24 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. COMBRETACEZ. 
CONOCARPUS ERECTA. 
Buttonwood. 
Conocarpus erecta, Linnzus, Spec. 176 (1753). — Miller, Dietrich, Syn. i. 879. — Torrey & Gray, Fl. N. Am. i. 
Dict. ed. 8, No. 1. — Lamarck, Dict. ii. 96; Il. ii. 74, t. 485. — Nuttall, Sylva, i. 113, t. 33.— Chapman, F7. 
126, f. 1. — Gertner, Fruct. ii. 470, t. 177, £. 3. — Willde- 136.— Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 10th Census U. S. 
now, Spec. i. 994. — Titford, Hort. Bot. Am. 47.— Roemer ix. 87. 
& Schultes, Syst. v. 573. — De Candolle, Prodr. iii. 16.— Conocarpus acutifolia, Roemer & Schultes, Syst. v. 574 
Spach, Hist. Vég. iv. 304. — Don, Gen. Syst. ii. 661. — (1819). — Dietrich, Syn. i. 879. 
A tree, forty to sixty feet in height, with a trunk twenty to thirty inches in diameter, and slender 
branches which form a narrow regular head;' or sometimes a low shrub with semiprostrate stems.’ 
The bark of the trunk is dark brown, and is divided by irregular reticulating fissures into broad flat 
ridges broken on the surface into small thin appressed scales. The branchlets are slender, conspicu- 
ously winged, light red-brown, and usually glabrous, but in one form coated, like the leaves, with silky 
pubescence; in their second year they are terete and marked with large orbicular leaf-scars. The 
leaves, when they first appear, are slightly puberulous on the lower surface, or, in the variety sericea,’ 
are coated with pale silky persistent pubescence; they vary from two to four inches in length and from 
half an inch to an inch and a half in width, and are borne on stout broad petioles half an inch long ; 
they are lustrous, dark green or pale on the upper surface, and paler on the lower, with broad orange-. 
colored midribs, obscure primary veins, and reticulated veinlets. The flowers are produced throughout 
the year in panicles six to twelve inches long ; the heads, on peduncles which vary from half an inch 
to an inch and a half in length, are one third of an inch across, or about half the size of the cones 
of fruit. 
The Buttonwood inhabits, with the Red Mangrove, the low muddy tide-water shores of lagoons 
and bays. In the United States it is common in southern Florida from Cape Canaveral on the east 
coast and Cedar Keys on the west to the southern islands, growing to a larger size on Lost Man’s 
River near Cape Sable than in other parts of the state; at its northern limit it is reduced to a low 
shrub. It is common in the Antilles,* on the shores of Central America and tropical South America,’ 
on the Galapagos Islands,° and on the east coast of Africa.’ 
Conocarpus erecta was first described by Marggraf* in his Natural History of Brazil,? published 
1 Conocarpus erecta, var. arborea, De Candolle, Prodr. iii. 16 6 Andersson, Stockh. Acad. Handl. 1853, 108 (Om Galapagos- 
(1828). — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 277.— Eichler, Martius Fl. Oarnes Veg.). 
Brasil. xiv. pt. ii. 102. 7 Oliver, Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. 417. 
2 Conocarpus erecta, var. procumbens, De Candolle, J. c. (1828). — 8 Georg Marggraf (1610-1644), a native of Liebstadt and a 
Kichler, /. c.— Grisebach, J. c. — Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am.10th physician and naturalist, visited Brazil with Willem Piso under 
Census U. S. ix. 87. the auspices of the Duke of Nassau. After extensive travels and 
Conocarpus procumbens, Linneus, Spec. 177 (1753).— Miller, explorations, he died in Guiana in 1644 from the effects of expos- 
Dict. ed. 8, No. 2. — Jacquin, Stirp. Am. 79, t. 52,f.2.— Lamarck, ure to the climate. In 1648, four years after the death of Marg- 
Dict. 11. 96 ; iii. 699; Lil. ii. 74, t. 126, f. 2.—Gertner f. Fruct. 
iii. 205, t. 216, f. 4. — Roemer & Schultes, Syst. v. 573. — Die- 
trich, Syn. i. 879. — Grisebach, J. c. 
8 Conocarpus erecta, var. sericea, De Candolle, l. c. (1828). — Chap- 
man, Fl. 136. — Grisebach, /. c. — Eichler, J. c. 
4 Jacquin, Hist. Select. Stirp. Am. 41, t. 78.— Icon. Am. Gewdch. ® Frutex instar Salicis pumile, foliis Salignis, Hist. Nat. Bras. 
i. 12, t. 39. —A. Richard, Fl. Cub. ii. 243. — Grisebach, 1. c. 277. 76, £. 
5 Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. vi. 113. — Alno similis arbor, J. Bauhin, Hist. Pl. i. lib. viii. 155. 
Kunth, Syn. Pl. Zquin. iii. 401. — Eichler, 1. c. t. 35, £. 2. — Hems- Salix Brasiliensis capitulifera, Jonston, Dendrographia, lib. ix. 
ley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 403. 44G. 
graf, the earliest classical volume upon the Natural History of 
Brazil, containing his own and Piso’s observations, was published 
by Jan de Laet in Leyden and Amsterdam. Marcgravia, a genus 
of tropical American shrubs of the Camellia family, was dedicated 
to him by Plumier. 
