Part 115

Guettarda with about fifty species is chiefly tropical American, with one species widely distributed on maritime shores from east tropical Africa to Australia and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Of the species found within the territory of the United States two are arborescent. The bark of some of the species is occasionally employed as a tonic and febrifuge, and a few species are cultivated in tropical gardens for the delightful fragrance of their white flowers.

The generic name is in honor of Jean Étienne Guettard (1715—1786), the distinguished French botanist and mineralogist.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Leaves thin, pilose or glabrate above. 1. G. elliptica (D). Leaves coriaceous, hispidulose-papillose and scabrate above. 2. G. scabra (D).

1. Guettarda elliptica Sw.

Leaves broad-oval to oblong-elliptic, acute or obtuse and apiculate at apex, and cuneate or rounded at base, covered with pale silky hairs when they unfold, and at maturity thin, dark green, pilose or glabrate on the upper surface, lighter colored and pubescent on the lower surface, especially along the stout midrib and in the axils of the 4—6 pairs of primary veins, ¾′—2½′ long and ½′—1′ wide; unfolding in Florida in May and June and persistent on the branches until the trees begin their growth the following year; petioles stout, hairy, ¼′—½′ in length. Flowers pedicellate, appearing in Florida in June, yellowish white, ¼′ long, in slender hairy-stemmed cymes from the axils of leaves of the year near the end of branches, or from bud-scales at base of young shoots, their peduncle shorter than the leaves, forked near the apex, often with a flower in the fork and 3 at the end of each branch, or the lateral flowers of these clusters replaced by branches producing 3 flowers at their apex, the bractlets subtending the branches of the peduncle, and the lateral flowers of the ultimate divisions of the inflorescence linear-lanceolate, acute, coated with hairs, about 1/16′ long, deciduous; calyx-lobes nearly triangular, acute, coated on the outer surface with long pale hairs, and half as long as the erect corolla canescent externally, with rounded lobes. Fruit ripening in November, dark purple, pilose, ⅓′ in diameter, crowned with the remnants of the persistent calyx-tube, the flesh sweet and mealy; stone obscurely ridged and usually 2—4-seeded; seeds oblong-lanceolate, compressed, nearly straight, with a thin pale coat.

A tree, in Florida occasionally 18°—20° high, with an irregularly buttressed or lobed trunk 5′—6′ in diameter, the deep depressions between the lobes continuous or often interrupted, small upright branches, and thin terete branchlets coated when they first appear with long pale or rufous hairs and light red-brown or ashy gray and conspicuously marked by pale lenticels, and in their second year by large elevated orbicular leaf-scars. Winter-buds acuminate, light brown, coated with pale pubescence, and about ⅛′ long. Bark of the trunk about 1/16′ thick, with a smooth dark brown surface covered with large irregularly shaped pale blotches and numerous small white spots. Wood heavy, hard, very close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thin sapwood of 6—10 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Florida, coast of the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands and in Jamaica.

2. Guettarda scabra Lam.

Leaves oval, oblong or ovate, acuminate or rounded and apiculate at apex, gradually narrowed or broad at the rounded or subcordate base, entire, coriaceous, dark green, hispidulose-papillose and scabrate on the upper surface, pale and soft-pubescent on the lower surface, 2′—5′ long and 1¼′—3¼′ wide, with thickened slightly revolute margins, a stout midrib, usually 8—11 pairs of prominent primary veins and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, rusty-pubescent, ⅓′—¾′ in length; stipules concave at base, gradually narrowed above into a long slender point, pubescent, as long as the petioles. Flowers produced irregularly during the winter and early spring, sessile or short-pedicellate in the axils of acute bracts, in pedunculate cymes on slender rusty-pubescent peduncles 1½′—2′ in length; calyx short-oblong, densely pubescent on the outer surface; corolla often 1′ in length, the slender tube retrorsely silky-villose on the outer surface, the lobes 5—7, usually 5, oblong-obtuse; filaments free, short; anthers oblong-linear, included, style shorter than the tube of the corolla; stigma capitate. Fruit ripening in the autumn, subglobose, pubescent, ¼′ in diameter, and crowned by the persistent tube of the calyx; flesh thin and dry; stone slightly angled thick-walled, 4—9-seeded.

