Part 108

Distribution. Mountain slopes at altitudes from 3000°—4000°, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and western Georgia; passing into the var. _vestita_ Sarg., with leaves often rounded at base, coated below and on the petioles when they unfold with snow-white tomentum, and at maturity pubescent over the lower surface, especially on the midrib and veins, and occasionally pale rose-colored flowers (f. _rosea_ Sarg.); banks of streams, near Marion, McDowell County, North Carolina; Heber Springs, Carroll County, Arkansas; occasionally cultivated with the var. _vestita_ and hardy in the Arnold Arboretum and in Rochester, New York.

_Halesia monticola_ in cultivation grows rapidly with a single trunk; and is hardy in eastern Massachusetts.

3. Halesia parviflora Michx.

Leaves oblong-ovate to slightly obovate or elliptic, abruptly long-pointed or acuminate at apex, narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, finely serrate with minute glandular teeth, densely covered when they unfold with hoary tomentum, becoming pubescent or glabrous, 2½′—3¼′ long and 1′—1¼′ wide, with a slender midrib and primary veins villose-pubescent below; petioles hoary-tomentose when they first appear, becoming glabrous, ¼′—⅓′ in length. Flowers opening the end of March or early in April, ¼′—⅓′ long, on pedicels more or less densely villose-pubescent with white hairs, becoming nearly glabrous, ⅓′—⅖′ in length; calyx densely hoary-tomentose or rarely villose-pubescent; corolla ⅓′—½′ in diameter; stamens 10—16, filaments slightly villose. Fruit ripening in August and September, clavate, gradually narrowed into the long stipitate base, ¾′—1½′ long, 4-winged, the wings narrow, of equal width or occasionally with the alternate wings narrower than the others; stone ovoid, abruptly narrowed below into a short stipe, gradually narrowed to the apex, obscurely angled, ¾′—1¼′ long.

A slender tree, 25°—30° high, with a long trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, small light brown slightly ridged branches and slender branchlets hoary-tomentose when they first appear, becoming pubescent or nearly glabrous by the end of their first season and light gray-brown in their second year; or a shrub only a few feet tall. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, slightly compressed, villose, about ⅛′ long. Bark of the trunk thick, dark brown or nearly black, and divided by deep longitudinal furrows into narrow rounded rough ridges.

Distribution. Northern Florida, in sandy uplands (St. John, Clay, Jackson, Gadsden and Lafayette Counties); not common; Alabama (Lee County); eastern Mississippi (Laurel, Jones County), and eastern Oklahoma (near Page, Le Flore County).

4. Halesia diptera Ellis.

_Mohrodendron dipterum_ Britt.

Leaves ovate to obovate, oval or elliptic, abruptly long-pointed or rarely rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, undulate-serrate with remote minute callous teeth, coated below with pale tomentum and pubescent above when they unfold, and at maturity thin, light green and glabrous or pubescent on the slender midrib on the upper surface and paler and soft-pubescent on the lower surface, 3′—4′ long and 2′—2½′ wide, and at the end of vigorous branches up to 8′ long and 3′ wide, with pale conspicuous arcuate veins and reticulate veinlets; petioles slender, pubescent, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers opening from the middle of March to the end of April, usually nearly 1′ long, on slender tomentose pedicels 1½′—2′ in length, from the axils of obovate puberulous bracts rounded or acute at apex and ½′—¾′ long, in few-flowered fascicles or in 4—6-flowered racemes; calyx thickly covered with hoary tomentum, the short lobes nearly glabrous on the inner surface; corolla puberulous on the outer surface, divided nearly to the base into slightly obovate or oval spreading lobes; stamens 8—16, usually 8, nearly as long as the corolla; filaments covered with pale hairs, and sometimes free from the corolla; ovary usually 2, rarely 4-celled and covered, like the style, with pale pubescence. Fruit oblong to slightly obovoid, compressed, 1½′—2′ long, often nearly 1′ wide, with two broad wings and often with 2 or rarely 3 narrow wings between them; stone ellipsoid, 1½′—1¾′ long, conspicuously ridged, gradually narrowed below into the short slender stipe and above into the thickened pubescent style; seed acuminate at the ends, about ¾′ in length.

A tree, occasionally 30° high, with a short or rarely a tall trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, spreading branches forming a wide head and slender branchlets light green and more or less thickly covered with pale pubescence when they first appear, usually becoming glabrous, orange color, or reddish brown, lustrous and marked by the large elevated obcordate leaf-scars during their first winter, dark red-brown in their second season and dividing the following year into irregular pale longitudinal fissures; more often a shrub, with numerous stout spreading stems. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, 1/16′ long, with broad-ovate acute light red pubescent scales, those of the inner ranks becoming strap-shaped, scarious and ¼′ long. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, brown tinged with red, and divided by irregular longitudinal often broad fissures, and separating into small thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, strong, close-grained, light brown with thick lighter-colored sapwood.

