312 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



below, 4'-5' long, 5'-6' wide, with stout often bright red midribs frequently covered 

 below with pale hairs, and about 5 pairs of conspicuous primary veins red on the 

 upper side, arcuate near the margins and couriected by cross veinlets, gradually turn- 

 ing red or scarlet and falling during their second or third years; their petioles 

 short, stout, flattened, puberulous, abruptly enlarged at the base, leaving in falling 



large pale elevated orbicular or semiorbicular scars; stipular sheath \ r broad, slightly 

 puberulous, persistent during 2 or 3 years. Flowers appearing almost continually 

 throughout the year on slender puberulous pedicels ' long, in 1-6-flowered subses- 

 sile fascicles, in terminal and axillary thick-stemmed many-flowered racemes 6'-14' 

 long; calyx ^' across when expanded, the lobes puberulous on the inner surface and 

 rather longer than the red stamens; ovary oblong, with short stigmatic lobes. Fruit 

 crowded, in long hanging racemes, ovoid to obovoid, |' long, gradually narrowed 

 into a stalk-like base, purple or greenish white, translucent, with thin juicy flesh, and 

 a thin-walled light red nutlet. 



A tree, in Florida rarely more than 15 high, with a short gnarled contorted trunk 

 3-4 in diameter, stout branches forming a round compact head, and stout terete 

 branchlets, with thick pith, light orange color, marked by oblong pale lenticels, 

 gradually growing darker in their second and third years; frequently a shrub, with 

 semiprostrate stems; in the West Indies often 50 tall. Bark about T y thick, 

 smooth, light brown, and marked by large irregular pale blotches. Wood very 

 heavy, hard, close-grained, dark brown or violet color, with thick lighter colored sap- 

 wood; sometimes used in cabinet-making. 



Distribution. Saline shores and beaches, Florida, from Mosquito Inlet to the 

 southern keys on the east coast, and from Tampa Bay to Cape Sable on the west 

 coast; common on the Bermuda and Bahama Islands, in the Antilles, and in South 

 America from Colombia to Brazil. 



2. Coccolobis laurifolia, Jacq. Pigeon Plum. 



Leaves ovate, ovate-lanceolate or obovate-oblong, rounded or acute at the apex, 

 rounded or wedge-shaped at the base, with slightly undulate revolute margins, thick 

 and firm, bright green above, paler below, 3'-4' long, l^'-2' broad, with conspicuous 

 pale midribs and 3 or 4 pairs of remote primary veins connected by prominent reticu- 



