Part 89

A glabrous leafless tree, with light brown deeply furrowed bark, stout terete alternate branches terminating in rigid, pale green and striate spines, their base and those of the peduncles surrounded by black triangular persistent cushion-like processes minutely papillose on the surface. Flowers perfect, on slender spreading pedicels jointed below the middle, 3—7 together, in short-stemmed fascicles or corymbs near the end of the branches, from the axils of minute ovate subulate bracts; calyx 5-lobed, minute, persistent, much shorter than the oblong obtuse white hypogynous petals imbricated in the bud, reflexed at maturity above the middle, deciduous; stamens 5, hypogynous, opposite the lobes of the calyx; filaments awl-shaped, rather shorter than the petals, persistent on the fruit; anthers oblong, cordate, minutely apiculate, attached below the middle, grooved on the back; ovary raised upon and confluent with a fleshy slightly 10-angled gynophore, papillose-glandular on the surface, 5-celled, the cells opposite the petals, terminating in a fleshy elongated style; stigma slightly 5-lobed; ovules 6 in each cell, inserted in 2 ranks on its inner angle, subhorizontal; micropyle inferior. Fruit a woody ovoid, acuminate capsule rounded at base, crowned with the subulate persistent style, septicidally 5-valved, the valves 2-lobed at apex; outer coat thin, fleshy; inner coat woody. Seed solitary or in pairs, ascending, subovoid, flattened; seed-coat subcoriaceous, papillate, produced below into a subfalcate membranaceous wing; embryo surrounded by thin fleshy albumen, erect; cotyledons oval, compressed; radicle very short, inferior.

The genus is represented by a single species.

The generic name is that by which this plant was known to the Mexicans of Arizona at the time of its discovery.

1. Canotia holacantha Torr.

Leaves 0. Flowers ⅛′—¼′ in diameter, appearing from June until October. Capsule 1′ long; seed about ¾′ in length.

A small shrub-like tree, sometimes 20°—30° high, with a short stout trunk rarely a foot in diameter; or often a low spreading shrub.

Distribution. Dry gravelly mesas on the Arizona foothills, from the White Mountain region to the valley of Bill Williams’s Fork in the northwestern part of the state, and on Providence Mountain in southern California.

4. GYMINDA Sarg.

Trees or shrubs, with pale quadrangular branchlets and minute acuminate buds. Leaves opposite, short-petiolate, oblong-obovate, rounded and sometimes emarginate at apex, entire or remotely crenulate-serrate above the middle with revolute thickened margins, feather-veined, coriaceous, persistent; stipules minute, acuminate, membranaceous, caducous. Flowers unisexual, pedicellate, in axillary pedunculate few-flowered dichotomously branched cymes bibracteolate at apex; calyx minute, 4-lobed, persistent, with a short urceolate tube and rounded lobes; disk fleshy, filling the tube of the calyx, cup-shaped, slightly 4-lobed; petals entire, obovate, white, rounded at apex, reflexed, much longer than the lobes of the calyx; stamens 4, opposite the sepals, inserted in the lobes of the disk, exserted, 0 in the pistillate flower; filaments slender, subulate, incurved; anthers oblong; ovary 2-celled, oblong, sessile, confluent with the disk, crowned with a large 2-lobed sessile stigma, rudimentary and deeply cleft in the staminate flower; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, 2-celled, 1 or 2-seeded, black or dark blue, oval or obovoid, crowned with the remnants of the persistent stigma, often 1-celled by abortion; flesh thin; stone thick, crustaceous. Seed oblong, suspended; seed-coat membranaceous; albumen thin, fleshy; embryo axile; cotyledons ovate, foliaceous; radicle superior, next the hilum.

Gyminda with a single species is distributed from southern Florida to Trinidad and southern Mexico, and is represented in Central America by what is perhaps a second species.

The generic name is formed by transposing the first three letters of _Myginda_, to which this plant had been referred.

1. Gyminda latifolia Urb.

_Gyminda Grisebachii_ Sarg.

Leaves 1½′—2′ long, ¾′—1′ broad, pale yellow-green. Flowers produced on shoots of the year from April to June. Fruit ripening in November, ¼′ long.

