FOREST TREES. Ill 



South, with leaves only two to three inches long. Flowers 

 with outer petals two inches long and yellowish-white. Fruit 

 small, often containing only one seed. 



A. pyguifca. Dwarf Papaw. A small shrub. Georgia and 

 Florida. Flowers small, appearing late in the spring or sum- 

 mer from the axils of the leaves of the season. 



The Custard Apple of the West Indies (Anona glabra), may 

 be mentioned here, as it is occasionally found in southern 

 Florida, where it may have been introduced by the Indians, or 

 escaped from some of the islands and washed ashore or seeds 

 dropped by birds. It is a small tree, and only of value in a 

 tropical climate. 



AVICENNIA. 



Low evergreen shrubs or trees, with long creeping roots, 

 forming dense and almost impenetrable thickets in saline 

 marshes along the sea-shore in tropical or semi-tropical climates. 

 Two species are found in Florida and along the Gulf to west- 

 ward. Only one of these, " The White Mangrove " (A. nitida, 

 Jacq., H. dblongifolia, Nutt.), reaches a hight of twenty feet, and 

 this one very seldom ; consequently the genus is of no especial 

 interest except to the botanist or residents of tropical countries. 



BETULA. Bircli. 



A widely distributed genus, containing many large-growing, 

 useful and ornamental species of trees, the bark and wood of 

 some highly aromatic. The twigs and younger branches are 

 generally rather slender and very flexible, giving to the trees a 

 very graceful habit, a characteristic of the entire genus, 

 whether trees or shrubs. They thrive in a great variety of 

 soil, but succeed best in one that is moist. The flowers are 

 monoecious, that is, the sexes are produced separately, pistils in 

 one and stamens in another, but both in scaly catkins on the 

 same tree. Seeds small, nut-like, surrounded by a wing. They 

 are propagated by seeds, which ripen in autumn, budding and 

 grafting, and in the dwarf species by layers. Our indigenous 

 species are as follows : 



Bctnla alba. Var. populifolia. White Birch, Gray Birch. 

 Our native White Birch is now considered by botanists as only 

 a variety <rf the European B. alba, hence the use of two botani- 

 cal names as above. Leaves small, somewhat triangular and 

 tapering, very smooth and glossy. Stem with chalky white 



