ANONACE^: 327 



and primary veins. Flowers nearly 2' across when fully grown, on stout club- 

 shaped peduncles !'-!' long and covered with long scattered rusty brown hairs; 

 sepals ovate, acuminate, pale green, densely pubescent on the outer surface; petals 

 green at first, covered with short appressed hairs, gradually turning brown and at 

 maturity deep vinous red and conspicuously venulose, those of the outer row broadly 

 ovate, rounded or pointed at the apex, reflexed at maturity above the middle and 

 2 or 3 times longer than the sepals, those of the inner row pointed, erect, their base 

 concave, glandular, nectariferous, marked by a broad band of a lighter color. Fruit 

 attached obliquely to the enlarged torus, oblong, nearly cylindrical, rounded or some- 

 times slightly pointed at the ends, more or less falcate, often irregular from the 

 imperfect development of some of the seeds, 3'-5' long, I'-l^' in diameter, greenish- 

 yellow, becoming when fully ripe in September and October dark brown or almost 

 black, with thick semitransparent sweet and luscious flesh; seeds separating read- 

 ily from the aril, V long, ^' broad, ovate, and rounded at the ends. 



A shrub or low tree, sometimes 35-40 high, with a straight trunk rarely exceed- 

 ing a foot in diameter, small spreading branches, and slender light brown branchlets 



tinged with red and marked by longitudinal parallel or recticulate narrow shallow 

 grooves. Winter-buds acuminate, flattened, ^' long, and clothed with rusty brown 

 hairs. Bark rarely more than |' thick, dark brown, marked by large ash-colored 

 blotches, covered by small wart-like excrescences and divided by numerous shallow 

 reticulate depressions. Wood light, soft and weak, coarse-grained, spongy, light 

 yellow shaded with green, with thin darker colored sapwood of 12-20 layers of an- 

 nual growth. The inner bark stripped from the branches in early spring is used 

 by fishermen of western rivers for stringing fish. The sweet and luscious wholesome 

 fruit is sold in large quantities in the cities and towns in those parts of the country 

 where the tree grows naturally. 



Distribution. Deep rich moist soil; western New Jersey to the northern shores 

 of Lake Ontario, and eastern central Pennsylvania, westward to southern Michigan, 

 eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, and southward to middle Florida, and to the val- 

 ley of the Sabine River, Texas; comparatively rare in the region adjacent to the 

 Atlantic seaboard; very common in the Mississippi valley, forming the thick forest 

 undergrowth on rich bottom-lands, or thickets many acres in extent. 



