dark yellow-green and lustrous above, paler and dull below, with a stout light yellow midrib
EUPHORBIACE^E 653
raised and rounded on the upper side, and slender primary veins remote, arcuate, and united
at some distance from the margins and connected by conspicuous coarsely reticulate veinlets
more prominent on the upper than on the lower side; their petioles elongated, slender,
rigid, light yellow, rounded below, obscurely grooved above, marked at the apex by large or-
bicular dark red glands; stipules ovate-lanceolate, abruptly narrowed from a broad base,
slightly laciniate near the apex, membranaceous, light chestnut-brown, caducous. Inflo-
rescence terminal, spicate, appearing in early spring usually before the unfolding leaves,
the stout fleshy rachis often bearing at the base acute sterile deciduous bracts, or 1 or 2
small leaves, the minute pistillate flowers solitary in their axils or in the axils of ovate acute
lanceolate bracts furnished with 2 lateral glandular bractlets; staminate flowers minute,
articulate on slender pedicels clustered in 8-15-flowered fascicles in the axils of simple bracts
higher on the rachis and extending to its apex; calyx usually 3-lobed, the lobes imbricated
in the bud, that of the staminate flower yellow-green, membranaceous, divided below into
3 or sometimes into 2 acute lobes; calyx of the pistillate flower, ovoid, yellow-green, divided
nearly to the base into 3 ovate acute concave divisions rounded on the back; stamens 2 or
often 3, exserted, more or less connate by their filaments into a stout column, free and spread-
ing at apex; anthers ovoid, light yellow, surmounted by the short prolonged connective, at-
tached on the back below the middle, erect, extrorse; ovary 6-8-celled, narrowed at base,
gradually contracted above into a short simple cylindric style separating into 6-8 long
radiating flattened abruptly reflexed lobes stigmatic on the inner face; ovule solitary in
each cell. Fruit drupaceous, pome-shaped, obscurely 6-8-lobed, raised on a thickened
woody stem; skin thin, light yellow-green or yellow and red; flesh thick, lactescent, ad-
herent to the thick-walled rugose deeply w r inged 6-8-celled, 6-8-seeded subglobose stone
flattened at the ends, the cells divided throughout by thin dark radial plates, ultimately
separable, penetrated near the summit by oblique canals filled by the funicles of the seeds.
Seeds oblong-ovoid, marked by a minute slightly elevated hilum and on the ventral face
by an obscure raphe; seed-coat membranaceous, separable into 2 layers, the outer dark,
the inner thinner, light brown; embryo surrounded by thick fleshy albumen.
The genus is represented by a single species abounding in exceedingly poisonous caustic
sap which produces cutaneous eruptions and when taken internally destroys the mucous
membrane; formerly employed by the Caribs to poison arrows.
The generic name is from I'TTTTOS and pavla, and was first used by the Greeks to distinguish
some plant with properties excitant to horses.
1. Hippomane Mancinella L. Manchineel.
Leaves 3'-4' long, l^'-2' wide, unfolding in early spring and persistent in Florida until
the spring of the following year; petioles 2|'-4' in length. Flowers opening in March
654 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
before the leaves of the year; rachis of the inflorescence 4'-6' long, dark purple, more or less
covered with a glaucous bloom. Fruit ripening in the autumn or early winter and often
persistent on the branches until after the appearance of the flowers of the following year,
I'-lj' in diameter, light yellow-green, with a bright red cheek; seeds about ' long.
A tree, in Florida rarely more than 12-15 high, with a short trunk 5'-6' in diameter,
long spreading pendulous branches forming a handsome round-topped head; in the West
Indies often 50-60 tall, with a trunk occasionally 3 in diameter. Bark of the trunk
j'~j' thick, dark brown and broken on the surface into small thick appressed irregularly
shaped scales; in the West Indies sometimes smooth, light gray or nearly white. Wood
light and soft, close-grained, dark brown, with thick light brown or yellow sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, sandy beaches and dry knolls in the immediate neighborhood of
the ocean, shores of White Water Bay and on many of the southern keys; on the Bahama
Islands, through the Antilles to the northern countries of South America, and to south-
ern Mexico and the eastern and western coasts of Central America.
