minute scales; ovary hirsute, ovoid to ovoid-conic, gradually or abruptly contracted into a
slender short or elongated simple style stigmatic at the acute apex. Fruit oblong-obovoid
or globose, black, solitary or in 2 or 3-fruited clusters; flesh thin and dry or succulent. Seed
ovoid or oblong, apiculate or rounded at apex, without albumen; seed-coat thick, crusta-
ceous, light brown, smooth and shining, folded more or less conspicuously on the back into
2 lobes rounded at apex; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons thick and fleshy,
hemispheric, usually consolidated; radicle short, turned toward the basilar or subbasilar
orbicular or elliptic hilum.
Bumelia, with about twenty-five species is confined to the New World, where it is dis-
tributed from the southern United States through the West Indies to Mexico, Central
America, and Brazil. Of the twelve species in the United States which have been dis-
tinguished five are small trees.
Bumelia produces hard heavy strong wood, that of the North American species contain-
ing bands of numerous large open ducts defining the layers of annual growth and connected
by conspicuous branched groups of similar ducts, presenting in cross-section a reticulate
appearance.
The generic name is from /Sou/ieXia, a classical name of the Ash-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Lower surface of the leaves pubescent or lanuginose.
Leaves short-obovate to oblanceolate or elliptic, covered below with pale or ferrugineous
silky pubescence. 1. B. tenax (C).
Leaves oblong-obovate, lanuginose below with ferrugineous or silvery white hairs.
2. B. lanuginosa (A, C, H).
Leaves glabrous or nearly so.
Leaves deciduous.
Leaves oblong-obovate, thick. 3. B. monticola.
Leaves elliptic to oblanceolate, usually acute or acuminate, thin. 4. B. lycioides (A, C).
Leaves persistent, obovate; fruit oblong. 5. B. angustifolia (C, D).
1. Bumelia tenax Willd. Ironwood. Black Haw.
Leaves oblong-obovate to oblanceolate or elliptic, rarely oval or ovate on leading shoots,
rounded or acute at apex, cuneate at base, thin, dark dull green, and finally reticulate-
venulose on the upper surface, thickly covered below with soft silky pale or gold-colored
pubescence, usually becoming dark rusty brown by midsummer, l'-3' long and 1|'-1|'
wide, with slightly thickened and re volute margins and a prominent midrib; turning
yellow and falling irregularly during the winter; petioles slender, hairy, grooved, |'-1' in
length. Flowers appearing from May in Florida to July in South Carolina, f long, on
SAPOTACE.E 813
pedicels '-!' in length and coated like the calyx with rufous silky pubescence, in many-
flowered crowded fascicles; calyx ovoid, with oblong lobes; appendages of the corolla large,
ovate, acute, crenate, shorter than the ovate staminodia about as long as the lobes of the
corolla; ovary narrow-ovoid, gradually contracted into an elongated style. Fruit ripening
and falling in the autumn, short -oblong to ellipsoid, i'-f ' in length; flesh sweet and edible;
seed oblong, short-pointed at apex, \'-\' long.
A tree, 20-30 high, with a trunk occasionally 5 '-6' in diameter, straight spreading flexi-
ble tough branches unarmed or armed with straight stout rigid spines sometimes 1' in
length, and slender branchlets coated when they first appear with silky pale pubescence
often tinged with red and soon rusty brown, becoming glabrous before winter, and then
dark red and slightly roughened by occasional minute dark lenticels; or often a shrub only
a few feet high. Winter-buds minute, subglobose, with imbricated ovate scales rounded
at apex and clothed with rusty brown tomentum. Bark of the trunk thick, brown tinged
with red, and divided irregularly by deep fissures into narrow flat reticulate ridges covered
with minute appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, light brown streaked
with white, with lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Dry sandy soil; South Carolina (Saint Helena Island and Bluffton, Beau-
fort County), southward in the coast region of Georgia and east Florida to Cape Canaveral
and through the interior of the peninsular to Cedar Keys on the west coast; near Bain-
bridge, Decatur County, southwestern Georgia.
2. Bumelia lanuginosa Pers. Gum Elastic. Chittam Wood.
Leaves oblong-obovate, rounded and often apiculate at apex and gradually narrowed at
base, coated when they unfold with pale ferrugineous tomentum dense on the lower and
loose on the upper surface, and at maturity thin and firm, dark green and lustrous above,
more or less lanuginose below with rusty brown or silvery white (var. albicans Sarg.) hairs,
l'-2|' long and 5' f' wide; falling irregularly during the winter; petioles slender, rusty
brown or pale pubescent, |'-f' in length. Flowers opening in summer on hairy pedicels |'
in length, in 16-18-flowered fascicles; calyx ovoid, with ovate rounded lobes coated on the
outer surface with ferrugineous or pale tomentum and rather shorter than the tube of the
corolla; appendages of the corolla small, ovate and acute; staminodia ovate, acute, re-
motely and slightly denticulate, as long as the corolla-lobes; ovary abruptly contracted
into a slender elongated style. Fruit on a slender drooping stalk ripening and falling in
the autumn, oblong or slightly obovoid, \' long, with thick flesh; seed short-oblong,
rounded at apex, about \' in length.