Distribution. Low wet woods and the borders of swamps and streams; near Savannah (_Elliott_) and in southwestern Georgia, western Florida (Leon and Gadsden Counties), southern Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to the valley of the lower Neches River, Texas, and to southwestern Arkansas (Miller County).

Occasionally cultivated in the gardens of the eastern United States and western Europe. Doubtfully hardy in Massachusetts and western New York.

2. STYRAX L.

Trees or shrubs, lepidote or stellate-tomentose except on the upper surface of the leaves, with slender terete slightly zigzag branchlets, without a terminal bud, axillary buds, with imbricated scales, and fibrous roots. Leaves involute in the bud, entire or slightly serrate. Flowers usually white on short ebracteolate drooping pedicels from the axils of small bracts, in simple or branched usually drooping axillary racemes; calyx cup-shaped, adnate to the base of the ovary or nearly free, the margin truncate, obscurely or conspicuously 5-toothed or rarely 2 or 5-parted; corolla epigynous, campanulate, 5 or rarely 6 or 7-parted, with a short tube usually longer than the lanceolate oblong or spatulate erect and spreading or revolute lobes valvate or imbricated in the bud, stamens 8—13, usually 10, longer than the corolla slightly united below into a ring or short tube; filaments flattened above; cells of the anthers linear parallel, erect; ovary broad-conic, subglobose or depressed, densely villose or rarely glabrous, at first 3-celled, becoming 1-celled or nearly 1-celled after anthesis, crowned by a subulate or thickened style terminating in a small indistinctly 3-lobed or capitate stigma; ovules few or rarely solitary, ascending; raphe dorsal, micropyle inferior. Fruit globose or slightly obovoid, drupaceous; pericarp hard and indehiscent or irregularly 3-valved or fleshy and irregularly dehiscent; endocarp glabrous, crustaceous or indurate; seed 1 by abortion or very rarely 2, filling the cavity of the stone, erect; testa membranaceous, mostly adherent to the walls of the stone; albumen fleshy or rarely horny; cotyledons usually broad, the elongated terete radicle turned toward the broad basal hilum.

Styrax is widely distributed in warm and tropical countries except in tropical and south Africa and in Australasia, extending northward into the southeastern United States and to California, southern Europe, central and western China and central Japan. Of nearly one hundred species which are now distinguished five are found within the territory of the United States; one of these occasionally becomes a small tree.

Storax and benzoin, aromatic resinous balsams, are obtained from _Styrax officinale_ L. of southern Europe and Asia Minor, and from _Styrax Benzoin_ Dryand. of Malaysia.

The generic name is that of the Greek name of _Styrax officinale_.

1. Styrax grandiflora Ait.

Leaves thin, deciduous, obovate, rounded and abruptly pointed or acute or acuminate or rarely rounded at apex, cuneate or rounded at the narrow base, entire or remotely serrate with small apiculate teeth, when they unfold ciliate on the margins, slightly stellate-pubescent on the midrib and veins above, and coated below with hoary tomentum, and at maturity pale green and glabrous or nearly glabrous above, pale tomentose and villose on the midrib and veins below, 2½′—5′ long and 1′—3′ wide; petioles ¼′ in length, hoary-tomentose early in the season, becoming pubescent. Flowers opening in early spring after the leaves are more than half grown, ¾′—1′ long, on slender pubescent or tomentose pedicels ¼′ in length, in tomentose leafy erect or spreading axillary racemes 5′ or 6′ long, their bracts and bractlets linear, minute, tomentose, caducous; calyx more or less coarsely 5-toothed, membranaceous, tomentose on the outer surface; corolla 5-parted, the lobes longer than the tube, imbricated in the bud, membranaceous, oblong-obovate, rounded or acute at apex, stellate-pubescent on the outer surface; stamens 10, about as long as the corolla, villose-pubescent below the middle, united below into a short ring; ovary slightly inferior, obovoid, tomentose, 3-celled; style filiform, glabrous, exserted; ovules 3 or 4 in each cell. Fruit hoary-tomentose, slightly obovoid, rounded and tipped at apex with the remnants of the style, gradually narrowed and surrounded below by the calyx, ⅓′ long, and ¼′ in diameter, the outer coat crustaceous, indehiscent; seed obovoid, dark orange-brown, filling the cavity of the fruit.

A tree, rarely 40° high, with a tall straight trunk sometimes 8′ in diameter, short spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and slender branchlets thickly coated when they first appear with hoary stellate pubescence more or less persistent during three seasons, ultimately glabrous and light or dark chestnut-brown; more often a broad shrub 6°—20° high. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, close, smooth and dark red-brown. Winter-buds: axillary, often 3, superposed, acute, covered with hoary ultimately rusty tomentum, about ⅛′ long.

