POLYGONACEAE. 



113 



5. COCCOLOBIS P. Br. 



Evergreen shrubs or trees, with erect branched trunks, or rarely high- 

 twining vines, clothed with a very thin bark. Leaves alternate, leathery, entire. 

 Ocreae truncate, membranous, often very small. Flowers perfect, green, on 

 jointed pedicels subtended by small bracts' disposed in spike-like racemes. 

 Sepals 5, herbaceous, nearly equal, little changed at maturity. Stamens 8; 

 filaments slender. Ovary free, 3-angled; styles 3. Ovule erect. Achene ovoid 

 or globose, with a crustaceous or bony pericarp, invested by the accrescent calyx, 

 to which it is sometimes more or less adherent. Seed 3-6-lobed, with a mem- 

 branous testa. Embryo more or less eccentric in the channeled mealy endo- 

 sperm, its cotyledons cordate. [Greek, referring to the calyx adhering to the 

 achenes.] About 150 species, mostly tropical, the following typical. 



1. Coccolobis uvifera (L.) 

 Jacq. SEA GRAPE. BAY GRAPE. 

 (Fig. 132.) A shrub or tree, 3- 

 25 high, with a short contorted 

 trunk occasionally reaching a 

 diameter of 2 or more. Branches 

 forming a round head; leaves firm 

 in texture, suborbicular, often 

 broader than long, 2 '-8' in diam- 

 eter, obtuse or retuse at the apex, 

 undulate, cordate at the base, 

 short-petioled; ocreae funnelform, 

 firm ; racemes interrupted, 4'-12' 

 long ; hypanthium campanulat'e ; 

 sepals obovoid-orbicular, whitish, 

 undulate ; filaments subulate, red ; 

 fruiting racemes dense, resembling 

 bunches of grapes, each drupe- 

 like fruit subglobose, 6"-10" in 

 diameter, purple or greenish-white, 

 with an astringent juicy pulp and 

 a broadly ovoid, hard achene with 

 a thin reddish pericarp. [Polygo- 

 num uvifera L.] 



Coastal rocks and sands, ascending to the tops of hills along the South Shores : 

 frequent or common. Native. Southern Florida, West Indies, continental tropical 

 American coasts. Flowers from spring to autumn. Fruit edible, but not very 

 palatable, doubtless transported to Bermuda by floating. 



Coccolobis diversifolia Jacq., BARBADOES GRAPE-TREE, West Indian, is a 

 small tree 15 high or more, with petioled, ovate to elliptic, acute, pinnately 

 veined leaves 2'-6' long, slender spikes of small greenish flowers, the reddish 

 fruit about 5" in diameter; a luxuriant specimen was seen in a garden at the 

 west end of the Causeway in 1913. 



Ruprechtia corylifolia Griseb., HAZEL-LEAVED EUPRECHTIA, South Ameri- 

 can, a small tree with slender branches, ovate-elliptic, acute, thin, short- 

 petioled leaves 1V-3' long, very small, green flowers in slender racemes, the 

 narrow calyx-lobes much enlarged in fruit, was shown by two fine specimens 

 about 13 high at Mount Hope in 1914. 



9 



