520 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



serrate, with straight or incurved teeth tipped with dark minute persistent glands, 

 when they unfold glabrous or rarely scabrous or puberulous above and cinereo- 

 tomentose below, and at maturity thick and firm, dark yellow-green and glabrous on 

 the upper surface, pale and pubescent or puberulous on the lower surface, partic- 

 ularly along the prominent light yellow midribs and thin primary veins, l^'-3' long, 



f'-l^' wide; their petioles stout, tomentose or ultimately pubescent, y-^' long, 

 glandular at the apex, with 2 large round stalked dark glands, or often eglandular; 

 stipules acicular, often bright red, about ^' long. Flowers appearing early in April 

 with or before the leaves, about |' in diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels, in 2 or 

 3-flowered umbels; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous toward the base, villose 

 above, the lobes acute, entire, villose on the outer surface, hoary-tomentose on the 

 inner surface; petals oblong-obovate, gradually contracted below into short claws. 

 Fruit ripening late in October or early in November, on stout rigid pedicels, short- 

 oblong to subglobose, ^'-^' long; clear bright yellow on some trees, bright red on 

 others, and on others purple, dark blue, or black, with tough thick skin, thick very 

 acid flesh firmly attached to the ovoid more or less compressed very rugose stone 

 obscurely ridged on the ventral and slightly grooved on the dorsal suture, acute and 

 apiculate at the apex, rounded at the base. 



A tree, 20-25 high, with a tall trunk 18'-20' in diameter, wide-spreading 

 branches forming an open symmetrical head, and slender branchlets marked by 

 small scattered dark lenticels, light-green and hoary-tomentose when they first 

 appear, becoming glabrous, light red-brown and lustrous during their first summer 

 and darker at the end of the second year. Winter-buds narrow, acute, the color 

 of the branchlets, ^e'"!' long. Bark ^' |' thick, light brown tinged with red, and 

 divided by shallow interrupted fissures into flat ridges broken on the surface into 

 small loose plate-like scales. 



Distribution. Glades and open woods in the neighborhood of Marshall, Texas, 

 to western Louisiana and southern Arkansas. 



