borhood of Cape Hatteras and Smith Island at the mouth of Cape Fear River, North Caro-
lina, southward near the coast to northern Florida; in Florida extending across the penin-
sula and south to Upper Metacomb Key, and along the west coast to Saint Andrews Bay;
most abundant and of its largest size on the west coast of the Florida peninsula.
Often planted as a street tree in the cities of the southern states.
2. Sabal texana Becc. Palmetto.
Sabal mexicana S. Wats., not Mart.
Leaves dark yellow-green and lustrous, 5-6 long, often 7 wide, divided nearly to the
middle into narrow divided segments, with thickened pale margins separating into long
Fig. 100
thin fibres, with ligules about 6' long; petioles 7-8 long, 1^' wide at the apex. Flowers:
spadix 7-8 long, with stout ultimate divisions; flowers in Texas appearing in March or
April in the axils of persistent bracts half as long as the perianth. Fruit ripening early in
the summer, globose, often 2 or 3-lobed; seeds nearly \' broad and \' wide, dark chestnut-
brown, with a broad shallow basal cavity, and a conspicuous orange-colored hilum.
A tree, with a trunk 30-50 high, often 2 in diameter, and a broad head of erect ul-
timately pendulous leaves. Wood light, soft, pale brown tinged with red, with thick
light-colored rather inconspicuous fibro-vascular bundles, the outer rim 1' thick, soft, and
light colored. On the Gulf coast the trunks are used for wharf -piles, and on the lower
Rio Grande the leaves for the thatch of houses.
104
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
Distribution. Rich soil of the bottom-lands on the Bernado River, Cameron County,
and near the mouth of the Rio Grande, Texas, and southward in Mexico in the neighbor-
hood of the coast.
Frequently planted as a street tree in the towns in the lower Rio Grande valley.
4. WASHINGTONIA H. Wendl.
Trees, with stout columnar stems and broad crowns of erect and spreading finally pen-
dulous leaves. Leaves flabellate, divided nearly to the middle into many narrow deeply
parted recurved segments separating on the margins into numerous slender pale fibres;
rachis short, slightly rounded on the back, gradually narrowed from a broad base, with
concave margins furnished below with narrow erect wings, and slender and acute above;
ligule elongated, oblong, thin and laciniate on the margins; petioles elongated, broad and
thin, flattened or slightly concave on the upper side, rounded on the lower, armed irregu-
larly with broad thin large and small straight or hooked spines confluent into a thin bright
orange-colored cartilaginous margin, gradually enlarged at base into thick broad con-
cave bright chestnut-brown sheaths composed of a network of thin strong fibres. Spadix
interfoliar, stalked, elongated, paniculate, with pendulous flower-bearing ultimate divisions
and numerous long spathes. Flowers perfect, jointed on thick disk-like pedicels; calyx
tubular, scarious, thickened at base, gradually enlarged and slightly lobed at apex, the
lobes imbricated in the bud; corolla funnel-formed, with a fleshy tube inclosed in the
calyx and about half as long as the lanceolate lobes thickened and glandular on the inner
surface at the base, imbricated in the bud; stamens inserted on the tube of the corolla, with
free filaments thickened near the middle and linear-oblong anthers; ovary 3-lobed, 3-
celled, with slender elongated flexuose styles stigmatic at apex; ovules lateral, erect.
Fruit a small ellipsoidal short-stalked black berry with thin dry flesh. Seed free, erect,
oblong-ovoid, concave above, with a flat base depressed in the centre, a minute sublateral
hilum, a broad conspicuous rachis, a minute lateral micropyle, and a thin pale chestnut-
brown inner coat closely investing the simple horny albumen; embryo minute, lateral, with
the radicle turned toward the base of the fruit.
Three species of Washingtonia are known: one inhabits the interior dry region of south-
ern California and the adjacent parts of Lower California, and the others the mountain
canons of western Sonora and southern Lower California.
