584 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



broad conspicuous midrib rounded on the upper side and thin primary veins, standing on 

 the branches at an acute angle and appearing to be pressed against them; petioles stout, 

 !'- i' in length; stipules acuminate, ' long. Flowers |' long, on short thick club-shaped 

 hoary-tomentose pedicels, in cymes l'-2' in length; appearing in Florida continuously dur- 

 ing the spring and summer months on the growing branches; calyx hoary-tomentose, the 

 lobes nearly triangular, acute, more or less pubescent on the inner surface and about half as 

 long as the narrow white petals; ovary hoary-pubescent; style long and slender, clothed 

 nearly to the apex with pale hairs. Fruit nearly globose or oval-ovoid, H'-lf ' in diameter, 

 with a smooth bright pink, yellow, or creamy white skin, white sweet juicy flesh often -' 

 thick, and more or less adherent to the stone rounded at base, acute or acuminate at apex, 

 5 or 6-angled below the middle, about a' long and twice as long as broad, indehiscent or 

 finally separating into 5 or 6 valves, the walls composed of a thin red-brown dry outer layer 

 and a thick interior layer of hard woody fibre; seed-coat lined with a thick white reticulated 

 fibrous coat. 



Usually a broad shrub 10-12 high, forming dense thickets, with erect branches and 

 dark red-brown branchlets thickly covered for four or five years with lenticels, occasionally 

 on the borders of low hummocks arborescent with reclining or rarely erect stems 20-30 

 long and 1 in diameter, or on the margins of ocean beaches often not more than 1 or 2 

 tall. Bark dark red-brown and scaly, separating into long thin scales. Wood heavy, 

 hard, strong, close-grained, light brown often tinged with red, with thin lighter colored sap- 

 wood of about 10 layers of annual growth. 



Distribution. Florida, saline shores, river banks and low hummocks. Cape Canaveral to 

 Bay Biscayne, and on the west coast from the mouth of the Caloosahatchie River to the 

 southern keys; through the West Indies to southern Brazil, and on the tropical west 

 coast of Africa. Passing into 



Chrysobalanus icaco var. pellocarpa DC. 



Differing from the type in its rather larger leaves spreading and less crowded on the 

 branches, its oblong to oblong-obovoid dark purple or nearly black usually rather smaller 

 fruit, and in its long-acuminate and more prominently angled stone. 



A tree, 20-30 or rarely 50 high, with an erect trunk 12'-16' in diameter, erect and 



Fig. 537 



spreading branches forming a wide open head, and slender branchlets marked by scattered 

 pale lenticels; often smaller and occasionally a shrub. Bark gray slightly tinged with red 

 and covered with small closely appressed scales. 



