13C COMBRETACEjE. (COMBRETUM FAMILY.) 



Order 54. COIBRETACEiE. (Combretim Family.) 



Tropical trees or shrubs, with entire exstipulate leaves, and axillary 

 spiked or capitate flowers. — Calyx-tube coherent with the 1-celled, 2-5- 

 ovulcd ovary ; the limb 4— 5-cleft, mostly deciduous. Petals 4 - 5, often 

 ■wanting. Stamens 4— 15, inserted with the petals on the calyx. Style 

 slender: stigma simple. Fruit drupaceous or baccate, or dry and indehis- 

 cent, often -winged. Seed solitary, suspended, anatropous, without albu- 

 men. Cotyledons convolute or variously folded. 



1. LAGlTNClTLARIA, Gsert 



Flowers in spikes. Calyx-tube obconical, the limb 5-parted, obtuse, persist- 

 ent. Petals 5, minute. Stamens 10. Style subulate ; stigma capitate;. Ovary 

 I -celled, 2-ovuled. Drupe coriaceous, cuneate-obovate, compressed, angled, 

 1-seeded. Seeds germinating in the drupe. Cotyledons convolute. Radicle 

 elongated. — Maritime shrubs, with opposite elliptical smooth and fleshy leaves, 

 on biglandular petioles, and small flowers, in simple or compound axillary and 



terminal spikes. 



* 



1. L. racemosa, Gtaert. Spikes erect, rigid, hoary-tomentose, the lateral 



ones solitary, the terminal ones in threes, simple or branched; flowers scattered ; 

 calyx-tube obconical, farrowed, wing-angled in fruit. — South Florida. June 

 to Aug. — A shrub or small tree, with the habit of the Mangrove. 



2. L. glabriflora, Presl. Spikes spreading, slender, smooth, the lateral 

 ones in pairs, the terminal ones in threes or fours; flowers minute, crowded, 

 deciduous; calyx-tube cup-shaped, terete, even, with two opposite bractlets ap- 

 prcssed to sides. — Banks of the Manitee River, South Florida, RugeL June. — 

 Perhaps a sterile form of the preceding. 



2. CONOCARPUS, Ga:rt. 



Flowers densely crowded in a globular head. Calyx-tube about as long as 

 the compressed 2-ovuled ovary; the limb 5-cleft, deciduous. Petals none. Sta- 

 mens 5-10, exserted. Anthers cordate. Fruit coriaceous, scale-like, closely 

 imbricated and indehiscent. Cotyledons convolute. — Trees or shrubs, with 

 alternate entire ami Bomewhal fleshy leaves. Heads of flowers spiked or panicled. 



I. C. erecta, Jacq. Branchlets angular, smooth; Leaves Broooth, oblong 



or lanceolate, acute Or aeiiminate, narrowed into a biglandular petiole | head- of 



Bowers sessile, or on short and spreading pedicels ; cone of fruit ovoid. — Var. 

 bbricea, DC, Branches, leaves, and panicles silky and hoary; lowest leaves 

 mostly oboyate and obtuse or emarginate; ovary abortive. — Sandy Bea-shore, 



Tampa Pay, Florida, and southward. January and February. — A shrub or 



small tree. Leaves 2' - 4' long. Heads of fruit 8" - 6" long. Flowers greenish, 

 minute. 



