Fig. 686
2 or 3-flowered clusters on peduncles 1|' long from the axils of young leaves; petals pale
yellow, coated on the inner surface with long pale hairs; stamens 8 with villose filaments.
Fruit 1' long, rusty brown, slightly roughened by minute bosses, the hard woody thick-
walled tube developed from the cotyledons protruding \'-\' from its apex after the germi-
nation of the seed, covering the plumule, and holding the dark brown radicle marked with
occasional orange-colored lenticels and when fully grown 10'-12' long and \'-\' thick near
the apex.
A round-topped bushy tree, with spreading branches usually 15-20 high, forming
almost impenetrable thickets w r ith its numerous aerial roots, or occasionally 70-80 high,
with a tall straight trunk clear of branches for more than half its length, a narrow head, and
stout glabrous dark red-brown branchlets, becoming lighter colored in their second year
and then conspicuously marked by large oval slightly elevated leaf -scars. Bark of young
stems and of the branches smooth, light reddish brown, becoming on old trunks %'-%' thick,
and gray faintly tinged with red, the surface irregularly fissured and broken into thin
appressed scales. Wood exceedingly heavy, hard, close-grained, strong, dark reddish
brown streaked with lighter brown, with pale sapwood of 40-50 layers of annual growth ;
used for fuel and wharf-piles.
Distribution. Shores of Florida from Mosquito Inlet on the east coast and Cedar Keys
on the west coast to the southern keys; most abundant south of latitude 29, following
the coast with wide thickets and ascending the rivers for many miles; on Cape Sable and
the shores of Bay Biscayne sometimes growing at a little distance from the coast on ground
not submerged by the tide, and here attaining its largest size, with tall straight trunks
and few aerial roots; on Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Antilles, the west coast of Mexico,
lower California, the Galapagos Islands, and from Central America along the northeast
coast of South America to the limits of the tropics.
XLVH. COMBRETACE^:.
Trees or shrubs, with astringent juice, naked buds, and alternate or opposite simple en-
tire coriaceous persistent leaves, without stipules. Flowers regular, perfect, or polyg-
COMBRET ACE^E 765
amous; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes valvate in the bud; petals 5, valvate in the bud, inserted
at the base of the calyx, or 0; disk epigynous; stamens 5-10, inserted on the limb of the
calyx; filaments slender, filiform, distinct, exserted; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells
opening longitudinally; ovary 1-celled; style slender, subulate; stigma minute, terminal,
entire; ovules usually 2, suspended from the apex of the cell, collateral, anatropous; raphe
ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, often crowned with the accrescent calyx.
Seed solitary; albumen 0; embryo straight, with convolute cotyledons; radicle minute,
turned toward the hilum.
Of the fifteen genera of this family, widely distributed through the tropics, three have
arborescent representatives in southern Florida.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Corolla 0; leaves alternate.
Calyx persistent; flowers in spikes; seeds without wings. 1. Bucida.
Calyx deciduous; flowers in capitate heads; seeds winged. 2. Conocarpus.
Corolla of 5 petals; calyx persistent; leaves opposite. 3. Laguncularia.
1. BUCIDA L.
A tree or shrub, with terete often spinescent branchlets. Leaves crowded at the end of
spur-like lateral branchlets much thickened and roughened by the large elevated crowded
leaf-scars, alternate, obovate to oblong-lanceolate, rounded and slightly emarginate or
minutely apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, coriaceous, bluish
green on the upper surface and yellow-green on the lower surface, pubescent while young,
especially beneath, and glabrous at maturity with the exception of rufous hairs on the
under surface of the stout midrib, and on the short stout petiole. Flowers perfect, green-
ish white, hairy on the outer surface, sessile in the axils of minute bracts, in lax elongated
axillary clustered rufous-pubescent spikes; calyx-tube ovoid, constricted above the ovary,
the limb campanulate, 5-lobed, the lobes valvate in the bud, persistent; petals 0; stamens
10, in two ranks, inflexed in the bud, unequal, 5 longer than the others and inserted oppo-
site the calyx-lobes under the hairy 5-lobed disk, the others shorter, alternate with them
and inserted higher on the calyx-tube; filaments incurved near the apex; anthers minute,
sagittate; ovary included in the tube of the calyx; style thickened and villose at the base;
ovules suspended on an elongated slender funiculus. Fruit ovoid, conic, oblique, and
more or less falcate, irregularly 5-angled, coriaceous, light brown, puberulous on the outer
surface, with thin membranaceous flesh inseparable from the crustaceous stone porous
toward the interior. Seed ovoid, acute; seed-coat coriaceous, chestnut-brown; cotyledons
fleshy; radicle superior.
