lique, truncate or 5-toothed; corolla usually scarlet; petals free; standard broad or elon-
gated, erect or spreading, nearly sessile or raised on a long stalk; wing-petals small or
wanting, longer or shorter than the keel-petals; stamens 10, united into a tube split on
the upper side, the tenth and upper stamen separate or all 10 united; anthers uniform;
ovary stipitate, 1-celled; styles subulate, incurved, naked; stigmas small, terminal; ovules
numerous, amphitropous, the micropyle superior. Fruit a stipitate linear-falcate pod nar-
rowed at ends, compressed or subterete, constricted or undulate between the seeds,
2-valved; seeds reniform, attached by an oblong basal hilum, exalbuminous.
From twenty-five to thirty species are recognized, all inhabitants of tropical and semi-
tropical regions. In the gardens of warm countries several of the species are cultivated
for the beauty of their large and brilliant flowers.
The name is from tpv0p6s, in allusion to the color of the flowers.
6-28
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
1 . Erythrina herbacea var. arborea Chapm.
Leaves persistent, usually 6'-8' long, with a slender petiole and rachis occasionally
armed with small recurved prickles; leaflets thin, deltoid to hastate, concave-cuneate at
the broad base, the lateral lobes broad and rounded and much shorter than the elongated
terminal lobe gradually narrowed and rounded at apex, thin, yellow-green, smooth and
glabrous, 2|'-3|' long and lf'-2j' wide; petiolules slender, about \' in length, with
minute gland-like stipels. Flowers 2'-2f ' Jong on short slender pedicels, in narrow leafless
racemes 8'-13' long, the low r er flowers fading before those at the apex of the raceme open;
calyx dark red, truncate and ciliate at the mouth, \' in length; corolla scarlet; the standard
narrow, oblanceolate, gradually narrowed into the long base, about \' long, closely infolded
and then more or less falcate; wing-petals slightly longer than the calyx and longer than
Fig. 573
the keel-petals; stamens diadelphous. Fruit compressed, constricted between the seeds,
apiculate at apex, from 4 '-6' long, gradually narrowed into a stout stipitate base often
f in length; seeds compressed, bright scarlet, lustrous, T 5 2 ' long and about \' wide, with a
dark hilum.
A tree, rarely 25-30 high, with a tall trunk occasionally a foot in diameter, small erect
and spreading branches, and slende'r yellow-green branchlets armed with short broad re-
curved spines; more often shrubby and, except in size and habit, not distinguishable from
Erythrina herbacea L., an herb with slender spreading stems occasionally 3 long, and com-
mon in sandy soil from the coast region of North Carolina to Florida, western Mississippi
and Louisiana, and in the valley of the lower Rio Grande, Texas. Bark thin red-brown
marked by longitudinal rows of large circular elevated lenticle-like excrescences.
Distribution. Florida, coast region from Miami, Dade County, to the southern shores
of Tampa Bay, and on the southern keys.
18. ICHTHYOMETHIA P. Brown.
Trees or shrubs with thin scaly bark and stout terete branchlets without a terminal
bud. Leaves unequally pinnate, long-petiolate; leaflets opposite. Flowers papiliona-
ceous, on slender pedicels enlarged at the end, bibracteolate, in lateral panicles, appearing
before the leaves; bracts and bractlets minute, scarious; calyx campanulate, 2-lipped, the
LEGUMINOS^E 629
upper lip emarginate, the lower 3-lobed, persistent, the lobes imbricated in the bud, short
and broad; petals inserted on an annular glandular disk adnate to the interior of the calyx-
tube, unguiculate, white tinged with red, rarely yellowish white; stamens 10, the filament
of the upper stamen free at base only, united above with the others into a long tube; an-
thers oblong, uniform,; versatile; ovary sessile, contracted into a filiform incurved style,
with a capitate stigma; ovules numerous, suspended from the inner angle of the ovary,
^-ranked. Legume linear, compressed, raised on a stalk longer than the calyx, slightly
contracted between the numerous seeds, tomentose-canescent or glabrate, thin-walled,
indehiscent, longitudinally 4-winged, the wings developed from the dorsal and ventral
sutures, broad or narrow, continuous or interrupted by the abortion of some of the ovules,
membranaceous, their margins undulate or irregularly cut; seeds oval, compressed, with-
out albumen, laterally attached by a short thick funicle; seed-coat thin, crustaceous, red-
brown, not lustrous; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons plano-convex, oval,
fleshy; radicle short, inflexed.
