MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS 



201 



CONOCARPUS ERECTUS, L. 



This small tree, which finds its most characteristic station at the 

 drier borders of mangrove swamps, has the distribution of the 

 American mangrove formation, occurring on the Atlantic and Pacific 

 shores of the New World and on the West Coast of Africa. Though 

 not one of the mangroves, it is a constant associate of those plants 

 and ranges with them throughout the West Indian region, reaching 

 north to South Florida on the Atlantic side and to Lower California 

 on the Pacific side, and following the mainland south to Ecuador 

 on the west and to South Brazil on the east. Its occurrence on the 

 Pacific coasts of tropical America is noted by Hemsley (Chall. Bot., 

 II., 32). It was observed by myself on the coasts near Panama, 

 and also on the shores of Ecuador, where it was also noticed by 

 Baron von Eggers. In my book on Plant Dispersal I omitted, on 

 page 488, to include it amongst the vegetation of the beach of Jambeli 

 Island off the Ecuadorian coast. Millspaugh (Plantce Utowanaz) 

 and Harshberger (Phyt. Surv. N. America) give it two localities in 

 Lower California, and the former adds Acapulco on the Pacific coast 

 of Mexico. Its ability to establish itself on isolated island groups 

 is shown by its existence on the Alacran Shoals and the Cayman 

 Islands (Millspaugh), and particularly by its occurrence in the 

 Bermudas and in the Galapagos Islands. 



Grisebach includes the Marianne Islands (Ladrones) in his list of 

 localities. Its occurrence there, though far from impossible, is 

 scarcely probable, since it has not been found on any of the archi- 

 pelagos in the Pacific excepting the Galapagos Islands. Dr. Rendle 

 suggests that there may have been a misreading of the locality, 

 since there is in the Herbarium of the British Museum an old specimen 

 from Menzies labelled " Marias I 6 , San Bias," off the west coast of 

 Mexico (letter cited). 



This species is a most variable one, a behaviour which is evidently 

 in response to the different stations in which it is able to thrive, 

 since, as shown below, though most typically at home on the borders 

 of the mangrove it can accommodate itself to almost every kind 

 of station that a coast can offer. It presents all gradations between 

 a prostrate trailing shrub and a moderate- sized tree, usually exhibit- 

 ing itself as a shrubby tree seven to ten feet high. Grisebach gives 

 three varieties, and Millspaugh makes five (Plant. Utow.) ; but doubtless 

 there are more. The prostrate forms generally grow on rocks. 



All West Indians know the Button-tree, as they call it. In Ber- 

 muda it is termed Button-wood and also Wild Mulberry, from the 

 changing colour of its fruits, first white, then reddish, and then 

 brown. But its singular roundish fruits are much more like the 

 cones of the Alder. In fact, Alnus maritimum was one of its earliest 

 botanical names, and Alder-tree is still one of its West Indian names. 

 Grisebach also gives, as another of its appellations, Zaragoza Mangrove, 

 I suppose from some place on the shores of the Spanish Main. I was 

 familiar with it in a number of places, wherever, in fact, the man- 

 groves came under my observation, as on St. Croix, Jamaica, Turks 

 Islands, Trinidad, Colon, Panama, and the coast of Ecuador, etc. 



