West Indian Birch 



591 



its lower branches are nearly horizontal and sometimes very close to the ground. 

 It is the type of a genus which consists of 

 some 40 species of trees of tropical distribu- 

 tion. 



The thick red-brown smooth and shin- 

 ing bark peels off freely in papery layers of 

 the thickness of those of the Yellow birch. 

 The twigs are stout, smooth, gray, becoming 

 red-brown. The smooth pinnate leaves are 

 clustered toward the ends of the branchlets, 

 are i to 2 dm. long, stalked, with from 3 to 

 7 leaflets, which vary in form from oval to 

 obovate, and are opposite, entire-margined, 



unequal-sided, firm in texture, short-pointed, /^****°'°^^ 2 



5 cm. long or less. The flowers are in lateral M 5 



stalked racemes 5 to 10 cm. long, the flower- 

 stalks 4 to 8 mm. long; the sepals, which 

 become refiexed, are ovate and about i mm. long; the greenish petals are ovate 

 to oblong-lanceolate, 2 to 2.5 mm. long. The fruits are oblong, bluntly 3-angled, 5 

 to 6 mm. long, and finally spht into 3 valves which fall away from the white seed. 



Fig. 545. — West Indian Birch. 



P'iG. 546. — West Indian Birch, Inagua, Bahamas. 



