COMBRETACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 23 
CONOCARPUS. 
FLoweErs perfect, in dense capitate heads; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes valvate in 
estivation; petals 0; stamens usually 5; ovary 1-celled; ovules 2, suspended. Fruits 
crustaceous, indehiscent, 1-seeded, retrorsely imbricated in subglobose heads. Leaves 
alternate, entire, persistent, destitute of stipules. 
Conocarpus, Linneus, Gen. 376 (1737). — A. L. de Jussieu, Rudbeckia, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 80 (not Linnzus) (1763). 
Gen. 75.— Meisner, Gen. 110. — Endlicher, Gen. 1181.— Terminalia, Baillon, Hist. Pl. vi. 280, in part (1877). 
Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 686. 
A tree or shrub, with angled branchlets, naked buds, and astringent properties. Leaves alternate, 
short-petiolate, narrowly ovate or obovate, acute, gradually contracted and biglandular at the base, 
entire, coriaceous, glabrous or sericeous, persistent. Flowers in dense capitate heads in narrow leafy 
terminal panicles. Bracts and bractlets acute, coated with pale hairs, caducous. Peduncles stout, 
covered with pale tomentum, bracteolate near the middle. Calyx-tube truncate and obliquely compressed 
at the base, not produced above the ovary, clothed with long white hairs, the limb campanulate, five- 
parted to the middle, the divisions ovate, acute, erect, pubescent on the outer and puberulous on the 
mner surface, deciduous. Disk epigynous, five-lobed, hairy. Stamens usually five, inserted in one rank 
on the base of the calyx-limb, or rarely seven or eight in two ranks; filaments filiform, subulate, 
exserted ; anthers minute, cordate, attached on the back below the middle, introrse, two-celled, the cells 
opening longitudinally. Ovary inferior, one-celled ; style slender, subulate, thickened and villose at 
the base, tipped with a simple stigma; ovules two, suspended from the apex of the cell, collateral, 
anatropous ; micropyle superior, raphe ventral. Fruits scale-shaped, broadly obovate, pointed, recurved, 
and covered at the apex with short pale tomentum, densely imbricated in ovoid reddish heads ; exocarp 
coriaceous-corky, produced into broad lateral wings ; endocarp thin, crustaceous, indistinct, inseparable. 
Seed irregularly ovoid, exalbuminous; testa membranaceous, pale chestnut-brown. Embryo filling the 
cavity of the seed; cotyledons convolute ; radicle short, erect, turned towards the hilum. 
The wood of Conocarpus is very heavy, hard, strong, and close-grained, with numerous obscure 
medullary rays ; it is dark yellow-brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood composed of ten or twelve 
Jayers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.9900, a cubic foot 
weighing 61.70 pounds. It burns slowly like charcoal, and is highly valued for fuel. The bark is 
bitter and astringent, and has been used in tanning leather, and in medicine as an astringent and tonic.’ 
The generic name, from xdvoc and xapzds, relates to the cone-like shape of the head of fruits. 
The genus consists of a single species. 
1 Descourtilz, Fl. Méd. Antill. vi. 68, t. 399.— Rosenthal, Syn. Pl. Diaphor. 902. — Eichler, Martius Fl. Brasil. xiv. pt. ii. 127. 
