654 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



before the leaves of the year; rachis of the inflorescence 4'-6' long, dark purple, more or less 

 covered with a glaucous bloom. Fruit ripening in the autumn or early winter and often 

 persistent on the branches until after the appearance of the flowers of the following year, 

 I'-lj' in diameter, light yellow-green, with a bright red cheek; seeds about ' long. 



A tree, in Florida rarely more than 12-15 high, with a short trunk 5'-6' in diameter, 

 long spreading pendulous branches forming a handsome round-topped head; in the West 

 Indies often 50-60 tall, with a trunk occasionally 3 in diameter. Bark of the trunk 

 j'~j' thick, dark brown and broken on the surface into small thick appressed irregularly 

 shaped scales; in the West Indies sometimes smooth, light gray or nearly white. Wood 

 light and soft, close-grained, dark brown, with thick light brown or yellow sapwood. 



Distribution. Florida, sandy beaches and dry knolls in the immediate neighborhood of 

 the ocean, shores of White Water Bay and on many of the southern keys; on the Bahama 

 Islands, through the Antilles to the northern countries of South America, and to south- 

 ern Mexico and the eastern and western coasts of Central America. 



3. GYMNANTHES Sw. 



Glabrous trees or shrubs, with milky juice and slender terete branchlets. Leaves con- 

 duplicate in the bud, petiolate, entire or crenulate-serrate, coriaceous, penniveined, per- 

 sistent; stipules membranaceous, minute, caducous. Flowers monoecious or rarely dioe- 

 cious; inflorescence buds covered with closely imbricated chestnut-brown scales, length- 

 ening in anthesis, bearing in the upper axils numerous 3-branched clusters of staminate 

 flowers, their branches furnished with minute ovate bracts, and in the lower axils 2 or 3 

 long-stalked pistillate flowers; calyx of the staminate flower minute or 0; stamens 2 or 

 rarely 3; filaments filiform, inserted on the slightly enlarged torus, free or slightly connate 

 at base; anthers attached on the back below the middle, erect, ovoid, 2-celled, the cells 

 parallel; calyx of the pistillate flower reduced to 3 bract-like scales; ovary ovoid, 3-celled, 

 narrowed into 3 recurved styles free or slightly united at base, stigmatic on iheir inner face; 

 ovule solitary in each cell. Fruit a 3-lobed capsule separating from the persistent axis 

 into three 2-valved 1-seeded carpels dehiscent on the dorsal suture and partly dehiscent 

 on the ventral suture. Seed ovoid or subglobose, strophiolate; seed-coat crustaceous; 

 embryo erect in fleshy albumen. 



Gymnanthes with about ten species is confined to the tropics of the New World and is 

 distributed from southern Florida, where one species occurs, through the West Indies 

 to Mexico and Brazil. 



The generic name, from yv[Av6$ and AvBos, relates to the structure of the naked flowers. 



1. Gymnanthes lucida Sw. Crab Wood. 



Leaves oblong-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, obscurely and remotely crenulate-serrate or 

 often entire, when they unfold thin and membranaceous, deeply tinged with red, and 

 glandular on the teeth with minute caducous dark glands, and at maturity coriaceous, 

 dark green and lustrous on the upper surface and pale and dull on the lower surface, 2'-3' 

 long, f'-l^' wide, with a broad pale midrib raised and rounded on the upper side, obscure 

 primary veins arcuate and united near the margins and connected by prominent coarsely 

 reticulate veinlets; appearing in Florida in early spring and remaining on the branches 

 through their second summer; petioles broad, slightly grooved, about |' in length; stipules 

 ovate, acute, light brown, clothed on the margins with long pale hairs, about T V long. 

 Flowers: inflorescence buds appearing in Florida late in the autumn in the axils of leaves 

 of the year and beginning to lengthen in spring, the inflorescence becoming l|'-2' long, 

 with a slender glabrous angled rachis, the scales broad-ovate, pointed, concave, rounded 

 and thickened at apex, puberulous and ciliate on the margins, those inclosing the male 

 flowers connate with the flowers and persistent under the calyx, those subtending the 

 female flowers at the base of the inflorescence and not raised on their peduncle. Fruit pro- 

 duced in Florida sparingly, ripening in the autumn, slightly obovoid, dark reddish brown 