A tree, sometimes 20°—25° high, with a trunk rarely more than 6′ in diameter, and branchlets becoming terete during their third season and covered with thin slightly grooved roughened bright red-brown bark. Bark of the trunk thin, brown tinged with red, separating into thin minute scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, dark brown or nearly black, with thick light brown sapwood of 75—80 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Florida, common and generally distributed over the southern keys from the Marquesas group to Upper Matecombe Key; in Cuba, Porto Rico, Trinidad, and southern Mexico. A form (var. _glaucescens_, Small.) with smaller less coriaceous very glaucous leaves occurs in Cuba.

5. SCHÆFFERIA Jacq.

Glabrous trees or shrubs, with slender rigid terete branches and small obtuse buds. Leaves alternate, or fascicled on short spur-like branchlets, entire, obovate or spatulate, acute and minutely apiculate or gradually narrowed to the rounded or emarginate apex, cuneate below, persistent, without stipules. Flowers diœcious, pedicellate in axillary clusters from buds covered by scale-like persistent bracts; calyx 4-lobed, the lobes orbicular, persistent, much shorter than the 4 hypogynous, oblong, obtuse, white or greenish white petals; stamens 4, hypogynous, inserted under the margin of the small inconspicuous disk opposite the lobes of the calyx, wanting in the pistillate flower; filaments subulate, incurved; anthers oblong-ovoid; ovary 2-celled, ovoid, sessile, free, rudimentary in the staminate flower; style very short, gradually enlarged into the large 2-lobed stigma, with spreading lobes; ovule solitary, ascending; raphe thin, ventral; micropyle inferior. Fruit a small 2-seeded fleshy drupe, ovoid or obovoid, crowned with the remnants of the persistent style, indistinctly 2-lobed by longitudinal grooves, slightly flattened; flesh thin and tuberculate; nutlets 2, obovoid, rounded at the ends, with a thick bony shell. Seed solitary, ascending; seed-coat membranaceous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, foliaceous; radicle very short, inferior, next the hilum.

Schæfferia with four or five species is confined to the New World, with one species in southern Florida, and another, a small shrub, _Schæfferia cuneifolia_ A. Gray in the arid region of western Texas and northern Mexico.

The generic name is in honor of Jakob Christian Schaeffer (1718—1790), the distinguished German naturalist.

1. Schæfferia frutescens Jacq. Yellow Wood. Box Wood.

Leaves bright yellow-green, 2′—2½′ long, ½′-1′ wide, with thick revolute margins, appearing in Florida in April and persistent on the branches until the spring of the following year; petioles short and broad. Flowers opening in spring on branchlets of the year, ⅛′ across, the staminate generally 3 or 5 together on pedicels rarely more than ⅙′ long, the pistillato solitary or 2 or 3 together on pedicels rather longer than the petioles. Fruit ripening in Florida in November, slightly grooved, compressed, bright scarlet, with an acrid disagreeable flavor.

A glabrous tree, 35°—40° high, with a trunk sometimes 8′—10′ in diameter, erect branches, and slender many-angled branchlets pale greenish yellow during their first season, becoming light gray during their second year and then conspicuously marked by the remains of the persistent wart-like clusters of bud-scales; or often a tall or low shrub. Bark of the trunk rarely more than 1/12′ thick, pale brown faintly tinged with red, the surface divided by long shallow fissures, and ultimately separating into long narrow scales. Wood heavy, close-grained, bright clear yellow, with thick rather lighter colored sapwood; sometimes used as a substitute for boxwood in wood engraving.

Distribution. Florida, upper Matecombe and Old Rhodes Keys, and eastward on the southern keys, and on the Everglade Keys, Dade County; on the Bahama Islands, and widely distributed through the West Indies to Venezuela.