A tree, in Florida sometimes 20°—25° high, with a tall trunk 2′—2½′ in diameter, small ascending branches forming an open irregular head, and stout or slender branchlets densely covered during their first season with rufous pubescence, and light reddish brown, slightly pubescent and marked by conspicuous leaf-scars in their second year; often a shrub.

Distribution. Florida, near Miami and on the Everglade Keys, Dade County, and on the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.

LXVI. CAPRIFOLIACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, opposite petiolate leaves involute in the bud, with or without stipules, scaly buds, and fibrous roots. Flowers regular, perfect, with articulated pedicels, in terminal compound cymes; calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, 5-toothed; corolla epigynous, 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud; stamens 5, inserted on the tube of the corolla, as many as and alternate with its lobes; filaments slender, free; anthers oblong, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; disk 0 (in the arborescent genera of the United States); ovary inferior or partly superior, 3—5 or 1-celled; style short, capitate, 3—5-lobed and stigmatic at apex; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell, resupinate; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, crowned with the remnants of the style. Seeds with copious fleshy albumen; seed-coat membranaceous, adherent to the albumen; embryo minute, near the hilum; cotyledons ovoid or ovate; radicle terete, erect.

The Honeysuckle family with ten genera is most abundant in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, with a few species extending into the tropics and to beyond the tropics in the southern hemisphere. Many of the species, especially of Lonicera, Sambucus, and Viburnum, are cultivated in gardens for the beauty of their flowers and fruits.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.

Leaves unequally pinnate; fruit with 3—5 nutlets. 1. Sambucus. Leaves simple; fruit with 1 stone. 2. Viburnum.

1. SAMBUCUS L. Elder.

Trees or shrubs, with stout branches containing thick white or brown pith, and buds with several scales. Leaves petiolate, unequally pinnate, deciduous, with serrate or laciniate leaflets, the base of the petiole naked, glandular or furnished with a stipule-like leaflet; stipels small, leaf-like, usually setaceous, often 0; stipules small, rudimentary, usually 0 except on vigorous shoots. Flowers small, in broad terminal corymbose cymes, their bracts and bractlets lanceolate, acute, scarious, caducous, sometimes ebracteolate; calyx-tube ovoid, the limb 3—5-lobed or toothed; corolla rotate or slightly campanulate, equally 3—5-parted; filaments filiform or subulate; ovary inferior or partly superior, 3—5-celled; style abbreviated, thick and conic, 3—5-lobed, stigmatic at apex. Fruit subglobose, with juicy flesh, and 3—5 oblong cartilaginous punctate-rugulose or smooth 1-seeded nutlets full and rounded on the back and rounded at the ends. Seeds filling the cavity of the nutlets, pale brown; cotyledons ovoid.

Sambucus with about twenty species is widely and generally distributed through the temperate parts of North America, Europe, and Asia, and inhabits high mountain ranges within the tropics, and in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. Of the nine or ten North American species three are arborescent. Sambucus possesses cathartic and emetic properties in the bark; the flowers are excitant and sudorific, and the juice of the fruit is alterative and laxative. The dried flowers of the European _Sambucus nigra_ L., are used in the preparation of an aromatic distilled water and in flavoring lard, and the hard and compact wood is made into combs and mathematical instruments. The large pithy shoots of Sambucus furnish children with pop-guns, pipes, and whistles; and the fruit of some of the species is cooked and eaten.

_Sambucus_, the name of the Elder-tree, is believed to have been derived from σαµβύκη, a musical instrument, probably in allusion to the use of the pithy stems.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Cymes flat-topped; pith usually white; fruit black; nutlets rugose. Fruit lustrous. 1. S. Simpsonii (C). Fruit appearing blue from a thick covering of bloom. 2. S. coerulea (B, F, G, H). Cymes ovoid; pith pale brown; fruit red; nutlets smooth. 3. S. callicarpa (B, G).

