Red Bay 



399 



to 5 mm. long, somewhat longer than the outer ones; the ovary is densely hairy. 

 The fruit is oval or pear-shaped (Avocado of the Spanish), large, i8 cm. long or 

 less, drooping, stalked, smooth, the thick, oily pulp delicious, and is now produced 

 in considerable quantities in southern Florida. 



The two following native species differ much from the Alligator pear in 

 aspect, in the size and shape of the fruit, as well as in some features of the 

 flowers, and have received the generic name Tamala Rafmesquc. 



2. RED BAY Persea Borbonia (Linnaeus) Sprengel 

 Laurus Borbonia Linnaeus 



The Red bay or Sweet bay, know^n also as Florida mahogany, Tisswood, and 

 Laurel tree, inhabits moist soil from Virginia 

 to Florida, Texas, and southern Arkansas, 

 reaching a maximum height of about 25 me- 

 ters, with a trunk sometimes a meter in diam- 

 eter, often forming a considerable part of the 

 forest. 



The thick, dark brown bark is deeply 

 fissured into small plates; the young twigs are 

 brown, smooth, or shghtly hairy. The leaves 

 are oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 5 to 15 cm. 

 long, pointed at both ends, bright green, 

 smooth and shining on the upper side, pale and 

 smooth or sparingly hairy on the veins of the 

 under surface, very finely netted-veined on both 

 sides; the reddish leaf-stalks are i to 2 cm. 

 long. The flowers open from March to May 

 and are borne in small stalked clusters in the 

 leaf-axils, the stalks of the clusters smooth or nearly so, i to 2 cm. long; the yel- 

 lowish white, finely hairy calyx is about 3 mm, long, the inner sepals two or three 

 times as long as the outer, and about as long as the stamens, which have hairy 

 filaments; the ovary is smooth, and ripens into a globular or obovoid blue or nearly 

 black shining fruit, i to 1.5 cm. in diameter, seated upon the persistent calyx. 



The wood, used to a Hmited extent in carpentry, is strong, hard, red, and has 

 a specific gravity of about 0.64. The tree is desirable for lawn and park planting 

 in the South. 



Persea littoralis Small, a shrub or small tree, growing on sand- ridges in eastern 

 Florida, is described as distinguishable from the Red bay by its relatively broader 

 and shorter leaves, which are not netted-veined on the under side, and by its fruit, 

 which has a bluish bloom, but it is not certain that these features are constant. 



Persea humilis Nash, a shrub, or perhaps sometimes a small tree of inland penin- 

 sular Florida, differs from both in having the under side of the leaves silky-hairy. 



Fig. 352. Red Bay. 



