Leaves thin, deciduous, obovate, rounded and abruptly pointed or acute
or acuminate or rarely rounded at apex, cuneate or rounded at the narrow
base, entire or remotely serrate with small apiculate teeth, when they
unfold ciliate on the margins, slightly stellate-pubescent on the midrib
and veins above, and coated below with hoary tomentum, and at maturity
pale green and glabrous or nearly glabrous above, pale tomentose and
villose on the midrib and veins below, 2½′—5′ long and 1′—3′ wide;
petioles ¼′ in length, hoary-tomentose early in the season, becoming
pubescent. Flowers opening in early spring after the leaves are more
than half grown, ¾′—1′ long, on slender pubescent or tomentose pedicels
¼′ in length, in tomentose leafy erect or spreading axillary racemes 5′
or 6′ long, their bracts and bractlets linear, minute, tomentose,
caducous; calyx more or less coarsely 5-toothed, membranaceous,
tomentose on the outer surface; corolla 5-parted, the lobes longer than
the tube, imbricated in the bud, membranaceous, oblong-obovate, rounded
or acute at apex, stellate-pubescent on the outer surface; stamens 10,
about as long as the corolla, villose-pubescent below the middle, united
below into a short ring; ovary slightly inferior, obovoid, tomentose,
3-celled; style filiform, glabrous, exserted; ovules 3 or 4 in each
cell. Fruit hoary-tomentose, slightly obovoid, rounded and tipped at
apex with the remnants of the style, gradually narrowed and surrounded
below by the calyx, ⅓′ long, and ¼′ in diameter, the outer coat
crustaceous, indehiscent; seed obovoid, dark orange-brown, filling the
cavity of the fruit.
A tree, rarely 40° high, with a tall straight trunk sometimes 8′ in
diameter, short spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head,
and slender branchlets thickly coated when they first appear with hoary
stellate pubescence more or less persistent during three seasons,
ultimately glabrous and light or dark chestnut-brown; more often a broad
shrub 6°—20° high. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, close, smooth and dark
red-brown. Winter-buds: axillary, often 3, superposed, acute, covered
with hoary ultimately rusty tomentum, about ⅛′ long.
Distribution. Low wet woods and the borders of swamps; southeastern
Virginia, southward usually near the coast to the valley of the
Apalachicola River, Florida, and through the Gulf states to western
Louisiana, ranging inland to northern Georgia, northeastern Mississippi,
and to the valley of the Red River at Natchitoches, Louisiana; of its
largest size and perhaps only arborescent near Laurel Hill, West
Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.
LIX. SYMPLOCACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with simple pubescence, watery juice, scaly buds, and
fibrous roots. Leaves simple, alternate, coriaceous or thin, pinnately
veined, usually becoming yellow in drying, without stipules. Flowers
regular, perfect, or polygamo-diœcious, on ebracteolate pedicels, in
dense or lax axillary spikes or racemes, with small caducous bracts;
calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, open in the bud, the tube adnate to the
ovary, enlarged after anthesis; corolla divided nearly to the base into
3—11 usually 5 lobes imbricated in the bud; disk 0; stamens usually
numerous, inserted in many series on the base of the corolla or rarely 4
in one series; filaments filiform or flattened, more or less united
below into clusters; anthers ovoid-globose, introrse, 2-celled, the
cells lateral, opening longitudinally; ovary inferior or partly
inferior, 2—5-celled, contracted into a simple style, with an entire or
slightly lobed terminal stigma; ovules 2 or rarely 4 in each cell,
suspended from its inner angle, anatropous; raphe ventral; micropyle
superior. Fruit a drupe (in the North American species), crowned with
the persistent lobes of the calyx, with thin dry flesh and a bony
1-seeded stone. Seed oblong, suspended; seed-coat membranaceous; embryo
terete, erect in copious fleshy albumen; cotyledons much shorter than
the long slender radicle turned toward the broad conspicuous hilum.
The family consists of the genus Symplocos.
1. SYMPLOCOS L’Her.
Characters of the family.
Symplocos with nearly three hundred species inhabits chiefly the warmer
parts of America, Asia, and Australia, one species occurring in the
southern United States.
Symplocos contains a yellow coloring matter, and the bark and leaves of
some species have medical properties.
The generic name, from Σύµπλοκος, relates to the union of the filaments
of some of the species.
1. Symplocos tinctoria L’Her. Sweet Leaf. Horse Sugar.
[Illustration: Fig. 737]
Leaves revolute in the bud, oblong, acute or acuminate at apex,
gradually narrowed at base, obscurely crenulate-serrate with remote
teeth, or sometimes nearly entire, coated below when they unfold with
pale tomentum, glabrous or tomentose above, and furnished on the margins
with minute dark caducous glands, and at maturity subcoriaceous, dark
green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler and pubescent on the
lower surface, 5′—6′ long and 1′—2′ wide, with a broad midrib rounded
and sometimes puberulous on the upper side, inconspicuous arcuate veins
and reticulate veinlets; northward and at high altitudes falling in the
autumn, and southward remaining on the branches until after the opening
of the flowers the following spring; petioles stout, slightly winged,
⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers: flower-clusters inclosed in the bud by ovate
acute orange-colored scales brown and ciliate on the margins, each of
the flower-buds surrounded by 3 imbricated oblong bracts rounded or
pointed at apex and ciliate on the margins, the longest as long as the
calyx and one third longer than the 2 lateral bracts; flowers fragrant,
opening from the 1st of March at the south to the middle of May on the
southern Appalachian Mountains, on short pedicels enlarged into thick
hemispheric receptacles covered with long white hairs, in nearly sessile
many-flowered clusters in the axils of leaves of the previous year;
calyx oblong, cup-shaped, dark green and puberulous, with minute ovate
scarious lobes rounded at apex; corolla creamy white, ¼′ long, with
rounded lobes; stamens exserted, with slender filaments united at base
into 5 clusters, and orange-colored anthers; ovary 3-celled, furnished
on the top with 5 dark nectariferous glands placed opposite the lobes of
the calyx, and abruptly contracted into a slender style gradually
thickened toward the apex and longer than the corolla. Fruit ripening in
the summer or early autumn, ovoid, ¼′ long, dark orange-colored or
brown; seed ovoid, pointed, with a thin papery chestnut-brown coat.
A tree, occasionally 30°—35° high, with a short trunk barely exceeding
6′-8′ in diameter, slender upright branches forming an open head, and
stout terete pithy branchlets light green and coated with pale or rufous
tomentum when they first appear, or sometimes glabrous, and covered with
scattered white hairs, reddish brown to ashy gray, tinged with red and
usually more or less pubescent or often covered with a glaucous bloom
during their first and second years, later growing darker, roughened by
occasional small elevated lenticels and marked by the low horizontal
obcordate leaf-scars displaying a central cluster of large
fibro-vascular bundle-scars; or more often a shrub. Winter-buds ovoid,
acute, covered with broad-ovate nearly triangular acute scales, those of
the inner rows accrescent on the young branchlets, and at maturity
oblong-obovate, rounded and often apiculate at apex, light green,
glabrous or pilose, ciliate on the margins, and often ½′ in length. Bark
of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, ashy gray slightly tinged with red, divided by
occasional narrow fissures and roughened by wart-like excrescences. Wood
light, soft, close-grained, light red or brown, with thick lighter
colored often nearly white sapwood of 18—20 layers of annual growth. The
leaves are sweet to the taste and are devoured in the autumn by cattle
and horses, and, like the bark, yield a yellow dye occasionally used
domestically. The bitter aromatic roots have been used as a tonic.
Distribution. Moist rich soil, often in the shade of dense forests;
peninsula of Delaware to northern Florida and from the coast to
altitudes of nearly 4000° on the Blue Ridge in North and South Carolina,
and to eastern Texas and southern Arkansas; in the Gulf states usually
along the borders of Cypress-swamps.
LX. OLEACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, scaly buds, their inner scales
accrescent, opposite leaves, without stipules, and fibrous roots.
Flowers perfect, diœcious or polygamous, regular; calyx 4-lobed, or 0;
corolla of 2—4 petals, or 0; disk 0; stamens 2—4, rudimentary or 0 in
unisexual pistillate flowers; anthers attached on the back below the
middle, often apiculate by the prolongation of the connective, introrse,
2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally usually by lateral slits;
ovary free, 2 or rarely 3-celled, rudimentary or 0 in the staminate
flower; style simple; ovules 2 in each cell, pendulous, anatropous;
micropyle superior. Fruit (in the North American arborescent genera) a
samara or berry. Seed pendulous; seed-coat membranaceous; embryo
straight in copious fleshy albumen; cotyledons flat, much longer than
the short terete superior radicle turned toward the minute hilum.
The Olive family with twenty-five genera is widely distributed in
temperate and tropical regions chiefly in the northern hemisphere. Of
the five genera indigenous to the United States four are arborescent. To
this family belong _Olea europæa_ L., the Olive-tree of the
Mediterranean basin, now largely cultivated in California for its fruit,
and the Lilacs, Forsythias, Privets, and Jasmines, favorite garden
plants in all countries with temperate climates.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Fruit a winged samara; leaves usually compound.
1. Fraxinus.
Fruit a drupe; leaves simple.
Flowers usually without petals.
2. Forestiera.
Flowers with petals.
Corolla of 4 long linear petals united only at base; leaves
deciduous.
3. Chionanthus.
Corolla tubular; leaves persistent.
4. Osmanthus.
1. FRAXINUS L. Ash.
Trees or shrubs, with thick furrowed or rarely thin and scaly bark,
usually ash-colored branchlets, with thick pith, and compressed obtuse
terminal buds much larger than the lateral buds. Leaves petiolate,
unequally pinnate or rarely reduced to a single leaflet, deciduous;
leaflets conduplicate in the bud, usually serrate, petiolulate or
sessile. Flowers diœcious or polygamous, produced in early spring on
slender elongated pedicels, without bractlets, in open or compact
slender-branched panicles, with obovate linear or lanceolate caducous
bracts, terminal on leafy shoots of the year, developed from the axils
of new leaves, or from separate buds in the axils of leaves of the
previous year, or at the base of young branchlets, and covered by 2
ovate scales; calyx campanulate, deciduous or persistent under the
fruit, or 0; corolla 2—4-parted, the divisions conduplicate in the bud,
united at base, or 0; stamens usually 2, rarely 3 or 4, inserted on the
base of the corolla, or hypogynous; filaments terete, short or rarely
elongated; anthers ovoid or linear-oblong, the cells opening by lateral
slits; ovary 2 or rarely 3-celled, contracted into a short or elongated
style terminating in a 2-lobed stigma; ovules suspended in pairs from
the inner angle of the cell; raphe dorsal. Fruit a 1 or rarely 2 or
3-seeded winged samara; body terete or slightly flattened contrary to
the septum, with a dry or woody pericarp produced into an elongated more
or less decurrent wing, usually 1-celled by abortion or sometimes 2 or
3-celled and winged. Seed solitary in each cell, oblong, compressed,
gradually narrowed and rounded at the ends, filling the cavity of the
fruit; seed-coat chestnut-brown.
Fraxinus with thirty to forty species is widely distributed in the
temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and within the tropics
occurs on the islands of Cuba and Java. Of the eighteen North American
species here recognized all, with the exception of _Fraxinus dipetala_
Hook., of California, are large or small trees.
Fraxinus produces tough straight-grained valuable wood, and some of the
species are large and important timber-trees. The waxy exudations from
the trunk and leaves of _Fraxinus Ornus_ L., of southern Europe and Asia
Minor furnish the manna of commerce used in medicine as a gentle
laxative; and the Chinese white wax is obtained from the branches of
_Fraxinus chinensis_ Roxb.
_Fraxinus_ is the classical name of the Ash-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Flowers with a corolla, in terminal panicles on lateral leafy
branchlets of the year; leaflets 3—7, lanceolate to
ovate-lanceolate (Ornus).
1. F. cuspidata (E, H).
Flowers without a corolla, diœcious or polygamous, in axillary
panicles, from separate buds, in the axils of leaves of the
previous year (Fraxinastrum).
Flowers with a calyx.
Leaflets with obscure veins, not more than ¾′ long; fruit
narrow-spatulate to oblong-obovate; rachis slightly winged.
2. F. Greggii (E).
Leaflets with distinct veins, more than ¾′ long; rachis without a
wing.
Body of the fruit compressed, its wing extending to the base.
Branchlets 4-sided.
Leaves usually 5-foliolate, with ovate acute leaflets;
flowers unknown.
3. F. Lowellii (F).
Leaves usually reduced to a single ovate or orbicular
leaflet; flowers polygamous.
4. F. anomala (F).
Branchlets terete.
Leaflets 5—7, oblong-ovate; fruit oblong-elliptic to
spatulate, often 3-winged, long-stipitate.
5. F. caroliniana (A, C).
Leaflets 3—5, oblong; fruit lanceolate to oblanceolate, the
body extending to the base of the fruit.
6. F. pauciflora (C).
Body of the fruit nearly terete.
Wing of the fruit terminal or slightly decurrent on the body.
Leaves and branchlets glabrous (_tomentose in one form of
7_).
Leaflets sessile or nearly sessile 5—7 rarely 5, ovate to
oblong-ovate, rarely elliptic, acute or
short-acuminate, glaucescent below.
7. F. Standleyi (H).
Leaflets stalked.
Leaflets 5—7, ovate to lanceolate, abruptly pointed or
acuminate, usually pale below.
8. F. americana (A, C).
Leaflets usually 5, ovate to obovate, rounded or acute
at apex.
9. F. texensis (C).
Leaves and branches pubescent; leaflets oblong-ovate to
lanceolate, pale below; fruit linear-oblong.
10. F. biltmoreana (A, C).
Wing of the fruit decurrent to below the middle of the body.
