Part 100

A tree, with scaly bark, terete pithy branchlets, and naked buds. Leaves opposite, glabrous, thick and coriaceous, oblong or elliptic, obtuse or emarginate at apex, marked toward the margin with minute tubercles; their petioles conspicuously biglandular. Flowers usually perfect or polygamo-monœcious, minute, flattened, greenish white, sessile, in simple terminal axillary tomentose spikes generally collected in leafy panicles, with ovate acute hoary-tomentose bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube turbinate, with 5 prominent ridges opposite the lobes of the limb and 5 intermediate lesser ridges, furnished near the middle with 2 minute appendages, and coated with dense pale tomentum, the limb urceolate, 5-parted to the middle, the divisions triangular, obtuse or acute, erect, persistent; disk epigynous, flat, 10-lobed, the 5 lobes opposite the petals broader than those opposite the calyx-lobes, hairy; petals 5, nearly orbicular, contracted into a short claw inserted on the bottom of the calyx-limb, ciliate on the margins, caducous; stamens 10, inserted in 2 ranks; anthers cordate, apiculate; ovary 1-celled; style short, crowned with a slightly 2-lobed capitate stigma. Fruit 10-ribbed, coriaceous, hoary-pubescent, elongated, obovoid, flattened, crowned with the calyx-limb, unequally 10-ribbed, the 2 lateral ribs produced into narrow wings, 1-seeded; flesh coriaceous, corky toward the interior, inseparable from the thin-walled crustaceous stone dark red and lustrous on the inner surface. Seed suspended, obovoid or oblong; seed-coat membranaceous, dark red; radicle elongated, slightly longer and nearly inclosed by the green cotyledons.

Laguncularia consists of a single species of tropical America and Africa.

The generic name is from _laguncula_, in allusion to the supposed resemblance of the fruit to a flask.

1. Laguncularia racemosa Gærtn. Buttonwood. White Mangrove.

Leaves slightly tinged with red when they unfold, and at maturity dark green on the upper and lighter green or pale on the lower surface, 1½′—2½′ long and 1′—1½′ wide; petioles red, ½′ in length. Flowers ¼′ long, in hoary-tomentose spikes produced throughout the year from the axils of young leaves and 1½′—2′ long. Fruit about ½′ long.

A tree, 30°—60° high, with a trunk 12′—20′ in diameter, stout spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and slender glabrous branchlets somewhat angled at first, often marked with minute pale spots and dark red-brown, becoming in their second year terete, light reddish brown or orange color, thickened at the nodes, and marked by conspicuous ovate leaf-scars; or northward in Florida a low shrub. Bark of the trunk ¼′ thick, brown slightly tinged with red, the surface broken into long ridge-like scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, dark yellow-brown, with lighter colored sapwood of 10—12 layers of annual growth. The bark contains a large amount of tannic acid and is sometimes used in tanning leather, and is astringent and tonic.

Distribution. Muddy tidal shores of bays and lagoons; southern Florida from Cape Canaveral and Cedar Keys to the southern keys; common and of its largest size in Florida on the shores of Shark River, Monroe County; common in Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Antilles, tropical Mexico and Central America, tropical South America and western Africa.

XLVIII. MYRTACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs abounding in pungent aromatic volatile oil, with minute scaly buds. Leaves opposite, simple, mostly entire, pellucid-punctate, penniveined, persistent, the slender obscure veins arcuate and united within the thickened revolute margins; stipules 0. Flowers perfect, regular; calyx 4—5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud, or lid-like and deciduous; petals 2—5, imbricated in the bud, inserted on the margin of the disk, or 0; stamens very numerous, inserted in many ranks with the petals; filaments slender, inflexed in the bud, exserted; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 2—4-celled; style simple, filiform, crowned with a minute stigma; ovules numerous or 2 or 3 in each cell, attached on a central placenta, anatropous or semianatropous; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit baccate, crowned with the persistent calyx-lobes, 1—4-seeded. Seeds without albumen; seed-coat membranaceous.

The Myrtle family with seventy-four genera is chiefly tropical and Australasian, with representatives in southern Europe, extratropical Africa, and extratropical South America. Two genera are represented by small trees in the flora of southern Florida. To this family, beside the Myrtle, belong the Australian Eucalypti, large and important timber-trees largely planted in California, and the Guava, cultivated in Florida for its fruit.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.

