126 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. ERICACE. 
fruit, which is usually produced very sparingly, ripens in summer, and is dark red and a third of an inch 
in diameter; it is drupaceous, with thin granular flesh and a rather thick more or less completely 
formed five-celled stone containing numerous puberulous compressed seeds in each cell. 
In Texas, where it is a rare and local plant, Arbutus Xalapensis is scattered over dry limestone 
hills from Travis County and the valley of the Rio Blanco in Hays County westward to the Guadaloupe 
and Eagle Mountains. It is common on the Sierra Madre in Nuevo Leon, ranging southward to the 
mountains near Jalapa, where it was discovered by Humboldt and Bonpland. 
The wood of Arbutus Xalapensis is heavy, hard, close-grained, and contains numerous obscure 
medullary rays; itis brown tinged with red, with lighter colored sapwood composed of ten or twelve 
layers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7500, a cubic foot 
weighing 46.75 pounds. It is sometimes used in Texas for the handles of small tools and in the manu- 
facture of mathematical instruments, and by the Mexicans for wooden stirrups. 
Arbutus Xalapensis was discovered in Texas in the valley of the Limpia River by Mr. Charles 
Wright,’ the botanist of the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, in June, 1851, although it 
was not distinguished from the California species until some years later, when it was found in the valley 
of the Rio Blanco in Hays County by Mr. S. B. Buckley.” 
1 See i. 94. 2 See iii. 3. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Puiate CCXXXII. ARsBurus XALAPENSIS. 
. A flowering branch, natural size. 
A flower, enlarged. 
A flower, the corolla and tube of the calyx-lobes removed, enlarged. 
. Vertical section of a corolla with stamens displayed. 
. Side views of a stamen, enlarged. 
. Vertical section of an ovary, enlarged. 
. Cross section of an ovary, enlarged. 
- An ovule, much magnified. 
CONA TE WD 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
— 
oO 
. Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 
~— 
_ 
. Cross section of a fruit, enlarged. 
= 
bo 
. A seed, enlarged. 
= 
jew) 
- Vertical section of a seed, enlarged. 
. An embryo, much magnified. 
— 
is 
