108 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



2 or 3-celled, gibbous, the cells crowned with a 3-lobed stigma becoming subbasilar on the 

 fruit; ovule ascending. Fruit a short-stalked drupe with thin crustaceous flesh. Seed ob- 

 long-reniform, marked by the conspicuous fibrous reticulate branches of the raphe radiating 

 from the narrow basal hilum, and covered with a thin crustaceous coat; embryo minute, 

 cylindric, lateral, in uniform albumen. 



Roystonea is confined to the tropics of the New World, where two or three species occur. 



The genus as here limited was named for General Roy Stone of the United States army. 



1. Roystonea regia Cook. Royal Palm. 



Oreodoxa regia H. B. K. 



Leaves 10-12 long, closely pinnate, the pinnae, 2-3 long, 1|' wide near the base of 

 the leaf, and gradually decreasing in size toward its apex, deep green with slender conspicu- 

 ous veins, and covered below with minute pale glandular dots; petioles almost terete, 

 concave near the base, with thin edges separating irregularly into pale fibres, and enlarged 



into bright green cylindrical clasping bases 8 or 9 long and more or less covered with dark 

 chaffy scales. Flowers: spadix about 2 long, with a nearly terete stem and slightly 

 ridged primary and secondary branches compressed above, abruptly enlarged at the base, 

 and simple slender flexuose long-pointed flower-bearing branchlets 3'-6' long, pendant and 

 closely pressed against the secondary branches; flowers opening in Florida in January 

 and February, the staminate nearly \' long and rather more than twice as long as the pis- 

 tillate. Fruit oblong-obovoid, full and rounded at apex, narrowed at base, violet-blue, 

 about ' long, with a thin outer coat and a light red-brown inner coat, loose and fibrous on 

 the outer surface, and closely investing the thin light brown seed. 



A tree, 80-100 high, with a trunk rising from an abruptly enlarged base, gradually 

 tapering from the middle to the ends and often 2 in diameter, covered with light gray rind 

 tinged with orange color, marked with dark blotches and irregularly broken into minute 

 plates, the green upper portion 8-10 long, and a broad head of gracefully drooping leaves. 

 Wood of the interior of the stem spongy, pale brown, much lighter than the hard exterior 

 rim, containing numerous dark conspicuous fibro-vascular bundles. The outer portion of 

 the stem is made into canes, and the trunks are sometimes used for wharf -piles and in con- 

 struction. 



Distribution. Florida, hummocks on Rogue River twenty miles east of Caximbas Bay, 

 on some of the Everglades Keys, Long's Key, and formerly on the shores of Bay Biscayne 

 near the mouth of Little River; common in the West Indies and Central America. 



Largely cultivated as an ornamental tree in tropical countries, and often planted to form 

 avenues, for which its tall pale columnar stems and noble heads of graceful foliage make it 

 valuable. 



