Fig. 771
Leavesunfolding in March, 5′—8′ long, 3′—4′ wide; petioles ⅔′—1½′ in length.Flowers1½′ long appearing late in May and early in June, in open clusters 7′—8′ across, their petaloid calyx-lobes sometimes 2½′ long and ½′ wide.Fruitripening in the autumn 1′ long and ⅔′ wide;seedswith their wings about ½′ long and ⅓′ wide.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk occasionally 8′—10′ in diameter, slender spreading branches forming usually a narrow round-topped head, and branchlets coated when they first appear with hoary tomentum soon turning light red-brown, pubescent during the summer, and slightly puberulous during their first winter, ultimately becoming glabrous.Winter-buds: terminal ovoid, terete, ½′ long, contracted above the middle into a slender point, and covered by the dark red-brown lanceolate acute stipules of the last pair of leaves of the previous year, often persistent at the base of the growing shoots and marked at the base by 2 broadly ovate pale scar-like slightly pilose elevations; axillary buds obtuse, minute, nearly immersed in the bark.Barkof the trunk about ¼′ thick, with a light brown surface divided into minute appressed scales.Woodclose-grained, soft, weak, brown, with lighter-colored sapwood of 8—10 layers of annual growth. The bark has been used in the treatment of intermittent fevers.
Distribution.Low wet sandy swamps on the borders of streams; coast region of South Carolina through southern Georgia and northern Florida to the valley of the lower Apalachicola River; rare and local.
Trees or shrubs, with terete branchlets, and bitter bark. Leaves sessile or petiolate, persistent; stipules interpetiolar, deciduous. Flowers axillary and solitary or in terminal pedunculate cymes, fragrant, the peduncle bibracteolate above the middle; calyx-tube ovoid, clavate or turbinate, the limb short, 5-lobed, the lobes nearly triangular, persistent; corolla 5-lobed, white, salver-form, the tube long and narrow, erect, the lobes of the limb linear, elongated, spreading, imbricated in the bud; filaments filiform, exserted, united at base into a tube inserted on and adnate to the tube of the corolla; anthers oblong-linear; ovary 2-celled; style elongated, slender, exserted; stigma capitate, simple or minutely 2-lobed; ovules numerous, attached on the 2 sides of a fleshy oblong peltate placenta fixed to the inner face of the cell, ascending. Fruit a many-seeded 2-celled capsule septicidally 2-valved, the valves 2-parted, their outer layer membranaceous, separable from the crustaceous inner layer. Seeds compressed, oblong, imbricated downward on the placenta; seed-coat chestnut-brown, lustrous, produced into a narrow wing; embryo minute, in fleshy albumen; cotyledons flat; radicle terete, inferior.
Exostema with about twenty species is confined to the tropics of America, and is most abundant in the Antilles, one species reaching the shores of southern Florida. The bark contains active tonic properties, and has been used as a febrifuge.
The generic name, fromἔξωandστῆμα, relates to the long exserted stamens.
Fig. 772
Leavesoblong-ovate to lanceolate, contracted into a slender point and apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, entire, thick and coriaceous, dark green on the upper surface and yellow-green on the lower surface, 1½′—3′ long and ½′—1¼′ wide, with a prominent orange-colored midrib and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; unfolding in the autumn and in early spring and summer, and persistent for 1 or 2 years; petioles slender, orange-colored, ¼′—½′ in length; stipules nearly triangular, apiculate, with entire dentate or ciliate margins, about1/16′ long, and in falling marking the branchlets with ring-like scars.Flowersaxillary, solitary, appearing from March until June, about 3′ long, on slender pedicels spirally twisted before the flowers open; calyx-tube ovoid; corolla glabrous; filaments united into a short tube.Fruit⅔′ long, becoming black in drying;seedsoblong, ⅛′ long, with a dark brown papillose coat and a light brown wing.
A glabrous tree, in Florida sometimes 20°—25° high, with a trunk 10′—12′ in diameter, slender erect branches forming a narrow head, and terete branchlets dark green at first, soon becoming dark red-brown and covered with pale lenticels, and in their second year ashy gray and conspicuously marked by the elevated leaf-scars.Barkof the trunk about ⅛′ thick, and divided by deep fissures into square smooth pale or nearly white plates.Woodvery heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, light brown handsomely streaked with different shades of yellow and brown, with bright yellow sapwood of 12—20 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Florida, shores of Bay Biscayne and on the Everglade Keys, Dade County, and on the southern keys; abundant on Key West and Upper Metacombe Key; on many of the Antilles, in southern Mexico, and on the west coast of Nicaragua.
