Fig. 319
Leavesobovate-lanceolate, sharp-pointed at apex, gradually and regularly narrowed to the base, when they unfold covered below with short rusty brown caducous tomentum and slightly pilose above, and at maturity light green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 10′—12′ long, 4′—6′ wide, with a prominent midrib and primary veins.Flowersnearly 2′ across when fully grown, on stout club-shaped pedicels from axils of the leaves of the previous year, 1′—1½′ long and covered with long scattered rusty brown hairs; sepals ovate, acuminate, pale green, densely pubescent on the outer surface; petals green at first, covered with short appressed hairs, gradually turning brown and at maturity deep vinous red and conspicuously venulose, those of the outer row broadly ovate, rounded or pointed at apex, reflexed at maturity above the middle and 2 or 3 times longer than the sepals, those of the inner row pointed, erect, their base concave, glandular, nectariferous, markedby a broad band of a lighter color.Fruitattached obliquely to the enlarged torus, oblong, nearly cylindric, rounded or sometimes slightly pointed at the ends, more or less falcate, often irregular from the imperfect development of some of the seeds, 3′—5′ long, 1′—1½′ in diameter, greenish-yellow, becoming when fully ripe in September and October dark brown or almost black, with pale yellow or nearly white barely edible flesh on some plants and on others with orange-colored succulent flesh;seedsseparating readily from the aril, 1′ long, ½′ broad, rounded at the ends.
A shrub or low tree, sometimes 35°—40° high, with a straight trunk rarely exceeding a foot in diameter, small spreading branches, and slender glabrous or rusty pubescent, light brown branchlets tinged with red and marked by longitudinal parallel or reticulate narrow shallow grooves.Winter-budsacuminate, flattened, ⅛′ long, and clothed with rusty brown hairs.Barkrarely more than ⅛′ thick, dark brown, marked by large ash-colored blotches, covered by small wart-like excrescences and divided by numerous shallow reticulate depressions.Woodlight, soft and weak, coarse-grained, spongy, light yellow shaded with green, with thin darker colored sapwood of 12—20 layers of annual growth. The inner bark stripped from the branches in early spring is used by fishermen of western rivers for stringing fish. The sweet and luscious wholesome fruit is sold in large quantities in the cities and towns in those parts of the country where the tree grows naturally.
Distribution.Deep rich moist soil; western New Jersey and western New York (Greece, Monroe County) to the northern shores of Lake Ontario, westward to southern Michigan, southwestern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma, and southward to Western Florida (Taylor County), central Alabama, and through Mississippi and Louisiana to eastern Texas (near Marshall, Harrison County, and Dennison, Grayson County); comparatively rare in the region adjacent to the Atlantic seaboard; very common in the Mississippi valley, forming thick forest undergrowth on rich bottom-lands, or thickets many acres in extent.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states, and hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts; interesting as the most northern representative of the Custard-apple family and its only species extending far beyond the tropics.
Trees or shrubs, with glandular often reticulated bark, terete branchlets marked by conspicuous leaf-scars, and often pubescent during their first season. Leaves coriaceous, oftenglandular-punctate, persistent or tardily deciduous. Flowers nodding on bracted pedicels; calyx small, 3-lobed, green, deciduous; petals 6 in 2 series, valvate in the bud, hypogynous, sessile, ovate, concave, 3-angled at apex, thick and fleshy, white or yellow, the exterior alternate with the lobes of the calyx, those of the inner row often much smaller than those of the outer row; stamens club-shaped, densely packed on the receptacle; filaments shorter than the fleshy connective; anther-cells confluent; pistils sessile on the receptacle, free or united; ovary 1-celled; style sessile or slightly stipitate, oblong, stigmatic on the inner face; ovule 1, erect; raphe ventral. Fruit compound, many-celled, fleshy, ovoid or globose, many-seeded. Seeds ovoid to ellipsoidal; cotyledons appressed.
Of the fifty species of Anona widely distributed in the tropics of the two worlds, a single species reaches the coast of southern Florida. Of exotic species,Anona muricataL., the Soursop andAnona reticulataL., of the West Indies, andAnona CherimoliaMill., of western tropical America, are now occasionally cultivated as fruit-trees in Florida.
Anonais the name given by early authors to the Soursop.
Anona palustrisSmall, not L.
