Distribution. Florida, west coast, Captiva Island, Lee County, to the neighborhood
of Cape Sable; Cocoanut Grove, Dade County, and on many of the southern keys; on
bluffs of Matagorda Bay near Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas; in northern Mexico
and Lower California; probably of its largest size in Florida on Sands Key and on Cap-
3. CANOTIA Torr.
A glabrous leafless tree, with light brown deeply furrowed bark, stout terete alternate
branches terminating in rigid, pale green and striate spines, their base and those of the
peduncles surrounded by black triangular persistent cushion-like processes minutely
papillose on the surface. Flowers perfect, on slender spreading pedicels jointed below the
middle, 3-7 together, in short-stemmed fascicles or corymbs near the end of the branches,
from the axils of minute ovate subulate bracts; calyx 5-lobed, minute, persistent, much
shorter than the oblong obtuse white hypogynous petals imbricated in the bud, reflexed
at maturity above the middle, deciduous; stamens 5, hypogynous, opposite the lobes of
the calyx; filaments awl-shaped, rather shorter than the petals, persistent on the fruit;
anthers oblong, cordate, minutely apiculate, attached below the middle, grooved on the
back; ovary raised upon and confluent with a fleshy slightly 10-angled gynophore, papil-
lose-glandular on the surface, 5-celled, the cells opposite the petals, terminating in a fleshy
elongated style; stigma slightly 5-lobed; ovules 6 in each cell, inserted in 2 ranks on its
678 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
inner angle, subhorizontal; micropyle inferior. Fruit a woody ovoid, acuminate capsule
rounded at base, crowned with the subulate persistent style, septicidally 5-valved,
the valves 2-lobed at apex; outer coat thin, fleshy; inner coat woody. Seed solitary or in
pairs, ascending, subovoid, flattened; seed-coat subcoriaceous, papillate, produced below
into a subfalcate membranaceous wing; embryo surrounded by thin fleshy albumen, erect;
cotyledons oval, compressed; radicle very short, inferior.
The genus is represented by a single species.
The generic name is that by which this plant was known to the Mexicans of Arizona
at the time of its discovery.
1. Canotia holacantha Torr.
Leaves 0. Flowers |'-j' in diameter, appearing from June until October. Capsule 1'
long; seed about f in length.
A small shrub-like tree, sometimes 20-30 high, with a short stout trunk rarely a foot
in diameter; or often a low spreading shrub.
Fig. 61 1
Distribution. Dry gravelly mesas on the Arizona foothills, from the White Mountain
region to the valley of Bill Williams's Fork in the northwestern part of the state, and on
Providence Mountain in southern California.
4. GYMINDA Sarg.
Trees or shrubs, with pale quadrangular branchlets and minute acuminate buds. Leaves
opposite, short-petiolate, oblong-obovate, rounded and sometimes emarginate at apex,
entire or remotely crenulate-serrate above the middle with revolute thickened margins,
feather- veined, coriaceous, persistent; stipules minute, acuminate, membranaceous,
caducous. Flowers unisexual, pedicellate, in axillary pedunculate few-flowered dichoto-
mously branched cymes bibracteolate at apex; calyx minute, 4-lobed, persistent, with a
short urceolate tube and rounded lobes; disk fleshy, filling the tube of the calyx, cup-
shaped, slightly 4-lobed; petals entire, obovate, white, rounded at apex, reflexed, much
longer than the lobes of the oalyx; stamens 4, opposite the sepals, inserted in the lobes of
the disk, exserted, in the pistillate flower; filaments slender, subulate, incurved; anthers
oblong; ovary 2-celled, oblong, sessile, confluent with the disk, crowned with a large 2-lobed
sessile stigma, rudimentary and deeply cleft in the staminate flower; ovule solitary, sus-
pended from the apex of the cell; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous,
fc-celled, 1 or 2-seeded, black or dark blue, oval or obovoid, crowned with the remnants of
CELASTRACE^E . 679
the persistent stigma, often 1 -celled by abortion; flesh thin; stone thick, crustaceous. Seed
oblong, suspended; seed-coat membranaceous; albumen thin, fleshy; embryo axile; cotyle-
dons ovate, foliaceous; radicle superior, next the hilum.
Gyminda with a single species is distributed from southern Florida to Trinidad and
southern Mexico, and is represented in Central America by what is perhaps a second
The generic name is formed by transposing the first three letters of Myginda, to which
tli is plant had been referred.
1. Gyminda latifolia Urb.
Gyminda Grisebachii Sarg.
Leaves l^'-2' long, '-!' broad, pale yellow-green. Flowers produced on shoots of
the year from April to June. Fruit ripening in November, \' long.
A tree, sometimes 20-25 high, with a trunk rarely more than 0' in diameter, and
branchlets becoming terete during their third season and covered with thin slightly
grooved roughened bright red-brown bark. Bark of the trunk thin, brown tinged with
red, separating into thin minute scales. Wood very heavy, hard, close-grained, dark
brown or nearly black, with thick light brown sapwood of 75-80 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Florida, common and generally distributed over the southern keys
from the Marquesas group to Upper Matecombe Key; in Cuba, Porto Rico,. Trinidad,
and southern Mexico. A form (var. glaucescens, Small.) with smaller less coriaceous
very glaucous leaves occurs in Cuba.
5. SCIL3EFFERIA Jacq.
Glabrous trees or shrubs, with slender rigid terete branches and small obtuse buds.
