36 FLOKA OF JAMAICA Celtis 



Family VII. ULMACE^. 



Trees or shrubs with a watery sap. Leaves alternate, 

 3-nervecl at base, penniveined above ; stipules lateral, free, 

 generally small, caducous. Flowers (in Jamaican species) uni- 

 sexual or polygamous, axillary on twigs of the same year, cymose, 

 fasciculate or the fertile solitary. Perianth simple, calycine, lobes 

 or segments imbricate or valvate. Male flowers : stamens as 

 many as the lobes of the perianth and opposite to them ; 

 filaments straight or scarcely inflexed at the apex ; anthers erect 

 in the bud. Female flowers : ovary superior, one-celled, consisting 

 of a single carpel, sessile; style central, 2-partite, stigmatic on 

 the inner side of the branches. Ovule one, affixed at or under 

 the apex, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit small, globose or ovoid, 

 drupaceous (in Jamaican species) with a hard endocarp. Endo- 

 sperm wanting or scanty. Embryo curved. 



Segments of male perianth imbricate ; female perianth 



deciduous 1. Celtis. 



Segments of male perianth induplicate - valvate ; female 



perianth persistent 2. Tretna. 



Species 130, natives of both temperate and tropical regions. 



1. CELTIS L. 



Cymes, male or androgynous, solitary or racemose, axillary 

 or at base of young shoots ; flowers polygamous, lax or in 

 fascicles ; fertile flowers long-stalked, solitary or few, axillary. 

 Perianth 5-(4-) partite, segments imbricate. Embryo with very 

 broad cotyledons. 



Species about 60, widely dispersed in temperate and tropical 

 regions, especially in the northern hemisphere. 



Leaves very oblique at base. Trees without spines. 

 Leaves broadly ovate or oval. Fruit pedicel more than 



twice as long as petioles 1. C. trinervia. 



Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate. Fruit pedicel usually 



shorter than the petioles 2. C. Swartzii, 



Leaves not oblique at base, oval to oblong-elliptical. 

 Shrub with spines. Fruit pedicel shorter thau 

 petioles 3. C.iguansea. 



1. C. trinervia Lam. Encyc. iv. 140 (1797); leaves obliquely 

 and broadly ovate or oval, cuspidate-acuminate, serrate except 

 at base and acumen, teeth mucronulate, base subcordate or 

 round, sometimes acute on one side and occasionally on both sides, 

 minutely scabridulous on the upper surface, sparsely pubescent, 

 at length somewhat glabrate except on nerves ; petiole more or 

 less pubescent ; male flowers stalked, in fascicles of 3 to 5, on 



