644 



TKEES OF NORTH AMERICA 



dark green and lustrous above, l'-2' long and '-!' wide, with thickened slightly revo- 

 lute margins, a prominent midrib, slender primary veins and thin reticulate veinlets; 

 petiolules stout, ^'-^ long, that of the terminal leaflet often f ' in length. Flowers 

 green on short slender pedicels, in slender pubescent racemes 6' -8' in length; calyx 5-lobed, 

 the lobes oblong-ovate, acuminate, coated on the outer surface with pale hairs; petals 

 5, acuminate, hirsute, narrower and longer than the calyx-lobes; stamens 5 in the pis- 

 tillate flower; filaments slender, glabrous, exserted; anthers short-oblong, obtuse; stigma 

 sessile, 2 or 3-lobed. Fruit red becoming nearly black when fully ripe, \'-%' in length, 

 about j' in diameter; seeds light brown and lustrous. 



A slender tree in Florida, occasionally 18-20 high, with a straight trunk 4' or 5' in 

 diameter, and slender light yellow-green or pale brown branchlets slightly pubescent during 

 their first season; more often a shrub. Bark thin, close, yellowish brown. 



Distribution. Florida, shores of Bay Biscayne to the Everglade Keys, Dade County, 

 and on the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands and several of the Antilles, and in 

 Colombia. 



3. ALVARADOA Liebm. 



Trees or shrubs, with bitter juices and slender terete pubescent branchlets. Leaves 

 alternate, crowded at the end of the branches, unequally pinnate, long-petiolate, many- 

 foliolulate, persistent; leaflets alternate, entire; stipules and stipels none. Flowers in 

 many-flowered axillary or terminal racemes. Fruit a 2 or 3-winged samara, 3-celled below 

 the middle, 2-celled above, crowned with remnants of the styles. Seed erect, compressed; 

 testa membranaceous; albumen none; embryo oblong-compressed; cotyledons flat; radi- 

 cle inferior, very short. 



An anomalous genus, by several authors doubtfully referred to Sapindaceae, but chiefly 

 on account of its bitter properties now placed in Simaroubacese. It consists of three 

 species; of these the widely distributed Alvaradoa amorphoides Liebmann, the type of the 

 genus, occurs in southern Florida. The other species appear to be confined to the islands 

 of Jamaica and Cuba. 



1. Alvaradoa amorphoides Liebm. 



Leaves 4 '-12' long, with 21-41 leaflets and slender petioles; leaflets oblong-obovate, 

 obtuse or occasionally minutely mucronate at apex, gradually narrowed below into a short 





Fig. 586 