Fig. 320
Leaveselliptic or oblong, acute, tapering or rounded at base, bright green on the upper, paler on the lower surface, coriaceous, 3′—5′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, with a prominent midrib; deciduous late in the winter; petioles, stout ½′ in length.Flowersnodding on short stout pedicels thickened at the ends, opening in April from an ovoid 3-angled bud; divisions of the calyx broad-ovate, acute; petals connivent, acute, concave, pale yellow or dirty white, those of the outer row marked on the inner surface near the base by a bright red spot, and broader and somewhat longer than those of the inner row.Fruitripening in November, broadly ovate, truncate or depressed at base, rounded at apex, 3′—5′ long, 2′—3½′ broad, light green when fully grown, becoming yellow and often marked by numerous dark brown blotches when fully ripe, with a thick elongate fibrous torus and light green slightly aromatic insipid flesh of no comestible value;seeds½′ long, slightly obovoid, turgid, rounded at the ends, their margins contracted into a narrow wing formed by the thickening of the outer coat.
A tree, 40°—50° high, with a short trunk often 18′ in diameter above the swell of the thickened tapering base sometimes enlarged into spreading buttresses, stout wide-spreading often contorted branches, slender branchlets brown or yellow during their first season, becomingin their second year brown and marked by small scattered wart-like excrescences.Bark⅛′ thick, dark reddish brown, divided by broad shallow fissures, separating on the surface into numerous small scales.Woodlight, soft, not strong, light brown streaked with yellow.
Distribution.Florida: Indian River on the east coast, and the shores of the Manatee River on the west coast to the southern Keys; in shallow fresh water ponds, on swampy hummocks, or on the borders of fresh water streams flowing from the everglades; of its largest size on the shores of Bay Biscayne near the Miami River, growing in the shade of larger trees; forming a pure forest of great extent on the swampy borders of Lake Okechobee; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.
Aromatic trees and shrubs, with slender terete or angled branchlets, naked or scaly buds, and alternate punctate leaves without stipules. Flowers small, perfect or polygamo-diœcious, yellow or greenish; calyx 6-lobed, the lobes in 2 series, imbricated in the bud; corolla 0; stamens 9 or 12, inserted on the base or near the middle of the calyx in 3 or 4 series of 3’s, distinct; anthers 4-celled, superposed in pairs, opening from below upward by persistent lids; ovary 1-celled; stigma discoid or capitate; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell, anatropous. Fruit a 1-seeded berry; seed without albumen; testa thin and membranaceous, of 2 coats; embryo erect; cotyledons thick and fleshy; radicle superior, turned toward the hilum, included between thick and fleshy cotyledons. The Laurel family with about forty genera, confined mostly to the tropics, is represented in North America by seven genera; of these five are arborescent.
Trees, with naked buds. Leaves revolute in the bud, alternate, scattered, penniveined, subcoriaceous, rigid, tomentose or rarely glabrous, persistent. Flowers perfect, vernal, in short axillary or axillary and terminal panicles on slender peduncles from axils of the leaves of the year, pedicellate, their pedicels bibracteolate near the middle, the lateral flowers of the ultimate divisions of the inflorescence in the axils of small deciduous lanceolate acute bracts; calyx campanulate, divided nearly to the base into 6 lobes, those of the outer series shorter than the others, deciduous, or enlarged and persistent under the fruit; stamens about as long as the inner lobes of the calyx; filaments flattened, longer than the anthers, hirsute, those of the third series furnished near the base with 2 nearly sessile orange-colored glands rounded on the back and slightly 2-lobed on the inner face; anthers ovoid, flattened, erect, those of the outer series introrse or subintrorse, those of the third series extrorse or laterally dehiscent, the upper cells rather larger than the lower; staminodes large, sagittate, stipitate, 2-lobed on the inner face, beaded at apex; ovary sessile, subglobose, glabrous, narrowed into a slender simple style gradually enlarged at apex into adiscoid obscurely 2-lobed stigma. Fruit ripening in the autumn, oblong-obovoid to subglobose, more or less fleshy. Seed globose, pendulous, without albumen; testa thin and membranaceous, separable into 2 coats, the outer cartilaginous, grayish brown, the inner gray or nearly white, closely adherent to the thick dark red cotyledons.
About one hundred species of Persea are distinguished. They are distributed in the New World, from the coast region of the southeastern United States and Texas to Brazil and Chile, and occur in the Canary Islands and in tropical and subtropical Asia.Persea americanaMill., the Avocado or Alligator Pear, a native of the Antilles and cultivated for its edible fruit in all tropical countries, is now sparingly naturalized in southern Florida. Many species yield hard dark-colored handsome wood valued in cabinet-making.