Calyx closed in the bud by a lid-like deciduous limb; petals 0. 1. Calyptranthes. Calyx 4 or 5-lobed with persistent lobes; petals 4 or 5. 2. Eugenia.

1. CALYPTRANTHES Sw.

Aromatic trees or shrubs, with terete or angled branchlets. Leaves complanate in the bud, penniveined, petiolate. Flowers minute, in subterminal and axillary pedunculate many-flowered panicles, their primary and secondary branches often racemose, the ultimate branches cymose; calyx-tube turbinate, produced above the ovary, closed in the bud by a slightly 4 or 5-lobed lid-like orbicular limb, opening in anthesis by a circumscissile line, the limb at first attached laterally, finally deciduous; disk lining the tube of the calyx; petals 2—5, minute, or 0; ovary 2 or 3-celled; ovules 2 or 3 in each cell, collateral, ascending, anatropous. Fruit 2—4-seeded. Seed subglobose or short-oblong; seed-coat shining; cotyledons foliaceous, contortuplicate; radicle elongated, incurved.

Calyptranthes with eighty species is confined to tropical America, with two species reaching southern Florida.

The generic name is from χαλύπτρα and ἄνθη, in reference to the peculiar lid-like limb which closes the calyx before the opening of the flower.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Leaves acuminate, pubescent below; petioles up to ½′ in length; inflorescence and young branchlets covered with silky rufous tomentum. 1. C. pallens (D). Leaves abruptly pointed or obtuse at apex, glabrous; petioles not more than ⅙′ in length; inflorescence and young branchlets glabrous. 2. C. Zuzygium (D).

1. Calyptranthes pallens Griseb.

_Chytraculia Chytraculia_ Sudw.

Leaves oblong or oblong-ovate, acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, pellucid-punctate above, marked with dark glands below, when they unfold pink or light red and covered with pale silky hairs, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, coated with pale pubescence on the lower surface, 2½′—3′ long and ½′—¾′ wide, with a broad midrib orange-colored beneath; petioles stout, ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers sessile, ⅛′ long, in long-stalked many-flowered clusters 2½′—3′ long and wide, covered like their bracts and the flower-buds with silky rufous pubescence, with slender divaricate branches, the ultimate divisions 3-flowered; petals 0. Fruit short-oblong or nearly globose, dark reddish brown and puberulous, with thin dry flesh; seeds short-oblong, rounded at the ends.

A tree, in Florida 20°—25° high, with a trunk 3′—4′ in diameter, small branches forming a narrow head, and slender branchlets at first wing-angled between the nodes and coated with short rufous silky tomentum, becoming in their second or third year terete, thickened at the nodes, light gray tinged with red and covered with small thin scales. Bark of the trunk about ⅛′ thick, with a generally smooth light gray or almost white surface occasionally separating into irregular plate-like scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, brown tinged with red, with lighter colored sapwood of 30—40 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Florida, shores of Lake Worth, in the neighborhood of Bay Biscayne, Dade County, and on Big Pine Key, Elliott’s Key, Key Largo and Key West; on the Bahama Islands, on many of the Antilles and in southern Mexico.

2. Calyptranthes Zuzygium Sw.

Leaves elliptic, abruptly or gradually narrowed into a blunt point or obtuse at apex, cuneate at base, entire, covered with minute pellucid dots, glabrous, dark yellow-green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, 1½′—2¼′ long and ⅗′—1¼′ wide, with a broad low midrib and slender primary veins arcuate and connected within the slightly revolute somewhat undulate margins; petioles deeply grooved, ⅛′—⅙′ in length. Flowers on slender pedicels ⅙′—⅕′ long, in axillary 1—3-branched few-flowered axillary cymes ¾′ long and ½′ wide, on slender peduncles 1′—1¼′ in length, the ultimate divisions of the inflorescence 1—3-flowered; petals wanting; style rather longer than the stamens. Fruit about ⅓′ in diameter.

A tree, in Florida sometimes 40° high, with a tall trunk 4′ or 5′ in diameter, covered with smooth pale gray bark, small branches and slender terete ascending ashy gray branchlets.

