MORACE.E 309 



petioles stout, slightly grooved, ^'-1' long; stipules ovate-lanceolate, thick, firm, 

 tinged with red, about 1' long. Flowers: receptacles developing in succession as the 

 branch lengthens, axillary, subglobose, sessile or short-pedunculate, solitary or in pairs, 

 the lateral orifice closed arid marked by a small point formed by the union of the 



minute bracts, becoming ' in diameter and yellow when fully grown, ultimately turn- 

 ing bright red; flowers reddish purple, separated by minute reddish chaff-like scales 

 more or less laciniate at the apex, sessile or long-pedicellate; calyx of the staminate 

 flower divided to below the middle into 2 or 3 broad lobes rather shorter than the 

 stout flattened filament; lobes of the anther oblong, attached laterally to the broad 

 connective; calyx of the pistillate flower divided to the middle into 4 or 5 narrow 

 lobes, closely investing the ovate sessile ovary. Fruit ovate, immersed in the thick- 

 ened reddish purple walls of the receptacle; seed ovate, rounded at the ends, with 

 a thin light brown coat and a large lateral oblong pale hilum. 



A broad round-topped parasitic tree, 50-60 high, germinating and growing at 

 first on the branches and trunks of other trees and sending down to the ground stout 

 aerial roots which gradually growing together form a trunk often 3-4 in diame- 

 ter, the growth of additional roots from the branches extending the tree over a large 

 area, and stout terete pithy light orange-colored branchlets marked by pale lenti- 

 cels, conspicuous stipular scars, large slightly elevated horizontal oval leaf-scars 

 displaying a marginal ring of large pale fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and smaller 

 elevated concave circular scars left by the receptacles in falling. Bark smooth, 

 ashy gray, light brown tinged with red, ' thick, and broken on the surface into 

 minute appressed scales disclosing in falling the nearly black inner bark. Wood 

 exceedingly light, soft, very weak, coarse-grained, very perishable in contact with the 

 ground, light brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Hummocks on the shores and islands of southern Florida; from 

 the Indian River on the east coast and Tampa Bay on the west coast, to the south- 

 ern keys, attaining its largest size in the neighborhood of Bay Biscayne; on the 

 Bahama Islands. 



