TORCHWOOD FAMILY 121 



branclies, linear or broadened upward, thickish, more or less 

 pubescent, about 1 in. long. Flowers yellow, about y2 in. 

 across, in small clusters. Sepals 5, petals 5, stamens 10, 

 the alternate ones shorter and sterile, filaments pubescent. 

 Fruit of 4 or 5 small achene-like pubescent carpels seated in 

 persistent calyx. Sea beaches. Blooming all the year. 

 Southern Fla. 



TORCHWOOD FAMILY (Burseraceae) 



GuMBO-LiMJBO. West Indian Birch (Elaphrium simor 



ruba (Bursera)). 



Great burnished reddish brown trunks of the tropical 

 gumbo-limbo trees are conspicuous in hammocks near 

 the coast of southern Florida. The smooth bark is remark- 

 able as it can be peeled off in thin sheets, like that of 

 some of the birches. This tree is the source of an aro- 

 matic gum that in tropical America has long been used 

 in medicine, and also as a glue and a varnish. The name 

 gumbo-limbo is said to be a corruption of goma elemi, a 

 Spanish name of the gum. 



The leaves are alternate, of 3-9 entire, pointed leaflets, 

 1-4 inches long. The minute greenish or whitish flowers 

 are in axillary racemes or panicles, and are even less 

 noticeable than the small aromatic fruit, barely one-fourth 

 of an inch long, whose valves split and fall, often leaving 

 the three-angled seed on the tree. 



The closely-allied paradise tree, or bitter-wood, Sima- 

 ruha glauca of the quassia family, is another tropical tree 

 found in the southern part of the peninsula. It has long, 

 pinnate leaves of 6-18 glossy leaflets, 2-3 inches in length, 

 and long panicles of small greenish flowers. The red or 

 dark purple pulpy fruit is oval in shape, and is about three- 

 fourths of an inch long. 