XXXV. ACERACEÆ.

Trees or rarely shrubs, with limpid juice, terete branches, scaly buds, their inner scales accrescent and marking the base of the branchlets with ring-like scars, and fibrous roots. Leaves opposite, or on vigorous shoots rarely in whorls of 3, long-petiolate, simple, palmately 3—7-lobed and nerved or pinnately 3—7-foliolulate, usually without stipules, deciduous, in falling leaving small U-shaped narrow scars showing the ends of 3 equidistant fibro-vascular bundles. Flowers regular, diœciously or monœciously polygamous, rarely perfect or diœcious, in fascicles produced from separate lateral buds appearing in early spring before the leaves or in terminal and lateral racemes or panicles appearing with or later than the leaves; bracts minute, caducous; calyx colored, generally 5-parted, the lobes imbricated in the bud; petals usually 5, imbricated in the bud, or 0; disk annular, fleshy, more or less lobed, with a free margin; stamens 4—10, usually 7 or 8, inserted on the summit or inside of the disk, hypogynous; filaments distinct, filiform, commonly exserted in the staminate, shorter and generally abortive in the pistillate flower; anthers oblong or linear, attached at the base, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 2-lobed, 2-celled, compressed contrary to the dissepiment, wing-margined on the back; styles 2, inserted between the lobes of the ovary, connate below and divided into 2 linear branches stigmatose on their inner surface; ovules 2 in each cell, collateral, rarely superposed, ascending, attached by their broad base to the inner angle of the cell, anatropous or amphitropous; micropyle inferior. Fruit composed of 2 samaras separable from a small persistent axis, the nut-like carpels compressed laterally, produced on the back into a large chartaceous or coriaceous reticulated obovate wing thickened on the lower margin. Seed solitary by abortion, or rarely 2 in each cell, ovoid, compressed, irregularly 3-angled, ascending obliquely, without albumen; seed-coat membranaceous, the inner coat often fleshy; embryo conduplicate; cotyledons thin, foliaceous or coriaceous, irregularly plicate, incumbent or accumbent on the elongated descending radicle turned toward the hilum.

A family of two genera, one widely distributed, the other, Dipteronia, distinguished by the broad wings encircling the mature carpels, and represented by a single Chinese species.

1. ACER L. Maple.

Characters of the family.

Acer with sixty or seventy species is widely distributed over the northern hemisphere, with a single species extending south of the equator to the mountains of Java. Acer produces light close-grained moderately hard wood valued for the interior finish of houses and in turnery. The bark is astringent, and the limpid sweet sap of some of the American species is manufactured into sugar.

_Acer_ is the classical name of the Maple-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.

Leaves simple, usually palmately lobed (_sometimes 3-foliolate in 1, 3-lobed at apex in 4_). Flowers appearing with or after the leaves. Flowers with petals; sepals distinct. Inflorescence corymbose. Flowers in terminal drooping corymbs. Leaves 3-lobed or parted. 1. A. glabrum (B, F, G). Leaves palmately 3—5-lobed. 2. A. circinatum (B, G). Inflorescence racemose. Flowers in dense erect racemes. 3. A. spicatum (A). Flowers in drooping racemes. Ovary and young fruit glabrous; leaves 3-lobed at apex. 4. A. pennsylvanicum (A). Ovary and young fruit hairy; leaves deeply 5-lobed. 5. A. macrophyllum (G). Flowers without petals; sepals united; inflorescence corymbose; pedicels long, pendulous, mostly hairy. Leaves pale or glaucescent, or green and glabrous beneath. Leaves green or pale beneath, glabrous or in one form villose-pubescent on the under side of the veins and on the petioles. 6. A. saccharum (A, C). Leaves pale and pubescent, rarely glabrous beneath, their lobes usually short and obtuse or acuminate. Lobes of the leaves only slightly lobed or entire; bark of young trees smooth and pale. 7. A. floridanum (C). Lobes of the leaves distinctly lobulate; bark of young trees dark brown and scaly. 8. A. grandidentatum (F, H). Leaves green and pubescent, rarely glabrous beneath. Leaves hirsute-pubescent beneath and on the petioles, the lobes entire or lobulate, the basal sinus often closed by the lower lobes; bark dark and furrowed. 9. A. nigrum (A). Leaves pilose-pubescent, rarely glabrous beneath, the lobes slightly lobulate, the basal sinus open; petioles glabrous; bark pale and smooth. 10. A. leucoderme (C). Flowers appearing before the leaves in dense lateral clusters from separate buds; leaves 5-lobed (_3-lobed in varieties of 12_); fruit ripening in May or June. Flowers sessile or short-stalked, without petals; ovary and young fruit tomentose. 11. A. saccharinum Flowers on long pedicels, with petals; ovary and young fruit glabrous. 12. A. rubrum Leaves 3—7-foliolate; flowers diœcious, without petals. 13. A. Negundo (A, B, C, F, G, H).

