Chapter XLV: Section 1: Polypetalæ. Corolla of separate petals (20)

Leaves ovate, oblique and truncate or cordate at base, abruptly long-pointed at apex, coarsely dentate with broad apiculate glandular teeth pointing forward, and coated below with a rusty or pale easily detached pubescence of fascicled hairs, coated when they unfold with hoary tomentum, soon glabrous on the upper surface, and at maturity dark yellow-green and lustrous above, 2¾′—4½′ long and 2½′—5′ wide; petioles stout, glabrous, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers opening the middle of June, ¼′ long, on slender pubescent pedicels, in small stout-branched pubescent mostly 8—15-flowered cymes; peduncle slender, pubescent, the free portion ¾′—1¼′ long, its bract oblong-obovate, cuneate at base, rounded or acute at apex, nearly glabrous on the upper surface when it first appears, pubescent becoming glabrous or almost glabrous below, 4′—5′ long and ⅘′ wide, longer or shorter than and decurrent to the base or nearly to the base of the peduncle; sepals ovate, acuminate, ciliate on the margins, brown and covered with pale pubescence on the outer surface, coated on the inner surface with long white hairs; petals lanceolate, acuminate, a third longer than the sepals; staminodia oblong-obovate, rounded at apex, rather shorter than the petals; style tomentose at base or glabrous. Fruit subglobose, ellipsoid or obovoid, ⅛′ in diameter.

A large tree with slender red-brown glabrous or slightly pubescent branchlets. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, glabrous or rarely pubescent, about ¼′ long.

Distribution. Coast of North Carolina (Wrightsville Beach and the neighborhood of Wilmington, New Hanover County), southward in the immediate neighborhood of the coast to Liberty County, Georgia; western Louisiana to southern Arkansas (Hempstead and Clark Counties) common, and through eastern Texas to the Edwards Plateau (near Boerne, Kendall County); in Orizaba. Passing into

Tilia caroliniana var. rhoophila Sarg.

Differing from the type in its pubescent branchlets and winter-buds, its usually larger leaves, and in its tomentose corymbs of more numerous flowers. Leaves broad-ovate, abruptly short-pointed and acuminate at apex, oblique and truncate or cordate at base, coarsely serrate with broad apiculate teeth pointing forward, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale and thickly covered on the lower surface with persistent white or brownish pubescence, 4′—5′ long and 2½′—5′ wide, with a slender midrib and primary veins pubescent on the lower side, and small conspicuous axillary tufts of pale hairs; petioles stout, thickly coated with pubescence, 1′—1¾′ in length; leaves on vigorous shoots often 6′ long, and 5½′ wide, and occasionally 10′ long and 9′ wide. Flowers ¼′ long, on short hoary-tomentose pedicels, in wide thin-branched pubescent many-flowered (sometimes 50) cymes; peduncle thickly covered with fascicled hairs, the free portion ¼′ long, its bract oblong, unequally rounded at base, rounded at apex, glabrous on the upper surface, pubescent on the lower surface, 4′—6′ long, 1′—2′ wide, usually shorter than and decurrent nearly to the base of the peduncle; sepals acuminate, coated on the outer surface with pale or slightly rusty pubescence, villose and furnished at base on the inner surface with tufts of long hairs; petals lanceolate, acuminate and ciliate at apex, about a third longer than the sepals; staminodia spatulate, acute, about half the length of the petals; style coated at base with long white hairs. Fruit subglobose, covered with rusty tomentum, about ⅓′ in diameter.

A tree with slender branchlets thickly coated during their first year with pale pubescence, dark red-brown or gray and puberulous during their second season. Winter-buds covered with pale pubescence.

Distribution. Western Louisiana (Calcasieu and Jefferson Davis Parishes) to Hempstead County, Arkansas, and through eastern Texas to the valley of the upper Guadalupe River, Kerr County.