3. GYMNANTHES Sw.
Glabrous trees or shrubs, with milky juice and slender terete branchlets. Leaves con-
duplicate in the bud, petiolate, entire or crenulate-serrate, coriaceous, penniveined, per-
sistent; stipules membranaceous, minute, caducous. Flowers monoecious or rarely dioe-
cious; inflorescence buds covered with closely imbricated chestnut-brown scales, length-
ening in anthesis, bearing in the upper axils numerous 3-branched clusters of staminate
flowers, their branches furnished with minute ovate bracts, and in the lower axils 2 or 3
long-stalked pistillate flowers; calyx of the staminate flower minute or 0; stamens 2 or
rarely 3; filaments filiform, inserted on the slightly enlarged torus, free or slightly connate
at base; anthers attached on the back below the middle, erect, ovoid, 2-celled, the cells
parallel; calyx of the pistillate flower reduced to 3 bract-like scales; ovary ovoid, 3-celled,
narrowed into 3 recurved styles free or slightly united at base, stigmatic on iheir inner face;
ovule solitary in each cell. Fruit a 3-lobed capsule separating from the persistent axis
into three 2-valved 1-seeded carpels dehiscent on the dorsal suture and partly dehiscent
on the ventral suture. Seed ovoid or subglobose, strophiolate; seed-coat crustaceous;
embryo erect in fleshy albumen.
Gymnanthes with about ten species is confined to the tropics of the New World and is
distributed from southern Florida, where one species occurs, through the West Indies
to Mexico and Brazil.
The generic name, from yv[Av6$ and AvBos, relates to the structure of the naked flowers.
1. Gymnanthes lucida Sw. Crab Wood.
Leaves oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, obscurely and remotely crenulate-serrate or
often entire, when they unfold thin and membranaceous, deeply tinged with red, and
glandular on the teeth with minute caducous dark glands, and at maturity coriaceous,
dark green and lustrous on the upper surface and pale and dull on the lower surface, 2'-3'
long, f'-l^' wide, with a broad pale midrib raised and rounded on the upper side, obscure
primary veins arcuate and united near the margins and connected by prominent coarsely
reticulate veinlets; appearing in Florida in early spring and remaining on the branches
through their second summer; petioles broad, slightly grooved, about |' in length; stipules
ovate, acute, light brown, clothed on the margins with long pale hairs, about T V long.
Flowers: inflorescence buds appearing in Florida late in the autumn in the axils of leaves
of the year and beginning to lengthen in spring, the inflorescence becoming l|'-2' long,
with a slender glabrous angled rachis, the scales broad-ovate, pointed, concave, rounded
and thickened at apex, puberulous and ciliate on the margins, those inclosing the male
flowers connate with the flowers and persistent under the calyx, those subtending the
female flowers at the base of the inflorescence and not raised on their peduncle. Fruit pro-
duced in Florida sparingly, ripening in the autumn, slightly obovoid, dark reddish brown
ANACAJRDIACE^E
655
or nearly black, ' in diameter, covered with thin dry flesh, and pendent on a slender stem
1' or more in length; seeds ovoid.
A tree, occasionally 20-30 high, with a trunk 6'-8' in diameter and often irregularly
ridged, the rounded ridges spreading near the surface of the ground into broad buttresses,
slender erect branches forming a narrow open oblong head, and slender upright branchlets
light green more or less deeply shaded with red when they first appear, becoming in their
first winter light gray-brown faintly tinged with red and roughened by numerous oblong
pale lenticels, ultimately ashy gray and marked at the end of their second year by the
Fig. 593
semiorbicular elevated leaf-scars displaying the ends of 4 fibro-vascular bundle-scars
superposed in pairs. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, covered with chestnut-brown scales,
about T V long. Bark of the trunk dark red-brown, about -j^' thick, separating into large
thin scales, in falling displaying the light brown inner bark. Wood very heavy, hard,
close-grained, rich dark brown streaked with yellow, with thick bright yellow sapwood;
in Florida occasionally manufactured into canes, and used as fuel.
