38 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



veins obscure, involute in vernation. Flowers appear in March, from buds formed 

 during the previous autumn, in the axils of the leaves, short pedicillate and borne 

 three together in pedunculate cymes or short panicle-like clusters; bracts scale-like, 

 keeled and persistent; calyx with acute rigid lobes; puberulous outside; about \ in. 

 long and wide when expanded , stamens inserted on about the middle of the corolla- 

 tube and scarcely exserted, smaller or rudamentary in the pistillate flowers; pistil 

 abruptly contracted into the style and slightly exserted, in the staminate flowers 

 rudimentary. Fruit ripe in early autumn, ovoid or oblong, about 1 in. in length, 

 dark-blue; flesh dry and thin; stone pointed and seed with thin brown coat marked 

 with pale radiating veins. 



A small tree rarely attaining the hight of 50 ft. (15 m.) and with 

 trunk 10 or 12 in. (0.30 m.) in diameter, clothed in a dark brown bark, 

 which checks irregularly and flakes off in small fragments and scales. 

 Commonly it is only a tall shrub. 



HABITAT. The coast region from North Carolina southward to about 

 the latitude of Tampa Bay in Florida and thence westward into Lousi- 

 ana, growing generally in moist rich soil along the courses of streams, 

 the borders of swamps, etc. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood heavy, very strong, hard and difficult 

 to split (hence the name, Devil-wood), of very fine grain, with thin me- 

 dullary rays and numerous lines of open ducts arranged in an irregularly 

 radiate manner from the center. It is of a reddish color, with ample 

 pinkish-white sap-woood. Specific Gravity, 0.8111; Percentage of Ash, 

 0.46; Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.8074; Coefficient of Elasticity, 

 123133; Modulus of Rupture, 1051; Resistance to Longitudinal Pres- 

 sure. 547; Resistance to Indentation, 247; Weight of a Cubic Foot in 

 Pounds, 50.55. 



USES. This wood is not much used, though its properties would 

 suggest its great appropriateness for tool-handles, mallets, etc. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are not ascribed to this species. 



ORDER LAURACEJE : LAUREL FAMILY. 



Leaves alternate, simple, generally marked with pelucid dots and (as with the 

 bark) aromatic. Flowers in clusters: sepals 4-6; colored, slightly united at the base, 

 strongly imbricated in 2 rows in the bud; petals absent; stamens definite with 2-4 

 celled anthers which open by recurved lid-like valves; pistil solitary, free, 1-celled, 

 1-ovuled and with single style. Fruit, a drupe or berry with single suspended an- 

 atropous albumenless seed. Trees and shrubs. 



GENUS PERSEA, GAERTNER. 



Leaves entire, evergreen. Flowers perfect, greenish or white, in small axillary 

 pedunculate clusters or cymes, without involucre; calyx 6-parted, persistent; 

 stamens 12 in 4 rows, those of the innermost sterile and rudimentary; anthers 

 4-celled, one pair above the other, opening by uplifted valves; anthers of three 

 stamens extrorse, the others introrse. Fruit, an ovoid drupe with peristent calyx at 

 base and containing a single large seed. 



Genus represented by trees and shrubs of which the delicious Avogado or Alliga- 

 tor Pear, the P. gratissima is one represntative. (Persea is a classical name of some 

 Oriental sacred tree.) 