10. Tilia texana Sarg.

Leaves thin, oblong-ovate, abruptly contracted into a long slender acuminate point, cordate or obliquely cordate at base, finely dentate with broad apiculate teeth, early in the season pubescent above with scattered fascicled hairs and covered below with brownish slightly attached pubescence, and in the autumn light yellow-green, lustrous and nearly glabrous on the upper surface, slightly pubescent on the lower surface, 4′—5½′ long and 3¼′—5′ wide, with a slender midrib and primary veins sparingly villose on the upper side and nearly glabrous on the lower side, and small axillary tufts of brownish hairs; petioles slender, pubescent with fascicled hairs, 1′—1½′ in length; leaves on vigorous shoots often furnished with one or two large lateral acuminate serrate lobes, more coarsely dentate and more thickly covered on the lower surface with pubescence, often 5½′—6′ long and 3½′—6′ wide. Flowers opening the middle of June, ¼′ long, on slender tomentose pedicels, in small villose-pubescent mostly 7—10-flowered cymes; peduncle slender, slightly villose-pubescent, the free portion 1¼′—1½′ in length, its bract oblong-ovate to slightly obovate, unsymmetrically cuneate at base, rounded and occasionally lobed at apex, glabrous on the upper surface, densely pubescent early in the season, later becoming nearly glabrous on the lower surface, 3′—6′ long and ¾′—1¼′ wide, longer or shorter than the peduncle and decurrent to its base or to within 1½′ of its base; sepals ovate, acute, pale pubescent on the outer surface, covered on the inner surface with white hairs longer and more abundant near the base; petals lanceolate, acuminate, a third longer than the sepals; staminodia linear-lanceolate, acuminate; style hoary-tomentose at base. Fruit ellipsoid, covered with rusty brown tomentum, ⅓′ long and ¼′ broad.

A small tree with slender branchlets thickly covered during their first season with close pale pubescence, and pale and puberulous or glabrous in their second year; on vigorous terminal branchlets often with thicker, light rusty brown pubescence. Winter-buds ovoid, obtusely pointed, thickly covered with pale pubescence, ¼′ long.

Distribution. Texas, Brazos and Cherokee Counties, on Spring Creek near Boerne, Kendall County, and on the rocky banks of the Guadalupe River at Kerrville, Kerr County.

11. Tilia phanera Sarg.

Leaves semiorbicular to broad-ovate, deeply and usually symmetrically cordate at base, abruptly short-pointed at apex, finely dentate with straight or incurved apiculate teeth, glabrous above when they unfold with the exception of a few hairs on the midrib and veins, and thickly coated below with hoary tomentum, and at maturity thin, blue-green, smooth and lustrous on the upper surface, paler and often brownish and coated with a floccose easily detached pubescence of fascicled hairs or scabrate (var. _scabrida_ Sarg.) on the lower surface, 2′—4′ wide and usually rather broader than long, with a slender midrib and primary veins pubescent on the lower side, and small axillary clusters of rusty brown hairs; petioles slender, coated when they first appear with hoary tomentum, glabrous or slightly pubescent in the autumn, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers opening the middle of June, ⅕′ long, on tomentose pedicels, in compact villose mostly 16—20-flowered cymes; peduncle villose, the free portion 1¼′ in length, its bract obovate, cuneate at base, broad and rounded at apex, floccose-pubescent on the lower surface, nearly glabrous on the upper surface, 3′—3½′ long and ½′—1′ wide, longer than the peduncle and decurrent to its base or to within ¼′ of its base; sepals acuminate, pale pubescent on the outer surface, villose on the margins and furnished at base on the inner surface with a tuft of long white hairs, broader and shorter than the lanceolate acuminate petals; staminodia oblong-obovate, rounded at apex, style glabrous except at the base. Fruit ripening the end of September, ellipsoid, covered with rusty tomentum, ⅓′—⅖′ long and ¼′ wide, on a stout, densely floccose-pubescent pedicel.

A tree with slender light gray-brown often zigzag branchlets covered when they first appear with fascicled hairs and deciduous during their first summer. Winter-buds ovoid, obtusely pointed, terete, reddish brown, glabrous, ⅙′—⅕′ long.

