RHAMNACE. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 47 
COLUBRINA. 
FLowErs perfect; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes valvate in estivation; petals 5, inserted 
under the margin of the disk; ovary surrounded by and confluent with the disk, 
3-celled. Fruit drupaceous, 3-lobed, 3-coccous. 
Colubrina, Brongniart, Mém. Rhamnées, 61; Ann. Sci. Ceanothus, Linneus, Act. Ups. i. 77; Gen. ed. 4, 414 (in 
Nat. x. 368.—Endlicher, Gen. 1098. — Meisner, Gen. part). — A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 380 (in part). 
70. — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 379.—Baillon, Hist. Paliurus, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 304 (in part). 
Pl. vi. 77. Marcorella, Rafinesque, Sylva Tellur. 31. 
Diplisca, Rafinesque, Sylva Tellur. 31. 
Trees or shrubs, with terete, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes sarmentose branches. Leaves alter- 
nate, petioled, oblong-cordate or lanceolate, entire or crenate, pinnately veined or triple-vemed from the 
base, often ferrugineo-tomentose on the lower surface ; stipules minute, deciduous. Flowers axillary in 
contracted few-flowered cymes or fascicles, yellow or greenish yellow. Calyx-tube hemispherical, per- 
sistent, the lobes spreading, triangular-ovate, conspicuously keeled on the inner surface, deciduous by a 
circumscissile line. Disk fleshy, filimg the tube of the calyx, annular, five-angled or indistinctly five 
or ten-lobed. Petals alternate with and shorter than the lobes of the calyx, cucullate, unguiculate, 
enfolding the stamens. Stamens five, opposite to and inserted with the petals; filaments slender, 
incurved ; anthers ovate, introrse, two-celled, the contiguous cells opening longitudinally. Ovary sub- 
globose, immersed in the disk, contracted into a slender three-lobed style, the obtuse lobes stigmatic 
on their inner face; ovules solitary, erect from the base of the cell, anatropous; the raphe ventral ; 
the micropyle inferior. Fruit subglobose, supported on the adnate base of the persistent calyx-tube ; 
epicarp dry and thin or fleshy, septicidally dehiscent into three membranaceous crustaceous or cartilagi- 
nous cocci opening longitudinally, or two-valved at the apex. Seed erect, broadly obovoid, compressed, 
three-angled ; testa coriaceous, smooth, and shining; albumen thick and fleshy. Embryo axile; cotyle- 
dons orbicular, flat or incurved, thin or fleshy ; radicle short, inferior, next the hilum. 
The genus Colubrina belongs principally to the warmer and tropical parts of America, although 
one species’ is widely distributed in the tropics of the Old World, and two others are found im India.’ 
About a dozen species spread in America from western Texas, where two shrubby forms® occur, 
through Mexico‘ to Brazil,? and through the West India Islands® to the shores of southern Florida, 
which are reached by the arborescent C. reclinata and the shrubby C. colubrina.” 
Colubrina has few properties useful to man. The wood of several of the species is hard, heavy, 
and strong, and the bark and leaves are bitter and astringent. C. Fermentum, a native of Guiana, is 
said to owe its name to the fact that the bark is used to ferment the juice of the Sugar-cane.* Accord- 
1 Colubrina Asiatica, Brongniart, Ann. Sci. Nat. x. 369.— Wight C. Greggii, Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 336. 
& Arnott, Prodr. 166.— Thwaites, Enum. Pl. Zeylan. 75. — Gray, 4 Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 200.— Watson, Proc. Am. 
Bot. N. Pacific Explor. Exped. i. 277. — Oliver, Fl. Trop. Afr. i. Acad. xxiv. 44. 
383. — Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. i. 648.— Seemann, FV. Vit. 42.— § Reissek, Martius Fl. Brasil. xi., i. 98, t. 23, t. 25, f. 2, 3. 
Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. i. 642.— Bentham, Fi. Austral. i. 413. — 6 Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 100; Cat. Pl. Cub. 3A. 
Hillebrand, Fl. Haw. Is. 80. 7 Rhamnus colubrina, Linneus, Spec. ed. 2, 280. 
Ceanothus Asiaticus, Linnzus, Spec. 196. Ceanothus colubrinus, Lamarck, Jil. ii. 90. 
@ Hooker #. 1c. Colubrina ferruginosa, Brongniart, Mem. Rhamnées, 62, t. 4, f. 
8 C. Texensis, Gray, Jour. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. vi. 169 (Pl. Lind- 3.—Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 100. — Trelease, 1. c. 369. 
heim. ii.).— Walpers, Ann. ii. 268. — Trelease, Trans. St. Louis Acad. C. Americana, Nuttall, Sylva, ii. 47, t. 58. — Chapman, Fi. 74. 
vz. 368 8 Endlicher, Enchirid. 583. 