The genus is named for George Washington.
1. Washingtonia filamentosa O. Kuntze. Desert Palm. Fan Palm.
Leaves 5-6 long and 4-5 wide, light green, slightly tomentose on the folds; petioles
Fig. 101
PALM.E 105
4-6 long and about 2' broad at apex, with sheaths 16'-18' long and 12'-14' wide, and
ligules 4' long and cut irregularly into long narrow lobes. Flowers: spadix 10-12 long,
3 or 4 being produced each year from the axils of upper leaves, the outer spathe inclosing
the bud, narrow, elongated, and glabrous, those of the secondary branches coriaceous, yel-
low tinged with brown, and laciniate at apex; flowers slightly fragrant, opening late in
May or early in June. Fruit produced in great profusion, ripening in September, J' long;
seed 1' long, f ' thick.
A tree, occasionally 75 high, with a trunk sometimes 50-60 tall and 2-3 in diameter,
covered with a thick light red-brown scaly rind and clothed with a thick thatch of dead
pendant leaves descending in a regular cone from the broad crown of living leaves some-
times nearly to the ground. Wood light and soft, with numerous conspicuous dark orange-
colored fibro- vascular bundles. The fruit is gathered and used as food by the Indians.
Distribution. Often forming extensive groves or small isolated clumps in wet usually
alkali soil in depressions along the northern and northwestern margins of the Colorado
Desert in southern California, sometimes extending for several miles up the canons of the
San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains; and in Lower California.
Now largely cultivated in southern California, New Orleans, southern Europe, and
other temperate regions.
5. ACCELORRAPHE H. Wendl.
Trees, with tall slender often clustered stems clothed for many years with the sheathing
bases of the petioles of fallen leaves. Leaves suborbicular, divided into numerous two-
parted segments plicately folded at the base; rachis short, acute; ligule thin, concave, fur-
nished with a broad membranaceous dark red-brown deciduous border; petioles slender,
flat or slightly concave on the upper side, rounded and ridged on the lower side, with a broad
high rounded ridge, thickened and cartilaginous on the margins, more or less furnished with
stout or slender flattened teeth; vagina thin and firm, bright mahogany red, lustrous,
closely infolding the stem, its fibres thin and tough. Spadix paniculate, interpetiolar, its
rachis slender, compressed, ultimate branches, numerous, slender, elongated, gracefully
drooping, hoary-tomentose, the primary branches flattened, the secondary terete in the
axils of ovate acute chestnut-brown bracts; spathes flattened, thick and firm, deeply two-
cleft and furnished at apex with a red-brown membranaceous border, inclosing the
rachis of the panicle, each primary branch with its spathe and the node of the rachis below
it inclosed in a separate spathe, the whole surrounded by the larger spathe of the node
next below. Flowers perfect, minute, sessile on the ultimate branches of the spadix,
in the axils of ovate acute chestnut-brown caducous bracts, solitary toward the end of the
branches and in two- or three-flowered clusters near their base; calyx truncate at base,
divided into three broadly ovate sepals dentate on the margins, valvate in aestivation, en-
larged and persistent under the fruit; corolla three-parted nearly to the base, its divisions
valvate in aestivation, oblong-ovate, thick, concave and thickened at apex, deciduous;
stamens six, included; filaments nearly triangular, united below into a cup adnate to the
short tube of the corolla; anthers short-oblong, attached on the back below the middle,
introrse, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary obovoid, of three carpels,
each with two deep depressions on their outer face, united into a slender style; stigma
minute, terminal, persistent on the fruit; ovule solitary, erect from the bottom of the cell,
anatropous. Fruit drupaceous, subglobose, one-seeded, black and lustrous; exocarp thin
and fleshy; endocarp thin, crustaceous; seed erect, free, subglobose, light chestnut-brown;
testa thin and hard; hilum small, suborbicular; raphe ventral, oblong, elongated, black,
slightly prominent, without ramifications; embryo lateral; albumen homogeneous.