Distribution. Texas, banks of Spring Creek, near Boerne, Kendall County; the var. _scabrida_ on a low limestone bluff of the Blanco River, near Blanco, Blanco County, near College Station, Brazos County, and at Velasco, Brazoria County.

12. Tilia lasioclada Sarg.

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.

Trees, with pungent aromatic bark, and alternate pellucid-punctate entire penniveined persistent leaves, without stipules. Flowers perfect, regular, cymose; sepals and petals imbricated in the bud; stamens numerous, hypogynous, with filaments united into a tube inclosing the pistil, and narrow extrorse anthers adnate to the tube and longitudinally 2-celled; pistil of 2—3 united carpels; ovary free, 1-celled, with 2—5 parietal placentas; styles thick; stigmas 2—5-lobed; ovules 2 or many. Fruit a berry; seeds 2 or several; seed-coat thick, crustaceous; embryo small in fleshy oily albumen.

The Wild Cinnamon family with five genera and a few species is confined to tropical America, south Africa and Madagascar, one species reaching the shores of southern Florida.

1. CANELLA P. Br.

A tree, with scaly bark, stout ashy gray branchlets conspicuously marked by large orbicular leaf-scars, and minute buds. Leaves obovate, rounded or slightly emarginate at apex, gradually narrowed to the cuneate base, petiolate, coriaceous. Flowers small, in many-flowered subcorymbose terminal or subterminal panicles of several dichotomously branched cymes from the axils of upper leaves or from minute caducous bracts; sepals 3, suborbicular, concave, coriaceous, erect, their margins ciliate, persistent; petals 5, hypogynous, in a single row on the slightly convex receptacle, oblong, concave, rounded at apex, fleshy, twice as long as the sepals, white or rose color; stamens about 20, staminal tube crenulate at the summit and slightly extended above the anthers; ovary cylindric or oblong-conic, 1-celled, with 2 parietal placentas; style short, fleshy, terminating in a 2 or 3-lobed stigma; ovules numerous, arcuate, horizontal or descending, attached by a short funicle, imperfectly anatropous; micropyle superior. Fruit globose or slightly ovoid, fleshy, minutely pointed with the base of the persistent style, 2—4-seeded. Seeds reniform, suspended; seed-coat black and shining; embryo curved in the copious albumen; cotyledons oblong; radicle next the hilum.

The genus consists of a single West Indian species, extending into southern Florida and to Venezuela.

The generic name is from _canella_, the diminutive of the Latin _cana_ or _canna_, a cane or reed, first applied to the bark of some Old World tree from the form of a roll or quill which it assumed in drying.

1. Canella Winterana Gærtn. Cinnamon Bark. White Wood. Wild Cinnamon.

Leaves contracted into a short stout grooved petiole, 3½′—5′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, bright green and lustrous. Flowers about ⅛′ in diameter, opening in the autumn. Fruit ripening in March and April, bright crimson, soft and fleshy, ½′ in diameter; seeds about 3/16′ long.

A tree, in Florida 25°—30° high, with a straight trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, and slender horizontal spreading branches forming a compact round-headed top. Bark of the trunk ⅛′ thick, light gray, broken on the surface into numerous short thick scales rarely more than 2′—3′ long and about twice as thick as the pale yellow aromatic inner bark. Wood very heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, dark red-brown, with thick light brown or yellow sapwood of 25—30 layers of annual growth. The bitter acrid inner bark is the wild cinnamon bark of commerce. It has a pleasant cinnamon-like odor and is an aromatic stimulant and tonic.

Distribution. Florida, region of Cape Sable, Munroe County (Flamingo [_A. A. Eaton_], East Cape, Madeira Hammock), and widely distributed on the southern keys, usually growing in the shade of other trees; on the Bahama Islands and many of the Antilles.

