Satinleaf 



773 



I. SATINLEAF 



GENUS CHRTSOPHYLLUM LINN^US 



Species ChiysophyUtun oliviforme Linnaeus 



Chryspphyllum monopyrenum Swartz 



M^±M 



HIS small evergreen tree or shrub of the West Indies also occurs in 

 peninsular Florida and on the Keys, but is not abundant there; its 

 maximum height is lo meters, with a trunk diameter of 3 dm. 



The branches are rather stout, ascending and somewhat crooked. 

 The bark is 6 to 8 mm. thick, shallowly fissured into plates, with a scaly brown 

 surface. The twigs are brownish hairy at first, becoming smooth, reddish brown 

 to gray. The leaves are persistent, leathery, oblong, elliptic or ovate, 3 to 10 cm. 

 long, sharp or short taper-pointed, rounded or abruptly tapering at the base, 

 revolute on the margin, bluish green, smooth and shining with deeply impressed 

 midrib above, silky with shining red brown hairs beneath; the leaf-stalk is stout, 

 about I cm. long. The flowers 

 are small, short-stalked, in 

 few-flowered axillary clusters 

 on the new growth; calyx 

 densely silky, cup-shaped, 

 deeply s-parted, the sepals 

 nearly orbicular, and rounded 

 at the apex; corolla white, 5 

 mm. across, with 5 suborbic- 

 ular, blunt lobes, without 

 appendages or staminodes; 

 stamens 5, included, their 

 anthers nearly sessile and 

 heart-shaped; ovary 5-celled, 

 narrowed upward into a short 

 style and tenninated by a 5- 

 lobed stigma. The fruit is a nodding, usually solitary oval berry about 2 cm. 

 long, dark purple, its skin thick, tough, and shghtly roughened, its flesh juicy, 

 sweet but insipid, usually i-seeded; seed compressed, about 12 mm. long, Ught 

 brown and shining, with a white, pulpy coat. 



The wood is hard, dense, strong, light brown, its specific gravity about 0.94. 



The genus is a tropical one with probably 60 species of trees and shrubs, mostly 

 American; they have milky juice and produce edible fruits, some of which are of 

 considerable importance in tropical countries, such as the type species, Chrys- 

 ophyllum Cainito Linnaeus, a native of the West Indies, which produces in several 

 varieties the well-known Star-apple, and is largely cultivated in warm countries. 



FiGi 704. — Satinleaf. 