Distribution. Florida, 'common in low woods from the shores of Bay Biscay ne to the
Everglade Keys, Dade County, and on many of the southern keys to those of the Marque-
sas group; on the Bahama Islands, and on many of the Antilles.
XXXI. ANACARDIACE^.
Trees or shrubs, with terete pithy branchlets, resinous juice, and alternate simple or
pinnate leaves, without stipules, and scaly or naked buds. Flowers regular, minute,
dioecious, polygamo-dio3cious, or polygamo-monoecious; calyx-lobes and petals 5, im-
bricated in the bud or 0; stamens as many as the petals and alternate and inserted with
them on the margin or under an hypogynous annular fleshy slightly 5-lobed disk; filaments
filiform; anthers oblong, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 1-celled;
styles 1-3; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of a slender funicle rising from the
base of the cell, anatropous; micropyle superior; styles 3, united or spreading; stigmas
terminal. Fruit drupaceous. Seed without albumen; seed-coat thin and membranaceous ;
embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons flat, accumbent on the short radicle.
The Sumach family with some sixty genera is mostly confined to the warmer parts of
the earth's surface and contains the Mango, Pistacia, and other important trees. In the
flora of the United States four genera have arborescent representatives.
656
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers without petals, and in the species of the United States, without a calyx. 1 . Pistacia.
Flowers with a calyx and petals.
Flowers usually dioecious by abortion; styles lateral, spreading; pedicels of the abor-
tive flowers becoming long and plumose at maturity; fruit compressed, very oblique;
leaves simple, deciduous. 2. Cotinus.
Flowers mostly dioecious; styles terminal, short, united; stigma 3-lobed; fruit ovoid,
glabrous; leaves unequally pinnate, persistent. 3. Metopium.
Flowers polygamo-dicecious or polygamo-moncecious; styles terminal, spreading; fruit
usually globose, naked or clothed with acrid hairs; leaves unequally pinnate, trifo-
liolate or rarely simple, deciduous or rarely persistent. 4. Rhus.
1. PISTACIA L.
Balsamic trees or shrubs. Leaves 3-foliolate or equally or unequally pinnate, petiolate,
deciduous or persistent. Flowers small, dioecious, subtended by a bract and 2 branchlets,
short pedicellate in panicles or racemes; calyx 1 or 2-lobed or in the pistillate flower
3-5-lobed, or 0; petals 0, stamens 3-5, in the pistillate flower; filaments short, their
base connate with the disk; anthers large; ovary subglobose or short-ovoid, rudimentary
or in the staminate flower; style 3-lobed, shorter than the 3 obovate-oblong or oblong
stigmas. Drupe ovoid, oblique, compressed; exocarpa thin; the stone bony, 1-seeded;
seed compressed; cotyledons thick plano-convex.
Pistacia with eight or nine species is confined to the valley of the lower Rio Grande,
southern Mexico; the Canary Islands, the countries adjacent to the Mediterranean, and
northern and central China, with one species growing on the northern banks of the Rio
Grande in Texas.
The Pistacio-nuts of commerce, the green or yellow seeds of P. vera L. are largely used
in confectionery, and some of the species are valued for the decoration of parks and gardens.
Pistacia from TTKTT and d/ceo/xai, in reference to the healing properties of its resinous
exudations.