Two species of Accelorraphe have been distinguished; they inhabit southern Florida,
and one species occurs also in Cuba and on the Bahama Islands.
The generic name, from d priv., KOI \o s and pa<fyf), refers to the character of the seed.
106
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Petioles furnished with stout marginal teeth throughout their entire length; leaves green
on both surfaces, their primary divisions extending to the middle, secondary divisions
only from 3'-9' long; stems forming large thickets. 1. A. Wrightii (D).
Petioles furnished with thinner teeth, usually unarmed toward the apex; leaves green or
glaucescent on the lower surface, their primary divisions extending nearly to the base,
secondary divisions often 10' long or more; stems often prostrate. 2. A. arborescens (D) .
1. Acoelorraphe Wrightii Becc.
Leaves 30'-36' in diameter, thin, light green, divided only to the middle, the divisions
of the primary lobes 3^'-9' long; petioles thin, gradually tapering from the base, 40'-60'
Fig. 102
in length, armed throughout with stout straight or incurved teeth. Flowers: spadix 4-
6 long; flowers '-' long, with a light chestnut-brown calyx and a pale yellow-green corolla.
Fruit j' in diameter.
A tree with numerous stems, in Florida sometimes 10 metnes high, forming great thickets.
Distribution. Dade County, Florida, from the rear of Madeira Hummock to Cape;
Sable, in swamps of fresh or brackish water at some distance from the coast; also in Cuba
and on the Bahamas.
2. Acoelorraphe arborescens Becc.
Serenoa arborescens Sarg.
Leaves about 2 in diameter, light yellow-green on the upper surface, blue-green or
glaucescent on the lower surface, divided nearly to the base into numerous lobes slightlj
thickened at the pale yellow midribs and margins; petioles 18'-24' long, armed, excepl
toward the apex, with stout flattened curved orange-colored teeth. Flowers: spadi>
PALM^E
107
3-4 long, with a slender much-flattened stalk, panicled lower branches 18'-20' in length,
and 6-8 thick firm pale green conspicuously ribbed spathes dilated^ at apex into a
narrow border; flowers with a light chestnut-brown calyx and a pale yellow-green corolla.
Fruit globose, f ' in diameter; seed somewhat flattened below, with a pale vertical mark
on the lower side, and a hilum joined to the micropyle by a pale band.
A tree, from 30-40 high, with 1 or several clustered erect inclining or occasionally semi-
prostrate stems 3'-4' in diameter, covered almost to the ground by the closely clasping
bases of the leaf-stalks and below with a thick pale rind.
Fig. 103
Distribution. Low undrained soil covered for many months of every year in water
from l'-18' deep, occasionally occupying almost exclusively areas of several acres in ex-
tent or more often scattered among Cypress-trees or Royal Palms, in the swamps and
along the hummocks adjacent to the Chokoloskee River and its tributaries and at the head
of East River, Whitewater Bay, in southwestern Florida.
6. ROYSTONEA Cook. Royal Palm.
Unarmed trees, with massive stems enlarged near the middle, and terminating in long
slender bright green cylinders formed by the densely imbricated sheaths of the leaf-stalks.
Leaves equally pinnate, with linear-lanceolate long-pointed unequally cleft plicately-folded
pinnae inserted obliquely on the upper side of the rachis, folded together at the base, with
thin midribs and margins; rachis convex on the back, broad toward the base of the leaf
and acute toward its apex; petioles semicylindric, gradually enlarged into thick elon-
gated green sheaths. Spadix large, decompound, produced near the base of the green
part of the stem, with long pendulous branches ad 2 spathes, the outer semicylindric and
as long as the spadix, the inner splitting ventrally and inclosing the branches of the spadix.
