330 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



feet, vernal, in 2 or 3-flowered cymes in short axillary or axillary and terminal 

 panicles on slender peduncles from axils of the leaves of the year, pedicellate, their 

 pedicels bibracteolate near the middle, the lateral flowers of the ultimate divisions 

 of the inflorescence in the axils of small deciduous lanceolate acute bracts; calyx 

 campanulate, divided nearly to the base into 6 lobes, those of the outer series 

 shorter than the others, enlarged and persistent under the fruit; stamens 12, in 4 

 series, about as long as the inner lobes of the calyx; filaments flattened, longer 

 than the anthers, hirsute, those of the third series furnished near the base with 

 2 nearly sessile orange-colored glands rounded on the back and slightly 2-lobed 

 on the inner face; anthers ovate, flattened, erect, those of the outer series introrse 

 or subiutrorse, those of the third series extrorse or laterally dehiscent, the upper 

 cells rather larger than the lower; staminodia large, sagittate, stipitate, 2-lobed on 

 the inner face, beaded at the apex; ovary sessile, subglobose, glabrous, narrowed 

 into a slender simple style gradually enlarged at the apex into a discoid obscurely 

 2-lobed stigma. Fruit ripening in the autumn, oblong-obovate to subglobose, more 

 or less fleshy, surrounded at the base by the enlarged spreading persistent lobes of 

 the calyx. Seed globose, pendulous, without albumen; testa thin and membrana- 

 ceous, separable into 2 coats, the outer cartilaginous, grayish brown, the inner gray 

 or nearly white, closely adherent to the thick dark red cotyledons. 



About fifty species of Persea are distinguished. With the exception of one species 

 of the Canary Islands they are confined to the New World, where they are dis- 

 tributed from the coast region of the southern United States to Brazil and Chili. 

 Persea Persea, Cockerell, the Avocado or Alligator Pear, a native of the Antilles and 

 cultivated for its edible fruit in all tropical countries, is now sparingly naturalized 

 in southern Florida. Many species yield hard dark-colored 'handsome wood valued 

 in cabinet-making. 



Persea was the classical name of a tree of the Orient, transferred by Plumier to 

 one of the tropical species of this genus. 



CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES. 



Peduncles short ; leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, obscurely veined, glabrous ; branch- 

 lets puberulous. 1. P. Borbonia (C). 



Peduncles elongated; leaves oval to lanceolate, conspicuously veined, tomentose on the 

 lower surface ; branehlets tomentose. 2. P. pubescens (C). 



1. Persea Borbonia, Spreng. Red Bay. 



Leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, entire, often slightly contracted into long 

 points rounded at the apex, gradually narrowed below, when they unfold thin, 

 pilose, and tinged with red, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, bright green and 

 lustrous above, pale and glaucous below, 3' 4' long, f -1^' wide, with thickened revo- 

 lute margins, narrow orange-colored midribs, remote obscure primary veins arcuate 

 near the margins, and thin closely reticulated veinlets, unfolding early in the spring, 

 gradually turning yellow a year later and falling during their second spring and 

 summer; their petioles stout, rigid, red-brown, ^'-f long, flattened and somewhat 

 grooved on the upper side, in falling leaving small circular leaf-scars displaying the 

 ends of a single fibro-vascular bundle. Flowers: peduncles glabrous, ^'-V long; 

 calyx pale yellow or creamy white, about \' long, with thin lobes ciliate on the mar- 

 gins, the outer broadly ovate, rounded and minutely apiculate, puberulous, about 