Bucida with a single species is confined to tropical America, where it is distributed from
southern Florida and the Bahama Islands through the West Indies to Guiana and Central
America.
The generic name is from /Sous, in allusion to the fancied resemblance of the fruit to the
horns of an ox.
1. Bucida Buceras L. Black Olive-tree.
Leaves 2'-3' long, l'-l' wide, their petioles \'-\' in length. Flowers appearing in
Florida in April, \' long, on spikes l^'-S' in length. Fruit about f ' long.
A tree, with a single straight trunk, or often with a short prostrate stem 2-3 in diame-
ter, producing several straight upright secondary stems 40-50 high and 12'-18' in di-
ameter, stout branches spreading nearly at right angles with the trunk and forming a
broad head, and branchlets clothed when they first appear with short pale rufous pubes-
cence mostly persistent for two or three years, becoming light reddish brown and covered
with bark separating into thin narrow shreds. Bark of the trunk and of the large branches
thick, gray tinged with orange-brown, and broken into short appressed scales. Wood
exceedingly heavy, hard, close-grained, light yellow-brown sometimes slightly streaked
766 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
Fig. 687
with orange, with thick clear pale yellow sapwood of 30-40 layers of annual growth. The
bark has been used in tanning leather.
Distribution. Florida, only on Elliott's Key; widely distributed in brackish marshes
through the West Indies to the shores of the Caribbean Sea and the Bay of Panama.
2. CONOCARPUS L.
A tree or shrub, with angled branchlets. Leaves alternate, short-petiolate, narrow-
ovate or obovate, acute, gradually contracted and biglandular at base, glabrous or seri-
ceous. Flowers perfect, minute, in dense capitate heads in narrow leafy terminal panicles,
with acute caducous bracts and bractlets coated with pale hairs, on stout hoary-tomentose
peduncles bibracteolate near the middle; calyx-tube truncate, obliquely compressed at
base, clothed with pale hairs, the limb campanulate, parted to the middle, the lobes ovate,
acute, erect, pubescent on the outer and puberulous on the inner surface, deciduous; petals
0; disk 5-lobed, hairy; stamens usually 5, inserted in 1 rank, or rarely 7 or 8 in 2 ranks;
anthers cordate, minute; style thickened and villose at base. Fruits scale-like, broad-
obovoid, pointed, recurved, and covered at apex with short pale hairs, densely imbricated
in ovoid reddish heads; flesh coriaceous, corky, produced into broad lateral wings; stone
thin-walled, crustaceous, inseparable from the flesh. Seed irregularly ovoid; seed-coat
membranaceous, pale chestnut-brown.
The genus consists of a single species of tropical America and Africa.
The generic name, from X^POS and Kapwbs, is in allusion to the cone-like shape of the
heads of fruits.
1. Conocarpus erecta L. Buttonwood.
Leaves slightly puberulous on the lower surface when they first appear or coated with
pale silky persistent pubescence (var. sericea, DC.), 2'-4' long, ^'-1|' wide, lustrous, dark
green or pale on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, with a broad orange-colored
midrib, obscure primary veins, and reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, broad, |' in length.
Flowers produced throughout the year, in heads i' in diameter on peduncles \'-\\' in
length, in panicles 6'-12' long. Cone of fruit about 1' in diameter.