XLIII. KŒBERLINIACEÆ.

An intricately branched almost leafless tree or shrub, with thin red-brown scaly bark, stout alternate glabrous branchlets covered with pale green bark and terminating in a sharp rigid straight or slightly curved spine. Leaves minute, early deciduous, alternate, narrow-obovate, rounded at apex. Flowers perfect, on slender club-shaped puberulous pedicels from the axils of minute scarious deciduous bracts, in short umbel-like racemes below the end of the branches; calyx of 3 or 5 minute sepals imbricated in the bud, deciduous; petals 4, convolute in the bud, hypogynous, obovate or oblong, subunguiculate, white, much longer than the sepals; disk 0; stamens 8, free, hypogynous, as long as the petals; filaments thickened in the middle, subulate at the ends; anthers oval, attached on the back near the base, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary ovoid, 2-celled, contracted at base into a short stalk and above into a simple subulate style; stigma terminal, obtuse, slightly emarginate; ovules numerous, adnate in several series to the fleshy placenta, horizontal or dependent, anatropous. Fruit a 2-celled berry, black at maturity, subglobose, tipped with the remnants of the pointed style; flesh thin and succulent, the cells 1 or 2-seeded by abortion. Seed vertical, circinate-cochleate; seed-coat crustaceous, slightly rugose, striate; albumen thin; embryo annular; cotyledons semiterete; the radicle ascending.

The family is represented by a single genus.

1. KŒBERLINIA Zucc.

Characters of the family.

Kœberlinia with one species is North American.

The generic name is in honor of L. Koeberlin, a German botanist.

1. Kœberlinia spinosa Zucc.

Leaves not more than ⅛′ long. Flowers appearing in May and June, about ¼′ in diameter. Fruit 3/16′—¼′ in diameter.

A bushy tree, rarely 20°—25° high, with a short stout trunk sometimes 6°—8° long and a foot in diameter; more often a low branching shrub forming impenetrable thickets often of considerable extent. Wood very hard, heavy, close-grained, dark brown somewhat streaked with orange, becoming almost black on exposure, with thin yellow or nearly white sapwood of 12—15 layers of annual growth.

Distribution. Dry gravelly mesas and foothills; valleys of the upper Colorado River (Big Springs, Howard County), and of the lower Rio Grande, Texas, westward through southern Texas and New Mexico to southern Arizona, and southward through northern Mexico, and in Lower California (San Jorge).

XLIV. CARICACEÆ.

Trees or shrubs, with bitter milky juice, and alternate long-petiolate persistent simple or digitately compound leaves, without stipules. Flowers unisexual or perfect, the perianth of the male and female flowers dissimilar; stamens in two series, inserted on the corolla; filaments free; anthers introrse. Fruit baccate.

The Pawpaw family with two genera is tropical American and Mexican, a single representative of the family reaching the shores of southern Florida.

1. CARICA L.

Short-lived trees, with erect simple or rarely branched stems composed of a thin shell of soft fibrous wood surrounding a large central cavity divided by thin soft cross partitions at the nodes, and covered with thin green or gray bark marked by the ring-like scars of fallen leaf-stalks, and stout soft fleshy roots. Leaves simple, palmately lobed or digitate, crowded toward the top of the stem and branches, large, flaccid, subpeltately palmately nerved, and usually deeply and often compoundly lobed. Flowers regular, monœcious or polygamo-diœcious, white, yellow, or greenish white, in axillary cymose panicles, the staminate elongated, pedunculate, and many-flowered, the pistillate abbreviated and few or usually 3-flowered, generally unisexual and diœcious, occasionally polygamo-diœcious, each flower in the axil of a minute ovate acute bract; calyx minute, 5-lobed, the lobes alternate with the petals; corolla of the staminate flower salverform, gamopetalous, the tube elongated, 5-lobed, the lobes oblong or linear, contorted in the bud; stamens 10; filaments free, those of the outer row alternate with the lobes of the corolla and elongated, the others alternate with them and abbreviated; anthers 2-celled, erect, opening longitudinally, often surmounted by their slightly elongated connective; ovary rudimentary, subulate; pistillate flower, calyx minute, 5-lobed, persistent under the fruit; corolla polypetalous, petals 5, linear-oblong, erect, ultimately spreading above the middle, deciduous; ovary free, sessile, 1-celled or more or less spuriously 5-celled; style 0 or abbreviated; stigmas 5, linear, radiating, dilated and subpalmately lobed at apex; ovules indefinite, inserted in two rows on the placenta, anatropous, long-stalked; micropyle superior; raphe ventral; hermaphrodite flower, corolla gamopetalous, tubular-campanulate, the lobes erect and spreading or subreflexed; stamens 10, in 2 ranks, or 5; ovary obovoid-oblong, longer than the tube of the corolla, more or less spuriously 5-celled below. Fruit slightly 5-lobed, l-celled or more or less completely 5-celled, filled with soft pulp, many-seeded, that produced from the hermaphrodite flower long-stalked, pendulous, usually unsymmetric, gibbous, and smaller than that from the pistillate flower. Seeds ovoid, inclosed in membranaceous silvery white sac-like arils, occasionally germinating within the fruit; seed-coat crustaceous, closely investing the membranaceous inner coat, the outer coat becoming thick, rugose, succulent, and ultimately dry and leathery; embryo in the axis of fleshy albumen; cotyledons ovate, foliaceous, compressed, longer than the terete radicle turned toward the minute pale subbasilar hilum.

