MORACE^. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



97 



FICUS POPULNEA. 



Receptacle obovate, long or short-pedunculate. Leaves broadly ovate, cordate 



popvdnea, Willden 



A, Ficus pedunculata 



Richard, FL Cub. iii. 220. — Grisebach, FL Brit. W. (1849).— Chapman, i^Z. 415. 



Ind. 151; Cat. PL Cub. 57. — Miquel, Ann. Mus. Lugd. Am. 10th Census U. S. ix. 127. 



Bat. iii. 298. — Eggers, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 13, Ficus brevifolia, NuttaU, Sylva, ii. 3, t. 42 (1849). 



94 (^Fl. St. Croix and the Virgin Islands). — Sargent, Chapman, jPY. 415. 



Garden and Forest, ii. 448. 



N, 



N. 



Census 



Urostigma populneum, Miquel, Hooker Lond. Jour. Bot. 

 vi. 537, t. 21 A. (1847). 



A tree, sometimes epiphytal^ rarely forty to fifty feet in height, with a trunk twelve to eighteen 

 inches in diameter, spreading branches, from which, in Florida, aerial roots are occasionally produced, 

 and an open irregular head. The bark of the trunk is one third to one half of an inch in thickness, 

 and is smooth and light brown tinged with orange, separating into minute scales, which cover the bright 

 red-brown inner bark. The branches are stout and terete, and, when they first appear, are Hght red and 

 slightly puberulous, becoming brown tinged with orange and later vath red, and marked with minute 

 pale lenticels, narrow stipular scars, large elevated horizontal oval or semiorbicular leaf-scars, in which 

 appear a marginal row of conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and elevated concave receptacle-scars. 

 The leaves are involute in vernation, broadly ovate, or rarely obovate, contracted into short broad 

 points or occasionally rounded at the apex, rounded, truncate or cordate at the base, two and one half 

 to five inches long, one and a half to three inches wide, thin and firm, dark green and lustrous on the 

 upper surface and paler on the lower surface, with broad light yellow midribs slightly impressed on the 

 upper side, slender remote primary veins, arcuate and united near the margins and connected by finely 

 reticulate veinlets, and slender grooved petioles, sometimes an inch in length. The stipules are ovate- 

 lanceolate, half an inch long, and tinged with red. The receptacles are obovate, axillary, solitary, or in 

 pairs, at first covered with a hood-like membranaceous light brown caducous posterior bract, and 

 surrounded at the base by three small ovate acute light brown nearly equal persistent bracts ; they are 

 yellow until fully grown, ultimately turning bright red, and one quarter to one half of an inch in 

 length, and are borne on stout drooping peduncles one quarter of an inch to an inch long. The 

 flowers are sessile or pedicellate, and separated by minute chaff-like scales, more or less laciniate at the 

 apex ; in the males the calyx is divided nearly to the base into three or four broad acute lobes ; the 

 stamen is composed of a broad flattened filament and an innate anther ; in the females the narrow calyx- 

 lobes are shorter than the ovate pointed ovary, which is crowned with broad spreading stigmatic lobes. 

 The fruit is ovate, nearly inclosed in the persistent calyx, and crowned with the remnants of the style ; 

 the nutlet is thick-walled, light brown, crustaceous, and is covered by a thin layer of membranous flesh. 

 The seed is ovate, with a membranaceous light brown testa and an oblong lateral pale hilum. 



In Florida, where it is comparatively rare, Ficus j^ojnihiea is confined to the shores of Bay 

 Biscayne, Key Largo, UmbreUa, Bocca Chica, and Pumpkin keys, and Key West, growing usually on 

 dry slightly elevated coral rock ; it is also an inhabitant of the West Indies. 



The wood of Ficus j^opuhiea is light, soft, and close-grained, containing many thin conspicuous 

 medullary rays, large open scattered ducts, and numerous groups of smaller ducts arranged in concentric 

 circles ; it is light orange-brown or yellow, with thick hardly distinguishable sapwood. The specific 

 o-ravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.5568, a cubic foot weighing 34.69 pounds. 



Ficus popuhiea was discovered in Florida on Key West, from which it has now nearly disappeared, 



by Dr. J. L. Blodgett. 



