88 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. MYRICACEE. 
and a half to four inches long and from one quarter to one half of an inch wide, with somewhat 
thickened and revolute margins, slender pale midribs slightly raised and rounded on the upper side, and 
often puberulous below, few obscure arcuate veins, and reticulate veinlets; they are fragrant, with a 
balsamic resinous odor, and, beginning to fall after the appearance of the flowers of the following year, 
are gradually shed during the spring and early summer. The flower-buds, which are formed during 
the summer, are minute, nearly globose, and covered with closely imbricated tomentose scales, the 
staminate and pistillate being produced on different individuals. The flowers open in early spring, and 
are ebracteolate; they are borne in small oblong aments with ovate acute ciliate scales, those of the 
staminate plant being from one half to three quarters of an inch in length and about twice as long as 
those of the pistillate plant. The stamens are composed of oblong slightly obcordate anthers tinged at 
first with red, but soon becoming yellow, and slender filaments united below into an elongated stout- 
The ovary is ovate, and gradually narrowed 
stemmed cluster about as long as the scale of the ament. 
The fruit, which ripens in 
into two slender spreading stigmas longer than the scales of the flower. 
September and October, remains on the branches during the winter, and then falls regularly in the 
spring and early summer ; it is borne in short spikes, and is globose, usually rather less than an eighth 
of an inch in diameter, slightly papillose, light green, and coated with a thick pale blue waxy 
secretion ; the shell of the nut is thick and bony, and the seed is minute and covered by a pale testa. 
Myrica cerifera is distributed from southern Maryland’ to southern Florida, through the Gulf 
states to the shores of Aransas Bay in Texas,’ and northward in the region west of the Mississippi to 
the valley of the Washita River in Arkansas; it also occurs on the Bermuda® and Bahama Islands, San 
Domingo, Cuba, Guadaloupe, and Porto Rico.* On the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts Myrica cerifera 
grows to its largest size, and is very abundant, inhabiting sandy swamps and pond holes in company 
with the Red Maple, the Sweet Bay, the Black Gum, the Sweet Gum, the Titi, and other water-loving 
plants, and, in its arborescent form, rarely ranging more than forty or fifty miles from the sea. As a 
shrub ° sometimes only a few inches in height, it grows near the coast on sandy Pine-barren soil, and in 
the interior on dry sandy arid hills in northern Alabama,° eastern Texas, northern Louisiana, and 
southern Arkansas. 
The wood of Myrica cerifera is light, soft, and brittle, although close-grained ; it is dark brown, 
with thin lighter colored sapwood, and contains numerous thin medullary rays. The specific gravity of 
the absolutely dry wood is 0.5637, a cubic foot weighing 35.13 pounds. 
Myrica cerifera was first described in 1691 by Plukenet in the Phytographia.’ 
1 Myrica cerifera was collected near Point Lookout on the 
shores of Cornfield Harbor, Maryland, in 1894, by Mr. Robert 
Ridgway. 
* Myrica cerifera was collected near Rockport, on Aransas Bay, 
in 1893, by Mr. J. Reverchon. 
8 Myrica cerifera was collected in Bermuda by C. S. Sargent in 
May, 1891. 
* Urban, Bot. Jahrb. xv. 358. 
5 Myrica cerifera, y pumila, Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 228 
(1803). — Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. ii. 620.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. iv. 
2058. — Chapman, Fi. 427. 
Myrica cerifera, 8, Willdenow, Spec. iv. pt. ii. 746 (not Linnzus) 
(1805). 
Myrica sessilifolia, Rafinesque, Alsograph. Am. 10 (1838). 
Myrica pusilla, Rafinesque, J. c. 10 (1838). 
6 Teste C. Mohr. 
7 Myrtus, Brabantice similis, Caroliniensis baccata, fructu racemoso 
sessilt monopyreno, t. 48, f. 9; Alm. Bot. 260.— Catesby, Nat. Hist. 
Car. i. 69, t. 69. 
Myrica foliis lanceolatis, fructu baccato, Linneus, Hort. Cliff. 455 ; 
Hort. Ups. 295.— Clayton, Fl. Virgin. 120.— Royen, Fl. Leyd. 
Prodr. 527. 
Gale Myrtus Brabantice similis Caroliniensis baccata Fructu race- 
moso sessili Monopireno, Duhamel, Traité des Arbres, i. 254. 
Myrica (seu) Myrtus (brabantica similis) floridana, baccifera, bac- 
cis sessilis ; fructu cerifero, Romans, Nat. Hist. Florida, 28. 