A tree, often 40-50 high, with a tall straight trunk l-2 in diameter, short thick rigid
814
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
branches forming a narrow-oblong round-topped head, unarmed, or armed with stout rigid
straight or slightly curved spines frequently developing into spinescent leafy lateral
branchlets, and slender often somewhat zigzag branchlets coated with thick rufous or pale
tomentum when they first appear, becoming in their first winter red-brow r n to ashy gray
and glabrous or nearly so, and marked by occasional minute lenticels and by small semi-
orbicular leaf-scars displaying 2 clusters of fibro- vascular bundle-scars; of its largest size in
the Texas coast region; much smaller east of the Mississippi River, and there rarely more
than 20 tall. Winter-buds obtuse, |' long, covered with broad-obovate rusty-tomentose
scales. Bark of the trunk \' thick, dark gray-brown and usually divided into narrow ridges
Fig. 724
broken into thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, rather soft, not strong, close-grained,
light brown or yellow, with thick lighter colored sapwood; producing in Texas considerable
quantities of clear viscid gum from the freshly cut wood.
Distribution. Southern and southeastern Georgia, western Florida southward to thj
neighborhood of Lake City, Columbia County and to Cedar Key, coast of Alabama and
inland to Dallas County, southern Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to the valley of the
San Antonio River and over the Edwards Plateau (Kendall, Kerr and Brown Counties) to
the valley of the upper Brazos River (Palo Pinto County), and northward through western
Louisiana and western Arkansas to western Oklahoma (Seiling, Dewey County), and to
southeastern Kansas (Cherokee County) and southern Missouri as far north as the valley
of the Meramec River (near Allenton, St. Louis County), and southern Illinois (near
Mound City, Pulaski County) ; at Calcasieu Pass, on the sandy beaches of the Louisiana
coast forming thickets of plants 6-8 high, and uninjured by salt spray; the var. albicans
in eastern Texas from the valley of the lower Brazos to that of the San Antonio River and
in the neighborhood of Monterey, Nuevo Leon; most distinct and of its largest size on the
bottoms of the Guadalupe River, near Victoria, Victoria County, and here occasionally
70-80 high, with a trunk 3 in diameter.
Passing into the var. rigida A. Gray, with smaller rather narrower leaves and often
more spinescent branches. Brown and Uvalde Counties, Texas; in Coahua and Nuevo
Leon, and in the canons of the mountains of southern Arizona up to altitudes of at least
4000-5000; in Texas shrubby in habit; in Arizona forming dense thickets of slender
stems often 20-25 tall and only 2'-3' in diameter.
3. Bumelia monticola Buckl.
Leaves oblong-obovate, narrowed and acute or rounded and rarely slightly emarginate
at apex, cuneate at base, entire, covered above with matted pale hairs and densely below
SAPOTACE.E
815
with snow white pubescence when they unfold, and at maturity coriaceous, dark yellow-
(?reen, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, l|'-3' long
and ^'-l ' wide, with slightly revolute margins, a slender yellow midrib glabrous or slightly
pubescent below toward the base and conspicuous reticulate veinlets, deciduous; petioles
slender pubescent early in the season, becoming glabrous. Flowers opening from the mid-
dle of June to the middle of July, on villose pedicels, becoming sometimes nearly glabrous
in the autumn, |-'-j' in length; calyx pale green, villose-pubescent, its lobes ovate, ciliate on
the margins, shorter than the lobes of the corolla, their appendages lanceolate; staminodia
rounded at apex, longer than the corolla-lobes. Fruit ripening in September, subglobose
to oblong-obovoid, \'-\' long and '-$' in diameter; seed oblong, rounded at the ends,
about f ' long.
A tree, in favorable positions 20-25 high, with spinose branches forming an irregular
open head, and slender often zigzag red-brown lustrous branchlets, the lateral branchlets
Fig. 725
often ending in stout spines; more often an irregularly branched shrub 10-15 high, spread-
ing on the banks of streams into great thickets. Bark of the trunk thick, pale and dark
gray, rough and scaly, exfoliating in large scales.