Perseawas the classical name of a tree of the Orient, transferred by Plumier to one of the tropical species of this genus.
Fig. 321
Leavesoblong to oblong-lanceolate, entire, often slightly contracted into a long point rounded at apex, gradually narrowed below, when they unfold thin, pilose, and tinged with red, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, bright green and lustrous above, pale and glaucous below, 3′—4′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide, with thickened revolute margins, a narrow orange-colored midrib, remote obscure primary veins arcuate near the margins, and thin closely reticulated veinlets; unfolding early in the spring, gradually turning yellow a year later, and falling during their second spring and summer; petioles stout, rigid, red-brown, ½′—⅔′ in length, flattened and somewhat grooved on the upper side, in falling leaving small circular leaf-scars displaying the end of a single fibro-vascular bundle.Flowers: peduncles glabrous, ½′—1′ in length; calyx pale yellow or creamy white, about ⅛′ long, with thin lobesciliate on the margins, the outer broadly ovate, rounded and minutely apiculate, puberulous, about half as long as the oblong-lanceolate acute lobes of the inner series covered within by long pale hairs.Fruit½′ long, dark blue or nearly black, very lustrous; flesh thin and dry, not readily separable from the ovoid slightly pointedseed.
A tree, 60°—70° high, with a trunk 2½°—3° in diameter, stout erect branches forming a dense shapely head, thick fleshy yellow roots, and branchlets many-angled, light brown, glabrous or coated with pale or rufous pubescence when they first appear, becoming in their second year terete and dark green; usually much smaller.Winter-budscoated with thick rufous tomentum, ¼′ long.Bark½′—¾′ thick, dark red, deeply furrowed and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into small thick appressed scales.Woodheavy, hard, very strong, rather brittle, close-grained, bright red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 4 or 5 layers of annual growth; occasionally used for cabinet-making, the interior finish of houses, and formerly in ship and boat-building.
Distribution.Borders of streams and swamps in rich moist soil, or occasionally in dry sandy loam in forests of the Long-leaved Pine; southern Delaware (Cypress swamp near Dogsboro, Sussex County, testeNuttall); coast region from Virginia to the shores of Bay Biscayne and Cape Romano, Florida, along the Gulf coast to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, and northward through Louisiana to southern Arkansas.
Persea pubescensSarg.
Fig. 322
Leaveselliptic or lanceolate, entire, often narrowed toward the apex into a long point, gradually narrowed at base, when they unfold dark red, thin and tomentose, at maturity pale green and lustrous above, pale and pubescent and rusty-tomentose on the midrib and primary veins below, 4′—6′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide, with thick conspicuous veins and slightly revolute margins; persistent until after the beginning of their second year and then turning yellow and falling gradually; petioles stout, rusty-tomentose, ½′—¾′ in length.Flowers: peduncles tomentose, 2′—3′ in length; calyx pale yellow or creamy white, often nearly ¼′ long, with thick firm lobes coated on the outer surface with rusty tomentum, those of the outer series broadly ovate, abruptly pointed at apex, pubescent on the inner surface, about half as long as the ovate lanceolate lobes of the inner series slightly thickened at the apex and hairy within.Fruitnearly black, ¾′ long.
A slender tree, occasionally 30°—40° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding a foot in diameter,and stout branchlets terete or slightly angled while young, coated when they first appear with rusty tomentum reduced in their second season to fine pubescence persistent until the end of their second or third year.Barkrarely exceeding ¼′ in thickness, dull brown, irregularly divided by shallow fissures, the surface separating into thick appressed scales.Woodheavy, soft, strong, close-grained, orange color streaked with brown, with thick light brown or gray sapwood of 36—40 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Pine-barren swamps, often almost to the exclusion of other plants, usually in the neighborhood of the coast from southeastern Virginia (Dismal Swamp) to the valley of the Caloosahatchee River and the Everglades Keys, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi; extending inland to the neighborhood of Wilmington, North Carolina, Aiken, South Carolina, western Georgia (Meriwether County), the interior of the Florida peninsula and to Autauga, Chilton and Tuscaloosa Counties, Alabama (R. H. Harper).
