Part 106

Lower surface of the leaves pubescent or lanuginose. Leaves short-obovate to oblanceolate or elliptic, covered below with pale or ferrugineous silky pubescence. 1. B. tenax (C). Leaves oblong-obovate, lanuginose below with ferrugineous or silvery white hairs. 2. B. lanuginosa (A, C, H). Leaves glabrous or nearly so. Leaves deciduous. Leaves oblong-obovate, thick. 3. B. monticola. Leaves elliptic to oblanceolate, usually acute or acuminate, thin. 4. B. lycioides (A, C). Leaves persistent, obovate; fruit oblong. 5. B. angustifolia (C, D).

1. Bumelia tenax Willd. Ironwood. Black Haw.

Leaves oblong-obovate to oblanceolate or elliptic, rarely oval or ovate on leading shoots, rounded or acute at apex, cuneate at base, thin, dark dull green, and finally reticulate-venulose on the upper surface, thickly covered below with soft silky pale or gold-colored pubescence, usually becoming dark rusty brown by midsummer, 1′—3′ long and 1⅛′—1½′ wide, with slightly thickened and revolute margins and a prominent midrib; turning yellow and falling irregularly during the winter; petioles slender, hairy, grooved, ¼′—1′ in length. Flowers appearing from May in Florida to July in South Carolina, ⅛′ long, on pedicels ½′—1′ in length and coated like the calyx with rufous silky pubescence, in many-flowered crowded fascicles; calyx ovoid, with oblong lobes; appendages of the corolla large, ovate, acute, crenate, shorter than the ovate staminodia about as long as the lobes of the corolla; ovary narrow-ovoid, gradually contracted into an elongated style. Fruit ripening and falling in the autumn, short-oblong to ellipsoid, ⅓′—½′ in length; flesh sweet and edible; seed oblong, short-pointed at apex, ¼′—⅓′ long.

A tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk occasionally 5′—6′ in diameter, straight spreading flexible tough branches unarmed or armed with straight stout rigid spines sometimes 1′ in length, and slender branchlets coated when they first appear with silky pale pubescence often tinged with red and soon rusty brown, becoming glabrous before winter, and then dark red and slightly roughened by occasional minute dark lenticels; or often a shrub only a few feet high. Winter-buds minute, subglobose, with imbricated ovate scales rounded at apex and clothed with rusty brown tomentum. Bark of the trunk thick, brown tinged with red, and divided irregularly by deep fissures into narrow flat reticulate ridges covered with minute appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, light brown streaked with white, with lighter colored sapwood.

Distribution. Dry sandy soil; South Carolina (Saint Helena Island and Bluffton, Beaufort County), southward in the coast region of Georgia and east Florida to Cape Canaveral and through the interior of the peninsular to Cedar Keys on the west coast; near Bainbridge, Decatur County, southwestern Georgia.

2. Bumelia lanuginosa Pers. Gum Elastic. Chittam Wood.

Leaves oblong-obovate, rounded and often apiculate at apex and gradually narrowed at base, coated when they unfold with pale ferrugineous tomentum dense on the lower and loose on the upper surface, and at maturity thin and firm, dark green and lustrous above, more or less lanuginose below with rusty brown or silvery white (var. _albicans_ Sarg.) hairs, 1′—2½′ long and ⅓′—¾′ wide; falling irregularly during the winter; petioles slender, rusty brown or pale pubescent, ⅛′—¾′ in length. Flowers opening in summer on hairy pedicels ⅛′ in length, in 16—18-flowered fascicles; calyx ovoid, with ovate rounded lobes coated on the outer surface with ferrugineous or pale tomentum and rather shorter than the tube of the corolla; appendages of the corolla small, ovate and acute; staminodia ovate, acute, remotely and slightly denticulate, as long as the corolla-lobes; ovary abruptly contracted into a slender elongated style. Fruit on a slender drooping stalk ripening and falling in the autumn, oblong or slightly obovoid, ½′ long, with thick flesh; seed short-oblong, rounded at apex, about ¼′ in length.

