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TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



2. Ficus populnea, Willd. Fig. Wild Fig. 



Leaves broadly ovate or rarely obovate, contracted into short broad points or 

 occasionally rounded at the apex, rounded, truncate or cordate at the base, 2^'-5' 

 long, l^'-o' wide, thin and firm, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, 

 paler on the lower, with light yellow midribs, slender remote primary veins arcuate 

 and united near the margins and connected by finely reticulate veinlets ; their peti- 

 oles slender, sometimes V long; stipules ovate-lanceolate, ^' long, tinged with red. 

 Flowers: receptacles obovate, axillary, solitary or in pairs, yellow until fully 

 grown, ultimately turning bright red and becoming ^'-^' long, on stout drooping 

 peduncles \'-l' in length; flowers sessile or pedicellate, separated by minute chaff- 

 like scales more or less laciniate at the apex; calyx of the staminate flower divided 

 nearly to the base into three or four broad acute lobes; calyx of the pistillate flower 

 with narrow lobes shorter than the ovate pointed ovary. Fruit ovate; seed ovate, 

 with a membranaceous light brown coat and an oblong lateral pale hilum. 



An epiphytal tree, rarely 40-50 high, with a trunk 12'-18' in diameter, spreading 

 branches occasionally developing aerial roots and forming an open irregular head, and 



P'Ci. ^143 



stout terete branchlets light red and slightly puberulous when they first appear, 

 becoming brown tinged with orange and later with red, and marked by minute pale 

 lenticels, narrow stipular scars, large elevated horizontal oval or semiorbicular leaf- 

 scars showing a marginal row of conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and ele- 

 vated concave receptacle scars. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light orange-brown 

 or yellow, with thick hardly distinguishable sapwood. 



Distribution. Usually on dry slightly elevated coral rocks; comparatively rare 

 in Florida from the shores of Bay Biscayne and on several of the keys to Key West; 

 in the West Indies. 



