Fig. 296
Leavesovate, acuminate, unsymmetrically rounded or cuneate at base, entire or rarely furnished with occasional teeth, glabrous, dark green and smooth on the upper surface, yellow-green on the lower surface, with small clusters of pale hairs in the axils of the slender veins, and inconspicuous reticulate veinlets, 1½′—2′ long, ¾′—1′ wide; petioles slender,puberulous, ¼′—⅓′ in length.Fruiton glabrous pedicels shorter or slightly longer than the petioles, short-oblong, canary yellow, about ¼′ long.
A small tree with slender glabrous red-brown branchlets.
Distribution.Central and southern Arizona.
More distinct is the common Celtis of western Texas which has been described as
Fig. 297
Leavesovate to lanceolate, acuminate, unsymmetrically rounded or cordate at base, entire or sparingly and irregularly serrate, often subcoriaceous, dark green, smooth and granulate or rarely rough above, green below, with a slender midrib and primary veins glabrous or sparingly villose-pubescent and furnished with small tufts of axillary hairs, and only slightly raised reticulate veinlets, 1½′—3′ long and ¾′—1½′ wide; petioles slender, pale pubescent, ⅕′—¼′ in length.Fruiton glabrous or puberulous pedicels slightly longer than the petioles, subglobose but rather longer than broad, dark orange-red, about ¼′ long.
An arborescent shrub or small tree rarely more than 25° high, with slender reddish glabrous or gray-brown pubescent branchlets; often growing in clusters.Barkrough, pale or grayish and not often covered with wart-like excrescences.
Distribution.Rocky bluffs near Dallas to New Braunfels, Texas, and westward towestern Oklahoma, and southern New Mexico; in southwestern Missouri; in Tamaulipas and Coahuila, Mexico. The common Celtis of the Texas Panhandle.
A shrubby form from Nolan County, Texas, with red-brown branchlets densely pubescent in their first season, becoming puberulous during their second year, and smaller leaves with more prominent reticulate veinlets, on densely pubescent petioles, is distinguished as formamicrophyllaSarg.
This shrub of the eastern states is sometimes a small tree in its southern variety,
Fig. 298
Leavesovate, acute or acuminate, obliquely rounded at base, entire or sharply serrate, especially on vigorous leading shoots, thin, dark green and rough on the upper surface, pale and more or less pubescent or nearly glabrous along the midrib and veins below, 1½′—2½′ long and ¾′—1½′ wide; petioles slender, pubescent, ⅙′—¼′ in length.Flowerson pubescent pedicels; calyx divided into usually five lanceolate acuminate lobes; the disk pubescent.Fruiton pubescent pedicels as long or slightly longer than the petioles, subglobose, reddish purple, often covered with a glaucous bloom, ½′ in diameter; nutlet covered with conspicuous reticulate ridges.
A shrub or small tree occasionally 30° high, with slender dark red-brown pubescent branchlets, light red-brown and sometimes bright red-brown before the end of their first year.
Distribution.Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, central Georgia to western Florida; and Dallas County, Alabama; in southern Missouri, and southern Illinois.
Unarmed trees and shrubs with watery juices and terete branchlets. Leaves alternate, often two-ranked, serrate, penniveined, three-nerved from the base, short-petiolate, persistent; stipules lateral, free, usually small, caducous. Flowers apetalous, small, monœcious, diœcious or rarely perfect, in axillary cymes; calyx five or rarely four-parted, the lobes induplicate, valvate or slightly imbricated in the bud, or in perfect flowers more or less concave and induplicate; stamens five or rarely four, opposite the calyx-lobes and inserted on their base, occasionally present in the pistillate flower; filaments short, erect; anthers oblong, attached on the back near the base, introrse, two-celled, the cells openinglongitudinally; ovary sessile, rudimentary or wanting in the staminate flower; style central, slightly or entirely divided into two linear fleshy stigmatic branches; ovule solitary, pendulous from the apex of the cell, anatropous; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, short-oblong to subglobose, crowned by the persistent style; exocarp more or less fleshy; endocarp hard; seed filling the cavity of the nutlet; testa membranaceous, albumen fleshy, often scanty; embryo curved or slightly involute; cotyledons narrow; radicle incurved, ascending.
Trema, with about twenty species, is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the two hemispheres. Two species reach the coast region and the keys of southern Florida. Of theseTrema mollisLour. is a small tree, andTrema LamarckianaBl., which in Florida has been noticed only on Key Largo, where it grows as a small shrub, is widely distributed over the Bahamas and many of the West Indian islands.
