COMBRET ACE^E 765 



amous; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes valvate in the bud; petals 5, valvate in the bud, inserted 

 at the base of the calyx, or 0; disk epigynous; stamens 5-10, inserted on the limb of the 

 calyx; filaments slender, filiform, distinct, exserted; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells 

 opening longitudinally; ovary 1-celled; style slender, subulate; stigma minute, terminal, 

 entire; ovules usually 2, suspended from the apex of the cell, collateral, anatropous; raphe 

 ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, often crowned with the accrescent calyx. 

 Seed solitary; albumen 0; embryo straight, with convolute cotyledons; radicle minute, 

 turned toward the hilum. 



Of the fifteen genera of this family, widely distributed through the tropics, three have 

 arborescent representatives in southern Florida. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Corolla 0; leaves alternate. 



Calyx persistent; flowers in spikes; seeds without wings. 1. Bucida. 



Calyx deciduous; flowers in capitate heads; seeds winged. 2. Conocarpus. 



Corolla of 5 petals; calyx persistent; leaves opposite. 3. Laguncularia. 



1. BUCIDA L. 



A tree or shrub, with terete often spinescent branchlets. Leaves crowded at the end of 

 spur-like lateral branchlets much thickened and roughened by the large elevated crowded 

 leaf-scars, alternate, obovate to oblong-lanceolate, rounded and slightly emarginate or 

 minutely apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, coriaceous, bluish 

 green on the upper surface and yellow-green on the lower surface, pubescent while young, 

 especially beneath, and glabrous at maturity with the exception of rufous hairs on the 

 under surface of the stout midrib, and on the short stout petiole. Flowers perfect, green- 

 ish white, hairy on the outer surface, sessile in the axils of minute bracts, in lax elongated 

 axillary clustered rufous-pubescent spikes; calyx-tube ovoid, constricted above the ovary, 

 the limb campanulate, 5-lobed, the lobes valvate in the bud, persistent; petals 0; stamens 

 10, in two ranks, inflexed in the bud, unequal, 5 longer than the others and inserted oppo- 

 site the calyx-lobes under the hairy 5-lobed disk, the others shorter, alternate with them 

 and inserted higher on the calyx-tube; filaments incurved near the apex; anthers minute, 

 sagittate; ovary included in the tube of the calyx; style thickened and villose at the base; 

 ovules suspended on an elongated slender funiculus. Fruit ovoid, conic, oblique, and 

 more or less falcate, irregularly 5-angled, coriaceous, light brown, puberulous on the outer 

 surface, with thin membranaceous flesh inseparable from the crustaceous stone porous 

 toward the interior. Seed ovoid, acute; seed-coat coriaceous, chestnut-brown; cotyledons 

 fleshy; radicle superior. 



Bucida with a single species is confined to tropical America, where it is distributed from 

 southern Florida and the Bahama Islands through the West Indies to Guiana and Central 

 America. 



The generic name is from /Sous, in allusion to the fancied resemblance of the fruit to the 

 horns of an ox. 



1. Bucida Buceras L. Black Olive-tree. 



Leaves 2'-3' long, l'-l' wide, their petioles \'-\' in length. Flowers appearing in 

 Florida in April, \' long, on spikes l^'-S' in length. Fruit about f ' long. 



A tree, with a single straight trunk, or often with a short prostrate stem 2-3 in diame- 

 ter, producing several straight upright secondary stems 40-50 high and 12'-18' in di- 

 ameter, stout branches spreading nearly at right angles with the trunk and forming a 

 broad head, and branchlets clothed when they first appear with short pale rufous pubes- 

 cence mostly persistent for two or three years, becoming light reddish brown and covered 

 with bark separating into thin narrow shreds. Bark of the trunk and of the large branches 

 thick, gray tinged with orange-brown, and broken into short appressed scales. Wood 

 exceedingly heavy, hard, close-grained, light yellow-brown sometimes slightly streaked 