A tree, often 40°—50° high, with a tall straight trunk 1°—2° in diameter, short thick rigid branches forming a narrow-oblong round-topped head, unarmed, or armed with stout rigid straight or slightly curved spines frequently developing into spinescent leafy lateral branchlets, and slender often somewhat zigzag branchlets coated with thick rufous or pale tomentum when they first appear, becoming in their first winter red-brown to ashy gray and glabrous or nearly so, and marked by occasional minute lenticels and by small semiorbicular leaf-scars displaying 2 clusters of fibro-vascular bundle-scars; of its largest size in the Texas coast region; much smaller east of the Mississippi River, and there rarely more than 20° tall. Winter-buds obtuse, ⅛′ long, covered with broad-obovate rusty-tomentose scales. Bark of the trunk ½′ thick, dark gray-brown and usually divided into narrow ridges broken into thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, rather soft, not strong, close-grained, light brown or yellow, with thick lighter colored sapwood; producing in Texas considerable quantities of clear viscid gum from the freshly cut wood.

Distribution. Southern and southeastern Georgia, western Florida southward to the neighborhood of Lake City, Columbia County and to Cedar Key, coast of Alabama and inland to Dallas County, southern Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas to the valley of the San Antonio River and over the Edwards Plateau (Kendall, Kerr and Brown Counties) to the valley of the upper Brazos River (Palo Pinto County), and northward through western Louisiana and western Arkansas to western Oklahoma (Seiling, Dewey County), and to southeastern Kansas (Cherokee County) and southern Missouri as far north as the valley of the Meramec River (near Allenton, St. Louis County), and southern Illinois (near Mound City, Pulaski County); at Calcasieu Pass, on the sandy beaches of the Louisiana coast forming thickets of plants 6°—8° high, and uninjured by salt spray; the var. _albicans_ in eastern Texas from the valley of the lower Brazos to that of the San Antonio River and in the neighborhood of Monterey, Nuevo Leon; most distinct and of its largest size on the bottoms of the Guadalupe River, near Victoria, Victoria County, and here occasionally 70°—80° high, with a trunk 3° in diameter.

Passing into the var. _rigida_ A. Gray, with smaller rather narrower leaves and often more spinescent branches. Brown and Uvalde Counties, Texas; in Coahua and Nuevo Leon, and in the cañons of the mountains of southern Arizona up to altitudes of at least 4000°—5000°; in Texas shrubby in habit; in Arizona forming dense thickets of slender stems often 20°—25° tall and only 2′—3′ in diameter.

3. Bumelia monticola Buckl.

Leaves oblong-obovate, narrowed and acute or rounded and rarely slightly emarginate at apex, cuneate at base, entire, covered above with matted pale hairs and densely below with snow white pubescence when they unfold, and at maturity coriaceous, dark yellow-green, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, 1¼′—3′ long and ⅓′—1¼′ wide, with slightly revolute margins, a slender yellow midrib glabrous or slightly pubescent below toward the base and conspicuous reticulate veinlets, deciduous; petioles slender pubescent early in the season, becoming glabrous. Flowers opening from the middle of June to the middle of July, on villose pedicels, becoming sometimes nearly glabrous in the autumn, ⅛′—¼′ in length; calyx pale green, villose-pubescent, its lobes ovate, ciliate on the margins, shorter than the lobes of the corolla, their appendages lanceolate; staminodia rounded at apex, longer than the corolla-lobes. Fruit ripening in September, subglobose to oblong-obovoid, ¼′—⅓′ long and ¼′—⅓′ in diameter; seed oblong, rounded at the ends, about ⅖′ long.

A tree, in favorable positions 20°—25° high, with spinose branches forming an irregular open head, and slender often zigzag red-brown lustrous branchlets, the lateral branchlets often ending in stout spines; more often an irregularly branched shrub 10°—15° high, spreading on the banks of streams into great thickets. Bark of the trunk thick, pale and dark gray, rough and scaly, exfoliating in large scales.

Distribution. Texas, dry limestone cliffs and cañon bottoms and by streams dry during a large part of the year, valley of the upper Guadalupe River (Comal, Kendall and Kerr Counties) to the valley of the Rio Grande (Uvalde County), and northward to the valley of the upper Brazos River (Palo Pinto County); in Cohahuila (near Saltillo).

