Part 93

Leaves with slender grooved petioles 3′—4′ long, and 4—7 usually 5 oblong-lanceolate acuminate leaflets narrowed and acuminate or rounded at base, sharply serrate, 4′—6′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, dark green above, paler below, slightly pubescent when they first appear, becoming glabrous or nearly so, on petiolules ½′—1′ long; falling early, often by midsummer. Flowers white or pale rose color, 1′—1¼′ long, appearing from May to July when the leaves are fully grown, on short pedicels mostly unilateral on the long branches of the densely flowered long-stemmed pubescent cluster 3′—9′ in length; calyx 2-lobed, slightly toothed, much shorter than the narrow oblong petals; stamens 5—7, with long erect exserted slender filaments and bright orange-colored anthers; ovary densely pubescent. Fruit obovoid, often somewhat gibbous on the outer side, with thin smooth pale brown valves, usually 1-seeded, 2′—3′ long, on a slender stalk ¼′—½′ in length; seeds pale orange-brown, 1½′—2′ broad.

A tree, rarely 20°—30° high, with a short trunk occasionally 4°—5° in diameter, often much enlarged at base, stout wide-spreading branches, forming a round-topped head, and branchlets glabrous and pale reddish brown when they first appear, becoming darker in their second season; more often a shrub, with spreading stems 10°—15° high forming broad dense thickets. Winter-buds acute, covered with narrow dark brown scales rounded on the back and thickly coated with resin. Bark of the trunk about ¼′ thick, smooth, and light gray or nearly white. Wood soft, light, very close-grained, white or faintly tinged with yellow, with thin hardly distinguishable sapwood of 10—12 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. California, borders of streams, valley of the south fork of the Salmon River, Siskiyou County, south along the coast ranges to San Luis Obispo County and on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, usually at altitudes between 2000° and 2500°, occasionally to 5000°, to the northern slopes of Tejon Pass, Kern County, and to Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County.

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in the Pacific states, and in western and southern Europe.

XXXVII. SAPINDACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with alternate pinnate petiolate persistent or deciduous leaves, without stipules. Flowers regular or irregular, polygamo-diœcious, polygamo-monœcious or polygamous; calyx of 4 or 5 sepals or lobes imbricated in the bud; petals 4 or 5 imbricated in the bud; disk annular, fleshy, 5-lobed, or unilateral and oblique; stamens usually 7—10, inserted on the disk; filaments free; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 2—4 or 3-celled; styles terminal; stigmas capitate or lobed; ovule solitary or 2 in each cell, anatropous or amphitropous. Fruit a drupe or capsule. Seed usually solitary, without albumen; seed-coat bony, coriaceous or crustaceous.

Of the one hundred and twenty-six genera of this family, which is chiefly confined to the tropics and is more abundant in the Old than in the New World, four have arborescent representatives in the United States.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.

Fruit baccate. Fruit dark orange-color or yellow, with thin semitranslucent coriaceous flesh; ovules 1 in each cell of the ovary; leaflets subcoriaceous to coriaceous. 1. Sapindus. Fruit purple, with thick juicy flesh; ovules 2 in each cell of the ovary; leaflets thin, persistent. 2. Exothea. Fruit a drupe; leaves 3-foliolate, persistent. 3. Hypelate. Fruit a 3-valved capsule; leaves 4 or 5, rarely 3-foliolate, deciduous. 4. Ungnadia.

1. SAPINDUS L. Soapberry.

Trees or shrubs, with terete branches, without a terminal bud, marked by large obcordate leaf-scars showing the ends of 3 equidistant fibro-vascular bundles, small globose axillary buds often superposed in pairs, the upper bud the larger, and thick fleshy roots. Leaves equally or rarely unequally pinnate. Flowers regular, minute, polygamo-diœcious, on short pedicels from the axils of minute deciduous bracts, in ample axillary or terminal panicles; sepals 4 or 5, unequal, slightly united at base; petals 4 or 5, equal, alternate with the sepals, inserted under the thick edge of the annular fleshy entire crenately lobed disk, unguiculate, naked or furnished at the summit of the claw on the inside with a 2-cleft scale, deciduous; stamens usually 8 or 10, inserted on the disk immediately under the ovary, equal; filaments subulate or filiform, often pilose, exserted in the staminate, much shorter in the pistillate flower; anthers oblong, attached near the base; pistils 2 or 3, united; ovary sessile, entire or 2—4-lobed, 2—4-celled, narrowed into a short columnar style, rudimentary in the staminate flower; stigma 2—4-lobed, the lobes spreading; ovule solitary in each cell, ascending from below the inner angle of the cell; raphe ventral; micropyle inferior. Fruit baccate, coriaceous, 1—3-seeded, usually formed of 1 globose coriaceous carpel, with the rudiments of the others remaining at its base, or of 2 or sometimes 3 carpels more or less connate by their base and then 2—3-lobed. Seed solitary in each carpel, obovoid or globose; seed-coat bony, smooth, black or dark brown; tegmen membranaceous or fleshy; hilum oblong, surrounded by an ariloid tuft of long pale silky hairs; embryo incurved or straight; cotyledons thick and fleshy, incumbent; radicle very short, inferior, near the hilum.

