768 



Marlberry 



dustered near the ends of the twigs, leatheiy, obovate to oblong, 4 to 10 cm. long, 

 blunt or notched at the apex, entire, revolute-margined, bright green, smooth and 



shining above, paler beneath; the leaf- 

 stalk is short; the small flowers are 

 polygamo-dioecious, sessile or nearly 

 so, scattered along the twigs; the 

 calyx is bell-shaped, i mm. high, the 5 

 or 6 sepals broadly ovate, blunt or 

 sharp-pointed and spotted with purple; 

 the corolla is wheel-shaped, whitish, 4 

 mm. across, 3 times longer than the ca- 

 lyx, its 5 or 6 lobes imequal, oblong, 

 usually blimt, glandular-ciliate and hke 

 the calyx spotted and striped with pur- 

 ple; stamens as many as there are co- 

 rolla-lobes and joined to their base; the 

 filaments are very short; anthers arrow- 

 shaped, blunt, shorter than the co- 

 rolla lobes and introrse; the ovary is 

 i-celled ; ovules several, immersed in the placenta, only x maturing; style elongated; 

 stigma capitate. The fruits are in clusters surrounding the branchlets; they are 

 subglobose, dryish drupes 4 mm. in diameter, bluish or black, short-stalked, tipped 

 at the apex by the persistent style; seed solitary. 



The wood is hard, strong, rather close-grained, light yellowish brown. 



Fig. 700. — Myrsine. 



II. MARLBERRY 



GENUS ICACOREA AUBLET 

 Species Icacoiea paniculata (Nuttall) Sudworth 

 Cyrilla paniculata Nuttall. Ardisia Pickeringia Torrey and Gray 



HIS small, slender tree, more often a shrub, of southern Florida, the 

 Bahamas, and other West Indies, is also known as Cherry. It reaches 

 a height of 7.5 meters, with a trunk diameter of about 1.5 dm. 



The trunk is short, its branches slender and ascending. The bark 

 is about 3 mm. thick, light gray to white, scaly, inner layers dark brown. The 

 twigs are stout, round, slightly hairy, reddish brown or gray. The leaves are de- 

 ciduous, alternate, thick and leathery, oblanceolate to obovate or elliptic, 8 to 16 

 cm. long, sharp or blunt-pointed, wedge-shaped and narrowed at the base, entire, 

 thickened and revolute on the margin, yellowish green and smooth above, paler 

 with prominent yellow midrib beneath. The flowers are fragrant, appearing in 

 the autumn and winter, in panicles 5 to 12 cm. long, on slender, bractless pedi- 

 cels; the calyx is bell-shaped, 2 mm. high, deeply s-lobed, the ovate, sharp-pointed 



