RHAMNACE^E 721 



or often rufous on the lower surface, I'-l |' long and \' broad, with thickened re volute mar- 

 gins, a stout broad midrib, about five pairs of primary veins spreading nearly at right angles, 

 and numerous reticulate veinlets; unfolding in April and remaining on the branches for 

 one and sometimes for two years. Flowers yellowish green appearing in May, iV long; 

 sepals ovate, acute. Fruit ripening in Florida in November or frequently not until the 

 following spring, short-obovoid, \' long, purple or nearly black, edible, with an agreeable 

 flavor. 



A tree, 20-25 high, with a trunk 6'-8' in diameter, stout terete rigid branchlets slightly 

 puberulous when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous and gray faintly tinged with 

 red, growing darker in their second season, then often covered by small tubercles and 

 marked by the prominent elevated leaf-scars. Winter-buds minute, chestnut-brown. 

 Bark of the trunk rV-i' thick, dark-red-brown, and divided into large plate-like scales. 

 Wood heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, rich dark brown, with light brown 

 sapwood of 15-20 layers of annual growth. 



Distribution. Florida, coast and islands from the Marquesas group to the shores of 

 Bay Biscayne and the Everglade Keys, Dade County; common and generally distrib- 

 uted; on the Bahama Islands. 



3. KRUGIODENDRON Urb. 



A small tree or shrub, with slender unarmed terete branches roughened by numerous 

 small lenticels, and minute scaly buds. Leaves opposite or obliquely opposite, or some- 

 times alternate on lower branches, ovate or oval, often emarginate, coriaceous, entire, 

 short-petiolate, feather- veined, persistent; stipules acuminate, persistent. Flowers green- 

 ish yellow, on short slender pedicels, in axillary simple or dichotomously branched cymes; 

 calyx broad-obconic, 5-lobed, the lobes triangular, acute, erect or spreading, conspicuously 

 crested on the inner surface, deciduous; disk annular, broad, fleshy, 5-lobed, surrounding 

 the base of the ovary; petals 0; stamens 5, inserted under the margin of the disk; anthers 

 ovoid or ovoid-orbicular, obtuse; ovary conic, imperfectly 2-celled; styles short and thick, 

 united nearly to the apex, the branches spreading and stigmatic on the inner face; ovule 

 ascending from the base of the cell. Fruit 1-seeded, oval or ovoid; flesh thin and black; 

 wall of the stone thin and bony. Seed ellipsoid, compressed, without albumen ; seed-coat 

 membranaceous; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons thick and fleshy, obovate 

 or elliptic. 



Krugiodendron, with a single species, is confined to southern Florida and the West Indies. 



The generic name is in honor of Leopold Krug (1833-1898), a student of the flora of the 

 Antilles. 



1. Krugiodendron ferreum Urb. Bkck Ironwood. 



Leaves bright green and lustrous above, pale yellow-green below, glabrous with the excep- 

 tion of a few scattered hairs on the upper surface and on the petiole, I'-l^' long and f'-l' 

 wide, with entire or slightly undulate margins; persistent for two or three years; petioles 

 stout, \' in length. Flowers on bibracteolate pedicels |' long, in 3-5-flowered cymes on 

 peduncles sometimes \' in length, usually much shorter and often branched near the apex, 

 on branchlets of the year; calyx about T V long. Fruit generally solitary, \' in length, on 

 a stem \'-\' long. 



A tree, sometimes 30 high, with a trunk 8'-10' in diameter, and slender branchlets at 

 first green and covered with dense velvety pubescence, becoming glabrous in their second 

 year, and then gray faintly tinged with red and roughened by small crowded lenticels; gen- 

 erally much smaller and more often shrubby than arborescent. Bark of the trunk about 

 \' thick and divided into prominent rounded longitudinal ridges broken on the surface into 

 short thick light gray scales. Wood exceedingly heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, brittle, 

 rich orange-brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Florida, Cape Canaveral on the east coast to the shores of Bay Biscayne 



