KOSACEiE 



529 



Often cultivated in the southern states as an ornamental plant and to form 



hedges. 



16. Prunus sphaerocarpa, Sw. 



Leaves elliptical to oblong-ovate, gradually or abruptly contracted into broad 

 obtuse points, or less commonly rounded or rarely emarginate at the apex, wedge- 

 shaped at the base, entire, with slightly thickened undulate margins, glabrous, 



eglandular, subcoriaceous, yellow-green and lustrous on the upper, paler on the lower 

 surface, obscurely veined, 2'-4y long, I'-l^ broad, persistent ; their petioles slender, 

 orange-brown, ^' to nearly V long; stipules foliaceous, lanceolate-acuminate, entire, 

 Y long, early deciduous. Flowers opening in Florida in November, ^' in diameter, 

 on thin orange-colored pedicels ^'-f^ long, in slender many-flowered erect racemes 

 shorter than the leaves; calyx-tube obconic, bright orange-colored on the outer sur- 

 face, marked by an orange band in the throat, the lobes thin, minute, acute, laciniate 

 on the margins, deciduous, much shorter than the obovate rounded or acuminate white 

 petals, marked with yellow on the inner surface toward the base; contracted below 

 into short claws, reflexed at maturity ; stamens exserted, with slender orange-colored 

 subulate filaments and small yellow anthers; ovary sessile, contracted into a short 

 stout style, crowded into a large club-shaped stigma. Fruit produced in Florida very 

 sparingly, ripening either in the spring or early summer, subglobose to short-oblong, 

 apiculate, orange-brown, j-^' long, with thin dry flesh adherent to the thin- walled 

 cylindrical stone shghtly narrowed at the apex, obscurely ridged on the ventral 

 suture. 



A glabrous tree, in Florida rarely 25-30 high, with a trunk 5^-6' in diameter, 

 slender upright branches and slender orange-brown branchlets, becoming ashy gray 

 or light brown tinged with red and marked by small circular pale lenticels. Bark 

 thin, smooth, or slightly reticulate-fissured, light brown tinged with red. Wood 

 heavy, hard, close-grained, light clear red, with thick pale sapwood. 



Distribution. Rich hummock land, occasionally near the borders of small streams 

 and ponds, and in the United States only near the shore of Bay Biscayne; through 

 the West Indies to Brazil. 