Sapindus is widely distributed through the tropics, especially in Asia, occasionally extending into colder regions. About forty species have been distinguished; of these three are found within the territory of the United States.

Sapindus contains a detersive principle which causes the pulp of the fruit to lather in water, and makes it valuable as a substitute for soap. The bark, which is bitter and astringent, has been used as a tonic. The seeds of several of the species are strung for chaplets and bracelets and are used as buttons.

The generic name, from _sapo_ and _Indus_, refers to the detersive properties and use of the first species known to Europeans, a native of the West Indies.

CONSPECTUS OF THE SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Leaves persistent. Rachis of the leaf interrupted-winged, with usually broad wings; leaflets 4—9, oblong-lanceolate and acute to elliptic-ovate or oblong, tomentulose below; petals without scales; fruit globose, orange-brown. 1. S. saponaria (D). Rachis of the leaf without wings narrow-margined or marginless; leaflets 7—13, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, often somewhat falcate, glabrous below; petals with scales; fruit somewhat oblong, dorsally keeled, yellow. 2. S. marginatus (C). Leaves deciduous, their rachis without marginal borders; leaflets 8—18, lanceolate, mostly falcate, soft-pubescent or ultimately glabrous below; petals with scales; fruit globose, not keeled, turning black in drying. 3. S. Drummondii (C, E).

1. Sapindus saponaria L.

Leaves 6′—7′ long, with a broad winged rachis, the wings narrow and often nearly obsolete below the lowest pair of leaflets, and sometimes nearly ½′ wide below the upper pair, and usually 7—9 elliptic to oblong-lanceolate leaflets, rounded or slightly emarginate at apex, gradually narrowed at base and very short-petiolulate, soft-pubescent on the lower surface when they unfold, and at maturity rather coriaceous, yellow-green, paler and tomentulose below, prominently reticulate-venulose, 3′—4′ long and 1½′ wide, with a yellow midrib and primary veins, those of the lowest pair smaller than the others; rarely reduced to a single leaflet. Flowers appearing in Florida in November, usually produced 3 together on short pedicels, in terminal panicles 7′—10′ in length, with an angulate peduncle and branches; calyx-lobes acute, concave, ciliate on the margins, the 2 outer rather smaller than those of the inner rank, much shorter than the white, ovate, short-clawed petals, without scales, rounded at apex and covered, especially toward the base, with long scattered hairs; ovary slightly 3-lobed; stamens included or slightly exserted, with hairy filaments broadened at base. Fruit ripening in spring or in early summer, globose, ⅔′—¾′ in diameter, with thin orange-brown semitranslucent flesh; seeds obovoid, black, 1′ in diameter.

A tree, sometimes 25°—30° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 10′—12′ in diameter, erect branches and slender branchlets at first slightly many-angled and puberulous, soon glabrous, orange-green and marked by white lenticels, becoming in their second season terete, pale brown faintly tinged with red. Bark of the trunk ¼′—½′ thick, light gray and roughened by oblong lighter colored excrescences, the outer layer exfoliating in large flakes exposing the nearly black inner bark. Wood heavy, rather hard, close-grained, light brown tinged with yellow, with thick yellow sapwood.

Distribution. Florida, shores of Cape Sable, shores and islands of Caximbas Bay, Key Largo, Elliott’s Key, and the shores of Bay Biscayne, Dade County; in Florida most common in the region of Cape Sable, and of its largest size on some of the Ten Thousand Islands, Lee County; generally distributed through the West Indies to Venezuela and Ecuador.

2. Sapindus marginatus Willd.

_Sapindus manatensis_ Radlk.