Carica with about twenty species is distributed from southern Florida through the West Indies to southern Brazil and Argentina, and from southern Mexico to Chile. One species grows probably indigenously in Florida. The milky juice of Carica contains papain, which has the power of digesting albuminous substances, and the leaves are often used in tropical countries to make meat tender.

The generic name is formed from the Carib name of one of the species.

1. Carica Papaya L. Pawpaw.

Leaves ovate or orbicular, deeply parted into 5—7 lobes divided more or less deeply into acute lateral lobes, these secondary divisions entire or rarely lobed, the lowest lobes forming a deep basal sinus, thin, flaccid, yellow-green, 15′—24′ in diameter, with broad flat yellow or orange-colored primary veins radiating from the end of the petiole through the lobes, and small secondary veins extending to the point of the lateral lobes and connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, yellow, hollow, enlarged and cordate at base, sometimes becoming 3°—4° in length before the leaves fall. Flowers often beginning to appear on plants only 3° or 4° high and a few months old, produced continuously throughout the year, the staminate in clusters on slender spreading or pendulous peduncles 4′—12′ long, the pistillate in 1—3-flowered short-stalked cymes; staminate flowers fragrant, filled with nectar, their corolla ¾′—1¼′ long, with a slender tube and acute lobes; anthers oblong, orange-colored, surmounted by the rounded thickened end of the connective, those of the inner row almost sessile and one third larger than those of the outer row, shorter than their flattened filaments covered, like the connectives, with long slender white hairs; pistillate flowers about 1′ long, with erect petals, without staminodia; ovary ovoid, ivory-white, slightly and obtusely 5-angled, 1-celled, and narrowed into a short slender style crowned by a pale green stigma divided to the base into 5 radiating lobes dilated and 3-nerved at apex. Fruits hanging close together against the stem at the base of the leaf-stalk, obovoid to ellipsoid, and obtusely short-pointed, yellowish green to bright orange color; in southern Florida not more than 4′ long and 3′ thick, and usually smaller, with a thick skin closely adherent to the sweet insipid flesh forming a thin layer outside the central cavity; seeds full and rounded, about 3/16′ long; outer portion of the seed-coat rugose at first when the fruit is fully grown but still green, ivory-white, very succulent, and usually separable from the smooth paler chestnut-brown lustrous interior portion, the outer part turning black as the fruit ripens and becoming adherent to the inner portion closely investing the thin lustrous light red-brown inner coat.

A short-lived tree, in Florida attaining a height of 12°—15°, with a trunk seldom more than 6′ in diameter; in the West Indies and other tropical countries often twice as large, with a trunk occasionally dividing into a number of stout upright branches. Bark thin, light green, becoming gray toward the base of the stem.

Distribution. Florida from the southern shores of Bay Biscayne on the west coast and of Indian River on the east coast to the southern keys, growing sparingly in rich hummocks; common in all the West Indian islands, in southern Mexico, and in the tropical countries of South America; now naturalized in most of the warm regions of the world, where it is universally cultivated for its fruit, which is considered one of the most wholesome of all tropical fruits, and has been much improved by selection.