4. Bumelia lycioides Gærtn. f. Ironwood. Buckthorn.

Leaves elliptic to oblanceolate, acute, acuminate, or rarely rounded at apex, gradually narrowed at base, covered when they unfold especially below with silky villose pubescence, soon glabrous, and at maturity bright green and glabrous on the upper surface, light green and sometimes coated on the lower surface with pale pubescence, thin and rather firm, finely reticulate-venulose, 3′—6′ long and ½′—2′ wide, with a pale thin conspicuous midrib sometimes slightly pubescent below near the base, deciduous in the autumn; petioles slender, slightly grooved, mostly pubescent early in the season, usually becoming glabrous, ½′—1′ in length. Flowers appearing at midsummer on slender glabrous pedicels ½′ long, in crowded many-flowered fascicles; calyx glabrous, ovoid-campanulate, with rounded lobes rather shorter than the corolla; staminodia broad-ovate, denticulate, nearly as long as the narrow appendages; ovary ovoid, slightly hairy toward the base only, gradually contracted into a short thick style. Fruit ripening and falling in the autumn, ovoid or obovoid, about ⅔′ in length; flesh thick; seed short-oblong to subglobose, rounded at apex, nearly ¼′ long, with a pale conspicuous hilum.

A tree, 25°—30° high, with a short trunk rarely more than 6′ in diameter, stout flexible branches usually unarmed or furnished with short stout slightly curved spines occasionally developing into leafy spinescent branches, and short thick spur-like lateral branchlets slightly puberulous when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, light red-brown, rather lustrous, and marked by numerous pale lenticels, and in their second year dark or light brown tinged with red or ashy gray. Winter-buds minute, obtuse, nearly immersed in the bark, with pale dark brown glabrous scales. Bark of the trunk thin, light red-brown, the generally smooth surface broken into small thin persistent scales. Wood heavy, hard, not strong, close-grained, light brown or yellow, with thick lighter colored sapwood.

Distribution. Usually in low moist soil on the borders of swamps and streams; rocky bluffs of the Ohio River near Cannelton, Perry County, southern Indiana, southern Illinois (Hardin, Pope and Pulaski Counties), to southeastern Missouri (Butler County) and to western Kentucky, western and central Tennessee, central Mississippi and northern Louisiana (West Feliciana Parish); and through western Arkansas to the coast region of eastern Texas (Beaumont, Jefferson County, and Columbia, Brazoria County); central Alabama; Florida southward to St. Mark’s, Wakulla County, and to Taylor, Alachua and Volusia Counties, and to northwestern Georgia (Catoosa County), and the valley of the Savannah River in Georgia and South Carolina, and northward through eastern North Carolina to southeastern Virginia (Norfolk County).

5. Bumelia angustifolia Nutt. Ants’ Wood. Downward Plum.

Leaves obovate, rounded at apex, and gradually narrowed and cuneate at base, with slightly thickened revolute margins, glabrous, thick and coriaceous, pale blue-green on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, 1′—1½′ long and ¼′—1¼′ wide, with a pale slender midrib, and very obscure veins and veinlets; usually persistent on the branches until the end of their second winter; petioles stout, grooved, rarely ¼′ in length. Flowers generally appearing in October and November, on slender glabrous pedicels seldom more than ½′ in length, in few or many-flowered crowded fascicles; calyx glabrous, divided nearly to the base into narrow-ovate lobes rounded at apex and half as long as the divisions of the corolla furnished with linear-lanceolate appendages as long as the ovate acute denticulate staminodia; ovary narrow-ovoid, slightly hairy at base only, gradually contracted into an elongated style. Fruit ripening in the spring, on slender drooping stems, usually 1 fruit only being developed from a fascicle of flowers, oblong or slightly obovoid, rounded at the ends, ½′—¾′ long and ¼′ in diameter, with thick sweet flesh; seed oblong, rounded at apex, ½′ long.

A tree, sometimes 20° high, with a short trunk rarely exceeding 6′—8′ in diameter, graceful pendulous branches forming a compact round head, and rigid spinescent divergent lateral branchlets often armed with acute slender spines sometimes 1′ in length, and when they first appear thickly coated with loose pale or dark brown deciduous tomentum, becoming light brown tinged with red or ashy gray. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, and covered with rufous tomentum. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, gray tinged with red, and deeply divided by longitudinal and cross fissures into oblong or nearly square plates. Wood heavy, hard, although not strong, very close-grained, light brown or orange-colored, with thick lighter colored sapwood.