Leaves 6′—7′ long, with a slender wingless or narrow-margined or marginless rachis, and 7—13 lance-oblong acuminate more or less falcate leaflets, glabrous, dark green, and lustrous on the upper surface, paler and glabrous or puberulous on the lower surface along the slender midrib, sessile or very short-petiolulate, 2′—5′ long, ¾′—1¼′ wide, the lower usually alternate, the upper opposite. Flowers appearing in early spring, more or less tinged with red and nearly ⅛′ in diameter, on short stout tomentose pedicels, in panicles 4′—5′ long and usually about 3′ wide, with a villose stem and branches; sepals acute, concave, ciliate on the margins, much shorter than the ovate-oblong, short-clawed, ciliate petals furnished on the inner surface near the base with a 2-lobed villose scale; filaments villose; ovary 3-lobed. Fruit conspicuously keeled on the back, short-oblong to slightly obovoid, about ¾′ long, with thin light yellow translucent flesh; seeds obovoid, dark brown.

A tree, rarely more than 25°—30° high, with a trunk sometimes 1° in diameter, and stout pale brown or ultimately ashy gray branchlets.

Distribution. Hurricane Island at the mouth of Medway River, Liberty County, Georgia (_Miss J. King_); hummocks, peninsular of Florida to Alachua and Manatee Counties; not common; in Cuba.

3. Sapindus Drummondii Hook. & Arn. Wild China-tree.

Leaves appearing in March and April, with a slender grooved puberulous rachis, without wings, and 4—9 pairs of alternate obliquely lanceolate acuminate leaflets, glabrous on the upper surface and covered with short pale pubescence on the lower surface, coriaceous, prominently reticulate-venulose, pale yellow-green, 2′—3′ long, ½′—⅔′ wide, short-petiolulate; deciduous in the autumn or early winter. Flowers appearing in May and June in clusters 6′—9′ long and 5′—6′ wide, with a pubescent many-angled stem and branches; sepals acute and concave, ciliate on the margins, much shorter than the obovate white petals rounded at apex, contracted into a long claw hairy on the inner surface and furnished at base with a deeply cleft scale hairy on the margins; filaments hairy, with long soft hairs. Fruit ripening in September and October, persistent on the branches until the following spring, glabrous, not keeled, yellow, ½′ in diameter, turning black in drying; seeds obovoid, dark brown.

A tree, 40°—50° high, with a trunk sometimes 1½°—2° in diameter, usually erect branches, and branchlets at first slightly many-angled, pale yellow-green, pubescent, becoming in their second year terete, pale gray, slightly puberulous, and marked by numerous small lenticels. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, separating by deep fissures into long narrow plates broken on the surface into small red-brown scales. Wood heavy, strong, close-grained, light brown tinged with yellow, with lighter colored sapwood of about 30 layers of annual growth; splitting easily into thin strips and largely used in the manufacture of baskets used in harvesting cotton, and for the frames of pack-saddles.

Distribution. Moist clay soil or dry limestone uplands; southwestern Missouri to northeastern and southern Kansas, eastern Louisiana (Tangipahoa Parish _R. S. Cocks_), and to extreme western and southwestern Oklahoma, through eastern Texas to the Rio Grande, over the Edwards Plateau, and in the mountain valleys of western Texas and of southern New Mexico and Arizona; in northern Mexico.

2. EXOTHEA Macf.

A tree, with thin scaly bark, and terete branchlets covered with lenticels. Leaves petiolate, abruptly pinnate or 3 or rarely 1-foliolate, glabrous, without stipules, persistent; leaflets oblong or oblong-ovate, acute, rounded or emarginate at apex, with entire undulate margins, obscurely veined, thin, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface and slightly paler on the lower surface. Flowers regular, polygamo-diœcious, on short pedicels from the axils of minute deciduous bracts covered with thick pale tomentum, in ample terminal or axillary wide-branched panicles clothed with orange-colored pubescence; sepals 5, ovate, rounded at apex, ciliate on the margins, puberulous, persistent; petals 5, white, ovate, rounded at apex, short-unguiculate, alternate with and rather longer and narrower than the sepals; disk annular, fleshy, irregularly 5-lobed, puberulous; stamens 7 or 8, inserted on the disk, as long as the petals in the staminate flower, much shorter in the pistillate flower; filaments filiform, glabrous, anthers oblong, with a broad connective, rudimentary in the staminate flower; ovary sessile on the disk, conic, pubescent, 2-celled, contracted into a short thick style, rudimentary in the staminate flower, stigma large, declinate, obtuse; ovules 2 in each cell, suspended from the summit of the inner angle, collateral, anatropous, raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit a nearly spherical 1-seeded berry containing the rudiment of the second cell and tipped with the short remnant of the style, surrounded at base by the persistent reflexed sepals; flesh becoming thick, dark purple, and juicy at maturity. Seed short-oblong to subglobose, solitary, suspended; seed-coat thin, coriaceous, orange-brown and lustrous; embryo subglobose, filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons fleshy, plano-convex, puberulous; radicle superior, very short, uncinate, turned toward the small hilum and inclosed in a lateral cavity of the seed-coat.