Trema floridanaBritt.
Fig. 299
Leaves2-ranked, ovate, abruptly acuminate at apex, rounded, cordate and often oblique at base, finely serrate with incurved or rounded apiculate teeth, dark green and scabrate above, covered with pale tomentum below, 3′—4′ long, 1′—2½′ wide; petioles stout, tomentose, about ⅖′ in length; stipules narrow, acuminate, covered with long white hairs, about one third as long as the petioles.Flowersin early spring, subtended by minute scarious deciduous bracts on short slender pedicels in bisexual many-flowered pedunculate villose cymes about as long as the petioles; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes oblong, acute and incurved at apex, villose on the outer surface; staminate with glabrous filaments and slightly exserted yellow anthers; pistillate with a style divided to the base.Fruitshort-oblong, pale yellowish brown, ⅙′—⅕′ in diameter.
A fast-growing short-lived tree, in Florida occasionally 25°—30° high, with a tall trunk 1½′—2½′ in diameter, small crowded branches ascending at narrow angles, and stout hoary-tomentose red-brown 2-ranked branchlets.Barkthin, chocolate-brown, roughened by numerous small wart-like excrescences, and separating into small appressed papery scales.
Distribution.Rich hummocks; near the shores of Bay Biscayne, in the Everglades, andon the southern keys, Florida; common; often springing up where the ground has been burned over, or otherwise cleared of its forests; on many of the West Indian islands and in Mexico.
Tree or shrubs, with milky juice, scaly or naked buds, and stalked alternate simple leaves with stipules. Flowers monœcious or diœcious, in ament-like spikes, or in heads on the outside of a receptacle or on the inside of a closed receptacle; calyx of the staminate flower 2—6-lobed or parted; stamens 1—4, inserted on the base of the calyx; calyx of the pistillate flower of 2—6 partly united sepals; ovary 1—2-celled; styles 1 or 2; ovule pendulous. Fruits drupaceous, inclosed in the thickened calyx of the flower and united into a compound fruit (syncarp). The Mulberry family is widely distributed with fifty-four genera confined largely to the warmer parts of the world. Three genera only, all arborescent, are indigenous in North America, althoughBroussonetia papyriferaVent., the Paper Mulberry, a tree related to the Mulberry and a native of eastern Asia, and the Hop and the Hemp are more or less generally naturalized in the eastern and southern states.
Trees or shrubs, with slender terete unarmed branches prolonged by one of the upper axillary buds, scaly bark, fibrous roots, and winter-buds covered by ovate scales closely imbricated in 2 ranks, increasing in size from without inward, the inner accrescent, marking in falling the base of the branch with ring-like scars. Leaves conduplicate in the bud, alternate, serrate, entire or 3-lobed, 3—5-nerved at base, membranaceous or subcoriaceous, deciduous; stipules inclosing their leaf in the bud, lateral, lanceolate, acute, caducous. Flowers monœcious or diœcious, the staminate and pistillate on different branches of the same plant or on different plants, minute, vernal, in pedunculate clusters from the axils of caducous bud-scales or of the lower leaves of the year; staminate in elongated cylindric spikes; calyx deeply divided into 4 equal rounded lobes; stamens 4, inserted opposite the lobes of the calyx under the minute rudimentary ovary, filaments filiform, incurved in the bud, straightening elastically and becoming exserted, anthers attached on the back below the middle, introrse, 2-celled, the cells reniform, attached laterally to the orbicular connective, opening longitudinally; pistillate sessile, in short-oblong densely flowered spikes; calyx 4-parted, the lobes ovate or obovate, thickened, often unequal, the 2 outer broader than the others, persistent; ovary ovoid, flat, sessile, included in the calyx, crowned by a central style divided nearly to the base into 2 equal spreading filiform villose white stigmatic lobes; ovule suspended from the apex of the cell, campylotropous; micropyle superior. Drupes ovoid or obovoid, crowned with the remnants of the styles, inclosed in the succulent thickened and colored perianth of the flower and more or less united into a more or less juicy compound fruit; flesh subsucculent, thin; walls of the nutlet thin or thick, crustaceous. Seed oblong, pendulous; testa, thin, membranaceous; hilum minute, apical; embryo incurved in thick fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, equal; radicle ascending, incumbent.
