LAUBACE^E 



357 



discoid obscurely 2-lobed stigma. Fruit ripening in the autumn, oblong-obovoid to sub- 

 globose, more or less fleshy. Seed globose, pendulous, without albumen; testa thin and 

 membranaceous, separable into 2 coats, the outer cartilaginous, grayish brown, the inner 

 gray or nearly white, closely adherent to the thick dark red cotyledons. 



About one hundred species of Persea are distinguished. They are distributed in the New 

 World, from the coast region of the southeastern United States and Texas to Brazil and 

 Chili, and occur in the Canary Islands and in tropical and subtropical Asia. Persea ameri- 

 cana Mill., the Avocado or Alligator Pear, a native of the Antilles and cultivated for its 

 edible fruit in all tropical countries, is now T sparingly naturalized in southern Florida. 

 Many species yield hard dark-colored handsome wood valued in cabinet-making. 



Persea was the classical name of a tree of the Orient, transferred by Plumier to one of 

 the tropical species of this genus. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 



Calyx persistent under the fruit (Tamala Raf. Persea, sec. Eupersea Benth. Notaphoebe 



sec. Eriodaphne Meisn.) 



Peduncles short; leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, obscurely veined, glabrous; branch- 

 lets puberulous. 1. P. Borbonia (C). 

 Peduncles elongated; leaves elliptic to lanceolate, conspicuously veined, tomentose on the 

 lower surface; branchlets tomentose. 2. P. palustris Sarg. (C). 



1. Persea Borbonia Spreng. Red Bay. 



Leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, entire, often slightly contracted into a long point 

 rounded at apex, gradually narrowed below, when they unfold thin, pilose, and tinged with 

 red, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, bright green and lustrous above, pale and 

 glaucous below, 3 r -4t' long, f'-H' wide, with thickened revolute margins, a narrow orange- 



Fig. 321 



colored midrib, remote obscure primary veins arcuate near the margins, and thin closely 

 reticulated veinlets; unfolding early in the spring, gradually turning yellow a year later, and 

 falling during their second spring and summer; petioles stout, rigid, red-brown, \'-\' in 

 length, flattened and somewhat grooved on the upper side, in falling leaving small circu- 

 lar leaf-scars displaying the end of a single fibro- vascular bundle. Flowers: peduncles 

 glabrous, \'-V in length; calyx pale yellow or creamy white, about f long, with thin lobes 