Small trees or shrubs, with opposite or verticillate petiolate leaves, interpetiolar stipules, and scaly buds. Flowers nectariferous, yellow or creamy white, sessile in the axils of glandular bracts, in dense globose pedunculate terminal or axillary solitary or panicled heads; receptacle globose, setose; calyx-tube obpyramidal, with a short limb unequally 4 or 5-toothed or lobed; corolla tubular salver-form, divided into 4 or 5 short spreading or reflexed lobes usually furnished with a minute dark gland at the base or on the side of each sinus, puberulous on the inner surface of the tube, the lobes imbricated in the bud; stamens inserted on the throat of the corolla; filaments short; anthers linear-oblong, sagittate, apiculate at base; pistil of 2 carpels; ovary 2-celled; style filiform, elongated; stigma clavate, entire; ovule solitary in each cell, suspended from the apex of the cell on a short papillose funicle, anatropous. Fruit obpyramidal, coriaceous, 2-coccous. Seeds oblong, pendulous, covered at apex by a white spongy aril; embryo straight in cartilaginous albumen; cotyledons oblong, obtuse; radicle elongated, superior.
Cephalanthus with seven species is widely distributed in North and South America, and in southern and eastern Asia, and the Malay Archipelago.
The generic name, fromκεφαλήandἄνθος, relates to the capitate inflorescence.
Fig. 773
Leavesovate, lanceolate or elliptic, acute, acuminate or short-pointed at apex, rounded or cuneate at base, thin, dark green on the upper surface, paler and glabrous or puberulous on the lower surface, 2′—7′ long and ½′—3½′ wide, with a stout light yellow midrib often covered below with long white hairs and 5 or 6 pairs of slender primary veins nearly parallel with the sides of the leaf; deciduous, or persistent during the winter; petioles stout, grooved, glabrous, ½′—¾′ in length; stipules minute, nearly triangular.Flowers: flower-heads 1′—1½′ in diameter on slender peduncles 1′—2′ long, usually in panicles 4′—5′ in length, their lower peduncles from the axil of upper leaves; flowers creamy white, very fragrant, opening from the middle of May in Florida and Texas to the middle of August in Canada and on the mountains of California; calyx usually 4 or occasionally 5-lobed, with short rounded lobes, and slightly villose toward the base; corolla glandular or eglandular; anthers nearly sessile, included, discharging their pollen before the flowers open; disk thin and obscure.Fruitripening late in the autumn in heads ⅝′—¾′ in diameter, green tinged with red and ultimately dark red-brown.
A tree, occasionally 40°—50° high, with a straight tapering trunk a foot in diameter, and frequently free of limbs for 15°—20°, ascending and spreading branches, and stout branchlets with a thick pith, glabrous and marked by large oblong pale lenticels, and developed mostly in verticels of 3’s from the axillary buds of one of the upper nodes, without a terminal bud, light green when they first appear, pale reddish brown, covered with a glaucous bloom during their first winter and then marked by small semicircular leaf-scars displaying semilunate fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and connected by the persistent black stipules or by their subulate scars, darker the following season, and dark brown in their third year, the bark then beginning to separate into the large loose scales found on the large branches andon the stems of small plants; usually a shrub, only a few feet high.Winter-budsaxillary, single or in pairs or in 3’s one above the other, minute, nearly immersed in the bark.Barkof large trunks dark gray-brown or often nearly black, divided by deep fissures into broad flat ridges broken on the surface into elongated narrow scales. The bark contains tannin, and has been used in the treatment of fevers and in homœopathic practice.
Distribution.Swamps and the low wet borders of ponds and streams; New Brunswick to Ontario, southern Michigan, southern Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, Kansas and western Oklahoma (near Canton, Blaine County), southward to the shores of Bay Biscayne and the Everglade Keys, Dade County, Florida, eastern Texas to the valley of the Rio Grande, southern New Mexico, and Arizona, and widely distributed in California; in Mexico and Cuba; very rarely arborescent at the north and of its largest size on the margins of river-bottoms and swamps and in pond holes in southern Arkansas and eastern Texas; ascending on the southern Appalachian Mountains to altitudes of 2500°; passing into var.pubescensRafn., with leaves soft pubescent below especially on the midrib and veins, and pubescent petioles, inflorescence and branchlets; southern Indiana, southeastern Missouri, southern Arkansas, western Louisiana and eastern Texas to the valley of the lower Brazos River.