1. Sambucus Simpsonii Rehd.

Leaves 4′—7′ long, 3—7, usually 5-foliolulate, with a glabrous petiole and usually 5 dark yellow-green leaflets, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface with the exception of a few scattered hairs on the midrib, and paler and glabrous on the lower surface, the terminal leaflet obovate or oblong-obovate, short-acuminate at apex, and gradually narrowed at base into a slender petiolule ⅓′—½′ in length, the lateral leaflets broad-elliptic to oblong-elliptic, short-acuminate, broad-cuneate at base, those of the upper pair usually sessile, those of the lower pair on short stalks rarely more than 1/12′ long, serrate except at the base with small slightly spreading teeth, 1½′—3′ long and 1½′—2½′ wide. Flowers slightly fragrant, on slender pedicels in convex or sometimes flat cymes 3′—8′ in diameter, with 4 or 5 rays, the terminal ray as long or longer than the lateral rays, rarely shorter; calyx-tube ovoid, the lobes oblong-ovate, acute, about as long as the tube and slightly exceeding the thick conic style; stamens about as long as the white corolla-lobes; ovary usually 5, rarely 4-celled. Fruit subglobose, dark purplish black, about ¼′ in diameter; nutlets rugose.

A tree, sometimes 15°—18° high, with a trunk often 8′ in diameter, and slightly angled branchlets greenish when they first appear, becoming light yellow-gray and sometimes covered during their second and third years with thick corky excrescences; pith white, on 2 or 3-year-old branches comparatively narrow, occupying only about one-third of the diameter of the stem.

Distribution. Florida, neighborhood of Jacksonville, Duval County, to Eustis, Lake County, Bradentown, Manatee County, and Sanibel Island, Lee County; Mississippi, Ocean Springs, Jackson County; Louisiana, Cameron, Cameron Parish.

2. Sambucus coerulea Raf.

_Sambucus glauca_ Nutt. _Sambucus neomexicana_ Woot.

Leaves 5′—7′ long, with a stout grooved petiole much enlarged and naked or sometimes furnished at the base with leaf-like appendages, and 5—9 ovate or narrow-oblong leaflets contracted at apex into a long point, unequally cuneate or rounded at base, and coarsely serrate with spreading or slightly incurved callous-tipped teeth, the lower leaflets often 3-parted or pinnate, the terminal one sometimes furnished with 1 or 2 lateral stalked leaflets, yellow-green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, covered with scattered pale hairs when they unfold, and at maturity glabrous or soft pubescent beneath (var. _velutina_ Rehd.), thin, rather firm in texture, bright green above and pale below, 1′—6′ long and ⅓′—1½′ wide, with a narrow pale midrib and inconspicuous veins; petiolules slender, those of the lateral leaflets ¼′—½′ and of the terminal leaflet up to 2′ in length; stipels linear, oblong-lanceolate to ovate, rounded or acute at apex, entire or sharply serrate and leaf-like, 1/16′—½′ long, caducous, often 0. Flowers ⅛′ in diameter, appearing from April in southern California to July in British Columbia, in flat long-branched glabrous or pubescent cymes 4′—10′ wide, with linear acute green caducous bracts and bractlets, the lower branches often from the axils of upper leaves; flower-buds globose, covered with a glaucous bloom, sometimes turning red before opening; calyx ovoid, red-brown, with acute scarious lobes; corolla yellowish white, with oblong divisions rounded at apex, as long as the stamens. Fruit subglobose, ⅓′ in diameter, black, appearing blue by its thick covering of mealy bloom; flesh rather sweet and juicy.

A tree, 30°—50° high, with a tall straight trunk sometimes enlarged at base and 12′—18′ in diameter, stout spreading branches forming a compact round-topped head, and branchlets usually without a terminal bud, green tinged with red or brown when they first appear, and covered with short white caducous hairs, or densely soft pubescent during their first season (var. _velutina_ Rehd.), stout, slightly angled, covered with lustrous red-brown bark in their first winter and nearly encircled by the large triangular leaf-scars marked by conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars; pith white or rarely brownish; often a broad shrub, with numerous spreading stems. Winter-buds axillary generally in pairs, superposed or in clusters of 4 or 5, only the upper bud or sometimes the lower usually developing, covered with 2 or 3 pairs of opposite broad-ovate chestnut-brown scales, those of the inner rank accrescent, and at maturity acute, entire, green, 1′ long, and sometimes developing into pinnate leaves 2′—3′ in length. Bark of the trunk deeply and irregularly fissured, the dark brown surface slightly tinged with red and broken into small square appressed scales. Wood light, soft, weak, coarse-grained, yellow tinged with brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood.