Leaflets 7—9, usually 7; leaves and branches pubescent
(_glabrous in one form of 12_).
Fruit 2′—3′ in length.
11. F. profunda (A, C).
Fruit 1′—2½′ in length.
12. F. pennsylvanica (A, E).
Leaflets 3—5.
Leaves and branchlets glabrous; fruit up to 1½′ in length.
13. F. Berlandieriana (C, E).
Leaves and branchlets pubescent or glabrous; fruit not
more than ½′ in length.
14. F. velutina (F, H).
Leaflets 5—7, usually 7, the lateral generally sessile;
leaves and branchlets pilose-pubescent, rarely
glabrous.
15. F. oregona (B, G).
Flowers without a calyx; leaflets 5—11; wing of the fruit decurrent
to the base of the body.
Branchlets quadrangular; lateral leaflets short-stalked.
16. F. quadrangulata (A, C).
Branchlets terete; lateral leaflets sessile.
17. F. nigra (A, C).
1. Fraxinus cuspidata Torr.
[Illustration: Fig. 738]
Leaves 5′—7′ long, with a slender pale petiole sometimes slightly
wing-margined, and 3—7 lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate long-stalked
leaflets gradually narrowed at apex into a long slender point, cuneate
at base nearly entire or coarsely and remotely serrate above the middle
with recurved teeth (var. _serrata_ Rehd.), or with 3—5, rarely
7-foliolate leaves, with broader often ovate entire leaflets
occasionally with simple leaves at the base of the branchlets (var.
_macropetala_ Rehd.); slightly puberulous when they unfold on the lower
surface, and at maturity thin, dark green above, paler below, 1½′—2½′
long and ¼′—¾′ wide, with a pale midrib and obscure veins; petiolules
slender, sometimes nearly 1′ in length. Flowers perfect, extremely
fragrant, appearing in April, in open glabrous panicles 3′—4′ long and
broad, terminal on lateral leafy branchlets developed from the axils of
leaves of the previous year, calyx cup-shaped, 1/16′ long, with acute
apiculate attenuate teeth of unequal length, deciduous, corolla ⅔′ long,
thin and white, divided to below the middle into 4 linear-oblong lobes
pointed at apex, and much longer than the nearly sessile oblong
long-pointed anthers ovary 2-celled, with a thick 2-lobed nearly sessile
stigma. Fruit elliptic to oblong-obovate, 1′ long and ¼′ wide, the wing
round and slightly emarginate at apex, and decurrent nearly to the base
of the flat nerveless longer body.
A tree, rarely 20° high, with a short trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, and
slender terete branchlets light red-brown when they first appear, soon
becoming darker and marked by scattered pale lenticels and ashy gray and
roughened by the dark elevated lunate leaf-scars in their second year;
more often a shrub or small shrubby tree, with numerous slender
spreading stems 6°—8° tall. Winter-buds: terminal acute, nearly ½′ long,
with dark reddish brown glutinous scales.
Distribution. Rocky slopes and dry ridges; Western Texas, valley of the
Rio Grande (mouth of Devil’s River, Valverde County) to the Chisos
Mountains, and in southern New Mexico; in Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and
Chihuahua; the var. _macropetala_ in cañons of northern Arizona; the
var. _serrata_ (fig. 738) in Coahuila.
2. Fraxinus Greggii A. Gray.
[Illustration: Fig. 739]
Leaves 1½′—3′ long, with a winged petiole and rachis, and 3—7 narrow
spatulate to oblong-obovate leaflets entire or crenately serrate above
the middle with remote teeth, a slender midrib, and obscure reticulate
veins, thick and coriaceous, dark green on the upper surface rather
paler and covered with small black dots on the lower surface, ½′—¾′
long, ⅛′—¼′ wide, and nearly sessile. Flowers perfect or unisexual, on
slender pedicels ⅛′—¼′ long, from the axils of ovate acuminate
rusty-pubescent bracts, in pubescent panicles ½′—¾′ in length; calyx
campanulate, scarious; stamens 1 or 2, filaments longer than the calyx,
anthers declinate, nearly ⅛′ long; ovary broad-ovate, rounded at apex,
longer than the calyx, the short style terminating in large reflexed
stigmatic lobes. Fruit narrow-spathulate to oblong-obovate, ½′—⅔′ long
and about ¼′ wide, the thin wing decurrent on the short terete body,
rounded and emarginate at apex and tipped with the elongated persistent
conspicuous style.
A tree, rarely 20°—25° high, with a trunk 8°—10° long and occasionally
8′ in diameter, and slender terete branchlets dark green and puberulous
when they first appear, soon becoming ashy gray and roughened by
numerous minute pale elevated lenticels, gradually turning dark gray, or
brown in their second and third years; more often a shrub, with numerous
slender erect stems 4°—12° tall. Winter-buds: terminal, about ⅛′ long,
obtuse, with thick ovate light brown pubescent scales rounded on the
back. Bark of the trunk thin, gray or light brown tinged with red,
separating on the surface into large papery scales. Wood heavy, hard,
close-grained, brown, with thick lighter-colored sapwood.
Distribution. Western Texas, along rocky beds of streams and deep
ravines, Valverde County (near Devil’s River, Del Rio and Comstock); on
the mountains of northeastern Mexico; apparently most common and of its
largest size on the Sierra Nevada of Nuevo Leon.
3. Fraxinus Lowellii Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 740]
Leaves 3½′—6′ long, with a stout glabrous or slightly villose petiole,
and 5 or rarely 3 ovate stalked leaflets, acuminate and long-pointed,
acute or rarely rounded at apex, cuneate at base, serrate, often only
above the middle, with small remote teeth, yellow-green, glabrous, or
puberulous along the midrib above, glabrous or rarely sparingly villose
near the base of the slender pale midrib below, 2¼′—3′ long and 1′—1½′
wide, with thin primary veins arching and united near the slightly
thickened and revolute margins; on vigorous shoots occasionally
1-foliolate with a broad-ovate or semiorbicular leaflet. Flowers
unknown. Fruit ripening in July, in long glabrous panicles,
oblong-obovate to oblong-elliptic, surrounded at base by the minute
slightly dentate calyx, 1′—1½′ long, ¼′—⅓′ wide, the wing broad or
gradually narrowed and rounded, and often emarginate at apex and
extending to the base of the thin compressed many-rayed body about
three-quarters the length of the fruit.
A tree, 20°—25° high, with dark deeply furrowed bark, stout quadrangular
often winged branchlets orange-brown in their first season and dark
gray-brown the following year.
Distribution. Arizona, rocky slopes of Oak Creek Cañon about twenty
miles south of Flagstaff, Coconino County, and in Copper Cañon, west of
Camp Verde, Yavapai County.
4. Fraxinus anomala S. Wats.
[Illustration: Fig. 741]
Leaves mostly reduced to a single leaflet but occasionally 2 or
3-foliolate, the leaflets broad-ovate or orbicular, rounded or acute or
rarely obcordate at apex, cuneate or cordate at base, and entire, or
sparingly crenately serrate above the middle, covered above when they
unfold with short pale hairs and pubescent beneath, and at maturity thin
but rather coriaceous, dark green above, paler below, 1½′—2′ long and
1′—2′ wide, or when more than one much smaller, with a broad rather
conspicuous midrib and obscure veins, and when solitary raised on a
stout grooved petiole rusty-pubescent early in the season, becoming
glabrous, and often 1½′ long, or short-petiolulate in the compound
leaves. Flowers appearing when the leaves are about two thirds grown, in
short compact pubescent panicles, with strap-shaped or lanceolate acute
bracts ½′ long and covered with thick brown villose tomentum, perfect or
unisexual by the abortion of the stamens, the 2 forms occurring in the
same panicle; calyx cup-shaped, minutely 4-toothed; anthers
linear-oblong, orange colored, raised on slender filaments nearly as
long as the stout columnar style. Fruit obovate, ½′ long, the wing
rounded and often deeply emarginate at apex, surrounding the short
flattened striately nerved body, and ⅓′ wide.
A tree, 18°—20° high, with a short trunk 6′—7′ in diameter, stout
contorted branches forming a round-topped head, and branchlets at first
quadrangular, dark green tinged with red and covered with pale
pubescence, orange colored and puberulous in their first winter and
marked by elevated pale lenticels and narrow lunate leaf-scars, and in
their second or third year terete and ashy gray; often a low shrub, with
numerous spreading stems. Winter-buds: terminal broad-ovoid, acuminate
or obtuse, covered with thick orange-colored tomentum, and ⅛′—¼′ long.
Bark of the trunk dark brown slightly tinged with red, ¼′ thick and
divided by shallow fissures into narrow ridges separating into small
thin appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, light brown,
with thick lighter colored sapwood of 30—50 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. In the neighborhood of streams; valley of the McElmo
River, southwestern Colorado; Carriso Mountains, San Juan County,
northwestern New Mexico; northeastern (Apache County), and the Grand
Cañon of the Colorado River, Coconino County, Arizona; southern Utah to
the Charleston Mountains, southwestern Nevada and adjacent California
(Inyo County).
5. Fraxinus caroliniana Mill. Water Ash. Swamp Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 742]
Leaves 7′—12′ long, with an elongated stout terete pale petiole, and 5—7
long-stalked ovate to oblong acute or acuminate leaflets rarely rounded
at apex, cuneate or sometimes rounded or subcordate at base, and
coarsely serrate with acute incurved teeth, or entire, pilose above and
more or less hoary-tomentose below when they unfold, and at maturity
thick and firm, 3′—6′ long and 2′—3′ wide, dark green above, paler or
sometimes yellow-green and glabrous or pubescent (var. _Rehderiana_
Sarg.) beneath, particularly along the conspicuous midrib and the
numerous arcuate veins connected by obscure reticulate veinlets. Flowers
diœcious, appearing in February and March in short or ultimately
elongated panicles inclosed in the bud by chestnut-brown pubescent
scales; staminate flower with a minute or nearly obsolete calyx, and 2
or sometimes 4 stamens, with slender filaments and linear apiculate
anthers; calyx of the pistillate flower cup-shaped, deeply divided and
laciniate, as long as the ovary gradually narrowed into an elongated
slender style. Fruit elliptic to oblong-obovate, frequently 3-winged,
surrounded at base by the persistent calyx, 2′ long, ⅓′—¾′ wide, often
marked on the 2 faces by a conspicuous impressed midvein, the body
short, compressed, and surrounded by the broad thin many-nerved
sometimes bright violet-colored wing, acute or acuminate, or rounded and
emarginate at apex and usually narrowed below into a stalk-like base.
A tree, rarely more than 40° high, with a trunk sometimes 12′ in
diameter, small branches forming a narrow often round-topped head, and
slender terete branchlets light green and glabrous or tomentose when
they first appear, light brown tinged with red and sometimes covered
with a glaucous bloom or rarely pubescent or tomentose (var.
_Rehderiana_ Sarg.) in their first winter, becoming in their second year
light gray or yellow, occasionally marked by large pale lenticels, and
by the elevated semiorbicular leaf-scars displaying a short row of
conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds: terminal, ⅛′ long,
with 3 pairs of ovate acute chestnut-brown puberulous scales, those of
the outer rank thickened at base, rounded on the back, and shorter than
the others. Bark of the trunk 1/16′—⅛′ thick, light gray, more or less
marked by large irregularly shaped round patches, and separating on the
surface into small thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft,
weak, close-grained, nearly white sometimes tinged with yellow, with
thick lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Deep river swamps inundated during several months of the
year, usually under the shade of larger trees, or rarely in drier
ground; coast region of the Atlantic and Gulf states, valley of the
Potomac River, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., to Florida southward to
Lake County and on the west coast to the valley of the lower
Apalachicola River, and to the valley of the Neches River (Beaumont,
Jefferson County), Texas, and northward through western Louisiana to
southwestern (Malvern, Hot Springs County) Arkansas; east of the
Mississippi River occasionally appearing in isolated stations remote
from the coast (Anson County, North Carolina, _C. L. Boynton_, Pike
County, Georgia, _R. H. Harper_, Forest County, Mississippi, _T. G.
Harbison_); in Cuba.
6. Fraxinus pauciflora Nutt. Water Ash.
_Fraxinus floridana_ Sarg.
[Illustration: Fig. 743]
Leaves 5′—9′ long, with an elongated stout terete petiole, and 3—7,
usually 5, elliptic to oblong-obovate or ovate leaflets, acuminate or
rarely abruptly pointed at apex, gradually narrowed and rounded at the
often unsymmetric base, finely or coarsely serrate, scurfy-pubescent
above and hoary-tomentose below when they unfold, and at maturity thick
and firm, dark green and glabrous or puberulous on the upper surface and
more or less tomentose on the lower surface, 3′—4′ long and 1′—1¼′ wide,
with a slender midrib, and thin primary veins arcuate and united within
the thickened revolute margins; petiolules of the lateral leaflets ¼′—½′
long, much shorter than those of the terminal leaflet. Flowers diœcious,
appearing late in February or early in March, in elongated panicles
inclosed in the bud by chestnut-brown pubescent scales; staminate flower
composed of an annular disk and 2 or 3 stamens, with short filaments and
apiculate anthers; calyx of the pistillate flower cup-shaped, slightly
lobed, as long as the ovary gradually narrowed into the slender style.
Fruit oblong to lanceolate or oblanceolate, surrounded at base by the
persistent calyx, 1′—2′ long, ¼′—½′ wide, marked on each of the 2 faces
by a broad impressed midvein, the body near the base of the many-nerved
wing narrowed, rounded, and emarginate at apex.
A tree, 30°—40° high, with a trunk sometimes 12′ in diameter, small
spreading branches, and slender terete branchlets light orange-brown and
occasionally marked by large pale lenticels during their first season,
ashy gray and roughened the following year by the large horizontal
obcordate elevated leaf-scars displaying a central ring of
fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds terminal, broad-ovoid, acute,
rusty-pubescent, about ¼′ long. Bark of the trunk 1/16′—⅛′ thick, light
gray, and broken on the surface into small thin closely appressed
scales.
