COMBRETACEJS 



701 



truncate, obliquely compressed at the base, clothed with pale hairs, the limb cam- 

 panulate, parted to the middle, the lobes ovate, acute, erect, pubescent on the outer 

 and puberulous on the inner surface, deciduous; petals 0; disk o-lobed, hairy; 

 stamens usually 5, inserted in 1 rank, or rarely 7 or 8 in 2 ranks; anthers cordate, 

 minute; style thickened and villose at the base. Fruits scale-like, broadly obovate, 

 pointed, recurved, and covered at the apex with short pale hairs, densely imbricated 

 in ovoid reddish heads; flesh coriaceous, corky, produced into broad lateral wings; 

 stone thin- walled, crustaceous, inseparable from the flesh. Seed irregularly ovoid; 

 seed-coat membranaceous, pale chestnut-brown. 



The genus consists of a single species of tropical America and Africa. 



The generic name, from x'^^'o^ fiiid /capiros, is in allusion to the cone-like shape of 

 the heads of fruits. 



1. Conocarpus erecta, L. Button-wood. 



Leaves slightly puberulous on the lower surface when they first appear or coated 

 with pale silky persistent pubescence (var. sericea, DC), 2'-4:' long, ^'-1^' wide, lus- 

 trous, dark green or pale on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, with 



broad orange-colored midribs, obscure primary veins, and reticulate veinlets; their 

 petioles stout, broad, ^ long. Flowers produced throughout the year, in heads Y 

 in diameter on peduncles ^'-1^ in length, in panicles 6'-12' long. Cones of fruit 

 about 1' in diameter. 



A tree, 40-60 high, with a trunk 20'-30' in diameter, small branches forming a 

 narrow regular head, and slender branchlets conspicuously winged, light red-brown, 

 usually glabrous, or silky pubescent (var. sericea, DC), becoming terete and 

 marked by large orbicular leaf-scars in their second year; or sometimes a low shrub, 

 wdth semiprostrate stems. Bark of the trunk dark brown, divided by irregular re- 

 ticulating fissures into broad flat ridges broken on the surface into small thin appressed 

 scales. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, dark yellow-brown, wnth thin 

 darker colored sapwood of about 10 layers of annual growth; burning slowly like 

 charcoal and highly valued for fuel. The bark is bitter and astringent, and has been 

 used in tanning leather, and in medicine as an astringent and tonic. 



Distribution. Low muddy tide-water shores of lagoons and bays; Florida, Cape 

 Canaveral and Cedar Keys to the southern keys; of its largest size in Florida on 