Flowers monoecious, in a loose spiral, toward the base of the branch in 3-flowered clusters,
with a central staminate and smaller lateral pistillate flowers, higher on the branch the
stamina te in 2-flowered clusters; calyx of the staminate flower of minute broadly ovate
obtuse scarious sepals imbricated in the bud, much shorter than the corolla; petals nearly
equal, valvate in the bud, ovate or obovate, acute, slightly united at the base, coriaceous;
stamens. 6, 9, or 12, with subulate filaments united below and adnate to the base of the
corolla, and large ovate-sagittate anthers, the cells free below; ovary rudimentary, sub-
globose or 3-lobed; pistillate flowers much smaller, ovoid-conic; sepals obtuse; corolla
erect, divided to the middle into acute erect lobes incurved at apex; staminodia 6,
scale-like, united into a cup adnate to the corolla; ovary subglobose, obscurely 2 or 3-lobed,
108
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
2 or 3-celled, gibbous, the cells crowned with a 3-lobed stigma becoming subbasilar on the
fruit; ovule ascending. Fruit a short-stalked drupe with thin crustaceous flesh. Seed ob-
long-reniform, marked by the conspicuous fibrous reticulate branches of the raphe radiating
from the narrow basal hilum, and covered with a thin crustaceous coat; embryo minute,
cylindric, lateral, in uniform albumen.
Roystonea is confined to the tropics of the New World, where two or three species occur.
The genus as here limited was named for General Roy Stone of the United States army.
1. Roystonea regia Cook. Royal Palm.
Oreodoxa regia H. B. K.
Leaves 10-12 long, closely pinnate, the pinnae, 2-3 long, 1|' wide near the base of
the leaf, and gradually decreasing in size toward its apex, deep green with slender conspicu-
ous veins, and covered below with minute pale glandular dots; petioles almost terete,
concave near the base, with thin edges separating irregularly into pale fibres, and enlarged
into bright green cylindrical clasping bases 8 or 9 long and more or less covered with dark
chaffy scales. Flowers: spadix about 2 long, with a nearly terete stem and slightly
ridged primary and secondary branches compressed above, abruptly enlarged at the base,
and simple slender flexuose long-pointed flower-bearing branchlets 3'-6' long, pendant and
closely pressed against the secondary branches; flowers opening in Florida in January
and February, the staminate nearly \' long and rather more than twice as long as the pis-
tillate. Fruit oblong-obovoid, full and rounded at apex, narrowed at base, violet-blue,
about ' long, with a thin outer coat and a light red-brown inner coat, loose and fibrous on
the outer surface, and closely investing the thin light brown seed.
A tree, 80-100 high, with a trunk rising from an abruptly enlarged base, gradually
tapering from the middle to the ends and often 2 in diameter, covered with light gray rind
tinged with orange color, marked with dark blotches and irregularly broken into minute
plates, the green upper portion 8-10 long, and a broad head of gracefully drooping leaves.
Wood of the interior of the stem spongy, pale brown, much lighter than the hard exterior
rim, containing numerous dark conspicuous fibro-vascular bundles. The outer portion of
the stem is made into canes, and the trunks are sometimes used for wharf -piles and in con-
struction.
Distribution. Florida, hummocks on Rogue River twenty miles east of Caximbas Bay,
on some of the Everglades Keys, Long's Key, and formerly on the shores of Bay Biscayne
near the mouth of Little River; common in the West Indies and Central America.
Largely cultivated as an ornamental tree in tropical countries, and often planted to form
avenues, for which its tall pale columnar stems and noble heads of graceful foliage make it
valuable.