Morus with eight or nine species is confined to eastern temperate North America, the elevated regions of Mexico, Central America and western South America, southern andwestern Asia, Indo-China, China, Japan, the Bonin Islands and the mountains of the Indian Archipelago. Two species occur in North America. The most valuable species,Morus albaL., a native of China and Formosa, and largely cultivated in many countries for its leaves, which are the best food of the silkworm, has been planted in large quantities in the eastern United States; andMorus nigraL., probably a native of Persia, has been introduced into the southern and Pacific states for its large dark-colored juicy fruit. Morus produces straight-grained durable light brown or orange-colored valuable wood, and sweet acidulous and refreshing fruits.
Morusis the classical name of the Mulberry-tree.
Fig. 300
Leavesovate, oblong-ovate or semiorbicular, abruptly contracted into a long broad point or acute at apex, more or less deeply cordate or occasionally truncate at base, coarsely and occasionally doubly serrate with incurved callous-tipped teeth, often, especially on vigorous young shoots, 3-lobed by broad deep oblique lateral rounded sinuses, when they unfold yellow-green, slightly pilose on the upper surface and hoary-tomentose on the lower surface, at maturity thin, dark bluish green, glabrous, smooth or scabrate above, pale and more or less pubescent below with short white hairs thickest on the orange-colored midrib, and on the primary veins arcuate and united near the margins and connected by reticulate veinlets, or sometimes hoary-tomentose below (var.tomentosaBureau), 3′—5′ long, 2½′—4′ wide; turning bright yellow in the autumn; petioles stout, hoary-tomentose at first, becoming glabrous, ¾′—1¼′ in length; stipules lanceolate, acute, abruptly enlarged and thickened at base, sometimes tinged with red above the middle, coated with long white hairs, and often 1′ in length.Flowersappearing with the unfolding of the leaves; staminate in narrow spikes 2′—2½′ long, on stout light green peduncles covered with pale hairs; calyx divided nearly to the base into oblong concave lobes rounded at apex and hirsute on the outer surface; stamens with slightly flattened filaments narrowed from the base to the apex, and bright green anthers, their connectives orbicular, conspicuous, bright green; pistillatein oblong densely flowered spikes, 1′ long, on short hairy peduncles, a few male flowers being sometimes mixed with them; calyx divided nearly to the base into 4 thick concave lobes rounded at apex, rounded or slightly keeled on the back, the 2 outer lobes twice as wide as the others, as long as and closely investing the glabrous light green ovary.Fruit: syncarp at first bright red when fully grown, 1′—1¼′ long, becoming dark purple or nearly black and sweet and juicy when fully ripe; drupes about1/32′ long, with a thin fleshy outer coat and a light brown nutlet;seedovoid, acute, with a thin membranaceous light brown coat.
A tree, 60°—70° high, with a short trunk rarely exceeding 3°—4° in diameter, stout spreading smooth branches forming a dense broad round-topped shapely head, and slender slightly zigzag branchlets dark green often tinged with red, glabrous, more or less coated with pale pubescence, and covered with oblong straw-colored spots when they first appear, becoming in their first winter light red-brown to orange color and marked by pale lenticels and by large elevated horizontal nearly orbicular concave leaf-scars displaying a row of prominent fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and in their second and third years dark brown slightly tinged with red.Winter-budsovoid, rounded or pointed at apex, ¼′ long, with 6 or 7 chestnut-brown scales, those of the outer rows broadly ovate, rounded, and slightly thickened on the back, puberulous, ciliate on the margins, and much shorter than those of the next rows, the inner scales scarious, coated with pale hairs, oblong-lanceolate, rounded or acute at apex, and ½′—⅔′ long at maturity.Bark½′—¾′ thick, dark brown tinged with red and divided into irregular elongated plates separating on the surface into thick appressed scales.Woodlight, soft, not strong, rather tough, coarse-grained, very durable, light orange color, with thick lighter colored sapwood; largely used for fencing, in cooperage, and in boat-building.
Distribution.Intervales in rich soil and on low hills; western Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Long Island to southern Ontario, central Michigan, southeastern Minnesota, eastern Iowa, southeastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, central Kansas and Oklahoma, and southward to the shores of Bay Biscayne and Cape Romano, Florida, and to the cañon of the Devil’s River, Valverde County, Texas; most abundant and of its largest size in the basin of the lower Ohio River and on the foothills of the southern Appalachian Mountains; ascending to altitudes of 2000°.
Occasionally planted, especially in the southern states, for its fruit valued for fattening hogs and as food for poultry. A few natural varieties, distinguished for the large size and good quality of their fruit, or for their productiveness, are occasionally propagated by pomologists.
Morus celtidifoliaSarg., not H. B. K.
