Florida Boxwood 633 



have a 2-celled ovary with i pendulous ovule in each cavity. The fruit is a 

 small drupe. The name Gyminda is an anagram of Myginda, to which genus the 

 following species was first referred. 



Gyminda laiifolia, the type of the genus, grows in southern Florida, the Baha- 

 mas, Cuba, and Porto Rico. It attains a maximum height of about 9 meters, with 

 a trunk 2 dm. in diameter or less. Its bark is reddish brown and thin. The 

 young twigs are sharply 4-angled and smooth, becoming round and gray. The 

 leaves are obovate-oblong, thick, slightly toothed or entire-margined, blunt or 

 sometimes notched at the apex, narrowed at the base, very short-stalked, 2 to 5 

 cm. long, paler green on the under side than on the upper. The flowers open from 

 February to June. The drupe is nearly black, oblong, 6 to 8 mm. long. 



The wood is dense, very dark brown, with a specific gravity of about 0.90. 



IV. FLORIDA BOXWOOD 



GENUS SOH^FFERIA JACQUIN 

 Species ScheeSeria frutescens Jacquin 



CH^FFERIA contains 5 species, one a low shrub of Texas and adjacent 

 Mexico, a tree of subtropical America, here described, which, how- 

 ever, also grows commonly as a shrub, and three other West Indian 

 shrubs. They have alternate persistent entire-margined leaves and 

 small imperfect flowers, clustered or solitary in the axils, the staminate on one 



Fig. 585. — Florida Boxwood. 



plant, the pistillate on another. The 4-lobed calyx is very much shorter than the 

 4 petals; there are 4 slender stamens and a rudimentary ovary in the staminate 

 flower; in the pistillate flower the 2-celled ovary has one erect ovule in each cavity, 

 and is surmounted by a short style and a 2-lobed stigma. The fruit is a small 