Distribution. Florida, Paradise and Long Keys in the Everglades, Dade County; on the Bahama Islands and in Cuba, Jamaica and Hayti.

2. EUGENIA L.

Trees or shrubs, with hard durable wood and scaly bark. Flowers often large and conspicuous, on short bibracteolate pedicels, in axillary racemes or fascicles or dichotomously branched cymes, with minute caducous bracts and bractlets; calyx campanulate, scarcely produced above the ovary, the limb 4 or rarely 5-lobed; petals usually 4, free and spreading; ovary 2 or rarely 3-celled; ovules numerous in each cell, semianatropous. Fruit 1—4-seeded. Seeds globose or flattened; seed-coat membranaceous or cartilaginous; embryo thick and fleshy; cotyledons thick, more or less conferruminate into a homogeneous mass; radicle very short, turned toward the hilum.

Eugenia with some five hundred species is common in all tropical regions, with eight species reaching the shores of southern Florida, of these 6 are small trees. Several species are valued for their stimulant and digestive properties; some produce useful timber or edible fruit, and others are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers. Cloves are the flower-buds of _Eugenia aromatica_ Baill., a native of the Molucca Islands; and _Eugenia Jambos_ L., the Rose Apple, of southeastern Asia, is cultivated in all tropical countries as a shade-tree and for its delicately fragrant fruit.

The generic name commemorates the interest in botany and gardening taken by Prince Eugène of Savoy, who built the Belvidere Palace near Vienna in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and made a collection of rare plants in its gardens.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Flowers in axillary racemes or fascicles. Flowers in short solitary or clustered axillary racemes. Leaves ovate or obovate, rounded at apex, short-petiolate; fruit subglobose to short-oblong. 1. E. buxifolia (C, D). Leaves ovate, contracted at apex into a broad point, distinctly petiolate; fruit globose, black, ½′ in diameter. 2. E. axillaris (C, D). Flowers in axillary fascicles. Leaves usually broad-ovate, narrowed at apex into a short point, subcoriaceous; fruit subglobose, rather broader than high, ⅔′—1′ in diameter, becoming black at maturity. 3. E. rhombea (D). Leaves oblong-ovate, narrowed at apex into a long point, coriaceous; fruit subglobose to obovoid, ¼′—⅓′ long, bright scarlet. 4. E. confusa (D). Flowers in dichotomously branched cymes. (_Anamomis._) Leaves ovate or obovate; cymes usually 3-flowered; flowers not more than ¼′ in diameter; fruit black. 5. E. dicrana (D). Leaves oblong or broad-elliptic; cymes 3—15-flowered; flowers up to ½′ in diameter; fruit red. 6. E. Simpsonii (D).

1. Eugenia buxifolia Willd. Gurgeon Stopper. Spanish Stopper.

Leaves ovate or obovate, rounded at apex, sessile or narrowed into a short thick petiole, occasionally slightly and remotely crenulate-serrate above the middle, thick and coriaceous, dark green on the upper surface, yellow-green and marked with minute black dots on the lower surface, 1′—1½′ long and about 1′ wide, with a narrow conspicuous midrib; usually unfolding in November and remaining on the branches until the end of their second winter, and often turning red or partly red before falling. Flowers appearing in Florida from midsummer until early autumn, ⅛′ in diameter, on short thick pedicels, in short rufous-pubescent racemes clustered in the axils of old or fallen leaves, with minute lanceolate acute persistent bracts, and broad-ovate acute bractlets immediately below the flowers; calyx glandular-punctate, pubescent on the outer surface, with 4 ovate rounded lobes much shorter than the 4 ovate white petals rounded at apex, ciliate on the margins, and glandular-punctate. Fruit subglobose to short-oblong, black, glandular-roughened, crowned with the large calyx-lobes, usually 1-seeded, and about ⅓′ in diameter, with thin aromatic flesh; seeds ⅛′ in diameter, with a thick pale brown lustrous cartilaginous coat and a pale olive-green embryo.