Distribution. Deep swamps; valleys of the St. Mary’s and Flint Rivers
(Albany), southern Georgia; Florida, near Jacksonville, Duval County,
valley of the Caloosahatchee River, and Bonita Springs, Lee County, to
the shores of Lake Okeechobee, and in the valley of the lower
Apalachicola River; most abundant in southern Florida.
7. Fraxinus Standleyi Rehd.
[Illustration: Fig. 744]
Leaves 5′—7′ long, with a slender glabrous petiole flattened, or
slightly concave on the upper side, and 7—9 ovate to oblong-ovate rarely
elliptic leaflets, acute or short-acuminate or rarely rounded at apex,
broad-cuneate at base, slightly and irregularly serrate, yellow-green
and glabrous above, glaucescent, slightly reticulate, minutely
punctulate, glabrous or slightly villose on the slender midrib below, or
rarely closely villose over the entire lower surface, 1½′—2½′ long and
1′—2′ wide, with usually 5—7 primary veins, the terminal leaflet raised
on a petiolule up to ½′ long, the lateral short-petiolulate, or nearly
sessile. Flowers not seen. Fruit ripening in September, on slender
pedicels, in glabrous panicles 3′—5′ long, oblong-obovate, acute, rarely
obtuse and occasionally emarginate at apex, surrounded at base by the
minute calyx deeply divided into acuminate lobes, ¾′—1½′ long and ⅙′—¼′
wide, the wing decurrent nearly to the middle of the subterete or
slightly compressed ellipsoid or oblong body.
A tree, sometimes 30° high, usually smaller, with a trunk only a few
inches in diameter, and slender terete glabrous branches orange-brown or
rarely on vigorous shoots dark red-brown and lustrous. Winter-buds:
terminal ovoid, gradually narrowed and acute at apex, ⅓′ long.
Distribution. Mountain cañons at altitudes of 5500°—8000°; New Mexico
(Lincoln, Grant and Luna Counties); Arizona (Cochise, Pima and Coconino
Counties); on the San José Mountains, Sonora, at an altitude of 7200°;
passing into var. _lasia_ Rehd. with branchlets, lower surface of the 7
leaflets and petioles densely tomentose; in Oak Creek and Sycamore
cañons south of Flagstaff, Coconino County, at Fort Apache, Navajo
County, on the White Mountains, Graham County, and on the Chiricahua
Mountains, Cochise County, Arizona; and near Santa Rita, Grant County,
New Mexico. A single plant, possibly a shrub, of the Mexican _Fraxinus
papilosa_ Ling. differing chiefly from _F. Standleyi_ in the glaucous
papillose under surface of the leaves, has been seen at an altitude of
6750° on the west sides of the San Luis Mountains, Grant County, New
Mexico.
8. Fraxinus americana L. White Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 745]
Leaves 8′—12′ long, with a stout grooved petiole, and 5—9, usually 7,
ovate to oblanceolate or oval, often falcate abruptly pointed or
acuminate leaflets, cuneate or rounded at base, crenulate-serrate or
nearly entire, thin but firm, dark green above, pale or light green and
glabrous or slightly pubescent below, or rarely thicker, lanceolate,
long-acuminate, entire, glabrous and silvery white below (var.
_crassifolia_ Sarg.), 3′—5′ long and 1½′—3′ wide, with a broad midrib,
and numerous conspicuous veins arcuate near the margins; falling early
in the autumn after turning on some individuals deep purple and on
others clear bright yellow; petiolules ¼′—½′ or that of the terminal
leaflet up to 1′ in length. Flowers diœcious, opening before the leaves
late in the spring, in compact ultimately elongated glabrous panicles
from buds covered with dark ovate scales rounded at apex and slightly
keeled on the back; calyx campanulate, slightly 4-lobed in the staminate
flower, and deeply lobed or laciniately cut in the pistillate flower;
stamens 2 or occasionally 3, with short stout filaments, and large
oblong-ovate apiculate anthers at first nearly black, later becoming
reddish purple; ovary contracted into a long slender style divided into
2 spreading dark purple stigmatic lobes. Fruit rarely deeply tinged with
purple (f. _iodocarpa_ Fern.), 1′—2½′ long and usually about ¼′ wide, or
sometimes not more than ½′ long (var. _microcarpa_ A. Gray), in crowded
clusters 6′—8′ in length, lanceolate or oblanceolate, surrounded at base
by the persistent calyx, the wing pointed or emarginate at apex and
terminal or slightly decurrent on the terete body.
A tree, sometimes 120° high, with a tall massive trunk 5°—6° in
diameter, stout upright or spreading branches forming in the forest a
narrow crown, or with sufficient space a round-topped or pyramidal head,
and thick terete branchlets dark green or brown tinged with red and
covered with scattered pale caducous hairs when they first appear, soon
becoming light orange color or ashy gray and marked by pale lenticels,
becoming in their first winter gray or light brown, lustrous, often
covered with a glaucous bloom and roughened by the large pale
semiorbicular leaf-scars displaying near the margins a line of
conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds: terminal
broad-ovoid, obtuse, with 4 pairs of scales, those of the outer pair
ovate, acute, apiculate, conspicuously keeled on the back, nearly black,
slightly puberulous, about one half the length of the scales of the
second pair rather shorter than those of the third pair, lengthening
with the young shoots, and at maturity oblong-ovate, narrowed and
rounded at apex, keeled, ½′ long, and rusty-pubescent, the scales of the
inner pair becoming ⅔′ long, ovate, pointed, keeled, sometimes slightly
pinnatifid, green tinged with brown toward the apex, covered with
pellucid dots and very lustrous. Bark of the trunk 1′—3′ thick, dark
brown or gray tinged with red, and deeply divided by narrow fissures
into broad flattened ridges separating on the surface into thin
appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, tough, and
brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood; used in large quantities in
the manufacture of agricultural implements, for the handles of tools, in
carriage-building, for oars and furniture, and in the interior finish of
buildings; the most valuable of the American species as a timber-tree.
Distribution. Common in rich rather moist soil on low hills, and in the
neighborhood of streams; Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Quebec and
Ontario and the southern peninsula of Michigan, and westward and
southward to eastern Minnesota, central Iowa, southeastern Nebraska,
eastern Kansas, and northern Oklahoma to the valley of the Salt Fork of
the Arkansas River in Woods County (near Alva, _G. W. Stevens_), and to
Florida to Taylor County and the valley of the lower Apalachicola River,
and through the Gulf states to the valley of the Trinity River, Texas;
of its largest size on the bottom-lands of the basin of the lower Ohio
River; southward and west of the Mississippi River less common and of
smaller size; on the Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 3800°; the
var. _crassifolia_ at Mt. Victory, Harding County, Ohio, Campbell,
Dunklin County, Missouri, and near Texarkana, Bowie County, Texas.
Often planted in the eastern states as a shade and ornamental tree, and
occasionally in western and northern Europe.
A form with the wing of the fruit extending nearly to the middle of the
body distinguished as _Fraxinus Smallii_ Britt. has the appearance of a
hybrid between _F. americana_ and _F. pennsylvanica_ var. _lanceolata_;
individuals of this form have been found near McGuire’s Mill, on the
Yellow River, Guinnett County, Georgia; near Rochester, Munroe County,
New York; and near Lake Wingra, Dane County, Wisconsin.
9. Fraxinus texensis Sarg. Mountain Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 746]
Leaves 5′—8′ long, with a long slender terete petiole, and 5 or
occasionally 7 usually long-stalked ovate broad-oval or obovate
leaflets, rounded or acute, or often abruptly pointed at apex, cuneate,
rounded or slightly cordate at base, and coarsely crenulate-serrate,
chiefly above the middle, light green slightly tinged with red and
pilose with occasional pale caducous hairs when they unfold, and at
maturity thick and firm, glabrous, dark green on the upper surface, pale
on the lower surface, 1′—3′ long and ¾′—2′ wide, and occasionally
furnished below with tufts of long white hairs at the base of the broad
midrib, and in the axils of the numerous conspicuous veins forked near
the margins and connected by coarse reticulate veinlets; petiolules
slender, ¼′—½′ and on the terminal leaflet up to 1′ in length. Flowers
diœcious, appearing in March as the leaves begin to unfold, in compact
glabrous panicles from the axils of leaves of the previous year, and
covered in the bud by ovate rounded orange-colored scales; staminate
flower composed of a minute or nearly obsolete 4-lobed calyx and 2
stamens, with short filaments and linear-oblong light purple apiculate
anthers; calyx of the female flower deep cup-shaped, and divided to the
base into 4 acute lobes; ovary gradually narrowed into a long slender
style. Fruit in short compact clusters, spatulate to oblong, surrounded
at base by the persistent calyx, ½′—1′ long and ⅛′—¼′ wide, the wing
rounded or occasionally emarginate at apex, and terminal on the short
terete many-rayed body; very rarely with 3 or 4 wings extending to the
base of the fruit.
A tree, rarely 50° high, with a short trunk occasionally 2°—3° in
diameter, thick spreading often contorted branches, and stout terete
branchlets dark green tinged with red and slightly puberulous when they
first appear, becoming light yellow-brown or light orange color during
the summer, and in their first winter light brown marked by remote
oblong pale lenticels and by large elevated lunate leaf-scars displaying
a row of conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and dark or reddish
brown in their second or third season; usually much smaller.
Winter-buds: terminal acute, with 3 pairs of scales, those of the first
pair broad-ovate, rounded at the apex, dark orange color, pilose toward
the base, and rather shorter than the ovate rounded scales of the second
pair coated with rufous tomentum and becoming ½′ long or about one half
the length of the linear strap-shaped scales of the inner pair truncate
or emarginate at the apex and orange color. Bark of the trunk ½′—¾′
thick, dark gray and deeply divided by narrow fissures into broad scaly
ridges. Wood heavy, hard, strong, light brown, with thin lighter colored
sapwood; valued as fuel and occasionally used for flooring.
Distribution. Texas, high dry limestone bluffs and ridges, in the
neighborhood of Dallas, Dallas County, and Fort Worth, Tarrant County,
to the valley of the Colorado River near Austin, Travis County, and over
the Edwards Plateau to Bandera, Kerr, Edwards and Palo Pinto Counties.
Hardy in the Arnold Arboretum.
10. Fraxinus biltmoreana Beadl.
[Illustration: Fig. 747]
Leaves 10′—12′ long, with a stout pubescent or puberulous petiole, and
7—9 oblong-ovate to ovate-lanceolate or oval often falcate entire or
obscurely toothed leaflets acuminate at apex, rounded or cuneate and
often inequilateral at base, yellow-bronze color and nearly glabrous
above, coated beneath, particularly on the midrib and veins, with long
white hairs when they unfold, and at maturity 3′—6′ long, 1½′—2′ wide,
thick and firm in texture, dark green and slightly lustrous on the upper
surface, pale, or glaucous and puberulous on the lower surface and
villose along the slender yellow midrib, and primary veins arcuate near
the slightly thickened and incurved margins; petiolules pubescent, ¼′—½′
or that of the terminal leaflet up to 2′ in length. Flowers diœcious,
appearing with the leaves about the 1st of May, in a rather compact
pubescent panicle, with scarious caducous bracts and bractlets;
staminate flower with a minute cup-shaped very obscurely dentate calyx
and nearly sessile oblong acute anthers; calyx of the pistillate flower
much larger and deeply lobed; ovary oblong, gradually narrowed into the
slender style divided at apex into 2 short stigmatic lobes. Fruit
linear-oblong, in elongated glabrous or puberulous clusters, 1½′—1¾′
long and about ¼′ wide, the wing terminal, only slightly narrowed at the
ends, emarginate at apex, and two and a half to three times longer than
the short ellipsoid terete many-nerved body.
A tree, 40°—50° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, stout ascending
or spreading branches forming an open symmetrical head, and stout light
or dark gray branchlets soft-pubescent usually during two seasons, much
roughened during their first winter and often for two or three years by
the large elevated mostly obcordate or sometimes orbicular leaf-scars
displaying a marginal line of fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds:
terminal ovoid, usually broader than long, and covered with bright brown
scales, those of the outer pair keeled on the back and apiculate at
apex, the others rounded, accrescent, and slightly villose. Bark of the
trunk rough, dark gray, and slightly furrowed.
Distribution. Banks of streams and on low river benches; western New
Jersey (Bordentown, Burlington County); eastern Pennsylvania (Bucks
County); near Arlington, Alexandria County, Great Falls, Fairfax County,
Woodbridge, Prince William County, and Clifton Forge, Alleghany County,
Virginia; near Easton, Monongalia County, West Virginia, and along the
Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 2200° to northern Georgia; in
northern Alabama (St. Bernard, Cullman County), and westward to eastern
Kentucky, central Tennessee and through Ohio northward to Erie County;
southern Indiana and Illinois (Richland County), to southeastern
Missouri (Campbell, Dunklin County).
