658 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



from western Texas and southern California to Patagonia and Brazil. Of the six 

 species found within the territory of the United States one is a small tree. 



The generic name commemorates that of Antonio Condal, a Spanish physician of 

 the eighteenth century sent to South America on a scientific mission in 1754. 



1. Condalia obovata, Hook. Purple Haw. Log Wood. 



Leaves often fascicled on short spinescent lateral branchlets, spatulate to oblong- 

 cuneate, mucronate, pubescent, especially on the lower surface, when they first appear, 



at maturity glabrous, rather thin, pale yellow-green, I'-l^ long, and about |' wide, 

 with conspicuous midribs and usually 3 pairs of prominent primary veins, unfold- 

 ing in May and June and falling irregularly during the winter. Flovrers in 2-4- 

 flowered short-stemmed fascicles, on branchlets of the year. Fruit ripening irregu- 

 larly during the summer, ^' long, dark blue or black, with a sweet pleasant flavor. 



A tree, sometimes 30 high, with a trmik 6'-8' in diameter, erect rigid zigzag 

 branchlets terminating in stout spines and covered at first with soft velvety pubes- 

 cence, becoming glabrous before the end of the first season, pale red-brown and 

 often covered with thin scales; more often a shrub. Bark of the trunk about |' 

 thick, divided into flat shallow ridges, the dark brown surface tinged with red sep- 

 arating into thin scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, light red, with light 

 yellow sapwood of 7-8 layers of annual growth; burning with an intense heat and 

 valued as fuel. 



Distribution. Western Texas from the shores of Matagorda Bay to the Rio 

 Grande, and through the drier portions of northern Mexico; of tree-like habit and of 

 its largest size on the high sandy banks of the lower Rio Grande and its tributaries; 

 often covering large areas with dense impenetrable chapparal. 



2. REYNOSIA, Griseb. 



Trees or shrubs, with rigid unarmed terete branches, and scaly buds. Leaves 

 mostly opposite, entire, coriaceous, short-petiolate, reticulate-veined, persistent. 

 Flowers minute, on stout pedicels bibracteate near the base and two or three times 

 longer than the flower, in small axillary sessile umbels; calyx persistent, 5-lobed, 

 the lobes deltoid, acuminate, spreading, petaloid, deciduous; disk fleshy; petals 0; 