1. Acer glabrum Torr. Dwarf Maple.

Leaves glabrous, thin, rounded in outline, cordate-truncate or cuneate at base, 3—5-lobed, the middle lobe usually narrowed and entire below the middle, or often 3-parted or 3-foliolate (f. _trisecta_ Sarg.), with acute or obtuse doubly serrate lobes, 3′—5′ in diameter, dark green and lustrous on the upper, paler on the lower surface, with conspicuous veinlets; petioles stout, grooved, 1′—6′ in length, and often bright red. Flowers about ⅛′ long on short slender pedicels, in loose few-flowered glabrous racemose corymbs on slender drooping peduncles from the end of 2-leaved branchlets, the staminate and pistillate usually produced separately on different plants; sepals oblong, obtuse, petaloid, as long as the greenish yellow petals; stamens 7 or 8, with glabrous unequal filaments shorter than the petals, much shorter or rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary glabrous, with short obtuse lobes, rudimentary or 0 in the staminate flower; style divided to the base into 2 spreading stigmatic lobes as long as the petals. Fruit glabrous, with broad nearly erect or slightly spreading wings ¾′—⅞′ long, often rose-colored during the summer; seeds ovoid, bright chestnut-brown, about ¼′ long.

A small tree, occasionally 20°—30° high, with a short trunk 6′—12′ in diameter, small upright branches, and slender glabrous branchlets often slightly many-angled, pale greenish brown when they first appear, becoming bright red-brown during their first winter; often a shrub. Winter-buds acute, ⅛′ long, with bright red or occasionally yellow scales, those of the inner ranks pale brown tinged with pink, tomentose on the inner surface, becoming 1½′ long and narrow-spatulate. Bark of the trunk thin, smooth, and dark reddish brown. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, light brown or often nearly white, with thick lighter colored sapwood.

Distribution. Borders of mountain streams usually at elevations of 5000°—6000°; Rocky Mountains from Montana to Wyoming, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Sioux County, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, northern Arizona, and to the Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico; in California from the Siskiyou Mountains along the Sierra Nevada to the East Fork of the Kaweah River, Kern County, at altitudes of 5000°—6000° at the north and of 8000°—9000° at the south. Passing into

Acer glabrum var. Douglasii Dippel.

_Acer Douglasii_ Hook.

Leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, slightly cordate by a wide shallow sinus, truncate or rarely rounded at base, 3-lobed with acuminate lobes often slightly divided into acuminate lobules, the terminal leaflet usually ovate from a broad base, or occasionally gradually narrowed below and rhombic in outline and sharply serrate to the base or nearly to the base of the lobe with long-acuminate teeth pointing forward, dark green above, paler and often glaucescent below, 3½′—4′ long and 3′—4′ wide, with 3 prominent nerves extending to the points of the lobes, and slender veins; petioles glabrous, 1′—3½′ in length. Flowers as in the species. Fruit with erect or nearly erect wings, ¾′—1′ long and ⅓′—½′ wide.

A tree, occasionally 40° high, with a short trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, small upright branches and slender bright red-brown branchlets.

Distribution. Coast of southern Alaska (head of Lynn Canal), southward near the coast to Vancouver Island and western Washington, and eastward on the high mountains of Washington to the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, western Idaho and northern Montana; on Loomis Creek, Natrona County, Wyoming.

2. Acer circinatum Pursh. Vine Maple.

Leaves almost circular in outline, cordate at base by a broad shallow sinus, or sometimes almost truncate, palmately 7—9-lobed occasionally nearly to the middle, with acute lobes sharply and irregularly doubly serrate, and conspicuously palmately nerved, with prominent veinlets, when they unfold tinged with rose color, and puberulous, especially on the lower surface and on the petioles, and at maturity glabrous with the exception of tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the large veins, thin and membranaceous, dark green above, pale below, and 2′—7′ in diameter; in the autumn turning orange and scarlet; petioles stout, grooved, 1′—2′ in length, clasping the stem by their large base. Flowers appearing when the leaves are about half grown, in loose 10—20-flowered umbel-like corymbs pendent on long stems from the end of slender 2-leaved branchlets, the staminate and pistillate flowers produced together; sepals oblong to obovate, acute, villose, purple or red, much longer than the greenish white broad, cordate petals folded together at apex; stamens 6-8, with slender filaments villose at base, exserted in the staminate flower, much shorter than the petals in the pistillate flower; ovary glabrous, with spreading lobes, in the staminate flower reduced to a small point surrounded by a tuft of pale hairs; style divided nearly to the base into long exserted stigmas. Fruit with thin wings, 1½′ long, spreading almost at right angles, red or rose color like the nutlets in early summer, ripening late in the autumn; seeds smooth, pale chestnut-brown, ⅛′¼′ long.

