358 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



ciliate on the margins, the outer broadly ovate, rounded and minutely apiculate, puberu- 

 lous, about half as long as the oblong-lanceolate acute lobes of the inner series covered 

 within by long pale hairs. Fruit \' long, dark blue or nearly black, very lustrous; flesh 

 thin and dry, not readily separable from the ovoid slightly pointed seed. 



A tree, 60-70 high, with a trunk 2'-3' in diameter, stout erect branches forming a 

 dense shapely head, thick fleshy yellow roots, and branchlets many-angled, light brown, 

 glabrous or coated with pale or rufous pubescence when they first appear, becoming in their 

 second year terete and dark green; usually much smaller. Winter-buds coated with thick 

 rufous tomentum, \' long. Bark \'-\ thick, dark red, deeply furrowed and irregularly 

 divided into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into small thick app"ressed scales. 

 Wood heavy, hard, very strong, rather brittle, close-grained, bright red, with thin lighter 

 colored sapwood of 4 or 5 layers of annual growth; occasionally used for cabinet-making, the 

 interior finish of houses, and formerly in ship and boatbuilding. 



Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps in rich moist soil, or occasionally in dry 

 sandy loam in forests of the Long-leaved Pine; southern Delaware (Cypress swamp near 

 Dogsboro, Sussex County, teste NuttalV) ; coast region from Virginia to the shores of Bay 

 Biscayne and Cape Romano, Florida, along the Gulf coast to the valley of the Brazos 

 River, Texas, and northward through Louisiana to southern Arkansas. 



2. Persea palustris Sarg. Swamp Bay. 

 Persea pubescens Sarg. 



Leaves elliptic or lanceolate, entire, often narrow r ed toward the apex into a long point, 

 gradually narrowed at base, when they unfold dark red, thin and tomentose, at maturity 

 pale green and lustrous above, pale and pubescent and rusty-tomentose on the midrib and 



Fig. 322 



primary veins below, 4'-6' long, f'-l^' wide, with thick conspicuous veins and slightly revo- 

 lute margins; persistent until after the beginning of their second year and then turning yellow 

 and falling gradually; petioles stout, rusty-tomentose, |'-f in length. Flowers: peduncles 

 tomentose, *2'-3' in length; calyx pale yellow or creamy white, often nearly \' long, with 

 thick firm lobes coated on the outer surface with rusty tomentum, those of the outer series 

 broadly ovate, abruptly pointed at apex, pubescent on the inner surface, about half as long 

 as the ovate lanceolate lobes of the inner series slightly thickened at the apex and hairy 

 within. Fruit nearly black, f long. 



A slender tree, occasionally 3.0-40 high, with a trunk rarely exceeding a foot in diame- 



