MYBSINACE^E 807 



ance of the flowers the following year; petioles stout, grooved, \'-\' in length. Flowers fra- 

 grant, usually opening in November or occasionally as early as July, |' in diameter, on slender 

 elongated pedicels without bractlets, from the axils of linear acute caducous bracts, in ter- 

 minal rusty brown puberulous panicles 3'-4' long and broad, their lower branches often from 

 the axils of upper leaves; calyx ovoid, divided nearly to the base into 5 ovate acute lobes sca- 

 rious and ciliate on the margins and marked on the back with dark lines; corolla 5-parted, 

 with oblong rounded divisions sinistrorsely overlapping, or with 1 lobe wholly outside and 1 

 inside in the bud, conspicuously marked with red spots on the inner surface near the base, 

 becoming reflexed; stamens, with short broad filaments, contracted by a geniculate fold in 

 the middle, and large orange-colored anthers longer than the filaments, their cells opening 

 almost to the base; ovary globose, glandular, gradually contracted into a long slender style 

 ending in a simple stigma. Fruit ripening in early spring, globose, \' in diameter, tipped 

 with the remnants of the style, and roughened by resinous glands, dark brown at first when 

 fully grown, ultimately becoming black and lustrous; stone brown, thin-walled, crustaceous; 

 seed conspicuously lobed at base, bright red-brown, about f ' in diameter. 



A slender tree, in Florida rarely more than 20 high, with a short trunk 4 '-5' in diameter, 

 numerous thin upright branches forming a narrow head, and stout terete often contorted 

 branchlets, rusty brown or dark orange- colored and slightly puberulous when they first 

 appear, becoming in their second year dark brown or ashy gray, and marked by many mi- 

 nute circular lenticels and by thin nearly orbicular flat leaf-scars displaying in the centre a 

 group of fibre- vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds rusty brown; terminal slender, acumi- 

 nate, \'-\' long; axillary globose, minute, nearly immersed in the bark. Bark of the trunk 

 about ' thick, light gray or nearly white, roughened by minute lenticels, and separating 

 into large thin papery plates. Wood heavy, hard, very close-grained, rich brown beauti- 

 fully marked by darker medullary rays, with thick lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Florida, from Mosquito Inlet to the southern keys on the east coast, and 

 from the shores of the Caloosahatchee River to Cape Romano on the west coast; usually a 

 shrub, occasionally arborescent on the shores of Bay Biscayne and on some of the southern 

 keys; on the Bahama Islands, in Cuba, and southern Mexico. 



2. RAPANEA Aubl. 



Trees or shrubs, with watery juices and terete branchlets. Leaves alternate, entire or 

 rarely dentate, usually distinctly lepidote, persistent, without stipules. Flowers perfect or 

 unisexual by abortion, minute, 4 or 5, or rarely 6 or 7-merous, sessile or pedicellate, in 

 small axillary sessile or pedunculate fascicles, their bracts deciduous; calyx free, persistent, 

 the sepals imbricate- valvate in the bud, ciliate, usually glandular-punctate; corolla hypogy- 

 nous, the lobes more or less connate at base, ovate or elliptic, spreading or recurved, glandu- 

 lar-punctate, papillate on the margins, imbricate or rarely convolute in the bud; stamens 

 inserted on the base of the corolla opposite its lobes; filaments 0; anthers short, connate to 

 the corolla, acuminate and papillate at apex, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudi- 

 nally; ovary globose or ellipsoidal, 1-celled; stigma capitate, irregularly lobed; ovules few, 

 peltate, immersed in one serfes near the middle of the free fleshy globose placenta. Fruit 

 dry or fleshy, seed filling the cavity of the fruit, globose, intruded at base; testa thin; al- 

 bumen copious, corneous, rarely slightly ruminate; embryo cylindric, elongated, trans- 

 verse, usually curved; cotyledons small, radicle elongated. 



Rapanea, with nearly one hundred and fifty species, is widely distributed through the 

 tropical and subtropical regions of the two hemispheres, one species reaching southern 

 Florida. 



The generic name is formed from the native name of Rapanea guianensis in British 

 Guiana. 



1. Rapanea guianensis Aubl. 



Leaves crowded at the end of the branches, oblong-obovate, obtuse or retuse at apex, 

 gradually narrowed and contracted at base, coriaceous, bright green and lustrous on the 



