666 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



1. CYRILLAL. 



A glabrous tree or shrub, with spongy bark, slender terete branch lets conspicuously 

 marked by large leaf-scars, and narrow acute winter-buds covered with chestnut-brown 

 scales. Leaves usually clustered near the end of the branches, oblong or oblong-obovate, 

 pointed, rounded, or slightly emarginate at apex, conspicuously reticulate- veined, short- 

 petiolate. Flowers on pedicels from the axils of narrow alternate persistent bracts, in 

 slender racemes from the axils of fallen leaves or of small deciduous bracts near the end of 

 the branches of the previous year; calyx minute, divided nearly to the base into 5 ovate- 

 lanceolate acute coriaceous lobes; petals 5, contorted in the bud, white or rose color, in- 

 serted on an annular disk, three or four times longer than the calyx-lobes, oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute, concave, subcoriaceous, furnished below the middle on the inner surface with a broad 

 glandular nectary ; stamens 5, opposite the divisions of the calyx, inserted with and shorter 

 than the petals; filaments subulate, fleshy; anther-cells united above the point of attach- 

 ment, free below; ovary ovoid, free, sessile, pointed, 2-celled; styles short, thick; stigma 

 2-lobed, with spreading lobes; ovules 3 in each cell, suspended from an elongated placental 

 process developed from the apex of the cell. Fruit 2-celled, broad-ovoid, crowned with 

 the remnants of the persistent style; pericarp spongy. Seeds 2 in each cell, elongated, 

 acuminate; embryo minute, cylindric, 2-lobed. 



Cyrilla is represented by a single species of the coast region of the south Atlantic and 

 Gulf states and of the Antilles and eastern tropical South America. 



The name commemorates the scientific labors of Dominico Cirillo (1734-1799), the 

 distinguished Italian naturalist and patriot. 



1 . Cyrilla racemiflora L. Ironwood. Leather Wood. 



Leaves 2'-3' long and |'-1' wide, with a stout petiole i'-l' in length; turning late in the 

 autumn and early winter to brilliant shades of orange and scarlet and then deciduous, or 

 southward persistent with little change of color until the beginning of the following sum- 



Fig. 601 



mer. Flowers appearing late in June or early in July, in racemes usually 6-10 together 

 and 4 '-6' long, at first erect, becoming pendulous before the fruit ripens. Fruit ripening 

 in August and September, rarely more than T V long; seeds light brown. 



A slender tree, occasionally 30-35 high, with a stout often eccentric trunk 10'-14' in 

 diameter, dividing several feet above the ground into numerous wide-spreading branches, 

 and slender branchlets bright brown during their first season and ultimately ashy gray; 