Leaves scattered, alternate or rarely subopposite, penniveined, coriaceous, rigid, glabrous or more or less covered with pubescence. Flowers glabrous or tomentose on slender bibracteolate pedicels from the axils of lanceolate acute minute bracts, in cymose clusters in axillary or subterminal stalked panicles; calyx-tube campanulate, the 6 lobes of the limb nearly equal, deciduous; stamens of the inner series reduced to linear staminodes, with minute abortive anthers; filaments inserted on the tube of the calyx, those of the outer series opposite its exterior lobes, shorter or sometimes rather longer than the anthers, glabrous or hirsute, furnished in the third series near the base with two conspicuous globose stalked yellow glands; anthers oblong, flattened, 4-celled, introrse in the 2 outer series, extrorse, subextrorse, or very rarely introrse in the third series, in the pistillate flower rudimentary and sterile; ovary ovoid, glabrous, more or less immersed in the tube of the calyx, gradually narrowed into a short erect style dilated at apex into a capitate obscurely lobed stigma; in the staminate flower linear-lanceolate, effete or minute, sometimes 0; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit nearly inclosed while young in the thickened tube of the calyx, exserted at maturity, surrounded at base by the cup-like truncate or slightly lobed calyx-tube; pericarp thin and fleshy. Seed ovoid, pendulous; testa thin, membranaceous.
Ocotea with nearly two hundred species is confined principally to the tropical region of the New World from southern Florida to Brazil and Peru, with Old World representatives in the Canary Islands, South Africa, and the Mascarene Islands. One species grows naturally in Florida.
Ocotea produces hard, strong, durable, beautifully colored wood often employed in cabinet-making.
The name is derived from the native name of one of the species of Guiana.
Fig. 323
Leavesoblong-lanceolate, entire, slightly contracted above into a long point rounded at apex, when they unfold thin, membranaceous, light green tinged with red, and sometimes puberulous on the lower surface, at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, pale below, 3′—6′ long, 1′—2′ wide, with thickened slightly revolute margins, a broad stout midrib, slender remote primary veins arcuate and united near the margins and connected by coarsely reticulate conspicuous veinlets; petioles broad, flat, ⅓′—½′ in length.Flowersperfect, appearing in early summer in elongated panicles, their peduncles slender, glabrous, light red, solitary or 2 or 3 together from the axils of the leaves of the year or from those of the previous year, and 3′—4′ long; calyx nearly ¼′ across when expanded, puberulous on the outer surface, hoary pubescent on the inner surface and on the margins of the lobes, about twice as long as the stamens; filaments of the 2 outer series slightly hirsute at the base and shorter than their introrse anthers; filaments of the third series as long or longer than their extrorse anthers.Fruitripening in the autumn, ovoidor subglobose, ⅔′ long, lustrous, dark blue or nearly black, the thickened cup-like tube of the calyx truncate or obscurely lobed and bright red like the thickened pedicels; flesh thin and dry;seedwith a thin brittle red-brown coat, the inner layer lustrous on the inner surface and marked by broad light-colored veins radiating from the small hilum; embryo ⅓′ long, light red-brown.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 18′ in diameter, slender spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and thin terete branchlets glabrous and dark reddish brown when they first appear, soon becoming lighter colored, and in their second year light brown or gray tinged with red and often marked by minute pale lenticels, and in their second or third year by small semiorbicular leaf-scars, displaying a single central fibro-vascular bundle-scar.Barkabout ⅛′ thick, dark reddish brown, and roughened on the otherwise smooth surface by numerous small excrescences.Woodheavy, hard, close-grained, rich dark brown, with thick bright yellow sapwood of 20—30 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Shores and islands of Florida south of Cape Canaveral on the east coast and of Cape Romano on the west coast; comparatively common except on some of the western keys, and most abundant and of its largest size in the rich wooded hummocks adjacent to Bay Biscayne; in the Bahamas.
