Chapter XXVI: Section 1: Polypetalæ. Corolla of separate petals (1)

A. Ovary superior (_partly inferior in Hamamelidaceæ; inferior in Malus, Sorbus, Cratægus and Amelanchier in Rosaceæ_).

XVI. MAGNOLIACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, branchlets lengthening by large terminal or the flower-bearing branchlets by upper axillary buds, the other axillary buds obtuse, flattened, and rudimentary, bitter aromatic bark, and thick fleshy roots. Leaves alternate, conduplicate and inclosed in their stipules in the bud, feather-veined, petiolate. Flowers perfect, large, solitary, terminal, pedicellate, inclosed in the bud in a stipular caducous spathe; sepals and petals imbricated in the bud, inserted under the ovary, deciduous; stamens and pistils numerous, imbricated in many ranks, the stamens below the pistils on the surface of an elongated receptacle ripening into a compound fruit of 1—2-seeded follicles or samara; ovules 2, collateral, anatropous. Four of the ten genera of the Magnolia family are represented in North America; of these two are arborescent.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.

Anthers introrse; mature carpels, fleshy, opening on the back at
maturity, persistent; seed-coat thick, pulpy, and bright
scarlet; leaves entire, or auriculate at base.
1. Magnolia.
Anthers extrorse; mature carpels dry, indehiscent, deciduous;
seed-coat dry and coriaceous; leaves lobed or truncate.
2. Liriodendron.

1. MAGNOLIA L. Magnolia.

Trees, with ashy gray or brown smooth or scaly bark, branchlets conspicuously marked by large horizontal or longitudinal leaf-scars and by narrow stipular rings, and large terete acuminate or often obtusely-pointed more or less gibbous winter-buds usually broadest at the middle, their scales large membranaceous stipules adnate to the base of the petioles and deciduous with the unfolding of each successive leaf, the petiole of the outer stipule rudimentary, adnate on the straight side of the bud, and marked at its apex by the scar left by the falling of the last leaf of the previous season. Leaves entire, sometimes auriculate, persistent or deciduous, often minutely punctate, their numerous primary veins arcuate and more or less united within the margins. Flowers appearing in the American species after the leaves, their stipular spathes thin and membranaceous; sepals 3, spreading or reflexed; petals 6—12 in series of 3’s, concave, erect or spreading; stamens early deciduous, their filaments shorter than the 2-celled introrse anthers and terminating in apiculate fleshy connectives; ovary sessile, 1-celled; style short, recurved, stigmatic on the inner face; ovules horizontal. Fruit a scarlet or rusty brown cone formed of the coalescent 2-seeded drupaceous persistent follicles opening on the back; seeds suspended at maturity by long thin cords of unrolled spiral vessels; seed-coat thick, drupaceous, the outer portion becoming fleshy and at maturity pulpy, red or scarlet, the inner crustaceous; embryo minute at the base of the fleshy homogeneous albumen, its radicle next the hilum; cotyledons short and spreading.

Magnolia with about thirty species is confined to eastern North America, southern Mexico, and eastern and southern Asia, seven species growing naturally in the United States. All the parts are slightly bitter and aromatic, and the dried flower-buds are sometimes used in medicine. Several species from eastern Asia and their hybrids producing flowers before the appearance of the leaves are favorite garden plants in the United States.

The genus is named in honor of Pierre Magnol (1638—1715), professor of botany at Montpellier.

CONSPECTUS OF NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Styles deciduous from the follicles of the fruit; petals greenish or
yellow; winter-buds silky tomentose.
Petals greenish; branchlets glabrous.
1. M. acuminata (A, C).
Petals canary yellow; branchlets pubescent.
2. M. cordata (C).
Styles persistent on the follicles of the fruit.
Petals white.
Leaves coriaceous, persistent; fruit and branchlets tomentose.
3. M. grandiflora (C).
Leaves thin, deciduous (semipersistent in 4).
Leaves cuneate at base.
Leaves scattered along the branches, pale and pubescent below;
winter-buds glabrous or silky pubescent.
4. M. virginiana (A, C).
Leaves crowded at the ends of the flowering branches, green
and glabrous below; winter-buds glabrous.
5. M. tripetala (A, C).
Leaves cordate at the narrow base; fruit tomentose; winter-buds
hoary-tomentose.
6. M. macrophylla (C).
Petals pale yellow or creamy white; leaves obovate-spathulate,
auriculate, crowded at the ends of the flowering branches;
winter-buds glabrous.
Leaves acute; petals pale yellow; tips of the mature carpels
elongated, straight or incurved.
7. M. Fraseri (A, C).
Leaves bluntly pointed; petals creamy white; tips of the mature
carpels short, incurved.
8. M. pyramidata (C).

1. Magnolia acuminata L. Cucumber-tree. Mountain Magnolia.

Leaves oblong-ovate, oblong-obovate or elliptic, abruptly short-pointed at apex, rounded, cuneate or rarely slightly cordate at base, when they unfold densely villose below and slightly villose above, and at maturity thin, yellow-green and glabrous on the upper surface, paler and glabrous or villose-pubescent on the lower surface, 6′—10′ long, and 4′—6′ wide, with often undulate margins; turning dull yellow or brown in the autumn before falling; petioles slender, pubescent early in the season, becoming glabrous, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers on hairy soon glabrous pedicels ½′—¾′ long, bell-shaped, green or greenish yellow covered with a glaucous bloom; sepals membranaceous, acute, 1′—1½′ long, soon reflexed; petals 6, ovate or obovate, concave, pointed, erect, 2½′—3′ long, those of the outer row rarely more than 1′ wide and much wider than those of the inner row. Fruit ovoid or oblong, often curved, glabrous, dark red, 2½′—3′ long, rarely more than 1′ thick; seeds obovoid, acute, compressed, about ½′ long.

A pyramidal tree, 60°—90° high, with a trunk 3°—4° in diameter, comparatively small branches spreading below and erect toward the top of the tree, and slender branchlets coated at first with soft pale caducous hairs, soon bright red-brown, lustrous, and marked by numerous small pale lenticels, turning gray during their third season. Winter-buds: terminal, oblong-ovoid, acuminate, thickly covered with long lustrous white hairs, ½′—⅗′ long, and about three times as long as the obtuse compressed lateral buds nearly surrounded by the narrow elevated leaf-scars conspicuously marked by a double row of large fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Bark ⅓′—½′ thick, furrowed, dark brown, and covered by numerous thin scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close-grained, durable, and light yellow-brown, with thin lighter colored often nearly white sapwood of usually 25—30 layers of annual growth; occasionally manufactured into lumber used for flooring and cabinet-making.