Distribution. Florida, shores of Indian River to the southern keys, and on the west coast from Cedar Keys to East Cape, and here less abundant and usually on rocky shores and in the interior of low barren islands; on the Bahama Islands and in Cuba.

4. CHRYSOPHYLLUM L.

Trees, with terete branchlets usually coated while young with dense tomentum, and naked buds. Leaves short-petiolate, bright green and glabrous on the upper surface and coated on the lower surface with brilliant silky pubescence or tomentum, persistent. Flowers on pedicels from the axils of minute acute bracts, in dense many-flowered fascicles; calyx usually 5-parted, the divisions nearly equal, obtuse; corolla 5 or rarely 6 or 7-lobed, tubular, campanulate or subrotate, white or greenish white; filaments short, subulate or filiform, enlarged into broad connectives; anthers ovoid or triangular, extrorse or rarely partly introrse, the cells spreading below; ovary usually 5-celled, style crowned by a 5-lobed stigma. Fruit short-oblong, ovoid or globose. Seed ovoid; seed-coat coriaceous, dull or lustrous; hilum subbasilar, elongated, conspicuous; embryo erect, surrounded by more or less pungent fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, foliaceous.

Chrysophyllum is tropical, with fifty or sixty species most abundant in the New World, with a small number of species in western and southern tropical Africa, southern Asia, Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands, and with one species in southern Florida. The most valuable species, _Chrysophyllum Cainito_ L., a native of the West Indies and now cultivated in all tropical countries and naturalized in many parts of Central and South America, produces the so-called star-apple, a succulent edible blue or purple and green fruit the size and shape of a small apple.

The generic name, from χρυσός and φύλλον, is in allusion to the golden covering of the under surface of the leaves.

1. Chrysophyllum oliviforme Lam. Satin-leaf.

Leaves revolute in the bud, oval, acute or contracted into a short broad point or sometimes rounded at apex, abruptly cuneate at base, thick and coriaceous, bright blue-green on the upper surface and covered on the lower surface and on the petiole with brilliant copper-colored pubescence, 2′—3′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, with a broad prominent midrib deeply impressed on the upper side and numerous straight veins arcuate hear the margins; petioles stout, ½′—⅔′ in length. Flowers appearing in Florida irregularly throughout the year and often found on a branch with ripe or half-grown fruits, on stout pedicels shorter than the petioles, covered like the calyx with rufous tomentum, in few or many-flowered fascicles in the axils of leaves or at the base of lateral branchlets in those of earlier years; calyx divided nearly to the base into broad rounded lobes rather shorter than the tube of the subrotate white corolla with short spreading rounded lobes; ovary 5-celled, pubescent, gradually contracted into a short style crowned by a broad 5-lobed stigma. Fruit usually 1-seeded by abortion, on stems 1′ long, usually only a single fruit being produced from a flower-cluster, ovoid or sometimes nearly globose, dark purple, roughened by occasional excrescences, with a thick tough skin inclosing the juicy sweet mawkish flesh light purple on the exterior, lighter toward the interior, and quite white in the centre; seed narrowed at the ends, ½′ long, covered with a thin light brown coat closely invested with a white glutinous aril-like pulpy mass.

A tree, 25°—30° high, with a tall straight trunk sometimes a foot in diameter, upright branches forming a compact oblong head, and slender slightly zigzag branchlets coated when they first appear with ferrugineous tomentum, becoming in their second year light red-brown or ashy gray and covered with small pale elevated circular lenticels; in sandy soil under the shade of Pine-trees in the Everglade Keys a shrub 6° high or less. Bark of the trunk ¼′ thick, light brown slightly tinged with red, and broken by shallow fissures into large irregularly shaped plates separating on the surface into small thin scales. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light brown shaded with red, with thin lighter colored sapwood.

Distribution. Florida, rich hummocks, from Mosquito Inlet on the east coast to the Everglade Keys, Dade County and to the southern keys, and on the west coast from the shores of the Caloosahatchie River to the neighborhood of Cape Sable; local and nowhere common; on the Bahama Islands, and in Cuba, Porto Rico and Jamaica.