A tree, 40-60 high, with a trunk 20'-30' in diameter, small branches forming a narrow
regular head, and slender branchlets conspicuously winged, light red-brown, usually gla-
brous, or silky pubescent (var. sericea, DC.), becoming terete and marked by large orbicu-
lar leaf-scars in their second year; or sometimes a low shrub, with semiprostrate stems.
Bark of the trunk dark brown, divided by irregular reticulating fissures into broad flat
ridges broken on the surface into small thin appressed scales. Wood very heavy, hard,
COMBRETACE.E
767
strong, close-grained, dark yellow-brown, with thin darker colored sapwood of about 10
layers of annual growth; burning slowly like charcoal and highly valued for fuel. The
Fig. 688
bark is bitter and astringent, and has been used in tanning leather, and in medicine as an
astringent and tonic.
Distribution. Low muddy tide-water shores of lagoons and bays; Florida, Cape Ca-
naveral and Cedar Keys to the southern keys; of its largest size in Florida on Lost Man's
River near Cape Sable; at its northern limits a low shrub; common on the Bahama
Islands, in the Antilles, on the shores of Central America and tropical South America, on
the Galapagos Islands, and on the west coast of Africa.
3. LAGUNCULARIA Gartn.
A tree, with scaly bark, terete pithy branchlets, and naked buds. Leaves opposite,
glabrous, thick and coriaceous, oblong or elliptic, obtuse or emarginate at apex, marked
toward the margin with minute tubercles; their petioles conspicuously biglandular. Flow-
ers usually perfect or polygamo-moncecious, minute, flattened, greenish white, sessile, in
simple terminal axillary tomentose spikes generally collected in leafy panicles, with ovate
acute hoary-tomentose bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube turbinate, with 5 prominent ridges
opposite the lobes of the limb and 5 intermediate lesser ridges, furnished near the middle
with 2 minute appendages, and coated with dense pale tomentum, the limb urceolate,
5-parted to the middle, the divisions triangular, obtuse or acute, erect, persistent; disk
epigynous, flat, 10-lobed, the 5 lobes opposite the petals broader than those opposite the
calyx-lobes, hairy; petals 5, nearly orbicular, contracted into a short claw inserted on the
bottom of the calyx-limb, ciliate on the margins, caducous; stamens 10, inserted in 2 ranks;
anthers cordate, apiculate; ovary 1-celled; style short, crowned with a slightly 2-lobed
capitate stigma. Fruit 10-ribbed, coriaceous, hoary-pubescent, elongated, obovoid, flat-
tened, crowned with the calyx-limb, unequally 10-ribbed, the 2 lateral ribs produced into
narrow wings, 1-seeded; flesh coriaceous, corky toward the interior, inseparable from the
thin-walled crustaceous stone dark red and lustrous on the inner surface. Seed suspended,
obovoid or oblong; seed-coat membranaceous, dark red; radicle elongated, slightly longer
and nearly inclosed by the green cotyledons.
Laguncularia consists of a single species of tropical America and Africa.
The generic name is from laguncula, in allusion to the supposed resemblance of the fruit
to a flask.
1. Laguncularia racemosa Gaertn. Buttonwood. White Mangrove.
Leaves slightly tinged with red when they unfold, and at maturity dark green on the
upper and lighter green or pale on the lower surface, li'-2t' long and l'-H' wide; petioles
768
TREES OF XORTH AMERICA
red, \' in length. Flowers i' long, in hoary-tomentose spikes produced throughout the
year from the axils of young leaves and l^'-2' long. Fruit about \' long.
