White Stopper 



725 



all seasons, in small short axillary or lateral racemes, on rusty-hairy pedicels. 

 The 4 calyx-lobes are blunt; the corolla is 3 or 4 mm. across, its 4 white petals 

 glandular-punctate and fringed on the margin. The fruit is oval or subglobose, 

 somewhat oblique, S to 8 mm. long, black, and aromatic. 



The wood is very hard, strong, close-grained, and dark reddish brown; its 

 specific gravity is 0.94, and it is used for fuel on the Florida Keys. 



2. WHITE STOPPER — Eugenia axiUaris (Swartz) Willdenow 

 Myrtus axillaris Swartz. Eugenia monticola Grisebach, not Willdenow 



This small, slow-growing tree or shrub occurs in sandy or rocky soil in penin- 

 sular Florida and the Keys, and is widely distributed in the West Indian islands, 

 north to Bermuda, reaching a maximum height of 8 meters, with a trunk diame- 

 ter of 3 dm. 



The bark is about 3 mm. thick, irregularly and shallowly fissured and broken 

 into small thin plates of a light 

 broYiTi color. The twigs are 

 rather stout, round and stiff, gray 

 or reddish gray. The leaves are 

 thick and leathery, elliptic-ovate 

 or nearly elliptic, broadest just 

 below the middle, 3 to 7 cm. 

 long, narrowed at the apex into 

 a bluntish tip, tapering at the 

 base to the broad petiole, entire 

 and revolute on the margin, dark 

 green with a broad impressed 

 midrib above, paler, minutely 

 dotted and with elevated veins 

 beneath. The flowers, opening 

 in summer ^d autumn, are in 

 short axillary clusters, on stout 

 smooth or hairy pedicels. The 

 calyx is punctate, its lobes rounded; corolla 3 to 4 mm. across, its petals larger 

 than the calyx-lobes, the many white stamens conspicuous. The fruit is a de- 

 pressed globular, glandular-pimctate berry, 10 to 12 mm. in diameter and crowned 

 with the persistent calyx-lobes, its flesh sweet, pleasant to the taste and aromatic; 

 it usually contains but one globose brown seed. 



The wood is hard, strong, close-grained and brown or reddish brown; its spe- 

 cific gravity is about 0.91. The fohage is unpleasantly scented, the odor dis- 

 tinctly mephitic, and very noticeable to leeward. 



Fig. 664. — White Stopper. 