Fig. 301
Leavesovate, acute or acuminate, rounded or rarely truncate, or often on vigorous shoots cordate at the broad base, and 3-lobed with shallow lateral sinuses and broad coarsely serrate lobes, when they unfold coated below with pale tomentum, and puberulous above, at maturity thin and firm in texture, dark green and often roughened on the upper surface by minute pale tubercles, and paler, smooth or scabrate, and glabrous or coated with soft pubescence on the lower surface, and often hirsute with short stiff pale hairs on the broad orange-colored midrib, and on the primary veins connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets, rarely more than 1½′ long and ¾′ wide; turning yellow in the autumn; petioles slender, hoary-tomentose, becoming pubescent, ⅓′ in length; stipules linear-lanceolate, acute, sometimes falcate, white and scarious, coated with soft pale tomentum, about ½′ long.Flowersusually diœcious, staminate short-pedicellate, in short many-flowered spikes, ½′—¾′ long; calyx dark green, covered on the outer surface with soft pale hairs, deeply divided into equal rounded lobes reddish toward the apex; stamens with bright yellow anthers, their connectives conspicuous, dark green; pistillate sessile in few-flowered spikes, rarely ⅓′ in length; calyx divided to the base into thick rounded lobes, the 2 outerlobes much broader than the others, dark green, covered with pale scattered hairs; ovary green and glabrous, with short stigmatic lobes.Fruit: syncarp ½′ long, red becoming dark purple or nearly black, sweet and palatable; drupe ⅙′ long, ovoid, rounded at the ends, with a thin fleshy outer covering and a thick-walled light brown nutlet;seedovoid, pointed, pale yellow.
A tree, sometimes 15°—20° high, with a trunk occasionally 12′—14′ in diameter, and slender branchlets covered when they first appear with soft white hairs, soon becoming glabrous or nearly so, and in their first winter light orange-red and marked by small lenticels and small horizontal nearly orbicular elevated concave leaf-scars displaying a ring of fibro-vascular bundle-scars; often a shrub.Winter-budsovoid, acute, sharp-pointed, and covered by thin lustrous chestnut-brown ovate rounded scales scarious on the margins, those of the inner rows ovate-oblong, rounded at apex, pale-pubescent on the outer surface, and nearly 1′ long when fully grown.Barksmooth, sometimes nearly ½′ thick but usually thinner, light gray slightly tinged with red, deeply furrowed and broken on the surface into slightly appressed scales.Woodheavy, hard, close-grained, dark orange color or sometimes dark brown, with thick light-colored sapwood.
Distribution.Dry limestone hills, or westward only in elevated mountain cañons in the neighborhood of streams; valley of the Colorado River, Texas, southward into Mexico and through the mountain regions of western Texas and southern New Mexico to the Santa Rita Mountains and the cañons of the Colorado Plateau, Arizona.
Toxylon (Ioxylon)Rafn.
A tree, with thick milky slightly acrid juice, thick deeply furrowed dark orange-colored bark, stout tough terete pale branchlets, with thick orange-colored pith, lengthening by an upper axillary bud, marked by pale orange-colored lenticels and armed with stout straight axillary spines, short stout spur-like lateral branchlets from buds at the base of the spines, and thick fleshy roots covered by bright orange-colored bark exfoliating freely in long thin persistent papery scales. Leaves involute in the bud, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate and apiculate at apex, rounded, cuneate or subcordate at base, entire, penniveined, the veins arcuate near the margins and connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles elongated, slender, terete, pubescent; stipules lateral, nearly triangular, minute, hoary-tomentose, caducous. Flowers diœcious, light green, minute, appearing inearly summer; calyx 4-lobed, the lobes imbricated in æstivation; the staminate long pedicellate, in short or ultimately elongated racemes borne on long slender drooping peduncles from the axils of crowded leaves on the spur-like branchlets of the previous year; calyx ovoid, gradually narrowed into the slender pubescent pedicel, coated on the outer surface with pale hairs, divided to the middle into equal acute boat-shaped lobes; stamens 4, inserted opposite the lobes of the calyx on the margins of the minute thin pulvinate disk; filaments flattened, light green, glabrous, infolded above the middle in the bud, with the anthers inverted and back to back, straightening abruptly in anthesis and becoming exserted; anthers oblong, attached on the back near the middle, introrse, 2-celled, the cells attached laterally to a minute oblong or semiorbicular connective, free and spreading above and below, opening by longitudinal lateral slits; pistillate sessile in dense globose many-flowered heads on short stout peduncles axillary on shoots of the year; calyx ovoid, divided to the base into oblong thick concave lobes, rounded, thickened, and covered with pale hairs at the apex, longer than the ovary and closely investing it, the 2 outer lobes much broader than the others, persistent and inclosing the fruit; ovary ovoid, compressed, sessile, green, and glabrous; style covered by elongated slender filiform white stigmatic hairs; ovule suspended from the apex of the cell, anatropous. Drupes oblong, compressed, rounded and often notched at apex, acute at base, with thin succulent flesh, and a thin crustaceous light brown nutlet, joined by the union of the thickened and much elongated perianths of the flowers into a globose compound fruit saturated with milky juice, mammillate on the surface by their thickened rounded summits, light yellow-green, usually of full size but seedless on isolated pistillate individuals. Seed oblong, compressed, rounded at base, oblique and marked at apex by the conspicuous oblong pale hilum, without albumen; seed-coat membranaceous, light chestnut-brown; embryo recurved; cotyledons oblong, nearly equal; radicle elongated, incumbent, ascending.
