with simple or compound usually glandular-punctate leaves, without
stipules or rarely with stipular spines. Flowers regular, perfect or
unisexual, in paniculate or corymbose cymes; calyx 3—5-lobed, the lobes
more or less united at base, imbricated in the bud; petals 3—5,
imbricated in the bud; stamens as many or twice as many as the petals;
filaments distinct or united below; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the
cells opening longitudinally; pistils 1—4, separate or united into a
compound ovary sessile or stipitate on a glandular disk; styles mostly
united; ovules usually 2 in each cell of the ovary, pendulous,
anatropous or amphitropous; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit of
2-valved carpels, a samara, drupe or capsule. Seeds solitary or several;
seed-coat bony or crustaceous, furrowed or punctate; embryo axile in
fleshy albumen; radicle short, superior.
Of this large family, widely distributed over the warm and temperate
parts of the earth’s surface, four genera only have arborescent
representatives in the United States. _Citrus Aurantium_ L., the
Bitter-sweet Orange, a native of Asia, has long been naturalized in the
peninsula of Florida, where other species of this genus have escaped
from cultivation and are now growing spontaneously.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Fruit of 1—5, 2-valved 1-seeded carpels; flowers diœcious or
polygamous.
1. Xanthoxylum.
Fruit of 3 or 4-winged indehiscent 1-seeded carpels; flowers perfect.
2. Helietta.
Fruit a winged samara; flowers polygamous.
3. Ptelea.
Fruit a 1-seeded drupe; flowers perfect or polygamous.
4. Amyris.
1. XANTHOXYLUM L.
Trees or shrubs, with acrid aromatic bark, pellucid aromatic-punctate
fruit and foliage, scaly buds, and usually stipular spines. Leaves
alternate, unequally or rarely equally pinnate; leaflets generally
opposite, often oblique at the base, entire or crenulate. Flowers small,
diœcious or polygamous, in axillary or terminal broad or contracted
pedunculate cymes; calyx and petals hypogynous; disk small or obscure;
stamens as many as the petals and alternate with them, hypogynous,
effete, rudimentary or wanting in the female flower; filaments filiform
or subulate; pistils 1—5, oblique, raised on the summit of a fleshy
gynophore, connivent, sometimes slightly united below, rudimentary,
simple or 2—5-parted in the sterile flower; ovaries 1-celled; styles
short and slender, more or less united toward the summit; stigmas
capitate; ovules collateral, pendulous from the inner angle of the cell.
Fruit of 1—5 coriaceous or fleshy 1-seeded carpels, broad-obovoid,
sessile or stipitate, ventrally dehiscent. Seed solitary oblong or
globose, suspended on a slender funicle, often hanging from the carpel
at maturity; seed-coat black, shining, conspicuously marked by the broad
hilum; cotyledons oval or orbicular, foliaceous.
Xanthoxylum is widely distributed through tropical and extratropical
regions and is most abundant in tropical America. It is represented in
North America by one shrub and by four arborescent species of the
southern states. The resin contained in the bark, especially in that of
the roots, is a powerful stimulant and tonic occasionally used in
medicine.
The generic name is from ξανθός and ξύλον.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers in axillary contracted cymes; branches armed with stipular
spines.
1. X. Fagara (D, E).
Flowers in terminal cymes.
Calyx-lobes and petals 5; leaves unequally pinnate.
Leaves deciduous; branches armed with stout spines.
2. X. clava-Herculis (C).
Leaves persistent; branches without spines.
3. X. flavum (D).
Calyx-lobes and petals 3; leaves equally pinnate, persistent.
4. X. coriaceum (D).
1. Xanthoxylum Fagara Sarg. Wild Lime.
_Fagara Fagara_ Small.
[Illustration: Fig. 577]
Leaves persistent, 3′—4′ long, with a broad-winged jointed petiole, and
7—9 obovate leaflets rounded or emarginate at apex, minutely
crenulate-toothed above the middle, sessile, ½′ long or less,
coriaceous, glandular-punctate, bright green and lustrous, with minute
hooked deciduous stipular prickles. Flowers on short pedicels from the
axils of minute ovate obtuse deciduous bracts, in short axillary
contracted cymes, appearing singly or in pairs from April until June, on
branches of the previous year, from minute dark brown globular buds, the
staminate and pistillate flowers on different trees; sepals 4,
membranaceous, much shorter than the 4 ovate yellow-green petals;
stamens 4, with slender exserted filaments, 0 in the pistillate flower;
pistils 2, with ovate sessile ovaries gradually contracted into long
slender subulate exserted styles united near apex and crowned with
obliquely spreading stigmas, rudimentary in the staminate flower. Fruit
ripening in September, obovoid, rusty brown and rugose, ⅛′—¼′ long; seed
dark and lustrous.
A tree, occasionally 25°—30° high, with a slender often inclining trunk,
fastigiate branches, and more or less zigzag slender dark gray
branchlets armed with sharp hooked stipular spines; more frequently a
tall or low shrub. Bark of the trunk about ⅛′ thick, the smooth light
gray surface broken into small appressed persistent scales. Wood heavy,
hard, very close-grained, brown tinged with red, with thin yellow
sapwood of 10—12 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Coast and islands of southern Florida, and Texas from
Matagorda Bay to the Rio Grande and in San Saba, Bandera, and Brown
Counties; one of the commonest of the south Florida plants, and
arborescent on the rich hummock soil of Elliott’s Key and the shores of
Bay Biscayne; in Texas generally shrubby; common in northern Mexico, and
widely distributed through the Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central
and South America to Brazil and Peru.
2. Xanthoxylum clava-Herculis L. Prickly Ash. Toothache-tree.
_Fagara clava-Herculis_ Small.
[Illustration: Fig. 578]
Leaves 5′—8′ long, with a stout pubescent or glabrous spiny petiole, and
3—9 pairs of ovate or ovate-lanceolate sometimes slightly falcate
subcoriaceous leaflets usually oblique at base, crenulate-serrate,
sessile or short-stalked, 1′—2½′ long, green and lustrous above, paler
and often somewhat pubescent below, especially when they unfold;
persistent until late in the winter or until the appearance of the new
leaves in the early spring. Flowers on slender pedicels ⅓′—¼′ long, from
the axils of minute lanceolate deciduous bracts, in ample wide-branched
cymes 4′—5′ long and 2′—3′ wide, appearing in very early spring, when
the leaves are about half grown, the staminate and pistillate flowers on
different individuals; sepals minute, membranaceous, persistent, barely
one fourth the length of the oval green petals ⅛′—¼′ long; stamens 5,
with slender filiform filaments, conspicuously exserted from the male
flowers, rudimentary or wanting in the female flowers; pistils 3, rarely
2, with sessile ovaries and short styles crowned by a slightly 2-lobed
stigma. Fruit ripening in May and June, in dense often nearly globose
clusters; mature carpels obliquely ovoid, 1-seeded, chestnut-brown, ¼′
long, with a rugose or pitted surface; seeds hanging at maturity outside
the carpels.
A round-headed tree, 25°—30°, or exceptionally 50° high, with a short
trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, numerous branches spreading nearly at right
angles, and stout branchlets covered when they first appear with brown
pubescence, becoming glabrous and light gray in their second year, and
marked by small glandular spots and by large elevated obcordate
leaf-scars displaying a row of large fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and
armed with stout straight or sometimes slightly curved sharp
chestnut-brown spines ½′ or more long, with a flattened enlarged base;
or often a low shrub. Winter-buds short, obtuse, dark brown or nearly
black. Bark of the trunk barely 1/16′ thick, light gray, and roughened
by corky tubercles, with ovoid dilated bases sometimes 1′ or more across
and thick and rounded at apex. Wood light, soft, close-grained, and
light brown, with yellow sapwood. The bark, which is collected in large
quantities by negroes in the southern states, is used as a cure for
toothache and in the treatment of rheumatism.
Distribution. Southeastern Virginia southward near the coast to the
shores of Bay Biscayne and Bocagrande, Lee County, Florida, and westward
through the Gulf states to northern Louisiana, southern Arkansas (near
Arkadelphia, Clark County), and eastern Oklahoma, and through Texas to
the valley of the Colorado River ranging northward to Tarrant and Dallas
Counties; in the Atlantic states not abundant, and confined to the
immediate neighborhood of the coast, growing in light sandy soil and
often on the low bluffs of islands or on river banks; from the Gulf
coast ranging farther inland, especially west of the Mississippi River;
most abundant in eastern Texas, and of its largest size on the rich
intervale lands of the streams flowing into the Trinity River. In
western Texas a form occurs (var. _fruticosum_ Gray), with short
sometimes 3-foliolate more or less pubescent leaves, with small ovate or
oblong blunt and conspicuous crenulate rather coriaceous leaflets; this
is the common form of western Texas, growing usually as a low shrub.
3. Xanthoxylum flavum Vahl. Satinwood.
_Fagara flava_ Kr. & Urb.
[Illustration: Fig. 579]
Leaves unequally pinnate, persistent, usually 6′—9′ long, with a stout
glandular petiole enlarged at base, and usually 5, sometimes 3, or
rarely 1 leaflet, unfolding in Florida during the month of June, and
then densely covered with tomentum, and at maturity sparingly hairy on
the petiole and on the midrib of the ovate-lanceolate or elliptic,
obtuse, often slightly falcate leaflets, sometimes oblique at base,
nearly sessile or long-stalked, 2′—3′ long, 1½′—2′ broad, entire or
slightly crenulate, coriaceous, pale yellow-green and conspicuously
marked by large pellucid glands. Flowers appearing in Florida in June,
on a slender pubescent pedicel ¼′ or more long, in wide-spreading
pubescent sessile cymes, the male and female on different trees;
calyx-lobes 5, minute, acuminate, ciliate on the margins, barely one
eighth of the length of the ovate greenish white petals reflexed when
the flowers are fully expanded; stamens 5, with slender filaments much
longer than the petals, 0 in the pistillate flower; pistils 2 or
sometimes 1, with a stipitate obovate ovary and a short style with a
spreading entire stigma, minute and depressed in the staminate flower.
Fruit ripening in autumn and early winter and sometimes persistent until
the spring of the following year; mature carpels obliquely obovoid,
short-stalked, 1-seeded, pale chestnut-brown at maturity, about ⅓′ long,
faintly marked by minute glands.
A round-headed tree, 30°—35° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, and
stout brittle branchlets coated at first with thick silky pubescence,
becoming light gray, rugose, conspicuously marked by large triangular
leaf-scars, and puberulous during their second and third years.
Winter-buds narrow-acuminate, ½′ long, coated with short thick pale
tomentum. Bark of the trunk ¼′ thick, with a smooth light gray surface
divided by shallow furrows and broken into numerous short appressed
scales. Wood very heavy, exceedingly hard, brittle, not strong, light
orange-colored, with thin rather lighter colored sapwood; occasionally
used in southern Florida in the manufacture of furniture, for the
handles of tools, and other objects of domestic use.
Distribution. Florida, on the Marquesas Keys and on South Bahia Honda
and Boca Chica Keys; on Bermuda, the Bahama Islands, San Domingo, and
Porto Rico.
4. Xanthoxylum coriaceum A. Richard.
_Fagara coriacea_ Kr. & Urb.
[Illustration: Fig. 580]
Leaves equally pinnate, persistent, 2′—3′ long, with a stout grooved
petiole, and 6—8 oblong-obovate stalked coriaceous dark yellow-green
lustrous leaflets rounded or rarely emarginate at apex, 1′—1¾′ long and
⅝′—¾′ wide, with much-thickened revolute entire margins, a stout midrib,
slender obscure spreading primary veins, and reticulate veinlets.
Flowers yellow, appearing in March on short stout pedicels, in densely
flowered terminal cymes; sepals 3, minute, united below, free above,
much shorter than the 3 oval or obovate petals rounded at apex; stamens
3; filaments about as long as the petals; anthers ovoid or oval; ovary
3-celled, globose-ovoid; styles thick, 3 (_teste Urban_). Fruit: mature
fruit not seen.
A glabrous tree, sometimes 18°—20° high, with a slender stem, and stout
red-brown branches unarmed in Florida specimens, or in the West Indies
furnished with short recurved spines; more often shrubby.
Distribution. Florida, shores of Bay Biscayne and near Fort Lauderdale,
Dade County; rare; on the Bahama Islands and in Cuba.
2. HELIETTA Tul.
Trees or shrubs, with slender terete branchlets. Leaves opposite,
long-petiolate, trifoliolate, persistent; leaflets sessile,
obovate-oblong, obtuse, entire or crenate, subcoriaceous,
grandular-punctate, the terminal the largest. Flowers regular, perfect,
on slender bibracteolate pedicels, in terminal or axillary panicles;
calyx 3 or 4-parted, the divisions imbricated in the bud, slightly
united at base, persistent; petals 3 or 4, imbricated in the bud,
hypogynous, oblong, concave, glandular-punctate, reflexed at maturity;
stamens as many as the petals inserted under the disk; filaments shorter
than the petals, slightly flattened, glabrous; anthers ovoid, cordate at
base, attached on the back below the middle; disk free, cup-shaped,
erect, subcorrugated, with a sinuate margin, 4-lobed, the lobes entire
or crenate and opposite the petals; ovary minute, sessile, depressed, 3
or 4-lobed, glandular-verrucose or minutely pilose, the lateral lobes
slightly compressed, 4-celled; styles united into a single slender
column crowned by the globose 3—4-lobed stigma; ovules collateral,
anatropous. Fruit obconic, composed of 3 or 4 dry woody 1-seeded
indehiscent carpels with a cartilaginous endocarp and with a prominent
horizontal wing, separating at maturity. Seed linear-oblong, seed-coat
crustaceous, fragile, black; cotyledons straight, obtuse.