1. Pistacia texana Swing.
Leaves persistent or tardily deciduous, 9-19-foliolate, with a slightly winged rachis
pubescent above and a flattened narrow-winged petiole '-f in length; leaflets spatulate,
Fig. 594
ANACARDIACE^E 657
rounded and often mucronate at apex, gradually narrowed below into a deltoid or sub-
cuneiform base, entire, more or less curved and unequilateral, wine-red when they unfold,
and at maturity thin, dark green and sparingly pubescent along the midrib above, pale and
glabrous below, nearly sessile or the terminal leaflet raised on a short petiolule, T V~f ' long
and about \' wide, with a slender midrib often near one side of the leaflet and reticulate
veinlets. Flowers small, without a calyx, appearing just before or with the new leaves, in
simple nearly glabrous panicles, their bracts and bractlets ciliate on the margins and wine-
red at apex; staminate flowers more crowded than the pistillate, in compact panicles
t'-l|' long; anthers reddish yellow or wine color; pistillate flowers in loose panicles 1%'-%%'
in length; ovary ovoid or subglobose, two of the three styles with 2-lobed stigmas, the
third with a 3-lobed stigma. Fruit oval, dark reddish brown and slightly glaucescent,
about I' long and J' broad, usually striate.
A small tree, occasionally 30 high with a short trunk 15'-18' in diameter, with stout
erect and spreading branches forming a head sometimes 30-35 across, and slender
slightly pubescent reddish branchlets becoming grayish brown by the end of their first
year; more often a large shrub with numerous stout stems.
Distribution. Texas, limestone cliffs and the rocky bottoms of canons periodically
swept by floods, and in deep narrow 7 ravines, along the lower Pecos River and in the
neighborhood of its mouth, Valverde County; and in northeastern Mexico.
2. COT1NUS L.
Small trees or shrubs, with scaly bark, small acute winter-buds, with numerous imbri-
cated scales, fleshy roots, and strong-smelling juice. Leaves simple, petiolate, oval, obo-
vate-oblong or nearly orbicular, glabrous or more or less pilose-pubescent, deciduous.
Flowers regular, dioecious by abortion or rarely polygamo-dicecious, greenish yellow, on
slender pedicels accrescent after the flowering period, mostly abortive and then becoming
conspicuously tomentose-villose at maturity, in ample loose terminal or lateral pyramidal
or thyrsoidal panicles, the branches from the axils of linear acute or spatulate deciduous
bracts; calyx-lobes ovate-lanceolate, obtuse, persistent; disk coherent with the base of the
calyx and surrounding the base of the ovary; petals oblong, acute, twice as long as the
calyx, inserted under the free margin of the disk opposite its lobes, deciduous; stamens
shorter *than the petals, usually rudimentary or wanting in the pistillate flower; ovary
sessile, obovoid, compressed, rudimentary in the staminate flower; styles 3, short and
spreading from the lateral apex of the ovary; stigmas large, obtuse. Fruit oblong-oblique,
compressed, glabrous, conspicuously reticulate-veined, light red-brown, bearing on the
side near the middle the remnants of the persistent styles, the outer coat thin and dry;
stone thick and bony.
Cotinus is widely distributed through southern Europe and the Himalayas to central
China with a single species, and is represented in the southern United States by one
species.
The Old -World Cotinus cvggygria Scop., the Smoke-tree of gardens, is often cultivated
in the United States.
The generic name is from Kbrivos, the classical name of a tree with red wood.
1 . Cotinus americanus Nutt. Chittam Wood.
Leaves oval or obovate, rounded or sometimes slightly emarginate at apex, gradually
contracted at base, and entire, with slightly wavy revolute margins, when they unfold
light purple and covered below with fine silky white hairs, and at maturity dark green on
the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, and puberulous along the under side of the
broad midrib and primary veins, 4'-6' long and 2'-3' wide; turning in the autumn brilliant
shades of orange and scarlet; petioles stout, ^'-f in length. Flowers appearing late in
April or early in May on pedicels \'-\' long, and usually collected 3 or 4 together in loose
umbels near the end of the principal branches of puberulous terminal slender long-branched
658
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
few-flowered panicles 5 '-6' long and 2f '-3' broad, the staminate and pistillate flowers on
different individuals. Fruit produced very sparingly, about |' long, on stems 2'-3' in
length; the sterile pedicels becoming l|'-2' long at maturity and covered with short not
very abundant rather inconspicuous pale purple or brown hairs; seed kidney-shaped, pale
brown, about -fa' long.