The genus is represented by a single species of eastern North America.
The generic name is in compliment to William Maclure, distinguished geologist.
Toxylon(Ioxylon)pomiferumRafn.
Fig. 302
Leaves3′—5′ long, 2′—3′ wide; turning bright clear yellow before falling in the autumn; petioles 1½′—2′ in length.Flowers: racemes of the staminate flowers 1′—1½′ long; heads of the pistillate flowers, ¾′—1′ in diameter.Fruit4′—5′ in diameter, ripening in the autumn, and soon falling to the ground.
A tree, sometimes 50°—60° high, with a short trunk 2°—3° in diameter, and stout erect ultimately spreading branches forming a handsome open irregular round-topped head, and branchlets light green often tinged with red and coated with soft pale pubescence when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, light brown slightly tinged with orange color during their first winter, and ultimately paler.Winter-budsdepressed-globose, partly immersed in the bark, covered by few closely imbricated ovate rounded light chestnut-brown ciliate conspicuous scales.Bark⅔′—1′ thick, and deeply and irregularly divided into broad rounded ridges separating on the surface into thin appressed scales.Woodheavy, exceedingly hard, very strong, flexible, coarse-grained, very durable, bright orange color turning brown on exposure, with thin light yellow sapwood of 5—10 layers of annual growth; largely used for fence-posts, railway-ties, wheel-stock, and formerly by the Osage and other Indians west of the Mississippi River for bows and war-clubs. The bark of the roots contains moric and morintannic acid, and is used as a yellow dye. The bark of the trunk is sometimes used in tanning leather.
Distribution.Rich bottom-lands; southern Arkansas to southern Oklahoma and southward in Texas to about latitude 35° 36′; most abundant and of its largest size in the valley of the Red River in Oklahoma.
Largely planted in the prairie regions of the Mississippi basin as a hedge plant, and occasionally in the eastern states; hardy in New England; occasionally naturalized beyond the limits of its natural range.
Trees, with milky juice, naked buds, stout branchlets, thick fleshy roots frequently produced from the branches and developing into supplementary stems. Leaves involute, entire and persistent in American species; stipules inclosing the leaf in a slender sharp-pointed bud-like cover, interpetiolar, embracing the leaf-bearing axis and inclosing the young leaves, deciduous. Flower-bearing receptacle subglobose to ovoid, sessile or stalked, solitary by abortion or in pairs in the axils of existing or fallen leaves, surrounded at base by 3 anterior bracts distinct or united into an involucral cup bearing on the interior at the apex numerous rows of minute triangular viscid bracts closing the orifice, those of the lower rows turned downward and infolding the upper flowers, those immediately above these horizontal and forming a more or less prominent umbilicus. Flowers sessile or pedicellate, the pedicels thickening and becoming succulent with the ripening of the fruit, unisexual, often separated by chaffy scales or hairs; calyx of the staminate flower usually divided into 2—6 sepals; stamen 1; filament short, erect; anther innate, ovoid, broad and subrotund, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally, 0 in the pistillate flower; sepals or lobes of the calyx of the pistillate flower usually narrower than those of the staminate flower; ovary sessile, erect or oblique, surmounted by the lateral elongated style crowned by a 2-lobed stigma; ovule suspended from the apex or lateral below the apex of the cell, anatropous. Fruit mostly immersed in the thickened succulent receptacle, obovoid or reniform; flesh thin, mucilaginous; nutlet with a flat crustaceous minutely tuberculate shell. Seed suspended; testa membranaceous; embryo incurved, in thin fleshy albumen, cotyledons equal or unequal, longer than the incumbent radicle.