Helietta is distributed from the valley of the lower Rio Grande in Texas
to Brazil and Paraguay. Four species are recognized, one species
extending across the Rio Grande into western Texas.
The generic name is in honor of Lewis Théodore Hélie (1804—1867), a
distinguished French physician.
1. Helietta parvifolia Benth.
[Illustration: Fig. 581]
Leaves 1½′—2′ long, with a stout slightly club-shaped petiole, at first
puberulent, soon becoming glabrous, and oblong or narrow-obovate
leaflets rounded or sometimes slightly emarginate at apex, gradually and
regularly contracted at base, entire or slightly and remotely
crenulate-serrate, yellow-green and lustrous above, paler below,
conspicuously marked by black glandular dots, the terminal leaflet
½′—1½′ long, sometimes ½′ wide, and nearly twice as large as the others;
persistent on the branches until early spring. Flowers appearing in
April and May, on slender pedicels covered at first like the petioles
and calyx with short dense pubescence, with minute acuminate early
deciduous bracts, in dichotymously branched subsessile panicles on
branchlets of the year from the axils of the upper leaves; petals 4,
white, ovate, ⅛′ long, with scattered hairs on the outer surface, and
thin scabrous margins, and four or five times longer than the 4
calyx-lobes; stamens 4; ovary 4-lobed, glandular-punctate like the
slender style. Fruit ripening in October, oblong, ¼′—⅓′ long, with a
rigid broad-ovate sometimes slightly falcate wing rounded at apex, ½′
long, and conspicuously reticulate-veined.
A slender tree, 20°—25° high, with a trunk 5′—6′ in diameter, rather
erect branches forming a small irregular head, and slender pale
branchlets covered with minute wart-like excrescences, slightly
puberulous when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, and marked
during their second year by small inconspicuous leaf-scars; or a low
shrub. Bark of the trunk about ⅛′ thick, covered with dark brown closely
appressed scales separating in large irregular patches and leaving when
they fall a smooth pale yellow surface. Wood hard, very heavy,
close-grained, light orange-brown, with rather lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Often forming thickets of considerable extent and abundant
near Rio Grande, Starr County, Texas; mesas south of the lower Rio
Grande; of its largest size and tree-like in habit on the limestone
ridges of the Sierra Madre of Nuevo Leon.
3. PTELEA L.
Small unarmed trees or shrubs, with smooth bitter bark, slender terete
branchlets, without terminal buds, small depressed lateral buds covered
with pale tomentum, and nearly inclosed by the narrow obcordate
leaf-scars marked by the ends of 2 or 3 small fibro-vascular bundles,
and thick fleshy acrid roots. Leaves alternate or rarely opposite,
without stipules, long-petiolate, usually trifoliolate, the leaflets
conduplicate in the bud, ovate or oblong, entire or crenulate-serrate,
punctate with pellucid dots. Flowers polygamous, on slender bracteolate
pedicels, in terminal or compound cymes, greenish white; calyx 4 or
5-parted; petals 4 or 5, hypogynous; stamens 3 or 4, alternate with and
as long as the petals, hypogynous, much shorter in the pistillate flower
with imperfect or rudimentary anthers; filaments subulate, more or less
pilose, especially toward the base; anthers ovoid or cordate; pistil
raised on a short gynophore, abortive and nearly sessile in the
staminate flower; ovary compressed, 2—3-celled; style short; stigma
2—3-lobed; ovules superposed, amphitropous, the upper ovule only
fertilized. Fruit a 2 or 3-celled broad-winged indehiscent samara
surrounded by a reticulate wing or rarely wingless. Seed oblong, acute
at apex, rounded at base, ascending; seed-coat smooth or slightly
wrinkled, coriaceous; cotyledons ovate-oblong.
Ptelea is confined to the United States and Mexico, where four or five
species are known; of these one is a small tree. The bark and foliage of
Ptelea is bitter and strong-scented and possesses tonic properties.
The generic name is from πτελέα, a classical name of the Elm-tree.
1. Ptelea trifoliata L. Hop-tree. Wafer Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 582]
Leaves rarely 5-foliolate on vigorous shoots; leaflets sessile, ovate or
oblong, pointed, the terminal leaflet generally larger and more
gradually contracted at base than the others, entire or finely serrate,
covered at first with short close pubescence, becoming glabrous and
rather coriaceous at maturity, dark green and lustrous above, pale
below, 4′—6′ long, 2½′—3′ wide, with a prominent midrib and primary
veins; turning clear yellow in the autumn before falling; petioles
stout, thickened at base, 2½′—3′ in length. Flowers appearing in early
spring on slender pubescent pedicels 1′—1½′ long, the pistillate and
staminate flowers produced together, the staminate usually less numerous
and falling soon after the opening of the anther-cells; calyx and petals
pubescent; ovary puberulous. Fruit with a thin almost orbicular
sometimes slightly obovate wing, nearly 1′ across, on a long slender
reflexed pedicel, in dense drooping clusters remaining on the branches
through the winter; seeds ⅓′ long, dark red-brown.
A round-headed tree, rarely 20°—25° high, with a straight slender trunk
6′—8′ in diameter, small spreading or erect branches, and slender
branchlets covered at first with short fine pubescence, becoming
glabrous, dark brown and lustrous, and marked by wart-like excrescences
and by the conspicuous leaf-scars; more often a low spreading shrub.
Winter-buds depressed, nearly round, pale or almost white. Wood heavy,
hard, close-grained, yellow-brown, with thin hardly distinguishable
sapwood of 6—8 layers of annual growth. The bitter bark of the roots is
sometimes used in the form of tinctures and fluid extracts as a tonic,
and the fruit is occasionally employed domestically as a substitute for
hops in brewing beer.
Distribution. Generally on rocky slopes near the borders of the forest,
often in the shade of other trees; Long Island, New York, Pennsylvania,
and westward through southwestern Ontario (Point Pelee) and southern
Michigan to southern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, and southward to
Georgia, Alabama, eastern Louisiana and through Missouri and Arkansas to
southeastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma and eastern Texas. A form with
leaflets soft-pubescent on the lower surface (var. _mollis_ T. & G.)
occurs in the south Atlantic states from North Carolina to Florida.
Often planted as an ornament of parks and gardens.
4. AMYRIS L.
Glabrous glandular-punctate trees or shrubs, with balsamic resinous
juices. Leaves opposite or rarely opposite and alternate, 3-foliolate,
without stipules, persistent; leaflets opposite, petiolulate, entire or
crenate. Flowers white, minute, on slender bibracteolate pedicels,
usually in 3-flowered corymbs in terminal or axillary branched panicles;
calyx 4-toothed, persistent; petals 4, hypogynous, much larger than the
calyx-lobes, spreading at maturity; disk of the staminate flower
inconspicuous, that of the pistillate and perfect flowers thickened and
pulvinate; stamens 8, hypogynous, opposite and alternate with the
petals; filaments filiform, exserted; anthers ovoid, attached on the
back below the middle; ovary ellipsoid or ovoid, 1-celled, rudimentary
in the staminate flower; style short, terminal, or wanting; stigma
capitate; ovules collateral, suspended near the apex of the ovary,
anatropous. Fruit a globose or ovoid aromatic drupe; stone 1-seeded by
abortion, chartaceous. Seed pendulous, without albumen; seed-coat
membranaceous; cotyledons plano-convex, fleshy, glandular-punctate.
Amyris is confined to tropical America and northern Mexico. Of the
twelve or fourteen species which have been distinguished two extend into
the territory of the United States; one of these is a small West Indian
tree common on the shores of southern Florida, and the other, _Amyris
parvifolia_ A. Gray, a Mexican shrub, grows in Texas near Corpus
Christi, Neuces County, and near the mouth of the Rio Grande. Amyris is
fragrant and yields a balsamic aromatic and stimulant resin, and heavy
hard close-grained wood valuable as fuel and sometimes used in
cabinet-making.
The generic name, from µύῤῥα, relates to the balsamic properties of the
plants of this genus.
1. Amyris elemifera L. Torch Wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 583]
Leaves 3-foliolate, with slender petioles 1′—1½′ long, and broad-ovate
or rounded obtuse acute or acuminate leaflets cuneate at base, or
sometimes ovate-lanceolate or rhombic-lanceolate, entire or remotely
crenulate, coriaceous, lustrous, dark yellow-green, conspicuously
reticulate-veined, covered below with minute glandular dots, 1′—2½′
long, with slender petiolules, that of the terminal leaflet often 1′ or
more long and twice as long as those of the lateral leaflets. Flowers in
terminal pedunculate or nearly sessile panicles appearing in Florida
from August to December. Fruit ripening in the spring, ovoid, often
nearly ½′ long, black covered with a glaucous bloom, with thin flesh
filled with an aromatic oil and of rather agreeable flavor.
A slender tree, 40°—50° high, with a trunk sometimes, although rarely, a
foot in diameter, and slender terete branchlets covered with wart-like
excrescences, at first light brown, becoming gray during their second
season. Bark of the trunk thin, gray-brown, slightly furrowed and broken
into short appressed scales. Winter-buds acute, flattened, ⅛′ long, with
broad-ovate scales slightly keeled on the back. Wood heavy, exceedingly
hard, strong, close-grained, very resinous, extremely durable, light
orange color, with thin rather lighter colored sapwood of 12—15 layers
of annual growth; often used as fuel.
Distribution. Florida, Mosquito Inlet, Volusia County, to the southern
keys; common in the immediate neighborhood of the coast to the rich
hummocks of the interior, and of its largest size on Umbrella Key; on
the Bahama Islands and on many of the Antilles.
XXVII. SIMAROUBACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with bitter juice. Leaves alternate, pinnate,
persistent, without stipules. Flowers regular, diœcious; calyx 5-lobed,
the lobes imbricated in the bud; petals 5, imbricated in the bud,
hypogynous; stamens 10, inserted under the disk; pistil of 5 united
carpels; ovary 5-celled; ovule solitary in each cell, anatropous; raphe
ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit a drupe.
Of the thirty genera of this family, confined chiefly to the tropics and
to the warmer parts of the northern hemisphere, three have arborescent
representatives in the flora of North America. _Ailanthus altissima_
Swing., the so-called Tree of Heaven, a native of northern China, has
been largely planted as an ornament and shade tree in the eastern United
States, and is now sparingly naturalized southward.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Fruit a drupe or berry.
Ovary deeply 5-lobed; fruit drupaceous.
1. Simarouba. (D).
Ovary not lobed; fruit baccate.
2. Picramnia. (D).
Fruit a 3-winged samara.
3. Alvaradoa. (D).
1. SIMAROUBA Aubl.
Trees, with resinous juice and tonic properties. Leaves long-petiolate,
abruptly pinnate; leaflets usually alternate, long-petiolulate,
conduplicate in the bud, entire, coriaceous, glabrous or slightly
puberulous below, feather-veined. Flowers in elongated widely branched
axillary and terminal panicles; disk cup-shaped, depressed in the
sterile flower, pubescent; stamens as long as the petals, in the
pistillate flower reduced to minute scales; filaments free, filiform,
thickened toward the base, inserted on the back of a minute ciliate
scale; anthers oblong, slightly emarginate, introrse, attached on the
back below the middle, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary
sessile on the disk, deeply lobed, the lobes opposite the petals,
rudimentary, lobulate, minute or wanting in the staminate flower; styles
united into a short column, with a 3—5-lobed spreading stigma. Fruit
composed of 1—5 sessile spreading drupes; flesh thin; stone crustaceous.
Seeds inverse, without albumen; seed-coat membranaceous; cotyledons
plano-convex, fleshy, the radicle very short, partly included between
the cotyledons, superior.
Simarouba with four species is confined to tropical America, and is
distributed from the coast of southern Florida to Brazil and Guatemala.
The plants of this genus contain a small amount of resin, a volatile
oil, and an exceedingly bitter principle, quasin, with tonic properties.
The generic name is formed from Simarouba, the Carib name of one of the
species.
1. Simarouba glauca DC. Paradise-tree.
[Illustration: Fig. 584]
Leaves 6′—10′ long, glabrous, with a stout petiole 2′—3′ in length, and
usually 6 pairs of opposite or alternate oblong-obovate or oval
leaflets, rounded or slightly mucronate at apex, usually oblique at
base, membranaceous and dark red when they first unfold, soon becoming
coriaceous, dark green and very lustrous above, pale and glaucous below,
2′—3′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with revolute margins, a prominent midrib,
remote conspicuous primary veins, and stout petiolules ¼′—⅓′ in length.
Flowers appearing in early spring, ⅛′—¼′ long, on short stout
club-shaped pedicels, in panicles 12′—18′ long, and 18′—24′ broad, with
a stout pale glaucous stem and spreading branches from the axils of
small acute scarious deciduous bracts; petals fleshy, oval, often acute,
pale yellow, and four or five times as long as the glaucous calyx. Fruit
nearly fully grown by the end of April and then bright scarlet, about 1′
long, ovoid, sometimes falcate, and slightly angled on the ventral
suture, becoming dark purple when fully ripe; seeds papillose,
orange-brown, about ¾′ long.