Occasionally cultivated in the northeastern states as an ornamental plant.
Small trees or shrubs, with bitter bark, opposite or rarely verticellate persistent leaves, interpetiolar deciduous stipules, and scaly buds. Flowers sessile or short-pedicellate, with or without bractlets, in axillary forked pedunculate cymes, their bracts and bractlets lanceolate, acute, minute, deciduous; calyx globose, the limb produced above the ovary into an elongated 4—7-lobed tube; corolla salver-shaped, with an elongated cylindric tube naked in the throat, and a 4-lobed limb, the oblong lobes imbricated in the bud; stamens included; filaments free, short; anthers oblong-linear; ovary 4-celled, the cells elongated, tubular; style stout; stigma capitate; ovule solitary, suspended on the thickened funicle from the inner angle of the cell. Fruit a fleshy 1-stoned 2—9-seeded subglobose drupe, with thin flesh, and a bony or ligneous globose 4—9-celled stone obtusely angled or sulcate, the cells narrow and often curved upward. Seed compressed, suspended on the thick funicle closing the orifice of the wall of the stone, straight or excurved; albumen thin and fleshy; embryo elongated, cylindric or compressed; cotyledons flat, minute, not longer than the elongated terete radicle turned toward the hilum.
Guettarda with about fifty species is chiefly tropical American, with one species widely distributed on maritime shores from east tropical Africa to Australia and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Of the species found within the territory of the United States two are arborescent. The bark of some of the species is occasionally employed as a tonic and febrifuge, and a few species are cultivated in tropical gardens for the delightful fragrance of their white flowers.
The generic name is in honor of Jean Étienne Guettard (1715—1786), the distinguished French botanist and mineralogist.
Fig. 774
Leavesbroad-oval to oblong-elliptic, acute or obtuse and apiculate at apex, and cuneate or rounded at base, covered with pale silky hairs when they unfold, and at maturity thin, dark green, pilose or glabrate on the upper surface, lighter colored and pubescent on the lower surface, especially along the stout midrib and in the axils of the 4—6 pairs of primary veins, ¾′—2½′ long and ½′—1′ wide; unfolding in Florida in May and June and persistent on the branches until the trees begin their growth the following year; petioles stout, hairy, ¼′—½′ in length.Flowerspedicellate, appearing in Florida in June, yellowish white, ¼′ long, in slender hairy-stemmed cymes from the axils of leaves of the year near the end of branches, or from bud-scales at base of young shoots, their peduncle shorter than the leaves, forked near the apex, often with a flower in the fork and 3 at the end of each branch, or the lateral flowers of these clusters replaced by branches producing 3 flowers at their apex, the bractlets subtending the branches of the peduncle, and the lateral flowers of the ultimate divisions of the inflorescence linear-lanceolate, acute, coated with hairs, about1/16′ long, deciduous; calyx-lobes nearly triangular, acute, coated on the outer surface with long pale hairs, and half as long as the erect corolla canescent externally, with rounded lobes.Fruitripening in November, dark purple, pilose, ⅓′ in diameter, crowned with the remnants of the persistent calyx-tube, the flesh sweet and mealy; stone obscurely ridged and usually 2—4-seeded;seedsoblong-lanceolate, compressed, nearly straight, with a thin pale coat.
A tree, in Florida occasionally 18°—20° high, with an irregularly buttressed or lobed trunk5′—6′ in diameter, the deep depressions between the lobes continuous or often interrupted, small upright branches, and thin terete branchlets coated when they first appear with long pale or rufous hairs and light red-brown or ashy gray and conspicuously marked by pale lenticels, and in their second year by large elevated orbicular leaf-scars.Winter-budsacuminate, light brown, coated with pale pubescence, and about ⅛′ long.Barkof the trunk about1/16′ thick, with a smooth dark brown surface covered with large irregularly shaped pale blotches and numerous small white spots.Woodheavy, hard, very close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thin sapwood of 6—10 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Florida, coast of the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands and in Jamaica.
