792 



The Siiverbells 



the small calyx-lobes and style, 2- or 4- winged; the thick, angular, elongated stone is 

 I- to 4-celled, containing i seed in each cavity; seeds with a thin, shining, brown 

 coat; the endosperm is copious and fleshy, the embr}'o round; cotyledons oblong. 

 Halesia was named in 1759 in honor of Stephen Hales (1677-1761), a dis- 

 tinguished English scientist. In 1756, Patrick Browne named a Jamaica tree 

 Halesia, but as he indicated no type species, his name is invalid, and does not 

 interfere with the use of Halesia for the Siiverbells. 



Fruit 2-winged; corolla deeply parted, hairy without. 

 Fruit 4-winged; corolla slightly lobed, smooth. 



1. H. diptera. 



2. H. Carolina. 



I. SNOWDROP TREE Halesia diptera Ellis 



Mohrodendron dipterum Britton 



Known also as Southern silverbell tree and Cow licks, this is a small, 

 widely branched tree, or more often a shrub, of wet woods and swamp-borders 

 in the coastal plain regions from South Carohna to Texas and up the Mississippi 



valley to Arkansas, attaining a maximum 

 height of about 15 meters, with a trunk di- 

 ameter of 3 dm. 



The bark is from 8 to 12 mm. thick, 

 ridged, and peels off into thin scales of a 

 reddish brown color. The twigs are hght 

 green, more or less hairy, soon becoming 

 smooth and finally dark red -brown. The 

 winter buds are axillary, very small, hairy, 

 ovoid and blunt; there is no terminal bud. 

 The leaves are rather thin, ovate to obovate, 

 taper-pointed, narrowed or rounded at the 

 base, toothed on the margin, light green 

 and smooth except above, along the narrow 

 midrib, softly hairy beneath; leaf-stalk i to 

 2 cm. long. The flowers appear in March 

 or April at the south, but later in cultivation 

 northward, in clusters, on slender, hairy pedicels about 4 cm. long, on twigs of the 

 previous season; the calyx is obpyramidal, 6 to 7 mm. long, densely hairy, the 

 lobes triangular and sharp-pointed; the corolla is white and showy, bell-shaped, 

 2 to 3 cm. long, divided nearly to the base into oblong or oblong-obovate lobes, 

 which are blunt or notched at the apex, and very hairy; stamens 8, or sometimes 

 as many as 16, included; filaments and style hairy, the latter slender; ovary 2- 

 celled, sometimes 4-celled. The fruit is oblong or eUiptic, 4 to 5 cm. long, broadly 

 2-wingcd, occasionally with 2 small additional wings; the stone is narrowly obo- 

 void, conspicuously 8- ribbed. 



Fig. 720. Snowdrop Tree. 