11. Fraxinus profunda Bush. Pumpkin Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 748]
Leaves 9′—18′ long, with a stout tomentose petiole, and usually 7 but
occasionally 9 lanceolate or elliptic entire or slightly serrate
leaflets acuminate or abruptly long-pointed at apex, rounded, cuneate
and often unsymmetric at base, coated below when they unfold with hoary
tomentum, and pilose on the upper surface with short pale hairs,
particularly on the midrib and veins, and at maturity thick and firm in
texture, dark yellow-green and nearly glabrous on the upper surface,
soft-pubescent on the lower surface, 5′—10′ long and 1½′—5′ wide, with a
stout yellow midrib deeply impressed and puberulous above and numerous
slender primary veins; petiolules stout, tomentose early in the season,
usually becoming glabrous or nearly glabrous, ¼′—½′ or that of the
terminal leaflet up to 2′ in length. Flowers diœcious, in elongated
much-branched pubescent panicles, with oblong or oblong-obovate scarious
bracts and bractlets; staminate flower with a minute campanulate
obscurely 4-toothed calyx, and 2 or 3 stamens, with comparatively long
slender filaments and oblong apiculate anthers; pistillate flower with a
large deeply lobed calyx accrescent and persistent under the fruit, and
an ovary gradually contracted into a slender style. Fruit in long
drooping many-fruited pubescent clusters, oblong, 2′—3′ in length and
often ½′ wide, the wing sometimes falcate, rounded, apiculate, or
emarginate at apex, and decurrent to below the middle or nearly to the
base of the thick terete many-rayed body.
A tree, occasionally 120° high, with a slender trunk 3° in diameter
above the much enlarged and buttressed base, small spreading branches
forming a narrow rather open head, and stout branchlets marked by large
pale lenticels, coated at first with hoary tomentum, tomentose and
pubescent during their first winter and light gray and pilose or
glabrous the following year, and marked by the oblong slightly raised
obconic leaf-scars nearly surrounding the lateral buds; usually much
smaller. Winter-buds terminal, broad-ovate, obtuse, light reddish brown,
and covered with close pale pubescence. Bark of the trunk ½′—¾′ thick,
light gray and divided by shallow fissures into broad flat or rounded
ridges broken on the surface into thin closely appressed scales.
Distribution. Deep river swamps often inundated during several months of
the year; western New York (_H. F. Sartwell_); southern Indiana and
Illinois; western Kentucky (Caldwell and McCracken Counties) and
Tennessee (Henderson County); southeastern Missouri, eastern Arkansas
(Moark and Corning, Clay County, and Varner, Lincoln County); near New
Orleans, Louisiana, eastern Mississippi (near Columbus, Lowndes County),
and in the valley of the lower Apalachicola River, western Florida.
Occasionally cultivated; hardy in the Arnold Arboretum.
12. Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh. Red Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 749]
Leaves 10′—12′ long, with a stout slightly grooved pubescent petiole,
and 7—9 oblong-lanceolate, ovate-elliptic or slightly obovate leaflets
gradually narrowed at apex into a long slender point, unequally cuneate
at base, and obscurely serrate, or often entire below the middle, when
they unfold coated below and on the petiole with hoary tomentum, and
lustrous and puberulous on the upper surface, and at maturity thin and
firm, 4′—6′ long, 1′—1½′ wide, light yellow-green above and pale and
covered below with silky pubescence, with a conspicuous midrib and
branching veins; in the autumn turning yellow or rusty brown before
falling; petiolules thick, grooved, pubescent, ⅛′—¼′ or that of the
terminal leaflet up to 1′ in length. Flowers diœcious, appearing late in
spring as the leaves begin to unfold, in a rather compact tomentose
panicle, covered in the bud with ovate rusty-tomentose scales; staminate
flower with a minute obscurely toothed cup-shaped calyx, and 2 stamens,
with short slender filaments and linear-oblong light green anthers
tinged with purple; calyx of the pistillate flower cup-shaped, deeply
divided, as long as the ovary gradually narrowed into an elongated style
divided at apex into 2 green stigmatic lobes. Fruit in an open glabrous
or pubescent panicle, lanceolate to slightly oblanceolate or
oblong-obovate or elliptic, 1′—2½′ long, ¼′—⅓′ wide, surrounded at base
by the persistent calyx, the thin wing narrowed, rounded and
occasionally emarginate or acute or acuminate and often apiculate at
apex, decurrent to below the middle or nearly to the gradually tapering
base of the slender terete many-rayed body.
A tree, 40°—60° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 18′—20′ in diameter,
stout upright branches forming a compact irregularly shaped head, and
slender terete branchlets more or less coated when they first appear
with pale tomentum sometimes persistent until their second or third year
or often disappearing during the first summer, ultimately becoming ashy
gray or light brown tinged with red, frequently covered with a glaucous
bloom and marked by pale lenticels, and in their first winter by the
semicircular leaf-scars displaying a short row of large fibro-vascular
bundle-scars. Winter-buds: terminal, about ⅛′ long, with 3 pairs of
scales coated with rufous tomentum, those of the outer pair acute,
rounded on the back, truncate at apex, and rather shorter than those of
the other pairs 1′—1½′ long at maturity and sometimes pinnately cut
toward the apex. Bark of the trunk ½′—⅔′ thick, brown tinged with red,
and slightly furrowed, the surface of the ridges separating into thin
appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, rather strong, brittle,
coarse-grained, light brown, with thick lighter brown sapwood streaked
with yellow; sometimes confounded commercially with the more valuable
wood of the White Ash. Variable in the length of the petiolules and in
the shape of the fruit and the width of its wing; a form with
short-stalked or nearly sessile leaflets, found chiefly in Nebraska has
been described as _F. campestris_ Britt. and a form with the wing of the
spatulate fruit sometimes ¼′ wide as _F. Michauxii_ Britt.
Distribution. Low rich moist soil near the banks of streams and lakes;
Nova Scotia to Manitoba, and southward to central Georgia, northern
Alabama (St. Bernard, Cullman County, and Attalla, Etowah County),
northeastern Mississippi (Tishomingo County), southern Indiana and
Illinois, northern Missouri, eastern Kansas and southwestern Oklahoma
(Cache, Comanche County); usually confined in the Carolinas to the
Piedmont region and foothills of the high mountains. Passing into
Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. lanceolata Sarg. Green Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 750]
Leaves with rather narrower and shorter and usually more sharply serrate
leaflets lustrous and bright green on both surfaces, and glabrous or
pubescent along the midrib below.
A round-topped tree, rarely more than 60° high, or with a trunk more
than 2° in diameter, slender spreading branches, ashy gray terete
glabrous branchlets marked by pale lenticels, and rusty-pubescent
bud-scales.
Distribution. Banks of streams; valley of the Penobscot River (Orono,
Penobscot County), Maine, to northern Vermont and the valley of the St.
Lawrence River, near Montreal, Province of Quebec, and to the valley of
the Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), and in the United States
westward to North Dakota, eastern Wyoming to the base of the Bighorn
Mountains, and on the mountains of northern Montana, and southward to
western Florida to the valley of the lower Apalachicola River, Dallas
County, Alabama, central Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma to Comanche
County, and Texas to the valley of the Guadalupe River; most abundant in
the basin of the Mississippi River; attaining its largest size on the
rich bottom-lands of eastern Texas and here often 60°—70° high, with a
trunk 2°—3° in diameter; on the southern Appalachian Mountains ascending
to altitudes of 2000°—2500°. As it usually grows in the east with its
bright green glabrous leaves and glabrous branchlets the Green Ash
appears distinct from the Red Ash, but trees occur over the area which
it inhabits, but more often westward, with slightly pubescent leaves and
branchlets which may be referred as well to one tree as to the other and
make it impossible to distinguish satisfactorily as species the Green
and Red Ash.
Often planted as a shade and ornamental tree in the middle western and
occasionally in the eastern states, but less valuable than the White
Ash.
13. Fraxinus Berlandieriana DC.
[Illustration: Fig. 751]
Leaves 3′—7′ long, with a slender petiole, and 3—5 lanceolate, elliptic
or obovate leaflets, acuminate or abruptly acuminate or acute at apex,
cuneate or rarely rounded at base, mostly entire or remotely serrate,
thin, dark green and glabrous on the upper surface, rather paler and
glabrous or furnished with small axillary tufts of white hairs on the
lower surface, 3′—4′ long and ½′—1½′ wide; petiolules slender, 1¼′—1⅓′
or that of the terminal leaflet up to 1½′ in length. Flowers diœcious,
in a short glabrous panicle inclosed in the bud by broad-ovate rounded
chestnut-brown pubescent scales; staminate flower with a minute
obscurely lobed calyx and 2 stamens, with short filaments and
linear-oblong apiculate anthers; calyx of the pistillate flower
cup-shaped, deeply divided, and as long as the ovary gradually narrowed
into the slender style. Fruit ripening in May, oblong-obovate to
spatulate, acute or acuminate at apex, 1′—1½′ long and ¼′ wide, the wing
decurrent nearly to the base of the compressed many-rayed clavate body
gradually narrowed into a long slender base surrounded by the enlarged
deeply lobed calyx.
A tree, rarely more than 30° high, or with a trunk more than a foot in
diameter, and terete slender branchlets light green when they first
appear, becoming in their first winter light brown tinged with red or
ashy gray, and marked by occasional lenticels and by the small elevated
nearly circular leaf-scars displaying a short row of large
fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds: terminal acute, with dark
brown puberulous scales. Bark of the trunk dark gray tinged with red,
1′—1½′ thick, and divided by shallow interrupted fissures into narrow
ridges. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light brown, with thick lighter
colored sapwood.
Distribution. Texas, banks of streams and mountain cañons, valley of the
Colorado River (Bastrop and Travis Counties), and those of the San
Antonio and Nueces Rivers to the lower Rio Grande, and over the Edwards
Plateau to Palo Pinto County; in northeastern Mexico.
14. Fraxinus velutina Torr.
[Illustration: Fig. 752]
Leaves 4′—5′ long, with a broad densely villose petiole grooved like the
slender rachis on the upper side, and 3—5 elliptic to ovate or slightly
obovate leaflets acute at apex, narrowed and rounded or cuneate at base,
finely crenulate-serrate above the middle, pubescent above and tomentose
below when they unfold, and at maturity thick, pale green, glabrous on
the upper surface, tomentose on the lower surface, 1′—1½′ long and ¾′—1′
wide, with a prominent midrib and primary veins, and conspicuous
reticulate veinlets; petiolules of the lateral leaflets ⅙′ or less or
that of the terminal leaflet up to ½′ in length. Flowers diœcious,
appearing in March and April with the unfolding of the leaves, on long
slender pedicels in elongated pubescent panicles, covered in the bud by
broad-ovate tomentose scales rounded at apex; calyx cup-shaped, densely
pubescent; stamens, with short slender filaments and oblong apiculate
anthers; ovary nearly inclosed in the calyx, shorter than the nearly
sessile lobes of the stigma. Fruit ripening in September, on slender
villose pedicels, in large many-fruited clusters, oblong-obovate to
elliptic, surrounded at base by the enlarged deeply divided calyx,
rarely more than ¾′ long and ⅙′ wide, the wing terminal, rounded and
often emarginate or acute at apex, shorter than the terete many-rayed
clavate body attenuate at base and 5/12′—½′ in length.
A slender tree, 25°—30°, rarely 40°—50° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in
diameter, stout often spreading branches forming a round-topped head,
and slender terete branchlets coated during their first season with
hoary tomentum, and ashy gray, glabrous and marked by large obcordate
dark leaf-scars in their second year. Winter-buds: terminal acute, ⅛′
long, with 3 pairs of broad-ovate pointed tomentose scales, those of the
inner pair strap-shaped and ½′ long when fully grown. Bark of the trunk
⅓′—½′ thick, gray slightly tinged with red, and deeply divided into
broad flat broken ridges separating on the surface into small thin
scales. Wood heavy, rather soft, not strong, close-grained, light brown,
with thick lighter colored sapwood; used locally for axe-handles and in
the manufacture of wagons.
Distribution. Mountain cañons up to altitudes of 6000°, central and
southern Arizona and southern New Mexico. Passing into the following
varieties: var. _coriacea_ Rehd. (_Fraxinus coriacea_ S. Wats.)
differing in its thicker more coriaceous often more coarsely serrate
leaflets and in the less densely pubescent or glabrescent branchlets;
southern Utah (St. George, Washington County) to southeastern
California; var. _glabra_ Rehd. with glabrous 3—7-foliolate leaves and
glabrous branchlets; common with the species; occasionally cultivated in
the cities of Arizona; more distinct is
Fraxinus velutina var. Toumeyi Rehd.
_Fraxinus Toumeyi_ Britt.
[Illustration: Fig. 753]
Leaves 3½′—6′ long, with a villose-pubescent petiole, and 5—7 lanceolate
to elliptic or rarely obovate acuminate and long-pointed or acute
leaflets, finely serrate above the middle, glabrous on the upper
surface, covered on the lower surface with close fine pubescence, 1½′—3′
long and ½′—1′ wide; petiolules slender, pubescent, ⅛′—½′ or that of the
terminal leaflet up to 1′ in length; occasionally on vigorous shoots
reduced to a single leaflet. Flowers as in the species. Fruit
narrow-oblong, 1′ long and often not more than 1/12′ wide, or spatulate
with the wing longer or shorter than the body, and sometimes only about
¾′ long and 1/16′ wide, with the wing longer or not more than half the
length of the body.
A tree, usually 20°—30° high, with a trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, and ashy
gray branchlets pale pubescent when they first appear, becoming glabrous
or puberulous during their second season.
Distribution. Mountain cañons at altitudes of 5000°—6000°; in Arizona
more common than _F. velutina_; less abundant in southern New Mexico; in
Sonora.
Often used to shade the streets in the towns of southern Arizona.