Fig. 775
Leavesoval, oblong or ovate, acuminate or rounded and apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed or broad at the rounded or subcordate base, entire, coriaceous, dark green, hispidulose-papillose and scabrate on the upper surface, pale and soft-pubescent on the lower surface, 2′—5′ long and 1¼′—3¼′ wide, with thickened slightly revolute margins, a stout midrib, usually 8—11 pairs of prominent primary veins and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, rusty-pubescent, ⅓′—¾′ in length; stipules concave at base, gradually narrowed above into a long slender point, pubescent, as long as the petioles.Flowersproduced irregularly during the winter and early spring, sessile or short-pedicellate in the axils of acute bracts, in pedunculate cymes on slender rusty-pubescent peduncles 1½′—2′ in length; calyx short-oblong, densely pubescent on the outer surface; corolla often 1′ in length, the slender tube retrorsely silky-villose on the outer surface, the lobes 5—7, usually 5, oblong-obtuse; filaments free, short; anthers oblong-linear, included, style shorter than the tube of the corolla; stigma capitate.Fruitripening in the autumn, subglobose, pubescent, ¼′ in diameter, and crowned by the persistent tube of the calyx; flesh thin and dry; stone slightly angled thick-walled, 4—9-seeded.
A tree, in Florida sometimes 20°—25° high, with a tall trunk 2′—2½′ in diameter, small ascending branches forming an open irregular head, and stout or slender branchlets densely covered during their first season with rufous pubescence, and light reddish brown, slightly pubescent and marked by conspicuous leaf-scars in their second year; often a shrub.
Distribution.Florida, near Miami and on the Everglade Keys, Dade County, and on the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, opposite petiolate leaves involute in the bud, with or without stipules, scaly buds, and fibrous roots. Flowers regular, perfect, with articulated pedicels, in terminal compound cymes; calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, 5-toothed; corolla epigynous, 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud; stamens 5, inserted on the tube of the corolla, as many as and alternate with its lobes; filaments slender, free; anthers oblong, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; disk 0 (in the arborescent genera of the United States); ovary inferior or partly superior, 3—5 or 1-celled; style short, capitate, 3—5-lobed and stigmatic at apex; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell, resupinate; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, crowned with the remnants of the style. Seeds with copious fleshy albumen; seed-coat membranaceous, adherent to the albumen; embryo minute, near the hilum; cotyledons ovoid or ovate; radicle terete, erect.
The Honeysuckle family with ten genera is most abundant in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, with a few species extending into the tropics and to beyond the tropics in the southern hemisphere. Many of the species, especially of Lonicera, Sambucus, and Viburnum, are cultivated in gardens for the beauty of their flowers and fruits.
Trees or shrubs, with stout branches containing thick white or brown pith, and buds with several scales. Leaves petiolate, unequally pinnate, deciduous, with serrate or laciniate leaflets, the base of the petiole naked, glandular or furnished with a stipule-like leaflet; stipels small, leaf-like, usually setaceous, often 0; stipules small, rudimentary, usually 0 except on vigorous shoots. Flowers small, in broad terminal corymbose cymes, their bracts and bractlets lanceolate, acute, scarious, caducous, sometimes ebracteolate; calyx-tube ovoid, the limb 3—5-lobed or toothed; corolla rotate or slightly campanulate, equally 3—5-parted; filaments filiform or subulate; ovary inferior or partly superior, 3—5-celled; style abbreviated, thick and conic, 3—5-lobed, stigmatic at apex. Fruit subglobose, with juicy flesh, and 3—5 oblong cartilaginous punctate-rugulose or smooth 1-seeded nutlets full and rounded on the back and rounded at the ends. Seeds filling the cavity of the nutlets, pale brown; cotyledons ovoid.
Sambucus with about twenty species is widely and generally distributed through the temperate parts of North America, Europe, and Asia, and inhabits high mountain ranges within the tropics, and in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. Of the nine or ten North American species three are arborescent. Sambucus possesses cathartic and emetic properties in the bark; the flowers are excitant and sudorific, and the juice of the fruit is alterative and laxative. The dried flowers of the EuropeanSambucus nigraL., are used in the preparation of an aromatic distilled water and in flavoring lard, and the hard and compact wood is made into combs and mathematical instruments. The large pithy shoots of Sambucus furnish children with pop-guns, pipes, and whistles; and the fruit of some of the species is cooked and eaten.
Sambucus, the name of the Elder-tree, is believed to have been derived fromσαμβύκη, a musical instrument, probably in allusion to the use of the pithy stems.
