600 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



the slightly enharged torus, free or slightly connate at the base; anthers attached 

 on the back below the middle, erect, ovoid, 2-celled, the cells parallel; calyx of the 

 pistillate flower reduced to 3 bract-like scales; ovary ovate, 3-celled, narrowed into 

 3 recurved styles free or slightly united at the base, stigmatic on their inner face; 

 ovule solitary in each cell. Fruit a 3-lobed capsule separating from the persistent 

 axis into 3 2-valved 1-seeded carpels dehiscent on the dorsal and partly dehiscent 

 on the ventral suture. Seed ovoid or subglobose, strophiolate ; seed-coat crusta- 

 ceous; embryo erect in fleshy albumen. 



Gymnanthes with about ten species is confined to the tropics of the New World 

 and is distributed from southern Florida, where one species occurs, through the West 

 Indies to Mexico and Brazil. 



The generic name, from yvfxvds and &v6oSj relates to the structure of the naked 

 flowers. 



1. Gymnanthes lucida, Sw. Crab Wood. 



Leaves oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, obscurely and remotely crenulate-ser- 

 rate or often entire, when they unfold thin and membranaceous, deeply tinged w^ith 

 red, and glandular on the teeth, with minute caducous dark glands, and at maturity 

 thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper and pale and dull on the 

 lower surface, 2'-3' long, f'-l^' wide, with broad pale midribs raised and rounded 

 on the upper side, obscure primary veins arcuate and united near the margins and 

 connected by prominent coarsely reticulate veinlets, appearing in Florida in early 



fk U-91 



spring and remaining on the branches through their second summer; their petioles 

 broad, slightly grooved, about \' long; stipules ovate, acute, light brown, clothed on 

 the margins with long pale hairs, about ^-^' long. Flo"wers : inflorescence buds 

 appearing in Florida late in the autumn in the axils of leaves of the year and begin- 

 ning to lengthen in spring, the inflorescence becoming l^'-2' long, with a slender 

 glabrous angled rachis, the scales broadly ovate, pointed, concave, rounded and 

 thickened at the apex, puberulous and ciliate on the margins, those inclosing the 

 male flowers connate with the flowers and persistent under the calyx, those subtend- 

 ing the female flowers at the base of the inflorescence and not raised on their pedun- 

 cles. Fruit produced in Florida sparingly, ripening in the autumn, slightly obovate, 

 dark reddish brown or nearly black, ^' in diameter, covered with thin dry flesh and 

 pendent on a slender stem 1' or more in length; seeds ovoid. 