15. Fraxinus oregona Nutt.
[Illustration: Fig. 754]
Leaves 5′—14′ long, with a stout grooved and angled pubescent, tomentose
or glabrous petiole, and usually 5—7, rarely 3, or on young trees
occasionally 9, ovate to elliptic or rarely oval or obovate leaflets
usually contracted at apex into a short broad point, gradually narrowed
at base, and entire or remotely and obscurely serrate, usually coated
below and on the petioles with thick pale tomentum when they unfold and
pubescent above, or nearly glabrous or pilose with a few scattered
hairs, and at maturity light green on the upper surface, paler and
usually tomentose, puberulous or rarely glabrous (var. _glabra_ Rehd.),
on the lower surface, 3′—7′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with a broad pale
midrib, conspicuous veins arcuate near the margins, and reticulate
veinlets, the lateral usually sessile, rarely on petiolules up to ½′, or
that of the terminal leaflet up to 1′ in length; turning yellow or
russet brown in the autumn before falling. Flowers diœcious, appearing
in April or May when the leaves begin to unfold, in compact glabrous
panicles covered in the bud by broad-ovate scales coated with rufous
pubescence; staminate flower composed of a minute calyx, short
filaments, and short-oblong apiculate anthers; calyx of the pistillate
flower laciniately cut and shorter than the ovary narrowed into a stout
style divided into long conspicuous stigmatic lobes. Fruit in ample
crowded clusters, oblong, obovate to oblanceolate or elliptic, rounded
and often emarginate or acute at apex, 1′—2′ long and ¼′—⅓′ wide, the
wing decurrent to the middle or nearly to the attenuate base of the
clavate or ellipsoid slightly compressed many-rayed body.
A tree, frequently 70°—80° high, with a long trunk occasionally 4° in
diameter, stout branches forming a narrow upright head or a broad
shapely crown, and thick terete branchlets more or less densely coated
with pale or rarely rufous silky pilose tomentum persistent during their
second year or occasionally deciduous during their first summer,
becoming light red-brown or orange color, glabrous or puberulous, often
covered with a slight glaucous bloom, marked by small remote pale
lenticels, and during their first and second winters by the large
elevated semiorbicular leaf-scars displaying a short row of conspicuous
fibro-vascular bundle-scars, rarely always glabrous (var. _glabra_
Rehd.). Winter-buds: terminal acute, ⅛′—¼′ long, with 4 pairs of scales
covered with pale hairs or with rusty pubescence, those of the inner
rows often foliaceous at maturity. Bark of the trunk 1′—1½′ thick, dark
gray, or brown slightly tinged with red, and deeply divided by
interrupted fissures into broad flat ridges separating on the surface
into thin scales. Wood light, hard, brittle, coarse-grained, brown, with
thick lighter colored sapwood; largely used in the manufacture of
furniture, for the frames of carriages and wagons, in cooperage, the
interior finish of houses, and for fuel.
Distribution. Usually in rich moist soil in the neighborhood of streams;
coast region of southern British Columbia, southward through western
Washington and Oregon and the California coast region to the Bay of San
Francisco and the Santa Cruz Mountains, and along the western foothills
of the Sierra Nevada to those of the mountains of San Bernardino and San
Diego Counties, California; the var. _glabra_ in Los Angeles and San
Bernardino Counties, and east of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County (Ash
Creek, near Owens Lake), and occasionally northward in California; most
abundant and of its largest size on the bottom-lands of the rivers of
southwestern Oregon; one of the most valuable of the deciduous-leaved
timber-trees of Pacific North America.
Occasionally cultivated; hardy in the Arnold Arboretum.
16. Fraxinus quadrangulata Michx. Blue Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 755]
Leaves 8′—12′ long, with a slender petiole glabrous, or puberulous
toward the base, and 5—11 oblong-ovate to lanceolate long-pointed
coarsely serrate leaflets unequally rounded or cuneate at base, and
coated when they unfold on the lower surface with thick brown tomentum,
and at maturity thick and firm, yellow-green and glabrous above, pale
and glabrous or sometimes furnished with tufts of pale hairs along the
base of the conspicuous midrib below, 3′—5′ long and 1′—2′ wide, with
short stout petiolules and 8—12 pairs of veins arcuate near the margins;
turning pale yellow in the autumn before falling. Flowers perfect,
appearing as the terminal buds begin to expand, in loose-branched
panicles from small obtuse buds with scales keeled on the back,
apiculate at apex, and covered with thick brown tomentum; calyx reduced
to an obscure ring; corolla 0; stamens 2, with nearly sessile broad
connectives and dark purple oblong obtuse anther-cells; ovary
oblong-ovoid, gradually narrowed into a short style divided at apex into
2 light purple stigmatic lobes generally maturing and withering before
the anthers open. Fruit oblong to oblong-cuneate, 1′—2′ long and ⅓′—½′
wide, the wing rounded and often emarginate or acute at apex,
surrounding the flat body faintly many-rayed on both surfaces.
A tree, usually 60°—70° or occasionally 120° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in
diameter, small spreading branches forming a slender head, and stout
4-angled branchlets more or less 4-winged between the nodes, dark orange
color and covered with short rufous pubescence when they first appear,
becoming gray tinged with red in their second year and marked by
scattered pale lenticels and by the large elevated obcordate leaf-scars
displaying a lunate row of fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and in their
third year light brown or ashy gray and then gradually becoming terete.
Winter-buds: terminal about ¼′ long, with 3 pairs of scales, those of
the outer row thick, rounded on the back, usually obscurely pinnate
toward the apex, dark reddish brown, slightly puberulous or often
hoary-tomentose, partly covering the bud, those of the inner rows
strap-shaped, coated with light brown tomentum, often pinnate, becoming
1′—1½′ long. Bark of the trunk ½′—⅔′ thick, irregularly divided into
large plate-like scales, the light gray surface slightly tinged with red
separating into thin minute scales. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained,
rather brittle, light yellow streaked with brown, with thick lighter
colored sapwood of 80—90 layers of annual growth; largely used for
flooring and in carriage-building, and not often distinguished
commercially from that of other species of the northern and middle
states. A blue dye is obtained by macerating the inner bark in water.
Distribution. Rich limestone hills, occasionally descending into the
bottom-lands of fertile valleys; southwestern Ontario through southern
Michigan to southwestern Iowa and southward through western Ohio and
southeastern Indiana to eastern and central Kentucky (near Clarksville,
Montgomery County), eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama (near
Huntsville, Madison County), and through Missouri to southeastern
Kansas, southwestern Arkansas and northeastern Oklahoma (near Pawhuska,
Osage County); nowhere very abundant; of its largest size in the basin
of the lower Wabash River, Illinois, and on the western slopes of the
Big Smoky Mountains, Tennessee.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornament of parks and gardens in the
eastern United States.
17. Fraxinus nigra Marsh. Black Ash. Brown Ash.
[Illustration: Fig. 756]
Leaves 12′—16′ long, with a stout pale petiole, and 7—11 oblong or
oblong-lanceolate long-pointed leaflets, unequally cuneate or sometimes
rounded at base, serrate with small incurved apiculate teeth, the
lateral sessile, the terminal on a petiolule up to 1′ in length, covered
especially below when they unfold with rufous hairs, and at maturity
thin and firm, dark green above, paler below, glabrous with the
exception of occasional tufts of rufous hairs along the under side of
the broad pale midrib, 4′—5′ long and 1′—2′ wide, with many conspicuous
primary veins arcuate near the margins and obscurely reticulate
veinlets; turning rusty brown and falling early in the autumn. Flowers
polygamous, without a perianth, appearing before the leaves in a compact
or ultimately elongated panicle 4′—5′ long, and covered in the bud by
broad-ovate dark brown or nearly black scales rounded at apex; staminate
flowers on separate trees or mixed with perfect flowers, and consisting
of 2 large deeply pitted oblong dark purple apiculate anthers attached
on the back to short broad filaments; pistillate flower consisting of a
long slender style deeply divided into 2 broad purple stigmas and often
accompanied by 1 or 2 perfect or globose rudimentary pink anthers
sessile or borne on long or short filaments. Fruit in open panicles
8′—10′ in length, oblong to slightly oblong-obovate, 1′—1½′ long and ⅓′
wide, with a thin wing, surrounding the short flat faintly nerved body,
rounded and emarginate at apex and narrowed and rounded or cuneate at
base.
A tree, occasionally 80°—90° high, with a tall trunk rarely exceeding
20′ in diameter, slender mostly upright branches forming a narrow head,
and stout terete branchlets dark green and slightly puberulous when they
first appear, soon becoming ashy gray or orange color and marked by
large pale lenticels, growing darker during their first winter and then
roughened by the large suborbicular leaf-scars displaying a semicircular
row of conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars; usually much smaller.
Winter-buds: terminal broad-ovate, acute, rather less than ¼′ long, with
3 pairs of scales, those of the outer pair thick and rounded on the back
at base, gradually narrowed and acute at apex, dark brown, slightly
puberulous, falling as the bud begins to enlarge in the spring, and
shorter than the scales of the inner rows coated on the outer surface
with rufous pubescence, those of the second pair becoming strap-shaped,
1′ long, ⅓′ wide, and about half as long as the pinnate usually
foliaceous inner scales. Bark of the trunk gray slightly tinged with
red, ⅓′—½′ thick, and divided into large irregular plates separating
into thin papery scales. Wood heavy, rather soft, not strong, tough,
coarse-grained, durable, easily separable into thin layers, dark brown,
with thin light brown often nearly white sapwood; largely used for the
interior finish of houses and in cabinet-making, and for fences, barrel
hoops, and in the manufacture of baskets.
Distribution. Deep cold swamps and the low banks of streams and lakes;
southern Newfoundland and the northern shores of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to Lake Winnipeg, and southward to New Castle County, Delaware,
the mountains of West Virginia, southwestern Indiana (Knox County; now
probably exterminated by drainage), central Iowa, central Missouri, and
northwestern Arkansas.
2. FORESTIERA Poir. Swamp Privet.
_Adelia_ Michx.
Trees or shrubs, with thin close bark, slender branchlets, and small
scaly buds. Leaves simple, entire or serrulate, petiolate, deciduous or
persistent. Flowers diœcious or polygamous, minute, on slender
ebracteolate pedicels, in fascicles or panicles, their bracts caducous,
from buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year and covered with
numerous scales; calyx reduced to a narrow ring or cup-shaped, 5 or
6-lobed; corolla 0; stamens hypogynous; filaments 2—4; anthers ovoid,
opening by lateral slits; ovary 2-celled, gradually narrowed into a
slender style terminating in an abruptly enlarged 2-lobed stigma; ovules
2 in each cell, suspended from its apex; raphe dorsal. Fruit 1 or very
rarely 2-celled, drupaceous, oblong or subglobose, with thin flesh and a
thin-walled stone; seed 1 in each cell, pendulous, testa membranaceous;
albumen fleshy; cotyledons plane, nearly filling the cavity of the
stone.
Forestiera with 14 species is distributed from the southern United
States and Mexico through Central America to Paraguay, and through the
West Indies to Brazil.
The generic name is in memory of the French physician and botanist
Charles Leforestière.
1. Forestiera acuminata Poir.
[Illustration: Fig. 757]
Leaves elliptic, acuminate and long-pointed at apex, gradually narrowed
and cuneate at base, serrate above the middle with small remote incurved
teeth, glabrous with the exception of occasional hairs on the upper side
of the slender midrib, yellow-green on the upper surface, paler on the
lower surface, 2½′—4½′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with usually 5 or 6 pairs
of slender primary veins and slightly thickened and incurved margins,
deciduous; petioles slender, often slightly winged above the middle,
¼′—½′ in length. Flowers appearing in April and May before the leaves
from ovoid pointed buds ⅛′ long, with thickened pale chestnut-brown
scales; calyx reduced to a narrow slightly lobed ring; corolla 0;
staminate in many-flowered fascicles, on short pedicels from the axils
of broad-obovate thin yellow apiculate conspicuous bracts; stamens 4, on
long slender filaments; anthers bright yellow; ovary reduced to a minute
ovoid body; pistillate flowers on slender pedicels ⅛′ long, in glabrous
pedunculate several-flowered panicles ¾′—1¼′ long, their bracts
caducous; stamens with shorter filaments and abortive or rarely fertile
anthers, or usually 0; ovary oblong-ovoid, slightly unsymmetric,
gradually narrowed into the long slender style enlarged into the
thickened imperfectly 2-lobed terminal stigma. Fruit falling as soon as
ripe in June and July, oblong-ovoid, gradually narrowed, acute and
tipped with the remnants of the style at apex, gradually narrowed and
rounded at base, slightly compressed and unsymmetric, dark blue-purple,
1′—1¼′ long, about ¼′ thick, with thin dry flesh, and a striate stone
rounded at base, straight on one side and rounded on the other, its wall
covered with thin vertical scales spongy in appearance, and
conspicuously longitudinally ridged on the inner surface the ridges
terminating in long slender tips forming the acuminate apex of the
stone; seeds ellipsoid, slightly compressed, striate, light brown, about
⅓′ in length.
A tree, rarely 50° high, with a short trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, small
spreading branches, and slender light brown branchlets becoming darker
in their second year, and marked by numerous lenticels and by the small
elevated nearly orbicular leaf-scars. Winter-buds: terminal ovoid,
pointed, about 1/16′ long, with numerous scales increasing in size from
the outer to the inner ranks; usually much smaller, and generally a
shrub 10°—15° high and broad. Bark close, slightly ridged, dark brown.
Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps in low moist soil; valley of
the lower Wabash River, southwestern Indiana, southern Illinois
northward along the Mississippi River to Pike County, and to central
Tennessee, and from southern Missouri through Arkansas to eastern
Oklahoma (near Muskogee, Muskogee County) and eastern Texas to the
valley of the lower Colorado River inland to Colorado County (shores of
Eagle Lake), and through Louisiana, central and southern Mississippi and
Alabama to western Florida (Branford, Suwanee County) and on the
Savannah River, near Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia; most abundant in
Missouri, Arkansas and Texas; comparatively rare east of the Mississippi
River, but probably of its largest size in eastern Louisiana.
Occasionally cultivated; hardy in the Arnold Arboretum.
