440 FORESTS AND TREES OF FLORIDA, ETC. 



cessible ; but as it is doubtless a West Indian species, I have hesitated 

 to describe it. It resembles C. obovata, Bentham, from South America, 

 but differs in form of leaves and flowers, as well as in color of the 

 flower, which is dark purple. It might be named 0. atropurpurea. 

 The fruit of some species is eaten, but this is said to be poisonous, or 

 disagreeable. G. cujete, figured by Nuttall, (from Key West,) is very 

 different, and was not found on the main land by me. 



No. 43 & is a common tree in the hummocks of South Florida, and 

 resembles the P. carolinensis, except in having leaves smooth and 

 shining beneath, flowers in terminal panicles, and other minor charac- 

 ters. It is probably described, but the specimens do not determine 

 which it is, out of nearly two hundred tropical American species. 



The Pigeon Plum, No. 113 b, (Florida list,) should be called G.flori- 

 dana, 3Ieisner, (in De Cand. Prod.) It is not C. parvifolia of Poiret, 

 (whom Nuttall does not quote,) and that name is inappropriate, as its 

 leaves grow to a length of six inches, and three wide. The figure in 

 Nuttall's work is from a young-leaved specimen. That in Catesby's 

 Carolina, Vol. II, page 94, is much better, and shows the fruit, "Cer- 

 asus latiore folio," &c. 



The Palm mentioned by Nuttall in the introduction to his Sylva is 

 found, as I was informed by several persons, in large groves, between 

 Capes Sable and Romano, and one tree three miles north of Fort Dal- 

 las. It was called "Royal Palm," and said to grow 120 feet high. 

 It is probably the Bahaman "Cabbage Palm," (Oreodoxa oleracea, 

 Mart.) This was evidently the palm found by Bartram, in 1774, near 

 Lake Dexter, on the St. John's river, latitude 28° 55', and to all 

 appearance wild. Some were ninety feet high, with "plumed" (pin- 

 nate) leaves thirty feet in length. (Travels, page 114.) As no one 

 has seen them lately, they may have been destroyed by the severe 

 frosts of 1835. 



The Orange, {Citrus aurantium, Biss.,) is so universally spread in 

 the forests of Florida as to be considered native by'the inhabitants; 

 but botanists generally think it was planted by the Indians at first, as 

 all of the genus are thought to be natives of Asia. Bartram speaks of 

 wild groves everywhere in his time ; yet the Indians may have intro- 

 duced it from Cuba more than two centuries previous. It has, per- 

 haps, as much right to be called native as some of the other fruit- 

 bearing trees here mentioned, which are less generally distributed. 

 Its northern limit is about latitude 3.0°. 



Bursera gummifera, (95 Florida list,) is called Gum Elemi, corrupted 

 to "Griimbo limbo," in South Florida and the West Indies. It may 

 be really one tree that produces that drug, all not being known to the 

 latest authors on the materia medica. Catesby's figure, ("Terebin- 

 thus major Betuhe Cortice," Vol. I, page 30,) is better than that in 

 Nuttall's Michaux. 



No. 6 e, (Florida list,) is wrongly called "Manchineel" in South 

 Florida, being confounded with No. 114, also a poisonous tree. 



Erythrina herbacea, Linn., assumes almost a tree form in Florida, 

 growing twelve feet high, and is then scarcely distinguishable from E. 

 corallodendron, the coral-tree of the West Indies, growing twenty feet 

 high. Its wood is very light, corky, and may be of use in place of 

 cork ; but the latter has hard wood. 