Fig. 776
Leaves4′—7′ long, 3—7, usually 5-foliolulate, with a glabrous petiole and usually 5 dark yellow-green leaflets, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface with the exception of a few scattered hairs on the midrib, and paler and glabrous on the lower surface, the terminal leaflet obovate or oblong-obovate, short-acuminate at apex, and gradually narrowed at base into a slender petiolule ⅓′—½′ in length, the lateral leaflets broad-elliptic to oblong-elliptic, short-acuminate, broad-cuneate at base, those of the upper pair usually sessile, those of the lower pair on short stalks rarely more than1/12′ long, serrate except at the base with small slightly spreading teeth, 1½′—3′ long and 1½′—2½′ wide.Flowersslightly fragrant, on slender pedicels in convex or sometimes flat cymes 3′—8′ in diameter, with 4 or 5 rays, the terminal ray as long or longer than the lateral rays, rarely shorter; calyx-tube ovoid, the lobes oblong-ovate, acute, about as long as the tube and slightly exceeding the thick conic style; stamens about as long as the white corolla-lobes; ovary usually 5, rarely 4-celled.Fruitsubglobose, dark purplish black, about ¼′ in diameter; nutlets rugose.
A tree, sometimes 15°—18° high, with a trunk often 8′ in diameter, and slightly angled branchlets greenish when they first appear, becoming light yellow-gray and sometimes covered during their second and third years with thick corky excrescences; pith white, on 2 or 3-year-old branches comparatively narrow, occupying only about one-third of the diameter of the stem.
Distribution.Florida, neighborhood of Jacksonville, Duval County, to Eustis, Lake County, Bradentown, Manatee County, and Sanibel Island, Lee County; Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Jackson County; Louisiana, Cameron, Cameron Parish.
Sambucus glaucaNutt.Sambucus neomexicanaWoot.
Fig. 777
Leaves5′—7′ long, with a stout grooved petiole much enlarged and naked or sometimes furnished at the base with leaf-like appendages, and 5—9 ovate or narrow-oblong leaflets contracted at apex into a long point, unequally cuneate or rounded at base, and coarselyserrate with spreading or slightly incurved callous-tipped teeth, the lower leaflets often 3-parted or pinnate, the terminal one sometimes furnished with 1 or 2 lateral stalked leaflets, yellow-green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, covered with scattered pale hairs when they unfold, and at maturity glabrous or soft pubescent beneath (var.velutinaRehd.), thin, rather firm in texture, bright green above and pale below, 1′—6′ long and ⅓′—1½′ wide, with a narrow pale midrib and inconspicuous veins; petiolules slender, those of the lateral leaflets ¼′—½′ and of the terminal leaflet up to 2′ in length; stipels linear, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, rounded or acute at apex, entire or sharply serrate and leaf-like,1/16′—½′ long, caducous, often 0.Flowers⅛′ in diameter, appearing from April in southern California to July in British Columbia, in flat long-branched glabrous or pubescent cymes 4′—10′ wide, with linear acute green caducous bracts and bractlets, the lower branches often from the axils of upper leaves; flower-buds globose, covered with a glaucous bloom, sometimes turning red before opening; calyx ovoid, red-brown, with acute scarious lobes; corolla yellowish white, with oblong divisions rounded at apex, as long as the stamens.Fruitsubglobose, ⅓′ in diameter, black, appearing blue by its thick covering of mealy bloom; flesh rather sweet and juicy.
