SAPOTACE^E 



811 



Seed ovoid; seed-coat thick, coriaceous and lustrous; hilum oblong, basilar or slightly lat- 

 eral; embryo erect in thick fleshy albumen; cotyledons ovate, flat, much longer than the 

 short radicle turned toward the hilum. 



Dipholis with three species is confined to the West Indies and southern Florida. 



The generic name, from 8 is and <f>o\ls, relates to the appendages of the corolla. 



1. Dipholis salicifolia A. DC. Bustic. Cassada. 



Leaves oblong-lanceolate or narrow-obovate, acute, acuminate, or rounded at apex, 

 gradually contracted at base, with slightly thickened cartilaginous wavy margins, thickly 

 coated when they unfold with lustrous rufous pubescence, and at maturity thin and firm, 

 dark green and lustrous above, pale yellow-green below, 3 '-5' long, |'-1|' wide, and gla- 

 brous, or slightly puberulous on the lower side of the narrow pale midrib, with inconspicuous 

 veins and reticulate veinlets; appearing in Florida in the spring and remaining on the 

 branches between one and two years; petioles slender, |'-1' in length. Flowers opening 

 during March and April, f ' long, on thick pedicels j' in length from the axils of minute 

 ovate acute scarious bracts, and coated with rufous pubescence, in dense many-flowered 

 fascicles crowded on branchlets of the year or of the previous year for a distance of 8'-12'; 

 calyx half the length of the corolla, coated on the outer surface with rusty silky pubescence; 

 appendages of the corolla as long as the oval acute irregularly toothed staminodia; ovary 

 narrow-ovoid, glabrous, gradually contracted into a slender style shorter than the corolla 

 and stigmatic at apex. Fruit solitary or rarely clustered, ripening in the autumn, short- 

 oblong to subglobose, black, f ' in length; seed pale brown, about -j^' in length. 



A tree, in Florida sometimes 40-50 high, with a straight trunk 18'-20' in diameter, 

 small upright branches forming a narrow graceful head, and slender branchlets coated with 



Fig. 722 



rufous pubescence when they first appear, becoming ashy gray or light brown tinged with 

 red and marked by numerous circular pale lenticels and by small elevated orbicular leaf- 

 scars displaying near the centre a compact cluster of fibre-vascular bundle-scars. Bark of 

 the trunk about ' thick and broken into thick square plate-like brown scales tinged with 

 red. Wood very heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, dark brown or red, with 

 thin sap wood of 4 or 5 layers of annual growth. 



Distribution. Florida, rich hummock soil, shores of Bay Biscayne and on the Ever- 

 glade Keys, Dade County, and on several of the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands and 

 on many of the Antilles. 



