806 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Flowers perfect in terminal panicles; anthers on short broad filaments; style elongated. 



1. Ardisia. 



Flowers dimorphous in small axillary clusters; anthers sessile; stigma sessile or in one form 

 of the staminate flower terminal on a slender style. 2. Rapanea. 



1. ARDISIA Sw. 



Glabrous trees or shrubs, with leaves punctate below with immersed resinous dots. 

 Flowers resinous-punctate, pedicellate, the pedicels bibracteolate at base or ebracteolate, 

 in terminal or rarely axillary branched panicles, with minute scarious deciduous or caducous 

 bracts and bractlets; calyx free, 5 or rarely 4-lobed or parted, the divisions contorted or 

 imbricated in the bud; corolla 5 or rarely 4-6-parted, the divisions extrorsely or sinistrorsely 

 contorted in the bud, short or elongated, white or rose color; stamens exserted; filaments 

 short or nearly obsolete, free, inserted on the throat of the corolla; anthers usually sagit- 

 tate-lanceolate, attached on the back just above the base, introrse, 2-celled, the cells open- 

 ing longitudinally sometimes nearly to the base; ovary globose; ovules numerous, immersed 

 in the globose resinous-punctate placenta. Fruit globose, with thin usually dry flesh and 

 a 1-seeded stone with a usually crustaceous or bony shell. Seed concave or more or less 

 lobed at base, resinous-punctate; hilum basilar, concave, conspicuous; embryo cylindric, 

 transverse; cotyledons flat on the inner face, rounded on the back, shorter than the slemder 

 radicle. 



Ardisia with about two hundred species inhabits tropical and subtropical regions of the 

 two hemispheres. The genus has few useful properties, but a number of species are culti- 

 vated for the beauty of their handsome evergreen foliage and bright-colored fruits. 



The generic name is from apdis, in reference to the pointed anthers. 



1. Ardisia paniculata Nutt. Marlberry. Cherry. 

 Icacorea paniculata Sudw. 



Leaves ovate to oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate-obovate, acute or rounded at the narrow 

 apex, cuneate and gradually contracted at base, entire, with thickened and slightly revo- 



Fig. 719 



lute margins, thick and coriaceous, glabrous, marked by minute scattered dark dots, dark 

 yellow-green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 3' -6' long and l'-l|' wide, 

 with a broad midrib yellow and conspicuous on the under side, slender primary veins and 

 reticulate veinlets; appearing in the summer or early autumn and falling before the appear- 