A round-headed tree, growing occasionally in Florida to the height of
50°, with a straight trunk 18′—20′ in diameter, slender spreading
branches, and stout glabrous branchlets pale green when they first
appear, becoming light brown before the end of the summer, rugose and
conspicuously marked during their second season by the large oval
leaf-scars. Bark of the trunk ½′—¾′ thick, light red-brown and broken on
the surface into broad thick appressed scales. Wood light, soft,
close-grained, light brown, with thick rather darker colored sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, from Cape Canaveral and the shores of Bay
Biscayne to the southern keys; in Cuba, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and Brazil.
2. PICRAMNIA Sw.
Trees or shrubs, with bitter principles and slender terete branchlets.
Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, persistent, the leaflets
subopposite to alternate, entire. Flowers diœcious, occasionally
perfect, small, glomerate on long pendulous spikes or racemes opposite
the leaves; calyx 3—5-parted, the lobes imbricated in the bud; petals
3—5, imbricated in the bud, rarely wanting; stamens 3—5, opposite the
petals, inserted under the lobed depressed disk, in the pistillate
flower reduced to linear scales or wanting; filaments naked; anthers
2-celled, introrse, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary inserted on
the disk, 2 or 3-celled, rudimentary in the staminate flower; style 2 or
3-lobed, the lobes recurved and stigmatic on the inner surface, or
crowned by a 2 or 3-lobed sessile stigma; ovules 2 in each cell,
collateral, attached at the inner angle of the cell near its apex,
anatropous; raphe narrow; micropyle superior. Fruit baccate, oblong to
oblong-obovoid, 2 or by abortion 1-celled, the cells 1-seeded. Seeds
filling the cavity of the cell, plano-convex, pendulous from the apex of
the cell; hilum minute, apical, the raphe conspicuous; testa
membranaceous, adherent to the exalbuminous undivided embryo; radicle
superior, inconspicuous.
Picramnia, with about twenty species, is confined to the tropical and
subtropical regions of the New World, one species extending into
southern Florida. The bitter principle in the plants of this genus makes
the bark of several of them useful in domestic remedies.
The generic name, from πικρός and θάµνος, is in reference to this bitter
principle.
1. Picramnia pentandra Sw.
[Illustration: Fig. 585]
Leaves 8′—12′ long, 5—9-foliolate, with a slender rachis and petiole;
leaflets ovate-oblong, abruptly acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed
and cuneate at base, coriaceous, glabrous, dark green and lustrous
above, 1½′—2½′ long and ¾′—1′ wide, with thickened slightly revolute
margins, a prominent midrib, slender primary veins and thin reticulate
veinlets; petiolules stout, 1/12′—⅙′ long, that of the terminal leaflet
often ¾′ in length. Flowers green on short slender pedicels, in slender
pubescent racemes 6′—8′ in length; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes
oblong-ovate, acuminate, coated on the outer surface with pale hairs;
petals 5, acuminate, hirsute, narrower and longer than the calyx-lobes;
stamens 5 in the pistillate flower; filaments slender, glabrous,
exserted; anthers short-oblong, obtuse; stigma sessile, 2 or 3-lobed.
Fruit red becoming nearly black when fully ripe, ⅓′—½′ in length, about
¼′ in diameter; seeds light brown and lustrous.
A slender tree in Florida, occasionally 18°—20° high, with a straight
trunk 4′ or 5′ in diameter, and slender light yellow-green or pale brown
branchlets slightly pubescent during their first season; more often a
shrub. Bark thin, close, yellowish brown.
Distribution. Florida, shores of Bay Biscayne to the Everglade Keys,
Dade County, and on the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands and several
of the Antilles, and in Colombia.
3. ALVARADOA Liebm.
Trees or shrubs, with bitter juices and slender terete pubescent
branchlets. Leaves alternate, crowded at the end of the branches,
unequally pinnate, long-petiolate, many-foliolulate, persistent;
leaflets alternate, entire; stipules and stipels none. Flowers in
many-flowered axillary or terminal racemes. Fruit a 2 or 3-winged
samara, 3-celled below the middle, 2-celled above, crowned with remnants
of the styles. Seed erect, compressed; testa membranaceous; albumen
none; embryo oblong-compressed; cotyledons flat; radicle inferior, very
short.
An anomalous genus, by several authors doubtfully referred to
Sapindaceæ, but chiefly on account of its bitter properties now placed
in Simaroubaceæ. It consists of three species; of these the widely
distributed _Alvaradoa amorphoides_ Liebmann, the type of the genus,
occurs in southern Florida. The other species appear to be confined to
the islands of Jamaica and Cuba.
1. Alvaradoa amorphoides Liebm.
[Illustration: Fig. 586]
Leaves 4′—12′ long, with 21—41 leaflets and slender petioles; leaflets
oblong-obovate, obtuse or occasionally minutely mucronate at apex,
gradually narrowed below into a short slender pubescent petiolule,
slightly thickened and revolute on the margins, dark green above, pale
pubescent below, ½′—¾′ long, about ¼′ wide, with a slender midrib and
obscure primary veins. Flowers regular, minute, diœcious, on slender
accrescent pubescent pedicels from the axils of ovate minute deciduous
bracts, in many-flowered hoary-tomentose racemes 3′—4½′ long, the
pistillate accrescent, becoming 4′—8′ in length; calyx campanulate,
5-parted, the lobes ovate, acute, hoary-tomentose on the outer surface;
disk 5-lobed; staminate flowers appearing sessile in the bud; their
pedicels only slightly accrescent; petals filiform; filaments slender,
elongated, slightly villose toward the base, inserted between the lobes
of the disk and alternate with the calyx-lobes; anthers introrse,
2-celled, united except at apex, opening longitudinally by marginal
slits, their connective orbicular, conspicuous; pistillate flowers on
short accrescent pedicels; petals 0 or very rarely present; stamens 0;
ovary compressed, unequally 3-angled, villose-hirsute on the margins,
3-celled at base, with two small compressed empty cells, the third
larger with two anatropous ovules; styles 2, subulate or recurved, often
of unequal length, stigmatic above the middle. Fruit lanceolate,
acuminate, narrowly 2-winged, ciliate on the margins with long spreading
hairs, slightly tinged with red, ¾′ in length and about two-thirds as
long as its slender hairy pedicel; seeds acute at ends, pale yellow, ¼′
long.
A slender tree, in Florida occasionally 30° high, with a trunk 6′—8′ in
diameter, and slender branchlets hoary-pubescent during their first year
becoming dull red-brown, glabrous and marked by numerous small pale
lenticels and by the large obovate obcordate scars of fallen leaves
showing the ends of three conspicuous equidistant fibro-vascular
bundles; in Florida more often a shrub.
Distribution. Florida, Everglade Keys (Timbo Hummock near Gozman’s
Homestead, Caldwell’s Hummock and Long Key), Dade County; in the Bahama
Islands, and in Cuba, southern Mexico, Central America and Argentina.
XXVIII. BURSERACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with resinous bark and wood. Leaves alternate, pinnate,
without stipules. Flowers perfect or polygamous, in clustered racemes or
panicles; calyx 4—5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud, persistent;
petals 4—5, imbricated in the bud, distinct or slightly united,
deciduous; stamens twice as many as the petals, inserted under the
annular or cup-shaped disk; filaments distinct, subulate; anthers
introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; pistil of 2—5
united carpels; ovary 2—5-celled; styles united; stigma 2—5-lobed;
ovules 2 in each cell, pendulous, collateral, anatropous; micropyle
superior; raphe ventral. Fruit drupaceous. Seeds without albumen;
seed-coat membranaceous; embryo straight; cotyledons foliaceous; radicle
short, superior.
Of the sixteen genera of this family, which is widely distributed
through the tropics of the two hemispheres, one only, Bursera, occurs in
the United States, reaching the shores of southern Florida with an
arborescent species, and southern California and Arizona with another
species.
1. BURSERA Jacq.
Trees, with balsamic resinous juices. Leaves unequally pinnate; leaflets
opposite, petiolulate, entire or subserrate, thin, or coriaceous.
Flowers polygamous, small, on fascicled or rarely solitary pedicels, in
short or elongated lateral simple or branched panicles; calyx minute,
membranaceous; petals inserted on the base of an annular crenate disk,
reflexed at maturity above the middle; stamens inserted on the base of
the disk; anthers oblong, attached on the back above the base, usually
effete in the pistillate flower; ovary sessile, ovoid, 3-celled,
rudimentary in the staminate flower; style short; stigma capitate,
obtuse, 3-lobed; ovules suspended below the apex from the central angle.
Fruit with a valvate epicarp, globose or oblong-oblique, indistinctly
3-angled; flesh coriaceo-carnose, 2—3-valved; nutlets 1—3, usually
solitary, adnate to a persistent fleshy axis, 1-celled, 1-seeded,
covered with a thin membranaceous coat. Seed ovoid, without albumen;
seed-coat membranaceous; hilum ventral, below the apex; embryo straight;
cotyledons contortuplicate.
Bursera with about forty species is confined to southern Florida, the
Antilles, the southwestern United States and to Mexico, and Central and
South America.
The generic name is in honor of Joachim Burser (1593—1649), a German
botanist and physician.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Leaves 5—7 rarely 3-foliolate, their rachis and petiole without wings;
staminate flowers in elongated many-flowered racemes.
1. B. Simaruba (D).
Leaves usually 10—22-foliolate, their rachis and petiole
wing-margined; staminate flowers in short, usually 3-flowered
clusters.
2. B. microphylla (G, H).
1. Bursera Simaruba Sarg. Gumbo Limbo. West Indian Birch.
[Illustration: Fig. 587]
Leaves confined to the end of the branchlets, 6′—8′ long, 4′—8′ wide,
with a long slender petiole, and usually 5, rarely 3 or 7 leaflets
coriaceous at maturity, oblong-ovate, oblique at base, contracted at
apex into a long or short point, 2½′—3′ long, 1½′—2′ broad, with stout
petiolules often ½′ long; deciduous in early winter or occasionally
persistent until the following spring. Flowers about 3/16′ in diameter,
appearing before the leaves or as they unfold, on slender pedicels ⅓′—½′
long, in slender raceme-like panicles, those of the staminate plant
4′—5′ long or nearly twice as long as those of the pistillate plant;
calyx-lobes and petals 5; petals ovate-lanceolate, acute, revolute on
the margins, and nearly four times as long as the slender acute
calyx-lobes; stamens of the staminate flower as long as the petals and
in the pistillate flower not more than half as long, with smaller often
effete anthers. Fruit in short raceme-like clusters, ¼′—⅓′ long,
3-angled, with a thick dark red outer coat, separating readily into 3
broad-ovate valves, and containing 1 or rarely 2 bony triangular nutlets
rounded at base, pointed at apex, and covered with a thin membranaceous
light pink coat; seeds 1 or 2, triangular, rose color.
A glabrous tree, 50°—60° high, with a trunk 2½°—3° in diameter, massive
primary branches spreading nearly at right angles, and stout terete
branchlets light gray during their first season, becoming during their
second year reddish brown, covered with lenticular spots and
conspicuously marked by large elevated obcordate yellow leaf-scars.
Winter-buds short, rounded, obtuse, with broad-ovate dark red scales
slightly scarious on the margins. Bark of the trunk and large branches
1′ thick, glandular dotted, separating freely into thin papery bright
red-brown scales exposing in falling the dark red-brown or gray inner
bark. Wood spongy, very light, exceedingly soft and weak, light brown,
with thick sapwood, soon becoming discolored by decay. Pieces of the
trunk and large branches set in the ground soon produce roots and grow
rapidly into large trees. The aromatic resin obtained by incisions cut
in the trunk was formerly used in the treatment of gout, and in the West
Indies is manufactured into varnish. An infusion of the leaves is
sometimes used in Florida as a substitute for tea.
Distribution. Florida, from Cape Canaveral to the southern keys, and on
the west coast from Terra Ceia Island, Manatee County, Plagida, De Sota
County, and Gasparilla Island southward; one of the largest and most
common of the south Florida trees, and the only one which sheds its
foliage during the autumn and winter; on most of the West Indian
islands, in tropical Mexico, Guatemala, New Granada, and Venezuela.
2. Bursera microphylla A. Gray.
[Illustration: Fig. 588]
Leaves glabrous, deciduous, 1′—1¼′ long, with a slender narrowly winged
rachis and petiole and usually 10—20 oblong or oblong-obovate leaflets
rounded at apex, obliquely cuneate at base, sessile, about ¼′ long and
1/12′ wide. Flowers appearing in June before the leaves, ⅙′ long on
slender pedicels from the axils of minute acuminate caducous bracts, in
mostly 3-flowered clusters ¼′ in length; staminate, calyx-lobes ovate,
acute; petals 5, lanceolate, acuminate, revolute on the margins, 3 or 4
times longer than the calyx-lobes, white; stamens shorter than the
petals; pistillate flower not seen. Fruit ripening in October, ellipsoid
or slightly obovoid, solitary, drooping on the thickened pedicel ⅕′ in
length, 3-angled, ¼′ long, red, glabrous, splitting into three valves;
nutlets usually ovoid, acute, narrow at base, thin walled, 3-angled,
gray with a deep depression at base.
A tree, rarely 10°—12° high, with a short trunk 2½′—3′ in diameter,
stout erect and spreading branches, forming a wide round-topped head,
and slender glabrous red branchlets, roughened during their first year
by the crowded scars of fallen leaves; more often a low shrub. Bark of
the trunk pale yellow, separating into membranaceous scales, the outer
layer thin and firm, the inner layer corky, reddish brown, ½′ thick.
