29 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. COMBRETACES. 
In the United States Zerminalia Buceras has been found only on Elliott’s Key in southern 
Florida ; it is widely distributed in brackish marshes through the West Indies,’ and on the shores of 
the Caribbean Sea and of the Bay of Panama.’ 
The wood of Terminalia Buceras is exceedingly heavy, hard, and close-grained, the layers of 
annual growth being difficult to distinguish ; it contains numerous minute evenly distributed open ducts 
and thin obscure medullary rays, and is light yellow-brown sometimes slightly streaked with orange, the 
thick sapwood, composed of thirty to forty layers of annual growth, being clear pale yellow. The 
specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 1.0406, a cubic foot weighing 64.85 pounds.’ The bark 
was once used in the West Indies for tanning leather. 
The earliest account of Terminalia Buceras was published in 1696 by Sir Hans Sloane in his 
Catalogue of the Plants of Jamaica,‘ and the tree was first noticed in the United States> by Mr. A. H. 
Curtiss.6 According to Aiton,’ it was introduced into English gardens in 1793 by Captain Bligh * of 
the English navy. 
The specific name, from Gods and xépac, relates to the long slender horn-shaped spongy bodies into 
which the terminal flowers are occasionally changed. 
1 Vahl, Eclog. i. 50. — Swartz, Obs. 180. — A. Richard, Fl. Cub. 
ii. 240. — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 276 ; Cat. Pl. Cub. 109. — 
Eggers, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 13, 54 (Fl. St. Croix and the 
Virgin Islands). 
2 Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 402. 
8 Sargent, Garden and Forest, ili. 355. 
4 Mangle Julifera, foliis subrotundis versus summitates latissimis, 
confertim nascentibus, cortice ad coria densanda utili, Cat. Pl. Jam. 
156 ; Nat. Hist. Jam. ii. 67, t. 189, f. 3. — Ray, Hist. Pl. iii. Dendr. 
116. 
Buceras ramulis flecuosis tenuioribus, foliis obovatis confertis, spicis 
plurimis terminalibus, Browne, Nat. Hist. Jam. 221. 
5 Early on the morning of April 19, 1886, A. H. Curtiss, C. E. 
side of Elliott’s Key ; one of the party immediately noticed grow- 
ing close to the house in a field from which most of the trees had 
been cleared to make room for a plantation of Pineapples, a Palm 
of an undescribed genus, Pseudophenix, and a few yards distant, on 
the borders of the forest, Mr. Curtiss discovered a grove of Termi- 
nalia trees covered with flowers. 
® See ii. 50. 
7 Hort. Kew. ed. 2, iii. 61. 
8 See ii. 18. 
® Whether this malformation is produced by an insect or by 
fungal disease does not seem to be known; at least I have not 
been able to find that anything definite has been published on the 
subject, although the monstrosity appeared in Browne’s excellent 
Faxon, and C. 8. Sargent landed at Filer’s plantation on the south figure of the species. It has not been noticed on the Florida trees. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Puate CCI. Trerminaria Buceras. 
A flowering branch, natural size. 
. Diagram of a flower. 
A flower, enlarged. 
Vertical section of a flower, enlarged. 
A stamen, enlarged. 
. Cross section of an ovary, enlarged. 
Two ovules, much magnified. 
. A fruit-bearing spur-like branch, natural size. 
. Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 
OWONATFP WN 
—_ 
o 
. Cross section of a fruit, enlarged. 
— 
pan 
. A seed, enlarged. 
fam 
bo 
. An embryo, enlarged. 
jab 
Ow 
- An embryo cut crosswise, enlarged. 