XLV. CACTACEÆ.

Succulent trees or shrubs, with copious watery juice, numerous spines springing from cushions of small bristles (_areolæ_), and minute caducous alternate leaves, or leafless. Flowers large and showy, perfect, usually solitary; calyx of numerous spirally imbricated sepals forming a tube, those of the inner series petal-like; corolla of numerous imbricated petals, in many series; stamens inserted on the tube of the calyx, very numerous, in several series, with slender filaments and introrse 2-celled oblong anthers, the cells opening longitudinally; pistil of several united carpels; ovary 1-celled, with several parietal placentas; styles united, terminal; stigmas as many as the placentas; ovules numerous, horizontal, anatropous. Fruit a fleshy berry. Seeds numerous, with albumen; cotyledons foliaceous; radicle turned toward the hilum.

The Cactus family with twenty genera and a very large number of species is most abundant in the dry region adjacent to the boundary of the United States and Mexico, with a few species ranging northward to the northern United States and southward to the West Indian islands, Brazil, Peru, Chile and the Galapagos Islands. Two of the genera have arborescent representatives in the flora of the United States.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.

Branches and stems columnar, ribbed, continuous; leaves 0;
flower-bearing and spine-bearing areolæ distinct; flowers close
above spine-bearing areolæ; tube of the flower elongated; seeds
dark-colored.
1. Cereus.
Branches jointed, tuberculate; leaves scale-like; flower-bearing and
spine-bearing areolæ not distinct; tube of the flower short and
cup-shaped; seeds pale.
2. Opuntia.

1. CEREUS Haw.

Trees or shrubs, with columnar ribbed stems, and buds on the back of the ridges from the axils of latent leaves, geminate, superposed, the upper producing a branch or flower, the lower arrested and developed into a cluster of spines surrounded by an elevated cushion or areola of chaffy tomentose scales. Flowers lateral, elongated, the calyx-lobes forming an elongated tube, those of the outer ranks adnate to the ovary, scale-like, only their tips free, those of the inner ranks free, elongated; petals cohering by their base with the top of the calyx-tube, larger than its interior lobes, spreading, recurved; stamens numerous; filaments adnate by their base to the tube of the calyx, those of the interior ranks free, the exterior united into a tube; style filiform, divided into numerous radiating linear branches stigmatic on the inner face; stalks of the ovules long and slender, becoming thick and juicy in the fruit. Seeds with very thin albumen; embryo straight; cotyledons abbreviated, hooked at apex; radicle conic.

Cereus with at least two hundred species inhabits the dry southwestern region of North America, the West Indies, tropical South America, and the Galapagos Islands. Of the numerous species found within the territory of the United States only one assumes the habit and size of a tree. The fruit of several species is edible, and the ribs of the durable woody frames of the stems of the large arborescent species are used for the rafters of houses and for fuel. Many of the species are planted in warm dry countries in hedges to protect cultivated fields, and others are popular garden plants valued for their beautiful flowers, which are sometimes nocturnal and exceedingly fragrant.

The generic name relates to the candle-like form of the stem of some of the species.

1. Cereus giganteus Engelm. Suwarro.

Leaves 0. Flowers 4′—4½′ long and 2½′ wide, opening from May to July in great numbers near the top of the stem, each surrounded on the lower side by the radial spines of the cluster below it; ovary ovoid, 1′ long, rather shorter than the stout tube of the flower, and covered, like the base of the tube, by the thick imbricated green outer scale-like sepals, with small free triangular acute scarious mucronate tips, furnished in their axils with short tufts of rufous hairs and occasionally with clusters of chartaceous spines, gradually passing into thin oblong-ovate or obovate larger sepals, mucronate or rounded at apex and closely imbricated in many ranks; petals 25—35, obovate-spatulate, obtuse, entire, thick and fleshy, creamy white, ⅔′ long and much reflexed after anthesis; stamens, with linear anthers emarginate at the ends, and filaments united for half their length to the walls of the calyx-tube, those of the exterior rows joined below into a long tube, surrounding the stout columnar style glandular at base and divided at apex into 12—15 green stigmas. Fruit ripening in August, ovoid or slightly obovoid, 2½′ long and 1⅓′ wide, truncate and covered at apex by the depressed pale scar left by the falling of the flower, light red at maturity, separating into 3 or 4 fleshy valves bright red on their inner surface and inclosing the bright scarlet juicy mass of the enlarged funiculi and innumerable seeds; seeds obovoid, rounded, ⅙′ long, lustrous, dark chestnut-brown.

