iwTACEM, SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA 



87 



CAXOTIA. 



Flowers perfect ; calyx S-lobed, imbricated in eestivation, persistent ; petals 5 

 imbricated in aestivation, hypogynous. Fruit, a woody 5-celled capsule. 



Canotia, Torrey, P«..> B. R. Mep. iv. 68. _ Bentham & PI. yi, 4.2; Diet i. 612. _ Gray Proc Am Acad x' 



Hooker, Gen. I 616. - BaiUon, Adansonia, x. 18 ; Hist. 159. -Maximowicz, Act. Hart. St. Petershourg, vi. 256.' 



'A glabrous leafless tree, with light brown deeply furrowed bark. Branches stout, terete alternate 

 terminated m rigid spines, pale green, striate, their bases and those of the peduncles surrounded with 

 black triangular persistent cnshlon-like processes, with a minutely papillose surface havin<. the appear- 

 ance of appressed scales. Flowers three to seven together in short-stemmed fascicles or c^orymhs near 

 the extremities of the branches, from the axils of minute ovate subulate bracts. Pedicels slender spread- 

 ing, jointed below the middle. Calyx minute, the lobes much shorter than the oblong obtus'e sessile 

 wHte petals reflexed at maturity above the middle, deciduous. Stamens five, hypogynous, opposite the 

 lobes of the calyx; filaments awl-shaped, rather shorter than the petals, persistent on the fruit j anthers 

 oblong, cordate, introrse, minutely apiculate, attached below the middle, grooved on the back, two-celled, 

 the cells opening longitudinally. Ovary raised upon and confluent with a fleshy slightly ten-angled 

 gj-nophore, papillose-glandular on the surface, five-celled, the cells opposite the petals, terminated In a 

 fleshy elongated style ; stigma slightly five-lobed ; ovules six in each cell, inserted in two ranks on its 

 inner angle, sub-horizontal; the micropyle inferior. Capsule terete, oblong, tapering at each end, 

 crowned with a subulate persistent style, five-ceUed, septicidally five-valved, the valves two-lobed at the 

 apex ; epicarp thin, fleshy ; endocarp woody. Seed solitary or in pairs, ascending, subovate, flattened ; 

 testa subcoriaceons, papillate, produced below into a broad subfalcate membranaceous wing. Embryo 

 surrounded by thhi fleshy albumen, erect ; cotyledons oval, compressed ; the radicle very short, inferior. 



The wood of Canotia is heavy, hard, and close-grained, with numerous thin rather obscure medul- 

 lary rays. It is light brown with thick lighter colored sapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely 

 dry wood is 0.GSS5, a cubic foot weighing 42.91 pounds. 



The generic name Canotia,^ given to this tree by Torrey, is the name by which it was known to the 

 Mexicans of Arizona at the time of its discovery. The genus is represented by a single species. 



^ 1 Canotia was compared by Torrey, who knew the fruit only with Gray, relying on the structure of the gj-nobase and the faint traces 



Its persistent ^ calyx and fdainents, to Euchryphia, wliieh Lindley, of Rutaceous oil-glands in the bracts of the inflorescence, the sepals 



owing Choisy, had referred to i7(y)er;cacecE. Bcntliam & Hooker, and petals, placed it in Rutacece in spite of the inferior radicle, 



to whom the flowers were also unknown, placed it with Euchryphia {Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 160.) 

 in RomcecB. BaiUon referred the genus to Celantracem, and finally 



