12 



SILVA OF NOUTH AMERICA. laurace^. 



oblong seed ; this is covered by a thin brittle red-brown coat^ the inner layer^ which is hardly separable 

 from the outer^ being light chestnut-brown, lustrous on the inner surface, and marked with broad 

 lighter colored veins radiating from the small hilum. The embryo is a third of an inch long and 

 bright red-brown. 



Ocotea Cateshyana inhabits the shores and islands of Florida south of Cape Canaveral on the 

 east coast and of Cape Romano on the west coast ; comparatively common except on some of the western 

 keys, it is most abundant and attains its largest size on the rich wooded hummocks adjacent to Bay 

 Biscayne, where it grows with the Wild Fig, the Live Oak, the Gumbo Limbo, the Mastic, the Cuban 

 Pine, and the Eugenias. It is not rare on the Bahamas, and probably grows on some of the Antilles. 



The wood of Ocotea Cateshyana is heavy, hard, close-grained, containing numerous thin medullary 

 rays and ma^y small regularly distributed open ducts ; it is rich dark brown in color, with thick bright 

 yellow sapwood composed of twenty to thirty layers of annual growth. The specific gravity of the 

 absolutely dry wood is 0.7693, a cubic foot weighing 47.94 pounds. 



Ocotea Cateshyana appears to have been first noticed by Mark Catesby,^ who found this tree on 



the Bahama Islands, and published the earliest account of it in his Natural History of Carolina ;^ as 



a Florida plant it was first described by Bernard Romans ^ in the Natural History of East and West 

 Florida} 



The lustrous foliage of this small tree, the abundant clusters of white flowers which cover it 



m 



early spring, and the brilliant fruit, make it beautiful at aU seasons of the year, and well worth 

 cultivation in tropical gardens. 



1 See vi. 16. 



^ See iv. 5, 



ComuSyfoUis Salicis Laure(B acuminatis ; Jloribus albis; fructu 4 Laurus foliis acuminatis, baccis co^uleis ; pedicellis lonqis rubris 



Sassafi 



insidentibuSy 27. 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 



Plate CCCIIL Ocotea Catesbyana. 



1. A flowering branch, natural size. 



2. Diagram of a flower. 



3. Vertical section of a flower, enlarged. 



4. A stamen of the third series with glands, front vie^ 



5. A stamen of the outer series, front view, enlarged. 



6. A staminodium, enlarged. 



7. Aji ovule, much magnified. 



8. A fruiting branch, natural size. 



9. Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 

 10. A seed, enlarged. 



11. An embrvo. enlarp-ftd. 



