744 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



4. Bumelia angustifolia, Nutt. Ants' Wood. Downward Plum. 



Leaves spatulate or linear-oblong to broadly obovate-cuneate, rounded and occa- 

 sionally emarginate at the apex, and gradually narrowed at the base, with slightly 

 thickened revolute margins, glabrous, thick and coriaceous, pale blue-green on the 

 upper, paler on the lower surface, I'-l^' long and ^'-1 ^' wide, with pale slender mid- 

 ribs and very obscure veins and veinlets, usually persistent on the branches until 

 the end of their second winter; their petioles stout, grooved, and rarely ^' in length. 

 Flowers generally appearing in October and November, about %' long, on slender 

 glabrous pedicels seldom more than ^' in length, in few or many-flowered crowded 

 fascicles; calyx glabrous, divided nearly to the base into narrow ovate lobes rounded 

 at the apex and half the length of the divisions of the corolla furnished with linear-lan- 

 ceolate appendages as long as the ovate acute denticulate stamiuodia; ovary narrowly 

 ovate, slightly hairy at the base only, gradually contracted into an elongated style. 

 Fruit ripening in the spring, on slender drooping stems, usually 1 fruit only being 

 developed from a fascicle of flowers, oblong-oval, $' long, with thick sweet flesh ; 

 seed oblong, rounded at the apex, ^' long. 



A tree, sometimes 20 high, with a short trunk rarely exceeding 6'-8' in diameter, 

 graceful pendulous branches forming a compact round head, and rigid spinescent 

 divergent lateral branchlets often armed with acute slender spines sometimes 1' in 



length, and when they first appear thickly coated with loose pale or dark brown de- 

 ciduous tomentum, becoming light brown tinged with red or ashy gray; occasionally 

 in Texas a low shrub, with spreading stems. Winter-buds ovate, acute, and covered 

 with rufous tomentum. Bark of the trunk -J-'-^' thick, gray tinged with red, and 

 deeply divided by longitudinal and cross fissures into oblong or nearly square plates. 

 Wood heavy, hard, although not strong, very close-grained, light brown or orange- 

 colored, with thick lighter-colored sapwood. 



Distribution. Florida, shores of Indian River to the southern keys, and from 

 Cedar Keys to Cape Romano; on the west coast less abundant and usually on rocky 

 shores and in the interior of low barren islands; Texas, valley of the Rio Grande 

 below Laredo; in Nuevo Leon and on the Bahama Islands. 