A tree, 30°—50° high, with a tall straight trunk sometimes enlarged at base and 12′—18′ in diameter, stout spreading branches forming a compact round-topped head, and branchlets usually without a terminal bud, green tinged with red or brown when they first appear, and covered with short white caducous hairs, or densely soft pubescent during their first season (var.velutinaRehd.), stout, slightly angled, covered with lustrous red-brown bark in their first winter and nearly encircled by the large triangular leaf-scars marked by conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars; pith white or rarely brownish; often a broad shrub, with numerous spreading stems.Winter-budsaxillary generally in pairs, superposed or in clusters of 4 or 5, only the upper bud or sometimes the lower usually developing, covered with 2 or 3 pairs of opposite broad-ovate chestnut-brown scales, those of the inner rank accrescent, and at maturity acute, entire, green, 1′ long, and sometimes developing into pinnate leaves 2′—3′ in length.Barkof the trunk deeply and irregularly fissured, the dark brown surface slightly tinged with red and broken into small square appressed scales.Woodlight, soft, weak, coarse-grained, yellow tinged with brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution.Gravelly rather dry soil of valleys and river-bottoms; western Montana (neighborhood of Flathead Lake and Missoula, Missoula County), through Idaho to the coast of British Columbia (Vancouver Island), and southward to the San BernardinoMountains and Santa Catalina Island, California, ascending on the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains to altitudes of 6000°—8000°; Nevada, King’s Cañon, Ormsby County; Utah, Juab, Juab County, and the neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County; Colorado, near Trinidad, Las Animas County; New Mexico, Sacramento Mountains, Otero County; very abundant in the coast region; comparatively rare in the interior; of its largest size in the valleys of western Oregon; northward, and east of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains rarely arborescent; in southern California often with smaller leaves and flower-clusters than northward; the var.velutinarare and local, California, Goose Valley, Shasta County; at altitudes of 6000°—7000° on the Sierra Nevada in Sierra, Madera and Kern Counties, and on Santa Catalina Island; Nevada, on Hunter’s Creek, Washoe County, at an altitude of 6000°.
Occasionally planted as an ornamental plant in the Pacific states, passing into
Sambucus mexicanaSarg., not Presl.
Fig. 778
Differing fromSambucus coeruleain its 3—5, usually 3-foliateleaveswith usually elliptic long-acuminate leaflets glabrous or slightly pubescent when they appear, 1′—3′ long and ½′—1′ wide, their stipels minute or rudimentary, smaller flower-clusters andfruitnot more than ¼′ in diameter.
A tree, often 30° high, with stout spreading branches forming a compact round-topped head, and slender branchlets glabrous or villose pubescent early in the season, usually becoming glabrous.Barkof the trunk about ¼′ thick, the light brown surface tinged with red and broken into long narrow horizontal ridge-like scales.Woodlight, soft, close-grained, light brown, with thin lighter-colored sapwood of 2 or 3 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Banks of streams; Arizona, Grand View Trail, Grand Cañon of the Colorado River and near Flagstaff, Coconino County, Globe, Gila County, and banks of the Rialta near Tucson, Pima County; common; New Mexico, near Silver City, Grant County; southern California (San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura and Kern Counties).
Fig. 779
Leaves6′—10′ long, with a stout slightly grooved petiole and 5—7, usually 5, elliptic finely or coarsely serrate leaflets, acuminate and long-pointed at apex, cuneate and often unsymmetric at base, dark green and glabrous on the upper surface, paler and more or less villose-pubescent on the lower surface, especially along the slender midrib, 2½′—5′ long and ½′—2′wide; petiolules ⅛′—¼′ or that of the terminal leaflet up to 1½′ in length.Flowerson pedicels ⅛′ long, in ovoid to semiorbicular cymes, usually 2½′—3′ long and broad, often somewhat flattened at maturity, on stout peduncles 1½′—3′ in length, about ⅓′ in diameter, with white or yellow slightly obovate petals rounded at apex, and stamens rather shorter than the lobes of the corolla.Fruitabout ½′ in diameter, bright red or rarely chestnut color (f.PiperiSarg.); nutlets smooth.
A tree, occasionally 25°—30° high, with a trunk 10′—12′ in diameter, slender branchlets occasionally puberulous early in the season, becoming glabrous, light brown, separating on the surface into thin scales.
Distribution.River banks in low moist soil, from sea-level in the neighborhood of the coast up to altitudes of 7000°—8000°; coast of Alaska (Skagway), southward along the coast to Marin County, California, and inland to the western slopes of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains, southward to Amador County; the f.Piperiin western Washington.
Trees or shrubs, with tough flexible branchlets, and large winter-buds naked or covered with scales, those of the arborescent North American species enclosed in one pair of valvate scales, the buds containing flower-bearing branches ovoid, swollen below the middle and contracted into a long or short point and subtended by 2 minute lateral generally abortive buds formed in the axils of the last leaves of the previous year, those containing sterile shoots narrow-lanceolate, slightly angled, acute; axillary buds acute, much flattened, and much smaller than the terminal bud. Leaves deciduous (in the American species), without or rarely with stipules, the first pair rudimentary, with small blades and broad boat-shaped petioles, caducous (in the North American arborescent species). Flowers on short bracteolate or bibracteolate pedicels, in terminal or axillary umbel-like flat or panicled cymes, their bracts and bractlets minute, lanceolate, acute, caducous; calyx-tube cylindric, the limb short, equally 5-lobed, persistent on the fruit; corolla rotate, equally 5-lobed, spreading and reflexed after anthesis; stamens inserted on the base of the corolla; filaments elongated, exserted; anthers bright yellow; ovary inferior, 1-celled; style conic, divided atapex into three stigmatic lobes. Fruit 1-celled, with thin sweet acidulous or oily flesh, stone (in the North American arborescent species) coriaceous, oval, short-pointed at apex; much flattened, dull reddish brown, slightly pitted. Seed filling the cavity of the stone, concave on the ventral face, bright reddish brown, the thin coat projected into a red narrow irregular often erose marginal border.
