886 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



wide ; petiolules f '-' or that of the terminal leaflet up to 1 \' in length. Flowers on pedicels 

 \' long, in ovoid to semiorbicular cymes, usually 2^'-3' long and broad, often somewhat 

 flattened at maturity, on stout peduncles l|'-3' in length, about \' in diameter, with white 



Fig. 779 



or yellow slightly obovate petals rounded at apex, and stamens rather shorter than the lobes 

 of the corolla. Fruit about \' in diameter, bright red or rarely chestnut color (f. Piperi 

 Sarg.); nutlets smooth. 



A tree, occasionally 25-30 high, with a trunk 10'-12' in diameter, slender branchlets 

 occasionally puberulous early in the season, becoming glabrous, light brown, separating on 

 the surface into thin scales. 



Distribution. River banks in low moist soil, from sea-level in the neighborhood of the 

 coast up to altitudes of 7000-8000; coast of Alaska (Skagway), southward along the coast 

 to Marin County, California, and inland to the western slopes of the Cascade and Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains, southward to Amador County; the f. Piperi in western Washington. 



2. VIBURNUM A. L. de Juss. 



Trees or shrubs, with tough flexible branchlets, and large winter-buds naked or covered 

 with scales, those of the arborescent North American species enclosed in one pair of val- 

 vate scales, the buds containing flower-bearing branches ovoid, swollen below the middle 

 and contracted into a long or short point and subtended by 2 minute lateral generally abor- 

 tive buds formed in the axils of the last leaves of the previous year, those containing sterile 

 shoots narrow-lanceolate, slightly angled, acute; axillary buds acute, much flattened, and 

 much smaller than the terminal bud. Leaves deciduous (in the American species), without 

 or rarely with stipules, the first pair rudimentary, with small blades and broad boat-shaped 

 petioles, caducous (in the North American arborescent species) . Flowers on short bracte- 

 olate or bibracteolate pedicels, in terminal or axillary umbel-like flat or panicled cymes, 

 their bracts and bractlets minute, lanceolate, acute, caducous; calyx-tube cylindric, the 

 limb short, equally 5-lobed, persistent on the fruit; corolla rotate, equally 5-lobed, spread- 

 ing and reflexed after anthesis; stamens inserted on the base of the corolla; filaments elon- 

 gated, exserted; anthers bright yellow; ovary inferior, 1-celled; style conic, divided at 