Wood hard, close-grained, pale yellow.
Distribution. Colorado Desert, between Fish Creek and Carriso Creek
about twenty-five miles from the Mexican Boundary, on “banks of dry
washes, in hard sterile soil covered with boulders” (_E. H. Davis_),
Imperial County, California; near Maricopa, Pinal County, Arizona, and
in Lower California and Sonora; reported as a tree only from California.
XXIX. MELIACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with hard wood and alternate pinnate leaves, without
stipules. Flowers in panicles, perfect, regular; calyx 5-lobed, the
lobes contorted (in _Swietenia_) in the bud, persistent; petals 5,
convolute in the bud; stamens inserted at the base of the disk;
filaments united into a tube; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells
opening longitudinally; ovary 3—5-celled, free, surrounded at base by an
annular or cup-shaped disk; styles united, dilated into a 5-lobed
stigma; ovules numerous in each cell, suspended, semianatropous; raphe
ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit a capsule (in _Swietenia_) or drupe.
Seeds often winged; embryo with leafy cotyledons.
A family with about forty genera chiefly confined to the tropics, with a
single representative, Swietenia, in southern Florida. _Melia Azedarach_
L., of this family, the China-tree or Pride of India, with drupaceous
fruits, has long been cultivated in the southern states, where it now
often grows spontaneously.
1. SWIETENIA Jacq.
Trees, with heavy dark red wood. Leaves abruptly pinnate, glabrous,
long-petiolate, persistent; leaflets opposite, petiolulate, usually
oblique at base. Flowers small, in axillary or subterminal panicles
produced near the end of the branches; calyx minute; petals spreading;
staminal tube urn-shaped, connate with the petals, 10-lobed, the lobes
convolute in the bud; anthers 10, fixed by the back below the sinuses of
the staminal tube, included; ovary ovoid, 5-celled, the cells opposite
the petals; style erect, longer than the tube of the stamens; stigma
discoid, 5-rayed. Fruit a 5-celled 5-valved capsule septicidally
dehiscent from the base, the valves separating from a persistent
5-angled axis thickened toward the apex and 5-winged toward the base.
Seeds suspended from near the summit of the axis, imbricated in 2 ranks,
compressed, emarginate, produced above into a long membranaceous wing
with the hilum at its apex and transversed by the raphe; embryo
transverse; cotyledons conferruminate with each other and with the thin
fleshy albumen; radicle short, papillæform.
Swietenia with five species is confined to tropical America from
southern Florida where one species occurs, to Venezuela, western and
southwestern Mexico, and the east coast of Central America.
The generic name is in honor of Baron von Swieten (1700—1772), the
distinguished Dutch physician, founder of the Botanic Garden and of the
Medical School at Vienna.
1. Swietenia mahagoni Jacq. Mahogany.
[Illustration: Fig. 589]
Leaves 4′—6′ long, with a slender glabrous petiole thickened at base and
3 or 4 pairs of ovate-lanceolate leaflets rounded at base on the upper
side, narrow-cuneate or nearly straight on the lower side, entire,
coriaceous, pale yellow-green or slightly rufous on the under surface,
3′—4′ long, 1′—1½′ wide, with a prominent reddish brown midrib,
conspicuous reticulate veins, and a stout grooved petiolule ¼′ long.
Flowers appearing in July and August on slender puberulous pedicels,
bibracteolate near the middle, 1 or 2 together at the end of the
branches of slender panicles in the axils of leaves of the year; calyx
glabrous, cup-shaped, much shorter than the ovate elliptic petals ⅛′
long and slightly emarginate at apex. Fruit ripening in the autumn or
early winter, long-stalked, ovoid, rounded at apex narrowed at base,
4′—5′ long and 2½′ broad, with thick dark brown valves rugose and pitted
on the surface, its axis obovoid 3′ or 4′ long, 1′—1½′ thick, dark
red-brown, marked near the apex by the dark scars left by the falling
seeds; seeds ¾′ long, almost square, thickened at base and nearly one
fourth as long as their ovate rugose red-brown wings rounded or truncate
at apex and gradually contracted below.
A tree, in Florida rarely more than 40°—50° high or with a trunk
exceeding 2° in diameter, and slender glabrous angled branchlets covered
during their first season with pale red-brown bark, becoming lighter or
gray faintly tinged with red and thickly covered with lenticels during
their second year; much larger in the West Indies. Winter-buds about ⅛′
long, with broad-ovate minutely apiculate loosely imbricated light red
scales. Bark of the trunk in Florida ½′—⅔′ thick, with a dark red-brown
surface broken into short broad rather thick scales. Wood heavy,
exceedingly hard and strong, close-grained, very durable, rich
red-brown, becoming darker with age and exposure, with thin yellow
sapwood of about 20 layers of annual growth; the most esteemed of all
woods for cabinet-making, and also largely used in the interior finish
of houses and railroad cars, and formerly in ship and boat-building. The
bark is bitter and astringent and has been used as a substitute for
quinine in the treatment of intermittent fevers.
Distribution. Florida, hummocks, shores of Bay Biscayne on the Everglade
Keys and near Flamingo on White Water Bay, Dade County, on Elliotts Key,
Key Largo and Upper Matacombe Key; rare and now nearly exterminated
except in the region of Cape Sable; on the Bahama and many of the West
Indian islands.
XXX. EUPHORBIACEÆ.
Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with acrid juice, and alternate stipular
leaves. Flowers monœcious or diœcious; calyx 3—6-lobed or parted, the
divisions imbricated in the bud, or wanting; corolla 0; stamens 2 or 3,
or as many or twice as many as the calyx-lobes; anthers 2-celled,
opening longitudinally; ovules 1 or 2 in each cell, suspended,
anatropous; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit a drupe or capsule.
Seeds albuminous; cotyledons flat, much longer than the superior
radicle.
The Euphorbia family, widely distributed over tropical and temperate
regions, with some one hundred and thirty genera and over three thousand
species, is represented in the United States by three arborescent
genera, with only five species, and by many shrubby herbaceous and
annual plants.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Fruit drupaceous.
Nutlets usually 1-celled and 1-seeded; stamens as many or twice as
many as the calyx-lobes, free.
1. Drypetes.
Nutlets 6—8-celled and 6—8-seeded; stamens 2 or 3, united into a
column.
2. Hippomane.
Fruit a 3-lobed capsule splitting into three 2-valved 1-seeded
carpels.
1. DRYPETES Vahl.
Trees or shrubs, with thick juice, and terete branchlets. Leaves
involute in the bud, petiolate, penniveined, coriaceous, persistent;
stipules minute, caducous. Flowers axillary, sessile or pedicellate,
their pedicels from the axils of minute deciduous bracts, ebracteolate,
the males in many-flowered clusters, the females solitary or in
few-flowered clusters; calyx divided nearly to the base into 4 or 5
lobes rounded or acute at apex, deciduous or persistent under the fruit;
stamens inserted under the margin of a flat or concave slightly lobed
disk, 0 in the pistillate flower; filaments filiform; anthers ovoid,
emarginate, attached on the back near the base, extrorse or introrse,
2-celled, the cells affixed to a broad oblong connective; ovary sessile,
ovoid, 1 or rarely 2-celled, with 1 or 2 sessile or subsessile peltate
or reniform stigmas, rudimentary or wanting in the staminate flower;
ovules collateral, descending, attached to the central angle of the
cell, operculate, with a hood-like body developed from the placenta.
Fruit drupaceous, ovoid or subglobose, tipped with the withered remnants
of the stigmas; flesh thick and corky or thin and crustaceous; stone
thick or thin, bony or crustaceous, 1-celled and 1-seeded, or rarely
2-celled and 2-seeded. Seed filling the cavity of the nut; seed-coat
crustaceous or membranaceous; embryo erect in thin fleshy albumen.
Drypetes is confined to the tropical regions of the New World, and is
distributed from southern Florida through the West Indies to eastern
Brazil. Of the eleven species now distinguished, two inhabit the
coast-region of southern Florida.
The generic name, from δρύππα, relates to the character of the fruit.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Calyx 5-lobed; stamens 8; ovary 1-celled; fruit oblong, ivory-white;
outer coat thick and mealy; stone thick-walled.
1. D. diversifolia (D).
Calyx 4-lobed; stamens 4; ovary 2-celled; fruit subglobose, bright
red; outer coat thin, crustaceous; stone thin-walled.
2. D. lateriflora (D).
1. Drypetes diversifolia Krug & Urb. White Wood.
_Drypetes keyensis_ Krug & Urb.
[Illustration: Fig. 590]
Leaves appearing in early spring and falling during their second year,
entire, oval or oblong, often more or less falcate, acute, acuminate,
rounded or rarely emarginate at apex, rounded or cuneate at base, on
young plants often spinose-dentate, when they unfold thin and
membranaceous, light green or green tinged with red and pilose with
scattered pale hairs, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green and
lustrous, rather paler on the lower surface than on the upper surface,
3′—5′ long and 1′—2′ wide, with a broad thick pale midrib raised and
rounded on the upper side and obscure primary veins arcuate and united
near the thick revolute cartilaginous margins and connected by
conspicuous coarsely reticulated veinlets; petioles stout, yellow,
grooved above, ½′ long; stipules nearly triangular, rather less than
1/16′ long, caducous. Flowers on pedicels rather shorter than the
petioles, opening in early spring from the axils of leaves of the
previous year, the staminate in many-flowered clusters, the pistillate
usually solitary or occasionally in 2—3-flowered clusters; calyx
yellow-green, hirsute on the outer surface, 1/16′ long, and divided
nearly to the base into 5 ovate acute boat-shaped lobes deciduous from
the fruit; stamens about 8, inserted on the borders of the slightly
lobed pulvinate concave disk; filaments unequal in length, rather longer
than the calyx-lobes and a little longer than the broad-ovoid emarginate
pilose extrorse anthers, with broad ovate acute connectives; ovary
sessile, hirsute, 1-celled, crowned with a broad sessile slightly
stalked oblique pulvinate stigma, wanting in the staminate flower. Fruit
ripening in the autumn, deciduous at maturity from its stout erect stalk
much enlarged at apex and ⅓′ long, ovoid, 1′ long, ivory-white, with
thick dry mealy flesh closely investing the light brown stone narrowed
at base into a long point, with bony walls ⅛′ thick and penetrated
longitudinally by large fibro-vascular bundle-channels; seed oblong,
rounded at the ends, nearly ½′ long, covered with a thin membranaceous
light brown coat marked by conspicuous veins radiating from the small
hilum.
A tree, occasionally 30°—40° high, with a trunk sometimes a foot in
diameter, stout usually erect branches forming an oblong round-topped
head, and stout branchlets light green tinged with red and covered with
pale scattered caducous hairs when they first appear, becoming ashy gray
and roughened by numerous elevated circular pale lenticels and later by
the large prominent orbicular leaf-scars displaying the ends of 3
conspicuous fibro-vascular bundles. Winter-buds minute, obtuse, partly
immersed in the bark and coated with brown resin. Bark of the trunk
about ½′ thick, smooth, milky white and often marked by large irregular
gray or pale brown patches. Wood heavy, hard, not strong, brittle,
close-grained, and brown streaked with bright yellow, with thick
yellow-brown sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, Flamingo near Cape Sable (_C. T. Simpson_),
Cocoanut Grove (_Miss O. Rodham_), Dade County, on Key West, Key Largo,
Elliotts, Lower Metacombe and Umbrella Keys. One of the rarest of the
tropical trees of Florida; on the Bahamas.
2. Drypetes lateriflora Urb. Guiana Plum.
[Illustration: Fig. 591]
Leaves appearing in Florida in early spring and falling during their
second year, oblong, acute or acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed at
base, and entire, when they unfold thin and covered with scattered pale
hairs, and at maturity subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous, 3′—4′
long and ½′—1½′ wide, with a conspicuous light-colored midrib, rounded
above, and pale obscure primary veins arcuate and united near the
slightly thickened revolute margins and connected by slender reticulate
veinlets; petioles slender, grooved, ¼′ in length. Flowers on pedicels
shorter than the petioles, opening late in the autumn or in early winter
on branches one or two years old, in the axils of leaves or from
leafless nodes, in many or few-flowered clusters; calyx greenish white,
hirsute on the outer surface, divided to the base into 4 ovate rounded
lobes, persistent under the fruit; stamens 4, inserted under the margin
and between the lobes of the flat tomentose disk; filaments slender,
exserted; anthers introrse, emarginate, pilose, wanting in the
pistillate flower; ovary ovoid, tomentose, 2-celled, with 2 nearly
sessile oblique spreading cushion-like stigmas. Fruit ripening during
the spring and early summer, subglobose, ⅓′ in diameter, tipped with the
conspicuous blackened remnants of the stigmas, bright red, covered with
soft pubescence, solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3, deciduous at
maturity from its stout stalk enlarged at apex and ¼′ long; flesh thin
and crustaceous, closely investing the thin-walled crustaceous stone;
seed usually solitary by abortion, obovoid, gibbous, ⅛′ long, narrowed
below, narrowed and marked at apex by the elevated pale hilum and on the
inner surface of the seed-coat by the broad conspicuous raphe.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a short trunk 5′—6′ in diameter, small erect
branches, and slender branchlets, light green tinged with red when they
first appear, becoming in their first winter ashy gray and marked by
scattered pale lenticels, and at the end of their second year by the
small elevated oval leaf-scars displaying the ends of 3 fibro-vascular
bundles. Winter-buds minute, acute or obtuse, chestnut-brown, and
covered with pale hairs. Bark of the trunk about 1/16′ thick, light
brown tinged with red, the generally smooth surface separating into
small irregular scales. Wood heavy, hard, brittle, close-grained, rich
dark brown, with thick yellow sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, shores of Bay
Biscayne, Dade County, and on many of the southern keys; common on the
Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.