A tree, 25-35 high, with a straight trunk occasionally 12'-14' in diameter, usually
dividing 12-14 from the ground into several erect stems separating into wide-spreading
often slightly pendulous branches, and slender branchlets purple when they first appear,
soon becoming green, bright red-brown and covered with small white lenticels and marked
by large prominent leaf-scars during their first winter, and dark orange-colored in their
second year. Winter-buds $' long, and covered with thin dark red-brown scales. Bark of
the trunk ' thick, light gray, furrowed, and broken on the surface into thin oblong scales.
Fig. 595
Wood light, soft, rather coarse-grained, bright clear rich orange color, with thin nearly
white sap wood; largely used locally for fence-posts and very durable in contact with the
soil; yielding a clear orange-colored dye.
Distribution. Banks of the Ohio River, Owensboro, Daviess County, Kentucky (E. J.
Palmer}', on the Cheat Mountains, eastern Tennessee; near Hunts ville, Madison County,
Alabama; valley of White River in Stone and Taney Counties, southern Missouri; near
Cotter, Baxter County, and Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas, and eastern Okla-
homa; valleys of the upper Guadalupe and Medina Rivers, western Texas; usually only
in small isolated groves or thickets scattered along the sides of rocky ravines or dry slopes:
very abundant as a small shrub and spreading over many thousand acres of the mountain
canons, and high hillsides in the neighborhood of Spanish Pass, Kendall County, Texas.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern United States and rarely in Europe: hardy as far
north as eastern Massachusetts.
3. METOPIUM P. Br.
Trees or shrubs, with naked buds, fleshy roots, and milky exceedingly caustic juice.
Leaves unequally pinnate, persistent; leaflets coriaceous, lustrous, long-petiolulate. Flow-
ers dioecious, yellow-green, on short stout pedicels, in narrow erect axillary clusters at the
ends of the branches, with minute acute deciduous bracts and bractlets, the males and
females on different trees; calyx-lobes semiorbicular, about half as long as the ovate obtuse
petals; stamens 5, inserted under the margin of the disk; filaments shorter than the anthers,
minute and rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary ovoid, sessile, minute in the stami-
ANACARDIACEJE 659
nate flower; style terminal, short, undivided; stigma 3-lobed. Fruit ovoid, compressed,
smooth and glabrous, crowned with the remnants of the style; outer coat thick and resin-
ous; stone crustaceous. Seed nearly quadrangular, compressed; seed-coat smooth, dark
brown and opaque, the broad funicle covering its margin.
Metopium with two species is confined to southern Florida and the West Indies.
The generic name, from foros, was the classical name of an African tree now unknown.
1 . Metopium toxiferum Kr. & Urb. Poison Wood. Hog Gum.
Metopium Metopium Small.
Leaves clustered near the end of the branches, 9'-10' long, with stout petioles swollen
and enlarged at base, and 5-7 leaflets, or often 3-foliolate; unfolding in March and per-
sistent until the following spring; leaflets ovate, rounded or usually contracted toward
Fig. 5%
the acute or sometimes slightly emarginate apex, rounded or sometimes cordate or cuneate
at base, 3'-4' long, 2'-S' broad, with thickened slightly re volute margins, a prominent mid-
rib, primary veins spreading at right angles, and numerous reticulate veinlets; petiolules
stout, !'-!' long, that of the terminal leaflet often twice as long as the others. Flowers
about I' in diameter, in clusters as long or rather longer than the leaves; petals yellow-
green, marked on the inner surface by dark longitudinal lines; stamens rather shorter than
the petals. Fruit ripening in November and December, pendent in long graceful clusters,
orange-colored, rather lustrous, f in length; seed about j' long.