Seven or eight species are now recognized, inhabitants of tropical America where they
are distributed from southern Florida, through the West Indies to southern Mexico and
Guatemala. Piscidia from the bark of the roots of Ichthyomethia is sometimes used me-
dicinally.
The generic name, from tx0i and ^0v, indicates the Carib use of one of the species.
1. Ichthyomethia piscipula A. S. Hitch. Jamaica Dogwood.
Leaves 4'-9' long, 5-11-foliolate, with stout petioles; leaflets oval, obovate or broad-
oblong, obtuse or short-acuminate at apex, rounded or cuneate at base, with thick pubes-
cent petiolules, when they first appear coated like the petioles with rufous hairs, at ma-
Fig. 574
turity coriaceous, glabrous and dark green above, pale and more or less clothed below with
rufous or canescent pubescence along the elevated conspicuous midrib, and numerous thin
veins arching and united at the entire undulate thickened margins, or covered with soft pu-
bescence below; deciduous in spring. Flowers opening in May, f ' long, on slender pedicels
sometimes l' in length, in canescent ovoid densely flowered or elongated thyrsoid pan-
icles, with short 3-12-flowered branches, from the axils of the fallen leaves of the previous
year; calyx canescent, 5-lobed; petals white tinged with red, the standard hoary-canescent
on the outer surface, marked with a green blotch on the inner surface, its claw as long as
the calyx; ovary sericeous. Fruit ripening in July and August, broad-winged, light brown,
3' -4' long and !'-!' across the wings.
A tree, 40-50 high, with a trunk often 2-3 in diameter, stout erect sometimes con-
630 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
torted branches forming an irregular head, and branches coated when they first appear
with thick rufous pubescence disappearing during their first summer, becoming glabrous
or glabrate, bright reddish brown, conspicuously marked by oblong longitudinal lenticels,
and large elevated horizontal slightly obcordate leaf-scars marked by the ends of numerous
small scattered fibro- vascular bundles. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, |'-|' long, with thin
hoary-pubescent scales. Bark of the trunk about f ' thick, gray more or less blotched
with olive and covered with small square scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained,
clear yellow-brown, with thick lighter colored sap wood, very durable in contact with the
ground; largely used in Florida in boat-building, and for firewood and charcoal. In the
West Indies the bark of the roots, young branches and powdered leaves were used by
the Caribs to stupefy fish and facilitate their capture.
Distribution. One of the commonest of the tropical trees of Florida from the shores
of Bay Biscay ne to the southern keys, and on the west coast from the neighborhood of
Peace Creek to Cape Sable; on many of the Antilles and in southern Mexico. Sterile
branches collected by C. T. Simpson in the neighborhood of Cape Sable indicate that a sec-
ond species occurs in Florida.
XXIV. ZYGOPHYLLACE^E.
Trees or shrubs, with hard resinous wood, and opposite pinnate leaves, with stipules.
Flowers perfect, regular; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud; petals as many as
the calyx-lobes, imbricated in the bud, hypogynous; stamens twice as many as the petals,
hypogynous; filaments distinct; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally;
ovary 5-celled; styles united, terminating in a minute 5-lobed or entire stigma; ovules nu-
merous, suspended, anatropous; raphe ventral. Fruit capsular, angled or winged, sep-
arating at maturity into 5 indehiscent carpels. Seeds solitary or in pairs in each cell; seed-
coat thick and fleshy; embryo straight or nearly so; cotyledons oval, foliaceous; radicle
short, superior.