Distribution. Low wet woods and the borders of swamps; southeastern Virginia, southward usually near the coast to the valley of the Apalachicola River, Florida, and through the Gulf states to western Louisiana, ranging inland to northern Georgia, northeastern Mississippi, and to the valley of the Red River at Natchitoches, Louisiana; of its largest size and perhaps only arborescent near Laurel Hill, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.

LIX. SYMPLOCACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with simple pubescence, watery juice, scaly buds, and fibrous roots. Leaves simple, alternate, coriaceous or thin, pinnately veined, usually becoming yellow in drying, without stipules. Flowers regular, perfect, or polygamo-diœcious, on ebracteolate pedicels, in dense or lax axillary spikes or racemes, with small caducous bracts; calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, open in the bud, the tube adnate to the ovary, enlarged after anthesis; corolla divided nearly to the base into 3—11 usually 5 lobes imbricated in the bud; disk 0; stamens usually numerous, inserted in many series on the base of the corolla or rarely 4 in one series; filaments filiform or flattened, more or less united below into clusters; anthers ovoid-globose, introrse, 2-celled, the cells lateral, opening longitudinally; ovary inferior or partly inferior, 2—5-celled, contracted into a simple style, with an entire or slightly lobed terminal stigma; ovules 2 or rarely 4 in each cell, suspended from its inner angle, anatropous; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit a drupe (in the North American species), crowned with the persistent lobes of the calyx, with thin dry flesh and a bony 1-seeded stone. Seed oblong, suspended; seed-coat membranaceous; embryo terete, erect in copious fleshy albumen; cotyledons much shorter than the long slender radicle turned toward the broad conspicuous hilum.

The family consists of the genus Symplocos.

1. SYMPLOCOS L’Her.

Characters of the family.

Symplocos with nearly three hundred species inhabits chiefly the warmer parts of America, Asia, and Australia, one species occurring in the southern United States.

Symplocos contains a yellow coloring matter, and the bark and leaves of some species have medical properties.

The generic name, from Σύµπλοκος, relates to the union of the filaments of some of the species.

1. Symplocos tinctoria L’Her. Sweet Leaf. Horse Sugar.

Leaves revolute in the bud, oblong, acute or acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed at base, obscurely crenulate-serrate with remote teeth, or sometimes nearly entire, coated below when they unfold with pale tomentum, glabrous or tomentose above, and furnished on the margins with minute dark caducous glands, and at maturity subcoriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler and pubescent on the lower surface, 5′—6′ long and 1′—2′ wide, with a broad midrib rounded and sometimes puberulous on the upper side, inconspicuous arcuate veins and reticulate veinlets; northward and at high altitudes falling in the autumn, and southward remaining on the branches until after the opening of the flowers the following spring; petioles stout, slightly winged, ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers: flower-clusters inclosed in the bud by ovate acute orange-colored scales brown and ciliate on the margins, each of the flower-buds surrounded by 3 imbricated oblong bracts rounded or pointed at apex and ciliate on the margins, the longest as long as the calyx and one third longer than the 2 lateral bracts; flowers fragrant, opening from the 1st of March at the south to the middle of May on the southern Appalachian Mountains, on short pedicels enlarged into thick hemispheric receptacles covered with long white hairs, in nearly sessile many-flowered clusters in the axils of leaves of the previous year; calyx oblong, cup-shaped, dark green and puberulous, with minute ovate scarious lobes rounded at apex; corolla creamy white, ¼′ long, with rounded lobes; stamens exserted, with slender filaments united at base into 5 clusters, and orange-colored anthers; ovary 3-celled, furnished on the top with 5 dark nectariferous glands placed opposite the lobes of the calyx, and abruptly contracted into a slender style gradually thickened toward the apex and longer than the corolla. Fruit ripening in the summer or early autumn, ovoid, ¼′ long, dark orange-colored or brown; seed ovoid, pointed, with a thin papery chestnut-brown coat.

A tree, occasionally 30°—35° high, with a short trunk barely exceeding 6′-8′ in diameter, slender upright branches forming an open head, and stout terete pithy branchlets light green and coated with pale or rufous tomentum when they first appear, or sometimes glabrous, and covered with scattered white hairs, reddish brown to ashy gray, tinged with red and usually more or less pubescent or often covered with a glaucous bloom during their first and second years, later growing darker, roughened by occasional small elevated lenticels and marked by the low horizontal obcordate leaf-scars displaying a central cluster of large fibro-vascular bundle-scars; or more often a shrub. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, covered with broad-ovate nearly triangular acute scales, those of the inner rows accrescent on the young branchlets, and at maturity oblong-obovate, rounded and often apiculate at apex, light green, glabrous or pilose, ciliate on the margins, and often ½′ in length. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, ashy gray slightly tinged with red, divided by occasional narrow fissures and roughened by wart-like excrescences. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light red or brown, with thick lighter colored often nearly white sapwood of 18—20 layers of annual growth. The leaves are sweet to the taste and are devoured in the autumn by cattle and horses, and, like the bark, yield a yellow dye occasionally used domestically. The bitter aromatic roots have been used as a tonic.