3. CHIONANTHUS L.
Trees or shrubs, with stout terete or slightly angled branchlets, thick
pith, and buds with numerous opposite scales. Leaves simple,
conduplicate in the bud, deciduous. Flowers diœcious or rarely
polygamous, on elongated ebracteolate pedicels, in 3-flowered clusters
terminal on the slender opposite branches, of ample loose panicles, with
foliaceous persistent bracts, from separate buds in the axils of the
upper leaves of the previous year; calyx minute, deeply 4-parted, the
divisions imbricated in the bud, persistent under the fruit; corolla
white, deeply divided into 4 or rarely 5 or 6 elongated linear lobes
conduplicate-valvate in the bud, united at base into a short tube, or
rarely separate; stamens 2, inserted on the base of the corolla opposite
the axis of the flower, or rarely 4 in the staminate flower, included;
filaments terete, short; anthers ovoid, attached on the back below the
middle, apiculate by the elongation of the connective, 2-celled, the
cells opening by longitudinal lateral or subextrorse slits; ovary ovoid,
abruptly contracted into a short columnar style; stigma thick and
fleshy, slightly 2-lobed; in the staminate flower of the Asiatic species
reduced to a minute subglobose body; ovules laterally attached near the
apex of the cell; raphe ventral. Fruit an ovoid or oblong, usually 1 or
rarely 2 or 3-seeded thick-skinned drupe tipped with the remnants of the
style; flesh thin and dry, stone thick-walled, crustaceous. Seed filling
the cavity of the stone, ovoid; seed-coat chestnut-brown.
Chionanthus inhabits the middle and southern United States with one
species, and northern and central China with another.
The specific name, from χιών and ἄνθος, is in allusion to the light and
graceful clusters of snow-white flowers.
1. Chionanthus virginica L. Fringe-tree. Old Man’s Beard.
[Illustration: Fig. 758]
Leaves ovate or oblong, acuminate, short-pointed or sometimes rounded at
apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate below, entire, with undulate
margins, and coarsely reticulate-venulose, yellow-green and lustrous
above, pubescent below, and ciliate on the margins when they unfold, and
at maturity 4′—8′ long, ½′—4′ wide, thick and firm, dark green on the
upper surface, pale and glabrous on the lower surface except on the
stout midrib and conspicuous arcuate primary veins more or less covered
with short white hairs; turning bright clear yellow before falling early
in the autumn; petioles stout, puberulous, ½′—1′ in length. Flowers
slightly and agreeably fragrant, appearing when the leaves are about one
third grown, in loose pubescent drooping panicles 4′—6′ in length, the
bracts at the base of the lower branches of the inflorescence oblong,
glabrous on the upper surface, pubescent on the lower surface, and
sometimes 1′ long, those at the base of the upper branches oval,
successively smaller, and gradually passing into the minute laciniate
bracts subtending the lateral pedicels of the 3-flowered clusters
terminating the last divisions of the panicle; some individuals bearing
occasional perfect flowers among others functionally diœcious, some with
sterile or rarely perfect anthers and a well-developed stigma, and
others with an imperfectly developed stigma and fertile anthers; calyx
light green, glabrous, with acute entire or laciniately cut lobes;
corolla 1′ long, marked on the inner surface near the base by a row of
bright purple spots; anthers light yellow, with a green connective.
Fruit ripening in September, in loose few-fruited clusters, their bracts
leaf-like and sometimes 2′ in length, oval or short-oblong, 1′ long,
dark blue or nearly black, and often covered with a glaucous bloom;
seeds ⅓′ long, ovoid, narrowed at apex and covered with a thin light
chestnut-brown coat marked by reticulate veins radiating from the hilum.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a short trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, stout ashy
gray or light brown branches forming an oblong rather narrow head, and
stout branchlets light green and covered with pale pubescence or
sometimes glabrous when they first appear, terete or slightly angled in
their first winter, often much thickened below the nodes, light brown or
orange color, and marked by large scattered darker colored lenticels and
by the elevated semiorbicular leaf-scars displaying a semicircular row
of conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars; often a shrub, with several
stout thick spreading stems. Winter-buds broad-ovoid, acute, ⅛′ long,
with about 5 pairs of scales increasing in length from the outer to the
inner pair, ovate, acute, keeled on the back, light brown and slightly
pilose on the outer surface, bright green and lustrous on the inner
surface, and ciliate on the margins with scattered white hairs, those of
the inner pair at maturity obovate, gradually narrowed below,
foliaceous, and 1′—1½′ long. Bark of the trunk ¼′—½′ thick, and
irregularly divided into small thin appressed brown scales tinged with
red. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, and light brown, with thick
lighter colored sapwood. The bark is tonic and is sometimes used in
decoctions and in the treatment of intermittent fevers, or as an
aperient and diuretic, and in homœopathic practice.
Distribution. Banks of streams in rich moist soil; southeastern
Pennsylvania to the Manitee River region, western Florida, and through
the Gulf states to northern Arkansas (Baxter and Cleburne Counties),
southwestern Oklahoma (near Page, Leflore County) and the valley of the
Brazos River, Texas; ascending on the southern Appalachian Mountains to
altitudes of 4000°.
Often cultivated as an ornamental plant in the eastern United States,
and in western and central Europe.
4. OSMANTHUS Lour.
Trees or shrubs, with terete or slightly angled branches, and fibrous
roots. Leaves simple, persistent. Flowers fragrant, polygamo-diœcious or
perfect, on ebracteolate pedicels subtended by scale-like bracts, in
short axillary racemes or in short axillary or rarely terminal
fascicles; calyx minute, 4-toothed or divided, the divisions imbricated
in the bud, persistent under the fruit; corolla tubular, 4-lobed, the
lobes imbricated in the bud, ovate, obtuse, spreading after anthesis;
stamens 2, inserted on the tube of the corolla opposite the lateral
lobes of the calyx, or rarely 4; filaments terete, short; anthers ovoid
or linear-oblong, blunt, or apiculate by the prolongation of the
connective, attached on the back below the middle, 2-celled, the cells
opening longitudinally by marginal slits, sometimes rudimentary or 0 in
the pistillate flower; ovary subglobose; style columnar, short or
elongated, crowned with an entire capitate stigma; ovules laterally
attached near the apex of the cell; raphe ventral. Fruit a fleshy
1-seeded ovoid or globose drupe tipped with the remnants of the style;
flesh thin and succulent; stone hard and bony. Seed filling the cavity
of the stone; cotyledons flat, much longer than the short superior
radicle turned toward the hilum.
Osmanthus with ten species inhabits eastern North America, the Hawaiian
Islands, Polynesia, Japan, China, and the Himalayas. _Osmanthus
fragrans_ Lour., a native of China and the temperate Himalayas, is
cultivated in China for its fragrant minute cream-colored or yellow
flowers used by the Chinese to perfume tea, and is everywhere a favorite
garden plant.
The generic name, from ὀσµή and ἄνθος, relates to the fragrance of the
flowers.
1. Osmanthus americanus B. & H. Devil Wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 759]
Leaves oblong-lanceolate or obovate, acute or rarely rounded and
occasionally emarginate at apex, and gradually narrowed and cuneate at
base, with thickened revolute margins, when they unfold coated beneath
with pale tomentum, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, glabrous,
bright green, lustrous above, obscurely reticulate-venulose, 4′—5′ long
and ½′—2½′ wide, with a broad pale midrib and remote forked primary
veins arcuate near the margins; persistent until their second year;
petioles stout, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers opening in March from pilose
inflorescence-buds formed the previous autumn in the axils of the leaves
of the year, the staminate, pistillate, and perfect flowers on different
individuals in 3-flowered clusters, sessile or short-pedicellate, in
pedunculate cymes or short racemes, with scale-like nearly triangular
acute persistent bracts; calyx puberulous, with acute rigid lobes, and
much shorter than the creamy white corolla ⅛′ long when expanded, with
an elongated tube and short spreading ovate rounded lobes; stamens
inserted on the middle of the tube of the corolla, included or slightly
exserted, small and often rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary
abruptly contracted into a stout columnar style crowned with a large
exserted capitate stigma, reduced in the staminate flower to a minute
point. Fruit ripening early in the autumn, oblong or obovoid, 1′ long,
dark blue, with thin flesh and a thick or sometimes thin-walled brittle
ovoid pointed stone; seed ovoid, covered with a chestnut-brown coat
marked by broad conspicuous pale veins radiating from the short broad
ventral hilum and encircling the seed.
A tree, occasionally 60°—70° high, with a trunk sometimes a foot in
diameter, and slender slightly angled ultimately terete branchlets light
or red-brown and marked by minute pale lenticels, becoming ashy gray in
their second year and roughened by the small elevated orbicular
leaf-scars displaying a ring of minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars;
usually much smaller and often shrubby. Winter-buds narrow-lanceolate,
½′ long, with 2 thick lanceolate reddish brown puberulous scales. Bark
of the trunk thin, dark gray or gray tinged with red, and roughened by
small thin appressed scales displaying in falling the dark cinnamon red
inner bark. Wood heavy, very hard and strong, close-grained, difficult
to work, dark brown, with thick light brown or yellow sapwood.
Distribution. Usually in moist soil near the borders of streams and
Pine-barren ponds and swamps, and occasionally on dry sandy uplands;
coast region of the south Atlantic and Gulf states, from the valley of
the lower Cape Fear River, North Carolina, to the valley of the
Kissimmee River, the interior of the peninsular (Lake and Orange
Counties) and the shores of Tampa Bay, Florida, and westward to eastern
Louisiana.
LXI. BORRAGINACEÆ.
Scabrous-pubescent trees or shrubs, with watery juice, and terete
branchlets. Leaves simple, alternate or subverticillate, penniveined,
persistent or tardily deciduous, without stipules. Flowers regular,
perfect, in terminal or axillary dichotomous often scorpioid-branched
cymes; calyx usually 5-lobed, persistent under the fruit; corolla
hypogynous, 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud; stamens 5,
inserted on the tube of the corolla opposite its lobes; filaments
filiform; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally;
pistil of 2 carpels; ovary undivided (in the arborescent genera of the
United States), sessile on the hypogynous inconspicuous disk, more or
less completely 4-celled; style single, 2-branched or parted toward the
apex; stigmas clavate or capitate; ovule solitary in each cell. Fruit
drupaceous (in the arborescent genera of the United States), tipped with
the remnants of the style, with 2—4 nutlets or cells. Seeds ascending;
seed-coat membranaceous.
The Borage family with ninety-five genera, mostly of herbaceous plants,
is widely distributed and most abundant in temperate regions, especially
in the Mediterranean basin and central Asia.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Branches of the style 2-branched; fruit partly or entirely inclosed in
the enlarged calyx.
1. Cordia.
Branches of the style not branched; fruit not inclosed in the calyx.
Calyx valvately splitting into 5 minute teeth; fruit with 2—4
1-seeded nutlets.
2. Beureria.
Calyx 5-parted or cleft, the divisions imbricated in the bud; fruit
with 2 2-seeded nutlets.
3. Ehretia.
1. CORDIA L.
Trees or shrubs, with petiolate entire persistent leaves and naked buds.
Flowers in terminal scorpioid-branched cymes; calyx tubular or
campanulate, conspicuously many-ribbed or rayed, the teeth valvate in
the bud; corolla funnel form; anthers oblong-ovate; ovary 4-celled;
style slender, elongated, 2-branched above the middle, the branches
2-parted, their division stigmatic to the base; ovule ascending,
laterally attached below the middle to the inner angle of the cell,
suborthotropous; micropyle superior. Fruit entirely or partly inclosed
in the thickened calyx; flesh dry and corky or sweet and juicy; stone
thick-walled, hard and bony, 1—4-celled, usually 1 or 2-seeded. Seeds
without albumen; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons thick
and fleshy or membranaceous, longitudinally plicate or corrugated, much
shorter than the superior radicle turned toward the hilum.
Cordia with two hundred and fifty species inhabits the tropical and warm
extratropical regions of the two hemispheres, the largest number of
species being American. Of the four species found within the territory
of the United States two are trees. Some of the species are valuable
timber-trees, and others are cultivated for their edible fruits.
The generic name is in honor of Valerius Cordus (1515—1544), the German
writer on pharmacy and botany.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Corolla orange or flame color; fruit inclosed in the smooth glabrous
thickened ivory-white calyx; leaves ovate.
1. C. Sebestena (D).
Corolla white with a yellow centre; fruit entirely or partly inclosed
in the thin many-ribbed tomentose orange-brown calyx; leaves
oval or oblong-ovate.
2. C. Boissieri (E, H).
1. Cordia Sebestena L. Geiger-tree.
[Illustration: Fig. 760]
Leaves unfolding through a large part of the year, ovate, short-pointed
or rounded at apex, rounded, subcordate, or cuneate at base, entire or
remotely and coarsely serrate above the middle, covered when they
unfold, like the branches of the inflorescence, the outside of the
calyx, and the young branchlets, with thick dense rusty tomentum and
with short rigid pale hairs, and at maturity thick and firm, dark green,
scabrous-pubescent, or often nearly glabrous below, reticulate-venulose,
5′—6′ long and 3′—4′ wide, with a broad midrib usually covered below
with pale hairs, especially in the axils of remote primary veins
connected by conspicuous cross veinlets; petioles stout, pubescent,
1′—1½′ in length. Flowers appearing throughout the year on slender
pedicels, in open flat cymes 6′—7′ in diameter, some individuals
producing flowers with short included stamens and elongated styles, and
others with exserted stamens and included styles; calyx tubular, ½′—⅔′
long, and obscurely many-rayed, with short nearly triangular rigid
teeth; corolla orange or flame color, puberulous on the outer surface,
with a slender tube about twice as long as the calyx and spreading
rounded lobes, irregularly undulate on the margins and 1′—1½′ in
diameter when fully expanded; ovary conic, glabrous, contracted into a
slender style branched near the apex. Fruit broad-ovate, rather abruptly
narrowed and pointed at apex, concave at base, 1¼′—1½′ long and about ¾′
broad, inclosed in the thickened fibrous calyx smooth and ivory-white on
the outer surface; flesh thin, pale, and corky, separable from the
irregularly sulcate thick-walled stone gradually narrowed and acuminate
at apex, and deeply lobed at base; seeds linear-lanceolate, ½′ long,
with a delicate white seed-coat.
