674 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



inent midrib and veins, 2'-5' long, '-2' wide, light green above and pale below; petioles 

 slender, i'-4' in length. Flowers appearing in June when the leaves are more than half 

 grown, on slender pedicels \* long on the staminate plant and much longer on the pistillate 

 plant, in 1-2-flowered cymes crowded at the end of lateral spur-like branchlets of the previ- 

 ous year, or solitary on branchlets of the year; calyx-lobes acute, ciliate; ovary contracted 

 below the broad flat stigma. Fruit globose, bright scarlet, nearly \' in diameter; nutlets 

 narrowed at the ends, prominently ribbed on the back and sides. 



A tree, 30-40 high, with a short trunk sometimes 10'-12' in diameter, slender branches 

 forming a narrow pyramidal head, and more or less zigzag glabrous branchlets pale red- 



Fig. 608 



brown at first, becoming dark gray at the end of their first season; more often a low shrub, 

 with spreading stems. Winter-buds broad-ovoid to subglobose, about f ' long, with ovate 

 keeled apiculate light brown scales. Bark of the trunk usually less than T V thick, with a 

 light brown surface roughened by numerous lenticels. Wood hard, heavy, close-grained, 

 and creamy white. 



Distribution. Central and western New York, southward along the Appalachian 

 Mountains to eastern Tennessee; northern and central Georgia; coast of South Carolina 

 near Charleston; western Florida (Mariana, Jackson County, and Wakulla Springs, 

 Wakulla County) ; Dallas County, Alabama; northeastern Mississippi (Tishomingo County), 

 and in West Feliciana and Wynn Parishes, Louisiana; a shrubby form with leaves soft 

 pubescent beneath (var. mollis Britt.) occurs in western Massachusetts and Connecticut, 

 and southward to North Carolina. 



XXXIV. CELASTRACEJE. 



Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, and opposite or alternate simple persistent or de- 

 ciduous leaves, with or without stipules. Flowers regular, perfect, polygamous or dioe- 

 cious, pedicellate in axillary clusters; calyx 4-5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud: 

 petals 4 or 5, imbricated in the bud; stamens 4 or 5; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells 

 opening longitudinally; ovary 2-5-celled; ovules 2 or solitary in each cell (6 in Canotia), 

 anatropous, or subhorizontal (in Canotia). Fruit a capsule or drupe. Seed with copious 

 albumen; embryo axile. 



A family of about thirty-eight genera widely distributed over the tropical and warm 

 temperate parts of the world, with five arborescent representatives in the United States. 