Distribution. Moist rich soil, often in the shade of dense forests; peninsula of Delaware to northern Florida and from the coast to altitudes of nearly 4000° on the Blue Ridge in North and South Carolina, and to eastern Texas and southern Arkansas; in the Gulf states usually along the borders of Cypress-swamps.

LX. OLEACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, scaly buds, their inner scales accrescent, opposite leaves, without stipules, and fibrous roots. Flowers perfect, diœcious or polygamous, regular; calyx 4-lobed, or 0; corolla of 2—4 petals, or 0; disk 0; stamens 2—4, rudimentary or 0 in unisexual pistillate flowers; anthers attached on the back below the middle, often apiculate by the prolongation of the connective, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally usually by lateral slits; ovary free, 2 or rarely 3-celled, rudimentary or 0 in the staminate flower; style simple; ovules 2 in each cell, pendulous, anatropous; micropyle superior. Fruit (in the North American arborescent genera) a samara or berry. Seed pendulous; seed-coat membranaceous; embryo straight in copious fleshy albumen; cotyledons flat, much longer than the short terete superior radicle turned toward the minute hilum.

The Olive family with twenty-five genera is widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions chiefly in the northern hemisphere. Of the five genera indigenous to the United States four are arborescent. To this family belong _Olea europæa_ L., the Olive-tree of the Mediterranean basin, now largely cultivated in California for its fruit, and the Lilacs, Forsythias, Privets, and Jasmines, favorite garden plants in all countries with temperate climates.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.

Fruit a winged samara; leaves usually compound. 1. Fraxinus. Fruit a drupe; leaves simple. Flowers usually without petals. 2. Forestiera. Flowers with petals. Corolla of 4 long linear petals united only at base; leaves deciduous. 3. Chionanthus. Corolla tubular; leaves persistent. 4. Osmanthus.

1. FRAXINUS L. Ash.

Trees or shrubs, with thick furrowed or rarely thin and scaly bark, usually ash-colored branchlets, with thick pith, and compressed obtuse terminal buds much larger than the lateral buds. Leaves petiolate, unequally pinnate or rarely reduced to a single leaflet, deciduous; leaflets conduplicate in the bud, usually serrate, petiolulate or sessile. Flowers diœcious or polygamous, produced in early spring on slender elongated pedicels, without bractlets, in open or compact slender-branched panicles, with obovate linear or lanceolate caducous bracts, terminal on leafy shoots of the year, developed from the axils of new leaves, or from separate buds in the axils of leaves of the previous year, or at the base of young branchlets, and covered by 2 ovate scales; calyx campanulate, deciduous or persistent under the fruit, or 0; corolla 2—4-parted, the divisions conduplicate in the bud, united at base, or 0; stamens usually 2, rarely 3 or 4, inserted on the base of the corolla, or hypogynous; filaments terete, short or rarely elongated; anthers ovoid or linear-oblong, the cells opening by lateral slits; ovary 2 or rarely 3-celled, contracted into a short or elongated style terminating in a 2-lobed stigma; ovules suspended in pairs from the inner angle of the cell; raphe dorsal. Fruit a 1 or rarely 2 or 3-seeded winged samara; body terete or slightly flattened contrary to the septum, with a dry or woody pericarp produced into an elongated more or less decurrent wing, usually 1-celled by abortion or sometimes 2 or 3-celled and winged. Seed solitary in each cell, oblong, compressed, gradually narrowed and rounded at the ends, filling the cavity of the fruit; seed-coat chestnut-brown.

Fraxinus with thirty to forty species is widely distributed in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and within the tropics occurs on the islands of Cuba and Java. Of the eighteen North American species here recognized all, with the exception of _Fraxinus dipetala_ Hook., of California, are large or small trees.

Fraxinus produces tough straight-grained valuable wood, and some of the species are large and important timber-trees. The waxy exudations from the trunk and leaves of _Fraxinus Ornus_ L., of southern Europe and Asia Minor furnish the manna of commerce used in medicine as a gentle laxative; and the Chinese white wax is obtained from the branches of _Fraxinus chinensis_ Roxb.

_Fraxinus_ is the classical name of the Ash-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.