730 



Spicewood 



IV. SPICEWOOD 



GENUS CALYPTRANTKES SWARTZ 



Species Calyptranthes pallens (Poiret) Grisebach 



Eugenia pallens Poiret. Calyptranthes Chytraciilia West, not Swartz 



HIS tropical tree or shrub, enters our area in southern peninsular Florida 

 and the Keys, where it occurs in hammocks near the coast. It is 

 common on many of the West Indian islands, attaining a maximum 

 height of 8 meters, with a trunk diameter of about i dm. and has 

 been confused with the similar Calyptranthes Chytraciilia (Linnaeus) Swartz, of 

 Jamaica and Cuba, the type of the genus. 



The trunk is slender, its rather crooked branches short. The bark is about 



3 mm. thick, close, smooth or some- 

 times scaly, hght gray or nearly white. 

 The twigs are slender, angular, and 

 finely hair}% becoming round, quite 

 smooth, and gray. The leaves are op- 

 posite, entire, elHptic to oblong, 3 to 

 8 cm. long, taper-pointed at each end, 

 the margin slightly thickened and 

 revolute ; they are hairy at first, becom- 

 ing dark ^reen, smooth, shining and 

 with impressed midrib above, paler, 

 finely hairy or smooth, and punctate 

 beneath; the leaf-stalk is 5 to 10 mm. 

 long. The flowers are numerous in 

 hairy panicles 5 to 10 cm. long and 

 about as broad, the flowers sessile, 

 about 3 mm. across; the calyx is hairy. 

 Fig. 670. - Spicewood. j^^ j^i^^g nmiQ<l and separating from 



the tube in a lid-like cap; there is no corolla; the numerous stamens are inserted 

 in several series on the margin of the disk, their filaments thread-like and ex- 

 tending far beyond the calyx-tube, their anthers versatile, introrse, and opening 

 lengthwise; ovary inferior, 2- or 3-celled; style fihform, simple, and terminated by a 

 stigmatic tip; ovules 2 or 3 in each cavity. The fruit is berry-Hke, subglobular or 

 oval, 5 to 7 mm. in diameter, reddish brown, the flesh thin and dry; seed mostly 

 soHtar}', shining. 



The wood is hard, close-grained, brown or reddish brown; its specific gravity 

 is about 0.90. 



The genus is tropical American, with about 75 species, all trees or shrubs; they 

 are permeated by aromatic and astringent principles, on account of which the 

 flowers, buds or fruits of some are used as spices, similar to Cloves and Pimento. 



