874 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



aceous, dark green and lustrous above, paler and 'yellow-green below, 6'-8' long and 

 l^'-4' wide, with a broad stout midrib deeply impressed on the upper side ; conspicuous 

 primary veins arcuate and united near the margins, and reticulate veinlets; unfolding in the 



Fig. 770 



spring, and persistent until their second year; petioles thick, covered with glands, and about 

 I' in length. Flowers appearing in April and May and also in autumn, bad-smelling, on 

 thick drooping pedicels solitary in the axils of upper leaves, 1^ '-2' long, furnished below 

 the middle with 2 minute rigid acute bractlets and enlarged at apex into the thick oblique 

 receptacle; calyx light green and slightly glandular at base, splitting nearly to the bottom 

 into 2 ovate pointed lobes nearly as long as the tube of the corolla; corolla thick and leath- 

 ery, dull purple or creamy white, and marked by narrow purple bands on the lower side, 

 and 2' long, with a narrow tube creamy white within and slightly contracted above the 

 base, the transverse fold near its apex, the limb erosely cut on the margins and obscurely 

 2-lipped, the upper lip slightly divided into 2 reflexed lobes, the lower obscurely 3-lobed; 

 stamens inserted near the middle of the tube of the corolla, those of the anterior pair below 

 the others and above the linear staminodium; ovary obliquely conic; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit 

 ovoid or oblong, 3'-4' long, l|'-2' wide, dark green, minutely rugose-punctulate, and 

 marked with 4 obscure longitudinal ridges corresponding with the margins and midrib of 

 the carpellary leaves, raised on the thickened woody disk and pendent on a stout drooping 

 stalk l|'-2' long and much enlarged at apex; shell T V thick, ultimately hard and brittle, 

 lustrous on the outer surface and lined with a thin membranaceous shining light brown coat 

 marked by the broad placental scars; seeds f ' long and broad and \' thick, with a minute 

 lateral hilum just above the basal sinus; seed-coat of 2 layers, the outer thin, dark reddish 

 brown, rugose, and separable from the thick pale felt-like inner layer; cotyledons with 2 

 ear-like folds near the base, inclosing the radicle in their lower sinus. 



A tree, in Florida 18-20 high, with a trunk 4'-5' in diameter, long slender drooping 

 branches covered with wart-like excrescences, and stout slightly angled branchlets rough- 

 ened and somewhat enlarged at the nodes by the thickening of the large crowded cup- 

 shaped persistent woody bases of the leaves, and covered with thin creamy white bark be- 

 coming dark or ashy gray in their third year. Winter-buds with linear acute apiculate 

 scales becoming woody, and persistent for one or tw r o years. Bark of the trunk about ' 

 thick, light brown tinged with red, and irregularly divided into large thin scales. Wood 

 heavy, hard, very close-grained, thin, light brown or orange color, with lighter colored sap- 

 wood. 



Distribution. Florida, only near the shores of Bay Biscayne on rich hummocks ; common 