A tree, in Florida 25°—30° high, with a tall trunk 5′—6′ in diameter,
slender upright branches forming a narrow close round-topped head, and
stout branchlets with thick pith, dark green at first, becoming ashy
gray and marked by large nearly orbicular cordate leaf-scars displaying
2 central circular clusters of fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Bark of the
trunk ½′—¾′ thick, dark brown, frequently nearly black, and deeply and
irregularly divided into narrow ridges broken on the surface into short
thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, dark brown,
with thick light brown or yellow sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, Flamingo near Cape Sable (_A. A. Eaton_) and
Madeira Hammock, Munroe County, and on the southern keys; on the Bahama
Islands, on most of the Antilles, and in Guiana and New Granada.
Often planted in tropical countries as an ornament of gardens.
2. Cordia Boissieri A. DC. Anacahuita.
[Illustration: Fig. 761]
Leaves oval to oblong-ovate, acute or rounded at apex, rounded or
subcordate at base, entire or obscurely crenulate-serrate, covered when
they unfold like the branches of the inflorescence, both surfaces of the
calyx and the young branchlets with rusty or dark brown tomentum and
short white usually matted hairs, thick and firm, dark green, minutely
rugose and more or less scabrous above, coated below with thick soft
pale or rufous tomentum, 4′—5′ long and 3′—4′ wide, with a broad midrib,
and conspicuous primary veins forked near the margins and connected by
cross veinlets; deciduous at the end of their first year; petioles
stout, tomentose, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers opening from April to June,
slightly fragrant, sessile or short-pedicellate, in open terminal
dichotomous cymes; calyx tubular or subcampanulate, conspicuously
many-ribbed, with 5 linear acute teeth, and about half as long as the
tube of the white corolla puberulous on the outer surface, marked in the
throat by a large light yellow spot, the lobes rounded, imbricated in
the bud, and 2′ across when fully expanded; ovary glabrous, gradually
narrowed into a slender 2-branched style. Fruit ovoid, 1′ long, about ¾′
broad, pointed at apex, lustrous, bright red-brown, and inclosed
entirely or partly by the thin fibrous now conspicuously rayed
orange-brown calyx coated on the outer surface with thick short pale
tomentum, and often splitting nearly to the base; flesh thin, sweet, and
pulpy, separating easily from the ovoid smooth light brown stone
gradually narrowed from above the middle, faintly reticulate-veined, and
marked by 4 longitudinal lines and at the acuminate apex by a deeply
4-lobed thin cap, thick-walled, hard and bony, deeply lobed at base;
seeds ovoid, acute, ¼′ long, with a thin delicate pure white coat.
A tree, occasionally 20°—25° high, with a short often crooked trunk
6′—8′ in diameter, stout spreading branches forming a low round-topped
head, and stout branchlets, becoming in their second year dark gray or
brown, slightly puberulous, and marked by occasional large lenticels and
by elevated obcordate leaf-scars; or often a shrub, with numerous stems
sometimes only 2° or 3° tall. Bark of the trunk thin, gray tinged with
red, and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges, the surface
ultimately separating into long thin papery scales. Wood light, rather
soft, close-grained, and dark brown, with thick light brown sapwood.
Distribution. Dry limestone ridges, and depressions in the desert;
valley of the Rio Grande, Texas, and southern New Mexico, southward into
Mexico; most abundant and of its largest size in Tamaulipas and Nuevo
Leon between the mouth of the Rio Grande and the base of the Sierra
Madre.
2. BEURERIA Jacq.
Trees or shrubs, with oblong-obovate or ovate leaves involute in the
bud, persistent. Flowers on slender bracteolate pedicels, in terminal
corymbose many-flowered cymes, with linear-lanceolate caducous bracts
and bractlets; calyx campanulate, 5-toothed, the divisions closed and
valvate in the bud; corolla white, campanulate, the lobes broad-ovate,
spreading after anthesis; anthers ovoid, rugulose, apiculate; ovary
incompletely 4-celled by the development of the 2 parietal placentas,
narrowed into a terminal style 2-parted at apex, the divisions more or
less coalescent; stigmas capitate; ovules attached on the back near the
middle of the inner face of the revolute placentas, anatropous; raphe
ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit subglobose, flesh thin; stone
somewhat 4-lobed and separable into 4 thick-walled bony 1-seeded nutlets
rounded and furnished on the back with a thick spongy longitudinal
many-ridged appendage, flattened on their converging inner faces and
attached at apex to a filiform column. Seed terete, filling the seminal
cell, longitudinally incurved round a rather small cavity opposite an
elevated oblong scar on one of the inner faces of the nutlet and
connected with the hilum by a narrow passage; seed-coat membranaceous,
light brown; embryo axile in fleshy albumen; cotyledons plane; radicle
slender, elongated, turned toward the hilum.
Beureria with forty species is confined to tropical America, two species
reaching the shores of southern Florida; of these one is a tree and the
other _Beureria revoluta_ H. B. K. is an arborescent shrub.
The generic name is in honor of J. A. Beurer, an apothecary at
Nuremberg.
1. Beureria ovata Meyers.
_Beureria havanensis_ Hitch., not Meyers.
[Illustration: Fig. 762]
Leaves elliptic to oval or broad-obovate, acute and often apiculate or
rounded and then occasionally emarginate at apex, gradually narrowed and
cuneate at base entire, densely covered when they unfold with white
caducous hairs, and at maturity thick, dark yellow-green and lustrous
above, paler below, 2½′—3′ long and 1¼′—2′ wide, with slightly thickened
undulate margins, a slender, orange-colored midrib, thin primary veins
and conspicuous reticulate veinlets more prominent above than below;
usually persistent through their second summer; petioles slender,
covered when they first appear like the very young branchlets with long
white hairs, very soon glabrous, ½′—1′ in length. Flowers opening in
spring and late in autumn on pedicels ½′ long and furnished near the
middle with an acuminate scarious bractlet ¼′ in length and caducous
from a persistent base, in open glabrous 15—20-flowered long-stalked
cymes 3′—4′ in diameter, with slender branches, and small bracts; calyx
gradually narrowed into a stipe-like base, the lobes acuminate, ciliate
on the margins; corolla subcampanulate, creamy white, with a short tube
somewhat enlarged in the throat, and broad-ovate spreading lobes ¾′
across when expanded; stamens rather longer than the tube of the
corolla, anthers much shorter than the filaments; ovary conic, glabrous,
gradually contracted into a slender exserted style divided only toward
the apex or sometimes nearly entire, and crowned with 2 capitate
stigmas. Fruit ripening in early autumn or early spring from autumnal
flowers, bright orange-red, ½′ in diameter, with a thick tough skin and
thin dry flesh inclosing the 4 nutlets, the enlarged spreading calyx
becoming sometimes ½′ across.
A tree, in Florida occasionally 40°—50° high, with a buttressed and
often fluted trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, and slender branchlets light red
and pilose with caducous hairs when they first appear, becoming in their
first winter dark red, orange color or ashy gray, and sometimes
roughened by pale lenticels, their thin bark often separating into
delicate scales; usually much smaller and often a shrub, with numerous
spreading stems. Winter-buds minute, globose, covered with hoary
tomentum, nearly immersed in the bark. Bark of the trunk 1/16′—⅛′ thick,
light brown tinged with red, more or less fissured and divided on the
surface into thick plate-like irregular scales. Wood hard, strong, very
close-grained, brown streaked with orange, with thick hardly
distinguishable sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, Cocoanut Grove, Dade County (_Miss O. Rodham_),
and on the southern keys; common; on the Bahama Islands and on many of
the Antilles.
3. EHRETIA P. Br.
Trees or shrubs, with entire or dentate leaves, and scaly buds. Flowers
small, in terminal and axillary scorpioid clusters; calyx open or closed
in the bud, the divisions imbricated, ovate or linear; corolla usually
white, with a short or cylindric tube and spreading obtuse lobes; ovary
oblong-conic, 1-celled before anthesis, becoming incompletely 4-celled
by the development of the 2 parietal placentas; style columnar, parted
into 2 divisions terminating in capitate stigmas; ovules attached
laterally near the middle on the inner face of the revolute placentas,
anatropous; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit fleshy, small,
globose, with thin flesh; stone separable into 2 2-celled thick-walled
bony nutlets rounded on the back, plane on the inner face, and attached
to a thin axile column. Seed terete, usually erect, filling the
longitudinally incurved seminal cavity; seed-coat thin, membranaceous,
light brown; embryo axile in thin albumen; cotyledons ovate, plane,
shorter than the elongated superior radicle turned toward the hilum.
Ehretia with about forty species is widely distributed through tropical
and warm extratropical regions of the two hemispheres, with a single
species extending into southeastern Texas.
The generic name commemorates the artistic and scientific labors of the
German botanical artist, George Dionysius Ehret (1708—1770).
1. Ehretia elliptica DC. Anaqua. Knackaway.
[Illustration: Fig. 763]
Leaves oval or oblong, pointed and apiculate at apex, gradually rounded
or cuneate at base, entire or occasionally furnished above the middle
with a few broad teeth, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, unfolding
late in winter and then thin, light green, lustrous, minutely
tuberculate and pilose above, and covered below like the branches of the
inflorescence, the outer surface of the calyx, and the young branchlets
with rigid pale hairs, often furnished with axillary tufts of white
hairs, and at maturity subcoriaceous, dark green and roughened on the
upper surface by the enlarged circular crowded pale tubercles, and more
or less covered with soft pale or rufous pubescence on the lower
surface, especially on the narrow midrib, and numerous primary veins
arcuate near the margins; irregularly deciduous during the winter;
petioles stout, grooved, pubescent, ⅛′—¼′ in length. Flowers opening
from autumn to early spring, in compact racemose scorpioid-branched
panicles 2′—3′ long and broad, on short leafy branches of the year, with
linear acute deciduous bracts about ¼′ long; calyx open in the bud,
divided to the base into 5 linear acute divisions and nearly as long as
the campanulate tube of the corolla, with ovate thin white lobes ½′
across when expanded. Fruit ripening in autumn and spring, light yellow,
¼′ in diameter, with thin sweet rather juicy edible flesh, and 2
2-seeded nutlets.
A tree, sometimes 40°—50° high, with a trunk occasionally 3° in
diameter, stout spreading branches forming a handsome compact
round-topped head, and slender branchlets, without a terminal bud,
covered when they first appear, like the under surface of the leaves,
the branches of the inflorescence, and the outer surface of the calyx of
the flower, with rigid hirsute pale hairs, becoming in their first
winter light brown tinged with red, sometimes puberulous, often
roughened by numerous pale lenticels, and by small depressed obcordate
leaf-scars displaying a short lunate row of fibro-vascular bundle-scars;
usually much smaller within the territory of the United States, and
often a low shrub. Winter-buds: axillary, minute, 1 or 2 together,
superposed, buried in the bark, and covered by 2 pairs of dark scales
persistent on the base of the growing branchlet and at maturity acute,
dark chestnut-brown, coated with pale hairs, and sometimes ¼′ in length.
Bark of young stems and of the branches thin, light brown, and broken
into thick appressed scales, becoming on old trunks sometimes 1′ thick,
deeply furrowed and divided into long thick irregular plate-like scales
gray or reddish brown on the surface and separating into thin flakes.
Wood heavy, hard, not strong, close-grained, difficult to split, light
brown, with thick slightly lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. River valleys in fertile soil, or as a shrub on dry barren
ridges; valleys of the upper Marcos and of the Guadalupe Rivers, Texas,
to the Rio Grande; often extremely common on the bottom-lands, and
probably of its largest size in the United States on the Guadalupe and
Nueces Rivers sixty or seventy miles from the coast; through Nuevo Leon
and Coahuila to the mountains of San Luis Potosí.
Often planted as a shade-tree in the streets of the cities and towns of
western Texas and northeastern Mexico.
LXII. VERBENACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with opposite simple entire persistent leaves, without
stipules. Flowers perfect; calyx 5-toothed or parted, persistent under
the fruit; corolla 4 or 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud;
stamens 4, inserted on the tube of the corolla in pairs of different
lengths, anthers 2-celled, introrse, the cells opening longitudinally;
ovary sessile on the annular disk; style simple, 2-lobed and stigmatic
at apex. Fruit a fleshy drupe or a capsule.
The Verbena family with seventy-eight genera, largely composed of
herbaceous plants, is widely scattered through temperate and tropical
regions. Some of the species are important timber-trees, the most
valuable being the Teak, _Tectoria grandis_ L. f., of southeastern Asia
and the Malay Archipelago, and some of the tropical species of Vitex.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers in axillary or terminal racemes; staminodium 1; ovary
imperfectly 4-celled; fruit a fleshy drupe.
1. Citharexylon.
Flowers cymose in pedunculate spikes or heads; staminodium 0; ovary
1-celled; fruit a capsule.
2. Avicennia.
1. CITHAREXYLON L.
Trees or shrubs, with coriaceous lustrous leaves, slightly angled
branchlets, without a terminal bud, and with minute axillary buds.
Flowers small, on short ebracteolate pedicels, alternate or scattered on
the filiform rachis of a slender raceme; calyx membranaceous,
tubular-campanulate, truncate, minutely 5-toothed, spreading and
cup-shaped under the fruit; corolla salver-form, usually white, the
spreading limb somewhat oblique, 5-lobed, the lobes broad-ovate,
rounded, slightly unequal, the 2 posterior exterior, sometimes reduced
to staminodia; stamens included; filaments short, filiform, slightly
thickened at base, the 2 anterior filaments longer than the others;
anthers oblong; staminodium 1, posterior, linear, acute, rarely fertile;
ovary ovoid, incompletely 4-celled by the development of two parietal
placentas, gradually narrowed into a short included style; ovule
solitary in each cell, erect, attached laterally near the base,
ascending, anatropous; micropyle inferior. Fruit a 2-stoned 4-seeded
fleshy drupe tipped with the remnants of the style, with thin flesh and
a thick-walled bony stone separable into 2 2-seeded compressed smooth
light brown nutlets rounded on the back and concave on the inner face.
