580 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Distribution. Deep rich moist bottom-lands; valley of the Cape Fear River, North 

 Carolina, to the shores of Bay Biscayne and the valley of the Kissimee River, Florida, and 

 through southern Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to the valley of the Guadalupe 

 River, Texas; in Bermuda; in the Atlantic and eastern Gulf states usually only in the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of the sea, rarely ranging inland more than fifteen or twenty miles; 

 common along the borders of hummocks in the center of the Florida peninsula and a char- 

 acteristic tree on those in the region of Lake Apopka, Orange County; in Alabama ranging 

 inland to Dallas County (Pleasant Hill, T. B. Harbison) ; most abundant and of its largest 

 size in the valleys of eastern Texas, and here often forming great impenetrable thickets. 



Often cultivated in the southern states as an ornamental plant and to form hedges; and 

 when cultivated occasionally 50-60 high, with a trunk 3 in diameter. 



20. Prunus myrtifolia Urb. 

 Prunus sphcerocarpa Sw. 



Leaves elliptic to oblong-ovate, gradually or abruptly contracted into a broad obtuse 

 point, or less commonly rounded or rarely emarginate at apex, cuneate at base, entire, with 



Fig. 533 



slightly thickened undulate margins, glabrous, eglandular, subcoriaceous, yellow-green and 

 lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, obscurely veined, 2'-4^' long and 

 I'-l?' wide; persistent; petioles slender, orange-brown, \' to 1' in length; stipules folia- 

 ceous, lanceolate, acuminate, entire, \' long, early deciduous. Flowers opening in Florida 

 in November, f ' in diameter, on thin orange-colored pedicels \'-\' long, in slender many- 

 flowered erect racemes shorter than the leaves; calyx-tube obconic, bright orange-colored 

 on the outer surface, marked by an orange band in the throat, the lobes thin, minute, acute, 

 laciniate on the margins, deciduous, much shorter than the obovate rounded or acuminate 

 white petals marked with yellow on the inner surface toward the base, contracted below 

 into a short claw, reflexed at maturity; stamens exserted, with slender orange-colored subu- 

 late filaments and small yellow anthers; ovary sessile, contracted into a short stout style, 

 terminating in a large club-shaped stigma. Fruit produced in Florida very sparingly, 

 ripening either in the spring or early summer, subglobose to short-oblong, apiculate, 

 orange-brown, \'-\' long, with thin dry flesh; stone thin-walled, cylindric, slightly nar- 

 rowed at apex, and obscurely ridged on the ventral suture. 



A glabrous tree, in Florida rarely 30-40 high, with a trunk 5'-6' in diameter, thin 

 upright branches and slender orange-brown branchlets, becoming ashy gray or light brown 

 tinged with red and marked by small circular pale lenticels. Bark of the trunk thin, smooth 