Distribution. Gravelly rather dry soil of valleys and river-bottoms; western Montana (neighborhood of Flathead Lake and Missoula, Missoula County), through Idaho to the coast of British Columbia (Vancouver Island), and southward to the San Bernardino Mountains and Santa Catalina Island, California, ascending on the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains to altitudes of 6000°—8000°; Nevada, King’s Cañon, Ormsby County; Utah, Juab, Juab County, and the neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County; Colorado, near Trinidad, Las Animas County; New Mexico, Sacramento Mountains, Otero County; very abundant in the coast region; comparatively rare in the interior; of its largest size in the valleys of western Oregon; northward, and east of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains rarely arborescent; in southern California often with smaller leaves and flower-clusters than northward; the var. _velutina_ rare and local, California, Goose Valley, Shasta County; at altitudes of 6000°—7000° on the Sierra Nevada in Sierra, Madera and Kern Counties, and on Santa Catalina Island; Nevada, on Hunter’s Creek, Washoe County, at an altitude of 6000°.

Occasionally planted as an ornamental plant in the Pacific states, passing into

Sambucus coerulea var. arizonica Sarg.

_Sambucus mexicana_ Sarg., not Presl.

Differing from _Sambucus coerulea_ in its 3—5, usually 3-foliate leaves with usually elliptic long-acuminate leaflets glabrous or slightly pubescent when they appear, 1′—3′ long and ½′—1′ wide, their stipels minute or rudimentary, smaller flower-clusters and fruit not more than ¼′ in diameter.

A tree, often 30° high, with stout spreading branches forming a compact round-topped head, and slender branchlets glabrous or villose pubescent early in the season, usually becoming glabrous. Bark of the trunk about ¼′ thick, the light brown surface tinged with red and broken into long narrow horizontal ridge-like scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light brown, with thin lighter-colored sapwood of 2 or 3 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Banks of streams; Arizona, Grand View Trail, Grand Cañon of the Colorado River and near Flagstaff, Coconino County, Globe, Gila County, and banks of the Rialta near Tucson, Pima County; common; New Mexico, near Silver City, Grant County; southern California (San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura and Kern Counties).

3. Sambucus callicarpa Greene.

Leaves 6′—10′ long, with a stout slightly grooved petiole and 5—7, usually 5, elliptic finely or coarsely serrate leaflets, acuminate and long-pointed at apex, cuneate and often unsymmetric at base, dark green and glabrous on the upper surface, paler and more or less villose-pubescent on the lower surface, especially along the slender midrib, 2½′—5′ long and ½′—2′ wide; petiolules ⅛′—¼′ or that of the terminal leaflet up to 1½′ in length. Flowers on pedicels ⅛′ long, in ovoid to semiorbicular cymes, usually 2½′—3′ long and broad, often somewhat flattened at maturity, on stout peduncles 1½′—3′ in length, about ⅓′ in diameter, with white or yellow slightly obovate petals rounded at apex, and stamens rather shorter than the lobes of the corolla. Fruit about ½′ in diameter, bright red or rarely chestnut color (f. _Piperi_ Sarg.); nutlets smooth.

A tree, occasionally 25°—30° high, with a trunk 10′—12′ in diameter, slender branchlets occasionally puberulous early in the season, becoming glabrous, light brown, separating on the surface into thin scales.

Distribution. River banks in low moist soil, from sea-level in the neighborhood of the coast up to altitudes of 7000°—8000°; coast of Alaska (Skagway), southward along the coast to Marin County, California, and inland to the western slopes of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains, southward to Amador County; the f. _Piperi_ in western Washington.

