142 LEGUMINOSAE. 
CERCIDIUM. Palo Verde. 
(Family Leguminosae). 
Green-barked glabrous’ small 
trees of the Southwest, sometimes 
with axillary spines: deciduous. 
Twigs slender, subterete, some- 
what zig-zag, finely but distinctly 
granular-roughened: pith moder- 
ate, roundish, continuous. Buds 
solitary and sessile, or collaterally 
branching in spine formation or 
becoming somewhat stalked in 
developing, minute, obscurely few- 
scaled. Leaf-scars alternate, lit- 
tle elevated, crescent-shaped or 
transversely almost linear, mi- 
nute: bundle-traces 3, indistinct: 
stipule-scars minute, at the angles 
of the leaf-scar. 
The palo verde or green tree is 
one of the particularly striking 
and unusual trees of the South- 
west because of its smooth green 
bark. . Though characteristically spiny, it is sometimes nearly 
or quite unarmed. 
Of Arizona and arid California. (1). C. Torreyanum. 
Of Texas. C. floridum. 