A shrubby tree, in Florida rarely 20° high, with a short trunk occasionally a foot in diameter, small mostly erect branches, and terete slender branchlets coated at first with rufous pubescence, becoming at the end of a few months ashy gray or gray tinged with red, and often more or less twisted or contorted. Bark of the trunk rarely more than ⅛′ thick, light brown tinged with red, and broken into small thick square scales. Wood very heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, dark brown shaded with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood of 15—20 layers of annual growth; sometimes used for fuel.

Distribution. Florida, Cape Canaveral to the southern keys, and on the west coast from the banks of the Caloosahatchee River to Cape Sable; one of the commonest plants on the keys, forming on coral rock a large part of the shrubby second growth now occupying ground from which the original forest has been removed; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.

2. Eugenia axillaris Willd. Stopper. White Stopper.

Leaves ovate, gradually or abruptly narrowed at apex into a short wide point, rounded at the narrowed base, thick and coriaceous, dark green on the upper surface, paler and covered with minute black dots on the lower surface, 1½′—2½′ long and ½′ wide, with a broad midrib deeply impressed above; petioles stout, slightly winged, about ⅓′ in length. Flowers appearing at midsummer, about ⅛′ in diameter, in short axillary racemes, on stout pedicels 1/16′—½′ long, covered with pale white hairs, and furnished near the middle or toward the apex with 2 acute minute persistent bractlets; calyx glandular-punctate, covered on the outer surface with pale hairs, 4-lobed, with ovate rounded lobes shorter than the 4 ovate glandular white petals. Fruit ripening in succession from November to April, globose, black, glandular-punctate, usually 1-seeded, ½′ in diameter, edible, rather juicy, with a sweet agreeable flavor; seeds subglobose, ¼′ in diameter, with a pale brown chartaceous coat, and light olive-green cotyledons.

A tree, 20°—25° high, with a trunk occasionally a foot in diameter, small branches, and terete stout rigid ashy gray branchlets often slightly tinged with red and covered with small wart-like excrescences; or toward the northern limits of its range a low shrub. Bark of the trunk about ⅛′ thick and divided by irregular shallow fissures into broad ridges finally separating on the surface into small thin light brown scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, very close-grained, brown often tinged with red, with thin darker colored sapwood of 5—6 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Florida, shores of the St. John’s River to the southern keys; nowhere common; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.

3. Eugenia rhombea Kr. & Urb. Stopper.

Leaves broad-ovate, narrowed into a broad point rounded at apex, and abruptly or gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, when they unfold thin and light red, and at maturity subcoriaceous, conspicuously marked with black dots, olive-green on the upper surface and paler on the lower surface, 2′—2½′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with a narrow midrib; unfolding in Florida in May; petioles narrow-winged, ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers ½′ in diameter, appearing in Florida in April or May on slender glandular pedicels ⅓′—⅔′ long and furnished at apex with 2 lanceolate acute persistent bractlets ciliate on the margins, in sessile axillary many-flowered clusters; calyx-tube much shorter than the limb divided into 4 glandular narrow lobes rounded at apex and one half the length of the broad-ovate rounded glandular white petals. Fruit ripening in Florida from September to November, ⅔′—1′ in diameter, slightly glandular-roughened, orange color, with a bright red cheek when fully grown, becoming black at maturity; flesh thin and dry; seeds almost globose, nearly ½′ in diameter, with a thick pale chestnut-brown lustrous coat and olive-green cotyledons.

A tree, 20°—25° high, with a trunk usually a foot in diameter, small branches, and slender terete branchlets at first light purple and covered with a glaucous bloom, becoming ashy gray or almost white. Bark of the trunk about 1/16′ thick, with a smooth light gray surface slightly tinged with red. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, light brown, with hardly distinguishable sapwood.

Distribution. Florida, Key West and Umbrella Key; on the Bahama Islands and on many of the Antilles.

4. Eugenia confusa DC. Red Stopper.

Leaves oblong-ovate, abruptly or gradually contracted into a long narrow point rounded or acute at apex, cuneate or occasionally rounded at base, thin and light red when they unfold, and at maturity dark green and very lustrous on the upper surface, paler and marked with minute black dots on the lower surface, 1½′—2′ long and ⅓′—⅔′ wide, with a thick orange-colored midrib barely impressed above and prominent reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, about ¼′ in length. Flowers barely ⅛′ in diameter, appearing in September on slender pedicels ¼′—½′ long and furnished near the apex with 2 minute acute bractlets, in many-flowered axillary clusters; calyx glandular-punctate, with 4 ovate acute lobes much shorter than the 4 broad-ovate rounded white petals. Fruit ripening in March and April, subglobose to obovoid, bright scarlet, ¼′—⅓′ long, glandular-roughened, usually solitary and 1-seeded, with thin dry flesh; seed nearly globose, about ⅛′ in diameter, with a thin crustaceous light brown lustrous coat and an olive-green embryo.

