840 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Distribution. Saline shores and beaches; Florida, from Mosquito Inlet to the southern 

 keys on the east coast, and from Tampa Bay to Cape Sable on the west coast; common on 

 the Bermuda and Bahama Islands, in the Antilles, and in South America from Colombia 

 to Brazil. 



2. Coccolobis laurifolia Jacq. Pigeon Plum. 



Leaves ovate, ovate-lanceolate or obovate-oblong, rounded or acute at apex, rounded or 

 cuneate at base, with slightly undulate revolute margins, thick and firm, bright green 

 above, paler below, 3 '-4' long, \\'-%! wide, with a conspicuous pale midrib and 3 or 4 pairs 

 of remote primary veins connected by prominent reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, flat- 

 tened, \' in length, abruptly enlarged at base; stipular sheath glabrous, |' wide. Flowers 

 in early spring, on slender pedicels J'long, in few or 1-flowered fascicles on racemes termi- 

 nal on short axillary branches of the previous year, and 2'-3' in length; calyx ' across, the 

 cup-shaped lobes rather shorter than the stamens, with slender yellow filaments enlarged 

 at base, and dark orange-colored anthers; ovary oblong, with elongated stigmatic lobes. 



Fig. 308 



Fruit in erect or spreading sparsely-fruited racemes, ripening during the winter and early 

 spring, ovoid, narrowed at base, rounded at apex, dark red, \' long, with thin acidulous 

 flesh and a hard thin-walled light brown nutlet. 



A glabrous tree," 60-70 high, with a tall straight trunk l-2 in diameter, spreading 

 branches forming a dense round-topped head, slender terete slightly zigzag branchlets 

 usually contorted and covered with light orange-colored bark, becoming darker and 

 tinged with red in their second or third year. Wood heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, 

 brittle, close-grained, rich dark brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood; 

 occasionally used in cabinet-making. 



Distribution. One of the largest and most abundant of the tropical trees of the seacoast 

 of southern Florida from Cape Canaveral to the keys and on the west coast from Cape 

 Romano to Cape Sable; common on the Bahama Islands, on many of the Antilles, and in 

 Venezuela. 



XV. NYCTAGINACE^E. 



Trees with alternate stalked persistent leaves without stipules. Flowers perfect or 

 unisexual; calyx corolla-like, 5-lobed; stamens 5-8; ovule campy lotropous. Fruit an- 

 thocarpus, crowned by the persistent teeth of the calyx. Seed erect; cotyledons unequal, 

 folded round the soft scanty albumen; radicle short, inferior, turned toward the hilum. 

 A family of about twenty genera widely distributed chiefly in the warmer and tropical parts 

 of the New World, with a single arborescent representative in North America. 