2. VIBURNUM A. L. de Juss.

Trees or shrubs, with tough flexible branchlets, and large winter-buds naked or covered with scales, those of the arborescent North American species enclosed in one pair of valvate scales, the buds containing flower-bearing branches ovoid, swollen below the middle and contracted into a long or short point and subtended by 2 minute lateral generally abortive buds formed in the axils of the last leaves of the previous year, those containing sterile shoots narrow-lanceolate, slightly angled, acute; axillary buds acute, much flattened, and much smaller than the terminal bud. Leaves deciduous (in the American species), without or rarely with stipules, the first pair rudimentary, with small blades and broad boat-shaped petioles, caducous (in the North American arborescent species). Flowers on short bracteolate or bibracteolate pedicels, in terminal or axillary umbel-like flat or panicled cymes, their bracts and bractlets minute, lanceolate, acute, caducous; calyx-tube cylindric, the limb short, equally 5-lobed, persistent on the fruit; corolla rotate, equally 5-lobed, spreading and reflexed after anthesis; stamens inserted on the base of the corolla; filaments elongated, exserted; anthers bright yellow; ovary inferior, 1-celled; style conic, divided at apex into three stigmatic lobes. Fruit 1-celled, with thin sweet acidulous or oily flesh, stone (in the North American arborescent species) coriaceous, oval, short-pointed at apex; much flattened, dull reddish brown, slightly pitted. Seed filling the cavity of the stone, concave on the ventral face, bright reddish brown, the thin coat projected into a red narrow irregular often erose marginal border.

Viburnum with a hundred species is widely and generally distributed through the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and occurs on the mountains of central and western South America, on the Antilles, the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and Madagascar. Of the fifteen North American species four are small trees. Many of the species produce beautiful flowers and fruits, and are frequently cultivated as ornaments of parks and gardens.

_Viburnum_ is the classical name of one of the European species.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.

Leaves entire or obscurely crenulate; inflorescence long-stalked; winter-buds elongated, narrow-lanceolate, acuminate, covered with rusty scales. 1. V. nudum (A, C). Leaves sharply serrate; inflorescence sessile or short-stalked. Petioles wing-margined; inflorescence sessile; winter-buds long-pointed, scurfy pubescent. 2. V. Lentago (A, C, F). Petioles usually without margins. Petioles nearly glabrous; inflorescence short-stalked; winter-buds short-pointed or obtuse, rufous pubescent. 3. V. prunifolium (A, C). Petioles of early leaves and the short-pointed winter-buds rusty tomentose, inflorescence sessile. 4. V. rufidulum (A, C).

1. Viburnum nudum L.

Leaves broad-elliptic to oval or slightly obovate, or in one form narrow-elliptic (var. _angustifolium_ Torr. & Gray), acute, acuminate or abruptly short-pointed or rarely rounded at apex, cuneate or rounded at base, entire or slightly crenulate, covered when they unfold with rusty scales persistent on the lower side of the midrib and petioles and occasionally on the whole lower surface, thick, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, 4′—6′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, with a prominent midrib, slender veins, and slightly thickened and revolute margins; very variable in the size and shape of the leaves and in the amount of their scurfy covering, those of the southern tree form usually larger than the leaves of more northern shrubs; leaves of the var. _angustifolium_ often not more than 2′ long and ½′ wide; petioles slender, ½′ in length. Flowers appearing from the first of May at the south to the middle of June at the north and occasionally also in the autumn, white or pale cream color, about ¼′ wide, in flat or slightly convex cymes with ovate acute bracts and bractlets, 2′—4′ in diameter and about as long or rather shorter than their peduncle. Fruit ripening late in the autumn, globose, pink at first when fully grown, becoming bright blue, ¼′ in diameter.

A tree, rarely 18′—20′ high, with a tall trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, with spreading nearly horizontal branches forming an open head, and slender branchlets scurfy when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, reddish brown and lustrous during their first season and greenish brown the following year; usually a small or large shrub, and perhaps only a tree on the borders of swamps near Gainesville, Alachua County, and Palatka, Putnam County, Florida. Winter-buds reddish brown, covered with rusty scales, those containing flower-bearing branches, abruptly long pointed, ½′—¾′ in length.