A tree, 50°—60° high, with a straight trunk 18′—20′ in diameter, stout upright branches forming a narrow compact head, and slender terete ashy gray branchlets. Bark of the trunk about ⅛′ thick, bright cinnamon-red, separating freely into small thin scales. Wood very heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, bright red-brown, with thick dark-colored sapwood of 50—60 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Florida, rich hummocks near the shores of Bay Biscayne, Dade County, and on Old Rhodes and Elliotts Keys; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.

5. Eugenia dicrana Berg. Naked Wood.

_Anamomis dichotoma_ Sarg.

Leaves ovate or obovate, acute or rounded and occasionally emarginate at apex, cuneate at base, chartaceous when they unfold, becoming subcoriaceous, glabrous, covered with minute black dots, 1′—1¼′ long and ½′—⅔′ wide, with a stout midrib; petioles stout, enlarged at base, coated at first with silky hairs, finally glabrous. Flowers appearing in Florida in May, ¼′ in diameter, in cymes produced near the end of the branches, in the axils of leaves of the year, on slender peduncles coated with pale silky hairs, sometimes 1-flowered and not longer than the leaves, more often longer than the leaves, dichotomously branched and 3-flowered, with 1 flower at the end of the principal division in the fork of its branches, or occasionally 5—7-flowered by the development of peduncles from the axils of the bracts of the secondary divisions of the inflorescence, each branch of the inflorescence furnished immediately beneath the flower with 2 lanceolate acute bractlets nearly as long as the calyx-tube; calyx hoary-tomentose, the lobes ovate, rounded at apex and much shorter than the ovate acute glandular-punctate white petals. Fruit ripening in Florida in August, reddish brown, ¼′ long, obliquely oblong, obovate or subglobose, roughened by minute glands; flesh thin, rather dry and aromatic; seeds reniform, light brown, exceedingly fragrant.

A tree, 20°—25° high, with a trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, and slender terete branchlets light red and coated with pale silky hairs when they first appear, becoming glabrous in their second year and covered with light or dark brown bark separating into small thin scales; or often a shrub, with numerous slender stems. Bark of the trunk 1/16′—⅛′ thick, with a smooth light red or red-brown surface separating into minute thin scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, light brown or red, with thick yellow sapwood of 40—50 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Florida, rocky woods, Mosquito Inlet to Cape Canaveral on the east coast, and from the banks of the Caloosahatchee River to the shores of Cape Romano on the west coast, on Key West, and in the neighborhood of Bay Biscayne, Dade County; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.

6. Eugenia Simpsonii Sarg.

_Anamomis Simpsonii_ Small.

Leaves oblong, rounded and abruptly short-pointed or occasionally emarginate at apex, cuneate at base, or broad-elliptic, silky pubescent and ciliate on the margins when they unfold, soon glabrous, and at maturity coriaceous, dark yellow-green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler and dull on the lower surface, 1½′—2′ long and ½′—1′ wide, with a prominent midrib impressed on the upper side and obscure spreading primary veins united before reaching the thickened revolute entire margins of the leaf; petioles covered at first with snowy white tomentum, soon glabrous, slender, ⅛′—¼′ in length. Flowers fragrant, about ½′ in diameter, sessile in lateral 3—15-flowered cymes on slender finely appressed-pubescent peduncles longer or shorter than the subtending leaves, their bractlets acuminate and ⅓′ long; calyx-tube short-obconic, thickly covered with silky white hairs, the lobes rounded at apex, green, punctate, two of them orbicular-reniform, the others orbicular-ovate, shorter than the white concave, obovate to suborbicular erose ciliate sparingly punctate petals. Fruit ellipsoid, red, mostly ⅓′—⅖′ long; seed reniform, usually solitary.