POLYGONACEJE 



443 



Leaves simple, radical and cauline, alternate, stipulate, petiolate, 

 alternately penninerved in the young state and entire, but palmately 

 five-nerved in the adult plant, glabrous in the seedling, but after- 

 wards pubescent beneath ; petiole semiterete, flattened above with 

 obtuse edges, pale green, often stained with red, glabrous in seedling 

 but pubescent in the adult ; stipules none on the first leaf, or hidden 

 in the sheath. 



No. 1. Ovate-oblong, obtuse, subcordate at the base, somewhat 

 scabrous at the margin. 



Coccoloba uvifera, Jacq. (fig. 623). 



Hypocotyl erect, terete, glabrous, rather stout and of about 

 equal thickness all the way up, 4-6*8 cm. above the soil, pale green 

 stained with red. 



Cotyledons large, foliaceous, oblate or quadrangular, erosely 

 truncate at the apex, or widely, 

 shallowly and irregularly ernar- 

 ginate, shortly petiolate, coriaceous, 

 bright green and shining above, 

 paler beneath, trinerved from the 

 base with the midrib again forked 

 about the middle, making in all 

 four principal nerves, the outer one 

 of each pair incurving, the inner 

 curving outwards, each pair meet- 

 ing above ; from these smaller 

 ones are given off and anastomose 

 throughout the lamina, which is 

 2-4-2-65 cm. long and 3-3*4 cm. 

 wide ; petiole flattened above or 

 slightly grooved, convex on the 

 back, minutely puberulous at the 

 margin, connate at the base or pro- 

 duced into a stipuliforin or ochreate 

 sheath enveloping the plumule, 

 2'5 mm. long, with the sheath 

 about 1-5 mm. long. 



Stem erect, terete, minutely 



FIG. 623. Coccoloba uvifera. 

 Half nat. size. 



puberulous, ultimately woody ; 1st internode 1-3-1-4 cm. long ; 2nd 

 short, about 2-3 mm. 



Leaves simple, cauline, alternate, stipulate, shortly petiolate, 

 alternately incurvinerved, with the nerves uniting at their curved 

 tips, reticulate, coriaceous, glabrous except the petiole, a deep shining 



