LEITNERIACE^E 



151 



ovary superior, pubescent, 1-celled, with an elongated flattened style inserted 

 obliquely, curving inward above the middle in anthesis, grooved and stigmatic 

 on the inner face ; ovule solitary, attached laterally, ascending, semianatropous ; 

 micropyle directed upward. Fruit an oblong compressed dry drupe thick and 

 rounded on the ventral, narrowed on the dorsal edge, rounded at the base, thin 

 and pointed at the apex, chestnut-brown, rugose, with a thick dry exocarp 

 closely investing the thin-walled light brown crustaceous rugose nutlet. Seed 

 flattened, rounded at the ends, light brown, marked on the thick edge with the 

 oblong nearly black hilum ; embryo erect, surrounded by thin fleshy albumen ; 

 cotyledons oblong, flattened ; radicle superior, conical, short, and fleshy. 



The family consists of a single genus, Leitneria, Chapm., with one species 

 of the southern United States, named for a German naturalist killed in Florida 

 during the Seminole War. 



1. Leitneria Floridana, Chapm. Cork Wood. 



Leaves 4'-6' long, 1^-2^' wide, with petioles l'-2' in length. Flowers opening at 

 the end of February or early in March; staminate aments I'-l^' long, \' thick, and 

 twice as long as the pistillate. Fruit solitary or in clusters of 2-4, ripening when 

 the leaves are about half grown, |' long, \' wide. 



A shrub or small tree, occasionally 20 high, with a slender straight trunk 4t'-5' 

 in diameter above the swollen gradually tapering base, spreading branches form- 



ing a loose open head, and branchlets at first light reddish brown and thickly coated 

 with gradually deciduous hairs, becoming in their first winter glabrous or puber- 

 ulous, especially toward the ends, and dark red-brown. Winter-buds : terminal 

 broad, conical, \' long, covered by 10 or 12 oblong nearly triangular closely imbri- 

 cated scales coated with pale tomentum and long-persistent at the base of the 

 branch; lateral scattered, ovoid, flattened. Bark about ^' thick, dark gray faintly 

 tinged with brown, divided by shallow fissures into narrow rounded ridges. Wood 

 soft, exceedingly light, close-grained, the layers of annual growth hardly distinguish- 

 able, pale yellow, without trace of heartwood ; occasionally used for the floats of 

 fishing-nets. 



