the apex with 2 acute minute persistent bractlets; calyx glandular-punctate, covered on
the outer surface with pale hairs, 4-lobed, with ovate rounded lobes shorter than the 4 ovate
glandular white petals. Fruit ripening in succession from November to April, globose,
black, glandular-punctate, usually 1-seeded, \' in diameter, edible, rather juicy, with a
sweet agreeable flavor; seeds subglobose, |' in diameter, with a pale brown chartaceous
coat, and light olive-green cotyledons.
A tree, 20-25 high, with a trunk occasionally a foot in diameter, small branches, and
terete stout rigid ashy gray branchlets often slightly tinged with red and covered with
small wart-like excrescences; or toward the northern limits of its range a low shrub. Bark
of the trunk about \' thick and divided by irregular shallow fissures into broad ridges finally
separating on the surface into small thin light brown scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong,
very close-grained, brown often tinged with red, with thin darker colored sapwood of 5-6
layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Florida, shores of the St. John's River to the southern keys; nowhere
common; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.
3. Eugenia rhombea Kr. & Urb. Stopper.
Leaves broad-ovate, narrowed into a broad point rounded at apex, and abruptly or grad-
ually narrowed and cuneate at base, when they unfold thin and light red, and at maturity
subcoriaceous, conspicuously^ marked with black dots, olive-green on the upper surface and
paler on the lower surface, 2'-2f long and I'-l^' wide, with a narrow midrib; unfolding in
Florida in May; petioles narrow-winged, \'-\' in length. Flowers \' in diameter, appear-
ing in Florida in April or May on slender glandular pedicels \'-\' long and furnished at
apex with 2 lanceolate acute persistent bractlets ciliate on the margins, in sessile axillary
many-flowered clusters; calyx-tube much shorter than the limb divided into 4 glandular
narrow lobes rounded at apex and one half the length of the broad-ovate rounded glandular
white petals. Fruit ripening in Florida from September to November, f'-l' in diameter,
slightly glandular-roughened, orange color, with a bright red cheek when fully grown, be-
coming black at maturity; flesh thin and dry; seeds almost globose, nearly \' in diameter,
with a thick pale chestnut-brown lustrous coat and olive-green cotyledons.
A tree, 20-25 high, with a trunk usually a foot in diameter, small branches, and slender
terete branchlets at first light purple and covered with a glaucous bloom, becoming ashy
gray or almost white. Bark of the trunk about j 1 ^' thick, with a smooth light gray sur-
774
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
face slightly tinged with red. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, light brown, with hardly
distinguishable sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, Key West and Umbrella Key; on the Bahama Islands and on
many of the Antilles.
4. Eugenia confusa DC. Red Stopper.
Leaves oblong-ovate, abruptly or gradually contracted into a long narrow point rounded
or acute at apex, cuneate or occasionally rounded at base, thin and light red when they
unfold, and at maturity dark green and very lustrous on the upper surface, paler and
marked with minute black dots on the lower surface, l^'-2' long and 5 ' f ' wide, with a thick
orange-colored midrib barely impressed above and prominent reticulate veinlets; petioles
stout, about \ f in length. Flowers barely $' in diameter, appearing in September on slen-
der pedicels i'-f long and furnished near the apex with 2 minute acute bractlets, in many-
flowered axillary clusters; calyx glandular-punctate, with 4 ovate acute lobes much shorter
than the 4 broad-ovate rounded white petals. Fruit ripening in March and April, sub-
globose to obovoid, bright scarlet, \'-\' long, glandular-roughened, usually solitary and
Fig. 695
1-seeded, with thin dry flesh; seed nearly globose, about \ r in diameter, with a thin crus-
taceous light brown lustrous coat and an olive-green embryo.