Of the fourteen genera of this family, mostly confined to the warmer parts of the northern
hemisphere, one only, Guaiacum, has an arborescent representative in the United States.
1. GUAIACUML. Lignum-vitae.
Trees or shrubs, with scaly bark, and stout terete alternate branchlets often with swollen
nodes. Leaves petiolate, abruptly pinnate, with 2-14 entire reticulate-veined leaflets,
and minute mostly deciduous stipules. Flowers terminal, solitary or umbellate-fascicled,
pedicellate, from the axils of minute deciduous bracts; calyx-lobes slightly united at base,
unequal, deciduous; petals broad-obovate, more or less unguiculate; stamens inserted on
the inconspicuous elevated disk opposite to and alternate with the petals; filaments fili-
form, naked or bearing at base on the inner surface a minute membranaceous scale; an-
thers oblong; ovary raised on a short thick stalk, obovoid or clavate, 5-lobed, contracted
into a slender subulate acute style; ovules 8-10 in each cell, suspended in pairs from the
inner angle. Fruit fleshy, 5-celled, smooth, coriaceous, narrowed at base into a short stem,
with 5 wing-like angles, ventrally and sometimes dorsally dehiscent. Seeds suspended,
ovoid; seed-coat easily separable from the hard bony nucleus closely invested with a tliin
indistinct tegumen.
Guaiacum is confined to the New World, and is distributed from southern Florida through
the Antilles, Mexico, and Central America to the Andes of Peru. Seven or eight species
are distinguished.
Guaiacum produces heavy close-grained wood, the cells of the heart wood filled with
dark-colored resin. The lignum-vitse of commerce, largely used for the sheaths of ship-
blocks, mallets, skittle-balls, ten-pin balls, etc., is produced principally by Guaiacum
officinale L., of the Antilles and South America, and by Guaiacum sanctum L. Guaiacum
resin is a stimulating diaphoretic sometimes used in the treatment of gout and rheuma-
tism.
MALPIGIACE^E 631
The generic name is from the Carib Guaiaco or Guayacon, the aboriginal name of the
Lignum-vitse.
1. Guaiacum sanctum L.
Leaves 3' or 4' long, with 3 or 4 pairs of obliquely oblong or obovate mucronate subses-
sile leaflets, membranaceous, light green and puberulous below when they first appear,
becoming subcoriaceous, glabrous, dark green and lustrous on both surfaces, 1' long and
nearly \' wide, persistent until the appearance of the new growth in March or early April
of the following year; stipules acuminate, tipped with a short mucro, pubescent, \' long.
usually caducous, but sometimes persistent during the season. Flowers ' in diameter,
opening almost immediately after the appearance of the new growth, and continuing to
open during several weeks, solitary on a slender pubescent pedicel shorter than the leaves
and usually produced 3 or 4 together at the end of the branches from the axils of the upper
leaves, their bracts acuminate, minute, the 2 lateral rather smaller than the others; calyx-
lobes obovate, slightly pubescent, especially on the outer surface near the base, and smaller
Fig. 575
than the blue petals twisted below from left to right, and thus appearing to be obliquely in-
serted; filaments naked; ovary obovoid, prominently 5-angled, glabrous, contracted at
base into a short stout stalk. Fruit broad-obovoid, f ' long, \' wide, bright orange color,
opening at maturity by the splitting of the thick rather fleshy valves; seeds black, with a
thick fleshy scarlet aril-like outer coat.
A gnarled round-headed cree, sometimes 25-30 high, with a short stout trunk occa-
sionally 2f-3 in diameter, slender pendulous branches, and branchlets conspicuously
enlarged at the nodes, sligjitly angled, pubescent when they first appear, becoming in
their second year glabrous, nearly white, and roughened by numerous small excrescences.
Bark of the trunk rarely more than ' thick, separating on the surface into thin white
scales. Wood dark green or yellow-brown, with thin clear yellow sap wood.
