THE WHITE MANGROVE FAMILY 



COMBRETACE.^ R. Brown 



HIS family comprises some 15 genera, containing about 285 species of 

 trees, shrubs or vines. They inhabit all the tropical regions, but 

 are most numerous in the eastern hemisphere. Many of them are 

 plants of the seacoast; they are of no especial economic value, except 

 that the wood of the larger trees is used for construction and fuel. The astringent 

 bark and fruits of some are used for dyeing and tanning. 



Plants of the White mangrove family have alternate or opposite simple, leathery 

 leaves, with petioles that are often glandular at the base, and without stipules. 

 The flowers are perfect or polygamous, regular, clustered in heads, spikes or 

 racemes; the calyx is 4- or 5-lobed, deciduous, or persistent; the petals are of the 

 same number as the calyx-lobes, or sometimes entirely wanting; stamens as many 

 or twice as many as the petals, rarely more, their filaments distinct, anthers fac- 

 ing inward; pistil mostly of i carpel, the ovary i-cclled with 2 to 5 suspended 

 ovules; style terminal; stigma entire or nearly so. The fruit is a drupe or berr}', 

 indehiscent, sometimes crowned with the enlarged persistent calyx; seeds solitary 

 and fining the cavity; there is no endosperm; the embryo is straight, its cotyledons 

 convolute. Our genera are: 



Calyx deciduous; petals wanting. 



Flowers spicate; fruit large, almond-like. 



Flowers capitale; fruit small, cone-like. 

 Calyx persistent; flowers spicate; fruit small. 



Petals wanting; leaves alternate. 



Petals present; leaves opposite. 



1. Terminalia. 



2. Conocarpus. 



3. Bucida. 



4. Lagnnciilaria. 



I. INDIAN ALMOND 



GENUS TERMINALIA LINN.EUS 

 Species Terminalia Catappa Linnaeus 



Lx^RGE tree with very large leaves and whorled, outspreading branches, 

 native of the East Indies. It is widely planted in tropical countries 

 for shade and is variously known as Catappa, Olive bark tree, Malabar 

 tree, Almond tree, Demerara almond, and West Indian almond. It 

 has become naturalized in America as far north as peninsular Florida. Its 

 maximum height is about 24 meters, with a trunk diameter up to 1.5 meters. 



The twigs are ver\^ stout and pithy, dark gray and marked with numerous 