2. HIPPOMANE L.
A glabrous tree, with thick acrid juice, scaly bark, and stout pithy
branchlets marked by circular raised lenticels, and oblong or
semiorbicular horizontal elevated leaf-scars displaying a row of obscure
fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and nearly encircled at the nodes by
ring-like scars left by the falling of the stipules. Winter-buds ovoid,
acute, covered by many loosely imbricated long-pointed chestnut-brown
scales. Leaves alternate, involute in the bud, tardily deciduous,
broad-ovate, rounded and abruptly narrowed at apex into a broad point
terminating in a slender mucro, rounded or subcordate at base, remotely
crenulate-serrate with minute gland-tipped teeth, penniveined,
long-petiolate, at first pilose with occasional long pale hairs, soon
becoming glabrous, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark
yellow-green and lustrous above, paler and dull below, with a stout
light yellow midrib raised and rounded on the upper side, and slender
primary veins remote, arcuate, and united at some distance from the
margins and connected by conspicuous coarsely reticulate veinlets more
prominent on the upper than on the lower side; their petioles elongated,
slender, rigid, light yellow, rounded below, obscurely grooved above,
marked at the apex by large orbicular dark red glands; stipules
ovate-lanceolate, abruptly narrowed from a broad base, slightly
laciniate near the apex, membranaceous, light chestnut-brown, caducous.
Inflorescence terminal, spicate, appearing in early spring usually
before the unfolding leaves, the stout fleshy rachis often bearing at
the base acute sterile deciduous bracts, or 1 or 2 small leaves, the
minute pistillate flowers solitary in their axils or in the axils of
ovate acute lanceolate bracts furnished with 2 lateral glandular
bractlets; staminate flowers minute, articulate on slender pedicels
clustered in 8—15-flowered fascicles in the axils of simple bracts
higher on the rachis and extending to its apex; calyx usually 3-lobed,
the lobes imbricated in the bud, that of the staminate flower
yellow-green, membranaceous, divided below into 3 or sometimes into 2
acute lobes; calyx of the pistillate flower, ovoid, yellow-green,
divided nearly to the base into 3 ovate acute concave divisions rounded
on the back; stamens 2 or often 3, exserted, more or less connate by
their filaments into a stout column, free and spreading at apex; anthers
ovoid, light yellow, surmounted by the short prolonged connective,
attached on the back below the middle, erect, extrorse; ovary
6—8-celled, narrowed at base, gradually contracted above into a short
simple cylindric style separating into 6—8 long radiating flattened
abruptly reflexed lobes stigmatic on the inner face; ovule solitary in
each cell. Fruit drupaceous, pome-shaped, obscurely 6—8-lobed, raised on
a thickened woody stem; skin thin, light yellow-green or yellow and red;
flesh thick, lactescent, adherent to the thick-walled rugose deeply
winged 6—8-celled, 6—8-seeded subglobose stone flattened at the ends,
the cells divided throughout by thin dark radial plates, ultimately
separable, penetrated near the summit by oblique canals filled by the
funicles of the seeds. Seeds oblong-ovoid, marked by a minute slightly
elevated hilum and on the ventral face by an obscure raphe; seed-coat
membranaceous, separable into 2 layers, the outer dark, the inner
thinner, light brown; embryo surrounded by thick fleshy albumen.
The genus is represented by a single species abounding in exceedingly
poisonous caustic sap which produces cutaneous eruptions and when taken
internally destroys the mucous membrane; formerly employed by the Caribs
to poison arrows.
The generic name is from ἵππος and µανία, and was first used by the
Greeks to distinguish some plant with properties excitant to horses.
1. Hippomane Mancinella L. Manchineel.
[Illustration: Fig. 592]
Leaves 3′—4′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, unfolding in early spring and persistent
in Florida until the spring of the following year; petioles 2½′—4′ in
length. Flowers opening in March before the leaves of the year; rachis
of the inflorescence 4′—6′ long, dark purple, more or less covered with
a glaucous bloom. Fruit ripening in the autumn or early winter and often
persistent on the branches until after the appearance of the flowers of
the following year, 1′—1½′ in diameter, light yellow-green, with a
bright red cheek; seeds about ¼′ long.
A tree, in Florida rarely more than 12°—15° high, with a short trunk
5′—6′ in diameter, long spreading pendulous branches forming a handsome
round-topped head; in the West Indies often 50°—60° tall, with a trunk
occasionally 3° in diameter. Bark of the trunk ¼′—½′ thick, dark brown
and broken on the surface into small thick appressed irregularly shaped
scales; in the West Indies sometimes smooth, light gray or nearly white.
Wood light and soft, close-grained, dark brown, with thick light brown
or yellow sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, sandy beaches and dry knolls in the immediate
neighborhood of the ocean, shores of White Water Bay and on many of the
southern keys; on the Bahama Islands, through the Antilles to the
northern countries of South America, and to southern Mexico and the
eastern and western coasts of Central America.
3. GYMNANTHES Sw.
Glabrous trees or shrubs, with milky juice and slender terete
branchlets. Leaves conduplicate in the bud, petiolate, entire or
crenulate-serrate, coriaceous, penniveined, persistent; stipules
membranaceous, minute, caducous. Flowers monœcious or rarely diœcious;
inflorescence buds covered with closely imbricated chestnut-brown
scales, lengthening in anthesis, bearing in the upper axils numerous
3-branched clusters of staminate flowers, their branches furnished with
minute ovate bracts, and in the lower axils 2 or 3 long-stalked
pistillate flowers; calyx of the staminate flower minute or 0; stamens 2
or rarely 3; filaments filiform, inserted on the slightly enlarged
torus, free or slightly connate at base; anthers attached on the back
below the middle, erect, ovoid, 2-celled, the cells parallel; calyx of
the pistillate flower reduced to 3 bract-like scales; ovary ovoid,
3-celled, narrowed into 3 recurved styles free or slightly united at
base, stigmatic on their inner face; ovule solitary in each cell. Fruit
a 3-lobed capsule separating from the persistent axis into three
2-valved 1-seeded carpels dehiscent on the dorsal suture and partly
dehiscent on the ventral suture. Seed ovoid or subglobose, strophiolate;
seed-coat crustaceous; embryo erect in fleshy albumen.
Gymnanthes with about ten species is confined to the tropics of the New
World and is distributed from southern Florida, where one species
occurs, through the West Indies to Mexico and Brazil.
The generic name, from γυµνός and ἄνθος, relates to the structure of the
naked flowers.
1. Gymnanthes lucida Sw. Crab Wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 593]
Leaves oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, obscurely and remotely
crenulate-serrate or often entire, when they unfold thin and
membranaceous, deeply tinged with red, and glandular on the teeth with
minute caducous dark glands, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green and
lustrous on the upper surface and pale and dull on the lower surface,
2′—3′ long, ⅔′—1½′ wide, with a broad pale midrib raised and rounded on
the upper side, obscure primary veins arcuate and united near the
margins and connected by prominent coarsely reticulate veinlets;
appearing in Florida in early spring and remaining on the branches
through their second summer; petioles broad, slightly grooved, about ¼′
in length; stipules ovate, acute, light brown, clothed on the margins
with long pale hairs, about 1/16′ long. Flowers: inflorescence buds
appearing in Florida late in the autumn in the axils of leaves of the
year and beginning to lengthen in spring, the inflorescence becoming
1½′—2′ long, with a slender glabrous angled rachis, the scales
broad-ovate, pointed, concave, rounded and thickened at apex, puberulous
and ciliate on the margins, those inclosing the male flowers connate
with the flowers and persistent under the calyx, those subtending the
female flowers at the base of the inflorescence and not raised on their
peduncle. Fruit produced in Florida sparingly, ripening in the autumn,
slightly obovoid, dark reddish brown or nearly black, ⅓′ in diameter,
covered with thin dry flesh, and pendent on a slender stem 1′ or more in
length; seeds ovoid.
A tree, occasionally 20°—30° high, with a trunk 6′—8′ in diameter and
often irregularly ridged, the rounded ridges spreading near the surface
of the ground into broad buttresses, slender erect branches forming a
narrow open oblong head, and slender upright branchlets light green more
or less deeply shaded with red when they first appear, becoming in their
first winter light gray-brown faintly tinged with red and roughened by
numerous oblong pale lenticels, ultimately ashy gray and marked at the
end of their second year by the semiorbicular elevated leaf-scars
displaying the ends of 4 fibro-vascular bundle-scars superposed in
pairs. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, covered with chestnut-brown scales,
about 1/16′ long. Bark of the trunk dark red-brown, about 1/16′ thick,
separating into large thin scales, in falling displaying the light brown
inner bark. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, rich dark brown
streaked with yellow, with thick bright yellow sapwood; in Florida
occasionally manufactured into canes, and used as fuel.
Distribution. Florida, common in low woods from the shores of Bay
Biscayne to the Everglade Keys, Dade County, and on many of the southern
keys to those of the Marquesas group; on the Bahama Islands, and on many
of the Antilles.
XXXI. ANACARDIACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with terete pithy branchlets, resinous juice, and
alternate simple or pinnate leaves, without stipules, and scaly or naked
buds. Flowers regular, minute, diœcious, polygamo-diœcious, or
polygamo-monœcious; calyx-lobes and petals 5, imbricated in the bud or
0; stamens as many as the petals and alternate and inserted with them on
the margin or under an hypogynous annular fleshy slightly 5-lobed disk;
filaments filiform; anthers oblong, introrse, 2-celled, the cells
opening longitudinally; ovary 1-celled; styles 1—3; ovule solitary,
suspended from the apex of a slender funicle rising from the base of the
cell, anatropous; micropyle superior; styles 3, united or spreading;
stigmas terminal. Fruit drupaceous. Seed without albumen; seed-coat thin
and membranaceous; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons
flat, accumbent on the short radicle.
The Sumach family with some sixty genera is mostly confined to the
warmer parts of the earth’s surface and contains the Mango, Pistacia,
and other important trees. In the flora of the United States four genera
have arborescent representatives.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers without petals, and in the species of the United States,
without a calyx.
1. Pistacia.
Flowers with a calyx and petals.
Flowers usually diœcious by abortion; styles lateral, spreading;
pedicels of the abortive flowers becoming long and plumose at
maturity; fruit compressed, very oblique; leaves simple,
deciduous.
2. Cotinus.
Flowers mostly diœcious; styles terminal, short, united; stigma
3-lobed; fruit ovoid, glabrous; leaves unequally pinnate,
persistent.
3. Metopium.
Flowers polygamo-diœcious or polygamo-monœcious; styles terminal,
spreading; fruit usually globose, naked or clothed with acrid
hairs; leaves unequally pinnate, trifoliolate or rarely
simple, deciduous or rarely persistent.
4. Rhus.
1. PISTACIA L.
Balsamic trees or shrubs. Leaves 3-foliolate or equally or unequally
pinnate, petiolate, deciduous or persistent. Flowers small, diœcious,
subtended by a bract and 2 branchlets, short pedicellate in panicles or
racemes; calyx 1 or 2-lobed or in the pistillate flower 3—5-lobed, or 0;
petals 0, stamens 3—5, 0 in the pistillate flower; filaments short,
their base connate with the disk; anthers large; ovary subglobose or
short-ovoid, rudimentary or 0 in the staminate flower; style 3-lobed,
shorter than the 3 obovate-oblong or oblong stigmas. Drupe ovoid,
oblique, compressed; exocarpa thin; the stone bony, 1-seeded; seed
compressed; cotyledons thick plano-convex.
Pistacia with eight or nine species is confined to the valley of the
lower Rio Grande, southern Mexico; the Canary Islands, the countries
adjacent to the Mediterranean, and northern and central China, with one
species growing on the northern banks of the Rio Grande in Texas.
The Pistacio-nuts of commerce, the green or yellow seeds of P. _vera_ L.
are largely used in confectionery, and some of the species are valued
for the decoration of parks and gardens.
Pistacia from πιστ and ἄκεοµαι, in reference to the healing properties
of its resinous exudations.
1. Pistacia texana Swing.
[Illustration: Fig. 594]
Leaves persistent or tardily deciduous, 9—19-foliolate, with a slightly
winged rachis pubescent above and a flattened narrow-winged petiole
½′—¾′ in length; leaflets spatulate, rounded and often mucronate at
apex, gradually narrowed below into a deltoid or subcuneiform base,
entire, more or less curved and unequilateral, wine-red when they
unfold, and at maturity thin, dark green and sparingly pubescent along
the midrib above, pale and glabrous below, nearly sessile or the
terminal leaflet raised on a short petiolule, 5/12′—¾′ long and about ¼′
wide, with a slender midrib often near one side of the leaflet and
reticulate veinlets. Flowers small, without a calyx, appearing just
before or with the new leaves, in simple nearly glabrous panicles, their
bracts and bractlets ciliate on the margins and wine-red at apex;
staminate flowers more crowded than the pistillate, in compact panicles
¾′—1½′ long; anthers reddish yellow or wine color; pistillate flowers in
loose panicles 1½′—2½′ in length; ovary ovoid or subglobose, two of the
three styles with 2-lobed stigmas, the third with a 3-lobed stigma.