Ficus, of which about six hundred species have been described, is largely distributed through the topics of both hemispheres, the largest number of species being found on the islands of the Indian Archipelago and the Pacific Ocean. A few species extend beyond the tropics into southern Florida, Mexico, Argentina, southern Japan and China, the countries bordering the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, and South Africa. Two species of the sectionUrostigmawith monœcious flowers occur in tropical Florida.Ficus CaricaL., probably a native of the Mediterranean basin, is cultivated in the southern states and in California for its large sweet succulent fruits, the figs of commerce.
Fig. 303
Leavesoblong, usually narrowed at the ends, acute or acuminate, with a short broad point at apex, cuneate or rarely broad and rounded at base, 2′—5′ long, 1½′—3′ wide, thick and coriaceous, dark yellow-green and lustrous above, paler and less lustrous below, with a broad light yellow midrib slightly grooved on the upper side, and numerous obscure primary veins arcuate and united near the margins and connected by fine closely reticulated veinlets, continuing to unfold during a large part of the year; usually falling during their second season; petioles stout, slightly grooved, ½′—1′ in length; stipules ovate-lanceolate, thick, firm, tinged with red, about 1′ long.Flowers: receptacles developing in succession as the branch lengthens, subglobose, sessile or short-stalked, solitary or in pairs, the orifice lateral closed and marked by a small point formed by the union of the minute bracts, becoming ⅓′ in diameter and yellow when fully grown, ultimately turning bright red; flowers reddish purple, separated by minute reddish chaff-like scales more or less laciniate at apex, sessile or long-pedicellate; calyx of the staminate flower divided to below the middle into 2 or 3 broad lobes rather shorter than the stout flattened filaments; lobes of the anther oblong, attached laterally to the broad connective; calyx of the pistillate flower divided to the middle into 4 or 5 narrow lobes, closely investing the ovate sessile ovary.Fruitovoid, immersed in the thickened reddish purple walls of the receptacle;seedovoid, rounded at the ends, with a thin light brown coat and a large lateral oblong pale hilum.
A broad round-topped epiphytal tree, 50°—60° high, germinating and growing at first on the branches and trunks of other trees and sending down to the ground stout aerial roots which gradually growing together form a trunk often 3°—4° in diameter, the growth of additional roots from the branches extending the tree over a large area, and terete pithy light orange-colored branchlets marked by pale lenticels, conspicuous stipular scars, large slightly elevated horizontal oval leaf-scars displaying a marginal ring of large pale fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and smaller elevated concave circular scars left by thereceptacles in falling.Barksmooth, ashy gray, light brown tinged with red, ½′ thick, and broken on the surface into minute appressed scales disclosing in falling the nearly black inner bark.Woodexceedingly light, soft, weak, coarse-grained, perishable in contact with the ground, light brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution.Hummocks on the shores and islands of southern Florida; from the Indian River on the east coast and Tampa Bay on the west coast, to the southern keys; common and now rapidly spreading over the eastern and southern borders of the Everglades; attaining its largest size in the neighborhood of Bay Biscayne; on the Bahama Islands.
Ficus populneaSarg., not Willd.
Fig. 304
Leavesbroadly ovate or rarely obovate, contracted into a short broad point or occasionally rounded at apex, rounded, truncate or cordate at base, 2½′—5′ long, 1½′—5′ wide, thin and firm, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower, with a light yellow midrib, and slender remote primary veins arcuate and united near the margins and connected by finely reticulate veinlets; petioles slender, sometimes 1′ in length; stipules ovate-lanceolate, ½′ long, tinged with red.Flowers: receptacles obovoid, solitary or in pairs, yellow until fully grown, ultimately turning bright red and becoming ¼′—½′ long, on stout drooping stalks ¼′—1′ in length; flowers sessile or pedicellate, separated by minute chaff-like scales more or less laciniate at apex; calyx of the staminate flower divided nearly to the base into three or four broad acute lobes; calyx of the pistillate flower with narrow lobes shorter than the ovoid pointed ovary.Fruitovoid;seedovoid, with a membranaceous light brown coat and an oblong lateral pale hilum.
An epiphytal tree, rarely 40°—50° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, spreading branches occasionally developing aerial roots and forming an open irregular head, and terete branchlets light red and slightly puberulous when they first appear, becoming brown tinged with orange and later with red, and marked by minute pale lenticels, narrow stipular scars, large elevated horizontal oval or semiorbicular leaf-scars showing a marginal row of conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and elevated concave receptacle scars.Woodlight, soft, close-grained, light orange-brown or yellow, with thick hardly distinguishable sapwood.
