

7/6 The Bumelias 



anthers oblong, versatile, opening lengthwise; ovary ovoid, smooth, narrowed into 

 the slender stigmatic-tipped style. The fruit is subglobose or ovoid, about 8 mm. 

 in diameter, black, the flesh thin and dryish; seed sohtary, oblong, dark brown 

 and shining, with fleshy endosperm. 



The wood is very hard, strong, fine-grained, dark brown or reddish; its specific 

 gravity is 0.93. It takes a fine polish, but is not known to be used to any extent. 



The genus is an American one, comprising about 10 species, of which ours is 

 the type; they are all natives of the West Indies; the name is Greek, in reference 

 to the appendages of the corolla. 



IV. THE BUMELIAS 



GENUS BUMELIA SWARTZ 



UMELIA is an American genus comprising about 30 species of trees 

 or 'ihrubs, indigenous from the southern United States to Brazil. 



They have alternate, relatively small, leathery or membranous, 

 persistent or deciduous leaves, which are sometimes clustered at the 

 nodes, often bearing spines in their axils, short-stalked and often conspicuously 

 veined. The flowers are clustered in the axils of the leaves; they are mostly per- 

 fect, small, white, and borne on slender pedicels; calyx ovoid to nearly bell-shaped, 

 persistent, deeply and equally 5-parted, its lobes imbricated; corolla deciduous, 

 bell-shaped, 5-lobed, with a pair of lobe-like appendages at each side of the lobes; 

 stamens 5, inserted in the throat of the corofla, opposite its lobes; filaments thread- 

 like; anthers arrow-shaped; staminodes 5, petaloid, attached with the stamens; 

 ovary hairy, ovoid, 5-celled, 5-ovuled, narrowed into a short or slender, stigmatic 

 tipped style. The fruit is a i -seeded, fleshy, black berry, tipped with the persist- 

 ent style, subtended by the persistent calyx, usually solitary, but sometimes 2 or 

 3 in a cluster; seed oval to oblong, light brown, smooth and shining, without 

 endosperm, the cotyledons fleshy. 



The name is Greek, having reference to an Ash, which these trees in no way 

 resemble. B. retusa Swartz, of Jamaica, is the type species. 



There are sev^ejal shrubby species belonging to this genus in our flora, in 

 addition to the following arborescent ones: 



Leaves smooth or sparingly hairy or cottony beneath. 



Fruit oblong-cylindric. i. B. angustijolia. 



Fruit subglobose to oval. 



Leaves obovate to spatulate, broadest above the middle. 2. B. cassinifolia. 



Leaves elliptic, broadest at the middle. 



Leaves not prominently net-veined; corolla 3 mm. long, its lobes 



as wide as long. 3. B. Incida. 



Leaves strongly net-veined; corolla 4 mm. long, its lobes longer than 



wide. 4. B. lycioides. 



Leaves conspicuously densely hairy beneath. 

 Pubescence woolly, not shining. 