A tree, 50-60 high, with a straight trunk 18'-20' in diameter, stout upright branches
forming a narrow compact head, and slender terete ashy gray branchlets. Bark of the
trunk about |' thick, bright cinnamon-red, separating freely into small thin scales. Wood
very heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, bright red-brown, with thick dark-
colored sapwood of 50-60 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Florida, rich hummocks near the shores of Bay Biscay ne, Dade County,
and on Old Rhodes and Elliotts Keys; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the
Antilles.
5. Eugenia dicrana Berg. Naked Wood.
Anamomis dichotoma Sarg.
Leaves ovate or obovate, acute or rounded and occasionally emarginate at apex, cuneate
at base, chartaceous when they unfold, becoming subcoriaceous, glabrous, covered with
minute black dots, l'-lj' long and \'-\' wide, with a stout midrib; petioles stout, en-
larged at base, coated at first with silky hairs, finally glabrous. Flowers appearing
in Florida in May, j' in diameter, in cymes produced near the end of the branches, in the
axils of leaves of the year, on slender peduncles coated with pale silky hairs, sometimes 1-
MYRTACE^E
775
flowered and not longer than the leaves, more often longer than the leaves, dichotomously
branched and 3-flowered, with 1 flower at the end of the principal division in the fork of its
branches, or occasionally 5-7-flowered by the development of peduncles from the axils of
the bracts of the secondary divisions of the inflorescence, each branch of the inflorescence
furnished immediately beneath the flower with 2 lanceolate acute bractlets nearly as
long as the calyx-tube; calyx hoary-tomentose, the lobes ovate, rounded at apex and much
shorter than the ovate acute glandular-punctate white petals. Fruit ripening in Florida
in August, reddish brown, \ r long, obliquely oblong, obovate or subglobose, roughened
by minute glands; flesh thin, rather dry and aromatic; seeds reniform, light brown,
exceedingly fragrant.
A tree, 20-25 high, with a trunk 6'-8' in diameter, and slender terete branchlets light
red and coated with pale silky hairs when they first appear, becoming glabrous in their
second year and covered with light or dark brown bark separating into small thin scales; or
often a shrub, with numerous slender stems. Bark of the trunk iV~s' thick, with a smooth
light red or red-brown surface separating into minute thin scales. Wood very heavy, hard,
close-grained, light brown or red, with thick yellow sapwood of 40-50 layers of annual
growth.
Distribution. Florida, rocky woods, Mosquito Inlet to Cape Canaveral on the east
coast, and from the banks of the Caloosahatchee River to the shores of Cape Romano on
the west coast, on Key West, and in the neighborhood of Bay Biscayne, Dade County;
on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.
6. Eugenia Simpsonii Sarg.
Anamomis Simpsonii Small.
Leaves oblong, rounded and abruptly short-pointed or occasionally emarginate at apex,
cuneate at base, or broad-elliptic, silky pubescent and ciliate on the margins when they un-
fold, soon glabrous, and at maturity coriaceous, dark yellow-green and lustrous on the upper
surface, paler and dull on the lower surface, \\'-% long and '-!' wide, with a prominent
midrib impressed on the upper side and obscure spreading primary veins united before
reaching the thickened re volute entire margins of the leaf; petioles covered at first with
snowy white tomentum, soon glabrous, slender, \'-\' in length. Flowers fragrant, about
\' in diameter, sessile in lateral 3-15-flowered cymes on slender finely appressed-pubescent
peduncles longer or shorter than the subtending leaves, their bractlets acuminate and \'
long; calyx-tube short-obconic, thickly covered with silky white hairs, the lobes rounded at
apex, green, punctate, two of them orbicular-reniform, the others orbicular-ovate, shorter
776 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
than the white concave, obovate to suborbicular erose cilia te sparingly punctate petals.
Fruit ellipsoid, red, mostly |'-|' long; seed reniform, usually solitary.
Fig. 697 ';
A tree, occasionally 60-70 high, with a trunk 15'-16' in diameter, small erect and
spreading smooth gray-brown or reddish brown branches forming a narrow T round-topped
head, and slender branchlets covered when they first appear with snowy white tomentum,
soon glabrous, and bright or dull reddish brown, and marked in their second year with the
nearly orbicular elevated conspicuous scars of fallen leaves. Bark of the trunk thin,
smooth, reddish, marked by pale blotches.
