BAYBERRY FAMILY. 



Family 4. LEITNERIACEAE Drude, Phanerog. 407. 1879. 

 CORK-WOOD FAMILY. 



Dioecious shrubs or small trees, with large entire petioled alternate exstipulate 

 (or sometimes stipulate?) leaves, and flowers of both sexes in aments, which ex- 

 pand before the leaves. Staminate flowers with no perianth; stamens 8-12, in- 

 serted on the receptacle; filaments distinct; anthers oblong, erect, 2-celled, the 

 sacs longitudinally dehiscent. Pistillate flowers with a solitary i -celled ovary, 

 subtended by 3 or 4 minute glandular-lacerate bractlets (perianth?); style ter- 

 minal, simple, grooved and flattened, slender, recurved and stigmatic above, 

 caducous; ovule solitary, laterally affixed to the ovary wall, amphitropous. Fruit 

 an oblong drupe with thin exocarp and hard endocarp. Testa thin. Endosperm 

 thin, fleshy. Cotyledons flat, cordate at the base; radicle short, superior. 



A family related morphologically to the Myricaceae, but its anatomical characteristics point to 

 affinity with Liquidambar and Platanus. It comprises only the following monotypic genus of 

 the southern United States. 



i. LEITNERIA Chapm. Fl. S. States, 427. 1860. 



Characters of the family. [In honor of Dr. E. F. Leitner, a German naturalist, killed in 

 Florida during the Seminole war.] 



i. Leitneria Floridana Chapm. Leit- 

 neria. Cork- wood. (Fig. 1163.) 



Leitneria Floridana Chapm. Kl. S. States, 428. 1860. 



A shrub or small tree, attaining a maximum 

 height of about 20 and a trunk diameter of 5', the 

 bark gray and rather smooth, the young twigs, 

 leaves and aments densely pubescent. Leaves ob- 

 long or elliptic-lanceolate, acute, obtuse or cuspi- 

 date at the apex, narrowed at the base, bright 

 green, firm, 3'-6' long, i'-3' wide, when mature, 

 glabrous or nearly so above, finely pubescent, at 

 least on the veins, and rugose-reticulated beneath; 

 petioles 9"-! 5" long; staminate aments ascending, 

 i / -2 / long, their bracts triangular-ovate, acute, to- 

 mentose; pistillate atneuts shorter, borne toward 

 the ends of the twigs; drupe slightly compressed, 

 about 10" long, 3 // -4 // thick, rugose-reticulated. 



In swamps, southern Missouri to Texas, and in 

 Florida. Wood lighter than cork and probably the- 

 lightest wood known, weighing only about 12% Ibs. 

 per cubic foot. March. 