Seed erect, without albumen, filling the seminal cavity; seed-coat
membranaceous, light brown; embryo subterete, straight; cotyledons thick
and fleshy, oblong, much longer than the short inferior radicle turned
toward the oblong basal hilum.
Citharexylon with about twenty species is confined to tropical America,
where it is distributed from southern Florida through the West Indies to
southern Mexico, Lower California, Bolivia, and Brazil.
The generic name, from κιθάρα and ξύλον, is a translation of the English
West Indian name Fiddle Wood, a corruption of the earlier
French-colonial Bois Fidèle, in allusion to the strength and toughness
of the wood of the trees of this genus.
1. Citharexylon fruticosum L. Fiddle Wood.
_Citharexylon villosum_ Jacq.
[Illustration: Fig. 764]
Leaves oblong-obovate to oblong, acute, acuminate, rounded or emarginate
at apex, and gradually narrowed at base, with thickened slightly
revolute margins, and glabrous or coated with short pubescence (var.
_villosum_ Schulz); conspicuously reticulate-venulose, pale green, 3′—4′
long and 1′—1½′ wide, with a broad pale midrib rounded on the upper side
and remote prominent arcuate veins; petioles stout, grooved, ⅔′ in
length, separating in falling from an elevated nearly circular
persistent woody base. Flowers fragrant, appearing throughout the year
on slender pedicels from the axils of scarious pubescent bracts, in
drooping axillary pubescent racemes crowded near the end of the branches
and 2′—4′ long; calyx coated with pale hairs, or sometimes nearly
glabrous; corolla ⅛′ across the expanded lobes of the limb, and covered
on the inner surface of the tube with pale hairs; staminodium minute.
Fruit subglobose to oblong-ovoid, light red-brown, very lustrous, ⅓′ in
diameter, with thin sweet rather juicy flesh, and inclosed nearly to the
middle in the cup-like pale brown slightly and irregularly lobed or
sometimes nearly entire calyx; seeds oblong, narrowed at the rounded
ends, about ⅛′ long.
A tree, in Florida rarely more than 30° high, with a trunk 4′—7′ in
diameter, slender upright branches forming a narrow irregularly shaped
head, and slender slightly many-angled branchlets light yellow and
covered with pale simple caducous hairs or pubescent when they first
appear, becoming in their second year terete and ashy gray; or often a
shrub, with numerous low stems. Winter-buds globose, nearly immersed in
the bark, and covered with hoary pubescence. Bark of the trunk 1/16′—⅛′
thick, light brown tinged with red, the surface separating into minute
appressed scales. Wood heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained,
clear bright red, with thin lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, Cape Canaveral to the southern keys; common and
of its largest size in the United States on the shores of Bay Biscayne
near the mouth of the Miami River, Dade County; northward usually a low
shrub; on the Bahama Islands and on many of the Antilles.
2. AVICENNIA L.
Trees, with coriaceous persistent leaves, stout pithy branches thickened
at the nodes and marked by interpetiolar lines, and long thick
horizontal roots producing numerous short vertical thick and fleshy
leafless stems rising above the surface of the soil. Flowers opposite,
cymose, in centripetal pedunculate spikes or heads, closely invested by
a bract and 2 bractlets, the peduncles solitary or in pairs in the axils
of upper leaves and ternate on the end of the branches, their bracts and
bractlets concave, acute, apiculate, keeled on the back, scarious,
slightly ciliate on the margins, shorter than the corolla, persistent
under the fruit; calyx cup-shaped, coated like the bracts and bractlets
with canescent pubescence, divided nearly to the base into 5 concave
ovate rounded lobes imbricated in the bud; corolla campanulate, white,
with a straight cylindric tube shorter than the glabrous or tomentose
spreading 4-lobed limb, the posterior lobe usually larger than the
others; stamens exserted; filaments short, filiform, slightly thickened
at base; anthers ovoid; ovary ovoid, pubescent, 1-celled, gradually
narrowed into an elongated slender style divided at apex into 2 lobes
stigmatic on their inner face; ovules 4, suspended from the summit of a
free central placenta, orthotropous, naked. Fruit an ovoid oblique
compressed 1-seeded capsule apiculate at apex; pericarp thin, light
green, villose-pubescent on the outer surface, longitudinally veined on
the inner surface, opening by the ventral suture and displaying the
embryo enlarging before separating from the branch, ultimately 2-valved.
Seed naked, without albumen; embryo filling the cavity of the fruit,
light green; cotyledons thick and fleshy, broader than long, slightly
pointed, deeply cordate at base, unequal, conduplicate; radicle
elongated, clavate, retrorsely hirsute, inferior, descending obliquely
and included between the lobes of the cotyledons slightly attached near
the apex in the bottom of the capsule to the withered columella by a
minute papillose point; plumule hairy.
Avicennia with three species is widely distributed on maritime shores of
the tropics of the two worlds, with one species reaching those of the
southern United States. Avicennia produces hard strong wood. The bark is
rich in tannic acid, and is used for tanning leather. The chief value of
these trees is in their ability to live on low tidal shores by the
structure of the embryo, which is growing and ready to take root as soon
as it falls into the soft mud, and in the long horizontal roots
furnished with short vertical fleshy leafless branches or aerating
roots, forming a close network which holds the soil together and
prevents it from being washed away by outflowing tides, and extends the
growth of the tree by numerous stems which soon form dense thickets.
The generic name is in honor of the illustrious physician of the Orient,
Avicenna of Bokhara (980—1036).
1. Avicennia nitida Jacq. Black Mangrove.
[Illustration: Fig. 765]
Leaves oblong or lanceolate-elliptic, rounded or acute at apex and
gradually narrowed at base, dark green and often lustrous above,
hoary-tomentulose below, 2′—3′ long and ¾′—1½′ wide, with slightly
thickened revolute margins, a broad midrib thickened and grooved toward
the base on the upper side, and oblique primary veins arcuate and joined
close to the margins, conspicuous on the 2 surfaces, and connected by
prominent reticulate veinlets; appearing irregularly and falling early
in their second season; petioles broad, channeled, enlarged at base, and
about ½′ in length. Flowers produced continuously throughout the year,
their bracts and bractlets nearly ¼′ long, coated with pale or slightly
rufous pubescence and about as long as the lobes of the calyx, in
few-flowered short spikes on stout 4-angled canescent peduncles ½′—1½′
in length, the lateral peduncles of the ternate terminal cluster
subtended by oblong acute bracts ½′ long; corolla ½′ across the expanded
slightly tomentose lobes, and nearly closed in the throat. Fruit 1′—1½′
long and ¾′—1′ wide.
A tree, occasionally 60°—70° high, with a short trunk rarely 2° in
diameter, spreading branches forming a broad round-topped head, and
branchlets at first slightly angled, coated with fine hoary deciduous
pubescence, and light orange color, becoming in their second year more
or less contorted, light or dark gray, conspicuously marked by the
interpetiolar lines and by horizontal leaf-scars displaying a central
row of fibro-vascular bundle-scars; usually not more than 20°—30° tall,
with a short slender stem, and toward the northern limit of its range a
low shrub. Bark of the trunk ¼′—½′ thick, roughened with thin
irregularly appressed dark brown scales tinged with red, and in falling
displaying the bright orange-red inner bark. Wood very heavy, hard,
rather coarse-grained, with numerous medullary rays and eccentric layers
of annual growth, dark brown or nearly black, with thick brown sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, St. Augustine to the southern keys on the east
coast, and from Cedar Keys to Cape Sable on the west coast; on some of
the islands in Mississippi Sound, and on the shore of Terrebonne and
Cameron Parishes, and on most of their islands, Louisiana; on the Bahama
Islands, on many of the Antilles, and southward to Brazil; and on the
west coast of Africa; in the United States of its largest size in
Florida just north of Cape Sable; north of Matanzas Inlet on the east
coast of Florida usually with stems only a few feet tall.
LXIII. SOLANACEÆ.
Trees, shrubs or herbs, with colorless juice and rank smelling foliage,
alternate rarely opposite leaves, without stipules, and perfect regular
yellow, white or purple flowers on ebracteolate pedicels in usually
dichotomous cymes; calyx campanulate, usually 5-lobed, the lobes
slightly imbricated or valvate, usually persistent; corolla
gamopetalous, usually 5, rarely 4-lobed, the lobes induplicate-valvate
or plicate in the bud; stamens inserted on the tube of the corolla and
alternate with and as many as its lobes, equal or unequal; filaments
filiform or dilated at base; anthers 2-celled, introrse, opening by
apical or longitudinal slits, disk pulvinate or annular, entire, sinuate
or 2-lobed or 0; ovary sessile or stipitate on the disk, 2 or rarely
3—5-celled; style slender, terminating in a small or more or less
dilated stigma; ovules numerous, attached in many series on the axile
placenta, rarely few or solitary, anatropous or slightly amphitropous.
Fruit baccate or capsular. Seeds numerous; testa membranaceous or
crustaceous; embryo usually slender and curved in fleshy albumen;
cotyledons semiterete, shorter than the radicle turned toward the hilum.
A family of 83 genera widely distributed in tropical and temperate
regions; often producing fruit with narcotic or poisonous properties,
and containing among its useful members the Potato and the Tomato.
1. SOLANUM L.
Herbs, shrubs or rarely trees. Leaves alternate, lobed or pinnatifid,
persistent or deciduous. Flowers in mostly lateral, extra-axillary or
axillary clusters; calyx and corolla 5, rarely 4—10-parted, the calyx
persistent under the fruit, corolla rotate in the bud; stamens 5, rarely
4—6, exserted; filaments short; anthers oblong or acuminate, rarely
ovoid, converging round the style, opening at apex by two pores; disk
not conspicuous, or annular; ovary usually 2, rarely 3 or 4-celled;
style simple; stigma usually small; ovules numerous. Fruit baccate,
often surrounded by the enlarged calyx, usually globose and juicy; seeds
compressed, orbicular or subreniform.
Solanum with some 1200 species is widely distributed through the
tropics, with a few species extending into cooler regions, the larger
number of species occurring in the New World.
The name is of uncertain derivation.
1. Solanum verbascifolium L.
[Illustration: Fig. 766]
Leaves ovate to elliptic or oblong, acute or acuminate at apex, rounded
or cuneate at base, entire, thickly coated when they unfold with hoary
tomentum, and at maturity thin, yellow-green and stellate-pubescent on
the upper surface, paler and more densely stellate-pubescent on the
lower surface, 5′—7′ long and 1′—3′ wide, with slightly undulate
margins, a prominent midrib and slender primary veins; persistent;
petioles slender, densely stellate-pubescent, ¾′—1′ in length. Flowers
appearing throughout the year on pedicels ¼′ long and much thickened at
maturity, in broad many-flowered dichotomous stellate-pubescent cymes on
peduncles 1′—4′ in length from the axils of upper leaves; calyx about ½′
long, densely stellate, the lobes triangular-ovate; corolla about ¾′—1′
wide after the expansion of the oblong-ovate lobes; stamens exserted.
Fruit globose, yellow, ½′—¾′ in diameter, surrounded at base by the
densely stellate calyx, with ovate acute lobes about ⅙′ long; seeds
nearly orbicular to obovoid, much compressed, yellow, 1/12′ in diameter.
A tree, rarely 20° high, with a trunk 4′ or 5′ in diameter, spreading
branches forming a flat-topped head, and stout unarmed branchlets
densely stellate-tomentose during their first season, becoming glabrous
and light orange-brown or gray-brown in the following year; usually
smaller and generally a shrub. Bark of the trunk thin, close, much
roughened by many wart-like excrescences, light greenish or yellowish
gray.
Florida, rich hummocks, Merritt’s Island on the east coast, southward to
the shores of Bay Biscayne, and to the Cape Sable region; on the Bahama
Islands, and many of the Antilles, in Mexico and Central America, in the
tropics of the Old World and in southeastern China; now thoroughly
established but more probably introduced than indigenous in Florida.
LXIV. BIGNONIACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, and opposite or rarely alternate
simple (in the arborescent genera of the United States) leaves, without
stipules. Flowers perfect, large and showy; calyx closed in the bud,
bilabiately splitting in anthesis; corolla hypogynous, 2-lipped,
5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud; stamens 2 or 4, inserted on
the corolla, introrse; anthers 2-celled, the cells opening
longitudinally; staminodia 1 or 3; ovary sessile, 1 or 2-celled,
gradually narrowed into a slender simple style 2-lobed and stigmatic at
apex; ovules numerous, horizontal, anatropous; raphe ventral; micropyle
superior. Fruit a linear woody loculicidally 2-valved capsule, or a
berry. Seeds without albumen; embryo filling the cavity of the seed.
The Bignonia family with about one hundred genera, many of them of
scandent plants, is widely distributed in the tropics and most abundant
in the New World, with a few genera extending into temperate regions. Of
the five genera of the United States three are arborescent. Many of the
species are important timber-trees.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Fruit a linear woody capsule; ovary 2-celled; leaves thin, deciduous.
Stamens 4; staminodium 1; leaves linear, often alternate or
scattered.
1. Chilopsis.
Stamens 2; staminodia 3; leaves oblong-ovate, mostly opposite.
2. Catalpa.
Fruit a berry; stamens 4; staminodium 1; ovary 1-celled; leaves
coriaceous, persistent.
3. Enallagma.
1. CHILOPSIS D. Don.