Distribution. Florida, Arch Creek Hummock north of Little River, and on Paradise
and Long Keys in the Everglades, Dade County.
XLDL MELASTOMACE.E.
Trees, shrubs, or herbs with watery juice. Leaves opposite, rarely verticellate, 3-9-
nerved, usually petiolate; stipules 0. Flowers regular, perfect, usually showy, rarely fra-
grant, in terminal clusters; calyx usually 4 or 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud;
petals as many as the lobes of the calyx, inserted on its throat, imbricated or convolute
in the bud; stamens as many or twice as many as the petals, inserted in 1 series with them,
often inclined or declinate; anthers 2-celled, attached at the base, opening by a terminal
pore; ovary 2 or many-celled; style terminal, simple, straight or declinate; stigma capitate,
simple or lobed; ovules numerous, minute, anatropous. Fruit capsular or baccate, in-
closed in the calyx-tube; seeds minute; testa coriaceous or crustaceous; hilum lateral or
basal; embryo without albumen.
This family with 164 genera and a large number of species is chiefly confined to the
tropics, and is most abundant in those of South America.
1. TETRAZYGIA A. Rich.
Trees or shrubs, with terete brancljlets. Leaves opposite, petiolate, oblong-ovate to
ovate-lanceolate, entire or denticulate, 3-o-nerved, persistent, scurfy, like the young
branchlets, peduncles and calyx-tube. Flowers perfect in many-flowered terminal panicles
or corymbs; calyx-tube urceolate or globose, adnate to the ovary, the limb constricted
above the ovary and dilated below the apex, the lobes short or elongated; petals obovate,
obtuse, convolute in the bud; stamens twice as many as the petals; filaments subulate;
anthers linear-subulate, erect or slightly recurved, 'attached at base, 2-celled, opening by
a minute pore at apex, their connective not extended below the cells: ovary 3-6-celled;
style filiform, curved, exserted, surrounded at base by a short sheath 8-10- toothed at apex;
ovules indefinite, minute, sessile on an axile placenta. Fruit a 3 or 4-celled berry, crowned
by the persistent tube of the calyx; seeds numerous, minute, obpyramidal, thickened and
ARALIACE^E
777
incurved at apex; testa coriaceous, slightly pitted; hilum basal; cotyledons thick; radicle
short, turned toward the hilum.
Tetrazygia with 14 species is confined to the West Indies and southern Florida where
one species has been discovered, the only tree of the great family of the Melastomacese
found in the United States.
The generic name is from r^rpa and vyov in allusion to the often 4-parted flowers.
1. Tetrazygia bicolor Cogn.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, gradually narrowed and rounded at base, 3-nerved,
entire, undulate and slightly thickened on the revolute margins, dark green on the upper
surface, paler on the lower surface, 3'-4f long and l'-lf wide; petioles stout, f'-l' in
Fig. 698
length. Flowers appearing from March to May, $' in diameter, short-stalked, in open
cymose panicles; calyx urceolate, 4 or 5-lobed* the lobes nearly obsolete; petals 4 or 5,
oblong-obovate, reflexed after anthesis, white; ovary 3-celled, style surrounded at base
by a short sheath 10-toothed at apex. Fruit ripening in late autumn or early winter,
oblong to ovoid, conspicuously constricted at apex, ?'- |' in length and \'-^ r in diameter.
In Florida a shrub, or in the dense woods of the keys of the Everglades a slender tree,
often 30 high, with an erect trunk 3' o_ 4' in diameter, covered with thin light gray-brown
slightly fissured bark, small spreading branches becoming erect toward their apex and
gracefully drooping leaves; or in the sandy soil of open Pine- woods often less than 3 in
height.
Distribution. Florida, on the Everglade Keys, Dade County; on the Bahama Islands
and in Cuba.
