LAURACE.E 



331 



half as long as the oblong-lauceolate acute lobes of the inner series covered within 

 by long pale hairs. Fruit ^' long, dark blue or nearly black, very lustrous ; flesh 

 thin and dry, not readily separable from the ovate slightly pointed seed, 



A tree, 60-70 high, with a trunk 2^-3' in diameter, stout erect branches forming 

 a dense shapely head, thick fleshy yellow roots, and branchlets mauy-augled, light 

 brown, glabrous or coated with pale or rufous pubescence when they first appear, 

 becoming in their second year terete and dark green; usually much smaller. 

 Winter-buds coated with thick rufous tomentum, ^' long. Bark ^'-^' thick, dark 



red, deeply furrowed and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges separating on 

 the surface into small thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, very strong, 

 rather brittle, close-grained, bright red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 4 or 5 

 layers of annual growth; occasionally used for cabinet-making, the interior finish of 

 houses, and formerly in ship and boatbuilding. 



Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps in rich moist soil, or occasionally 

 in dry sandy loam in forests of the Long-leaved Pine ; coast region from Virginia to 

 the shores of Bay Biscayne and Cape Romano, Florida, along the Gulf coast to the 

 valley of the Brazos River, Texas, and northward through Louisiana to southern 

 Arkansas. 



2. Persea pubescens, Sarg. Swamp Bay. 



Leaves oval or lanceolate, entire, often narrowed toward the apex into long 

 points, gradually narrowed at the base, when they unfold dark red, thin, and tomen- 

 tose, at maturity thick and coriaceous, pale green and lustrous above, pale and 

 pubescent and rusty-tomentose on the midribs and primary veins below, 4'-6' long, 

 I'-iy wide, with thick conspicuous veins and slightly revolute margins, persistent 

 until after the beginning of their second year and then turning yellow and falling 

 gradually; their petioles stout, rusty-tomentose, ^'-f' long. Flowers: peduncles 

 tomentose, 2'-3' long; calyx pale yellow or creamy white, often nearly ^' long, 

 with thick firm lobes coated on the outer surface with rusty tomentum, those of the 

 outer series broadly ovate, abruptly pointed at the apex, pubescent on the inner 

 surface, about half as long as the ovate lanceolate lobes of the inner series, slightly 

 thickened at the apex, and hairy within. Fruit nearly black, |' long. 



