354 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



by a broad band of a lighter color. Fruit attached obliquely to the enlarged torus, ob- 

 long, nearly cylindric, rounded or sometimes slightly pointed at the ends, more or less fal- 

 cate, often irregular from the imperfect development of some of the seeds, 3'-5' long, l'-l|' 

 in diameter, greenish-yellow, becoming when fully ripe in September and October dark 

 brown or almost black, with pale yellow or nearly white barely edible flesh on some plants 

 and on others with orange-colored succulent flesh; seeds separating readily from the aril, 

 1' long, \' broad, rounded at the ends. 



A shrub or low tree, sometimes 35-40 high, with a straight trunk rarely exceeding a 

 foot in diameter, small spreading branches, and slender glabrous or rusty pubescent, light 



Fig. 319 



brown branchlets tinged with red and marked by longitudinal parallel or reticulate narrow 

 shallow grooves. Winter -buds acuminate, flattened, \' long, and clothed with rusty brown 

 hairs. Bark rarely more than f ' thick, dark brown, marked by large ash-colored blotches, 

 covered by small wart-like excrescences and divided by numerous shallow reticulate de- 

 pressions. Wood light, soft and weak, coarse-grained, spongy, light yellow shaded with 

 green, with thin darker colored sapwood of 12-20 layers of annual growth. The inner bark 

 stripped from the branches in early spring is used by fishermen of western rivers for string- 

 ing fish. The sweet and luscious wholesome fruit is sold in large quantities in the cities and 

 towns in those parts of the country where the tree grows naturally. 



Distribution. Deep rich moist soil; western New Jersey and western New York (Greece, 

 Monroe County) to the northern shores of Lake Ontario, westward to southern Michigan, 

 southwestern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma, and 

 southward to Western Florida (Taylor County), central Alabama, and through Mississippi 

 and Louisiana to eastern Texas (near Marshall, Harrison County, and Dennison, Grayson 

 County); comparatively rare in the region adjacent to the Atlantic seaboard; very common 

 in the Mississippi valley, forming thick forest undergrowth on rich bottom-lands, or thick- 

 ets many acres in extent. 



Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states, and hardy as far north as eastern Massa- 

 chusetts; interesting as the most northern representative of the Custard-apple family and 

 its only species extending far beyond the tropics. 



2. ANONA L. 



Trees or shrubs, with glandular often reticulated bark, terete branchlets marked by con- 

 spicuous leaf-scars, and often pubescent during their first season. Leaves coriaceous, often 