Fruit oval, dark reddish brown and slightly glaucescent, about ¼′ long
and ⅙′ broad, usually striate.
A small tree, occasionally 30° high with a short trunk 15′—18′ in
diameter, with stout erect and spreading branches forming a head
sometimes 30°—35° across, and slender slightly pubescent reddish
branchlets becoming grayish brown by the end of their first year; more
often a large shrub with numerous stout stems.
Distribution. Texas, limestone cliffs and the rocky bottoms of cañons
periodically swept by floods, and in deep narrow ravines, along the
lower Pecos River and in the neighborhood of its mouth, Valverde County;
and in northeastern Mexico.
2. COTINUS L.
Small trees or shrubs, with scaly bark, small acute winter-buds, with
numerous imbricated scales, fleshy roots, and strong-smelling juice.
Leaves simple, petiolate, oval, obovate-oblong or nearly orbicular,
glabrous or more or less pilose-pubescent, deciduous. Flowers regular,
diœcious by abortion or rarely polygamo-diœcious, greenish yellow, on
slender pedicels accrescent after the flowering period, mostly abortive
and then becoming conspicuously tomentose-villose at maturity, in ample
loose terminal or lateral pyramidal or thyrsoidal panicles, the branches
from the axils of linear acute or spatulate deciduous bracts;
calyx-lobes ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, persistent; disk coherent with the
base of the calyx and surrounding the base of the ovary; petals oblong,
acute, twice as long as the calyx, inserted under the free margin of the
disk opposite its lobes, deciduous; stamens shorter than the petals,
usually rudimentary or wanting in the pistillate flower; ovary sessile,
obovoid, compressed, rudimentary in the staminate flower; styles 3,
short and spreading from the lateral apex of the ovary; stigmas large,
obtuse. Fruit oblong-oblique, compressed, glabrous, conspicuously
reticulate-veined, light red-brown, bearing on the side near the middle
the remnants of the persistent styles, the outer coat thin and dry;
stone thick and bony.
Cotinus is widely distributed through southern Europe and the Himalayas
to central China with a single species, and is represented in the
southern United States by one species.
The Old World _Cotinus coggygria_ Scop., the Smoke-tree of gardens, is
often cultivated in the United States.
The generic name is from Κότινος, the classical name of a tree with red
wood.
1. Cotinus americanus Nutt. Chittam Wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 595]
Leaves oval or obovate, rounded or sometimes slightly emarginate at
apex, gradually contracted at base, and entire, with slightly wavy
revolute margins, when they unfold light purple and covered below with
fine silky white hairs, and at maturity dark green on the upper surface,
pale on the lower surface, and puberulous along the under side of the
broad midrib and primary veins, 4′—6′ long and 2′—3′ wide; turning in
the autumn brilliant shades of orange and scarlet; petioles stout, ½′—¾′
in length. Flowers appearing late in April or early in May on pedicels
½′—¾′ long, and usually collected 3 or 4 together in loose umbels near
the end of the principal branches of puberulous terminal slender
long-branched few-flowered panicles 5′—6′ long and 2½′—3′ broad, the
staminate and pistillate flowers on different individuals. Fruit
produced very sparingly, about ⅛′ long, on stems 2′—3′ in length; the
sterile pedicels becoming 1½′—2′ long at maturity and covered with short
not very abundant rather inconspicuous pale purple or brown hairs; seed
kidney-shaped, pale brown, about 1/16′ long.
A tree, 25°—35° high, with a straight trunk occasionally 12′—14′ in
diameter, usually dividing 12°—14° from the ground into several erect
stems separating into wide-spreading often slightly pendulous branches,
and slender branchlets purple when they first appear, soon becoming
green, bright red-brown and covered with small white lenticels and
marked by large prominent leaf-scars during their first winter, and dark
orange-colored in their second year. Winter-buds ⅛′ long, and covered
with thin dark red-brown scales. Bark of the trunk ⅛′ thick, light gray,
furrowed, and broken on the surface into thin oblong scales. Wood light,
soft, rather coarse-grained, bright clear rich orange color, with thin
nearly white sapwood; largely used locally for fence-posts and very
durable in contact with the soil; yielding a clear orange-colored dye.
Distribution. Banks of the Ohio River, Owensboro, Daviess County,
Kentucky (_E. J. Palmer_); on the Cheat Mountains, eastern Tennessee;
near Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama; valley of White River in Stone
and Taney Counties, southern Missouri; near Cotter, Baxter County, and
Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma; valleys of
the upper Guadalupe and Medina Rivers, western Texas; usually only in
small isolated groves or thickets scattered along the sides of rocky
ravines or dry slopes; very abundant as a small shrub and spreading over
many thousand acres of the mountain cañons, and high hillsides in the
neighborhood of Spanish Pass, Kendall County, Texas.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern United States and rarely in
Europe; hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.
3. METOPIUM P. Br.
Trees or shrubs, with naked buds, fleshy roots, and milky exceedingly
caustic juice. Leaves unequally pinnate, persistent; leaflets
coriaceous, lustrous, long-petiolulate. Flowers diœcious, yellow-green,
on short stout pedicels, in narrow erect axillary clusters at the ends
of the branches, with minute acute deciduous bracts and bractlets, the
males and females on different trees; calyx-lobes semiorbicular, about
half as long as the ovate obtuse petals; stamens 5, inserted under the
margin of the disk; filaments shorter than the anthers, minute and
rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary ovoid, sessile, minute in
the staminate flower; style terminal, short, undivided; stigma 3-lobed.
Fruit ovoid, compressed, smooth and glabrous, crowned with the remnants
of the style; outer coat thick and resinous; stone crustaceous. Seed
nearly quadrangular, compressed; seed-coat smooth, dark brown and
opaque, the broad funicle covering its margin.
Metopium with two species is confined to southern Florida and the West
Indies.
The generic name, from ὄπος, was the classical name of an African tree
now unknown.
1. Metopium toxiferum Kr. & Urb. Poison Wood. Hog Gum.
_Metopium Metopium_ Small.
[Illustration: Fig. 596]
Leaves clustered near the end of the branches, 9′—10′ long, with stout
petioles swollen and enlarged at base, and 5—7 leaflets, or often
3-foliolate; unfolding in March and persistent until the following
spring; leaflets ovate, rounded or usually contracted toward the acute
or sometimes slightly emarginate apex, rounded or sometimes cordate or
cuneate at base, 3′—4′ long, 2′—3′ broad, with thickened slightly
revolute margins, a prominent midrib, primary veins spreading at right
angles, and numerous reticulate veinlets; petiolules stout, ½′—1′ long,
that of the terminal leaflet often twice as long as the others. Flowers
about ⅛′ in diameter, in clusters as long or rather longer than the
leaves; petals yellow-green, marked on the inner surface by dark
longitudinal lines; stamens rather shorter than the petals. Fruit
ripening in November and December, pendent in long graceful clusters,
orange-colored, rather lustrous, ¾′ in length; seed about ¼′ long.
A tree, frequently 35°—40° high, with a short trunk sometimes 2° in
diameter, stout spreading often pendulous branches forming a low broad
head, and reddish brown branchlets marked by prominent leaf-scars and
numerous orange-colored lenticels. Winter-buds ⅓′—½′ in length, with
acuminate scales ciliate on the margin with rufous hairs. Bark of the
trunk about ⅛′ thick, light reddish brown tinged with orange, often
marked by dark spots caused by the exuding of the resinous gum, and
separating into large thin plate-like scales displaying the bright
orange color of the inner bark. Wood heavy, hard, not strong, rich dark
brown streaked with red, with thick light brown or yellow sapwood of
25—30 layers of annual growth. The resinous gum obtained from incisions
made in the bark is emetic, purgative, and diuretic.
Distribution. Florida, shores of Bay Biscayne, on the Everglade Keys,
and on Coot Bay in the rear of Cape Sable, Dade County, and on the
southern keys; very abundant; in the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and
Honduras.
4. RHUS L.
Trees or shrubs, with pithy branchlets, fleshy roots, and milky
sometimes caustic or watery juice. Leaves unequally pinnate, or rarely
simple. Flowers mostly diœcious, rarely polygamous, white or greenish
white, in more or less compound axillary or terminal panicles, the
staminate and pistillate usually produced on separate plants;
calyx-lobes united at base only, generally persistent; disk surrounding
the base of the free ovary, coherent with the base of the calyx; petals
longer than the calyx-lobes, inserted under the margin of the disk,
opposite its lobes, deciduous; stamens 5, inserted on the margin of the
disk alternate with the petals; filaments longer than the anthers; ovary
ovoid or subglobose, sessile; styles 3, terminal, free or slightly
connate at base, rising from the centre of the ovary. Fruit usually
globose, smooth or covered with hairs; outer coat thin and dry, more or
less resinous; stone crustaceous or bony. Seed ovoid or reniform,
commonly transverse; cotyledons foliaceous, generally transverse;
radicle long, uncinate, laterally accumbent.
Rhus is widely distributed, with more than one hundred species, in the
extra-tropical regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. In
North America the genus is widely and generally distributed from Canada
to southern Mexico and from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the
Pacific Ocean, with sixteen or seventeen species within the territory of
the United States. Of these, four obtain the habit of small trees. The
acrid poisonous juice of _Rhus vernicifera_ DC., of China, furnishes the
black varnish used in China and Japan in the manufacture of lacquer, and
other species are valued for the tannin contained in their leaves or for
the wax obtained from their fruit.
The name of the genus is from Ῥοῦς, the classical name of the European
Sumach.
CONSPECTUS OF NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Flowers in terminal thyrsoid panicles; fruit globular, clothed with
acrid hairs; leaves unequally pinnate, deciduous; Sumachs.
Branches and leaf-stalks densely velvety hairy; leaflets 11—31, pale
on the lower surface; fruit covered with long hairs; buds
inclosed in the enlarged base of the petioles; juice milky.
1. R. typhina (A, C).
Branches and leaf-stalks pubescent; rachis winged; leaflets 9—21,
green on the lower surface; fruit pilose; buds not inclosed by
the petioles; juice watery.
2. R. copallina (A, C).
Flowers in axillary slender panicles; fruit glabrous, white; leaves
unequally pinnate, deciduous; leaflets 7—13.
3. R. vernix (A, C).
Flowers in short compact terminal panicled racemes; fruit pubescent;
leaves ovate, entire or serrate, simple or rarely trifoliolate,
persistent.
4. R. integrifolia (G).
1. Rhus typhina L. Staghorn Sumach.
_Rhus hirta_ Sudw.
[Illustration: Fig. 597]
Leaves 16′—24′ long, with a stout petiole usually red on the upper side
and covered with soft pale hairs, enlarged at base and surrounding and
inclosing the bud developed in its axil, and 11—31 oblong often falcate
rather remotely and sharply serrate or rarely laciniate long-pointed
nearly sessile or short-stalked leaflets rounded or slightly
heart-shaped at base, covered above like the petiole and young shoots
when they first appear with red caducous hairs, bright yellow-green
until half grown, and at maturity dark green and rather opaque on the
upper surface, pale or often nearly white on the lower surface, glabrous
with the exception of the short fine hairs on the under side of the
stout midrib, and primary veins forked near the margins, opposite, or
the lower leaflets slightly alternate, those of the 3 or 4 middle pairs
considerably longer than those at the ends of the leaf, 2′—5′ long, and
1′—1½′ wide; turning in the autumn before falling bright scarlet with
shades of crimson, purple, and orange. Flowers opening gradually and in
succession in early summer, the pistillate a week or ten days later than
the staminate, on slender pedicels from the axils of small acute
pubescent bracts, in dense panicles, with a pubescent stem and
branchlets, and acuminate bracts ½′ to nearly 2′ long and deciduous with
the opening of the flowers; panicle of the staminate flowers 8′—12′ long
and 5′—6′ broad, with wide-spreading branches and nearly one third
larger than the more compact panicle of the pistillate plant;
calyx-lobes acute, covered on the outer surface with long slender hairs,
much shorter than the petals in the staminate flower, and almost as long
in the pistillate flower; petals of the staminate flower yellow-green
sometimes tinged with red, strap-shaped, rounded at apex, becoming
reflexed above the middle at maturity; petals of the pistillate flower
green, narrow and acuminate, with a thickened and slightly hooded apex,
remaining erect; disk bright red and conspicuous; stamens slightly
exserted, with slender filaments and large bright orange-colored
anthers; ovary ovoid, pubescent, the 3 short styles slightly connate at
base, with large capitate stigmas, in the staminate flower glabrous,
much smaller, unusually rudimentary. Fruit fully grown and colored in
August and ripening late in the autumn in dense panicles 6′—8′ long and
2′—3′ wide, depressed-globose, with a thin outer covering clothed with
long acrid crimson hairs and a small pale brown bony stone; seed
slightly reniform, orange-brown.