A pungent aromatic tree, with dark brown scaly bark, slender terete branchlets marked in their second and third years by small semicircular or nearly triangular elevated leaf-scars displaying a horizontal row of minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars, naked buds, and thick fleshy brown roots. Leaves alternate, involute in the bud, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or rounded at the narrow apex, cuneate or somewhat rounded at base, entire with thickened slightly revolute margins, petiolate, coated when they appear on the lower surface with pale soft pubescence and puberulous on the upper surface, at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, dull and paler below, with a slender light yellow midrib, and remote, obscure, arcuate veins more or less united near the margins, and connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets. Flowers perfect in axillary stalked many-flowered umbels, inclosed in the bud by an involucre of 5 or 6 imbricated broadly ovate or obovate pointed concave yellow caducous scales, the latest umbels subsessile at the base of terminal leaf-buds; pedicels slender, puberulous, without bractlets, from the axils of obovate membranaceouspuberulous deciduous bracts decreasing in size from the outer to the inner; calyx divided almost to the base into 6 nearly equal broadly obovate rounded pale yellow lobes spreading and reflexed after anthesis; stamens inserted on the short slightly thickened tube of the calyx; filaments flat, glabrous, pale yellow, rather shorter than the anthers, those of the third series furnished near the base with 2 conspicuous stipitate orange-colored orbicular flattened glands; anthers oblong, flattened, light yellow, those of the first and second series introrse, those of the third series extrorse; stamens of the fourth series reduced to minute ovate acute yellow staminodes; ovary sessile, ovoid, often more or less gibbous, glabrous, abruptly contracted into a stout columnar style rather shorter than the lobes of the calyx and crowned by a simple capitate discoid stigma. Fruit ovoid, surrounded at base by the enlarged and thickened truncate or lobed tube of the calyx, yellow-green sometimes more or less tinged with purple; pericarp thin and fleshy. Seed ovoid, light brown; testa separable into 2 coats, the outer thick, hard, and woody, the inner thin and papery, closely investing the embryo, chestnut-brown and lustrous on the inner surface.
Umbellularia consists of a single species.
The generic name, a diminutive ofumbella, relates to the character of the inflorescence.
Fig. 324
Leaves2′—5′ long, ½′—1½′ wide, unfolding in winter or early in the spring and continuing to appear as the branches lengthen until late in the autumn; beginning to fade during the summer, turning to a beautiful yellow or orange color and falling one by one during their second season, or often remaining on the branches until the sixth year; petioles1/10′—⅕′ in length.Flowersappearing in January before the unfolding of the young leaves, the umbels on peduncles sometimes 1′ in length.Fruitabout 1′ long, in clusters of 2 or 3, on elongated thickened pedicels, persistent on the branch after the fruit ripens and falls late in the autumn;seedsgerminating soon after they reach the ground, the fruit remaining below the surface of the soil and attached to the young plant until midsummer.
A tree, usually 20°—75°, occasionally 100°—175° high, with a trunk 3°—6° in diameter, sometimes tall and straight but usually divided near the ground into several large diverging stems, stout spreading or rarely pendulous (var.pendulaRedh.) branches forming a broad round-topped head, and branchlets light green and coated with soft pale pubescence when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous and yellow-green, and in their second and third years light brown tinged with red; at high altitudes, and in southern California much smaller; often reduced to a large or small shrub, or on bluffs facing the ocean to broad matsof prostrate stems.Bark¾′—1′ thick, dark brown tinged with red, separating on the surface into thin appressed scales.Woodheavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light rich brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood of 30—40 layers of annual growth; the most valuable wood produced in the forests of Pacific North America for the interior finish of houses and for furniture. The leaves yield by distillation a pungent volatile oil, and from the fruit a fat containing umbellulic acid has been obtained.
Distribution.Valley of Coos River, Oregon, southward through the California coast ranges and along the high western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the southern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains up to altitudes of 2500°; usually near the banks of water-courses and sometimes on low hills; common where it can obtain an abundant supply of water; most abundant and of its largest size in the rich valleys of southwestern Oregon, forming with the Broad-leaved Maple a considerable part of the forest growth.
PseudosassafrasH. Lec.
