632 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



bricated in the bud, usually glandular; petals 5, convolute in the bud, unguiculate; disk 

 inconspicuous; stamens usually 10; filaments generally united at base; anthers short, 

 2-celled, introrse; ovary of 3 rarely of 2 carpels more or less united into a 3-celled ovary; 

 styles usually 3, distinct, rarely united; stigma terminal or sublateral, inconspicuous; 

 ovule solitary, between orthotropous and anatropous, often uncinate, ascending on the 

 pendulous funicle; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous or samaroid; 

 seeds without albumen, suspended from below the apex of the cell; testa thin; embryo 

 curved or coiled, rarely straight; cotyledons often unequal; radicle short, superior. 



This family of nearly sixty genera is confined to tropical and subtropical America, with 

 one arborescent species in the United States. 



1. BYRSONIMA Rich. 



Trees, or shrubs often scandent, with astringent bark and leaves; stipules usually con- 

 nate, rarely partly connate or free. Flowers in terminal racemes; lobes of the calyx fur- 

 nished on the back with two glands; petals unguiculate, their slender claws reflexed in 

 anthesis, the limb concave, penniveined; stamens 10, filaments short, united and bearded 

 at base; ovary 3-celled; styles 3, distinct, oblong or subulate, gradually narrowed into the 

 acute stigma. Fruit a 3-celled drupe; endocarp bony or woody, angled; seeds ovoid to 

 subglobose; embryo circinate, with slender coiled cotyledons; radicle oblong. 



Byrsonima with nearly one hundred species is widely distributed in tropical America 

 from southern Florida, where one species occurs, and the Bahama Islands through the 

 West Indies, Mexico, Brazil and Bolivia. 



The generic name is from fivps, a hide, in allusion to the use of the bark in tanning. 



1. Byrsonima lucida DC. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, rounded or occasionally abruptly short-pointed at apex, grad- 

 uallv narrowed and cuneate at base, coriaceous, glabrous, dark green and lustrous above, 



Fig. 576 



paler, dull and reticulate-venulose beneath, l'-H' long and '-' wide, with thickened 

 revolute margins, a slender midrib and obscure primary veins; petioles stout, $'-' in 

 length; stipules free, minute, acute, deciduous. Flowers \' in diameter, appearing through- 



