LAURACEAE. 143 



Family 5. LAURACEAE Lindl. 



Laurel Family. 



Aromatic trees and shrubs, with alternate (very rarely opposite) mostly 

 thick, punctate estipulate leaves. Flowers small, perfect, polygamous, 

 dioecious, or sometimes monoecious, usually fragrant, yellow or greenish, 

 in panicles, corymbs, racemes or umbels. Calyx 4-6-parted, the segments 

 imbricated in 2 series in the bud. Corolla none. Stamens inserted in 3 

 or 4 series of 3 on the calyx, distinct, some of them commonly imperfect 

 or reduced to staminodia; anthers opening by valves. Ovar}' superior, 

 free from the calyx, 1-celled ; ovule solitary, anatropous, pendulous ; stigma 

 discoid or capitate. Fruit a 1-seeded drupe or beriy. Endospenn none. 

 Cotyledons plano-convex, accumbent. About 40 genera and 1000 species, 

 widely distributed in tropical regions; a few in the temperate zones. 



Staminodia of the fourth series small or none. 1. Ocotea 



Staminodia of the fourth series large, sagittate. 2. Persea. 



1. OCOTEA Aubl. PI. Guian. 2: 780. 1775. 



[Nectandra Roland; Rottb. Descr. PI. Surinam. 10. 1776.] 



Evergreen trees, rarely shrubs, with alternate coriaceous leaves and small, 

 perfect or polygamous flowers in axillary or terminal panicles. Perianth- 

 segments 6, nearly equal. Perfect stamens 9, in 3 series; stamens of the first 

 and second series eglandular, their anthers introrsely 4-celled; stamens of the 

 third series with extrorsely 4-celled anthers; staminodia, representing a fourth 

 series of stamens, are present in some species. Ovary wholly or partly 

 enclosed by the perianth-tube; style short. Berry oblong to globose, partly 

 enclosed by the enlarged perianth-tube. [Guiana name.] Probably 300 species, 

 mostly natives of tropical America. Type species: Ocotea gidanensis Aubl. 



1. Ocotea coriacea (Sw.) Britton. 



Laurus coriacea Sw. Prodr. 65. 1788. 

 Laurus Cateshyana Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 244. 1803. 

 Nectandra coriacea Griseb. Fl. Br. W. I. 281. 1860. 

 Ocotea Cateshyana Sargent, Sylva 7: 11. 1895. 



An evergreen tree, up to 12 m. high, the trunk sometimes 3 dm. in diameter, 

 the nearly smooth bark light gray, the twigs slender, glabrous, the wood brown. 

 Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, coriaceous, 6-15 cm. long, acute or acumi- 

 nate at the apex, narrowed at the base, dark green and shining above, dull 

 beneath, glabrous or very nearly so, reticulate-veined, the petioles 5-15 mm. 

 long; panicles axillary, peduncled, puberulent, several-many-flowered; peilicels 

 4-7 mm. long; calyx white, its 6 lobes oblong or ovate-oblong, obtuse, about 

 4 mm. long; stamens shorter than the calyx; drupe oval or subglobose, dark 

 blue or nearly black, 10-18 mm. long, the persistent red or yellow calyx-base 

 3-4 mm. long. 



Coppices and scrub-lands. Great Bahama. Andros. Now Providence. Eleuthera. 

 Cat Island. Watling's. ('ro(iked Island and Nortli Caicos : — Florida: W.'st Indies. 

 Referred by Grisebach, Dolley, Mrs. Northrop and by Hitchcock to XcrtatKlra nan- 

 (jninca Ilottb. Catesby, 2 : pL 28. Bastaud Tokcu. Black Touch. Swkkt Tuucu- 



WOOD. 