Distribution. Texas, dry limestone cliffs and canon bottoms and by streams dry during
a large part of the year, valley of the upper Guadalupe River (Comal, Kendall and Kerr
Counties) to the valley of the Rio Grande (Uvalde County), and northward to the valley of
the upper Brazos River (Palo Pinto County); in Cohahuila (near Saltillo).
4. Bumelia lycioides Gaertn. f. Ironwood. Buckthorn.
Leaves elliptic to oblanceolate, acute, acuminate, or rarely rounded at apex, gradually
narrowed at base, covered when they unfold especially below with silky villose pubescence,
soon glabrous, and at maturity bright green and glabrous on the upper surface, light green
and sometimes coated on the lower surface with pale pubescence, thin and rather firm,
finely reticulate-venulose, 3'-6' long and ^'-2' wide, with a pale thin conspicuous midrib
sometimes slightly pubescent below near the base, deciduous in the autumn; petioles slen-
der, slightly grooved, mostly pubescent early in the season, usually becoming glabrous, \'-
1' in length. Flowers appearing at midsummer on slender glabrous pedicels \' long, in
crowded many-flowered fascicles; calyx glabrous, ovoid-campanulate, with rounded lobes
rather shorter than the corolla; staminodia broad-ovate, denticulate, nearly as long as the
narrow appendages; ovary ovoid, slightly hairy toward the base only, gradually contracted
into a short thick style. Fruit ripening and falling in the autumn, ovoid or obovoid, about
816 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
f in length; flesh thick; seed short-oblong to subglobose, rounded at apex, nearly ' long,
with a pale conspicuous hilum.
A tree, 25-30 high, with a short trunk rarely more than 6' in diameter, stout flexible
branches usually unarmed or furnished with short stout slightly curved spines occasionally
Fig. 726
developing into leafy spinescent branches, and short thick spur-like lateral branchlets
slightly puberulous when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, light red-brown, rather
lustrous, and marked by numerous pale lenticels, and in their second year dark or light
brown tinged with red or ashy gray. Winter-buds minute, obtuse, nearly immersed in the
bark, with pale dark brown glabrous scales. Bark of the trunk thin, light red-brown, the
generally smooth surface broken into small thin persistent scales. Wood heavy, hard, not
strong, close-grained, light brown or yellow, with thick lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Usually in low moist soil on the borders of swamps and streams; rocky
bluffs of the Ohio River near Cannelton, Perry County, southern Indiana, southern Illinois
(Hardin, Pope and Pulaski Counties), to southeastern Missouri (Butler County) and to
western Kentucky, western and central Tennessee, central Mississippi and northern Louisi-
ana (West Feliciana Parish) ; and through western Arkansas to the coast region of eastern
Texas (Beaumont, Jefferson County, and Columbia, Brazoria County); central Alabama;
Florida southward to St. Mark's, Wakulla County, and to Taylor, Alachua and Volusia
Counties, and to northwestern Georgia (Catoosa County), and the valley of the Savan-
nah River in Georgia and South Carolina, and northward through eastern North Caro-
lina to southeastern Virginia (Norfolk County).
5. Bumelia angustifolia Nutt. Ants' Wood. Downward Plum.
Leaves obovate, rounded at apex, and gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, with
slightly thickened revolute margins, glabrous, thick and coriaceous, pale blue-green on the
upper surface, paler on the lower surface, I'-l^' long and j'-lj' wide, with a pale slender
midrib, and very obscure veins and veinlets; usually persistent on the branches until the end
of their second winter; petioles stout, grooved, rarely j' in length. Flowers generally ap-
pearing in October and November, on slender glabrous pedicels seldom more than \' in
length, in few or many-flowered crowded fascicles; calyx glabrous, divided nearly to the
base into narrow-ovate lobes rounded at apex and half as long as the divisions of the corolla
furnished with linear-lanceolate appendages as long as the ovate acute denticulate stami-
nodia; ovary narrow-ovoid, slightly hairy at base only, gradually contracted into an elon-
gated style. Fruit ripening in the spring, on slender drooping stems, usually 1 fruit only
SAPOTACE.E 817
being developed from a fascicle of flowers, oblong or slightly obovoid, rounded at the ends,
|'-f ' long and j' in diameter, with thick sweet flesh; seed oblong, rounded at apex, \' long.