PALM.E
109
7. PSEUDOPHGEN1X H. Wendl.
A tree, with a slender stem abruptly enlarged at the base or tapering from the middle to
the ends, covered with thin pale blue or nearly white rind, and conspicuously marked by
the dark scars of fallen leaf-stalks. Leaves erect, abruptly pinnate, with crowded linear-
lanceolate acuminate leaflets increasing in length and width from the ends to the middle of
the leaf, thick and firm in texture, dark yellow-green above, pale and glaucous below;
rachis convex on the lower side, concave on the upper side near the base of the leaf, with
thin margins, becoming toward the apex of the leaf flat and narrowed below and acute above,
marked on the sides at the base with dark gland-like excrescences; petioles short, concave
above, with thin entire margins separating into slender fibres, gradually enlarged into broad
thick sheaths of short brittle fibres. Spadix interfoliar, compound, pendulous, stalked,
much shorter than the leaves, with spreading primary branches, stout and much flattened
toward the base, slender and rounded above the middle, furnished at the base with a
thickened ear-like body, slender secondary branches, short thin rigid densely flowered
ultimate divisions, and compressed light green double spathes erose on their thin dark
brown margins. Flowers on slender pedicels articulate by an expanded base, widely
scattered on the ultimate branches of the spadix, staminate and bisexual in the same in-
florescence; calyx reduced to the saucer-like rim of the thickened receptacle, undulate on
the margin, the rounded angles alternating with the petals; petals 3, valvate in the bud, ob-
long, rounded at apex, thick conspicuously longitudinally veined, persistent; stamens
6, with short flattened nearly triangular filaments slightly united at the base into a narrow
fleshy disk, and triangular cordate anthers attached at the base in a cavity on their outer
face, 2-celled, the cells opening by lateral slits; styles of the perfect flower 3-lobed at the
apex with obtuse appressed lobes, that of the sterile flower as long or longer than that of the
perfect flower, more slender and tapering into a narrow 3-pointed apex. Fruit a stalked
globose 2 or 3-lobed orange-scarlet thin-fleshed drupe marked by the lateral style and sur-
rounded' below by the withered remnants of the flower; pedicel abruptly enlarged at
base, articulate from a persistent cushion-like body furnished in the centre with a minute
point penetrating a cavity in the base of the pedicel. Seed subglobose, free, erect, with
a basal hilum and a thin light red-brown coat marked by the pale conspicuous ascend-
ing 2 or 3-branched raphe; embryo minute, basal, in uniform horny albumen.
Pseudophcenix with a single species inhabits the keys of southern Florida, and the
Bahamas.
The generic name is in allusion to a fancied resemblance to Phoenix, a genus of Palms.
1. Pseudophrenix vinifera Becc.
Leaves 5-6 long, with pinnae often 18' long and 1' wide near the middle of the leaf,
Fig. 105
110 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
becoming at its extremities not more than half as long and wide; petioles 6'-8' in length.
Flowers: spadix 3 long and 2| wide. Fruit ripening in May and June, '-f' in diameter
on a peduncle \' long; seed \' in diameter.
Distribution. Florida, east end of Elliot's Key, and east end of Key Largo near the south-
ern shore, here forming a grove of 200 or 300 plants; more common on the Bahamas.
Occasionally cultivated in the gardens of southern Florida.
IV. LILIACEJE.
YUCCLE.
Leaves, alternate, linear-lanceolate. Flowers in terminal panicles; sepals and petals
nearly similar, subequal, withering-persistent; ovary with more or less deeply introduced
dorsal partitions; ovules numerous, 2-ranked in each cell; embryo subulate, obliquely placed
across the seed; cotyledon arched in germination.
Yuccse as here limited consists of two American genera, Hesperaloe, with two species,
low plants of Texas and Mexico, and Yucca.
i. YUCCA L.
