820 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



end of the branches, coated with rusty tomentum and 1' or more long, from the axils of 

 leaves of the year or from those of fallen leaves of the previous year; calyx narrow-ovoid, 

 divided nearly to the base into 6 lobes, those of the outer row lanceolate, acute, covered on 

 the outer surface with rusty brown tomentum and on the inner surface with pale pubes- 

 cence, thickened and usually marked at the base on the outer surface by black spots, those 

 of the inner row ovate, acute, keeled toward the base, light greenish yellow and pale-pubes- 

 cent; corolla light yellow tinged with green, f ' in diameter, with 8 spreading lanceolate 

 acute divisions entire or erosely toothed toward the apex, their appendage slender, acute 

 and from one hah* to two thirds their length; staminodia minute, nearly triangular, entire; 

 ovary narrow-ovoid, dark red, puberulous toward the base with pale hairs, and gradually 

 narrowed into an elongated exserted style stigmatic at apex. Fruit ripening at the end of 

 a year, in the spring or in early autumn, on a stout erect stem about 1' long, and per- 

 sistent until after the tree flowers the following year, subglobose to slightly obovoid, flat- 

 tened and compressed at apex, l'-l' in diameter, usually 1-seeded by abortion, with a 

 thick dry outer coat roughened by minute rusty brown scales, and thick spongy flesh filled 

 with milky juice; seed \' long, with an elongated lateral hilum. 



A tree, in Florida rarely more than 30 high, with a short gnarled trunk 12'-15' in diame- 

 ter and usually hollow and defective, thick branches forming a compact round head, and 

 stout branchlets clustered at the end of the branches of the previous year, coated when they 

 first appear with dark rufous pubescence, becoming glabrous and light orange-brown at the 

 end of a few weeks, and in their second year covered with thick ashy gray or light red- 

 brown scaly bark and marked by elevated obcordate leaf-scars displaying 3 large dark con- 

 spicuous fibre-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, rusty-tomentose. Bark 

 of the trunk about \' thick and irregularly divided by deep fissures into ridges rounded on 

 the back and broken into small nearly square plates. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, 

 close-grained, rich very dark brown, with light-colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Florida, only on the southern keys; not common; on the Bahama Islands 

 and in Cuba. 



LVH. EBENACE^:. 



Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, and alternate simple entire leaves, without stipules. 

 Flowers dioecious or polygamous, regular, axillary, articulate with the bibracteolate pedi- 

 cels; calyx persistent; corolla hypogynous, regular; disk 0; stamens more numerous than 

 the lobes of the corolla, inserted on its base, fewer and rudimentary or in the pistillate 

 flower; filaments short; anthers introrse, 2-celled; ovary several-celled; ovules 2 in each 

 cell, suspended from its apex, anatropous; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit a 1 or 

 several-seeded berry. Seeds with copious albumen; embryo axile. 



The Ebony family with seven genera and a large number of species is widely distributed 

 in tropical and temperate regions, with two representatives of its most important genus, 

 Diospyros, in the flora of the United States. 



1. DIOSPYROS L. 



Trees or shrubs, with terete branchlets, without a terminal bud, scaly axillary buds, 

 coriaceous leaves revolute in the bud, and fibrous roots. Flowers mostly dioecious, from 

 the axils of leaves of the year or of the previous year; staminate smaller than the pistillate 

 and usually in short few-flowered bracted cymes; pistillate generally solitary; calyx 4- 

 lobed, the lobes valvate in the bud, accrescent under the fruit; corolla 4-lobed, the lobes 

 sinistrorsely contorted in the bud, more or less contracted in the throat, the lobes spreading 

 or recurved; stamens usually 16, inserted on the bottom of the corolla in two rows and in 

 pairs, those of the outer row rather longer than and opposite those of the inner row r ; fila- 

 ments free, slender; anthers oblong, apiculate, the cells opening laterally by longitudinal 

 slits; stamens rudimentary or in the pistillate flower; ovary usually 4-celled, each cell 

 more or less completely divided by the development of a false longitudinal partition from 

 its anterior face, rudimentary or in the staminate flower; styles 4, spreading, 2-lobed at 