A tree, sometimes 20 high, with a short trunk rarely exceeding 6'-8' in diameter, grace-
ful pendulous branches forming a compact round head, and rigid spinescent divergent lat-
eral branchlets often armed with acute slender spines sometimes 1' in length, and when
they first appear thickly coated with loose pale or dark brown deciduous tomentum, be-
coming light brown tinged with red or ashy gray. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, and covered
with rufous tomentum. Bark of the trunk \'-\' thick, gray tinged with red, and deeply
divided by longitudinal and cross fissures into oblong or nearly square plates. Wood
heavy, hard, although not strong, very close-grained, light brown or orange-colored, with
thick lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, shores of Indian River to the southern keys, and on the west
coast from Cedar Keys to East Cape, and here less abundant and usually on rocky shores
and in the interior of low barren islands; on the Bahama Islands and in Cuba.
4. CHRYSOPHYLLUM L.
Trees, with terete branchlets usually coated while young with dense tomentum, and
naked buds. Leaves short-petiolate, bright green and glabrous on the upper surface and
coated on the lower surface with brilliant silky pubescence or tomentum, persistent. Flow-
ers on pedicels from the axils of minute acute bracts, in dense many-flowered fascicles;
calyx usually 5-parted, the divisions nearly equal, obtuse; corolla 5 or rarely 6 or 7-lobed,
tubular, campanulate or subrotate, white or greenish white; filaments short, subulate or
filiform, enlarged into broad* connectives; anthers ovoid or triangular, extrorse or rarely
partly introrse, the cells spreading below; ovary usually 5-celled, style crowned by a 5-
lobed stigma. Fruit short-oblong, ovoid or globose. Seed ovoid; seed-coat coriaceous,
dull or lustrous; hilum subbasilar, elongated, conspicuous; embryo erect, surrounded by
more or less pungent fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, foliaceous.
Chrysophyllum is tropical, with fifty or sixty species most abundant in the New World,
with a small number of species in western and southern tropical Africa, southern Asia,
Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands, and with one species in southern Florida. The most
valuable species, Chrysophyllum Cainito L., a native of the West Indies and now cultivated
in all tropical countries and naturalized in many parts of Central and South America, pro-
duces the so-called star-apple, a succulent edible blue or purple and green fruit the size and
shape of a small apple.
The generic name, from xpvo-6s and <t>t\\ov is in allusion to the golden covering of the
under surface of the leaves.
818 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
1 . Chiysophyllum olivif orme Lam. Satin-leaf.
Leaves revolute in the bud, oval, acute or contracted into a short broad point or some-
times rounded at apex, abruptly cuneate at base, thick and coriaceous, bright blue-green
on the upper surface and covered on the lower surface and on the petiole with brilliant
copper-colored pubescence, 2'-3' long and l|'-2' wide, with a broad prominent midrib deeply
impressed on the upper side and numerous straight veins arcuate near the margins; petioles
stout, |'-f ' in length. Flowers appearing in Florida irregularly throughout the year and
often found on a branch with ripe or half-grown fruits, on stout pedicels shorter than the
petioles, covered like the calyx with rufous tomentum, in few or many-flowered fascicles in
the axils of leaves or at the base of lateral branchlets in those of earlier years; calyx divided
nearly to the base into broad rounded lobes rather shorter than the tube of the subrotate
white corolla with short spreading rounded lobes; ovary 5-celled, pubescent, gradually
contracted into a short style crow r ned by a broad 5-lobed stigma. Fruit usually 1-seeded
by abortion, on stems 1' long, usually only a single fruit being produced from a flower-
cluster, ovoid or sometimes nearly globose, dark purple, roughened by occasional excres-
cences, with a thick tough skin inclosing the juicy sweet mawkish flesh light purple on the
exterior, lighter toward the interior, and quite white in the centre; seed narrowed at the
ends, \' long, covered with a thin light brown coat closely invested with a white glutinous
aril-like pulpy mass.
A tree, 25-30 high, with a tall straight trunk sometimes a foot in diameter, upright
branches forming a compact oblong head, and slender slightly zigzag branchlets coated
when they first appear with ferrugineous tomentum, becoming in their second year light
Fig. 728
red-brown or ashy gray and covered with small pale elevated circular lenticels; in sandy
soil under the shade of Pine-trees in the Everglade Keys a shrub 6 high or less. Bark of
the trunk $' thick, light brown slightly tinged with red, and broken by shallow fissures into
large irregularly shaped plates separating on the surface into small thin scales. Wood
very heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light brown shaded with red, with thin lighter
colored sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, rich tummocks, from Mosquito Inlet on the east coast to the
Everglade Keys, Dade County and to the southern keys, and on the west coast from the
shores of the Caloosahatchie River to the neighborhood of Cape Sable; local and nowhere
common; on the Bahama Islands, and in Cuba, Porto Rico and Jamaica.
SAPOTACE^E 819
5. MIMUSOPS L.
Trees or rarely shrubs, with stout terete branchlets, small naked buds, and sweet juice.
