314 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



dioecious or rarely inoncEcious; calyx, 5-lobed or toothed, the divisions induplicate- 

 valvate in the bud, petaloid, tubular or funnel-shaped in the staniinate flower, 

 elongated and often notched at the base of the tube in the pistillate flower, the 

 limb 5-lobed, the lobes plaited in the bud, erect or spreading ; stamens 5-8, inserted 

 on the base of the calyx under the ovary, minute or rudimentary in the unisexual 

 pistillate flower ; filaments folded in the bud, filiform, unequal, free; anthers oblong, 

 introrse, 2-celled, the cells parallel, opening longitudinally; ovary oblong-ovoid, 

 sessile, 1-celled, gradually narrowed into a columnar style; stigmas capitate, lacerate, 

 ^ruit fleshy, cylindrical, costate, smooth; utricle elongated, with a thin membrana- 

 ceous wall confluent with the thin transparent coat of the erect seed. 



Pisonia is chiefly tropical, with the largest number of species in the New World. 

 Two species extend into southern Florida ; of these one is arborescent. 



Pisonia was named in honor of Willem Piso, a Dutch physician and naturalist. 



1. Pisonia longifolia, Sarg., nov. nom. Blolly. 



(Pisonia obtusata, Silva N. Am. vi. 111.) 



Leaves opposite and sometimes alternate, obovate-oblong, rounded or occasionally 

 emarginate at the apex, gradually narrowed at the base, I'-l^' long, \' broad, thick 

 and firm, with slightly thickened undulate margins, light green and glabrous, paler 

 on the lower than on the upper surface, with stout midribs and obscure veins; their 

 petioles stout, channeled, \' long. FloTvers perfect or unisexual, autumnal, green- 

 ish yellow, short-pedicellate, in terminal long-stalked few-flowered panicled cymes, 

 with slender divergent branches, the ultimate divisions 2 or 3-flowered; bracts and 



bractlets minute, acute; calyx funnel-shaped, divided nearly to the middle into acute 

 erect lobes about half as long as the stamens and as long as the style. Fruit ripen- 

 ing in the winter or early spring, prominently costate, with ten rounded ribs, fleshy, 

 smooth, bright red, I' long; utricle terete, light brown. 



A tree, 30-50 high, with an erect or inclining trunk 15'-20' in diameter, stout 

 spreading branches forming a compact round-topped head, and slender terete branch- 

 lets light orange color when they first appear, later often producing numerous short 

 spur-like lateral branchlets, light reddish brown or ashy gray, and marked by large 

 elevated semiorbicular or lunate leaf-scars ; usually much smaller. Bark about yV 

 thick, light red-brown, and broken into thin appressed scales. Wood heavy, rather 