A tree, 50°—60° high, with a trunk sometimes 2° in diameter, thickest below the middle and tapering gradually toward the ends, marked by transverse superficial lines into rings 4′—8′ long, representing the amount of annual longitudinal growth, 8—12-ribbed at base with obtuse ribs 4′—5′ broad, and at summit 18—20-ribbed with obtuse deep compressed ribs, branchless or furnished above the middle with a few, usually 2 or 3, stout alternate or sometimes opposite upright branches shorter but otherwise resembling the principal stem composed of a thick tough green epidermis, a fleshy covering 3′—6′ thick saturated with bitter juice, and a circle of bundles of woody fibres making, with annual layers of exogenous growth, dense tough elastic columns placed opposite the depressions between the ribs, ½′—3′ in diameter and frequently united by branches growing at irregular intervals between them, the woody frame remaining standing after the death of the plant and the decomposition of its fleshy covering. Areolæ pale, elevated, about ½′ in diameter, bearing clusters of stout straight spines with a large dark fulvous base, sulcate or angled, tinged with red, with thick stout spines in the centre of each cluster, the 4 basal horizontal or slightly inclined downward, the lowest being the longest and stoutest and sometimes 1½′ long and 1/12′ thick, the upper shorter, more slender and slightly turned upward, with a row of shorter and thinner radial spines 12—16 in number surrounding the central group. Wood of the columns strong, very light, rather coarse-grained, with numerous conspicuous medullary rays, and light brown tinged with yellow; almost indestructible in contact with the ground, little affected by the atmosphere and largely used for the rafters of houses, for fences, and by Indians for lances, bows, etc. The fruit is consumed in large quantities by Indians.

Distribution. Low rocky hills and dry mesas of the desert; valley of Bill Williams River through central and southern Arizona to the valley of the San Pedro River and to the eastern border of the Colorado Desert between the Needles and Yuma, Yuma County, Arizona, and southward in Sonora.

2. OPUNTIA Adans.

Trees or usually shrubs, in the arborescent species of the United States with subcylindric or clavate articulate tuberculate branches, covered with small sunken stomata, and containing tubular reticulated woody skeletons, and thick fleshy or fibrous roots. Leaves scale-like, terete, subulate, caducous, bearing in their axils oblong or circular cushion-like areolæ of chaffy or woolly scales terminal on the branches and furnished above the middle with many short slender slightly attached sharp barbed bristles and toward the base with numerous stout barbed spines surrounded in some species, except at apex, by loose papery sheaths. Flowers diurnal, lateral, produced from areolæ on branches of the previous year between the bristles and spines, sessile, cup-shaped; sepals flat, erect, deciduous; corolla rotate; petals obovate, united at base, spreading; stamens shorter than the petals; filaments free or slightly united below; anthers oblong; style cylindric, longer than the stamens, obclavate below, divided at apex into 3—8 elongated or lobulate lobes stigmatic on the inner face. Fruit sometimes proliferous, covered by a thick skin, succulent and often edible, or dry, pyriform, globose or ellipsoid, concave at apex, surmounted by the marcescent tube of the flower, tuberculate, areolate, or rarely glabrous, truncate at base, with a broad umbilicus at apex. Seeds immersed in the pulpy placentas, compressed, discoid, often margined with a bony raphe; testa pale, bony, sometimes marked by a narrow darker marginal commissure; embryo coiled around the copious or scanty albumen; cotyledons large; radicle thin, obtuse.