L. ARALIACEE.
Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with watery juice and scaly buds. Leaves alternate, compound
or simple, petiolate, with stipules. Flowers in racemose or panicled umbels; parts of the
flower in 5's: disk epigynous; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell, anatropous;
raphe ventral, the micropyle superior. Fruit baccate. Seeds, with albumen.
The Aralia family with fifty-four genera is chiefly tropical, w r ith a few genera extending
beyond the tropics into the northern hemisphere, especially into North America and east-
ern Asia. The widely distributed and largely extratropical genus Aralia is represented by
778 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
one arborescent species in the flora of the United States. Hedera, the Ivy, of this family,
is commonly cultivated in the temperate parts of the United States, and some species of
Panax and Acanthopanax from eastern Asia are found in gardens in the northeastern states.
1. ARALIA L.
Aromatic spiny trees and shrubs, with stout pithy branchlets, and thick fleshy roots, or
bristly or glabrous perennial herbs. Leaves digitate or once or twice pinnate, the pinnre
serrulate; stipules produced on the expanded and clasping base of the petiole. Flowers
perfect, polygamo-monoecious or polygamo-dioecious, on slender jointed pedicels, small,
greenish white; calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, the limb truncate, repand or minutely
toothed, the teeth valvate in the bud; petals imbricated in the bud, inserted by their broad
base on the margin of the disk, ovate, obtuse or acute and slightly inflexed at apex; stamens
inserted on the margin of the disk, alternate with the petals; filaments filiform; anthers ob-
long or rarely ovoid, attached on the back, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudi-
nally; ovary 2-5-celled; styles 2-5, in the fertile flower distinct and erect or slightly united
at base, spreading and incurved above the middle, or incurved from the base and some-
times inflexed at apex, crowned with large capitate stigmas, in the sterile flower short and
united. Fruit fleshy, laterally compressed or 3-5-angled, crowned with the remnants of
the style; nutlets 2-5, orbicular, ovoid or oblong, compressed, crustaceous, light reddish
brown, 1-seeded. Seed compressed; seed-coat thin, light brown, adnate to the thin fleshx
albumen; cotyledons ovate-oblong, as long as the straight radicle.
Aralia with forty species is confined to North America and Asia.
The name is of obscure meaning.
1 . Aralia spinosa L. Hercules' Club.
Leaves clustered at the end of the branches, twice pinnate, 3-4 long and 2^ wide,
with a stout light brown petiole 18'-20' in length, clasping the stem with an enlarged base
and armed with slender prickles, or occasionally unarmed ; pinna3 unequally pinnate, usually
with 5 or 6 pairs of lateral leaflets and a long-stalked terminal leaflet, and often furnished
at base with a pinnate or simple leaflet; leaflets ovate, acute, dentate or crenate, cuneate
or more or less rounded at base, short-petiolulate, when they unfold lustrous, bronze-green,
and slightly pilose on the midrib and primary veins, and at maturity thin, dark green
above, pale beneath, 2'-3' long and 1|' wide, with a thin midrib occasionally furnished with,
small prickles and slender primary veins nearly parallel with their margins; in the autumn
turning light yellow before falling; stipules acute, about 1' long, at first puberulous on the
back and ciliate on the margins. Flowers T V long, appearing at midsummer on long
slender pubescent straw-colored pedicels, in many-flowered umbels arranged in compound
panicles, with light brown puberulous branches becoming purple in the autumn, forming
a terminal racemose cluster 3-4 long, and rising solitary or 2 or 3 together above the
spreading leaves; bracts and bractlets lanceolate, acute, scarious, persistent; petals white,
acute, inflexed at apex: ovary often abortive; styles connivent. Fruit ripening in autumn,
black, I' in diameter, globose, 3-5-angled, crowned with the blackened styles, with thin
purple very juicy flesh; seeds oblong, rounded at the ends, about iV long.