Distribution. Low mountain slopes and rocky banks of streams; southern Ontario, western New York, central to western Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia and to central Kentucky and Tennessee; banks of the Savannah River above Augusta, and in the neighborhood of Lumpkin, Stewart County, Georgia; northern Alabama, northeastern, northwestern and south-central Mississippi; Eagle Rock, Barry County, and on bluffs of the Mississippi River, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, and Baxter County, Arkansas; in eastern Oklahoma (Page, Le Flore County); in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, represented by var. _ludoviciana_ Sarg. differing in its broadly obovate, oval or ovate leaves, and in its larger flowers, 3½′—4′ long, the outer petals 1½′ wide. Rare at the north; most abundant and of its largest size at the base of the high mountains of the Carolinas and Tennessee up to altitudes of 4000°.

Often planted as an ornamental tree in the eastern states and in northern and central Europe.

2. Magnolia cordata Michx.

_Magnolia acuminata_ var. _cordata_ Sarg.

Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic, abruptly short-pointed or rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate, broad-cuneate or rarely rounded at base, when they unfold villose-pubescent more densely on the lower than on the upper surface, at maturity dark green, lustrous and glabrous above, paler and covered below with short matted pale hairs, 4′ or 5′ long, 2½′—3½′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib and primary veins; remaining green until late in the autumn and turning brown and falling after severe frost; petioles slender, covered when they first appear with matted silky white hairs, becoming glabrous, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers on stout pedicels, ¼′—⅓′ long and covered with long silky white hairs, cup-shaped, bright canary yellow; sepals ovate, acute, soon reflexed; petals 6, erect and spreading, 1½′—1¾′ long, ½′—¾′ wide. Fruit oblong, often curved, glabrous, dark red, 1′—1½′ long, ½′—¾′ thick.

A shrub, 4°—8° high, flowering freely when not more than half that size; or in gardens a tree sometimes 20°—30° tall with a trunk 12′—15′ in diameter, spreading branches forming a round-topped head, and slender dark dull red-brown branchlets thickly covered during two years with short pubescence and marked by small pale lenticels. Winter-buds oblong-obovate, often falcate, bluntly pointed, thickly covered with matted pale hairs, the terminal ½′ long and ¼′ thick, the axillary ⅙′—¼′ in length and nearly surrounded by the narrow leaf-scars marked by an irregular row of minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Bark dark brown, and covered with small closely appressed scales.

Distribution. Dry Oak-woods, valley of the Savannah River, Georgia; Spears Plantation six miles south and Goshen Plantation sixteen miles south of Augusta, Richmond County, near Mayfield, Hancock County, and Bath, Richmond County. Often cultivated, and preserved in gardens for more than a century; not rediscovered as a wild plant until 1913 (_L. A. Berckmans_); hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.

3. Magnolia grandiflora L. Magnolia.

_Magnolia fœtida_ Sarg.

Leaves elliptic to oblong-obovate or ovate, acute and bluntly pointed or acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, coriaceous, bright green and shining above, more or less densely coated below with rusty tomentum, 5′—8′ long, 2′—3′ wide, with a prominent midrib and primary veins, deciduous in the spring at the end of their second year; petioles stout, rusty-tomentose, 1′—2′ in length. Flowers on stout hoary-tomentose pedicels ½′—1′ long, opening from April or May until July or August, fragrant, 7′—8′ across, the petaloid sepals and 6 or sometimes 9 or 12 petals abruptly narrowed at base, oval or ovate, those of the inner ranks often somewhat acuminate, concave, and coriaceous, 3′—4′ long and 1½′—2′ wide; base of the receptacle and lower part of the filaments bright purple. Fruit ovoid or oval, rusty brown, covered while young with thick lustrous white tomentum, at maturity rusty-tomentose, 3′—4′ long, 1½′—2½′ thick; seeds obovoid or triangular-obovoid, more or less flattened, ½′ long.

A tree, of pyramidal habit, 60°—100° or rarely 120°—135° high, with a tall straight trunk 2°—3° or occasionally 4°—4½° in diameter, rather small spreading branches, and branchlets hoary-tomentose at first, slightly tomentose in their second year, and much roughened by the elevated leaf-scars displaying a marginal row of conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Winter-buds pale or rusty-tomentose, the terminal 1′—1½′ in length. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, gray or light brown, and covered with thin appressed scales rarely more than 1′ long. Wood hard, heavy, creamy white, soon turning brown with exposure, hardly distinguishable from the sapwood of 60—80 layers of annual growth; little used except for fuel.

Distribution. Rich moist soil on the borders of river swamps and Pine-barren ponds, or rarely on high rolling hills; coast of North Carolina southward to De Soto County, Florida, extending across the peninsula, and in the neighborhood of the coast through the other Gulf states to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, ranging inland to central Mississippi and to southern Arkansas, and northward on the bluffs of the lower Mississippi River to the mouth of the Yazoo River, Mississippi; best developed and most abundant on the bluff formation of the lower Mississippi River, and of its largest size in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.

Largely cultivated as an ornamental tree in all countries of temperate climate; in the eastern United States precariously hardy as far north as Trenton, New Jersey. Numerous varieties, differing in the form of the leaf and in the duration of the flowering period, have appeared in European nurseries; of these, the most distinct is the variety _exoniensis_ Loud., with a rather fastigiate habit and broadly elliptic leaves densely clothed with rusty tomentum on the lower surface; this variety begins to flower when only a few feet high.

4. Magnolia virginiana L. Sweet Bay. Swamp Bay.

_Magnolia glauca_ L.

Leaves oblong or elliptic and obtuse or oblong-lanceolate, covered when they unfold with long white silky deciduous hairs, at maturity bright green, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface, finely pubescent and pale or nearly white on the lower surface, 4′—6′ long, 1½′—3′ wide, with a conspicuous midrib and primary veins; falling in the north late in November and in early winter, at the south remaining on the branches with little change of color until the appearance of the new leaves in the spring; petioles slender, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers on slender glabrous pedicels ½′—¾′ long, creamy white, fragrant, globular, 2′—3′ across, continuing to open during several weeks in spring and early summer; sepals membranaceous, obtuse, concave, shorter than the 9—12, obovate often short-pointed concave petals. Fruit ellipsoidal, dark red, glabrous, 2′ long and ½′ thick; seeds obovoid, oval, or suborbicular, much flattened, ¼′ in length.

A slender tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk rarely more than 15′—20′ in diameter, with small mostly erect ultimately spreading branches and slender bright green branchlets hoary-pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous, marked by narrow horizontal pale lenticels, gradually turning bright red-brown in their second summer; usually a low shrub. Winter-buds covered with fine silky pubescence, the terminal ½′—¾′ long.

Distribution. Deep swamps; Magnolia, Essex County, Massachusetts, Long Island, New York, and southward from New Jersey generally in the neighborhood of the coast to southeastern Virginia and occasionally in North and South Carolina and Georgia; in Pennsylvania as far west as the neighborhood of Chambersburg, Franklin County. In the southern states usually replaced by the var. _australis_ Sarg., differing in the thick silky white pubescence on the pedicels and branchlets. Leaves persistent without change of color until spring, elliptic to ovate, oblong-obovate or rarely lanceolate, 1′—4′ wide; petioles puberulous, pubescent or tomentose.

A tree, 60°—90° high, with a tall straight trunk occasionally 3° in diameter, small short branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and branchlets usually becoming glabrous in their second year; in southern Florida often much smaller and on the Everglade Keys shrubby, and generally not more than 10° tall. Wood soft, light brown tinged with red, with thick creamy white sapwood of 90—100 layers of annual growth; used in the southern states in the manufacture of broom handles and other articles of wooden ware.

Distribution. Borders of Pine-barren ponds, in shallow swamps and on rich hummocks usually in the neighborhood of the coast; swamps of the lower Cape Fear River near Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, to southern Florida; common in the interior of the Florida peninsula, and westward to the valley of the Nueces River, Texas; ranging inland to Cuthbert, Randolph County, western Georgia, to Tuskegee and Selma, Alabama, Tishomingo County, northeastern Mississippi, and to Winn and Natchitoches Parishes, western Louisiana; less abundant west of the Mississippi River than eastward.

The northern form is often cultivated as a garden plant in the eastern states and in Europe.

× _Magnolia major_ or _Thompsoniana_, a probable hybrid between _Magnolia virginiana_ and _Magnolia tripetala_, raised in an English nursery a century ago, and still a favorite garden plant, is intermediate in character between these species.

5. Magnolia tripetala L. Umbrella-tree. Elkwood.

Leaves obovate-lanceolate, narrowed at the ends, acute or bluntly pointed at apex, when they unfold nearly glabrous above, covered below with thick silky caducous tomentum, at maturity membranaceous, glabrous, 18′—20′ long, 8′—10′ wide, with a thick prominent midrib and numerous slender primary veins; falling in the autumn with little change of color; petioles stout, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers on slender glabrous pedicles covered with a glaucous bloom and 2′—2½′ long, cup-shaped, white; sepals narrowly obovate, 5′—6′ long, 1½′ wide, thin, light green, becoming reflexed; petals 6 or 9, concave, coriaceous, ovate, short-pointed, erect, those of the outer row 4′—5′ long and sometimes 2′ wide, much longer and broader than those of the inner rows; filaments bright purple. Fruit ovoid, glabrous, 2½′—4′ long, rose color when fully ripe; seeds obovoid, ½′ long.

A tree, 30°—40° high, with a straight or often inclining trunk rarely more than 18′ in diameter, stout irregularly developed contorted branches wide-spreading nearly at right angles with the stem or turning up toward the ends and growing parallel with it, and stout brittle branchlets green during their first season, becoming in their first winter bright reddish brown, very lustrous, and marked by occasional minute scattered pale lenticels, and by the large oval horizontal slightly raised leaf-scars with scattered fibro-vascular bundle-scars, brown during their second and gray during their third season; generally much smaller, sometimes surrounded by several stems springing from near the base of the trunk and growing into a large bush surmounted by the head of the central stem. Winter-buds: terminal, acute or bluntly pointed, purple, glabrous, covered with a glaucous bloom, usually about 1′ long; axillary globose, the color of the branch. Bark ½′ thick, light gray, smooth, and marked by many small bristle-like excrescences. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, light brown, with creamy white sapwood of 35—40 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Deep rather moist rich soil along the banks of mountain streams or the margins of swamps, and widely distributed in the Appalachian Mountain region, but nowhere very common; valley of the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania (Lancaster and York Counties), to southern Alabama, middle Kentucky and Tennessee, and northeastern Mississippi; in central and southwestern Arkansas; and in southeastern Oklahoma (near Page, Le Flore County, _G. W. Stevens_), extending in Virginia and North Carolina nearly to the coast; of its largest size in the valleys along the western slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee up to altitudes of 2000°.

Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and in northern and central Europe.

6. Magnolia macrophylla Michx. Large-leaved Cucumber-tree.

Leaves obovate or oblong, acute or often abruptly narrowed and acute or rounded at apex, narrowed and cordate at base, bright green and glabrous on the upper surface, silvery gray and pubescent, especially along the stout midrib and primary veins on the lower surface, 20′—30′ long, 9′—10′ wide; falling in the autumn with little change of color; petioles stout, 3′—4′ in length, at first tomentose, becoming pubescent. Flowers on stout hoary-tomentose pedicels 1′—1½′ long, soon becoming glabrous or puberulous, cup-shaped, fragrant, 10′—12′ across; sepals membranaceous, ovate or oblong, rounded at apex, much narrower than the 6 ovate concave thick creamy white petals with a rose colored blotch at base, 6′—7′ long and 3′—4′ wide, at maturity reflexed above the middle, those of the inner row narrower and often somewhat acuminate. Fruit ovoid to nearly globose, pubescent, 2½′—3′ long, bright rose color when fully ripe; seeds obovoid, compressed, ⅔′ long.

A tree, 30°—50° high, with a straight trunk 18′—20′ in diameter, stout wide-spreading branches forming a broad symmetrical round-topped head, and stout brittle branchlets hoary-tomentose when they first appear, light yellow-green, pubescent, and conspicuously marked during their first winter by the large irregularly shaped sometimes longitudinal slightly raised leaf-scars with many scattered fibro-vascular bundle-scars, turning reddish brown during their second and gray during their third season. Winter-buds: terminal, bluntly pointed, covered with a thick coat of snowy white tomentum, 1¾′—2′ long, ½′—¾′ thick; lateral, much flattened, brownish, pubescent, ⅛′—¼′ long. Bark generally less than ¼′ thick, smooth, light gray, divided on the surface into minute scales. Wood hard, close-grained, light, not strong, light brown, with thick light yellow sapwood of about 40 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Sheltered valleys in deep rich soil; nowhere common, and growing generally in isolated groups of a few individuals; Piedmont region of central North Carolina to middle and western Florida, southern Alabama, southern and northeastern Mississippi to the valley of the Green River, Kentucky; in eastern and western Louisiana; probably most abundant in south-central Mississippi.

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern states, and in the temperate countries of Europe; hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.

7. Magnolia Fraseri Walt. Mountain Magnolia. Long-leaved Cucumber-tree.

Leaves obovate-spatulate, acute or bluntly pointed at apex, cordate and conspicuously auriculate at base, bright green and often marked on the upper surface when young with red along the principal veins, glabrous, 10′—12′ long, 6′—7′ wide, or on vigorous young plants sometimes of twice that size; falling in the autumn without change of color; petioles slender, 3′—4′ in length. Flowers on stout glabrous pedicels covered with a glaucous bloom and 1′—1½′ long, pale yellow, sweet scented, 8′—10′ across; sepals narrowly obovate, rounded at apex, 4′—5′ long, deciduous almost immediately after the opening of the bud, shorter than the 6 or 9 obovate acuminate membranaceous spreading petals contracted below the middle, those of the inner rows narrower and conspicuously narrowed below. Fruit oblong, glabrous, bright rose-red when fully ripe, 4′—5′ long, 1½′—2′ thick, the mature carpels ending in long subulate persistent tips; seeds obovoid, compressed, ⅝′ long.

A tree, 30°—40° high, with a straight or inclining trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, often undivided for half its length or separating at the ground into a number of stout diverging stems, regular wide-spreading or more or less contorted and erect branches, and stout brittle branchlets soon becoming bright red-brown, lustrous, marked by numerous minute pale lenticels and in their first winter by the low horizontal leaf-scars with crowded compressed fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and grayish in their second year. Winter-buds: terminal, glabrous, purple, 1½′—2′ long, ½′ thick; axillary, minute and obtuse. Bark rarely more than ⅓′ thick, dark brown, smooth, covered by small excrescences, or on old trees broken into minute scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, not strong, light brown, with thick creamy white sapwood of 30—40 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Valleys of the streams of the southern Appalachian Mountains from southwestern Virginia and northeastern Kentucky to northern Georgia; in northern Alabama and in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana (Laurel Hill, _R. S. Cocks_); in South Carolina eastward to the neighborhood of Aiken, Aiken County; probably most abundant and of largest size on the upper waters of the Savannah River in South Carolina up to altitudes of 4000°.

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

8. Magnolia pyramidata Pursh.

Leaves obovate-spatulate, the apex usually abruptly narrowed into a short blunt point, auriculate at base, with more or less spreading lobes, thin, glabrous, light yellow-green on the upper, pale and glaucous on the lower surface, particularly while young, 5½′—8½′ long, from 3½′—4½′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib, numerous slender forked primary veins and conspicuously reticulate veinlets; petioles slender, 1¼′—2½′ in length. Flowers creamy white, 3½′—4′ across when fully expanded; sepals oblong-obovate, abruptly narrowed to the short-pointed apex, much shorter than the oblong-acuminate petals gradually narrowed from near the middle to the base. Fruit oblong, 2′—2½′ long, bright rose color, the mature carpels ending in short incurved persistent tips; seeds ovoid, compressed.

A slender tree, 20°—30° high, with ascending branches, slender branchlets bright red-brown and marked by small pale lenticels and by the small low oval leaf-scars with many crowded fibro-vascular bundle-scars, later becoming ashy gray.

Distribution. Low rich soil in the neighborhood of streams; near Cuthbert, Randolph County, Georgia; near Mariana, Jackson County, and Bristol, Liberty County, Florida; valleys of the Choctawhatchee River, Dale County, and of the Pea River, Coffee County, and near Selma, Dallas County, Alabama; rare and local.

Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in western Europe.

2. LIRIODENDRON L.

Trees, with deeply furrowed brown bitter bark, and slender branchlets marked by elevated leaf-scars and narrow stipular rings, and compressed obtuse winter-buds, their scales membranaceous stipules joined at the edges, accrescent, strap-shaped, often slightly falcate, oblique at the unequal base, tardily deciduous after the unfolding of the leaf. Leaves recurved in the bud by the bending down of the petiole near the middle, bringing the apex of the blade to the base of the bud, sinuately 4-lobed, heart-shaped, truncate or slightly cuneate at base, truncate at apex by a broad shallow sinus, and minutely apiculate. Flowers appearing after the unfolding of the leaves, cup-shaped, conspicuous, inclosed in the bud in a 2-valved stipular membranaceous caducous spathe; sepals spreading or reflexed, ovate-lanceolate, concave, greenish white, early deciduous; petals erect, rounded at base, early deciduous; filaments filiform, half as long as the linear 2-celled extrorse anthers adnate to the outer face of the connective terminating in a short fleshy point; pistils imbricated on the elongated sessile receptacle into a spindle-shaped column; ovary inserted by a broad base; style narrowly acuminate, laterally flattened, appressed; stigmas short, recurved at the summit; ovules 2, suspended from near the middle of the ventral suture. Fruit a narrow light brown cone formed of the closely imbricated dry and woody indehiscent carpels consisting of a laterally compressed 4-ribbed pericarp, the lateral ribs confluent into the margins of the large wing-like lanceolate compressed style marked vertically by a thin sutural line, the carpels deciduous when ripe in the autumn from the slender elongated axis of the fruit persistent on the branch during the winter. Seeds suspended, 2 or single by abortion; testa thin, coriaceous, and marked by a narrow prominent raphe; embryo minute at the base of the fleshy albumen, its radicle next the hilum.

Liriodendron, widely distributed in North America and Europe during the cretaceous period, is now represented by two species, one in eastern North America, the other _L. chinensis_ Sarg. in central China.

_Liriodendron_, from λίριον and δένδρον, is descriptive of the lily-like flower.

1. Liriodendron Tulipifera L. Yellow Poplar. Tulip-tree.

Leaves dark green and shining on the upper, paler on the lower surface, 5′—6′ long and broad; turning clear yellow in the autumn before falling; petioles slender, angled, 5′—6′ in length. Flowers 1½′—2′ deep, on slender pedicels ¾′—1′ long; petals green conspicuously marked with orange at base. Fruit 2½′—3′ long, about ½′ thick, ripening late in September and in October, the mature carpels ½′—1½′ long and about ¼′ wide.

A tree, sometimes nearly 200° high, with a straight trunk 8°—10° in diameter, destitute of branches for 80°—100° from the ground, short, comparatively small branches forming a narrow pyramidal, or in old age a broader spreading head, and slender branchlets light yellow-green and often covered with a glaucous bloom during their first summer, reddish brown, lustrous, and marked during their first winter by many small pale lenticels and roughened by the elevated orbicular or semiorbicular leaf-scars marked by numerous small scattered fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and dark gray during their third year. Winter-buds dark red covered by a glaucous bloom, the terminal ½′ long, much longer than the lateral buds. Bark thin and scaly on young trees, becoming deeply furrowed, brown, and 1′—2′ thick. Wood light, soft, brittle, not strong, easily worked, light yellow or brown, with thin creamy white sapwood; largely manufactured into lumber used in construction, the interior finish of houses, boat-building, and for shingles, brooms, and wooden ware. The intensely acrid bitter inner bark, especially of the roots, is used domestically as a tonic and stimulant, and hydrochlorate of tulipiferine, an alkaloid separated from the bark, possesses the property of stimulating the heart.

Distribution. Deep rich rather moist soil on the intervales of streams or on mountain slopes; Worcester County, Massachusetts, to southwestern Vermont (Pownal, Bennington County), and westward to southern Ontario, southern Michigan and northeastern Missouri, and southward to Orange County (Rock Spring Run), Florida, southern Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas; most abundant and of its largest size in the valleys of the lower Ohio basin, and on the slopes of the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee up to altitudes of 5000°.

Often cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern states, and in western and central Europe.

XVII. ANONACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with watery juice, slender terete branchlets marked by conspicuous leaf-scars, and fleshy roots. Leaves alternate, conduplicate in the bud, entire, feather-veined, petiolate, without stipules. Flowers perfect, solitary, axillary or opposite the leaves; sepals 3, valvate in the bud; petals 6, in 2 series, imbricated or valvate in the bud; stamens numerous, inserted on the subglobose or hemispheric receptacle, with distinct filaments shorter than their fleshy connectives terminating in a broad truncate glandular appendage; anthers introrse, 2-celled, opening longitudinally; pistils inserted on the summit of the receptacle; ovary 1-celled; ovules 1 or many, anatropous. Fruit baccate or compound. Seeds inclosed in an aril; seed-coat thin, crustaceous, smooth, brown, and lustrous; albumen ruminate, deeply penetrated by the folds of the inner layer of the seed-coat; embryo minute; radicle next the hilum. Two of the forty-eight or fifty genera of the Custard-apple family, confined almost exclusively to the tropics and more numerous in the Old World than in the New, occur in North America.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA.

Petals imbricated in the bud; ovules numerous; fruit developed from
one pistil.
1. Asimina.
Petals valvate in the bud; ovule solitary; fruit developed from
several confluent pistils.
2. Anona.

1. ASIMINA Adans.

Trees or shrubs, emitting a heavy disagreeable odor when bruised, with minute buds covered with cinereo-pubescent caducous scales, and branchlets marked by conspicuous leaf-scars. Leaves membranaceous, reticulate-venulose, deciduous. Flowers, solitary pedicellate, nodding; sepals ovate, smaller than the petals, green, deciduous; petals imbricated in the bud, hypogynous, sessile, ovate or obovate-oblong, reticulate-veined, accrescent, the three exterior alternate with the sepals, spreading, those of the interior row opposite the sepals, erect, and much smaller than those of the outer row; stamens linear-cuneate, densely packed on the receptacle; filaments shorter than the fleshy connective; anther-cells separated on the connective; pistils 3—15, sessile on the summit of the receptacle, projecting from the globular mass of stamens; ovary 1-celled; style oblong, slightly recurved toward the apex and stigmatic along the margin; ovules 4—20, horizontal, 2-ranked on the ventral suture, the raphe toward the suture. Fruit baccate, sessile or stipitate, oval or oblong, smooth. Seeds in 1 or 2 ranks, ovoid, apiculate, compressed, marked at the base by a large pale hilum.

Asimina is confined to eastern North America. Six species are distinguished; of these one is a small tree; the others are low shrubs of the south Atlantic and Gulf regions.

_Asimina_ is from _Asiminier_, the old colonial name of the French in America for the Pawpaw.

1. Asimina triloba Dunal. Pawpaw.

Leaves obovate-lanceolate, sharp-pointed at apex, gradually and regularly narrowed to the base, when they unfold covered below with short rusty brown caducous tomentum and slightly pilose above, and at maturity light green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 10′—12′ long, 4′—6′ wide, with a prominent midrib and primary veins. Flowers nearly 2′ across when fully grown, on stout club-shaped pedicels from axils of the leaves of the previous year, 1′—1½′ long and covered with long scattered rusty brown hairs; sepals ovate, acuminate, pale green, densely pubescent on the outer surface; petals green at first, covered with short appressed hairs, gradually turning brown and at maturity deep vinous red and conspicuously venulose, those of the outer row broadly ovate, rounded or pointed at apex, reflexed at maturity above the middle and 2 or 3 times longer than the sepals, those of the inner row pointed, erect, their base concave, glandular, nectariferous, marked by a broad band of a lighter color. Fruit attached obliquely to the enlarged torus, oblong, nearly cylindric, rounded or sometimes slightly pointed at the ends, more or less falcate, often irregular from the imperfect development of some of the seeds, 3′—5′ long, 1′—1½′ in diameter, greenish-yellow, becoming when fully ripe in September and October dark brown or almost black, with pale yellow or nearly white barely edible flesh on some plants and on others with orange-colored succulent flesh; seeds separating readily from the aril, 1′ long, ½′ broad, rounded at the ends.

A shrub or low tree, sometimes 35°—40° high, with a straight trunk rarely exceeding a foot in diameter, small spreading branches, and slender glabrous or rusty pubescent, light brown branchlets tinged with red and marked by longitudinal parallel or reticulate narrow shallow grooves. Winter-buds acuminate, flattened, ⅛′ long, and clothed with rusty brown hairs. Bark rarely more than ⅛′ thick, dark brown, marked by large ash-colored blotches, covered by small wart-like excrescences and divided by numerous shallow reticulate depressions. Wood light, soft and weak, coarse-grained, spongy, light yellow shaded with green, with thin darker colored sapwood of 12—20 layers of annual growth. The inner bark stripped from the branches in early spring is used by fishermen of western rivers for stringing fish. The sweet and luscious wholesome fruit is sold in large quantities in the cities and towns in those parts of the country where the tree grows naturally.

Distribution. Deep rich moist soil; western New Jersey and western New York (Greece, Monroe County) to the northern shores of Lake Ontario, westward to southern Michigan, southwestern Iowa, southeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma, and southward to Western Florida (Taylor County), central Alabama, and through Mississippi and Louisiana to eastern Texas (near Marshall, Harrison County, and Dennison, Grayson County); comparatively rare in the region adjacent to the Atlantic seaboard; very common in the Mississippi valley, forming thick forest undergrowth on rich bottom-lands, or thickets many acres in extent.

Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states, and hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts; interesting as the most northern representative of the Custard-apple family and its only species extending far beyond the tropics.

2. ANONA L.

Trees or shrubs, with glandular often reticulated bark, terete branchlets marked by conspicuous leaf-scars, and often pubescent during their first season. Leaves coriaceous, often glandular-punctate, persistent or tardily deciduous. Flowers nodding on bracted pedicels; calyx small, 3-lobed, green, deciduous; petals 6 in 2 series, valvate in the bud, hypogynous, sessile, ovate, concave, 3-angled at apex, thick and fleshy, white or yellow, the exterior alternate with the lobes of the calyx, those of the inner row often much smaller than those of the outer row; stamens club-shaped, densely packed on the receptacle; filaments shorter than the fleshy connective; anther-cells confluent; pistils sessile on the receptacle, free or united; ovary 1-celled; style sessile or slightly stipitate, oblong, stigmatic on the inner face; ovule 1, erect; raphe ventral. Fruit compound, many-celled, fleshy, ovoid or globose, many-seeded. Seeds ovoid to ellipsoidal; cotyledons appressed.

Of the fifty species of Anona widely distributed in the tropics of the two worlds, a single species reaches the coast of southern Florida. Of exotic species, _Anona muricata_ L., the Soursop and _Anona reticulata_ L., of the West Indies, and _Anona Cherimolia_ Mill., of western tropical America, are now occasionally cultivated as fruit-trees in Florida.

_Anona_ is the name given by early authors to the Soursop.

1. Anona glabra L. Pond Apple.

_Anona palustris_ Small, not L.

Leaves elliptic or oblong, acute, tapering or rounded at base, bright green on the upper, paler on the lower surface, coriaceous, 3′—5′ long, 1½′—2′ wide, with a prominent midrib; deciduous late in the winter; petioles, stout ½′ in length. Flowers nodding on short stout pedicels thickened at the ends, opening in April from an ovoid 3-angled bud; divisions of the calyx broad-ovate, acute; petals connivent, acute, concave, pale yellow or dirty white, those of the outer row marked on the inner surface near the base by a bright red spot, and broader and somewhat longer than those of the inner row. Fruit ripening in November, broadly ovate, truncate or depressed at base, rounded at apex, 3′—5′ long, 2′—3½′ broad, light green when fully grown, becoming yellow and often marked by numerous dark brown blotches when fully ripe, with a thick elongate fibrous torus and light green slightly aromatic insipid flesh of no comestible value; seeds ½′ long, slightly obovoid, turgid, rounded at the ends, their margins contracted into a narrow wing formed by the thickening of the outer coat.

A tree, 40°—50° high, with a short trunk often 18′ in diameter above the swell of the thickened tapering base sometimes enlarged into spreading buttresses, stout wide-spreading often contorted branches, slender branchlets brown or yellow during their first season, becoming in their second year brown and marked by small scattered wart-like excrescences. Bark ⅛′ thick, dark reddish brown, divided by broad shallow fissures, separating on the surface into numerous small scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, light brown streaked with yellow.

Distribution. Florida: Indian River on the east coast, and the shores of the Manatee River on the west coast to the southern Keys; in shallow fresh water ponds, on swampy hummocks, or on the borders of fresh water streams flowing from the everglades; of its largest size on the shores of Bay Biscayne near the Miami River, growing in the shade of larger trees; forming a pure forest of great extent on the swampy borders of Lake Okechobee; on the Bahama Islands and on several of the Antilles.

XVIII. LAURACEÆ.

Aromatic trees and shrubs, with slender terete or angled branchlets, naked or scaly buds, and alternate punctate leaves without stipules. Flowers small, perfect or polygamo-diœcious, yellow or greenish; calyx 6-lobed, the lobes in 2 series, imbricated in the bud; corolla 0; stamens 9 or 12, inserted on the base or near the middle of the calyx in 3 or 4 series of 3’s, distinct; anthers 4-celled, superposed in pairs, opening from below upward by persistent lids; ovary 1-celled; stigma discoid or capitate; ovule solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell, anatropous. Fruit a 1-seeded berry; seed without albumen; testa thin and membranaceous, of 2 coats; embryo erect; cotyledons thick and fleshy; radicle superior, turned toward the hilum, included between thick and fleshy cotyledons. The Laurel family with about forty genera, confined mostly to the tropics, is represented in North America by seven genera; of these five are arborescent.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT GENERA.

Leaves entire, persistent; stamens 12, those of the inner row reduced
to staminodes.
Calyx-lobes persistent under the fruit, in our species.
1. Persea.
Calyx-lobes deciduous.
Flower cymose in axillary or subterminal panicles.
2. Ocotea.
Flowers in axillary many-flowered umbels inclosed before anthesis
in an involucre of deciduous scales.
3. Umbellularia.
Leaves entire or lobed, deciduous; stamens 9 in the American species;
flowers in few-flowered drooping racemes.
4. Sassafras.
Leaves entire, persistent; stamens 9, those of the outer row fertile
and united in a column inclosing the pistil; flowers in terminal
or axillary cymose panicles.
5. Misanteca.

1. PERSEA Mill.

Trees, with naked buds. Leaves revolute in the bud, alternate, scattered, penniveined, subcoriaceous, rigid, tomentose or rarely glabrous, persistent. Flowers perfect, vernal, in short axillary or axillary and terminal panicles on slender peduncles from axils of the leaves of the year, pedicellate, their pedicels bibracteolate near the middle, the lateral flowers of the ultimate divisions of the inflorescence in the axils of small deciduous lanceolate acute bracts; calyx campanulate, divided nearly to the base into 6 lobes, those of the outer series shorter than the others, deciduous, or enlarged and persistent under the fruit; stamens about as long as the inner lobes of the calyx; filaments flattened, longer than the anthers, hirsute, those of the third series furnished near the base with 2 nearly sessile orange-colored glands rounded on the back and slightly 2-lobed on the inner face; anthers ovoid, flattened, erect, those of the outer series introrse or subintrorse, those of the third series extrorse or laterally dehiscent, the upper cells rather larger than the lower; staminodes large, sagittate, stipitate, 2-lobed on the inner face, beaded at apex; ovary sessile, subglobose, glabrous, narrowed into a slender simple style gradually enlarged at apex into a discoid obscurely 2-lobed stigma. Fruit ripening in the autumn, oblong-obovoid to subglobose, more or less fleshy. Seed globose, pendulous, without albumen; testa thin and membranaceous, separable into 2 coats, the outer cartilaginous, grayish brown, the inner gray or nearly white, closely adherent to the thick dark red cotyledons.

About one hundred species of Persea are distinguished. They are distributed in the New World, from the coast region of the southeastern United States and Texas to Brazil and Chile, and occur in the Canary Islands and in tropical and subtropical Asia. _Persea americana_ Mill., the Avocado or Alligator Pear, a native of the Antilles and cultivated for its edible fruit in all tropical countries, is now sparingly naturalized in southern Florida. Many species yield hard dark-colored handsome wood valued in cabinet-making.

_Persea_ was the classical name of a tree of the Orient, transferred by Plumier to one of the tropical species of this genus.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Calyx persistent under the fruit (_Tamala Raf._ Persea, sec. Eupersea
Benth. _Notaphoebe_ sec. _Eriodaphne_ Meisn.)
Peduncles short; leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, obscurely
veined, glabrous; branchlets puberulous.
1. P. Borbonia (C).
Peduncles elongated; leaves elliptic to lanceolate, conspicuously
veined, tomentose on the lower surface; branchlets tomentose.
2. P. palustris (C).

1. Persea Borbonia Spreng. Red Bay.

Leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate, entire, often slightly contracted into a long point rounded at apex, gradually narrowed below, when they unfold thin, pilose, and tinged with red, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, bright green and lustrous above, pale and glaucous below, 3′—4′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide, with thickened revolute margins, a narrow orange-colored midrib, remote obscure primary veins arcuate near the margins, and thin closely reticulated veinlets; unfolding early in the spring, gradually turning yellow a year later, and falling during their second spring and summer; petioles stout, rigid, red-brown, ½′—⅔′ in length, flattened and somewhat grooved on the upper side, in falling leaving small circular leaf-scars displaying the end of a single fibro-vascular bundle. Flowers: peduncles glabrous, ½′—1′ in length; calyx pale yellow or creamy white, about ⅛′ long, with thin lobes ciliate on the margins, the outer broadly ovate, rounded and minutely apiculate, puberulous, about half as long as the oblong-lanceolate acute lobes of the inner series covered within by long pale hairs. Fruit ½′ long, dark blue or nearly black, very lustrous; flesh thin and dry, not readily separable from the ovoid slightly pointed seed.

A tree, 60°—70° high, with a trunk 2½°—3° in diameter, stout erect branches forming a dense shapely head, thick fleshy yellow roots, and branchlets many-angled, light brown, glabrous or coated with pale or rufous pubescence when they first appear, becoming in their second year terete and dark green; usually much smaller. Winter-buds coated with thick rufous tomentum, ¼′ long. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, dark red, deeply furrowed and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges separating on the surface into small thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, very strong, rather brittle, close-grained, bright red, with thin lighter colored sapwood of 4 or 5 layers of annual growth; occasionally used for cabinet-making, the interior finish of houses, and formerly in ship and boat-building.

Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps in rich moist soil, or occasionally in dry sandy loam in forests of the Long-leaved Pine; southern Delaware (Cypress swamp near Dogsboro, Sussex County, teste _Nuttall_); coast region from Virginia to the shores of Bay Biscayne and Cape Romano, Florida, along the Gulf coast to the valley of the Brazos River, Texas, and northward through Louisiana to southern Arkansas.

2. Persea palustris Sarg. Swamp Bay.

_Persea pubescens_ Sarg.

Leaves elliptic or lanceolate, entire, often narrowed toward the apex into a long point, gradually narrowed at base, when they unfold dark red, thin and tomentose, at maturity pale green and lustrous above, pale and pubescent and rusty-tomentose on the midrib and primary veins below, 4′—6′ long, ¾′—1½′ wide, with thick conspicuous veins and slightly revolute margins; persistent until after the beginning of their second year and then turning yellow and falling gradually; petioles stout, rusty-tomentose, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers: peduncles tomentose, 2′—3′ in length; calyx pale yellow or creamy white, often nearly ¼′ long, with thick firm lobes coated on the outer surface with rusty tomentum, those of the outer series broadly ovate, abruptly pointed at apex, pubescent on the inner surface, about half as long as the ovate lanceolate lobes of the inner series slightly thickened at the apex and hairy within. Fruit nearly black, ¾′ long.

A slender tree, occasionally 30°—40° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding a foot in diameter, and stout branchlets terete or slightly angled while young, coated when they first appear with rusty tomentum reduced in their second season to fine pubescence persistent until the end of their second or third year. Bark rarely exceeding ¼′ in thickness, dull brown, irregularly divided by shallow fissures, the surface separating into thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, soft, strong, close-grained, orange color streaked with brown, with thick light brown or gray sapwood of 36—40 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Pine-barren swamps, often almost to the exclusion of other plants, usually in the neighborhood of the coast from southeastern Virginia (Dismal Swamp) to the valley of the Caloosahatchee River and the Everglades Keys, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi; extending inland to the neighborhood of Wilmington, North Carolina, Aiken, South Carolina, western Georgia (Meriwether County), the interior of the Florida peninsula and to Autauga, Chilton and Tuscaloosa Counties, Alabama (_R. H. Harper_).

2. OCOTEA Aubl.

Leaves scattered, alternate or rarely subopposite, penniveined, coriaceous, rigid, glabrous or more or less covered with pubescence. Flowers glabrous or tomentose on slender bibracteolate pedicels from the axils of lanceolate acute minute bracts, in cymose clusters in axillary or subterminal stalked panicles; calyx-tube campanulate, the 6 lobes of the limb nearly equal, deciduous; stamens of the inner series reduced to linear staminodes, with minute abortive anthers; filaments inserted on the tube of the calyx, those of the outer series opposite its exterior lobes, shorter or sometimes rather longer than the anthers, glabrous or hirsute, furnished in the third series near the base with two conspicuous globose stalked yellow glands; anthers oblong, flattened, 4-celled, introrse in the 2 outer series, extrorse, subextrorse, or very rarely introrse in the third series, in the pistillate flower rudimentary and sterile; ovary ovoid, glabrous, more or less immersed in the tube of the calyx, gradually narrowed into a short erect style dilated at apex into a capitate obscurely lobed stigma; in the staminate flower linear-lanceolate, effete or minute, sometimes 0; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit nearly inclosed while young in the thickened tube of the calyx, exserted at maturity, surrounded at base by the cup-like truncate or slightly lobed calyx-tube; pericarp thin and fleshy. Seed ovoid, pendulous; testa thin, membranaceous.

Ocotea with nearly two hundred species is confined principally to the tropical region of the New World from southern Florida to Brazil and Peru, with Old World representatives in the Canary Islands, South Africa, and the Mascarene Islands. One species grows naturally in Florida.

