530 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



17. Frunus ilicifolia, Walp. Islay. 



Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, rounded or etnarginate at the apex, 

 cuneate and rounded or truncate at the base, with thickened coarsely spinosely 

 toothed margins, the stout teeth near the base of the leaf often tipped with large 

 dark glands, thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, paler and yellow- 

 green below, l'-2' long, l'-l' wide, with slender yellow midribs and obscure veins, 

 deciduous during their second summer; their petioles broad, \'-\' long; stipules 

 acuminate, obscurely denticulate, \' long. Flowers opening from March to May, 

 ^' in diameter, on short slender pedicels from the axils of acuminate scarious bracts 

 \' in length and mostly deciduous before the opening of the flower-buds, in slender 

 erect racemes l^'-3' long; calyx-tube cup-shaped, orange-brown, the lobes minute, 

 acuminate, reflexed at maturity, deciduous, about one third as long as the obovate 

 white petals rounded above and narrowed below into short claws ; stamens slightly 

 exserted, with slender incurved filaments and minute yellow anthers; ovary sessile, 

 abruptly contracted into a slender style usually bent near the summit at a right angle 

 or rarely erect, and surmounted by a large orbicular stigma. Fruit ripening in 

 November and December, subglobose, often compressed, '-' in diameter, dark red 

 when fully grown, purple or sometimes nearly black at maturity, with thin slightly 



acid astringent flesh easily separable from the ovate slightly compressed stone '-$' 

 long, short-pointed at the apex, with thin brittle walls, light yellow-brown, conspic- 

 uously marked with reticulate orange-colored vein-like lines, with 3 orange bands 

 radiating from the base to the apex along one suture, and a single narrow band 

 along the other suture. 



A glabrous tree, 20-30 high, with a trunk rarely 2 in diameter or more than 

 10-12 long, stout spreading branches forming a dense compact head, and branch- 

 lets at first yellow-green or orange color, soon becoming gray or reddish brown and 

 more or less conspicuously marked by minute pale lenticels, and in their second or 

 third years by the large leaf-scars; usually much smaller and often a shrub some- 

 times only a foot or two high. Bark \'-\' thick, dark red-brown, and divided by 

 deep fissures into small square plates. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, 

 light red-brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 8-10 layers of annual growth; 

 occasionally used for fuel. 