Distribution.Usually on dry slightly elevated coral rocks; Florida from the shores of Bay Biscayne to the Everglades Keys, and on several of the southern keys to Key West; not common; on the Bahama Islands and in Cuba.
Trees or shrubs, with watery juices, their stems sometimes twining, and alternate usually entire persistent leaves, without stipules. Flowers perfect or polygamous, in axillary cymes or racemes, rarely solitary; calyx 4 to 6-lobed; petals 4—6, inserted on a hypogynous disk, free or united into a campanulate or tubular corolla; stamens 4—12, inserted on the tube of the corolla; filaments free, rarely united; anthers oblong, introrse, opening longitudinally; ovary superior or partly inferior, free or immersed in the disk, 1—4-celled; styles mostly united; stigmas entire or lobed; ovules 1—3 in each cell of the ovary. Fruit drupaceous, naked or nearly inclosed in the enlarged disk, 1-celled, 1-seeded; seed pendulous; embryo minute, erect, in copious fleshly albumen; radicle superior.
Olacaceæ with twenty-five genera and a large number of species is confined to the tropics, and is most abundant in those of the Old World.
Trees or shrubs with slender unarmed branchlets. Leaves entire, subcoriaceous, petiolate. Flowers small, perfect in axillary cymes, rarely solitary; calyx disciform, obscurely 4-toothed, or nearly entire, petals 4, 5 or rarely 6, united, their tips free, valvate; stamens opposite the petals, filaments free, anthers attached by the back; ovary partly immersed in the disk, 3-celled; style elongated, stigma 3-lobed; ovules 3 in each cell, pendulous from the free apex of the axile placentas. Fruit nearly inclosed in the enlarged disk of the flower, the stone crustaceous or chartaceous.
Schoepfia with twelve or fourteen species is distributed in the New World from southern Florida and Lower California to Brazil and Peru, and in the Old World from southern Japan and southern and western China to the East Indies and the eastern Himalayas.
The generic name is in compliment to Johann David Schoepf, German physician and botanist, and traveler in North America and the West Indies.
Schoepfia SchreberiSmall, not Gmel.
Fig. 305
Leaveselliptic to oblong-ovate, often slightly falcate, acuminate at apex, cuneate and often unsymmetric at base, light green and lustrous above, paler below, 1½′—3′ long, ¾′—1¼′wide, and on vigorous shoots sometimes 4′ long and 1¾′ wide; petioles stout, wing-margined, ¼′—⅓′ in length.Flowerssessile, pink or red, in axillary 1—3- usually 2-flowered clusters on peduncles1/24′—⅙′ in length; calyx cup-shaped, the rim slightly dilated, almost filled by the fleshy disk; corolla ovate-cylindric, ⅛′—⅙′ long, 4-lobed, the lobes ovate, acute, united, reflexed; stamens 4, adnate to the base of the lobes of the corolla; anthers sessile; ovary mostly immersed in the disk; style not more than1/24′ long;Fruitovoid or ovoid-oval scarlet, ⅖′—½′ in length; stone crustaceous;seednot seen.
A tree, sometimes 25°—30° high with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, small erect branches and slender pale gray unarmed branchlets.Barkthin, grayish brown, closely and regularly reticulated.
Distribution.In sandy or rocky soil; banks of the Caloosahatchee River, Lee County, near Miami and at Cocoanut Grove, Dade County, and on the southern keys, Florida; on the Bahama Islands, and in Cuba, Jamaica, and Guatamala.
Trees and shrubs, with terete armed or unarmed branchlets. Leaves entire, subcoriaceous, often fascicled, short-petiolate. Flowers perfect, white, on slender pedicels, in short axillary cymes or rarely solitary; calyx small, 4-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud, persistent; petals 4 or 5, hypogynous, narrow, bearded on their inner face, valvate in the bud, reflexed above the middle; stamens twice as many as the petals; filaments free, filiform; anthers linear, attached on the back near the base, 2-celled, the cells opening laterally, their connective apiculate at apex; ovary 4-celled below, only the apex 1-celled, externally 4-grooved, glandular at base, gradually narrowed into the slender style; stigma entire, subcapitate; ovules linear, solitary in each cell, pendulous from the apex of the axile placenta, anatropous; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit ovoid or globose; exocarp thick and succulent, endocarp crustaceous or subligneous; seed filling the cavity of the endocarp, pendulous, surrounded by a thin spongy coat; testa membranaceous; cotyledons elliptic; embryo minute, erect; raphe terete.