Aromatic trees, with thick deeply furrowed dark red-brown bark, scaly buds, slender light green lustrous brittle branchlets containing a thick white mucilaginous pith and marked by small semiorbicular elevated leaf-scars displaying a single horizontal row of minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and stout spongy stoloniferous roots covered by thick yellow bark. Flower-bearing buds terminal, ovoid, acute, with 9 or 10 imbricated scales increasing in size from without inward, the 3 outer scales ovate, rounded, often apiculate at apex, keeled and thickened on the back, pale yellow-green below, dull yellow-brown above the middle, loosely imbricated, slightly or not at all accrescent, deciduous at the opening of the bud, much smaller than the thin accrescent light yellow-green scales of the next rows turning dull red before falling, and obovate, rounded at apex, cuneate below, concave, coated on the outer surface with soft silky pubescence, glabrous or lustrous on the inner surface, reflexed, ¾′ long, nearly ½′ broad, tardily deciduous, the 2 inner scales foliaceous, lanceolate, acute, light green, coated on the outer surface with delicate pale hairs, glabrous on the inner surface, infolding the leaves; sterile and axillary buds much smaller. Leaves involute in the bud, ovate or obovate, entire or often 1—3-lobed at apex, the lobes broadly ovate, acute, divided by deep broad sinuses, gradually narrowed at base into elongated slender petioles, feather-veined, with alternate veins arcuate and united or running to the points of the lobes, the lowest parallel with the margins, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, mucilaginous, deciduous. Flowers opening in early spring with the first unfolding of the leaves, the males and females usually on different individuals, in lax drooping few-flowered racemes in the axils of large obovate bud-scales, their pedicels slender, rarely forked and 2-flowered, without bracts, pilose, from the axils of linear acute scarious hairy deciduous bracts, or that of the terminal flower often without a bract; calyx pale yellow-green, divided nearly to the base into narrow obovate concave lobes spreading or reflexed after anthesis, glabrous or pubescent on the inner surface, those of the inner row a little larger than the others; stamens in the American species 9, in the Asiatic 12 with those of the inner series reduced to staminodes, inserted on the somewhat thickened margin of the shallow concave calyx-tube, those of the outer series opposite its outer lobes; filaments flattened, elongated, light yellow, those of the inner series furnished at base with 2 conspicuous orange-colored stipitate glands rounded on the back, obscurely lobed on the inner face, in the Asiatic species alternating with 3 staminodes; anthers introrse, oblong, flattened, truncate or emarginate at apex, 4-celled, 2-celled in the Formosan species, orange-colored, in the female flower reduced to flattened ovate pointed or slightly 2-lobed dark orange-colored stipitate staminodes, 6 in 2 rows in the American species and 12 similar to the stamens and staminodes of the staminate flower in the Asiatic species; or occasionally fertile and similar to or a little smaller than those of the staminate flower; ovary ovoid, light green, glabrous, nearly sessile in the short tube of the calyx, narrowed into an elongated simple style gradually enlarged above into a capitate oblique obscurely lobed stigma; in the staminate flower 0 in the American species,present, usually abortive, rarely fertile in the Asiatic species. Fruit an oblong dark blue or black lustrous berry surrounded at base by the enlarged and thickened obscurely 6-lobed or truncate scarlet or orange-red limb of the calyx, raised on a much elongated scarlet stalk thickened above the middle; pericarp thin and fleshy. Seed oblong, pointed, light brown; testa thin, membranaceous, barely separable into 2 coats, the inner coat much thinner than the outer, dark chestnut-brown, and lustrous.
Sassafras is confined to temperate eastern North America, central China and to Formosa whereSassafras tzumuHemsl. andS. randaienseRehd. occur.
Sassafraswas first used as a popular name for this tree by the French in Florida.
Sassafras SassafrasKarst.
Fig. 325
Leaves4′—6′ long, 2′—4′ wide, densely pubescent when they first appear, pubescent or puberulous below at maturity especially on the midrib and veins; turning in the autumn delicate shades of yellow or orange more or less tinged with red; petioles ¾′—1½′ in length.Flowers⅓′ long when fully expanded glabrous on the inner surface of the perianth, in racemes about 2′ in length, stamens 9.Fruitripening in September and October, blue, ⅓′ long, on stalks 1½′—2′ in length, separating when ripe from the thick scarlet calyx-lobes persistent with the stalks of the fruit on the branches until the beginning of winter.
A tree, occasionally 80°—90° high, with a trunk nearly 6° in diameter, short stout more or less contorted branches spreading almost at right angles and forming a narrow usually flat-topped head, and slender branchlets light yellow-green and coated when they first appear with pale pubescence, becoming glabrous, bright green and lustrous, gradually turning reddish brown at the end of two or three years; frequently not more than 40°—50° tall; at the north and in Florida generally smaller and often shrubby.Winter-buds¼′—⅜′ long.Barkof young stems and branches thin, reddish brown divided by shallow fissures, becoming on old trunks sometimes 1½′ thick, dark red-brown, and deeply and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into thick appressed scales.Woodsoft, weak, brittle, coarse-grained, very durable in the soil, aromatic, dull orange-brown, with thin light yellow sapwood of 7 or 8 layers of annual growth; largely used for fence-posts and rails, in the construction of light boats, ox-yokes, and in cooperage. The roots and especially their bark are a mild aromatic stimulant, and oil of sassafras, used to perfume soap and other articles, is distilled from them. Gumbo filet, a powder prepared from the leaves bythe Choctaw Indians of Louisiana, gives flavor and consistency to gumbo soup. Passing into the var.albidumBlake, with glabrous or nearly glabrous young leaves, glabrous often glaucous young branchlets, and lighter colored less valuable wood; uplands of western New England to the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
Distribution.Usually in rich sandy well-drained soil, southern Maine and eastern Massachusetts, through southern Vermont to southern Ontario, central Michigan, and southeastern Iowa to eastern Kansas and Oklahoma, and southward to central Florida (Orange County) and the valley of the Brazos River, Texas; ascending on the southern Appalachian Mountains to altitudes of 4000°; in the south Atlantic and Gulf states often taking possession of abandoned fields.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states as an ornamental tree.
