34 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



GENUS DIPHOLIS A. DECANDOLE. 



Leaves persistent, alternate, thinnish, leathery, with midrib prominent beneath 

 and slender arcuate veins uniting near the margin. Flowers small, in dense 

 fascicles both from the axils of existing leaves and the leafless nodes of earlier 

 growth ; calyx bell-shaped with 5 lobes rounded at apex ; corolla white with 5 

 spreading lobes, each lobe supplied at its base with a linear appendage ; stamens 

 5, exserted with slender filaments and versatile oblong extrorse anthers ; stamen- 

 odia 5, petaloid, alternating with the stamens and inserted with them on the 

 calyx-tube ; pistil with ovoid ovary gradually contracted into a slender short 

 style stigmatic at the apex. Fruit a subglobose or oblong black drupe with thin 

 dryish flesh ; seed solitary, oblong, with shining dark brown thick coriaceous 

 coat, and erect embryo in fleshy albumen. 



A genus of few species of trees and shrubs of .the warmer regions 

 of the New World and named from two Greek words referring to the 

 two appendages to each lobe of the corolla. The following one species 

 is the only one found within the United States. 



320. DIPHOLIS SALICIFOLIA, A. DE C. 



BUSTIC. CASSADA. 



Ger., Weidenblattrige Diphole. Fr., Acomat rouge, Acomat bastard. 

 Sp,, Tocuma, Almendro sylvestre, Tabloncillo. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves lanceolate-oblong to narrow obovate, acum- 

 inate to acute at apex, narrow cuneate at base, with entire, somewhat wavy 

 cartilaginous margin, thinnish, firm, lustrous dark green above, paler beneath, 

 3-5 in. long, with slender petioles l / 2 to I in. long. Flowers, opening in Florida 

 in March and April, about l /$ in. long, numerous, in dense fascicles, with rufous 

 pubescent pedicels about ^4 in- long ; calyx rusty pubescent outside ; corolla about 

 twice as long as the calyx and with appendages of the lobes about the length of 

 the irregularly toothed, ovate, staminodia; ovary glabrous. Fruit, ripening in 

 autumn, solitary or clustered, about Y^ in. long. 



The Rustic tree sometimes attains the height of 40 or 50 ft. (15111.), 

 with rather small upright branches and a straight trunk 18 in. (o.5om.) 

 or more in diameter. This is vested in a grayish brown bark which 

 becomes' fissured with age into narrow longitudinal and reticulated 

 ridges and exfoliates in irregular and elongated scales. 



HABITAT. The rich hammocks of southern Florida in the vicinity 

 of Bay Biscayne, the southern Keys, the Bahamas (where it is known 

 as the "sour-wood") and many of the Antilles. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, close- 