Distribution. Keys of southern Florida from Key West eastward; on the Bahama
Islands and on several of the Antilles.
XXV. MALPIGIACEJE.
Trees, shrubs or vines with opposite simple entire often stipulate persistent leaves;
stipules deciduous or 0. Flowers usually perfect or dimorphous, on pedicels articulate
near their base from the axils of a bract and furnished below the articulation with two
bractlets, in terminal racemes, corymbs or umbels; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes generally im-
632
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
bricated in the bud, usually glandular; petals 5, convolute in the bud, unguiculate; disk
inconspicuous; stamens usually 10; filaments generally united at base; anthers short,
2-celled, introrse; ovary of 3 rarely of 2 carpels more or less united into a 3-celled ovary;
styles usually 3, distinct, rarely united; stigma terminal or sublateral, inconspicuous;
ovule solitary, between orthotropous and anatropous, often uncinate, ascending on the
pendulous funicle; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous or samaroid;
seeds without albumen, suspended from below the apex of the cell; testa thin; embryo
curved or coiled, rarely straight; cotyledons often unequal; radicle short, superior.
This family of nearly sixty genera is confined to tropical and subtropical America, with
one arborescent species in the United States.
1. BYRSONIMA Rich.
Trees, or shrubs often scandent, with astringent bark and leaves; stipules usually con-
nate, rarely partly connate or free. Flowers in terminal racemes; lobes of the calyx fur-
nished on the back with two glands; petals unguiculate, their slender claws reflexed in
anthesis, the limb concave, penniveined; stamens 10, filaments short, united and bearded
at base; ovary 3-celled; styles 3, distinct, oblong or subulate, gradually narrowed into the
acute stigma. Fruit a 3-celled drupe; endocarp bony or woody, angled; seeds ovoid to
subglobose; embryo circinate, with slender coiled cotyledons; radicle oblong.
Byrsonima with nearly one hundred species is widely distributed in tropical America
from southern Florida, where one species occurs, and the Bahama Islands through the
West Indies, Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia.
The generic name is from fivps, a hide, in allusion to the use of the bark in tanning.
1. Byrsonima lucida DC.
Leaves oblong-obovate, rounded or occasionally abruptly short-pointed at apex, grad-
uallv narrowed and cuneate at base, coriaceous, glabrous, dark green and lustrous above,
Fig. 576
paler, dull and reticulate-venulose beneath, l'-H' long and '-' wide, with thickened
revolute margins, a slender midrib and obscure primary veins; petioles stout, $'-' in
length; stipules free, minute, acute, deciduous. Flowers \' in diameter, appearing through-
RUTACEyE 633
out the year on slender puberulous pedicels \' to nearly \' long from the axils of acuminate
caducous bracts a third longer than their acuminate bractlets, in terminal 5-12-flowered
erect racemes f'-l^' in length; calyx cup-shaped, persistent under the fruit, with short
nearly triangular lobes much shorter than the white petals turning yellow, pink or rose
color; styles elongated and persistent on the fruit. Fruit subglobose, greenish, about j'
in diameter, the flesh thin and dry; stone woody, rugose, thick-walled, lustrous on the
inner surface; seed ovoid, acute, filling the cavity of the stone, pale yellow.
A small tree, rarely 20 high with a trunk 10' in diameter, covered with pale bark,
spreading branches forming a flat-topped head and slender terete pale gray branchlets;
more often a many-stemmed shrub.
Distribution. Florida, in sandy soil on the Everglade Keys, Dade County, and on
several of the southern keys; on the Bahamas and many of the Antilles; in Florida ar-
borescent on Long Key in the Everglades, and on Big Pine Key.
