SAPOTACEAE. 323 



5. BUMELIA Sw. Prodr. 49. 1788. 



Shrubs or trees, the branches often spineseent, the wood very hard. 

 Leaves sometimes clustered at the nodes. Flowers small, pedicelled, green or 

 white, fascicled in the axils. Calyx deeply 5-parted, the sepals unequal. Corolla 

 5-lobed, with a pair of lobe-like appendages at each sinus, its tube short. 

 Stamens 5, inserted near the base of the corolla-tube; anthers sagittate. 

 Staminodia 5, petaloid. Ovary 5-celIed; style filiform. Berry small, the peri- 

 carp fleshy, enclosing a single erect seed. Seed shining, the hilum at the base. 

 [Greek, ox (large) ash.] About 35 species, natives of America. Type species: 

 Bumelia retusa Sw. 



Leaves narrow, linear to spathulate, 2-10 mm. wide, wider 



only on shoots; fruit oblong-cylindric. 1. B. angustifoUa. 



Leaves obovate to oblanceolate, 14 cm. wide, fruit globose 

 to ovoid. 

 Pedicels little if at all longer than the petioles : leaves obo- 

 vate or oblanceolate. or on shoots suborbicular. 2. B. loranthifolia. 

 Pedicels much longer than the petioles ; leaves spathulate 



to oblanceolate. 3. B. balwmcnsis. 



1. Bumelia angustifolia Xutt. Sylv. 3: 38, *. 93. 1849. 



Bumelia Eggersii Pierre in Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 146. 1904. 



A glabrous shrub' or small tree, reaching a maximum height of about 8 m. 

 Leaves linear to spatulate, or those of shoots obovate, 2-4 cm. long, mostly 

 obtuse at the apex, narrowed at the base, short-petioled; fascicles few-many- 

 flowered; pedicels 3-6 mm. long; sepals ovate, about 2 mm. long, obtuse, the 

 inner wider than the outer; corolla-lobes orbicular, erose-denticulate, the lance- 

 olate appendages acuminate; staminodia ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 2 mm. long, 

 erose; fruit oblong to oblong-cylindric, 1-2 cm. long, purple-black. 



Palmetto-lands, coastal thickets, borders of salinas. Great Bahama, Cat Cay, 

 Andros, New Providence, and Rose Island : Florida ; Cuban Cays. Recorded by 

 Mrs. Northrop and by Coker as B. microphylla Griseb. Narrow-leaved Bumelia. 



2. Bumelia loranthifolia (Pierre) Britton, Bull. X. Y. Bot. Gard. 3: 447. 



1905. 



Bumelia retusa loranthifolia Pierre in Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 145. 1904. 



A shrub, 1-3 m. high, or sometimes straggling, or a tree up to 8 m. high, 

 the young twigs densely brown-tomentulose., Leaves obovate or oblanceolate, 

 coriaceous, 1-5 cm. long, glabrous and shining above, brown-tomentulose be- 

 neath when young, becoming glabrous, rounded or somewhat retuse at the apex, 

 cuneate at the base, the petioles 2-5 mm. long; pedicels as long as the petioles 

 or a little longer; sepals suborbicular, 2-3 mm. long, the outer ones tomentu- 

 lose; corolla about twice as long as the sepals, its lobes about as long as the 

 tube; staminodia lanceolate; fruit globose, oblong or ovoid, 6-9 mm. in diam- 

 eter, black. 



Coppices, pine-lands, white-lands and scrub-lands, throughout the archipelago 

 from Abaco and Great Bahama to Inagua, Mariguana. Cotton Cay and the Anguilla 

 Isles. Endemic. Referred bv Hitchcock and by Dolley to B. retusa Sw. ; recorded 

 by Mrs. Northrop as B. euhcnsis Griseb. Wild Saffron. Milk-berry. 



3. Bumelia bahamensis Britton, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 3: 447. 1905. 



A shrub with slender puberulous twigs, related to B. loranthifolia. Leaves 

 spatulate-oblanceolate, coriaceous, revolute-margined, 8 cm. long or less, 1.5- 

 2.5 cm. wide, rounded at the apex, narrowly cuneate at the base, dull green and 

 glabrous above, densely brown-tomentulose beneath, rather strongly pinnately 

 veined, the veins ascending at a narrow angle; petioles stout, 5 mm. long or 