A tree, occasionally 35°—40° high, with copious white viscid juice
turning black on exposure, a slender often slightly inclining trunk
occasionally 12′—14′ in diameter, stout upright often contorted branches
forming a low flat open head, and thick branchlets covered with long
soft brown hairs gathered also in tufts in the axils of the leaflets,
becoming glabrous after their third or fourth year, and in their second
season marked by large narrow leaf-scars and by small orange-colored
lenticels enlarging vertically and persistent for several years; more
frequently a tall shrub, spreading by underground shoots into broad
thickets. Winter-buds conic, thickly coated with long silky pale brown
hairs, about ¼′ long. Bark of the trunk thin, dark brown, generally
smooth, and occasionally separating into small square scales. Wood
light, brittle, soft, coarse-grained, orange-colored, streaked with
green, with thick nearly white sapwood. From the young shoots pipes are
made for drawing the sap of the Sugar Maple. The bark, especially that
of the roots, and the leaves are rich in tannin. A form with narrow
deeply divided leaflets (f. _dissecta_ Rehdr.) occasionally occurs.
Distribution. Usually on uplands in good soil, or less commonly on
sterile gravelly banks and on the borders of streams and swamps, New
Brunswick and through the valley of the St. Lawrence River to southern
Ontario and westward to eastern North Dakota and eastern and
northeastern Iowa, and southward through the northern states and along
the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia and Mississippi; more
abundant on the Atlantic seaboard than in the region west of the
Appalachian Mountains.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the United States, and
very commonly in central and northern Europe.
× _Rhus hybrida_ Rehdr. a hybrid of _R. typhina_ and _R. glabra_ L. has
been found in Massachusetts.
2. Rhus copallina L. Sumach.
[Illustration: Fig. 598]
Leaves 6′—8′ long, with a slender pubescent petiole and rachis more or
less broadly wing-margined between the leaflets, the wings increasing in
width toward the apex of the leaf, and 9—21 oblong or ovate-lanceolate
leaflets entire or remotely serrate above the middle, sharp-pointed or
rarely emarginate at apex, acute or obtuse and often unequal at base,
those of the lower pairs short-petiolulate and smaller than those above
the middle of the leaf, the others sessile with the exception of the
terminal leaflet sometimes contracted into a long winged stalk, when
they unfold dark green and slightly puberulous above, especially along
the midrib, and covered below with fine silvery white pubescence, at
maturity subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, pale and
pubescent below, 1½′—2½′ long and about ¾′ wide, with slightly thickened
revolute margins, a prominent midrib and primary veins; turning in the
autumn before falling dark rich maroon color on the upper surface.
Flowers appearing from June in the south to August in the north, those
of the staminate plant opening in succession during nearly a month and
continuing to unfold long after the petals of the pistillate plant have
fallen, on stout pubescent pedicels ⅛′—¼′ long, in short compact
pubescent panicles, the lower branches from the axils of the upper
leaves, 4′—6′ long, 3′—4′ broad, and usually smaller on the female than
on the male plant, their bracts and bractlets ovate or oblong, densely
cinereo-pilose, deciduous before the expansion of the flowers; calyx
puberulous on the outer surface, with ovate acute lobes one third as
long as the ovate greenish yellow petals rounded at apex, becoming
reflexed above the middle; disk red and conspicuous; stamens somewhat
longer than the petals, with slender filaments and large orange-colored
anthers, in the pistillate flower much shorter than the petals, with
minute rudimentary anthers; ovary ovoid, pubescent, glabrous, much
smaller in the staminate flower. Fruit ripening in five or six weeks and
borne in stout compact often nodding pubescent clusters sometimes
persistent on the branches until the beginning of the following summer,
⅛′ across, slightly obovoid, more or less flattened, with a thin bright
red coat covered with short fine glandular hairs, and a smooth bony
orange-brown stone; seed reniform, smooth, orange-colored, with a broad
funicle.
A tree, 25°—30° high, with colorless watery juice, a short stout trunk
8′—10′ in diameter, erect spreading branches, and branchlets at first
dark green tinged with red and more or less densely clothed with short
fine or sometimes ferrugineous pubescence, appearing slightly zigzag at
the end of their first season from the swellings formed by the prominent
leaf-scars, and then pale reddish brown, slightly puberulous and marked
by conspicuous dark-colored lenticels; or at the north usually a low
shrub rarely more than 4°—5° tall. Winter-buds minute, nearly globose,
and covered with dark rusty brown tomentum. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′
thick, light brown tinged with red, and marked by large elevated dark
red-brown circular excrescences, and separating into large thin papery
scales. Wood light, soft, coarse-grained, light brown streaked with
green and often tinged with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 4
or 5 layers of annual growth. The leaves are rich in tannin and are
gathered in large quantities and ground for curing leather and for
dyeing.
Distribution. Dry hillsides and ridges; widely and generally distributed
from northern New England to southern Florida, and to southeastern Iowa,
southeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas and the valley of the San Antonio
River, Texas; in Cuba; in the United States arborescent only southward;
at the north rarely more than a few feet high and spreading by
underground stems on gravelly sterile soil into broad thickets; varying
considerably in the size and form of the leaflets. The most distinct and
probably the most constant of these varieties is var. _lanceolata_ A.
Gray, a small tree growing on the prairies of eastern Texas to the
valley of the Rio Grande and to southeastern New Mexico, often forming
thickets on river bluffs or on the banks of small streams, and
distinguished by its narrow acute often falcate leaflets and by its
larger inflorescence and fruit. A tree sometimes 25°—30° high, with a
trunk occasionally 8′ in diameter, covered by dark gray bark marked by
lenticular excrescences. The flowers appear in July and August and the
dull red or sometimes green fruit ripens in early autumn and falls
before the beginning of winter.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the eastern United
States, and in western and northern Europe.
3. Rhus vernix L. Poison Dogwood. Poison Sumach.
[Illustration: Fig. 599]
Leaves 7′—14′ long, with a slender usually light red or red and green
petiole, and 7—13 obovate-oblong entire leaflets slightly unequal at
base and narrowed at the acute or rounded apex, bright orange color and
coated, especially on the margins and under surface, with fine
pubescence when they unfold, soon becoming glabrous, and at maturity
3′—4′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, dark green and lustrous above, pale below, with
a prominent midrib scarlet above, primary veins forked near the margins,
conspicuous reticulate veinlets, and revolute margins; turning early in
the autumn before falling to brilliant shades of scarlet or orange and
scarlet. Flowers about ⅛′ long, appearing in early summer on slender
pubescent pedicels bibracteolate near the middle, in long narrow
axillary pubescent panicles crowded near the end of the branches, with
acute pubescent early deciduous bracts and bractlets; calyx-lobes acute,
one third the length of the yellow-green acute petals erect and slightly
reflexed toward the apex; stamens nearly twice as long as the petals,
with slender filaments and large orange-colored anthers, in the fertile
flower not more than half the length of the petals, with small
rudimentary anthers; ovary ovoid-globose, with short thick spreading
styles terminating in large capitate stigmas. Fruit ripening in
September and often persistent on the branches until the following
spring, in long graceful racemes, ovoid, acute, often flattened and
slightly gibbous, tipped with the dark remnants of the styles, glabrous,
striate, ivory-white or white tinged with yellow, very lustrous, and
about ½′ long; stone conspicuously grooved, the wall thin,
membranaceous; seed pale yellow.
A tree, with acrid poisonous juice turning black on exposure,
occasionally 25° high, with a trunk 5′—6′ in diameter, slender rather
pendulous branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and slender
glabrous branchlets reddish brown and covered with minute orange-colored
lenticels when they first appear, orange-brown at the end of their first
season, becoming light gray and marked by large elevated conspicuous
leaf-scars; more often a shrub, with several slender clustered stems.
Winter-buds acute and covered with dark purple scales puberulous on the
back, and ciliate on the margins with short pale hairs, the terminal
⅛′—¾′ long and two or three times larger than the axillary buds. Bark of
the trunk thin, light gray, smooth or sometimes slightly striate. Wood
light, soft, coarse-grained, light yellow streaked with brown, with
lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Wet swamps often inundated during a portion of the year;
northern New England to northern Florida and southern Alabama, and
westward to Ontario and southeastern Minnesota, western Louisiana and
the valley of the Neches River (San Augustine County) eastern Texas;
common and one of the most dangerous plants of the North American flora.
An infusion of the young branches and leaves is employed in homœopathic
practice, and the juice can be used as a black lustrous durable varnish.
4. Rhus integrifolia B. & H. Mahogany.
[Illustration: Fig. 600]
Leaves simple or very rarely 3-foliolate, persistent, acute or rounded
at apex, with thickened revolute, or spinosely toothed margins (var.
_serrata_ Engler), puberulous when young, and at maturity 1½′—3′ long,
1′—1½′ wide, thick and coriaceous, dark yellow-green above, paler below,
and glabrous with the exception of the stout petiole, broad thick
midrib, and prominent reticulate veins. Flowers appearing from February
to April, ¼′ in diameter when expanded, on short stout pedicels, with
2—4 broad-ovate pointed persistent scarious ciliate pubescent bractlets,
in short dense racemes forming hoary-pubescent terminal panicles 1′—3′
in length; sepals rose-colored, orbicular, concave, ciliate on the
margins, rather less than half the length of the rounded ciliate
reflexed rose-colored petals; stamens as long as the petals, with
slender filaments and pale anthers, minute and rudimentary in the
pistillate flower; ovary broad-ovoid, pubescent, with 3 short thick
connate styles and very large 3-lobed capitate stigmas, rudimentary in
the staminate flower. Fruit ½′ long, ovoid, flattened, more or less
gibbous, thick, dark red, densely pubescent; stone kidney-shaped,
smooth, light chestnut-brown, with thick walls; seed flattened, pale,
with a broad dark-colored funicle covering its side.
A tree, rarely 30° high, with a short stout trunk 2°—3° in diameter,
numerous spreading branches, and stout branchlets covered when they
first appear with thick pale pubescence disappearing in their second and
third years, and bright reddish brown and marked by numerous small
elevated lenticels; or usually a small often almost prostrate shrub.
Winter-buds small, obtuse, covered with a thick coat of pale tomentum.
Bark of the trunk ¼′—½′ thick, bright reddish brown, exfoliating in
large plate-like scales. Wood hard, heavy, bright clear red, with thin
pale sapwood of 8—10 layers of annual growth; valued and largely used as
fuel. The fruit is occasionally employed in the preparation of a cooling
beverage.
Distribution. Sandy sterile soil along sea beaches, and bluffs in the
immediate vicinity of the ocean; neighborhood of Santa Barbara, Santa
Barbara County, California, to the shores of Magdalena Bay, Lower
California, and on the Santa Barbara and Cedros islands; on the mainland
usually shrubby, forming close impenetrable thickets; in more sheltered
situations and on the islands becoming arborescent; probably of its
largest size on the shores of Todos Santos Bay, Lower California.
XXXII. CYRILLACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with small scaly buds and watery juice. Leaves
alternate, entire, subcoriaceous, without stipules, persistent or
tardily deciduous. Flowers small, regular, perfect, on slender
bibracteolate pedicels, in terminal or axillary racemes; calyx
5—8-lobed, persistent, the lobes imbricated in the bud; petals 5—8,
hypogynous; stamens 5—10, hypogynous, those opposite the petals shorter
than the others; anthers oblong, introrse, 2-celled, the cells laterally
dehiscent, opening longitudinally; ovary 2—4-celled; ovules suspended,
anatropous; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit an indehiscent
capsule. Seed suspended; seed-coat membranaceous; albumen fleshy,
radicle superior.
A family confined to the warmer parts of America, with three genera, of
which two are represented by small trees in the southern states.
CONSPECTUS OF THE GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers in axillary racemes; calyx 5-lobed; petals 5 contorted in the
bud; fruit without wings, 2-celled, with 2 seeds in each cell.
1. Cyrilla.
Flowers in terminal racemes; calyx 5—8-lobed; petals 5—8 imbricated in
the bud; fruit with 2—4 wings, 3 or rarely 4-celled, with 1 seed
in each cell.
2. Cliftonia.
1. CYRILLA L.
A glabrous tree or shrub, with spongy bark, slender terete branchlets
conspicuously marked by large leaf-scars, and narrow acute winter-buds
covered with chestnut-brown scales. Leaves usually clustered near the
end of the branches, oblong or oblong-obovate, pointed, rounded, or
slightly emarginate at apex, conspicuously reticulate-veined,
short-petiolate. Flowers on pedicels from the axils of narrow alternate
persistent bracts, in slender racemes from the axils of fallen leaves or
of small deciduous bracts near the end of the branches of the previous
year; calyx minute, divided nearly to the base into 5 ovate-lanceolate
acute coriaceous lobes; petals 5, contorted in the bud, white or rose
color, inserted on an annular disk, three or four times longer than the
calyx-lobes, oblong-lanceolate, acute, concave, subcoriaceous, furnished
below the middle on the inner surface with a broad glandular nectary;
stamens 5, opposite the divisions of the calyx, inserted with and
shorter than the petals; filaments subulate, fleshy; anther-cells united
above the point of attachment, free below; ovary ovoid, free, sessile,
pointed, 2-celled; styles short, thick; stigma 2-lobed, with spreading
lobes; ovules 3 in each cell, suspended from an elongated placental
process developed from the apex of the cell. Fruit 2-celled,
broad-ovoid, crowned with the remnants of the persistent style; pericarp
spongy. Seeds 2 in each cell, elongated, acuminate; embryo minute,
cylindric, 2-lobed.
Cyrilla is represented by a single species of the coast region of the
south Atlantic and Gulf states and of the Antilles and eastern tropical
South America.
The name commemorates the scientific labors of Dominico Cirillo
(1734—1799), the distinguished Italian naturalist and patriot.