Ximenia with four or five species is widely distributed on tropical shores of the two worlds.
Ximeniacommemorates the name of Francisco Ximenes, a Dominican priest who published in Mexico in 1615 a work on the plants and animals of that country.
Fig. 306
Leavesoblong or elliptic, rounded and often emarginate and apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, glabrous, bright green and lustrous above, pale below,1¼′—2½′ long, ⅗′—1¼′ wide, with slightly thickened revolute margins, a prominent midrib and obscure primary veins; petioles slender, narrow wing-margined at apex, ⅕′—⅖′ in length.Flowersbell-shaped, fragrant, about ¼′ long, on slender pedicels in the axils of minute acuminate caducous bractlets, in 3 or 4-flowered clusters on peduncles ⅕′—⅓′ long; calyx-lobes acute, petals elliptic and rounded or obtusely pointed at apex, yellowish white, leathery, conspicuously bearded on the inner surface from base nearly to apex.Fruitbroad-ovoid to subglobose, bright yellow, with thin acid flesh, 1′—1¼′ long, on slender pedicels about ⅓′ in length, in usually 2 or 3-fruited drooping clusters; stone ovoid, apiculate at apex, covered with minute pits, light red;seedyellow, with bright orange-colored cotyledons.
A tree, occasionally 30° high, with a tall trunk 2½′—3½′ in diameter, spreading branches armed with stout straight spines usually ¾′—1′ in length, and slender branchlets slightly angled and light reddish brown when they first appear, becoming terete and light gray or red-brown and marked by numerous lenticels; more often a shrub with long vine-like stems.Barkclose, dark red, astringent.Woodvery heavy, tough, hard, close-grained, compact, brown tinged with red with lighter-colored sapwood. Hydrocyanic acid has been obtained from the fruit.
Distribution.Florida, near Eustis Lake, Lake County, to the southern keys, attaining its largest size on the west coast and on Long Key in the Everglades; common on the shores of the Antilles and southward to Brazil, and on those of west tropical Africa, the Indian peninsula, the islands of the Malay Archipelago, New Guinea, Australia, and on those of many of the islands of the south Pacific Ocean.
Section 3. Flowers perfect or unisexual; calyx 5-lobed; ovary superior, 1-celled; ovule solitary, rising from the bottom of the cell; fruit inclosed in the thickened calyx; leaves persistent.
Trees, with alternate coriaceous stalked leaves, their stipules sheathing the stem. Flowers perfect; calyx 5-lobed; stamens 8; ovary 3-celled; ovule orthotropous. Fruit a nutlet, inclosed in the thickened calyx-tube; seed erect; embryo axillary in ruminate farinaceous albumen; radicle superior, ascending, turned toward the hilum. Of this, the Buckwheat family with thirty widely distributed genera, only Coccolobis is arborescent in North America.
Trees or shrubs. Leaves coriaceous, entire, orbicular, ovate, obovate, or lanceolate, petiolate, their stipules inclosing the branch above the node with membranaceous truncate entire brown persistent sheaths. Flowers jointed on ebracteolate pedicels, in 1 or few-flowered fascicles subtended by a minute bract and surrounded by a narrow truncate membranaceous sheath, each pedicel and those above it being surrounded by a similar sheath, the fascicles gathered in elongated terminal and axillary racemes inclosed at the base of the sheath of the nearest leaf and sometimes also in a separate sheath; calyx cup-shaped, the lobes ovate, rounded, thin, white, reflexed after anthesis, and thickening and inclosing the nutlet; stamens with filiform or subulate filaments dilated and united at base into a short discoid cup adnate to the tube of the calyx; anthers ovoid, introrse, 2-celled, the cells parallel, opening longitudinally; ovary free, sessile, 3-angled, contracted into a short stout style, divided into three short or elongated stigmatic lobes. Fruit ovoid or globose, rounded or acute and crowned at apex by the persistent lobes of the calyx, narrowed at base; flesh thin and acidulous, more or less adnate to the thin crustaceous or bony wall of the nutlet often divided on the inner surface near the base into several more or less intrusive plates. Seed subglobose, acuminate at apex, 3—6-lobed; testa membranaceous, minutely pitted, dark red-brown, and lustrous.
Coccolobis is confined to the tropics of the New World, with about one hundred andtwenty species distributed from southern Florida to Mexico, Central America, Brazil, and Peru. It possesses astringent properties sometimes utilized in medicine. Many of the species produce hard dark valuable wood.
Coccolobis, fromκοκκοςandλοβός, is in allusion to the character of the fruit.