Trees with terete branchlets. Leaves coriaceous, persistent. Flowers perfect, minute, on slender pedicels, in terminal or axillary cymose panicles; peduncles and pedicels from the axils of acuminate caducous bracts and bractlets; perianth fleshy, ovoid or obovoid, 6-toothed; stamens 9, inserted near the middle of the perianth, those of the outer rank united into a fleshy column, furnished at base with three pairs of glands, inclosing the pistil and slightly longer than the perianth, those of the inner ranks, sterile, short or obsolete; anthers extrorse, 2-celled, the cells united; ovary gradually narrowed into a thick style as long as the staminal tube; stigma capitate. Fruit baccate, olive-shaped, surrounded at base by the enlarged ligneous capsular perianth of the flower much thickened on the margin; pericarp thin and fleshy; endocarp thin, crustaceous; seed filling the cavity of the fruit; testa thin, crustaceous; hilum minute, apical; cotyledons plano-convex, fleshy; radicle superior, minute.
Of the three species of the genus now known one occurs in southern Florida and Cuba, and the others in tropical Mexico.
The name of the genus is derived from the name of the tree, Palo Misanteca at Misantha, near the coast of the state of Vera Cruz where the type species was discovered.
Fig. 326
Leaveselliptic-lanceolate, ovate or broad-elliptic, entire, abruptly long-pointed and acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed and acuminate at base, deeply tinged with red andvillose on the under side of the midrib when they unfold, soon glabrous, and at maturity dark green and lustrous above, pale below, 3′—4′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, with slightly undulate margins, a prominent midrib, slender primary veins, and reticulate veinlets conspicuous on the lower surface; petioles stout, narrow wing-margined at apex, pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous, ⅓′—½′ in length.Flowersglabrous or puberulous, purplish, about1/12′ long, in 3—5-flowered cymes on slender peduncles, in pubescent panicles shorter than the leaves; tube of the perianth funnel-form, the lobes equal, triangular, acute; column of stamens pilose; ovary glabrous.Fruitin few-fruited clusters on much elongated and thickened peduncles, ellipsoidal or slightly ovoid, acute, dark blue, ⅘′ long and ⅗′ thick; cupule light red, thickened and verrucose, acute at base, the margin reflexed, thin and entire on the inner edge, thick and crenulate on the outer edge; seed ellipsoidal, pointed at apex, rounded at base, light brown, slightly ridged when dry.
A tree in Florida 40°—50° high, with a tall trunk 15′—20′ in diameter, small spreading and pendent branches forming a broad round-topped head, and slender red branchlets pubescent when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, and marked by numerous large pale lenticels.
Rich hummocks between Miami and Homestead, Dade County, Florida; in Cuba and Jamaica.
Annual or perennial herbs, trees, or shrubs, with acrid often pungent juices, alternate or rarely opposite leaves, regular or irregular usually perfect flowers in terminal cymes or racemes or solitary, numerous ovules inserted in two rows on each of the two placentas, capsular or baccate 1-celled fruit, and seeds without albumen. A family of thirty-four genera, mostly confined to the warmer parts of the world and widely distributed in the two hemispheres. Of the seven genera which occur in North America only one has an arborescent representative.
Trees, with naked buds. Leaves conduplicate in the bud, entire, feather-veined, coriaceous, persistent, without stipules. Flowers regular, in terminal cymes; sepals 4, valvate in the bud, glandular on the inner surface; petals 4, inserted on the base of the short receptacle; stamens numerous, inserted on the receptacle, their filaments free, elongated, much longer than the introrse 2-celled anthers opening longitudinally; ovary long-stalked, 2-celled, with 2 parietal placentas; stigmas sessile, orbicular; ovules campylotropous. Fruit baccate, siliquiform (in the North American species) separating into 3 or 4 valves. Seeds reniform, numerous, surrounded by pulp; seed-coat coriaceous; embryo convolute; cotyledons foliaceous, fleshy.