XXVI. RUTACE^;.
Trees or shrubs, abounding in a pungent or bitter aromatic volatile oil, with simple or
compound usually glandular-punctate leaves, without stipules or rarely with stipular
spines. Flowers regular, perfect or unisexual, in paniculate or corymbose cymes; calyx
3-5-lobed, the lobes more or less united at base, imbricated in the bud; petals 3-5, imbri-
cated in the bud; stamens as many or twice as many as the petals; filaments distinct or
united below; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; pistils 1-4, sep-
arate or united into a compound ovary sessile or stipitate on a glandular disk; styles mostly
united; ovules usually 2 in each cell of the ovary, pendulous, anatropous or amphitropous;
raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit of 2-valved carpels, a samara, drupe or capsule.
Seeds solitary or several; seed-coat bony or crustaceous, furrowed or punctate; embryo
axile in fleshy albumen; radicle short, superior.
Of this large family, widely distributed over the warm and temperate parts of the earth's
surface, four genera only have arborescent representatives in the United States. Citrus
Aurantium L., the Bitter-sweet Orange, a native of Asia, has long been naturalized in the
peninsula of Florida, where other species of this genus have escaped from cultivation and
are now growing spontaneously.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Fruit of 1-5, 2-valved 1-seeded carpels; flowers dioecious or polygamous. 1 . Xanthoxylum.
Fruit of 3 or 4-winged indehiscent 1-seeded carpels; flowers perfect. 2. Helietta.
Fruit a winged samara; flowers polygamous. 3. Ptelea.
Fruit a 1-seeded drupe; flowers perfect or polygamous. 4. Amyris.
1. XANTHOXYLUM L.
^
Trees or shrubs, with acrid aromatic bark, pellucid aromatic-punctate fruit and foliage,
scaly buds, and usually stipular spines. Leaves alternate, unequally or rarely equally
pinnate; leaflets generally opposite, often oblique at the base, entire or crenulate. Flowers
small, dioecious or polygamous, in axillary or terminal broad or contracted pedunculate
cymes; calyx and petals hypogynous; disk small or obscure; stamens as many as the petals
and alternate with them, hypogynous, effete, rudimentary or wanting in the female flower;
filaments filiform or subulate; pistils 1-5, oblique, raised on the summit of a fleshy gyno-
phore, connivent, sometimes slightly united below, rudimentary, simple or 2-5-parted in
the sterile flower; ovaries 1-celled; styles short and slender, more or less united toward the
summit; stigmas capitate; ovules collateral, pendulous from the inner angle of the cell.
Fruit of 1-5 coriaceous or fleshy 1-seeded carpels, broad-obovoid, sessile or stipitate,
ventrally dehiscent. Seed solitary oblong or globose, suspended on a slender funicle, often
634 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
hanging from the carpel at maturity; seed-coat black, shining, conspicuously marked by
the broad hilum; cotyledons oval or orbicular, folia ceous.
Xanthoxylum is widely distributed through tropical and extratropical regions and is
most abundant in tropical America. It is represented in North America by one shrub
and by four arborescent species of the southern states. The resin contained in the bark,
especially in that of the roots, is a powerful stimulant and tonic occasionally used in
medicine.
The generic name is from ZavQbs and &\ov.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers in axillary contracted cymes; branches armed with stipular spines.
1. X.Fagara (D, E).
Flowers in terminal cymes.
Calyx-lobes and petals 5; leaves unequally pinnate.
Leaves deciduous; branches armed with stout spines. 2. X. clava-Herculis ((').
Leaves persistent; branches without spines. 3. X. flavum (D).
Calyx-lobes and petals 3; leaves equally pinnate, persistent. 4. X. coriaceum (I)).
1. Xanthoxylum Fagara Sarg. Wild Lime.
Fagara Fagara Small.
