seeded, light yellow-brown; pericarp thin, coriaceous. Seed
elongated-oblong, suspended; testa thin and firm, light chestnut-brown;
embryo erect in thin fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, about as long as
the elongated cylindric erect radicle turned toward the minute apical
hilum. Wood hard and heavy not strong, light brown tinged with red, with
numerous broad conspicuous medullary rays and bands of smaller ducts
marking the layers of annual growth. A family of a single genus.
1. PLATANUS L. Plane-tree.
Characters of the family.
A genus of four or five species of eastern and western North America,
Mexico, Central America, and of southwestern Asia, all resembling each
other except in the form of the lobes of the leaves and the amount of
pubescence on their lower surface, in the pointed or obtuse apex of the
akene, and in the number of heads of pistillate flowers on their
peduncle.
Of the exotic species, the Old World _Platanus acerifolia_ Willd., of
doubtful origin, and often considered a hybrid between _P. orientalis_
L. and the Plane-tree of the eastern United States, is now a common
street tree in the cities of all the countries of temperate Europe, and
is largely used as a street and shade tree in the eastern states and in
California.
_Platanus_ is the classical name of the Plane-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Heads of fruit usually solitary; leaves broadly ovate, slightly
3—5-lobed, the lobes broad, mostly serrulate, or entire,
truncate or rarely cuneate at base.
1. P. occidentalis (A, C).
Heads of fruit racemose.
Leaves 3—5-lobed to below the middle, the lobes entire, remotely and
obscurely dentate, or rarely sinuate-toothed, truncate or
slightly cordate or cuneate at base.
2. P. racemosa (G).
Leaves deeply 5—7-lobed, the lobes elongated, slender, entire, or
rarely remotely dentate, deeply cordate or rarely cuneate or
truncate at base.
3. P. Wrightii (H).
1. Platanus occidentalis L. Sycamore. Buttonwood.
[Illustration: Fig. 331]
Leaves broadly ovate, more or less 3—5-lobed by broad shallow sinuses
rounded at the bottom, the lobes broad, acuminate, sinuate-toothed with
long straight or curved remote acuminate teeth, or entire with undulate
margins, truncate or slightly cordate, or long-cuneate and decurrent on
the petiole at base (var. _attenuata_ Sarg.), thin and firm, bright
green on the upper surface, paler on the lower, glabrous at maturity
with the exception of a slight pubescence on the under side of the thin
midrib and stout yellow veins, 4′—7′ long and broad, or twice as large
on vigorous shoots and then frequently furnished with dentate basal
lobes; petioles stout, terete or slightly angled, becoming puberulous
3′—5′ in length; stipules 1′—1½′ long, entire or sinuate-toothed.
Flowers: peduncles coated with pale tomentum, bearing 1 and sometimes 2
heads of flowers. Fruit: heads 1′ in diameter, on slender glabrous stems
3′—6′ in length; akene about ⅔′ long and truncate or obtusely rounded at
apex.
A tree, occasionally 140°—170° high, with a trunk sometimes 10°—11° in
diameter above its abruptly enlarged base, often divided near the ground
into several large secondary trunks, or rising 70°—80°, with a straight
column-like shaft free of branches and with little diminution of
diameter, massive spreading limbs forming a broad open irregular head
sometimes 100° in diameter, their extremities usually erect or more or
less pendulous, and slender branchlets coated at first like the leaves,
petioles, and stipules with thick pale deciduous tomentum, during their
first summer dark green and glabrous, marked by minute oblong pale
lenticels, becoming dark orange-brown and rather lustrous during their
first winter and light gray in their second year. Winter-buds ¼′—⅜′
long. Bark of young trunks and large branches rarely more than ½′ thick,
dark reddish brown, broken into small oblong thick appressed plate-like
scales, smooth, light gray, and separating higher on the tree into large
thin scales, in falling exposing large irregular surfaces of the pale
yellow, whitish, or greenish inner bark, becoming at the base of large
trunks 2′—3′ thick, dark brown, and divided by deep furrows into broad
rounded ridges covered by small thin appressed scales. Wood the favorite
material for tobacco boxes, ox-yokes, and butcher’s blocks, and now
largely used for furniture and the interior finish of houses.