A tree, 30-35 high, with a trunk 6'-8' in diameter, stout wide-spreading branches, and
branchlets |'-f ' in diameter, armed like the branches and young trunks with stout straight
of slightly incurved orange-colored scattered prickles, and nearly encircled by the conspicu-
ous narrow leaf-scars marked by a row of prominent fibro-vascular bundle-scars, light
orange-colored in their first season, lustrous and marked irregularly with oblong pale lenti-
cels, becoming light brown in their second year, with bright green inner bark; more often
a shrub, with a cluster of unbranched stems 6-20 tall. Winter-buds: terminal conic,
blunt at apex, |'-f' long, with thin chestnut-brown scales; axillary triangular, flattened,
about I' long and broad. Bark of the trunk dark brown, about f ' thick, and divided by
broad shallow fissures irito wide rounded ridges irregularly broken on the surface. Wood
close-grained, light, soft, brittle, brown streaked with yellow, with lighter colored sapwood
NYSSACE.E
779
Fig. 699
of 2 or 3 layers of annual growth. The bark of the roots and the berries are stimulant and
diaphoretic, and are sometimes used in medicine and in domestic practice.
Distribution. Deep moist soil in the neighborhood of streams; southern Pennsylvania
to southern Indiana, southeastern Iowa and southeastern Missouri, and southward to
northern Florida, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas; probably of its largest size on
the foot-hills of the Big Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the eastern states and in western
Europe; hardy in eastern Massachusetts.
LI. NYSSACE.E.
Trees or shrubs, with terete branchlets, scaly buds, alternate entire dentate or serrate
deciduous leaves, without stipules. Flowers dioscious, polygamo-dioecious or perfect; stam-
inate, calyx minute, 5-toothed or lobed; petals 5 or more, imbricated in the bud, or 0;
stamens as many, twice as many, or fewer than the petals, usually in 2 series; filaments
sometimes of 2 lengths, elongated filiform or subulate; disk fleshy, depressed at apex; pistil-
late flowers, calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; petals 5 or more, imbricated in the bud; ovary
l-celled or 6-10-celled; ovule solitary, pendulous from the apex of the cell, anatropous;
micropyle superior; disk epigynous, pulvinate, the apex depressed or convex, or 0; style
subulate, curved or spirally involute at apex, or 2-parted, or conic and divided into as many
stigmatic lobes as the cells of the ovary. Fruit drupaceous or subsamaroid, crowned with
the remnants of the calyx, l-celled and 1-seeded, or 3-5-celled, the cells thin, 4-seeded; seed
pendent, testa membranaceous or thin, albumen fleshy; cotyledons foliaceous or thin; radi-
cle cylindric.
Nyssacese with 3 genera, Nyssa L., Camptotheca Decne. and Davidia Baill. and 8
species is confined to eastern North America, western China, Thibet, the Himalayas and
the Mala/ Archipelago.
1. NYSSA L.
Trees, with leaves conduplicate in the bud, petiolate, sometimes remotely angulate or
toothed, mostly crowded at the end of the branches. Flowers polygamo-dioecious, minute,
greenish white; stamina te on slender pedicels from the axils of minute caducous bracts, in
simple or compound clusters on long axillary peduncles bibracteolate near the middle or at
the apex or sometimes without bractlets; calyx disciform or cup-shaped, the limb 5-toothed;
petals 5, imbricated in the bud, equal or unequal, ovate or linear-oblong, thick, inserted on
the margin of the conspicuous pulvinate entire or lobed disk, erect; stamens 5-12, exserted;
780
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
filaments filiform; anthers oblong; ovary 0; pistillate flowers on axillary peduncles, in 2
or few-flowered clusters, sessile or nearly so, in the axils of conspicuous bracts and furnished
with 1 or 2 small lateral bractlets, or solitary and surrounded by 2-4 bractlets; calyx-tube
campanulate, sometimes slightly urceolate, the limb 5-toothed; petals small, thick, and
spreading; stamens 5-10; filaments short; anthers fertile or sterile; disk less developed than
in the staminate flower, depressed in the centre; ovary 1 or 2-celled; style terete, elongated,
recurved, stigmatic toward the apex or the inner face; raphe ventral. Fruit drupaceous,
short-oblong, fleshy, urceolate at apex; flesh thin, oily, acidulous; stone thick- walled, bony,
terete or compressed, ribbed or winged, 1 or rarely 2-celled, usually 1-seeded. Seed filling
the cavity of the stone; seed-coat pale; embryo straight.
