24 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



very small open ducts. It is of a rich brown color with thin light 

 yellow sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.8208; Percentage of Ash, 1.75; 

 Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.8064; Coefficient of Elasticity, 

 97656; Modulus of Rupture, 1216; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 



51.15. 



USES. The wood of this species is used in Cuba for building pur- 

 poses and is considered durable. The bark is used in making the drink 

 known as "Mabi" or "Mabee." 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. The bark of this species, known as 

 "Mabee bark," is a glucoside and is used in the West Indies as a 

 stomachic.* 



ORDER RHIZOPHORACE^: MANGROVE FAMILY. 



Leaves persistent, usually opposite, thick and leathery, smooth, petiolate and 

 with interpetiolar stipules. Flowers regular, perfect and in axillary clusters; 

 calyx persistent and with usually 4 lobes valvate in the bud ; petals as many as 

 the lobes of the calyx, alternate with them and inserted on the calyx tube; 

 stamens 2 to 4 times as many as the petals, inserted at the base of a disk and 

 with 2-celled anthers opening lengthwise; pistil with usually 2-5-celled ovary, 

 with short united styles and stigmas various; ovules usually 2 in each cell, an- 

 atropous and suspended. Fruit berry-like and leathery, usually indehiscent, 

 i-celled, i-seeded and subtended by the persistent calyx. 



The family consists of some 50 species of trees and shrubs with 

 iterate branchlets, and largely maritime habitat of the tropics of both 

 the Old World and the New, but predominating in the former. 



GENUS RHIZOPHORA LINNAEUS. 



Leaves mostly oblong, glabrous and with large caducous acuminate stipules 

 infolding the bud. Flowers yellow or cream-colored, each with two short bract- 

 lets united into an involucral cup, pedicellate, two or three together, each pedicel 

 subtended by a 2- or 3- lobed involucral cup at the end of the peduncle, calyx 

 with 4 acute lobes coriaceous, with a central rib inside and 2 or 3 times as long 

 as the turbinate tube, reflexed ; petals 4, yellowish white, nearly linear, hairy and 

 reflexed between the calyx-lobes, caducous ; stamens 8 to 12, with very short 

 filaments and elongated introrse connivent anthers ; pistil with ovary partly 

 inferior, with 2 awl-shaped spreading styles stigmatic at the tips. Fruit conical, 

 leathery; seed usually solitary and germinating very early it sends put a strong 

 radicle which forces its way through the apex of the fruit before it falls from 

 the tree. 



A genus of three species of trees of astringent properties, with 

 stout, Iterate, pithy branchlets, and of very general distribution along 

 the sea coasts of the tropics of both "hemispheres. The following 

 species only is American. 



The name is from Greek words meaning "root bearing," in allusion 

 to the aierial roots borne by these trees. 



*U. S. Dispensatory, igth Ed., p. 1454. 