Distribution. Borders of streams and lakes on rich bottom-lands;
southeastern Maine to northern Vermont and through southern Ontario and
Michigan to central and southern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, eastern
Kansas, and eastern Oklahoma to the valley of the Arkansas River (Clay
County), and southward to western Florida (Gladsden County) central
Alabama and Mississippi, and the valley of the Rio Grande (Zavalla
County) western Texas; common but most abundant and of its largest size
on the bottom lands of streams in the basin of the lower Ohio and
Mississippi rivers; less abundant and of smaller size in the coast
region of the Carolinas and in western Texas; ascending the Appalachian
Mountains up to altitudes of 2500°. The most massive if not the tallest
deciduous-leaved tree of eastern North America.
Sometimes planted as a street tree, especially in the cities of eastern
Texas; passing into
1. Platanus occidentalis var. glabrata Sarg.
_Platanus glabrata Fern._
[Illustration: Fig. 332]
Leaves usually broader than long, truncate, broad-cuneate or rarely
cordate at base, 3-lobed by sinuses acute or rounded in the bottom, the
lobes long-acuminate, entire, the lateral lobes often furnished near the
base with one or rarely with two small acuminate incurved secondary
lobes occasionally found also on the terminal lobe, tomentose below and
pubescent above when the flowers open the end of March in Texas, later
becoming glabrous except on the under side of the midrib and veins,
usually about 2¾′—5½′ long and 3′—3½′ wide; petioles pubescent, becoming
glabrous. Peduncles bearing one or rarely two heads. Flowers and Fruit
like those of the species.
Distribution. Western Texas, common; valley of the Colorado River, near
Austin, Travis County, to that of the Devil’s River, Valverde County; in
Coahuila and Nuovo Leon; rarely northward with widely scattered
individuals; the prevailing form on the Edwards Plateau and in the
counties adjacent to the Rio Grande.
2. Platanus racemosa Nutt. Sycamore.
[Illustration: Fig. 333]
Leaves 3—5-lobed to below the middle by broad sinuses acute or rounded
in the bottom, the lobes acute or acuminate, entire, dentate with remote
callous tipped teeth, or occasionally coarsely sinuate-toothed, usually
cordate or sometimes truncate, or cuneate and decurrent on the petiole
at base, thick and firm, light green above, paler and more or less
thickly coated below with pale pubescence most abundant along the midrib
and primary veins, 6′—10′ long and broad; petioles stout, pubescent,
1′—3′ in length; stipules 1′—1½′ long, entire or dentate, often
persistent until spring. Flowers: peduncles hoary-pubescent, bearing
usually 4 or 5 heads of staminate flowers and 2—7 heads of pistillate
flowers, a head of the staminate flowers occasionally appearing on the
pistillate peduncle above the heads of fertile flowers. Fruit: heads ¾′
in diameter, on slender zigzag glabrous or pubescent stems 6′—9′ in
length; akene acute or rounded at apex, ⅓′ long, tomentose while young,
becoming glabrous.
A tree, 40°—90° high, with a trunk sometimes 9° in diameter above the
broad tapering base, erect and free of branches for half its height,
more often divided near the ground into secondary stems erect,
inclining, or prostrate for 20°—30° at their base, thick heavy more or
less contorted spreading branches forming an open irregular round-topped
head, and branchlets coated at first with thick pale deciduous tomentum,
light reddish brown, and marked by numerous small lenticels in their
first winter, becoming gradually darker in their second and third years;
usually smaller, with a trunk 2°—4° in diameter. Winter-buds nearly ½′
long. Bark at the base of old trunks 3′—4′ thick, dark brown, deeply
furrowed, with broad rounded ridges separating on the surface into thin
scales; thinner, smooth, and pale, or almost white higher on the trunk
and on the branches.
