148 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



A tree, occasionally 40 liip:li, with a tall trunk 8'-10' in diameter, slender up- 

 right or slig-htly spreading branches forming a narrow ronnd-topped head, and 

 slender branchlets marked by small pale lentieels, coated at first with loose rufous 

 tonientum and caducous orange-colored glands, bright red-brown or dark brown 

 tinged with gray, usually lustrous and nearly glabrous during their first winter, 

 finally becoming dark brown; generally smaller, frequently shrubby, with many 

 slender stems, sometimes only a few inches high. Winter-buds oblong, acute, 

 ^^'-^' long, with numerous ovate acute imbricated scales, the inner scales becoming 



nearly i' long, and often persistent until the young branch has completed its growth. 

 Bark of the trunk ^' thick, compact, smooth, light gray. Wood light, soft and 

 brittle, dark brown, with thin lighter-colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Cape May, New Jersey, southern Delaware and Maryland to 

 southern Florida in the neighborhood of the coast, through the Gulf states to the 

 shores of Aransas Bay, Texas, and northward in the region west of the Mississippi 

 River to the valley of the Washita River, Arkansas; on the Bermuda and Bahama 

 islands and on several of the Antilles; most abundant and of its largest size on the 

 south Atlantic and Gulf coasts in sandy swamps and pond holes; in the sandy soil 

 of Pine-barrens and on dry arid hills of the interior, often only a few inches in 

 height. 



2. Myrica inodora, W. Bartr. Wax Myrtle. 



Leaves broadly oblong-obovate or rarely ovate, rounded or sometimes pointed 

 and occasionally apiculate at the apex, narrowed at the base, decurrent on short 

 stout petioles, entire or rarely obscurely toothed toward the apex, thick and coria- 

 ceous, glandular-punctate, dark green and very lustrous above, bright green below, 

 2'-4' long, f -1^' wide, with broad conspicuously glandular midribs slightly pubes- 

 cent on the lower side, and few remote slender obscure primary veins forked and 

 arcuate near the much-thickened and revolute margins, gradually deciduous from 

 May until midsummer. Flowers in aments f'-l' long, with ovate acute glandular 

 scales; stamens numerous, with oblong slightly emarginate yellow anthers; pistillate 

 flowers usually in pairs, with ovate glabrous ovaries and slender bright red styles. 

 Fruit produced sparingly in elongated spikes, oblong, ^'^' long, papillose, black, and 

 covered with a thin coat of white wax. 