Opuntia with many species is distributed from southern New England southward in the neighborhood of the coast to the West Indies, and through western North America to Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, the largest number of species occurring near the boundary of the United States and Mexico. Of the species of the United States at least three attain the size and habit of small trees. Cochineal is derived from a scale-insect which feeds on the juices of some of the Mexican species, and the fruit of several species is refreshing and is consumed in considerable quantities in semitropical countries. The large-growing species with flat branches are employed in many countries to form hedges for the protection of gardens and fields; and the branches saturated with watery juice are sometimes stripped of their spines and bristles and fed to cattle.

_Opuntia_ is the classical name of some plant which grew in the neighborhood of the city of Opus in Bœotia.

CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

Tubercles of the branches full and rounded below the areolæ.
Joints pale olive color, easily separable, their tubercles broad,
mammillate; spines yellow; flowers pink; fruit proliferous,
usually spineless, often sterile.
1. O. fulgida (H).
Joints green or purple, their tubercles narrow, ovoid; spines white
to reddish brown; flowers purple; fruit yellow, sparingly
spinescent, rarely proliferous.
2. O. spinosior (H).
Tubercles of the branches not full and rounded below the areolæ;
joints elongated, dark green or purple, their tubercles
elongated; spines brown or reddish brown; flowers green, tinted
with red or yellow; fruit green, spinescent, rarely proliferous.
3. O. versicolor (H).

1. Opuntia fulgida Engelm. Cholla.

Leaves light green, gradually narrowed to the acuminate apex, ½′—1′ long. Flowers appearing from June to September, the earliest from tubercles at the end of the branches of the previous year, the others from the terminal tubercles of the immature fruit developed from the earliest flowers of the season, 1′ in diameter when fully expanded, with ovaries nearly 1′ long, 8—10 obtuse crenulate sepals, 5 erect stigmas, and 8 light pink petals, those of the outer ranks cuneate, retuse, crenulate on the margins, shorter than the lanceolate acute petals of the inner ranks, the whole strongly reflexed at maturity. Fruit proliferous, oval, rounded, 1′—1¼′ long and nearly as broad, more or less tuberculate, conspicuously marked by large pale tomentose areolæ bearing numerous small bristles, usually spineless or occasionally armed with small weak spines, hanging in pendulous clusters usually of 6 or 7 and occasionally of 40—50 fruits in a cluster, one growing from the other in continuous succession, the first the largest and containing perfect seeds, the others frequently sterile, dull green when fully ripe, with dry flesh, falling usually during the first winter or occasionally persistent on the branches during the second season, and then developing flowers from the tubercles; seeds compressed, thin, very angular, 1/12′—⅙′ in diameter.

A tree, with a more or less flexuous trunk occasionally 12° in height and sometimes a foot in diameter, a symmetric head of stout wide-spreading branches and thick pendulous joints sometimes almost hidden by the long conspicuous spines and beginning to develop their woody skeletons during their second or occasionally during their third season, the terminal or ultimate joints ovoid or ovoid-cylindric, tumid, crowded at the end of the limbs, pale olive color, 3′—8′ long, often 2′ in diameter, with broad ovoid-oblong tubercles, ½′—¾′ in length. Areolæ of pale straw-colored tomentum and short slender pale bristles, each areola bearing at first 5—15 stout stellate-spreading light yellow spines of nearly equal length, ¾′-1′ long and inclosed in loose lustrous sheaths, additional spines developing in succeeding years at the upper margin of the areolæ, the tubercles of old branches being sometimes furnished with from 40-60 spines persistent on the branches for 4-6 years. Bark of the trunk and of the large limbs about ¼′ thick, separating freely on the surface into large thin loosely attached scales varying in color from brown to nearly black on the largest stems, and unarmed, the spines mostly falling with the outer layers from branches 3′—4′ thick. Wood of old trunks light, hard, pale yellow, with broad conspicuous medullary rays, well marked layers of annual growth, and a thick pith.

Distribution. Plains of Arizona south of the Colorado plateau, and in the adjacent region of Sonora; not rare; apparently most abundant and of its largest size in the United States on the mesas near Tucson, Pima County, at altitudes between 2000° and 3000°.

2. Opuntia spinosior Toumey. Tassajo.