72 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. BORRAGINACE. 
being stigmatic to the base. The drupe is broadly ovate, rather abruptly narrowed and pointed at the 
apex, tipped with the persistent style, and entirely inclosed in the thickened fibrous calyx, which is 
smooth and ivory-white on the outer surface; the flesh is thin, pale, and corky, and is inseparable 
from the irregularly sulcate thick-walled stone, which has a deep depression at the base, and is one or 
often two-seeded. The seed is linear-lanceolate, half an inch long, and covered with a delicate white 
coat. 
Cordia Sebestena now grows spontaneously in the forests of Key West and in those of some of 
the other islands of the south Florida coast, to which it may perhaps have been first brought as a 
garden plant. It is common on the Bahama Islands, where it is probably indigenous, on most of the 
Antilles, and in Guiana and New Granada." 
The wood of Cordia Sebestena is heavy, hard, and close-grained, with a satiny surface, numer- 
ous thin medullary rays, and occasional small scattered open ducts, and is dark brown, with thick light 
brown or yellow sapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.7108, a cubic foot 
weighing 44.30 pounds. 
Cordia Sebestena appears to have been first noticed by Sir Hans Sloane, who described it in 
1691 ;” according to Aiton,’ it was cultivated im 1728 by Dr. James Sherard,* in whose garden at 
Eltham in England it probably flowered for the first time in Europe. It is occasionally planted on 
Key West;° and in many gardens of the Antilles its abundant and beautiful flowers, set off by large 
dark green leaves, and its great clusters of ivory-white fruit, can be admired. 
1 Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 478. Cordia foliis amplioribus hirtis ovatis, tubo floris subequali, Browne, 
2 Caryophyllus spurius inodorus, folio subrotundo scabro, flore race- Nat. Hist. Jam. 202. 
moso hexapetaloide coccineo speciosissimo, Cat. Pl. Jam. 136; Nat. 8 Hort. Kew. i. 258. 
Hist. Jam. ii. 20, t. 164.— Ray, Hist. Pl. iii. Dendr. 38. — Catesby, * See i. 77. 
Nat. Hist. Car. ii. 91, t. 91. 5 The popular name by which this tree is known in Florida is 
Cordia nucis juglandis folio, flore purpureo, Plumier, Nov. Pl. that of the man who is supposed to have first planted it in Key 
Am. Gen. 13, t. 14. West. 
Sebestena scabra, flore miniato crispo, Dillenius, Hort. Elth. 340, t. 
255, f. 331. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 
Prare CCLXXXI. Corpra SEBESTENA. 
1. A flowering branch, natural size. 
. Diagram of a flower. 
. A flower, the corolla displayed, enlarged. 
. A calyx, enlarged. 
. Front and rear views of a stamen, enlarged. 
. Vertical section of an ovary, enlarged. 
Apex of a style, enlarged. 
CNH OP Ww 
. An ovule, much magnified. 
Puate CCLXXXII. Corpra Sepesrena. 
1. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
2. Cross section of a fruit, natural size. 
3. Vertical section of a fruit, natural size. 
4. A drupe, natural size. 
5. An embryo, enlarged. 