5. MIMUSOPS L.

Trees or rarely shrubs, with stout terete branchlets, small naked buds, and sweet juice. Leaves usually clustered at the end of the branches, with slender inconspicuous transverse veins and minute reticulate veinlets, persistent. Flowers on clavate pedicels from the axils of minute deciduous bracts; calyx 6—8-parted, the divisions in 2 series, those of the exterior series almost valvate in the bud; corolla white, barely longer than the calyx, subrotate, usually dilated at the throat, 6—8-lobed, the lobes furnished at base with a pair of petal-like appendages; stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla; filaments short, dilated; anthers lanceolate, their connectives excurrent, acute, or sometimes aristate at apex; staminodia as many as the lobes of the corolla, scale-like or petaloid, entire, 2-lobed or laciniate; ovary ovoid, hirsute or puberulous, gradually narrowed into a slender style stigmatic at apex. Fruit globose, 1 or 2-seeded, tipped with the much thickened elongated style; skin crustaceous, indurate; flesh thick and dry. Seed oblong-ovoid, slightly compressed; seed-coat crustaceous, chestnut-brown and lustrous; hilum elongated, lateral or minute, basilar; embryo surrounded by thick fleshy albumen; cotyledons flat, thick and fleshy, much longer than the short erect radicle.

Mimusops with thirty or forty species is widely distributed through the tropics of the two hemispheres, a single species reaching the shores of southern Florida. Several species produce hard heavy timber, edible fruits, or valuable milky juices.

The significance of the generic name, from µιµώ and ὄψις in allusion to the shape of the corolla, is not apparent.

1. Mimusops emarginata Britt. Wild Dilly.

_Mimusops Sieberi_ Chap., not A. DC.

Leaves clustered at the end of the branches, involute in the bud oblong-elliptic, or occasionally slightly obovate, rounded or retuse at apex, rounded or cuneate at base, with slightly thickened revolute margins, bright red when they unfold, and slightly puberulous on the under surface of the midrib, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, bright green and lustrous, covered on the upper surface with a slight glaucous bloom, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, 3′—4′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with a stout midrib glabrous, or puberulous with rusty hairs below, and deeply impressed above; appearing in Florida in April and May and deciduous during their second year; petioles slender, grooved, rusty-pubescent, especially while young, ½′—1′ in length. Flowers opening in the spring on slender pedicels near the end of the branches, coated with rusty tomentum and 1′ or more long, from the axils of leaves of the year or from those of fallen leaves of the previous year; calyx narrow-ovoid, divided nearly to the base into 6 lobes, those of the outer row lanceolate, acute, covered on the outer surface with rusty brown tomentum and on the inner surface with pale pubescence, thickened and usually marked at the base on the outer surface by black spots, those of the inner row ovate, acute, keeled toward the base, light greenish yellow and pale-pubescent; corolla light yellow tinged with green, ⅔′ in diameter, with 6 spreading lanceolate acute divisions entire or erosely toothed toward the apex, their appendage slender, acute and from one half to two thirds their length; staminodia minute, nearly triangular, entire; ovary narrow-ovoid, dark red, puberulous toward the base with pale hairs, and gradually narrowed into an elongated exserted style stigmatic at apex. Fruit ripening at the end of a year, in the spring or in early autumn, on a stout erect stem about 1′ long, and persistent until after the tree flowers the following year, subglobose to slightly obovoid, flattened and compressed at apex, 1′—1½′ in diameter, usually 1-seeded by abortion, with a thick dry outer coat roughened by minute rusty brown scales, and thick spongy flesh filled with milky juice; seed ½′ long, with an elongated lateral hilum.

A tree, in Florida rarely more than 30° high, with a short gnarled trunk 12′—15′ in diameter and usually hollow and defective, thick branches forming a compact round head, and stout branchlets clustered at the end of the branches of the previous year, coated when they first appear with dark rufous pubescence, becoming glabrous and light orange-brown at the end of a few weeks, and in their second year covered with thick ashy gray or light red-brown scaly bark and marked by elevated obcordate leaf-scars displaying 3 large dark conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, rusty-tomentose. Bark of the trunk about ¼′ thick and irregularly divided by deep fissures into ridges rounded on the back and broken into small nearly square plates. Wood very heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, rich very dark brown, with light-colored sapwood.

Distribution. Florida, only on the southern keys; not common; on the Bahama Islands and in Cuba.

LVII. EBENACEÆ.