634 Florida Boxwood 



drupe, grooved on each side, containing two seeds. The genus is named in honor 

 of J. C. Schaeffer, a German naturahst, who died in 1790. 



Schcpfferia fnitescens, the type of the genus, inhabits southern Florida and the 

 West Indies from the Bahamas to Jamaica and Barbados, occurring also in 

 Central America and South America. It is also known also as Yellow-Wood in 

 Florida, and sometimes forms a tree 14 meters high, with a trunk 2.5 to 3 dm. 

 thick. The very thin bark is light gray and slightly grooved, the young twigs 

 ridged and angled, yellow-green, becoming round and light gray. The leaves are 

 obovate to oblong or spatulate, pointed, blunt or rarely notched, leathery, veiny, 

 2.5 to 6 cm. long, narrowed at the base and short-stalked. The flowers are about 

 3 mm. wide, and open in Florida in February and March, but in the West Indies 

 the flowering period extends to August. The fruit is 4 to 6 mm. long, bright red, 

 tipped by the persistent style, unpleasant to the taste. 



The wood is yellow, dense, with a specific gravity of about 0.77. 