Nyssa with six species is confined to the eastern United States and to southern and
eastern Asia, where one species is distributed from the eastern Himalayas to the island of
Java and another occurs in central and western China. The American species produce
tough wood, with intricately contorted and twisted grain.
Nyssa, the name of a nymph, was given to this genus from the fact that one of the species
grows in water.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Pistillate flowers in 2 or few-flowered clusters, their calyx disciform; fruit blue, not more
than f ' long; stone with broad rounded ribs.
Stone indistinctly ribbed; leaves linear-oblong to oval or obovate.
1. N. sylvatica (A, C).
Stone prominently ribbed; leaves oblanceolate to oblong or elliptic.
2. N.biflora(C).
Pistillate flowers solitary, their calyx cup-shaped; fruit 1' or more long.
Fruit red; stone with prominent wings; leaves oblong-oval or obovate, usually obtuse at
apex. 3. N. ogeche (C).
Fruit purple; stone with acute ridges; leaves oval or oblong, acute or acuminate at apex.
4. N. aquatica (A, C).
1. Nyssa sylvatica Marsh. Tupelo. Pepperidge. Sour Gum.
Leaves crowded at the end of lateral branchlets or remote on vigorous shoots, linear-
oblong, lanceolate, oval or obovate, acute or acuminate or sometimes contracted into a
Fig. 700
short broad point at apex, cuneate or occasionally rounded at base, entire, with slightly
thickened margins, or rarely coarsely dentate, coated when they unfold with rufous tomen-
tum, especially on the lower surface, or pubescent or sometimes nearly glabrous, and at
NYSSACE.E 781
maturity thick and firm, dark green and lustrous above, pale and often villose below, prin-
cipally along the broad midrib and on the primary veins, 2'-o' long and -|'-3' wide; turning
early in autumn bright scarlet on the upper surface only; petioles slender or stout, terete or
wing-margined, ciliate, i'-l^' in length, and often bright red. Flowers appearing in early
spring when the leaves are about one third grown on slender pubescent or tomentose pedun-
cles |'-1|' long, staminate in many-flowered dense or lax compound heads, pistillate in
2 to several-flowered clusters, sessile in the axils of conspicuous often foliaceous bracts,
and furnished with 2 smaller acute hairy bractlets; calyx of the staminate flower disciform;
petals thick, ovate-oblong, acute, rounded at apex, erect or slightly spreading, early decidu-
ous; stamens exserted in the staminate flower, shorter than the petals in the pistillate
flower; stigma stout, exserted, reflexed above the middle, in the staminate flower.
Fruit ripening in October, 1-3 from each flower-cluster, ovoid, '-' long, dark blue, W 7 ith
thin acrid flesh; stone light brown, ovoid, rounded at base, pointed at apex, terete or more
or less flattened, and 10-12-ribbed, with narrow indistinct pale ribs rounded on the back.
A tree, with thick hard roots and few rootlets, often surrounded by root-sprouts, occa-
sionally 100 or rarely 125 high, with a trunk sometimes 5 in diameter, numerous slender
pendulous tough flexible branches forming a head sometimes short, cylindric and flat-topped,
sometimes low and broad, or on trees crowded in the forest narrow, pyramidal or conic,
and sometimes inversely conic and broad and flat at the top, and branchlets when they
first appear light green to orange color, and in their first winter nearly glabrous or pale or
rufous-pubescent, light red-brown marked by minute scattered pale lenticels and by small
lunate leaf-scars displaying the ends of 3 conspicuous groups of fibro-vascular bundles,