COMBRETACES. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 27 
LAGUNCULARIA. 
FLowers usually perfect, in axillary and terminal spikes ; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes 
valvate in estivation; petals 5, valvate in estivation, caducous; stamens 10; ovary 
1-celled ; ovules 2, suspended. Fruit 10-ribbed, coriaceous, indehiscent, 1-seeded. 
Leaves opposite, entire, persistent, destitute of stipules. 
Laguncularia, Gertner f. Fruct. iii. 209 (1805).— Meisner, ?Horau, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 80 (1763). 
Gen. 110. — Endlicher, Gen. 1181. — Bentham & Hooker, Sphenocarpus, Richard, Anal. Fruit, 92 (1808). 
Gen. i. 688. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. vi. 278. 
A tree, with scaly bark, terete pithy branchlets, naked buds, and astringent properties. Leaves 
opposite, petiolate, involute in vernation, glabrous, thick and coriaceous, oblong or elliptical, obtuse or 
emarginate at the apex, entire, marked toward the margin with minute tubercles, the petioles conspicu- 
ously biglandular, persistent. Flowers usually perfect or polygamo-monecious,’ minute, flattened, 
greenish white, sessile, in simple terminal axillary tomentose spikes generally collected in leafy panicles. 
Bracts and bractlets ovate, acute, coated with pale tomentum. Calyx-tube turbinate, not produced 
above the ovary, with five prominent ridges opposite the lobes of the limb and five intermediate lesser 
ridges, bracteolate near the middle with two minute persistent bractlets, and coated with dense pale 
tomentum, the limb urceolate, five-parted to the middle, the divisions triangular, obtuse or acute, erect, 
persistent. Disk epigynous, flat, ten-lobed, the five lobes opposite the petals broader than those 
opposite the divisions of the calyx-limb, hairy. Petals five, nearly orbicular, contracted into short 
claws, inserted in the bottom of the calyx-limb, ciliate on the margins, caducous. Stamens ten, inserted 
in two ranks on the limb of the calyx; filaments slender, subulate, slightly exserted ; anthers cordate, 
apiculate, attached on the back below the middle, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally. Ovary 
one-celled ; style slender, short, crowned with a slightly two-lobed capitate stigma; ovules two, sus- 
pended from the apex of the cell, elongated, collateral; raphe ventral, micropyle superior ; funicle 
short or obsolete. Fruit hoary-pubescent, elongated, obovoid, flattened, crowned with the calyx-limb, 
unequally ten-ribbed, the two lateral ribs produced into narrow wings; exocarp coriaceous, corky 
towards the interior, inseparable from the thin crustaceous endocarp, dark red and lustrous on the 
inner surface. Seed suspended, obovoid-oblong, destitute of albumen; testa membranaceous, dark red. 
Embryo filling the cavity of the seed; radicle elongated, slightly longer than and nearly inclosed by 
the convolute green cotyledons. 
The wood of Laguncularia is heavy, hard, strong, and close-grained, with a satiny surface and 
numerous obscure medullary rays; it is dark yellow-brown, with lighter colored sapwood composed of 
ten or twelve layers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7137, 
a cubic foot weighing 44.48 pounds. The bark, which contains a large amount of tannic acid, is 
sometimes used in tanning leather, and as an astringent and tonic.” There is a single species. 
The generic name, from /aguncula, relates to the supposed resemblance of the fruit to a flask. 
1 The flowers of Laguncularia have usually been described as 2 Rosenthal, Syn. Pl. Diaphor. 902. — Eichler, Martius Fl. Brasil. 
polygamous or polygamo-monecious, but in all the specimens from xiv. pt. ii. 127. 
Florida which I have seen they are perfect. 