Viburnum with a hundred species is widely and generally distributed through the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and occurs on the mountains of central and western South America, on the Antilles, the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and Madagascar. Of the fifteen North American species four are small trees. Many of the species produce beautiful flowers and fruits, and are frequently cultivated as ornaments of parks and gardens.
Viburnumis the classical name of one of the European species.
Fig. 780
Leavesbroad-elliptic to oval or slightly obovate, or in one form narrow-elliptic (var.angustifoliumTorr. & Gray), acute, acuminate or abruptly short-pointed or rarely rounded at apex, cuneate or rounded at base, entire or slightly crenulate, covered when they unfold with rusty scales persistent on the lower side of the midrib and petioles and occasionally on the whole lower surface, thick, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, 4′—6′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, with a prominent midrib, slender veins, and slightly thickened and revolute margins; very variable in the size and shape of the leaves and in the amount of their scurfy covering, those of the southern tree form usually larger than the leaves of more northern shrubs; leaves of the var.angustifoliumoften not more than 2′ long and ½′ wide; petioles slender, ½′ in length.Flowersappearing from the first of May at thesouth to the middle of June at the north and occasionally also in the autumn, white or pale cream color, about ¼′ wide, in flat or slightly convex cymes with ovate acute bracts and bractlets, 2′—4′ in diameter and about as long or rather shorter than their peduncle.Fruitripening late in the autumn, globose, pink at first when fully grown, becoming bright blue, ¼′ in diameter.
A tree, rarely 18′—20′ high, with a tall trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, with spreading nearly horizontal branches forming an open head, and slender branchlets scurfy when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, reddish brown and lustrous during their first season and greenish brown the following year; usually a small or large shrub, and perhaps only a tree on the borders of swamps near Gainesville, Alachua County, and Palatka, Putnam County, Florida.Winter-budsreddish brown, covered with rusty scales, those containing flower-bearing branches, abruptly long pointed, ½′—¾′ in length.
Distribution.Low moist soil usually in the neighborhood of swamps and streams, and on rich hillsides; southern Connecticut (Milford and Derby, New Haven County), southward through the coast and Piedmont region, to De Soto County (near Sebring), Florida, and westward usually in the neighborhood of the coast to the valley of the lower Brazos River, eastern Texas, and northward through western Louisiana to central Arkansas and western Tennessee; occasionally ascending the Appalachian Mountains to altitudes of 2000°; the var.angustifoliumfrom North Carolina up to altitudes of 3000° on the Blue Ridge, to northern Florida.
Fig. 781
Leavesovate, usually acuminate, with short or elongated points, or sometimes rounded at apex, cuneate, rounded or subcordate at base, and sharply serrate with incurved callous-tipped teeth, when they unfold bronze-green, lustrous, coated on both surfaces of the midrib and on the petioles with thick rufous pubescence, slightly pilose on the upper surface and covered on the lower with short pale hairs, and at maturity bright green and lustrous above, yellow-green and marked by minute black dots below, 2½′—3′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with a slender midrib, and primary veins connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets; turning in the autumn before falling deep orange-red or red and orange color; petioles broad, grooved, more or less interruptedly winged or occasionally wingless, 1′—1½′ long, those of the first pair of leaves covered with thick rufous tomentum.Flowersabout ¼′ in diameter, slightly fragrant, appearing from the middle of April to the 1st of June in stout-branched scurfy sessile slightly convex cymes 3′—5′ in diameter, with nearly triangular green caducousbracts and bractlets about1/16′ in length; corolla pale cream color or nearly white, with ovate lobes acute and slightly erose at apex.Fruitripening in September on slender drooping stalks, in red-stemmed few-fruited clusters, oval or occasionally globose (var.sphaerocarpumA. Gray), thick-skinned, sweet and rather juicy, black or dark blue, and covered with a glaucous bloom; stone about ⅞′ long and5/16′ wide.
