654 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



long and l^'-2' wide. Flowers opening in Florida in April, y across when ex- 

 panded, tlie staminate and pistillate on separate plants. Fruit fully grown by the 

 end of June and then ^'-|' long, dull orange color, remaining on the branches dur- 

 ing the sunnner, ripening in the autumn, and becoming juicy and dark purple at 

 maturity; seeds ^'-f in diameter. 



A tree, sometimes 40-50 high, with a trunk 12'-15' in diameter, slender upright 

 branchlets orange-brown when they first appear, becoming reddish brown in their 

 second year and thickly covered by small white lenticels. Bark of the trunk ^'-\' 

 thick, the bright red surface separating into large scales. Wood very hard and 

 heavy, strong, close-grained, bright red-brown, with lighter colored sapwood of 10-12 

 layers of annual growth; valued for piles and also used in Florida in boatbuilding, 

 for the handles of tools, and many small articles. 



3. HYPELATE, P. Br. 



A glabrous tree or shrub, with smooth bark and slender terete branchlets. Leaves 

 long-petioled, the petioles sometimes narrow-winged, 3-foliolate, the terminal leaflet 

 rather larger than the others, persistent; leaflets sessile, obovate, rounded or rarely 

 acute or emarginate at the apex, entire, with thickened revolute margins and promi- 

 lient midribs, coriaceous, feather-veined, the veins arcuate and connected near the 

 margins, dark green and lustrous on the upper, bright green on the lower surface. 

 Flowers regular, polygamo-moncecious, minute, on slender pedicels from the axils of 

 minute deciduous bracts, in few-flowered long-stemmed wide-branched terminal or 

 axillary panicles; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes ovate, rounded at the apex, slightly puber- 

 ulous on the outer surface, ciliate on the margins, deciduous by a circumcissile line, 

 petals 5, rather longer than the calyx-lobes, rounded, spreading, ciliate on the mar- 

 gins, white; stamens 7 or 8, inserted on the lobes of the annular fleshy disk; fila- 

 ments filiform, as long as the petals in the staminate flower, much shorter in the 

 pistillate flower; anthers oblong, attached on the back near the bottom, the cells 

 spreading from above downward; ovary sessile on the disk, slightly 3-lobed, 3-celled, 

 contracted into a short stout style, rudimentary in the staminate flower; stigma 

 large, declinate, obscurely 3-lobed; ovules 2 in each cell, borne on the middle of its 

 inner angle, superposed, amphitropous, the upper ascending, with the micropyle in- 

 ferior, the lower pendulous, with the micropyle superior. Fruit an ovate black drupe 

 crowned with the remnants of the persistent style and supported on the persistent 

 base of the disk; flesh thin and fleshy; walls of the stone thick and crustaceous. 

 Seed solitary by the abortion of the upper ovule, suspended, obovate; seed-coat thin, 

 slightly wrinkled; embryo conduplicate, filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons 

 thin, foliaceous, irregularly folded, incumbent on the long radicle. 



The genus with a single species is distributed from southern Florida to Cuba and 

 Jamaica. 



Hypelate is the ancient name of the Butcher's Broom. 



1. Hypelate trifoliata, Sw. White Ironwood. 



Leaves unfolding in June and persistent until their second season or longer; 

 petioles stout, 1^-2' long, with narrow green wings; leaflets l^'-2' long, and f'-l^ 

 wide. Flowers appearing in Florida in June, rather less than \' in diameter, in few- 

 flowered panicles 3'-4' in length, on slender peduncles, the staminate and pistillate in 

 separate panicles on the same tree. Fruit ripening in September, |' long, with a 

 sweet rather agreeable flavor. 



