NYCTAGINACE^fc 313 



late veinlets; their petioles stout, flattened, ' long, abruptly enlarged at the base; 

 stipular sheaths glabrous, ^' wide. Flowers in early spring, on slender pedicels ^' 

 long, in few or 1-tlowered fascicles on racemes terminal on short axillary branches 

 of the previous year, and 2'-3' in length; calyx ' across, the cup-shaped lobes 

 rather shorter than the stamens, with slender yellow filaments enlarged at the base, 

 and dark orange-colored anthers; ovary oblong, with elongated stigmatic lobes. 

 Fruit in erect or spreading sparsely-fruited racemes, ripening during the winter and 

 early spring, ovoid, narrowed at the base, rounded at the apex, dark red, |'. long, 

 with thin acidulous flesh and a hard thin-walled light brown nutlet. 



A glabrous tree,60-70 high, with a tall straight trunk l-2 in diameter, spread- 

 ing branches forming a dense round-topped head, slender terete slightly zigzag 



branchlets usually contorted and covered with light orange-colored bark, becoming 

 darker and tinged with red in their second or third year. Wood heavy, exceedingly 

 hard, strong, brittle, close-grained, rich dark brown tinged with red, with thick 

 lighter colored sapwood; occasionally used in cabinet-making. 



Distribution. One of the largest and most abundant of the tropical trees of the 

 seacoast of southern Florida from Cape Canaveral to the keys and on the west coast 

 from Cape Romano to Cape Sable; common on the Bahama Islands, on many of the 

 Antilles, and in Venezuela. 



XIV. NYCTAGINACE^l. 



Trees, with alternate stalked persistent leaves without stipules. Flowers per- 

 fect or unisexual ; calyx corolla-like, 5-lol>ed ; stamens 5-8 ; ovule campylo- 

 tropous. Fruit a nutlet inclosed in the thickened calyx and crowned by its 

 persistent teeth. Seed erect ; cotyledons unequal, folded around the soft scanty 

 albumen ; radicle short, inferior, turned toward the hiluni. A family of about 

 twenty genera widely distributed chiefly in the warmer and tropical parts of 

 the New World, with a single arborescent representative in North America. 



1. PIS ONI A, L. 



Glabrous or pubescent trees or shrubs, unarmed or rarely spinescent, erect or 

 semiscandent. Leaves opposite or alternate, entire, short-stalked. Flowers perfect, 