A bushy tree, 20°—30° high, with a short trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, slender rather pendulous branches forming a compact round-topped head, and thin divergent branchlets light green, slightly covered with rufous pubescence when they first appear, and in their first winter light red, scurfy, marked by occasional dark orange-colored lenticels and by narrow leaf-scars displaying 3 conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars, becoming in their second year dark reddish brown and sometimes covered with a glaucous bloom.Winter-budslight red, generally covered with pale scurfy pubescence, those containing flower-bearing branchlets ¾′ in length, abruptly contracted into long narrow tapering points.Barkof the trunk reddish brown and irregularly broken into small thick plates divided on their surface into minute thin appressed scales.Woodbad-smelling, heavy, hard, close-grained, dark orange-brown, with thin nearly white sapwood.
Distribution.Rocky hillsides, along the borders of forests, or near the banks of streams and the margins of swamps, in moist soil; valley of the Rivière du Loup, Province of Quebec, to Saskatchewan, and southward through the northern states to southern Pennsylvania, central Ohio, northern Indiana and southern Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa and eastern Nebraska, and along the Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 2500° to West Virginia; on the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota, the Black Hills of South Dakota, on the eastern foothills of the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming and on those of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado (Boulder, Boulder County).
Often cultivated as an ornament of parks and gardens in the eastern United States, and occasionally in Europe.
×Viburnum JackiiRehd. with characters intermediate betweenViburnum LentagoandV. prunifoliumis now believed to be a hybrid between those species.
Fig. 782
Leavesovate or rarely obovate, oval or suborbicular, rounded, acute, or short-pointed at apex, cuneate or rounded at base, and usually rather remotely or sometimes finely serrate with rigid incurved callous-tipped teeth, lustrous and tinged with red, glabrous on the lower surface and covered on the upper side of the midrib and on the bright red petioles with scattered reddish hairs when they unfold, and at maturity thick or sometimes coriaceous, dark green and glabrous on the upper surface, pale and glabrous on the lower surface, 1′—3′ long and ½′—3′ wide, with slender primary veins connected by reticulate veinlets; in the autumn turning brilliant scarlet or dark vinous red before falling; petioles terete, grooved, ½′—⅔′ in length, and on vigorous shoots sometimes narrowly wing-margined.Flowers¼′ in diameter on slender pedicels bibracteolate at apex, in glabrous short-stemmed flat cymes 2′—4′ in diameter, with subulate caducous bracts about1/16′ long, usually red above the middle; corolla pure white, with oval to nearly orbicular lobes.Fruitripening in October, in few-fruited red-stemmed clusters, persistent on the branches until the beginning of winter, oval or slightly obovoid, ½′—⅔′ long or rarely globose, dark blue and covered with a glaucous bloom; stone about ½′ long and ⅓′ wide.
A bushy tree, occasionally 20°—30° high, with a short and usually crooked trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, stout spreading rigid branches beset with slender spine-like branchlets, bright red and glabrous when they first appear, soon turning green, and in their first winter gray tinged with red, covered with a slight bloom, and marked by orange-colored lenticels and by the large lunate leaf-scars displaying 3 fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and ultimately dark brown tinged with red; or often a low intricately branched shrub.Winter-budsshort-pointed or obtuse, brown, glabrous or scurfy, those containing flower-bearing branches about ½′ long and ¼′ wide, and about twice as large as those containing sterile branchlets.Barkof the trunk ¼′—⅓′ thick, and broken into thick irregularly shaped plate-like red-brown scales.Woodheavy, hard, strong, brittle, close-grained, brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood of 20—30 layers of annual growth.
Distribution.Dry rocky hillsides, fence-rows and the sides of roads; Fairfield County, Connecticut, and the valley of the lower Hudson River, New York, southward to southeastern Virginia and to the Coast and Piedmont regions of North and South Carolina up to altitudes of 2000° to the valley of the Savannah River (near Augusta, Georgia, Richmond County, rare), and through southern Ohio to Indiana, southern Illinois, southern and western Kentucky, Missouri and eastern Kansas; very abundant in Missouri from the northeastern counties southward through the state.
Often cultivated as an ornament of parks and gardens in the eastern United States, and occasionally in western and northern Europe.