A tree, rarely 30°—40° high, often vine-like or prostrate, with a trunk 10′—12′ in diameter, and glabrous pale green or reddish brown branchlets frequently covered during their first winter with a glaucous bloom, and occasionally marked by small lenticels; often a low wide-spreading shrub. Winter-buds ⅛′ long, rather obtuse, with thin bright red outer scales rounded on the back, and obovate-spatulate inner scales rounded at apex, contracted into a long narrow claw, bright rose-colored and more or less pubescent, especially on the outer surface, and when fully grown often 2′ long and ¼′ broad. Bark of the trunk thin, smooth, bright red-brown, marked by numerous shallow fissures. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, not strong, light brown, sometimes nearly white, with thick lighter colored sapwood; used for fuel, the handles of axes and other tools, and by the Indians of the northwest coast for the bows of their fishing-nets.

Distribution. Banks of streams; coast of British Columbia through western Washington and Oregon to Mendocino County, and the cañon of the upper Sacramento River, California; one of the most abundant of the deciduous-leaved trees of western Washington and Oregon up to altitudes of 4000° above the sea, and of its largest size on the rich alluvial soil of bottom-lands, its vine-like stems in such situations springing 4 or 5 together from the ground, spreading in wide curves and sending out long slender branches rooting when they touch the ground and forming impenetrable thickets of contorted and interlaced trunks, often many acres in extent; in California smaller and less abundant, growing along streams in the coniferous forest or rarely on dry ridges up to an altitude of 4000° in the northeastern part of the state.

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in Europe, and in the eastern states, and hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.

3. Acer spicatum Lam. Mountain Maple.

Leaves subcordate or sometimes truncate at base, conspicuously 3-nerved, 3 or slightly 5-lobed, with gradually narrowed pointed lobes, and sharply and coarsely glandular-serrate, when they unfold puberulous on the upper surface and densely tomentose on the lower surface, and at maturity thin, 4′—5′ long and broad; turning in the autumn to various shades of orange and scarlet; petioles slender, enlarged at base, 2′—3′ in length, often becoming scarlet in summer. Flowers opening in June after the leaves are fully grown, ¼′ diameter, on slender pedicels ½′—¾′ long, the pistillate toward the base and the staminate at the apex of a narrow many-flowered long-stemmed upright slightly compound pubescent raceme; calyx-lobes narrow-obovate, yellow, pubescent on the outer surface, much shorter than the linear-spatulate pointed yellow petals; stamens 7 or 8, inserted immediately under the ovary, with slender glabrous filaments as long as the petals in the sterile flower, about as long as the sepals in the pistillate flower, and glandular anthers; ovary hoary-tomentose, reduced to a minute point surrounded by a tuft of pale hairs in the staminate flower; style columnar, almost as long as the petals, with short stigmatic lobes. Fruit fully grown and bright red or yellow in July, turning brown late in the autumn, almost glabrous, with more or less divergent wings about ½′ long; seeds smooth, dark red-brown, ⅛′ long.

A bushy tree, occasionally 25°—30° high, with a short trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, small upright branches, and slender branchlets light gray and pubescent when they first appear, becoming glabrous during the summer, bright red during their first winter, gray or pale brown the following season, and blotched or streaked with green toward the base; more often a tall or low shrub. Winter-buds acute; the terminal ⅛′ long, with bright red outer scales more or less coated with hoary tomentum, those of the inner ranks becoming at maturity 1′ or more in length and then lanceolate, pale and papery; axillary buds much smaller and glabrous or puberulous. Bark of the trunk very thin, reddish brown, smooth or slightly furrowed. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood.