6-28 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



1 . Erythrina herbacea var. arborea Chapm. 



Leaves persistent, usually 6'-8' long, with a slender petiole and rachis occasionally 

 armed with small recurved prickles; leaflets thin, deltoid to hastate, concave-cuneate at 

 the broad base, the lateral lobes broad and rounded and much shorter than the elongated 

 terminal lobe gradually narrowed and rounded at apex, thin, yellow-green, smooth and 

 glabrous, 2|'-3|' long and lf'-2j' wide; petiolules slender, about \' in length, with 

 minute gland-like stipels. Flowers 2'-2f ' Jong on short slender pedicels, in narrow leafless 

 racemes 8'-13' long, the low r er flowers fading before those at the apex of the raceme open; 

 calyx dark red, truncate and ciliate at the mouth, \' in length; corolla scarlet; the standard 

 narrow, oblanceolate, gradually narrowed into the long base, about \' long, closely infolded 

 and then more or less falcate; wing-petals slightly longer than the calyx and longer than 



Fig. 573 



the keel-petals; stamens diadelphous. Fruit compressed, constricted between the seeds, 

 apiculate at apex, from 4 '-6' long, gradually narrowed into a stout stipitate base often 

 f in length; seeds compressed, bright scarlet, lustrous, T 5 2 ' long and about \' wide, with a 

 dark hilum. 



A tree, rarely 25-30 high, with a tall trunk occasionally a foot in diameter, small erect 

 and spreading branches, and slende'r yellow-green branchlets armed with short broad re- 

 curved spines; more often shrubby and, except in size and habit, not distinguishable from 

 Erythrina herbacea L., an herb with slender spreading stems occasionally 3 long, and com- 

 mon in sandy soil from the coast region of North Carolina to Florida, western Mississippi 

 and Louisiana, and in the valley of the lower Rio Grande, Texas. Bark thin red-brown 

 marked by longitudinal rows of large circular elevated lenticle-like excrescences. 



Distribution. Florida, coast region from Miami, Dade County, to the southern shores 

 of Tampa Bay, and on the southern keys. 



18. ICHTHYOMETHIA P. Brown. 



Trees or shrubs with thin scaly bark and stout terete branchlets without a terminal 

 bud. Leaves unequally pinnate, long-petiolate; leaflets opposite. Flowers papiliona- 

 ceous, on slender pedicels enlarged at the end, bibracteolate, in lateral panicles, appearing 

 before the leaves; bracts and bractlets minute, scarious; calyx campanulate, 2-lipped, the 



