BAY CEDAR FAMILY 



SURIANACE^ Lindley 



Genus Smiana Linnaeus 



Species Suriana maritima Linnaeus 



HE Bay cedar, Suriana maritima Linnaeus, a typical maritime plant 

 of sea-beaches and coastal rocks, occurs in southern Florida, through- 

 out the West Indies, in northern South America and on islands of 

 the Pacific Ocean. It is named in honor of Jos. Donat Surian, a 

 French artist, and is a monotype, no other species of Suriana being known, and it 

 has no close relatives. While usually 

 a mere shrub, 2 meters high or less, 

 it occasionally forms a tree up to 8 

 meters high, with a single trunk 3 dm. 

 in diameter as observed by J. K. Small 

 on Elhott's Key, Florida. 



The bark is brown, rough and ir- 

 regularly fissured, rather thin, separat- 

 ing finally in thin plates. Its rather 

 thick but flaccid leaves are linear- 

 spatulate, 1.5 to 4 cm. long, finely 

 appressed-silky, entire-margined, al- 

 ternate, densely set on the twigs, their 

 veins very inconspicuous. The perfect 

 and regular flowers are in small clus- 

 ters almost concealed by the upper 

 leaves; theje are 5 ovate pointed se- 

 pals 6 to 8 mm. long, 5 imbricated 

 clawed yellow petals about as long as the sepals, 10 stamens, those opposite the 

 sepals shorter than those opposite the petals, and 5 hairy pistils, each with a 

 one-celled ovary containing 2 ascending ovules, a filiform style and a knob-Hke 

 stigma. The pistils ripen into hairy achene-like fruits about 4.5 mm. long; the 

 embryo of the seed is horseshoe-shaped. 



The wood is too meager to be of use for structural purposes, but is very hard 

 and dense and makes good fuel; it is reddish brown in color and very heavy. 



Fig. 544. — Bay Cedar. 



589 