1. Cyrilla racemiflora L. Ironwood. Leather Wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 601]
Leaves 2′—3′ long and ¼′—1′ wide, with a stout petiole ⅛′—1′ in length;
turning late in the autumn and early winter to brilliant shades of
orange and scarlet and then deciduous, or southward persistent with
little change of color until the beginning of the following summer.
Flowers appearing late in June or early in July, in racemes usually 6—10
together and 4′—6′ long, at first erect, becoming pendulous before the
fruit ripens. Fruit ripening in August and September, rarely more than
1/16′ long; seeds light brown.
A slender tree, occasionally 30°—35° high, with a stout often eccentric
trunk 10′—14′ in diameter, dividing several feet above the ground into
numerous wide-spreading branches, and slender branchlets bright brown
during their first season and ultimately ashy gray; often a broad bush
sending up many slender stems 15°—20° high. Winter-buds about ⅛′ long.
Bark of the trunk rarely more than ½′ thick except near the base of old
trees, and covered by large thin bright red-brown scales. Wood heavy,
hard, close-grained, not strong, brown tinged with red, with rather
lighter colored sapwood. The spongy bark at the base of the trunk is
pliable, absorbent, and astringent, and has been recommended as a
styptic.
Distribution. Rich shaded river-bottoms, the borders of sandy swamps and
shallow ponds of the coast Pine-belt, or on high sandy exposed ridges
rising above streams near the Gulf coast; southeastern Virginia
southward near the coast to northern Florida and westward along the Gulf
coast to the valley of the Neches River, Texas; in Lake County, Florida,
and ranging northward in Mississippi to Forrest County (near
Hattiesburg, _T. G. Harbison_), and in Alabama to Dallas County; in
swamps near the coast of western Florida often a low shrub with smaller
leaves and shorter racemes (var. _parviflora_ Sarg.); in Cuba, Jamaica,
Porto Rico, Demarara, and Brazil (var. _racemifera_ Sarg.).
2. CLIFTONIA Gærtn. f.
A glabrous tree or shrub, with thick dark brown scaly bark, slender
terete branchlets marked by conspicuous leaf-scars, and small acuminate
buds covered by chestnut-brown scales. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, rounded
or slightly emarginate at apex, glandular-punctate, short-petiolate,
persistent. Flowers on pedicels from the axils of large acuminate
membranaceous alternate bracts deciduous before the opening of the
flowers, in short terminal erect racemes; calyx 5—8-lobed, equal or
unequal, broad-ovoid, rounded or acuminate at apex, much shorter than
the 5—8 obovate unguiculate concave white or rose-colored sepals;
stamens 10, opposite and alternate with the sepals, inserted with and
shorter than the petals, 2-ranked, those of the outer rank longer than
the others; filaments laterally enlarged near the middle, flattened
below, subulate above; disk cup-shaped, surrounding the base of the
oblong 2—4-winged 2—4-celled ovary; stigma subsessile, obscurely
2—4-lobed; ovules 2 in each cell, suspended from its apex. Fruit oblong,
2—4-winged, crowned with the remnants of the persistent style, 3 or
rarely 4-celled; pericarp spongy, the wings thin and membranaceous. Seed
1 in each cell, terete, tapering to the ends, suspended; cotyledons very
short.
Cliftonia is represented by a single species of the south Atlantic and
Gulf states.
The generic name is in honor of Dr. Francis Clifton (d. 1736), an
English physician.
1. Cliftonia monophylla Britt. Titi. Ironwood.
[Illustration: Fig. 602]
Leaves 1½′—2′ long, ½′—1′ wide, bright green and lustrous on the upper
surface, paler on the lower surface; persistent until the autumn of
their second year. Flowers fragrant, appearing in February and March, in
racemes at first nodding, and conspicuous from the long exserted dark
red-brown caducous bracts, becoming erect as the flowers open. Fruit
about ¼′ long, ripening in August and September; seeds 1/16′—⅛′ long,
light brown.
A tree, occasionally 40°—50° high, with a stout often crooked or
inclining trunk, occasionally 15′—18′ in diameter, and usually divided
12°—15° from the ground into a number of stout ascending branches, and
slender rigid bright red-brown branchlets, becoming paler during their
second and third seasons; or sometimes a shrub, with numerous straggling
stout or slender stems frequently only a few feet high or occasionally
30°—40° high. Winter-buds about ¼′ long. Bark of young stems and of
large branches thin, the surface separating into small persistent scales
1′—2′ long, becoming near the base of old trees deeply furrowed, dark
red-brown, ¼′ thick, and broken on the surface into short broad scales.
Wood heavy, close-grained, moderately hard, brittle, not strong, brown
tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood of 40—50 layers of
annual growth; burning with a clear bright flame, and valued as fuel.
Distribution. Damp sandy peat soil in swamps almost submerged for
several months of the year, or often in shallow rarely overflowed
swamps; coast region of the south Atlantic states from the valley of the
Savannah River to the coast of western Florida, and through the maritime
Pine-belt of the Gulf coast to eastern Louisiana.
XXXIII. AQUIFOLIACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with terete branchlets, scaly buds, and alternate
simple entire crenate or pungently toothed petiolate persistent or
deciduous leaves, with minute stipules. Flowers axillary, solitary or
cymose, small, greenish white, diœcious; calyx 4—6-lobed, the lobes
imbricated in the bud, hypogynous; petals 4—6, oval or oblong, obtuse,
free or united at base, imbricated in the bud; disk 0; stamens as many
as and alternate with the petals and adnate to the base of the corolla;
anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally, small and
sterile in the pistillate flower; pistil compound; ovary 4—8-celled,
minute and rudimentary in the staminate flower; style short or 0;
stigmas as many as the cells of the ovary, nearly confluent; ovule
generally solitary in each cell, suspended, anatropous; raphe usually
dorsal, the micropyle superior. Fruit a drupe, with as many indehiscent
bony or crustaceous 1-seeded nutlets as carpels; sarcocarp thin and
fleshy. Seed narrowed at the ends, suspended; seed-coat membranaceous,
pale brown; embryo minute in the apex of the copious fleshy albumen;
cotyledons plain; the radicle superior.
The Holly family with five genera is distributed in temperate and
tropical regions of the two hemispheres. Of the five genera now
recognized, only Ilex is important in the number of species or is widely
distributed.
1. ILEX L.
Characters of the family.
Ilex with about one hundred and seventy-five species is found in all
tropical and temperate regions of the world with the exception of
western North America, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and New Guinea,
the largest number of species occurring in Brazil and Guiana. Of the
thirteen species which inhabit eastern North America, six are trees.
Ilex contains a bitter principle, ilicin, and possesses tonic
properties. _Ilex paraguariensis_ St. Hilaire, of South America,
furnishes the maté or Paraguay tea, and is the most useful of the
species. The European _Ilex Aquifolium_ L. is a favorite garden plant,
and is sometimes planted in the middle, southern, and Pacific United
States.
_Ilex_ is the classical name of the Evergreen Oak of southern Europe.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Parts of the flower in 4’s; pedicels with bractlets at the base;
nutlets prominently ribbed on the back and sides; leaves
persistent.
Leaves armed with spiny teeth; young branchlets glabrous or
sparingly pubescent.
1. I. opaca (A, C).
Leaves serrate or entire; fruit bright red.
Leaves oblanceolate or oblong-obovate, mostly entire; young
branchlets pubescent; calyx-lobes acuminate.
2. I. Cassine (C).
Leaves elliptic or oblong-elliptic, coarsely crenulate-serrate;
young branchlets puberulous; calyx-lobes obtuse.
3. I. vomitoria (C).
Leaves entire, ovate, ovate-elliptic or ovate-lanceolate; fruit
brownish purple.
4. I. Krugiana (D).
Parts of the flower in 4’s or 5’s, rarely in 6’s; pedicels without
bractlets; nutlets striate, many-ribbed on the back; leaves
deciduous.
Leaves oblong-spatulate or obovate-lanceolate, remotely
crenulate-serrate; calyx-lobes broad-triangular.
5. I. decidua (A, C).
Leaves ovate or oblong-lanceolate, sharply serrate; calyx-lobes
acute.
6. I. monticola (A).
1. Ilex opaca Ait. Holly.
[Illustration: Fig. 603]
Leaves elliptic to obovate-oblong, pungently acute, with thickened
undulate margins and few stout spinose teeth, or occasionally entire,
especially on upper branches, thick, coriaceous, dull yellow-green,
paler and often yellow on the lower surface, 2′—4′ long, with a
prominent midrib and conspicuous veins; persistent on the branches for
three years, finally deciduous in the spring; petioles short, stout,
thickened at base, grooved above, slightly puberulent; stipules minute,
broad-acute or nearly deltoid, persistent. Flowers appearing in spring
on slender puberulous pedicels, with minute acute bractlets, in short
pedunculate cymes from the axils of young leaves or scattered along the
base of the young shoots, 3—9-flowered on the staminate and 1 or rarely
2 or 3-flowered on the pistillate plant; calyx-lobes acute, ciliate on
the margins; stigmas broad and sessile. Fruit ripening late in the
autumn, persistent on the branches during the winter, spherical or
ovoid, dull red or rarely yellow, ¼′ in diameter; nutlets prominently
few-ribbed on the back and sides, rather narrower at apex than at base.
A tree, often 40°—50° and occasionally 80°—100° high, with a trunk 2°,
3°, or exceptionally 4° in diameter, short slender branches forming a
narrow pyramidal head, and stout branchlets covered when they first
appear with fine rufous pubescence disappearing during their first
season, and becoming glabrous and pale brown. Winter-buds obtuse or
acuminate, ⅛′—¼′ long, with narrow acuminate ciliate scales. Bark about
½′ thick, light gray and roughened by wart-like excrescences. Wood
light, tough, not strong, close-grained, nearly white when first cut,
turning brown with age and exposure, with thick rather lighter colored
sapwood; valued and much used in cabinet-making, in the interior finish
of houses, and in turnery. The branches are used in large quantities for
Christmas decoration.
Distribution. Coast of Massachusetts, in the city of Quincy, Norfolk
County, southward generally near the coast to the shores of Mosquito
Inlet and Charlotte Harbor, Florida; valley of the Mississippi River
from southern Indiana and Illinois, to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico,
and through Missouri, Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, and Louisiana to the
valley of Cibolo Creek (Southerland Springs, Wilson County), Texas; rare
and of small size east of the Hudson River and rare in the Appalachian
Mountain region and the country immediately west of it; most abundant
and of its largest size on the bottom-lands of the streams of northern
Louisiana, southern Arkansas and eastern Texas; at the north in dry
rather gravelly soil often on the margins of Oak-woods, southward on the
borders of swampy river-bottoms, in rich humid soil.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states as an ornamental plant.
2. Ilex Cassine L. Dahoon.
[Illustration: Fig. 604]
Leaves oblanceolate to oblong-obovate, acute, mucronate or rarely
rounded and occasionally emarginate at apex, gradually narrowed and
cuneate at base, revolute and entire, or sometimes serrate above the
middle with sharp mucronate teeth, puberulous above and densely
pubescent below when they first unfold, becoming glabrous at maturity
with the exception of scattered hairs on the lower surface of the broad
midrib, dark green and lustrous above, pale below, 1½′—3′ long and ½′—1′
wide; petioles short, stout, thickened at the base, sparingly villose.
Flowers on hairy pedicels, with acute scarious bractlets, in pedunculate
clusters, 3—9-flowered on the staminate plant, usually 3-flowered on the
pistillate plant sometimes nearly 1′ long, from the axils of leaves of
the year or occasionally of the previous year; calyx-lobes acute,
ciliate. Fruit ripening late in the autumn, persistent until the
following spring, globose, sometimes ¼′ in diameter, bright or
occasionally dull red or nearly yellow, solitary or often in clusters of
3’s; nutlets prominently few-ribbed on the back and sides; rounded at
base, acute at apex.
A tree, 25°—30° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, and branches
coated at first with dense silky pubescence persistent until the end of
the second or third year, ultimately dark brown and marked by occasional
lenticels; or often a low shrub. Winter-buds minute, acute, with
lanceolate scales thickly coated with pale silky pubescence. Bark of the
trunk about 1/16′ thick, dark gray, thickly covered and roughened by
lenticels. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, pale brown, with
thick nearly white sapwood.
Distribution. Cold swamps and on their borders, in rich moist soil, or
occasionally on the high sandy banks of Pine-barren streams;
southeastern Virginia southward in the immediate neighborhood of the
coast to the shores of Bay Biscayne and the Everglade Keys, Dade County,
and in the interior of the peninsular in Polk and De Soto Counties,
Florida, and along the Gulf coast to western Louisiana; on the Bahama
Islands and in Cuba (var. _latifolia_ Ait.); nowhere abundant on the
Atlantic coast; most common in western Florida and southern Alabama;
passing through forms with elongated narrow leaves (var. _angustifolia_
Ait., the common form of southern Alabama) into the variety _myrtifolia_
Sarg. This is a low shrub or occasionally a slender wide-branched tree,
with pale nearly white bark, puberulous branchlets, and crowded
generally entire mucronate leaves ½′—1′ long, ⅛′ wide, with strongly
reflexed margins, a very short petiole, and a broad prominent midrib; an
inhabitant of Cypress-swamps and Pine-barren ponds or their margins, in
the neighborhood of the coast, North Carolina to Louisiana.
_Ilex Cassine_ is occasionally cultivated in Europe.