28 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



ORDER COMBRETACEJE: WHITE MANGROVE FAMILY. 



Leaves simple, persistent, alternate or opposite, leathery, entire, without 

 stipules and petioles often bearing lateral glands. Flowers regular, perfect or 

 polygamous, in racemes, spikes or heads ; calyx with mostly 5 lobes valvate in the 

 bud; petals of the same number and also valvate in the bud, inserted at the 

 base of the calyx or sometimes wanting; stamens 5 to 10, inserted on the calyx 

 limb, exserted with distinct filiform filaments and introrse 2-celled anthers 

 longitudinally dehiscent; pistil with i-celled ovary containing usually 2 suspended 

 ovules, slender terminal subulate style and terminal stigma. Fruit drupaceous, 

 indehiscent, often crowned with an enlarged persistent calyx; seed solitary, 

 without albumen, with straight embryo and convolute cotyledons. 



A family of about 250 species of trees, shrubs and vines of tropical 

 distribution, with astringent juice and naked buds, and grouped in about 

 15 genera, four of which are represented in the trees of southern 

 Florida. 



GENUS CONOCARPUS LINNAEUS. 



Leaves alternate, persistent, leathery, 2-4 in. long, with petioles ^2 in. or less 

 and conspicuously biglandular, narrow obovate-oblong, acute at apex, narrow 

 cuneate at base, entire, glabrous light green above, paler and with prominent 

 yellow midribs and obscure reticulate veinlets beneath ; branchlets conspicuously 

 angled at first. Flowers appearing at all seasons, very small, green, in dense 

 globular heads about Yz in. in diameter, arranged in terminal leafy hoary- 

 tomentose panicles; calyx bell-shaped, hairy outside, with acute deciduous lobes 

 scarcely ^ in. long and tube of about the same length; corolla none; stamens 

 usually 5 (sometimes 7 or 8) with very small heart-shaped anthers ; pistil with 

 inferior ovary and slender style hairy at base. Fruit scale-like, laterally winged, 

 incurved and densely imbricated in an oblong pinkish green cone nearly */> in. 

 long. 



The genus consists of the single following species and takes its 

 name from Greek roots descriptive of the cone-like nature of the fruit. 



316. CONOCARPUS ERECTA L. 



FLORIDA BUTTONWOOD. BUTTON MANGROVE. 



Ger, Knopfbaum. ' Fr., Conocarpe droit, Paletuvier. 



Sp., Mangle boton (Sp. W. L), Mangle 1 prieto (Mex.). 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : See generic description, this being the only species. 



A tree attaining the height of 50 or 60 ft. (i8m.) when massed 

 together or growing among other trees, but as found close along the 

 water's edge it does not attain as great a height and is of irregular 

 wide habit of growth. The trunk sometimes attains a diameter of 