A tree, 30-60 high, with a trunk 12'-20' in diameter, stout spreading branches forming
a narrow round-topped head, and slender glabrous branchlets somewhat angled at first,
often marked with minute pale spots and dark red-brown, becoming in their second year
terete, light reddish brown or orange color, thickened at the nodes, and marked by con-
spicuous ovate leaf-scars; or northward in Florida a low shrub. Bark of the trunk " thick,
Fig. 689
brown slightly tinged with red, the surface broken into long ridge-like scales. Wood
heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, dark yellow T -brown, with lighter colored sap wood of 10-
12 layers of annual growth. The bark contains a large amount of tannic acid and is some-
times used in tanning leather, and is astringent and tonic.
Distribution. Muddy tidal shores of bays and lagoons; southern Florida from Cape
Canaveral and Cedar Keys to the southern keys; common and of its largest size in Florida
on the shores of Shark River, Monroe County; common in Bermuda, the Bahamas, the An-
tilles, tropical Mexico and Central America, tropical South America and western Africa.
XLVIII. MYRTACEJ2.
Trees or shrubs abounding in pungent aromatic volatile oil, with minute scaly buds.
Leaves opposite, simple, mostly entire, pellucid-punctate, penniveined, persistent, the
slender obscure veins arcuate and united within the thickened revolute margins; stipules
0. Flowers perfect, regular; calyx 4-5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud, or lid-like
and deciduous; petals 2-5, imbricated in the bud, inserted on the margin of the disk, or 0;
stamens very numerous, inserted in many ranks with the petals; filaments slender, inflexed
in the bud, exserted; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 2-4-
celled; style simple, filiform, crowned with a minute stigma; ovules numerous or 2 or 3 in
each cell, attached on a central placenta, anatropous or semianatropous; raphe ventral:
micropyle superior. Fruit baccate, crowned with the persistent calyx-lobes, 1-4-seeded.
Seeds without albumen; seed-coat membranaceous.
The Myrtle family with seventy-four genera is chiefly tropical and Australasian, with
representatives in southern Europe, extratropical Africa, and extratropical South America.
Two genera are represented by small trees in the flora of southern Florida. To this fam-
ily, beside the Myrtle, belong the Australian Eucalypti, large and important timber-trees
largely planted in California, and the Guava, cultivated in Florida for its fruit.
MYRTACE^E
769
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Calyx closed in the bud by a lid-like deciduous limb; petals 0. 1. Calyptranth.es.
Calyx 4 or 5-lobed with persistent lobes; petals 4 or 5. 2. Eugenia.
1. CALYPTRANTHES Sw.
Aromatic trees or shrubs, with terete or angled branchlets. Leaves complanate in the
bud, penniveined, petiolate. Flowers minute, in subterminal and axillary pedunculate
many-flowered panicles, their primary and secondary branches often racemose, the ultimate
branches cymose ; calyx-tube turbinate, produced above the ovary, closed in the bud by a
slightly 4 or 5-lobed lid-like orbicular limb, opening in anthesis by a circumscissile line, the
limb at first attached laterally, finally deciduous; disk lining the tube of the calyx; petals
2-5, minute, or 0; ovary 2 or 3-celled; ovules 2 or 3 in each cell, collateral, ascending, anat-
ropous. Fruit 2-4-seeded. Seed subglobose or short-oblong; seed-coat shining; coty-
ledons foliaceous, contortuplicate; radicle elongated, incurved.
Calyptranthes with eighty species is confined to tropical America, with two species
reaching southern Florida.
The generic name is from xaX^Trrpa and &v6t), in reference to the peculiar lid-like limb
which closes the calyx before the opening of the flower.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Leaves acuminate, pubescent below; petioles up to \' in length; inflorescence and young
branchlets covered with silky rufous tomentum. 1. C. pallens (D).
Leaves abruptly pointed or obtuse at apex, glabrous; petioles not more than \' in
length; inflorescence and young branchlets glabrous. 2. C. Zuzygium (D).
1. Calyptranthes pallens Griseb.
Ckytraculia Chytraculia Sudw.
