THEACE^ 



679 



soft, close-grained, not durable, light red, with lighter colored sapwood of 40-50 

 layers of annual growth; occasionally used in cabinet-making. 



Distribution. Shallow swamps and moist depressions in the Pine barrens; south- 

 ern Virginia southward near the coast to Cape Malabar and Cape Romano, Florida, 

 and westward along the Gulf coast to the valley of the Mississippi River; most 

 abundant in Georgia and east Florida; gradually becoming less abundant westward. 



2. Gordonia Altamaha, Sarg. Franklinia. 



Leaves obovate-oblong, rounded or pointed at the apex, gradually narrowed to 

 the base, long-cuneate, remotely serrate, usually above the middle only, with small 

 glandular teeth, bright green and lustrous ou the upper, pale on the lower surface, 

 o'-6' long, l^'-2' wide, turning scarlet in the autumn before falling; their petioles 

 stout, wing-margined above, \'-^' long. Flowers 3'-3l' in diameter, appearing about 

 the middle of September, on short stout peduncles at first pubescent, finally glabrous, 

 from the axils of crowded upper leaves, and marked by the broad conspicuous scars 

 of 2 minute lateral subfloral pubescent bracts; sepals nearly circular, ^' in diameter, 

 ciliate on the margins, and covered on the outer surface with short lustrous silky 

 pale hairs; petals obovate, crenulate on the margins, white, membranaceous, I'-l^' 

 long, 1' broad, and densely coated on the outer surface with fine pubescence; fila- 

 ments distinct, inserted on the petals; ovary conspicuously ridged, pubescent, trun- 

 cate, and crowned with a slender deciduous style nearly as long as the stamens. 



Fruit globose, septicidally 5-valved from the base to the middle; seeds 6-8, or by 

 abortion fewer in each cell, closely packed together on the whole length of the thick 

 axile placenta, nearly i' long, angled by mutual pressure, without wings. 



A tree, 15-20 high, with stout slightly angled dark red-brown branchlets cov- 

 ered with small pale oblong horizontal lenticels, and conspicuously marked by large 

 prominent obcordate leaf-scars, with a marginal row of large fibro-vascular bundle- 

 scars. Winter-buds compressed, reddish brown, puberulous, y-^' long. Bark of 

 cultivated plants smooth, thin, dark brown. 



Distribution. Near Fort Barrington on the Altamaha River, Georgia; not seen 

 in a wild state since 1790, and now only known by cultivated plants. 



