116 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. POLYGONACES. 
bracts, and produced in terminal and axillary thick-stemmed puberulous many-flowered racemes six to 
fourteen inches in length. The sheaths which surround the fascicles and the pedicels of the separate 
flowers are scarious, light brown, puberulous, about a third of an inch long, and persistent. The calyx 
is conical, and an eighth of an inch across when expanded, with broadly ovate rounded reflexed white 
lobes, puberulous on the inner surface, and rather longer than the red stamens. The ovary is oblong, 
three-angled, and abruptly contracted into three short styles, reflexed and stigmatic on their inner face. 
The fruit, which hangs in long crowded clusters, is ovoid or obovoid, three quarters of an inch long, 
rounded and marked at the apex with the conspicuous connivent remnants of the calyx-lobes, and grad- 
ually narrowed into a stalk-like base; it is purple or greenish white, translucent, with thin juicy astrin- 
gent flesh and a thin-walled light red nutlet, and in falling separates from its thickened persistent stalk. 
Coccolobis Uvifera inhabits saline shores and beaches, and in Florida is found from Mosquito 
Inlet to the southern keys on the east coast, and from the shores of Tampa Bay to Cape Sable on the 
It is common on the Bermuda! and Bahama? islands and on the Antilles, and in South 
America ranges from Colombia to Brazil. 
west coast. 
The wood of Coccolobis Uvifera is very heavy, hard, close-grained, and susceptible of receiving a 
beautiful polish ; it contains scattered small open ducts and obscure medullary rays, the layers of annual 
growth being hardly distinguishable, and is dark brown or violet-color, with thick lighter colored 
sapwood. ‘The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.9635, a cubic foot weighing 60.05 
pounds. It is sometimes used in cabinet-making. 
The fruit, which is scarcely edible, and is extremely astrmgent before it is fully ripe, is sometimes 
used medicinally in the West Indies ;* 
and it is perhaps from the wood of this tree that the Jamaica 
Kino,* a powerful astringent occasionally imported into the United States, is obtained. 
The strange sight of a tree covered with clusters of tempting grape-like fruit naturally attracted 
the attention of the Europeans when they first landed on the burning sands of the Antillean shores, and 
the beauty and value of the Sea Grape were extolled in the narratives of many of the early voyages® 
to the New World. 
1586.° 
1 Lefroy, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 25, 100 (Bot. Bermuda). 
2 Hitchcock, Rep. Missouri Bot. Gard. iv. 123. 
3 Barham, Hort. Amer. 68.— Lunan, Hort. Jam. i. 76. — Duncan, 
Edinburgh Med. Dispens. ed. 2, 162. — Descourtilz, Fl. Méd. Anitill. 
ii. 41, t. 77.— Hayne, Arzn. x. t. 4.— Rafinesque, Med. Fi. ii. 
211.— Nees von Esenbeck, Pl. Med. Suppl. t. 33. — Schomburgk, 
Linnea, viii. 280.— Grosourdy, Med. Bot. Crioil. ii. 107. — Ernst, 
Jour. Bot. iii. 320. 
4 Carson, Med. Bot. ii. 21, t. 68.— Karsten, Pharm. Med. Bot. 
518.— Nat. Dispens. ed. 2, 799. — Guibourt, Hist. Drog. ed. 7, ili. 
434. — U.S. Dispens. ed. 16, 856. 
5 “Del arbol llamado guiabara, que los christianos Maman 
(Oviedo, Hist. Nat. Gen. Ind. lib. viii. cap. 13.) 
“And so doe their wild Grapes, which are a fruit growing in 
(Layfield, 
uvero.” 
Clusters and therein have very little meat upon them.” 
Purchas his Pilgrims, iv. 1172.) 
“There is a berrie in those parts very excellent against the 
bloudie-fluxe, by the Indians it is called Kellette.” 
Purchas his Pilgrims, iv. 1276.) 
“ Acinus qui barbaris dicitur Kellete utiliter adhibetur contra 
(Jan de Laet, Nov. Orb. 645.) 
“ Arbor, cujus materies rubra est instar ligni Brasiliani, folia 
(Harcourt, 
dysenteriam.” 
pene orbicularia, fert racematim fructus uvis haud dissimiles, sapo- 
ris admodum grati; nascitur potissimum juxta littora.” (Jan de 
Laet, Nov. Orb. 665). 
6 Populus Americana, Dalechamps, Hist. Pl. ii. 1830, f. 
The first technical description and a figure of this species were published in 
Guiabara, Dalechamps, Hist. Pl. 1850, f.—C. Bauhin, Pinaz, 
19. — Parkinson, Theatr. 1667. 
Populus rotundifolia Americana, C. Bauhin, Pinaz, 430. — Jons- 
ton, Dendrographia, 439. 
Arbor insule Tabago materie ligno Brasiliano simili, Jonston, Den- 
drographia, 458, t. 130, f. ; ed. 2, ii. 247, f. 
Papyracea arbor Guaiabara, J. Bauhin, Hist. Gen. i. lib. iii. 
374, f. 
Populus novi orbis, J. Bauhin, Hist. Gen. i. lib. viii. 164, f. 
Du Raisinier, Rochefort, Histoire Naturelle et Morale des Isles An- 
tilles, 71, f£. — Du Tertre, Hist. Gén. Antill. ii. 186. 
Uvifera arbor Occidentalis folio rotundo, Hermann, Parad. Bat. 
Prodr. 385. 
Uvifera litorea foltis amplioribus, fere orbiculatis crassis Americana, 
Plukenet, Phyt. 236, f. 7; Alm. Bot. 394, 
Prunus maritima racemosa, folio rotundo glabro, fructu minore pur- 
pureo, Sloane, Cat. Pl. Jam. 183 ; Nat. Hist. Jam. ii. 129, t. 220, £. 
3-5.— Ray, Hist. Pl. iii. Dendr. 40.— Catesby, Nat. Hist. Car. ii. 
96, t. 96. 
Uvifera foliis subrotundis, amplissimis, Linneus, Hort. Cliff. 487. — 
Royen, Fl. Leyd. Prodr. 534. 
The Bay-Grape-Tree, Griffith Hughes, Nat. Hist. Barbados, 180. 
Coccolobis foliis crassis orbiculatis, sinu aperto, Browne, Nat. Hist. 
Jam. 209. — Plumier, Pl. Am. ed. Burman, 136, t. 145. 
Raisinier du bord de la mer, Nicholson, Essai sur (Histoire natu- 
relle de l’Isle de Saint Domingue, 299. 
