Part 97

Leaves ovate, abruptly contracted at apex into a short acuminate point, oblique and truncate or on weak branchlets, often nearly symmetric and deeply cordate at base, and finely serrate with straight apiculate teeth, covered above when they unfold with soft caducous hairs and pubescent below, and at maturity thick, bright green, smooth and lustrous on the upper surface, pale and covered on the lower surface with a thick floccose easily detached pubescence of fascicled hairs, pale on those of lower leaves and often rufous on those of upper branches, 4′—6′ long and 3¼′—5′ wide, with a slender midrib and veins covered below with straight hairs mixed with fascicled hairs, and small conspicuous axillary tufts; petioles covered when they first appear with straight hairs mixed with fascicled hairs, soon glabrous, usually 1¼′—1½′ in length, those of the leaves of weak branchlets very slender and often 2′—2½′ long. Flowers in May, ⅙′—⅕′ long, on stout villose pedicels, in long-branched mostly 10—15-flowered cymes more or less thickly covered with straight white hairs; peduncle covered with long white hairs, the free portion 1′—1¼′ in length, its bract rounded and unsymmetric or acute at base, rounded or acute at apex, the midrib more or less thickly covered on the lower side with straight hairs, otherwise glabrous, 3½′—5′ long and 1′ wide, decurrent nearly to the base or to within 1′ of the base of the peduncle; sepals narrow, acute, pubescent on the outer surface, villose on the inner surface, about one-third as long as the lanceolate acuminate petals; staminodia spatulate, rounded and often lobed at apex, about as long as the sepals; style slightly villose at base. Fruit ripening in September, globose or depressed-globose, covered with rusty tomentum, about ⅖′ in diameter.

A tree, sometimes 60° high, with a trunk 12′—24′ in diameter, heavy branches forming a broad round-topped head, and stout red-brown branchlets sometimes glabrous in early summer and sometimes covered more or less thickly during their first and second seasons with long straight hairs.

Distribution. Valley of the Savannah River, near Abbeville, South Carolina, to Shell Bluff, Burke County, Georgia; River Junction, Gadsden County, Florida.

13. Tilia heterophylla Vent.

Leaves ovate, obliquely truncate or rarely slightly cordate at base, gradually narrowed and acuminate at apex, finely dentate with apiculate gland-tipped teeth, pubescent above when they unfold with caducous fascicled hairs, and at maturity dark green and glabrous on the upper surface, covered on the lower surface with thick, firmly attached, white or on upper branches often brownish tomentum, and usually furnished with small axillary tufts of rusty brown hairs, 3¼′—5¼′ long and 2½′—2¾′ wide; petioles slender, glabrous, 1½′—1¾′ in length. Flowers ¼′ long, opening in early summer, on pedicels pubescent with fascicled hairs, in wide mostly 10—20-flowered pubescent corymbs; peduncle glabrous, the free portion 1/12′—⅙′ in length, its bract narrowed and rounded at apex, unsymmetrically cuneate at base, pubescent on the upper surface, tomentose on the lower surface when it first appears, becoming glabrous, 4′—6′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, nearly sessile or decurrent to within 1½′ of the base of the peduncle; sepals acuminate, pale-pubescent on the outer surface, villose on the inner surface and furnished at base with a tuft of long white hairs; petals lanceolate, acuminate, a third longer than the sepals; staminodia oblong-ovate, acute, sometimes notched at apex; style villose at base with long white hairs. Fruit ellipsoid, apiculate at apex, covered with rusty brown tomentum, about ⅓′ long.

A large tree with slender, glabrous, reddish or yellowish brown branchlets and oblong-ovate slightly flattened glabrous winter-buds ⅕′—⅓′ in length, the outer scales slightly ciliate at apex.

Distribution. White Sulphur Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia; Piedmont region of North and South Carolina and Georgia; near Tallahassee, Leon County, River Junction, Gadsden County, and Rock Cave, Jackson County, Florida; near Selma and Berlin, Dallas County, Alabama; Vevay, Switzerland County, and near the Ohio River, Jefferson County, Indiana; not common. Passing into the var. _amphiloba_ Sarg., differing from the type in the fascicled hairs on the upper surface of the young leaves and in the often pubescent branchlets; woods in sandy soil near River Junction, Gadsden County, Florida, and Valley Head, DeKalb County, Alabama; and into var. _nivea_ Sarg., differing from the type in the white tomentum on the lower surface of the leaves, the glabrous styles, in the tomentum on the lower side of the floral bract when the flowers open, the pubescent gray or pale reddish brown branchlets and in the puberulous winter-buds; deep woods, River Junction, Gadsden County, Florida. More important is

Tilia heterophylla var. Michauxii Sarg.

_Tilia Michauxii_ Nutt.

Leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, acute or abruptly short-pointed at the broad apex, cordate, obliquely cordate, or rarely obliquely truncate at base, and coarsely serrate with apiculate teeth, pubescent above when they unfold with caducous fascicled hairs, and hoary-tomentose beneath, and at maturity thin, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface and coated below with short white or grayish white tomentum, 3½′—6′ long and 3½′—5′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib and primary veins usually without axillary tufts; petioles slender, sparingly villose when they first appear, soon glabrous, 1½′—2½′ in length. Flowers ⅓′ long, opening about the 1st of July, on slender puberulous pedicels ¼′ in length, in wide long-stemmed puberulous cymes; peduncle pubescent, becoming glabrous, the free portion 1¾′—2′ in length, its bract obovoid, rounded or acute at apex, 3½′—5′ long and ½′—1′ wide, decurrent to within ⅓′—¾′ of the base of the peduncle; sepals ovate, acuminate, ciliate on the margins, puberulous on the outer surface, tomentose on the inner surface, ¼′ long, shorter than the lanceolate acuminate petals; staminodia oblong-obovoid, rounded or emarginate at apex; style glabrous. Fruit ripening in September, subglobose, rusty-tomentose, ¼′—⅓′ in diameter.

A large tree with slender glabrous light red-brown branchlets. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, slightly flattened, red, about ¼′ in length. Bark of the trunk 1′ thick, deeply furrowed, reddish or grayish brown and covered with small thin scales.

Distribution. Pennsylvania, valley of the Susquehanna River (Lancaster County) to southern and western New York and through southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to northeastern Missouri (near Ilasco, Ralls County), and southward through eastern Kentucky and Tennessee to northeastern Mississippi, and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia; southern Georgia (Dougherty and Decatur Counties), Dallas County, Alabama; southwestern Missouri (Eagle Rock, Barry County), and northwestern Arkansas (Eureka Springs, Carroll County, and Cotter, Marion County).

14. Tilia monticola Sarg.

_Tilia heterophylla_ Sarg., in part, not Vent.

Leaves thin, gradually narrowed and acuminate at apex, ovate to oblong-ovate, very oblique and truncate or obliquely cordate at base, finely serrate with straight or incurved apiculate teeth, smooth, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, thickly coated on the lower surface with hoary tomentum, 4′—7′ long and 3′—5′ wide; petioles slender, glabrous, 1½′—3′ in length. Flowers from the middle to the end of July, ⅖′—½′ long, on stout sparingly pubescent pedicels, in mostly 7—10-flowered thin-branched glabrous cymes; peduncle slender, glabrous, the free portion 1⅓′—1½′ in length, its bract gradually narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, narrowed and rounded at apex, glabrous, 4′—5½′ long and ⅘′—1′ wide, decurrent to within 1/24′—⅛′ of the base of the peduncle; sepals ovate, acute, ciliate on the margins, covered on the outer surface with short pale pubescence and with silky white hairs on the inner surface; petals lanceolate, acuminate, twice longer than the sepals; staminodia oblong-lanceolate, rounded at the narrowed apex, as long or nearly as long as the petals; style clothed at the base with long white hairs. Fruit ripening in September, ovoid to ellipsoid, covered with pale rusty tomentum, ¼′—⅓′ long and about ¼′ in diameter.

A tree rarely exceeding 60° in height with a trunk 3°—4½° in diameter, slender branches forming a narrow rather pyramidal head, and stout glabrous branchlets usually bright red during their first year, becoming brown in their second season. Winter-buds compressed, ovoid, acute or rounded at apex, light red, covered with a glaucous bloom, ⅓′—½′ long. Bark of the trunk ⅗′ in thickness, deeply furrowed, the surface broken into small thin light brown scales.

Distribution. Appalachian Mountains at altitudes usually from 2500°—3000°, Farmer Mountain, on New River, Connell County, Virginia, to Johnson City, Washington County. Tennessee, and to Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina.

15. Tilia georgiana Sarg.

Leaves ovate, abruptly short-pointed at apex, slightly unsymmetric and usually cordate on lateral branches and often oblique or truncate on leading branches at base, and finely dentate with glandular teeth pointing forward, when they unfold deeply tinged with red, covered above by fascicled hairs and tomentose below, when the flowers open the middle of June dark yellow-green, dull and scabrate above and covered below with a thick coat of tomentum, pale on those of lower branches and tinged with brown on those from the top of the tree, and conspicuously reticulate-venulose, and at maturity thick, dull yellow-green, pubescent or glabrous above, rusty or pale tomentose below, sometimes becoming nearly glabrous in the autumn, 2½′—4′ long and 2′—3′ wide; petioles slender, tomentose, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers ¼′—⅓′ long, on slender pubescent pedicels, in compact slender-branched pubescent mostly 10—15-flowered corymbs; peduncle slender, densely pubescent, the free portion 1′—1½′ in length, its bract oblong to obovate, rounded at apex, rounded or cuneate at base, pubescent, becoming nearly glabrous, 2½′—4′ long and ¾′—1½′ wide, decurrent to the base or to within 1′ of the base of the peduncle; sepals ovate, acuminate, coated on the outer surface with pale pubescence and on the inner surface with pale hairs longest and most abundant at the base, not more than one-half the length of the lanceolate acuminate narrow petals; staminodia oblong-obovate to spatulate, acute, about two-thirds as long as the petals; style glabrous or furnished with a few hairs at the very base. Fruit ripens early in September on pubescent pedicels, depressed-globose, occasionally slightly grooved and ridged, covered with thick rusty tomentum, ⅕′—¼′ in diameter.

A small tree, with slender branchlets thickly coated during their first season with pale tomentum, and dark red-brown or brown and puberulous in their second year. Winter-buds covered with rusty brown pubescence, ¼′—⅓′ long.

Distribution. Coast of South Carolina, near Charleston; Colonel’s Island near the mouths of the North Newport and Medway Rivers, near Dunham, Liberty County, and at Brunswick, Glynn County, Georgia, to central and western Florida.

Tilia georgiana var. crinita Sarg.

_Tilia pubescens_ Sarg., in part, not Vent.

Differing in the longer and more matted usually rusty brown hairs of the pubescence, usually less closely attached to the under surface of the leaves and often conspicuous on the young branches.

A tree, 30°—40° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 15′ in diameter, and slender branchlets densely rusty pubescent during their first season, and during their third year becoming glabrous, red-brown, rugose and marked by occasional small lenticels. Winter-buds acuminate, dark reddish brown and covered with short reddish pubescence. Bark of the trunk ½′—¾′ thick, furrowed and divided into parallel ridges, the red-brown surface broken into short thick scales.

Distribution. Sandy woods near Bluffton, Beaufort County, and in the neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina, and on Colonel’s Island near the mouth of the North Newport and Medway Rivers, near Dunham, Liberty County, Georgia.

XL. STERCULIACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with bitter astringent juice, mucilaginous bark, and alternate simple leaves, with stipules. Flowers perfect, regular; calyx of 5 sepals, imbricated in the bud; corolla 0 (in _Fremontia_); anthers extrorse; pistil of 5 united carpels; ovary 5-celled; styles united; ovules anatropous.

A family of about fifty genera mostly confined to the tropics. Its most important species, _Theobroma Cacao_ L., of the West Indies, produces chocolate from the cotyledons. _Firmiana simplex_ F. N. Meyer, of this family and a native of southern China, is often planted as an ornamental tree in the southern states, where it has sometimes become naturalized, and in California.

1. FREMONTIA Torr.

A tree or shrub, with stellate pubescence and naked buds. Leaves broad-ovate, lobed, thick, prominently veined, usually rufous on the lower surface, persistent; stipules minute, deciduous. Flowers solitary, terminal or opposite the leaves, pedicellate, subtended by 3 or rarely 5 minute caducous bracts; calyx subcampanulate, hypogynous, deeply 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in the bud, petaloid, yellow, spreading, obovate, often mucronate, 1′ long, the 3 outer a little smaller than the others, pubescent on the outer surface, with a hairy cavity at the base of the inner surface; corolla 0; stamens 5; filaments alternate with the sepals, united to the middle into a column; anthers oblong-linear, incurved at the ends, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 5-celled, the cells opposite the sepals; style filiform, elongated, terminated by an acute undivided stigmatic point; ovules numerous in each cell, horizontal. Fruit an ovoid acuminate 4 or 5-valved loculicidally dehiscent capsule densely coated with long matted hairs, the inner surface of the cells villose-pubescent. Seeds oval; seed-coat crustaceous, puberulous, with a small fleshy marginal deciduous ariloid appendage on the chalaza; embryo straight, in thick fleshy albumen; cotyledons oblong, foliaceous, three or four times longer than the short radicle.

_Fremontia_, named in honor of John C. Frémont, the distinguished explorer of western North America, is represented by a single species.

1. Fremontia californica Torr. Slippery Elm.

_Fremontodendron californicum_ Cov.

Leaves usually 3-lobed, rarely entire or sometimes 5—7-lobed, 1½′ in diameter; petioles stout, ½′—⅔′ in length. Flowers appearing in July in great profusion on short spur-like lateral branchlets. Fruit 1′ long; seeds very dark red-brown, about 3/16′ long.

A tree, 20°—30° high, with a short trunk 12′—14′ in diameter, stout rigid branches spreading almost at right angles, and stout terete branchlets thickly coated when they first appear with rufous pubescence, becoming glabrous and light red-brown; more often a low intricately branched shrub. Bark of the trunk rarely more than ¼′ thick, deeply furrowed, the dark red-brown surface broken into numerous short thick scales. Wood hard, heavy, close-grained, dark brown tinged with red, with thick lighter colored sapwood. The mucilaginous inner bark is sometimes used domestically in poultices.

Distribution. Lower slopes of the California mountains; western base of Mt. Shasta to the San Pedro Mártir Mountains, Lower California; nowhere common west of the Sierra Nevada, but of its largest size on their western foothills; most abundant east of the Sierra Nevada in the region of the Mohave Desert, growing as a low shrub and sometimes forming thickets several acres in extent.

Occasionally cultivated in western and southern Europe as an ornamental plant.

XLI. THEACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with simple alternate leaves, without stipules. Flowers perfect, regular, hypogynous; sepals and petals 5, imbricated in the bud; stamens numerous; anthers 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; pistil of 3—5 united carpels; ovary 3—5-celled; styles as many as the cells of the ovary, partly united. Fruit capsular; embryo with large cotyledons.

The Camellia family with eighteen genera is principally confined to the tropics of the New World and to southern and eastern Asia. Two genera are represented in the flora of the southern United States, and of these Gordonia is arborescent. Its most important genus, Camellia of eastern Asia, contains the Tea plant, _Camellia Thea_ Link, and several species cultivated for the beauty of their flowers.

1. GORDONIA Ell.

Trees or shrubs, with terete branchlets, with an acuminate terminal bud, slender acuminate naked axillary buds, and watery juice. Leaves pinnately veined, entire or crenate, subcoriaceous and persistent, or thin and deciduous. Flowers axillary, solitary, long-stalked or subsessile; calyx subtended by 2—5 caducous bracts; sepals unequal, rounded, concave, coriaceous, persistent; petals free or slightly united, obovate, concave, white, deciduous; stamens numerous, filaments short, united at base into a fleshy cup adnate to the base of the petals and inserted with them, or long and inserted directly on the petals; anthers introrse, yellow; ovary sessile; style elongated, erect, 5-lobed at the stigmatic apex; ovules 4—8 in each cell, pendulous in 2 series from its inner angle, collateral, anatropous. Fruit a woody oblong or subglobose 5-celled capsule loculicidally 5-valved, with a persistent axis angled by the projecting placentas. Seeds 2—8 in each cell pendulous, flat, without albumen; seed-coat woody, usually produced upward into an oblong wing; embryo mostly straight or oblique, with oblong flat or oblique cotyledons; radicle short, superior.

Gordonia with sixteen species is confined to the south Atlantic states of North America and to tropical Asia and the Malay Archipelago.

The generic name is in honor of James Gordon (1728—1791), a well-known London nurseryman.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Flowers long-pedicellate; filaments united into a cup; capsule ovoid, the valves not splitting from the base; seeds winged; leaves persistent. 1. G. Lasianthus (C). Flowers subsessile; filaments distinct; capsule globose, the valves septicidally splitting from the base; seeds without wings; leaves deciduous. 2. G. alatamaha (C).

1. Gordonia Lasianthus Ell. Bay. Loblolly Bay.

Leaves coriaceous, lanceolate to oblong, acute at apex, gradually narrowed to the cuneate base, finely or remotely crenately serrate, usually above the middle only, dark green, smooth and lustrous, 4′—5′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, persistent; finally turning scarlet and dropping irregularly through the year; petioles stout, wing-margined toward the apex, channeled, about ½′ in length. Flowers pungently fragrant, about 2½′ in diameter, expanding in July and continuing to open successively during two or three months, on stout red pedicels thickening from below upward, 2½′—3′ long, and usually furnished with 3 or 4 ovate minute subfloral bractlets; sepals ovate to oval, ½′ long, ciliate on the margins with long white hairs, and covered on the outer surface with dense velvety pale lustrous pubescence; petals rounded at apex, gradually contracted at base, silky-puberulent on the back, white, incurved, 1¼′—1½′ long and 1′ broad, stamens united into a shallow fleshy deeply 5-lobed cup pubescent on the inner surface and adnate to the base of the petals; ovary ovoid, pubescent, gradually contracted into the stout style persistent on the fruit. Fruit ovoid, acute, pubescent, ¾′ long, and ½′ in diameter, splitting to below the middle; seeds winged, nearly square, slightly concave on the inner surface and rounded on the outer surface, rugose, dotted with small pale brown excrescences, nearly 1/16′ long and half the length of the thin membranaceous oblique pale brown wing pointed or rounded at apex; embryo filling the cavity of the seed, nearly straight; cotyledons subcordate, foliaceous.

A short-lived tree, 60°—75° high, with a tall straight trunk 18′—20′ in diameter, small branches growing upward at first and ultimately spreading into a narrow compact head, and dark brown rugose branchlets marked during several years by the horizontal slightly obcordate leaf-scars; or rarely a low shrub. Winter-buds ¼′—⅓′ long, and covered with pale silky lustrous pubescence. Bark of the trunk nearly 1′ thick, deeply divided into regular parallel rounded ridges, their dark red-brown scaly surface broken into many irregular shallow furrows. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not durable, light red, with lighter colored sapwood of 40—50 layers of annual growth; occasionally used in cabinet-making.

Distribution. Shallow swamps and moist depressions in Pine-barrens; southeastern Virginia southward near the coast to the shores of Indian River on the east coast and to Cape Romano on the west coast of Florida, ranging to the interior of the peninsula from Lake to De Soto Counties, and westward along the Gulf coast to southern Mississippi; most abundant in Georgia and east Florida; gradually becoming less abundant westward.

2. Gordonia alatamaha Sarg. Franklinia.

Leaves obovate-oblong, rounded or pointed at apex, gradually narrowed to the long cuneate base, remotely serrate, usually above the middle only, with small glandular teeth, bright green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 5′—6′ long and 1½′—2′ wide; turning scarlet in the autumn before falling; petioles stout, wing-margined above, ¼′—½′ in length. Flowers 3′—3½′ in diameter, appearing about the middle of September, on short stout pedicels at first pubescent, finally glabrous, from the axils of crowded upper leaves, and marked by the broad conspicuous scars of 2 minute lateral subfloral pubescent bractlets; sepals nearly circular, ½′ in diameter, ciliate on the margins, and covered on the outer surface with short lustrous silky pale hairs; petals obovate, crenulate, white, membranaceous, 1′—1½′ long and 1′ broad, and densely coated on the outer surface with fine pubescence; filaments distinct, inserted on the petals; ovary conspicuously ridged, pubescent, truncate, and crowned with a slender deciduous style nearly as long as the stamens. Fruit globose, slightly pubescent, ¾′ in diameter, the valves splitting nearly to the middle and septicidally from the base to the middle; seeds 6—8, or by abortion fewer in each cell, closely packed together on the whole length of the thick axile placenta, nearly ½′ long, angled by mutual pressure, without wings.

A tree, 15°—20° high, with stout slightly angled dark red-brown branchlets covered with small pale oblong horizontal lenticels, and conspicuously marked by large prominent obcordate leaf-scars, with a marginal row of large fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds compressed, reddish brown, puberulous, ¼′—⅓′ long. Bark of cultivated plants smooth, thin, dark brown.

Distribution. Near Fort Barrington on the Altamaha River, Georgia; not seen in a wild state since 1790, and now only known by cultivated plants.

Often cultivated in the eastern states and hardy as far north as eastern New York and occasionally in eastern Massachusetts, and rarely in western and central Europe.

XLII. CANELLACEÆ.