BUKSEiiACE^. SILVA OF NOnTH AMERICA. 



97 



BURSERA SIMARUBA. 



Gumbo Limbo. West Indian Birch. 



Sepals and petals 5. Fruit 1 to 2-seeded. Leaflets green on both surfaces, prom- 

 inently rcticulatc-veincd below. 



Bursera Simaruba, Sargent, Garden and Forest, in. 2<j(i. 79. - Richard, i^^. fJuh. 390. - Griscbach Ft Brit W 



Pistacia Simaruba, Limi^us, Spec. 1026. Ind. 173. - Chapman, FL 08. - Marchand, Organ. Bur^ 



Bursera gummifera, Jacquin, Stirp. Am. 94, t. 65. - Lin- serarAes, 13.-Triana & PUnchon, Ann. Sci. Nat. ser 



n^us. Spec. ed. 2, 471. - Lamarck, lit ii. 767, t. 5, xv. 302. - Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 177 - 



2o6. - Willdenow, Spec. iv. 1119. - Titford, Ilort. Bot. Engler, Be CandoUe Monogr. Phaner. iv. 39. - Sar<^ent 



Am. 107. — De CandoUe, Prodr. ii. 78. — Descourtilz, Ft. Forest Trees N. Am. mil Census U S ix S2 

 3fed. Antil ii. 117, t. 97. - Spach, Hist. Veg. ii. 239. - Blaphrium integerrimum, Tnlasne, Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 3 



Macfadyen, Fl. Jam. 229. — Kuttall, Sylva, ii. 117, t. vi. 369. ' 



A glabrous tree, fifty or sixty feet In height, with a trunk two and a half to three feet in diameter, 

 and stout massive primary branches spreading nearly at right angles. The bark of the trunk and 

 pnncipal branches is an inch thick, marked with glandular dots, and separating freely into thin papery 

 scales which are bright red-brown, while the surface, which is exposed when they fall, is dark brown or 

 gray. The branchlets are stout, terete, light gray during their first season, becoming reddish brown 

 during the second year, covered with lenticular spots, and conspicuously marked with yellow leaf-scars. 

 The winter-buds are short, round, obtuse, and have broadly ovate dark-red scales with slightly scarious 

 margins. The leaves are confined to the ends of the branchlets, and are usually composed of five leaf- 

 lets, although they sometimes have three or seven; they are six to eight inches in length and four to 

 eight inches broad, with a long slender petiole j they fall in the early winter, or occasionally remain on 

 the branches until the beginning of the new growth in the spring. The leaflets, which are slightly 

 coriaceous at maturity, are oblong, ovate, obHc^ue at the base, and contracted at the apex into a long or 

 short point j they are two and a half to three inches in length, and one and a half to two inches broad, 

 and are borne on stout petioluies, often half an inch long. The flowers appear before the leaves or 

 while they are imfolding. They are produced in slender raceme-like panicles, those of the sterile plants 

 being four or five inches long, or nearly twice the length of those of the fertile plants. The slender 

 pedicels, which appear two to five together in lateral fascicles, are a third to half an inch long, and 

 two or three times longer than the ilower-buds. The petals are ovate-lanceolate, acute, with revolute 

 margins, and are four times as long as the slender acute lobes of the calyx. The stamens of the sterile 

 flowers are as long as the petals, and in the pistillate flowers not more than half as long with smaller, 

 often effete anthers. The fruit, which Is produced in short raceme-like clusters, is a quarter to a tlnrd 

 o£ an Inch long, three-angled, with a thick dark red leathery outer coating separating readily into three 

 broad ovate valves. It contains one or rarely two bony triangular nutlets rounded at the base, pointed 

 at the other end, and covered with a thin membranaceous light pink coat which separates from them 

 easily when the fruit is ripe. 



Bursera Slmaruha grows in Florida from Cape Canaveral to the southern keys, and on the west 

 coast on the Caloosa River and the shores of Caximbas Bay. It is found on most of the West Indian 

 islands, in tropical Mexico, in Guatemala, New Grenada, and Venezuela. It is one of the laro-est and 

 most common o£ the south Florida trees, and the only one that sheds its fohage during the autumn and 

 winter. 



The wood of Bursera Shnaniha Is spongy, very hght, exceedingly soft and weak, and contains 