Leaves oblong or oblong-ovate, acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at
base, pellucid-punctate above, marked with dark glands below, when they unfold pink or
light red and covered with pale silky hairs, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green and
lustrous on the upper surface, coated with pale pubescence on the lower surface, 2|'-3' long
and ^'-f' wide, with a broad midrib orange-colored beneath; petioles stout, ' |' in length.
Flowers sessile, |' long, in long-stalked many-flowered clusters 2^'-3' long and wide, cov-
ered like their bracts and the flower-buds with silky rufous pubescence, with slender divari-
770
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
cate branches, the ultimate divisions 3-flowered; petals 0. Fruit short-oblong or nearly
globose, dark reddish brown and puberulous, with thin dry flesh; seeds short-oblong,
rounded at the ends.
A tree, in Florida 20-25 high, with a trunk 3'-4' in diameter, small branches forming
a narrow head, and slender branchlets at first wing-angled between the nodes and coated
with short rufous silky tomentum, becoming in their second or third year terete, thickened
at the nodes, light gray tinged with red and covered with small thin scales. Bark of the
trunk about f ' thick, with a generally smooth light gray or almost white surface occasion-
ally separating into irregular plate-like scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained,
brown tinged with red, with lighter colored sapwood of 30-40 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Florida, shores of Lake Worth, in the neighborhood of Bay Biscayne,
Dade County, and on Big Pine Key, Elliott's Key, Key Largo and Key West; on the Ba-
hama Islands, on many of the Antilles and in southern Mexico.
2. Calyptranthes Zuzygium Sw.
Leaves elliptic, abruptly or gradually narrowed into a blunt point or obtuse at apex,
cuneate at base, entire, covered with minute pellucid dots, glabrous, dark yellow-green
and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, 1|'-2|' long and f'-lf
wide, with a broad low midrib and slender primary veins arcuate and connected within the
slightly revolute somewhat undulate margins; petioles deeply grooved, $'-' in length.
Flowers on slender pedicels * ' - -' long, in axillary 1-3-branched few-flowered axillary
cymes f ' long and %' wide, on slender peduncles I'-l \' in length, the ultimate divisions of
the inflorescence 1-3-flowered; petals wanting; style rather longer than the stamens.
Fruit about \ r in diameter.
A tree, in Florida sometimes 40 high, with a tall trunk 4' or 5' in diameter, covered with
smooth pale gray bark, small branches and slender terete ascending ashy gray branchlets.
Distribution. Florida, Paradise and Long Keys in the Everglades, Dade County; on
the Bahama Islands and in Cuba, Jamaica and Hayti.
2. EUGENIA L.
Trees or shrubs, with hard durable wood and scaly bark. Flowers often large and con-
spicuous, on short bibracteolate pedicels, in axillary racemes or fascicles or dichotomously
branched cymes, with minute caducous bracts and bractlets; calyx campanulate, scarcely
MYRTACE.E 771
produced above the ovary, the liinb 4 or rarely o-lobed; petals usually 4, free and spread-
ing; ovary 2 or rarely 3-celled; ovules numerous in each cell, semianatropous. Fruit 1-
4-seeded. Seeds globose or flattened; seed-coat membranaceous or cartilaginous; embryo
thick and fleshy; cotyledons thick, more or less conferruminate into a homogeneous mass;
radicle very short, turned toward the hilum.
Eugenia with some five hundred species is common in all tropical regions, with eight
species reaching the shores of southern Florida, of these 6 are small trees. Several species
are valued for their stimulant and digestive properties; some produce useful timber or
edible fruit, and others are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. Cloves are the
flower-buds of Eugenia aromatica Baill., a native of the Molucca Islands; and Eugenia
Jambos L., the Rose Apple, of southeastern Asia, is cultivated in all tropical countries
as a shade-tree and for its delicately fragrant fruit.
The generic name commemorates the interest in botany and gardening taken by Prince
Eugene of Savoy, who built the Belvidere Palace near Vienna in the beginning of the
eighteenth century, and made a collection of rare plants in its gardens.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers in axillary racemes or fascicles.
