CAPRIFOLIACE^ ' 811 



wide, and rather larger than those containing sterile branchlets; axillary buds acute, 

 flattened by pressure against the stems, and much smaller than the terminal buds. 

 Bark of the trunk \'-^' thick, separating into narrow rounded ridges divided by 

 numerous cross fissures, and roughened by small plate-like dark brown scales tinged 

 with red. Wood bad-smelling. 



Distribution. Dry upland woods and the margins of river-bottom lands; south- 

 western Virginia and southern Illinois to Hernando County, Florida, southeastern 

 Kansas and the valley of the Guadalupe River, Texas; most abundant and of its 

 largest size in southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas. 



Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states, and hardy as far north as eastern 

 Massachusetts. 



3. Viburnum prunifolium, L. Black Ha-w. Stag Bush. 



Leaves ovate or rarely obovate, oval or suborbicular, rounded, acute, or short- 

 pointed at the apex, wedge-shaped or rounded at the base, and usually rather re- 

 motely or sometimes finely serrate, with rigid incurved callous-tipped teeth, when 



they unfold lustrous and tinged with red, glabrous on the lower surface and covered 

 on the upper side of the midribs and on the bright red petioles with scattered red- 

 dish hairs, and at maturity firm or sometimes coriaceous, dark green and glabrous 

 above, pale and glabrous below, with slender primary veins connected by reticulate 

 veinlets, 1'- 3' long and ^'-3' wide, in the autumn turning brilliant scarlet or dark 

 vinous red before falling; their petioles terete, grooved, ^'-|' long, and on vigorous 

 shoots sometimes narrowly wing-margined. Flo"wers ^' in diameter on slender 

 pedicels bibracteolate at the apex, in glabrous cymes 2'-4' in diameter, with subulate 

 bracts about ^^' long, usually red above the middle, and caducous; calyx narrowly 

 obovate, with short rounded lobes often tipped with pink; corolla pure white, with 

 oval or nearly orbicular lobes. Fruit ripening in October, in few-fruited red-stemmed 

 clusters, persistent on the branches until the beginning of winter, oval or slightly 

 obovate, ^'-f' long, dark blue, and covered with a glaucous bloom; stone about ^' 

 long and ^' wide. 



A bushy tree, occasionally 20- 30 high, with a short and usually crooked trunk 

 6'-8' in diameter, stout spreading rigid branches beset with slender spine-like 

 branchlets, bright red and glabrous when they first appear, soon turning green, and 



