Family 3. ERYTHROXYLACEAE 



By Nathaniel Lord Britton 



Glabrous trees or shrubs. Leaves mostly alternate, simple, stipulate, 

 petioled, entire-margined, the stipules often imbricated on the young shoots. 

 Flowers small, often heterostylous, solitary or fascicled in the axils, pedicelled, 

 the pedicels bracted at the base. Calyx persistent, mostly cleft into 5 lobes, 

 rarely divided into 5 sepals. Petals as many as the calyx-lobes, hypogynous, 

 appendaged by a 2-lobed ligule within. Stamens 10, in 2 series, united below 

 by their filaments into a tube which is often 10-crenulate. Ovary 3-celled, 

 rarely 4-celled ; ovules 1, rarely 2, in each cavity, pendulous ; styles 3, rarely 4, 

 distinct, or rarely more or less united ; stigmas capitellate. Fruit a drupe, 

 usually only 1-celled and 1-seeded, rarely 2-seeded, rarely 3-4-celled. Seed- 

 coat thin ; endosperm farinaceous, sometimes little or none ; embryo straight. 



1. ERYTHROXYLON L. Syst. ed. 10. 1035. 1759. 



Erythroxylum P. Br.; Hist. Jam. 27S hyponytn. 1756. 



Leaves alternate. Petals short-clawed, appendaged. Drupe 1-celled, almost always 

 1-seeded. 



Type species, Erythroxylon areolatum L. 



Leaves suborbicular, 6 mm. long or less. 1. E. minittt folium. 



Leaves ovate to oblong or obovate, 1-30 cm. long. 



Leaves abruptly acuminate ; fruit 1.5-2 cm. long. 2. E. squama turn. 



Leaves acute, obtuse or emarginate ; fruit smaller. 

 Leaves small, mostly 3 cm. long or less. 

 Branehlets flexible, not spinescent. 



Leaves shining above, prominently reticulate-veined. 



Pedicels as long as the petioles or longer ; ligule of the 

 petal one half as long as the blade. 

 Pedicels 1-2 mm. long. 3. E.alalernifolium. 



Pedicels 4-7 mm. long. 4. E. pedicellate. 



Pedicels much shorter than the petioles ; ligule one third as 

 long as the blade. 5. E. Urbani. 



Leaves dull, not prominently reticulate. 



Leaves mostly obovate, varying to oblong. 



Petioles 1-2 mm. long. 6. E. brevipes. 



Petioles 2.5-5 mm. long. 



Petals oblong, obtuse ; ligule-appendages obtuse, 



bluntly toothed. 7. E. rolundifolium. 



Petals ovate, acute ; ligule-appendages acutely lacini- 

 ate. 8. E. compaction. 



Leaves ovate to elliptic or oblong. 



Leaves membranous, yellow-green. 9. E. pallidum. 



Leaves coriaceous, deep-green. 10. E. Pringlei. 



Branehlets stiff, spinescent. 11. E. spinescens. 



Leaves larger, mostly 3.5 cm. long or longer. 

 Stipules not bifid. 



Stipules small, not strongly striate. 



Leaves conspicuously areolate beneath. 



Flowering pedicels as long as the petioles or shorter. 



Leaves lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute. 12. E. panamense. 



Leaves elliptic to obovate, obtuse or emarginate. 13. E. areolatum. 



Flowering pedicels, or some of them, much longer than 

 the petioles. 14. E. leliculalnm. 



Leaves not areolate beneath, or indistinctly areolate. 

 Leaves rufous or rufescent beneath. 



Leaves conspicuously reticulate-veined ; petioles 4-8 

 mm. long. 

 Leaves obtuse or retuse ; pedicel slender. 15. E. rufum. 



Volume 25, Part 1,1907] 59 



