313- COLUBRINA RECLINATA NAKED-WOOD. 23 



regions, and six of ithe genera- have arborescent representatives in the 

 United States. 



GENUS COLUBRINA BRONGNIART. 



Leaves alternate, petiolate pinnately veined or with three veins from the 

 base. F lowers in axillary clusters, small, yellowish ; calyx 5-lobed, with per- 

 sistent hemispheric tube and deciduous lobes keeled inside; petals 5, alternate 

 with and shorter than the calyx-lobes, hood-shaped and infolding the stamens 

 and inserted with them under the margin of the 5- to lo-lobed annular disk; 

 stamens 5, opposite the petals and with incurved filaments and ovate anthers, 

 pistil with 3-celled subglobose ovary, with a single erect ovule in each cell, 

 slender style and capitate 3-lobed stigma. Fruit a small subglobose capsule, 

 3-lobed at the summit, and splitting at maturity into 3 2-valved sections each 

 containing a single smooth shining black seed. 



The genus consists of 12 or 15 species of shrubs and trees of tropical 

 regions mainly of the New World, on l a being arborescent and another 

 shrubby in southern Florida, and two shrubby in Mexico. The name 

 is from the Latin coluber, a serpent, probably from a fancied resem- 

 blance in the snake-like ridges of the trunk of some species to a serpent. 



313. COLUBRINA RECLINATA BRONG. 

 NAKED- WOOD. NAKED-BARK. SOLDIER- WOOD. 



Ger., Xackt-holz. Fr., Bois costiere (Fr. \V. I.). Sp., Mabi, Bijaguara. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves persistent, oblong to ovate, 2 l / 2 to 4 in. long, 

 with slender petioles y* to Y^ in. long, membranaceous, entire, tapering at apex 

 to a usually blunt point, obtuse or rounded at the bas.e near which there is a 

 marginal gland on each side, dull dark green above and paler beneath. Flowers 

 on the shoots of the year, in stalked axillary clusters about as long as the 

 petioles, glabrate. Fruit, capsule ripening in late autumn, reddish brown, about 

 *4 in. in diameter and with pedicels Y^ to }/ 2 in. long; seed shining black, about 

 TG in. long. 



The Naked-wood under favorable conditions attains a. height of 

 50 or 60 ft. and the trunk a diameter of 3 or 4 ft. (im.), but is usually 

 a considerably smaller tree. The trunk is qui/te commonly ridged, 

 irregular and burly, and is vested in a thin smooth orange brown bark. 



HABITAT. Some of the southern Keys at the lower end of Florida, 

 the Bahamas and the West Indies to St. Vincent and Jamaica. It 

 attains its largest size and greatest abundance on Umbrella Key. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. \Yood heavy, very hard, strong, close- 

 grained, with very fine medullary rays and quite uniformly distributed 