Ocotea produces hard, strong, durable, beautifully colored wood often employed in cabinet-making.

The name is derived from the native name of one of the species of Guiana.

1. Ocotea Catesbyana Sarg.

Leaves oblong-lanceolate, entire, slightly contracted above into a long point rounded at apex, when they unfold thin, membranaceous, light green tinged with red, and sometimes puberulous on the lower surface, at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, pale below, 3′—6′ long, 1′—2′ wide, with thickened slightly revolute margins, a broad stout midrib, slender remote primary veins arcuate and united near the margins and connected by coarsely reticulate conspicuous veinlets; petioles broad, flat, ⅓′—½′ in length. Flowers perfect, appearing in early summer in elongated panicles, their peduncles slender, glabrous, light red, solitary or 2 or 3 together from the axils of the leaves of the year or from those of the previous year, and 3′—4′ long; calyx nearly ¼′ across when expanded, puberulous on the outer surface, hoary pubescent on the inner surface and on the margins of the lobes, about twice as long as the stamens; filaments of the 2 outer series slightly hirsute at the base and shorter than their introrse anthers; filaments of the third series as long or longer than their extrorse anthers. Fruit ripening in the autumn, ovoid or subglobose, ⅔′ long, lustrous, dark blue or nearly black, the thickened cup-like tube of the calyx truncate or obscurely lobed and bright red like the thickened pedicels; flesh thin and dry; seed with a thin brittle red-brown coat, the inner layer lustrous on the inner surface and marked by broad light-colored veins radiating from the small hilum; embryo ⅓′ long, light red-brown.

A tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 18′ in diameter, slender spreading branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and thin terete branchlets glabrous and dark reddish brown when they first appear, soon becoming lighter colored, and in their second year light brown or gray tinged with red and often marked by minute pale lenticels, and in their second or third year by small semiorbicular leaf-scars, displaying a single central fibro-vascular bundle-scar. Bark about ⅛′ thick, dark reddish brown, and roughened on the otherwise smooth surface by numerous small excrescences. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, rich dark brown, with thick bright yellow sapwood of 20—30 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Shores and islands of Florida south of Cape Canaveral on the east coast and of Cape Romano on the west coast; comparatively common except on some of the western keys, and most abundant and of its largest size in the rich wooded hummocks adjacent to Bay Biscayne; in the Bahamas.

3. UMBELLULARIA Nutt.

A pungent aromatic tree, with dark brown scaly bark, slender terete branchlets marked in their second and third years by small semicircular or nearly triangular elevated leaf-scars displaying a horizontal row of minute fibro-vascular bundle-scars, naked buds, and thick fleshy brown roots. Leaves alternate, involute in the bud, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or rounded at the narrow apex, cuneate or somewhat rounded at base, entire with thickened slightly revolute margins, petiolate, coated when they appear on the lower surface with pale soft pubescence and puberulous on the upper surface, at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, dull and paler below, with a slender light yellow midrib, and remote, obscure, arcuate veins more or less united near the margins, and connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets. Flowers perfect in axillary stalked many-flowered umbels, inclosed in the bud by an involucre of 5 or 6 imbricated broadly ovate or obovate pointed concave yellow caducous scales, the latest umbels subsessile at the base of terminal leaf-buds; pedicels slender, puberulous, without bractlets, from the axils of obovate membranaceous puberulous deciduous bracts decreasing in size from the outer to the inner; calyx divided almost to the base into 6 nearly equal broadly obovate rounded pale yellow lobes spreading and reflexed after anthesis; stamens inserted on the short slightly thickened tube of the calyx; filaments flat, glabrous, pale yellow, rather shorter than the anthers, those of the third series furnished near the base with 2 conspicuous stipitate orange-colored orbicular flattened glands; anthers oblong, flattened, light yellow, those of the first and second series introrse, those of the third series extrorse; stamens of the fourth series reduced to minute ovate acute yellow staminodes; ovary sessile, ovoid, often more or less gibbous, glabrous, abruptly contracted into a stout columnar style rather shorter than the lobes of the calyx and crowned by a simple capitate discoid stigma. Fruit ovoid, surrounded at base by the enlarged and thickened truncate or lobed tube of the calyx, yellow-green sometimes more or less tinged with purple; pericarp thin and fleshy. Seed ovoid, light brown; testa separable into 2 coats, the outer thick, hard, and woody, the inner thin and papery, closely investing the embryo, chestnut-brown and lustrous on the inner surface.

Umbellularia consists of a single species.

The generic name, a diminutive of _umbella_, relates to the character of the inflorescence.

1. Umbellularia californica Nutt. California Laurel. Spice-tree.

Leaves 2′—5′ long, ½′—1½′ wide, unfolding in winter or early in the spring and continuing to appear as the branches lengthen until late in the autumn; beginning to fade during the summer, turning to a beautiful yellow or orange color and falling one by one during their second season, or often remaining on the branches until the sixth year; petioles 1/10′—⅕′ in length. Flowers appearing in January before the unfolding of the young leaves, the umbels on peduncles sometimes 1′ in length. Fruit about 1′ long, in clusters of 2 or 3, on elongated thickened pedicels, persistent on the branch after the fruit ripens and falls late in the autumn; seeds germinating soon after they reach the ground, the fruit remaining below the surface of the soil and attached to the young plant until midsummer.

A tree, usually 20°—75°, occasionally 100°—175° high, with a trunk 3°—6° in diameter, sometimes tall and straight but usually divided near the ground into several large diverging stems, stout spreading or rarely pendulous (var. _pendula_ Redh.) branches forming a broad round-topped head, and branchlets light green and coated with soft pale pubescence when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous and yellow-green, and in their second and third years light brown tinged with red; at high altitudes, and in southern California much smaller; often reduced to a large or small shrub, or on bluffs facing the ocean to broad mats of prostrate stems. Bark ¾′—1′ thick, dark brown tinged with red, separating on the surface into thin appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, light rich brown, with thick lighter colored sapwood of 30—40 layers of annual growth; the most valuable wood produced in the forests of Pacific North America for the interior finish of houses and for furniture. The leaves yield by distillation a pungent volatile oil, and from the fruit a fat containing umbellulic acid has been obtained.

Distribution. Valley of Coos River, Oregon, southward through the California coast ranges and along the high western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the southern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains up to altitudes of 2500°; usually near the banks of water-courses and sometimes on low hills; common where it can obtain an abundant supply of water; most abundant and of its largest size in the rich valleys of southwestern Oregon, forming with the Broad-leaved Maple a considerable part of the forest growth.

4. SASSAFRAS Nees. Sassafras.

_Pseudosassafras_ H. Lec.