Trees with simple or branched stems prolonged by axillary naked buds, dark thick corky
bark, light fibrous wood in concentric layers, and large stout horizontal roots; or often
stemless. Leaves involute in the bud, at first erect, usually becoming reflexed, abruptly
narrowed above the broad thickened clasping base, usually widest near the middle, con-
cave on the upper surface, involute toward the horny usually sharp-pointed apex, convex
and often slightly keeled toward the base on the lower surface, the margins serrulate or
filamentose, light or dull green. Flowers fertilized by insects and opening for a single
night, on slender pedicels in 2 or 3-flowered clusters or singly at the base of the large com-
pound panicle furnished with conspicuous leathery white or slightly colored bracts, those at
the base of the pedicels thin and scarious; perianth cup-shaped, with thick ovate-lanceo-
late creamy white segments more or less united at base, usually furnished with small tufts
of white hairs at the apex, those of the outer rank narrower, shorter, and more colored than
the more delicate petal-like segments of the inner rank; stamens 6, in 2 series, free, shorter
than the ovary (as long in 1), white, with club-shaped fleshy filaments, obtuse and slightly
3-lobed at the apex, and cordate emarginate anthers attached on the back, the cells
opening longitudinally, curling backward and expelling the large globose powdery pollen-
grains; ovary oblong, 6-sided, sessile or stalked, with nectar-glands within the partitions,
dull greenish white, 3-celled, gradually narrowed into a short or elongated 3-lobed ivory-
white style forming a triangular stigmatic tube. Fruit oblong or oval, more or less dis-
tinctly 6-angled, 6-celled, usually beaked at the apex, baccate and indehiscent or capsular
and 3-valved, the valves finally separating at the apex; pericarp of 2 coats, the outer at
maturity thick, succulent and juicy, thin, dry and leathery, or thin and woody. Seeds
compressed, triangular, obovoid, or obliquely ovoid or orbicular, thick, with a narrow
2-edged rim, or thin, with a wide or narrow brittle margin; seed-coat thin, black, slightly
rugose or smooth; embryo in plain or rarely ruminate hard farinaceous oily albumen; coty-
ledon much longer than the short radicle turned toward the small oblong white hilum.
Yucca is confined to the New World and is distributed from Bermuda and the eastern
Antilles, through the south Atlantic and Gulf states to Oklahoma and Arkansas, and
through New Mexico and northward along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to
South Dakota, westward to middle California, and southward through Arizona, Mexico,
and Lower California to Central America. About thirty species with many varieties
and probable hybrids are recognized. Of the species which inhabit the territory of the
United States nine assume the habit and attain the size of small trees. The root-stalks
of Yucca are used as a substitute for soap, and ropes, baskets, and mats are made from
the tough fibres of the leaves. Many of the species are cultivated, especially in countries^
of scanty rainfall, for their great clusters of beautiful flowers, or in hedges to protect gar-
dens from cattle.
The generic name is from the Carib name of the root of the Cassava.
LILIACE.E
111
CONSPECTUS OF THE ABORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flower-clusters usually sessile, or short-stalked.
Fruit pendulous, with thick succulent flesh; seeds thick; albumen ruminate.
Segments of the perianth slightly united at the base.
Panicle glabrous or puberulous.
Ovary stipitate; leaves sharply toothed on their horny margins, smooth, dark
green, slightly concave. 1. Y. aloifolia (C).
Ovary sessile.
Leaves concave, blue-green, rough on the lower surface. 2. Y. Treculeana (E) .
Leaves concave above the middle, light yellow-green, smooth.
Style elongated. 3. Y. macrocarpa (E, H).
Style short. 4. Y. mohavensis (G, H).
Panicle coated with hoary tomentum; leaves concave, smooth, light yellow-green.
5. Y. Schottii (H).
Segments of the perianth united below into a narrow tube; leaves flat, smooth, dark
green. 6. Y. Faxoniana (E).
Fruit erect or spreading, the flesh becoming thin and dry at maturity; seeds thin; albu-
men entire.
Leaves rigid, concave above the middle, blue-green, sharply serrate.
7. Y. brevifolia (F, G).
Leaves thin, flat or concave toward the apex, nearly entire, rough on the lower
surface, dull or glaucous green. 8. Y. gloriosa (C).
Flower-clusters long-stalked; fruit capsular, erect, finally splitting between the carpels
and through their backs at the apex; seeds thin; albumen entire; leaves thin, flat,