Capparis, with more than one hundred species, mostly tropical, is found in the two hemispheres, the largest number of species occurring in Central and South America. Two of the West Indian species reach the shores of southern Florida, the most northern station of the genus in America; of these one is arborescent.
Capparis, fromκάππαρις, the classical name ofCapparis spinosaL., is derived from the Persiankabor, capers, the dried flower-buds of that species.
Fig. 327
Leavesoblong-lanceolate, rounded and emarginate at apex, slightly revolute, coriaceous, light yellow-green, smooth and lustrous on the upper surface, covered on the lower by minute ferrugineous scales, 2′—3′ long, 1′—1½′ wide, with a prominent midrib and inconspicuous primary veins; petioles stout covered at first with ferrugineous scales often becoming nearly glabrous, ⅓′—½′ in length.Flowers1¼′ in diameter, opening in Florida in April and May from obtuse or acute, 4-angled buds; sepals ovate, acute, lepidote on the outer surface, furnished on the inner with a small ovate gland, recurved when the flower isfully expanded, and about half the size of the round white petals turning purple in fading; stamens 20—30, with purple filaments villose toward the base, 1½′—2′ long; anthers yellow; ovary raised on a slender stipe about 1½′ in length.Fruit9′—12′ long, terete, sometimes slightly torulose, pubescent-lepidote, the long stalk appearing jointed by the enlargement of the pedicel and torus below the insertion of the stipe;seedlight brown, 1¼′ long.
A small slender shrubby tree, 18°—20° high, with a trunk sometimes 5′—6′ in diameter, and thin angled branchlets dark gray, smooth or slightly rugose, and covered with minute ferrugineous scales.Barkrarely more than ⅛′ thick, slightly fissured, the dark red-brown surface broken into small irregularly shaped divisions.Woodheavy, hard, close-grained, yellow faintly tinged with red, with lighter colored sapwood of about 15 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Coast of Florida; Cape Canaveral and Cape Sable to the southern keys; generally distributed, but nowhere abundant; common on several of the Antilles.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, slender terete branchlets, naked or scaly buds, and fibrous roots. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate, deciduous. Flowers perfect or unisexual; calyx 4-parted or 0; petals 4 or 0; stamens 4—8; anthers attached at the base, introrse, 2-celled; ovary inserted in the bottom of the receptacle, 2-celled; ovules 1 or many, anatropous, suspended from an axile placenta; micropyle superior; raphe ventral. Fruit a woody capsule opening at the summit. Seed usually 1; embryo surrounded by fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, flat, longer than the terete radicle turned toward the hilum. The Witch Hazel family with twenty genera is confined to eastern North America, southwestern, southern, and eastern Asia, the Malay Archipelago, Madagascar, and South Africa. Of the three North American genera two are arborescent.
Trees, with balsamic juices, scaly bark, terete often winged branchlets, scaly buds, and fibrous roots. Leaves plicate in the bud, alternate, palmately lobed, glandular-serrate, long-petiolate; stipules lanceolate, acute, caducous. Flowers monœcious or rarely perfect in capitate heads surrounded by an involucre of 4 deciduous bracts, the staminate in terminal racemes, the pistillate in solitary long-stalked heads from the axils of upper leaves; staminate flowers without a calyx and corolla; stamens indefinite, interspersed with minute scales; filaments filiform, shorter than the oblong obcordate anthers opening longitudinally; pistillate flowers surrounded by long-awned scales, the whole confluent into a globular head; calyx obconic, its limb short or nearly obsolete; stamens usually 4, inserted on the summit of the calyx; anthers minute, usually rudimentary or abortive, rarely fertile; ovary partly inferior, of 2 united carpels terminating in elongated subulate recurved persistent styles stigmatic on the inner face; ovules numerous. Capsules armed with the hardened incurved elongated styles free above, septicidally dehiscent, consolidated by their base into a globose head; pericarp thick and woody; endocarp thin, corneous, lustrous on the inner surface. Seeds usually solitary or 2 by the abortion of many ovules, compressed, angulate; seed-coat opaque, crustaceous, produced into a short membranaceous obovate terminal wing rounded at the oblique apex.
Liquidambar with about four species is confined to the eastern United States, southern and central Mexico, Central America, southwestern Asia, middle and southeastern China, and Formosa. Liquid storax, an opaque grayish brown resin, is derived fromLiquidambar orientalisMill., a native of Asia Minor.
Liquidambar fromliquidusandambarin allusion to the fragrant juices.