Flowers in short solitary or clustered axillary racemes.
Leaves ovate or obovate, rounded at apex, short-petiolate; fruit subglobose to short-
oblong, black, ' in diameter. 1. E. buxifolia (C, D).
Leaves ovate, contracted at apex into a broad point, distinctly petiolate; fruit glo-
bose, black, \' in diameter. 2. E. axillaris (C, D).
Flowers in axillary fascicles.
Leaves usually broad-ovate, narrowed at apex into a short point, subcoriaceous;
fruit subglobose, rather broader than high, f'-l' in diameter, becoming black at
maturity. 3. E. rhombea (D).
Leaves oblong-ovate, narrowed at apex into a long point, coriaceous; fruit subglobose
to obovoid, \'-\' long, bright scarlet. 4. E. confusa (D).
Flowers in dichotomously branched cymes. (Anamomis.)
Leaves ovate or obovate; cymes usually 3-flowered; flowers not more than \' in diameter;
fruit black. 5. E. dicrana (D).
Leaves oblong or broad-elliptic; cymes 3-15-flowered; flowers up to \' in diameter; fruit
red. 6. E. Simpsonii (D).
1. Eugenia buxifolia Willd. Gurgeon Stopper. Spanish Stopper.
Leaves ovate or obovate, rounded at apex, sessile or narrowed into a short thick petiole,
occasionally slightly and remotely crenulate-serrate above the middle, thick and coriaceous,
dark green on the upper surface, yellow-green and marked with minute black dots on the
lower surface, \'-\\' long and about 1' wide, with a narrow conspicuous midrib; usually
unfolding in November and remaining on the branches until the end of their second winter,
and often turning red or partly red before falling. Flowers appearing in Florida from mid-
summer until early autumn, f ' in diameter, on short thick pedicels, in short rufous-pubes-
cent racemes clustered in the axils of old or fallen leaves, with minute lanceolate acute per-
sistent bracts, and broad-ovate acute bractlets immediately below the flowers; calyx
glandular-punctate, pubescent on the outer surface, with 4 ovate rounded lobes much
shorter than the 4 ovate white petals rounded at apex, ciliate on the margins, and glandular-
punctate. Fruit subglobose to short-oblong, black, glandular-roughened, crowned with
the large calyx-lobes, usually 1-seeded, and about \' in diameter, with thin aromatic flesh;
seeds \' in diameter, with a thick pale brown lustrous cartilaginous coat and a pale olive-
green embryo.
A shrubby tree, in Florida rarely 20 high, with a short trunk occasionally a foot in
diameter, small mostly erect branches, and terete slender branchlets coated at first with
rufous pubescence, becoming at the end of a few months ashy gray or gray tinged with red,
772 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
and often more or less twisted or contorted. Bark of the trunk rarely more than |' thick,
light brown tinged with red, and broken into small thick square scales. Wood very heavy,
Fig. 692
exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, dark brown shaded with red, with thick lighter
colored sapwood of 15-20 layers of annual growth; sometimes used for fuel.
Distribution. Florida, Cape Canaveral to the southern keys, and on the west coast
from the banks of the Caloosahatchee River to Cape Sable; one of the commonest plants
on the keys, forming on coral rock a large part of the shrubby second growth now occupying
ground from which the original forest has been removed; on the Bahama Islands and on
several of the Antilles.
2. Eugenia axillaris Willd. Stopper. White Stopper.
Leaves ovate, gradually or abruptly narrowed at apex into a short wide point, rounded
at the narrowed base, thick and coriaceous, dark green on the upper surface, paler and
Fig. 693
covered with minute black dots on the lower surface, lf-2^' long and \ f wide, with a
broad midrib deeply impressed above; petioles stout, slightly winged, about %' in length.
MYRTACE^E 773
Flowers appearing at midsummer, about ' in diameter, in short axillary racemes, on stout
pedicels ^ '-%' long, covered with pale white hairs, and furnished near the middle or toward