The genus is represented by a single West Indian species.

The generic name is from ἐξωθέω, in allusion to its removal from a related genus.

1. Exothea paniculata Radlk. Ironwood. Ink Wood.

Leaves appearing in April, on stout grooved petioles ½′—1′ in length; leaflets 4′—5′ long and 1½′—2′ wide. Flowers opening in Florida in April, ¼′ across when expanded, the staminate and pistillate on separate plants. Fruit fully grown by the end of June and then ½′—⅝′ long, and dull orange color, remaining on the branches during the summer, ripening in the autumn; seeds ¼′—⅜′ in diameter.

A tree, sometimes 40°—50° high, with a trunk 12′—15′ in diameter, slender upright branchlets orange-brown when they first appear, becoming reddish brown in their second year and thickly covered by small white lenticels. Bark of the trunk ⅛′—¼′ thick, the bright red surface separating into large scales. Wood very hard and heavy, strong, close-grained, bright red-brown, with lighter colored sapwood of 10—12 layers of annual growth; valued for piles and also used in Florida in boat-building, for the handles of tools, and many small articles.

Distribution. Florida, Mosquito Inlet on the east coast to the shores of Bay Biscayne and on the Everglade Keys, Dade County, and on the southern keys; on the Bahamas, on many of the Antilles, and in Guatemala; on the Florida Keys generally distributed, but not common.

3. HYPELATE P. Br.

A glabrous tree or shrub, with smooth bark and slender terete branchlets. Leaves long-petioled, the petioles sometimes narrow-winged, 3-foliolate, the terminal leaflet rather larger than the others, persistent; leaflets sessile, obovate, rounded or rarely acute or emarginate at apex, entire, with thickened revolute margins and a prominent midrib, coriaceous, feather-veined, the veins arcuate and connected near the margins, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, bright green on the lower surface. Flowers regular, polygamo-monœcious, minute, on slender pedicels from the axils of minute deciduous bracts, in few-flowered long-stemmed wide-branched terminal or axillary panicles; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes ovate, rounded at apex, slightly puberulous on the outer surface, ciliate on the margins, deciduous by a circumscissile line, petals 5, rather longer than the calyx-lobes, rounded, spreading, ciliate on the margins, white; stamens 7 or 8, inserted on the lobes of the annular fleshy disk; filaments filiform, as long as the petals in the staminate flower, much shorter in the pistillate flower; anthers oblong, attached on the back near the bottom, the cells spreading from above downward; ovary sessile on the disk, slightly 3-lobed, 3-celled, contracted into a short stout style, rudimentary in the staminate flower; stigma large, declinate, obscurely 3-lobed; ovules 2 in each cell, borne on the middle of its inner angle, superposed, amphitropous, the upper ascending, with the micropyle inferior, the lower pendulous, with the micropyle superior. Fruit an ovoid black drupe crowned with the remnants of the persistent style and supported on the persistent base of the disk; flesh thin and fleshy; walls of the stone thick and crustaceous. Seed solitary by the abortion of the upper ovule, suspended, obovoid; seed-coat thin, slightly wrinkled; embryo conduplicate, filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons thin, foliaceous, irregularly folded, incumbent on the long radicle.

The genus with a single species is distributed from southern Florida to the Bahamas, Cuba, Porto Rico, St. Martin, Anguilla and Jamaica.

_Hypelate_ is the ancient name of the Butcher’s Broom.

