650 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Fruit drupaceous. 



Nutlets usually 1-celled and 1-seeded; stamens as many or twice as many as the calyx- 

 lobes, free. 1. Drypetes. 

 Nutlets 6-8-celled and 6-8-seeded; stamens 2 or 3, united into a column. 



2. Hippomane. 

 Fruit a 3-Iobed capsule splitting into three 2-valved 1-seeded carpels. 3. Gymnanthes. 



1. DRYPETES Vahl. 



Trees or shrubs, with thick juice, and terete branchlets. Leaves involute in the bud, 

 petiolate, penniveined, coriaceous, persistent; stipules minute, caducous. Flowers ax- 

 illary, sessile or pedicellate, their pedicels from the axils of minute deciduous bracts, 

 ebracteolate, the males in many-flowered clusters, the females solitary or in few-flowered 

 clusters; calyx divided nearly to the base into 4 or 5 lobes rounded or acute at apex, de- 

 ciduous or persistent under the fruit; stamens inserted under the margin of a flat or con- 

 cave slightly lobed disk, in the pistillate flower; filaments filiform; anthers ovoid, emar- 

 ginate, attached on the back near the base, extrorse or introrse, 2-celled, the cells affixed 

 to a broad oblong connective; ovary sessile, ovoid, 1 or rarely 2-celled, with 1 or 2 sessile 

 or subsessile peltate or reniform stigmas, rudimentary or wanting in the staminate flower; 

 ovules collateral, descending, attached to the central angle of the cell, operculate, with 

 a hood-like body developed from the placenta. Fruit drupaceous, ovoid or subglobose, 

 tipped with the withered remnants of the stigmas; flesh thick and corky or thin and crusta- 

 ceous; stone thick or thin, bony or crustaceous, 1-celled and 1-seeded, or rarely 2-celled 

 and 2-seeded. Seed filling the cavity of the nut; seed-coat crustaceous or membranaceous; 

 embryo erect in thin fleshy albumen. 



Drypetes is confined to the tropical regions of the New World, and is distributed from 

 southern Florida through the West Indies to eastern Brazil. Of the eleven species now- 

 distinguished, two inhabit the coast-region of southern Florida. 



The generic name, from dptTrira, relates to the character of the fruit. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 



Calyx 5-lobed; stamens 8; ovary 1-celled; fruit oblong, ivory-white; outer coat thick and 

 mealy; stone thick- walled. 1. D. diversifolia (D). 



Calyx 4-lobed; stamens 4; ovary 2-celled; fruit subglobose, bright red; outer coat thin, 

 crustaceous; stone thin-walled. 2. D. lateriflora (D). 



1. Drypetes diversifolia Krug & Urb. White Wood. 

 Dry petes keyensis Krug & Urb. 



Leaves appearing in early spring and falling during their second year, entire, oval or ob- 

 long, often more or less falcate, acute, acuminate, rounded or rarely emarginate at apex, 

 rounded or cuneate at base, on young plants often spinose-dentate, when they unfold thin 

 and membranaceous, light green or green tinged with red and pilose with scattered pale 

 hairs, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green and lustrous, rather paler on the lower surface 

 than on the upper surface, 3'-5' long and l'-2' wide, with a broad thick pale midrib raised 

 and rounded on the upper side and obscure primary veins arcuate and united near the 

 thick revolute cartilaginous margins and connected by conspicuous coarsely reticulated 

 veinlets; petioles stout, yellow, grooved above, \' long; stipules nearly triangular, rather 

 less than T V long, caducous. Flowers on pedicels rather shorter than the petioles, opening 

 in early spring from the axils of leaves of the previous year, the staminate in many-flowered 

 clusters, the pistillate usually solitary or occasionally in 2-3-flowered clusters: calyx 