Leaves persistent, 3'-4' long, with a broad-winged jointed petiole, and 7-9 obovate leaf-
lets rounded or emarginate at apex, minutely crenulate-toothed above the middle, sessile,
%' long or less, coriaceous, glandular-punctate, bright green and lustrous, with minute
hooked deciduous stipular prickles. Flowers on short pedicels from the axils of minute
ovate obtuse deciduous bracts, in short axillary contracted cymes, appearing singly or in
pairs from April until June, on branches of the previous year, from minute dark brown
globular buds, the staminate and pistillate flowers on different trees; sepals 4, membrana-
ceous, much shorter than the 4 ovate yellow-green petals; stamens 4, with slender exserted
filaments, in the pistillate flower; pistils 2, with ovate sessile ovaries gradually contracted
into long slender subulate exserted styles united near apex and crowned with obliquely
spreading stigmas, rudimentary in the staminate flower. Fruit ripening in September,
obovoid, rusty brown and rugose, f'-j' long; seed dark and lustrous.
A tree, occasionally 25-30 high, with a slender often inclining trunk, fastigiate branches,
and more or less zigzag slender dark gray branchlets armed with sharp hooked stipular
RUTACE^E 635
spines; more frequently a tall or low shrub. Bark of the trunk about f ' thick, the smooth
light gray surface broken into small appressed persistent scales. Wood heavy, hard, very
close-grained, brown tinged with red, with thin yellow sapwood of 10-12 layers of annual
growth.
Distribution. Coast and islands of southern Florida, and Texas from Matagorda Bay
to the Rio Grande and in San Saba, Bandera, and Brown Counties; one of the commonest
of the south Florida plants, and arborescent on the rich hummock soil of Elliott's Key and
the shores of Bay Biscayne; in Texas generally shrubby; common in northern Mexico, and
widely distributed through the Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central and South America
to Brazil and Peru.
2. Xanthoxylum clava-Herculis L. Prickly Ash. Toothache-tree.
Fagara clava-Herculis Small.
Leaves 5 '-8' long, with a stout pubescent or glabrous spiny petiole, and 3-9 pairs of
ovate or ovate-lanceolate sometimes slightly falcate subcoriaceous leaflets usually oblique
at base, crenulate-serrate, sessile or short-stalked, l'-2' long, green and lustrous above,
paler and often somewhat pubescent below, especially when they unfold; persistent until
Fig. 578
late in the winter or until the appearance of the new leaves in the early spring. Flowers on
slender pedicels |'-|' long, from the axils of minute lanceolate deciduous bracts, in ample
wide-branched cymes 4 '-5' long and 2'-3' wide, appearing hi very early spring, when the
leaves are about half grown, the staminate and pistillate flowers on different individuals;
sepals minute, membranaceeus, persistent, barely one fourth the length of the oval green
petals \'-\' long; stamens 5, with slender filiform filaments, conspicuously exserted from
the male flowers, rudimentary or wanting in the female flowers; pistils 3, rarely 2, with ses-
sile ovaries and short styles crowned by a slightly 2-lobed stigma. Fruit ripening in May
and June, in dense often nearly globose clusters; mature carpels obliquely ovoid, 1-seeded,
chestnut-brown, f ' long, with a rugose or pitted surface; seeds hanging at maturity outside
the carpels.
A round-headed tree, 25-30, or exceptionally 50 high, with a short trunk 12'-18' in
diameter, numerous branches spreading nearly at right angles, and stout branchlets cov-
ered when they first appear with brown pubescence, becoming glabrous and light gray in
their second year, and marked by small glandular spots and by large elevated obcordate
leaf-scars displaying a row of large fibro- vascular bundle-scars, and armed with stout
straight or sometimes slightly curved sharp chestnut-brown spines \' or more long, with a
636 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
flattened enlarged base; or often a low shrub. Winter-buds short, obtuse, dark brown or
nearly black. Bark of the trunk barely T V thick, light gray, and roughened by corky
tubercles, with ovoid dilated bases sometimes 1' or more across and thick and rounded at
apex. Wood light, soft, close-grained, and light brown, with yellow sapwood. The bark,
which is collected in large quantities by negroes in the southern states, is used as a cure for
toothache and in the treatment of rheumatism.
Distribution. Southeastern Virginia southward near the coast to the shores of Bay
Biscayne and Bocagrande, Lee County, Florida, and westward through the Gulf states