1. Hypelate trifoliata Sw. White Ironwood.

Leaves unfolding in June and persistent until their second season or longer; petioles stout, 1½′—2′ in length, with narrow green wings; leaflets 1½′—2′ long and ¾′—1¼′ wide. Flowers appearing in Florida in June, rather less than ⅛′ in diameter, in few-flowered panicles 3′—4′ long, on a slender peduncle, the staminate and pistillate in separate panicles on the same tree. Fruit ripening in September, ⅜′ long, with a sweet rather agreeable flavor.

A tree, sometimes 35°—40° high, with a trunk occasionally 18′—20′ in diameter, and branchlets pale green when they first appear, becoming gray during their first season and bright red-brown the following year; generally much smaller. Bark of the trunk rarely ⅛′ thick, marked by shallow depressions and numerous minute lenticels. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, rich dark brown, with thin darker colored sapwood of 4 or 5 layers of annual growth; very durable in contact with the soil and valued in Florida for posts; also used in shipbuilding and for the handles of tools.

Distribution. Southern Florida, Upper Metacombe, Umbrella and Windley’s Keys; rare.

4. UNGNADIA Endl.

A tree or shrub, with thin pale gray fissured bark, slender terete slightly zigzag branchlets, without a terminal bud, marked by large conspicuous obcordate leaf-scars, small obtuse nearly globose winter-buds covered with numerous chestnut-brown imbricated scales, and thick fleshy roots. Leaves long-petioled, 5 or 7 or rarely 3-foliolate, deciduous; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded or cuneate, and often oblique at base, irregularly crenulate-serrate, coated when they first appear on the lower surface like the petiole with dense pale tomentum, and pilose above, glabrous at maturity with the exception of a few hairs on the lower surface along the principal veins, pinnately veined, reticulate-venulose, the terminal leaflet long-petiolulate, the others short-petiolulate to subsessile. Flowers irregular, polygamous, in small pubescent fascicles or corymbs appearing just before or with the leaves from the axils of those of the previous year, usually from separate buds, or occasionally from the base of leafy branches; calyx 5-lobed, hypogynous, the lobes oblong-lanceolate, somewhat united irregularly at base only, deciduous; petals 4 by the suppression of the anterior one, or 5 and then alternate with the lobes of the calyx, hypogynous on the margin of a thickened truncate torus, unguiculate, bright rose color, deciduous, the claw as long as the lobes of the calyx, nearly erect, clothed with tomentum, especially on the inner surface, conspicuously appendaged at the summit with a fimbricated crest of short fleshy tufted hairs, the blade obovate, spreading, often erose-crenulate; disk unilateral, oblique, tongue-shaped, surrounding and connate with the base of the stipe of the ovary; stamens 7—10, usually 8 or 9, inserted on the oblique edge of the disk, much exserted and unequal, the anterior ones shorter than the others, equal or almost so and shorter than the petals in the pistillate flower; filaments filiform; anthers oblong, attached near the base; ovary ovoid, 3-celled, pilose, raised on a long stipe, rudimentary in the staminate flower; style subulate, filiform, elongated, slightly curved upward; stigma minute, terminal; ovules 2, borne on the inner angle of the cell near its middle, ascending, the micropyle inferior. Fruit a coriaceous 3-celled loculicidally 3-valved broad-ovoid capsule, conspicuously stipitate, crowned with the remnants of the style, rugosely roughened and dark reddish brown, loculicidally 3-valved, the valves somewhat cordate, bearing the dissepiment on the middle. Seed generally solitary by abortion, almost globose; seed-coat coriaceous, very smooth and shining, dark chestnut-brown or almost black; hilum broad; tegmen thin; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons thick and fleshy, nearly hemispheric, conferruminate, incumbent on the short conic descending radicle turned toward the hilum, remaining below ground in germination.

Ungnadia with a single species is confined to Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico.

The name is in honor of Baron Ferdinand von Ungnad, Ambassador of the Emperor Rudolph II. at the Ottoman Porte who sent seeds of the Horsechestnut-tree from Constantinople to Vienna in the middle of the sixteenth century.

1. Ungnadia speciosa Endl. Spanish Buckeye.

Leaves appearing from March to April with or just after the flowers, 6′—12′ long, with a petiole 2′—6′ in length, rather coriaceous leaflets, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface and pale and rugose on the lower surface, 3′—5′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, the terminal leaflet on a petiolule ¼′—1′ in length. Flowers 1′ across when expanded, in crowded clusters 1½′—2′ long. Fruit 2′ broad, opening in October, the empty pods often remaining on the branches until the appearance of the flowers the following year; seeds ½′—⅝′ in diameter.