Leaves usually clustered at the end of the branches, with slender inconspicuous transverse
veins and minute reticulate veinlets, persistent. Flowers on clavate pedicels from the
axils of minute deciduous bracts; calyx 6-8-parted, the divisions in 2 series, those of the
exterior series almost valvate in the bud; corolla white, barely longer than the calyx, sub-
rotate, usually dilated at the throat, 6-8-lobed, the lobes furnished at base with a pair of
petal-like appendages: stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla; filaments short, dilated;
anthers lanceolate, their connectives excurrent, acute, or sometimes aristate at apex; stam-
inodia as many as the lobes of the corolla, scale-like or petaloid, entire, 2-lobed or lacini-
ate; ovary ovoid, hirsute or puberulous, gradually narrowed into a slender style stigmatic
at apex. Fruit globose, 1 or 2-seeded, tipped with the much thickened elongated style;
skin crustaceous, indurate; flesh thick and dry. Seed oblong-ovoid, slightly compressed;
seed-coat crustaceous, chestnut-brown and lustrous; hilum elongated, lateral or minute,
basilar; embryo surrounded by thick fleshy albumen; cotyledons flat, thick and fleshy,
much longer than the short erect radicle.
Mimusops with thirty or forty species is widely distributed through the tropics of the
two hemispheres, a single species reaching the shores of southern Florida. Several species
produce hard heavy timber, edible fruits, or valuable milky juices.
The significance of the generic name, from nipt!) and 6^t$ in allusion to the shape of the
corolla, is not apparent.
1. Mimusops emarginata Britt. Wild Dilly.
Mimusops Sieberi Chap., not A. DC.
Leaves clustered at the end of the branches, involute in the bud oblong-elliptic, or occa-
sionally slightly obovate, rounded or retuse at apex, rounded or cuneate at base, with
slightly thickened revolute margins, bright red when they unfold, and slightly puberulous
on the under surface of the midrib, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, bright green and
Fig. 729
lustrous, covered on the upper surface with a slight glaucous bloom, conspicuously reticu-
late- venulose, 3'-4' long and I'-l^' wide, with a stout midrib glabrous, or puberulous with
rusty hairs below, and deeply impressed above; appearing in Florida in April and May and
deciduous during their second year; petioles slender, grooved, rusty-pubescent, especially
while young, I'-l' in length. Flowers opening in the spring on slender pedicels near the
820 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
end of the branches, coated with rusty tomentum and 1' or more long, from the axils of
leaves of the year or from those of fallen leaves of the previous year; calyx narrow-ovoid,
divided nearly to the base into 6 lobes, those of the outer row lanceolate, acute, covered on
the outer surface with rusty brown tomentum and on the inner surface with pale pubes-
cence, thickened and usually marked at the base on the outer surface by black spots, those
of the inner row ovate, acute, keeled toward the base, light greenish yellow and pale-pubes-
cent; corolla light yellow tinged with green, f ' in diameter, with 8 spreading lanceolate
acute divisions entire or erosely toothed toward the apex, their appendage slender, acute
and from one hah* to two thirds their length; staminodia minute, nearly triangular, entire;
ovary narrow-ovoid, dark red, puberulous toward the base with pale hairs, and gradually
narrowed into an elongated exserted style stigmatic at apex. Fruit ripening at the end of
a year, in the spring or in early autumn, on a stout erect stem about 1' long, and per-
sistent until after the tree flowers the following year, subglobose to slightly obovoid, flat-
tened and compressed at apex, l'-l' in diameter, usually 1-seeded by abortion, with a
thick dry outer coat roughened by minute rusty brown scales, and thick spongy flesh filled
with milky juice; seed \' long, with an elongated lateral hilum.
A tree, in Florida rarely more than 30 high, with a short gnarled trunk 12'-15' in diame-
ter and usually hollow and defective, thick branches forming a compact round head, and
stout branchlets clustered at the end of the branches of the previous year, coated when they
first appear with dark rufous pubescence, becoming glabrous and light orange-brown at the
end of a few weeks, and in their second year covered with thick ashy gray or light red-
brown scaly bark and marked by elevated obcordate leaf-scars displaying 3 large dark con-
spicuous fibre-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, rusty-tomentose. Bark
of the trunk about \' thick and irregularly divided by deep fissures into ridges rounded on
the back and broken into small nearly square plates. Wood very heavy, hard, strong,
close-grained, rich very dark brown, with light-colored sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, only on the southern keys; not common; on the Bahama Islands
and in Cuba.
LVH. EBENACE^:.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, and alternate simple entire leaves, without stipules.