MYRICACE^E 



165 



marked by small pale lenticels, coated at first with loose rufous tomentum and caducous 

 orange-colored glands, bright red-brown or dark brown tinged with gray, usually lustrous 

 and nearly glabrous during their first winter, finally becoming dark brown; generally 

 smaller, frequently shrubby. Winter-buds oblong, acute, YV~i' l n g> with numerous 

 ovate acute imbricated scales, the inner scales becoming nearly %' long, and often persistent 

 until the young branch has completed its growth. Bark of the trunk |' thick, compact, 

 smooth, light gray. Wood light, soft and brittle, dark brown, with thin lighter-colored 

 sap wood. 



Distribution. In the neighborhood of the coast; Cape May, New Jersey, southern 

 Delaware and Maryland to the keys of southern Florida, and through the Gulf states to 

 the shores of Aranzas Pass, San Patricio County, Texas, ranging inland to the neighbor- 

 hood of Natchez, Jackson County, Mississippi, the valley of the Red River (Natchitoches, 

 Louisiana and Fulton, Arkansas), and to Cherokee County, Texas, and northward to the 

 valley of the Washita River, Arkansas; on the Bermuda and Bahama Islands and on several 

 of the Antilles; most abundant and of its largest size on the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts 

 in sandy swamps and pond holes; the most common woody plant and forming great thickets 

 on the Everglades east of Lake Okeechobee, Florida; in the sandy soil of Pine-barrens and 

 on dry arid hills of the interior, often only a few inches in height, var. pumila Michx. 



2. Myrica inodora W. Bartr. Wax Myrtle. 



Leaves broadly oblong-obovate or rarely ovate, rounded or sometimes pointed and occa- 

 sionally apiculate at apex, narrowed at base, decurrent on short stout petioles, entire or 



Fig. 160 



rarely obscurely toothed toward the apex, thick and coriaceous, glandular-punctate, dark 

 green and very lustrous above, bright green below, 2'-4' long, f '-1|' wide, with a broad con- 

 spicuously glandular midrib slightly pubescent on the lower side, and few remote slender 

 obscure primary veins forked and arcuate near the much-thickened and revolute margins; 

 gradually deciduous from May until midsummer. Flowers in aments '-!' long, with 

 ovate acute glandular scales; stamens numerous, with oblong slightly emarginate yellow 

 anthers; pistillate flowers usually in pairs, with an ovate glabrous ovary and slender bright 

 red styles. Fruit produced sparingly in elongated spikes, oblong, -^ long, papillose, 

 black, and covered with a thin coat of white wax: seed oblong-oval, acute at apex, rounded 

 at base, f ' long, bright orange-brown, with a pale yellow hilum. 



Usually a shrub, with numerous slender stems, occasionally arborescent and 18-20 

 high, with a straight trunk 6-8 tall and 2'-3' in diameter, and stout branchlets roughened 