Distribution. Banks of the streams of western California; valley of the
upper Sacramento River (Tehama County) southward through the interior
valleys, along the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada and on the
southern coast ranges; and on Mount San Pedro Màrtir in Lower
California; exceedingly common in all the valleys of the California
coast ranges from Monterey to the southern borders of the state, and
ascending the southern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains to
altitudes of 3000°—4000°.
3. Platanus Wrightii S. Wats. Sycamore.
[Illustration: Fig. 334]
Leaves divided by narrow sinuses to below the middle and sometimes
nearly to the center into 3—7 but usually into 3—5 elongated acute lobes
entire, or dentate with callous-tipped teeth, or occasionally furnished
with 1 or 2 lateral lobes, sometimes deeply cordate by the downward
projection of the lower lobes, or often truncate or cuneate at base,
thin and firm in texture, light green and glabrous above, covered below
with pale pubescence, 6′—8′ long and broad, with a slender midrib, and
primary veins connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles
stout, glabrous or puberulous, 1½′—3′ in length. Flowers: peduncles
hoary-tomentose, bearing 1—4 heads of flowers. Fruit: heads on slender
glabrous stems 6′—8′ long, about ¾′ in diameter; akenes glabrous, ¼′
long, truncate at apex.
A tree, often 60°—80° high, with a straight trunk 4°—5° in diameter,
gradually tapering and free of branches for 20°—30°, or with a trunk
divided at the ground into 2 or 3 large stems usually more or less
reclining and often nearly prostrate for 15°—20°, thick contorted
branches, the lowest growing almost at right angles to the trunk and
50°—60° long, the upper usually erect at first, finally spreading into a
broad open handsome head, and slender branchlets coated when they first
appear with thick pale tomentum, becoming glabrous or slightly
puberulous during their first winter, marked by minute scattered
lenticels, and light brown tinged with red or ashy gray, and gradually
darker in their second or third year. Winter-buds hardly more than ⅛′
long. Bark at the base of the trunk dark, 3′—4′ thick, deeply and
irregularly divided into broad ridges, and covered on the surface with
small appressed scales, thinner and separating into large scales 10°—15°
above the ground, and gradually passing into the smooth much thinner
creamy white bark faintly tinged with green of the upper branches.
Distribution. Banks of streams in the mountain cañons of southwestern
New Mexico and southern Arizona; in northern Arizona in Oak Creek Cañon
near Flagstaff (_P. Lowell_); and in Sonora; the largest and one of the
most abundant of the deciduous-leaved trees on all the mountain ranges
of southern Arizona, extending from the mouth of cañons up to altitudes
of 5000°—6000° above the sea.
XXII. ROSACEÆ.
Trees, shrubs and herbs, with watery juices, terete branchlets, scaly
buds, and alternate leaves (_opposite in Lyonothamnus_), with stipules.
Flowers perfect; calyx 5-lobed; petals 5 (_0 in Cercocarpus_),
imbricated in the bud, inserted with the numerous distinct stamens on
the edge of a disk lining the calyx-tube; anthers introrse (_extrorse in
Vauquelinia_), 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary
superior in Lyonothamnus and Heteromeles, often partly superior in
Amelanchier; ovules 2 in each cell (_1 in Cowania and Cercocarpus, 4 in
Lyonothamnus_), anatropous. Seeds without albumen (_albuminous in
Lyonothamnus and Cowania_). A family of about ninety genera chiefly
confined to the temperate parts of the world and producing many of the
most valuable fruits, including the apple, pear, quince, strawberry,
raspberry, and blackberry. The six tribes into which the genera of the
family are grouped, have arborescent representatives in North America.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.