A tree, frequently 35-40 high, with a short trunk sometimes 2 in diameter, stout spread-
ing often pendulous branches* forming a low broad head, and reddish brown branchlets
marked by prominent leaf-scars and numerous orange-colored lenticels. Winter-buds
%'-%' in length, with acuminate scales ciliate on the margin with rufous hairs. Bark
of the trunk about \' thick, light reddish brown tinged with orange, often marked by dark
spots caused by the exuding of the resinous gum, and separating into large thin plate-like
scales displaying the bright orange color of the inner bark. Wood heavy, hard, not strong,
rich dark brown streaked with red, with thick light brown or yellow sapwood of 25-30
layers of annual growth. The resinous gum obtained from incisions made in the bark is
emetic, purgative, and 'diuretic.
Distribution. Florida, shores of Bay Biscayne, on the Everglade Keys, and on Coot
Bay in the rear of Cape Sable, Dade County, and on the southern keys; very abundant;
in the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and Honduras.
660 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
4. RHUS L.
Trees or shrubs, with pithy branchlets, fleshy roots, and milky sometimes caustic or
watery juice. Leaves unequally pinnate, or rarely simple. Flowers mostly dioecious,
rarely polygamous, white or greenish white, in more or less compound axillary or terminal
panicles, the staminate and pistillate usually produced on separate plants; calyx-lobes
united at base only, generally persistent; disk surrounding the base of the free ovary, co-
herent with the base of the calyx; petals longer than the calyx-lobes, inserted under the
margin of the disk, opposite its lobes, deciduous; stamens 5, inserted on the margin of the
disk alternate with the petals; filaments longer than the anthers; ovary ovoid or subglo-
bose, sessile; styles 3, terminal, free or slightly connate at base, rising from the centre of
the ovary. Fruit usually globose, smooth or covered with hairs; outer coat thin and
dry, more or less resinous; stone crustaceous or bony. Seed ovoid or reniform, commonly
transverse; cotyledons foliaceous, generally transverse; radicle long, uncinate, laterally
accumbent.
Rhus is widely distributed, with more than one hundred species, in the extra-tropical
regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. In North America the genus is widely
and generally distributed from Canada to southern Mexico and from the shores of the
Atlantic to those of the Pacific Ocean, with sixteen or seventeen species within the territory
of the United States. Of these, four obtain the habit of small trees. The acrid poisonous
juice of Rhus vernicifera DC., of China, furnishes the black varnish used in China and
Japan in the manufacture of lacquer, and other species are valued for the tannin con-
tained in their leaves or for the wax obtained from their fruit.
The name of the genus is from 'PoOs, the classical name of the European Sumach.
CONSPECTUS OF NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Flowers in terminal thyrsoid panicles; fruit globular, clothed with acrid hairs; leaves un-
equally pinnate, deciduous; SUMACHS.
Branches and leaf-stalks densely velvety hairy; leaflets 11-31, pale on the lower surface;
fruit covered with long hairs; buds inclosed in the enlarged base of the petioles;
juice milky. 1. R. typhina (A, C).
Branches and leaf-stalks pubescent; rachis winged; leaflets 9-21, green on the lower
surface; fruit pilose; buds not inclosed by the petioles; juice watery.
2. R. copallina (A, C).
Flowers in axillary slender panicles; fruit glabrous, white; leaves unequally pinnate, de-
ciduous; leaflets 7-13. 3. R. vernix (A, C).
Flowers in short compact terminal panicled racemes; fruit pubescent; leaves ovate, entire
or serrate, simple or rarely trifoliolate, persistent. 4. R. integrifolia (G).
1. Rhus typhina L. Staghorn Sumach.
Rhus kirta Sudw.
Leaves 16'-24' long, with a stout petiole usually red on the upper side and covered with