LAURACE^. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



5 



long^ with thin lohes ciliate on the margins ; the lobes of the outer series are broadly ovate^ rounded 

 and minutely apieulate at the apex, puberulous on both surfaces, and about half as long as those 

 of the inner series, which are oblong-lanceolate, acute, and coated on the inner surface with long 

 pale hairs. The stamens are about as long as the inner lobes of the calyx, with flattened hairy fila- 

 ments and rather shorter yellow anthers, which are all four-celled and fertile in the three outer series, 

 the filaments of the third series being furnished at the base with two nearly sessile orange-colored 

 glands rounded on the back and slightly two-lobed on the inner face ; the staminodia to which the 

 stamens of the inner series are reduced are raised on short broad stalks, and are incurved and two- 

 lobed on the inner face and furnished at the apex with tufts of pale hairs. The ovary is ovate, 

 glabrous, and abruptly contracted into a slender glabrous slightly exserted style thickened toward the 

 apex, which is crowned with a flat obscurely two-lobed stigma. The fruit, which ripens in the autumn, 

 is oblong-ob ovate or subglobose, half an inch long, dark blue or nearly black, and very lustrous ; it is 

 borne on the somewhat thickened pedicel, and is surrounded at the base by the enlarged and spreading 

 lobes of the calyx, from which it separates in faUing, and which remains on the branch until after the 

 beginning of winter j the flesh is thin and dry and does not separate readily from the large ovate 

 slightly pointed seed. The seed-coat consists of two layers ; the outer is thin and cartilaginous, 

 grayish brown on the outer surface, bright chestnut-brown and lustrous on the inner surface, which is 

 marked by broad yellow veins radiating from the minute hilum, and is separable from the inner coat ; 

 this is membranaceous, very thin and hght gray or nearly white, and closely invests and often adheres 

 to the thick dark red-brown cotyledons which inclose at the apex the minute plumule. 



Per sea Borhonia is a common inhabitant of the borders of streams and swamps, where, in company 

 with the Live Oak, the Water Oak, the Spanish Oak, the Cuban Pine, and the Hickories, it usually 

 grows in rich moist soil ; or occasionally it is found in dry sandy loam in the shade of forests of the 

 Long-leaved Pine. The Red Bay is distributed through the coast regions of the south Atlantic and 

 Gulf states from Virginia to the shores of Bay Biscayne and Cape Romano in Florida and to the valley 

 of the Brazos River in Texas, and west of the Mississippi River extends northward through Louisiana 

 to southern Arkansas-^ 



The wood of Persea Borhonia is heavy, hard, very strong although rather brittle, close-grained, 

 and susceptible of receiving a beautiful polish ; it contains numerous thin medullary rays and many 

 evenly distributed open ducts, and is bright red, with thin Hghter colored sapwood composed of four or 

 five layers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6429, a cubic foot 

 weighing 40.07 pounds. It is occasionally used for cabinet-making and in the interior finish of 

 houses, for which its strength, hardness, and bright color make it valuable. Formerly it was employed 

 in ship and boat building. 



The Red Bay was first described in the Natural History of Carolina'^ by Mark Catesby,^ who 

 probably introduced it into EngHsh gardens, as it was cultivated by Philip Miller ^ as early as 1739 in 

 the Physic Garden at Chelsea near London.^ 



Although it is one of the most beautiful and valuable of the evergreen trees of the North American 

 forests, the Red Bay has been neglected as an ornament for parks and gardens, and is now rarely seen 

 in cultivation. 



1 Traces of Laurus Borhonia found in the sandstone of southern baccatiSy Linnseus, Hort. Cliff, 154. — Royen, PL Leyd. Prodr. 

 New Jersey show that this species once lived farther north than it 226. 



XIX 



2 See vi. 16. 



CaroUnensis, foliis acuminatisy baccis cceruldSy pediculis ^ See i. 38. 



longis rubrisy insidentibuSf i. 63, t. 63. 



^ Aiton, Hort. Kew. ii. 39 (Laurus). — Loudon, Arb. Brit. m. 



i 



Lauras foliis lanceolatis, nervis transversalibuSy fructus calycihus 1299, f. 1168, 1169 (Laurus). 



