POLYGONACEAE. 



113 



5. COCCOLOBIS P. Br. 



Evergreen shrubs or trees, with erect branched trunks, or rarely high- 

 twining vines, clothed with a very thin bark. Leaves alternate, leathery, entire. 

 Ocreae truncate, membranous, often very small. Flowers perfect, green, on 

 jointed pedicels subtended by small bracts, disposed in spike-like racemes. 

 Sepals 5, herbaceous, nearly equal, little changed at maturity. Stamens 8; 

 filaments slender. Ovary free, 3-angled; styles 3. Ovule erect. Achene ovoid 

 or globose, with a crustaceous or bony pericarp, invested by the accrescent calyx, 

 to which it is sometimes more or less adherent. Seed 3-6-lobed, with a mem- 

 branous testa. Embryo more or less eccentric in the channeled mealy endo- 

 sperm, its cotyledons cordate. [Greek, referring to the calyx adhering to the 

 achenes.] About 150 species, mostly tropical, the following typical. 



1. Coccolobis uvifera (L.) 

 Jacq. Sea Grape. Bay Grape. 

 (Fig. 132.) A shrub or tree, 3°- 

 25° high, with a short contorted 

 trunk occasionally reaching a 

 diameter of 2° or more. Branches 

 forming a round head; leaves firm 

 in texture, suborbicular, often 

 broader than long, 2'-8' in diam- 

 eter, obtuse or retuse at the apex, 

 undulate, cordate at the base, 

 short-petioled ; ocreae funnelform, 

 firm; racemes interrupted, 4-12' 

 long ; hypanthium campanulate ; 

 sepals obovoid-orbicular, whitish, 

 undulate; filaments subulate, red; 

 fruiting racemes dense, resembling 

 bunches of grapes, each drupe- 

 like fruit subglobose, 6"-10"' in 

 diameter, purple or greenish-white, 

 with an astringent juicy pulp and 

 a broadly ovoid, hard achene with 

 a thin reddish pericarp. [Polygo- 

 num uvifera L.] 



Coastal rocks and sands, ascending to the tops of hills along the South Shores : 

 frequent or common. Native. Southern Florida. West Indies, continental tropin*-'*! 

 American coasts. Flowers from spring to autumn. Fruit edible, but not very 

 palatable, doubtless transported to Bermuda by floating. 



Coccolobis diversifolia Jacq., Barbadoes Grape-tree, West Indian, is a 

 small tree 15° high or more, with petioled, ovate to elliptic, acute, pinnately 

 veined leaves 2'-6' long, slender spikes of small greenish flowers, the reddish 

 fruit about 5" in diameter; a luxuriant specimen was seen in a garden at the 

 west end of the Causeway in 1913. 



Ruprechtia corylifolia Griseb., Hazel-leaved Ruprechtlv, South Ameri- 

 can, a small tree with slender branches, ovate-elliptic, acute, thin, short- 

 petioled leaves 12^-3' long, very small, green flowers in slender racemes, the 

 narrow calyx-lobes much enlarged in fruit, was shown by two fine specimens 

 about 13° high at Mount Hope in 1914. 



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