Leaves alternate, or fascicled on short spur-like branchlets, entire, obovate or spatulate,
acute and minutely apiculate or gradually narrowed to the rounded or emarginate apex,
cuneate below, persistent, without stipules. Flowers dioecious, pedicellate in axillary
clusters from buds covered by scale-like persistent bracts; calyx 4-lobed, the lobes orbic-
ular, persistent, much shorter than the 4 hypogynous, oblong, obtuse, white or greenish
white petals; stamens 4, hypogynous, inserted under the margin of the small inconspicuous
disk opposite the lobes of the calyx, wanting in the pistillate flower; filaments subulate, in-
curved; anthers oblong-ovoid; ovary 2-celled, ovoid, sessile, free, rudimentary in the
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
starainate flower; style very short, gradually enlarged into the large 2-lobed stigma, with
spreading lobes; ovule solitary, ascending; raphe thin, ventral; micropyle inferior. Fruit
a small 2-seeded fleshy drupe, ovoid or obovoid, crowned with the remnants of the per-
sistent style, indistinctly 2-lobed by longitudinal grooves, slightly flattened; flesh thin
and tuberculate; nutlets 2, obovoid, rounded at the ends, with a thick bony shell. Seed
solitary, ascending; seed-coat membranaceous; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, folia-
ceous; radicle very short, inferior, next the hilum.
Schaefferia with four or five species is confined to the New World, with one species in
southern Florida, and another, a small shrub, Schcefferia cuneifolia A. Gray in the arid
region of western Texas and northern Mexico.
The generic name is in honor of Jakob Christian Schaeffer (1718-1790), the distinguished
1. Schsefferia frutescens Jacq. Yellow Wood. Box Wood.
Leaves bright yellow-green, 2'-2f long, J'-l' wide, with thick revolute margins, ap-
pearing in Florida in April and persistent on the branches until the spring of the follow-
ing year; petioles short and broad Flowers opening in spring on branchlets of the
year, |' across, the staminate generally 3 or 5 together on pedicels rarely more than ^'
long, the pistillato solitary or 2 or 3 together on pedicels rather longer than the petioles.
Fruit ripening in Florida in November, slightly grooved, compressed, bright scarlet, with
an acrid disagreeable flavor.
A glabrous tree, 35-40 high, with a trunk sometimes 8'-10' in diameter, erect branches,
and slender many-angled branchlets pale greenish yellow during their first season, becom-
ing light gray during their second year and then conspicuously marked by the remains of
the persistent wart-like clusters of bud-scales; or often a tall or low shrub. Bark of the
trunk rarely more than T V thick, pale brown faintly tinged with red, the surface divided
by long shallow fissures, and ultimately separating into long narrow scales. Wood heavy,
close-grained, bright clear yellow, with thick rather lighter colored sapwood; sometimes
used as a substitute for boxwood in wood engraving.
Distribution. Florida, upper Matecombe and Old Rhodes Keys, and eastward on the
southern keys, and on the Everglade Keys, Dade County; on the Bahama Islands, and
widely distributed through the West Indies to Venezuela.
Trees or rarely shrubs, with limpid juice, terete branches, scaly buds, their inner scales
accrescent and marking the base of the branchlets with ring-like scars, and fibrous roots.
Leaves opposite, or on vigorous shoots rarely in whorls of 3, long-petiolate, simple, palmately
3-7-lobed and nerved or pinnately 3-7-foliolulate, usually without stipules, deciduous, in
falling leaving small U-shaped narrow scars showing the ends of 3 equidistant fibro-vas-
cular bundles. Flowers regular, direciously or monoeciously polygamous, rarely perfect or
dioecious, in fascicles produced from separate lateral buds appearing in early spring before
the leaves or in terminal and lateral racemes or panicles appearing with or later than the
leaves; bracts minute, caducous; calyx colored, generally o-parted, the lobes imbricated in
the bud; petals usually 5, imbricated in the bud, or 0; disk annular, fleshy, more or less
lobed, with a free margin; stamens 4-10, usually 7 or 8, inserted on the summit or inside of
the disk, hypogynous; filaments distinct, filiform, commonly exserted in the staminate,
shorter and generally abortive in the pistillate flower; anthers oblong or linear, attached
at the base, introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 2-lobed, 2-celled, com-
pressed contrary to the dissepiment, wing-margined on the back; styles 2, inserted between
the lobes of the ovary, connate below and divided into 2 linear branches stigmatose on their
inner surface; ovules 2 in each cell, collateral, rarely superposed, ascending, attached by
their broad base to the inner angle of the cell, anatropous or amphitropous ; micropyle
inferior. Fruit composed of 2 samaras separable from a small persistent axis, the nut-like
carpels compressed laterally, produced on the back into a large chartaceous or coriaceous
reticulated obovate wing thickened on the lower margin. Seed solitary by abortion, or
rarely 2 in each cell, ovoid, compressed, irregularly 3-angled, ascending obliquely, without
albumen; seed-coat membranaceous, the inner coat often fleshy; embryo conduplicate;
cotyledons thin, foliaceous or coriaceous, irregularly plicate, incumbent or accumbent on
the elongated descending radicle turned toward the hilum.
A family of two genera, one widely distributed, the other, Dipteronia, distinguished
by the broad wings encircling the mature carpels, and represented by a single Chinese
1. ACER L. Maple.
Characters of the family.
Acer with sixty or seventy species is widely distributed over the northern hemisphere,
with a single species extending south of the equator to the mountains of Java. Acer pro-
duces light close-grained moderately hard wood valued for the interior finish of houses and
in turnery. The bark is astringent, and the limpid sweet sap of some of the American
species is manufactured into sugar.
Acer is the classical name of the Maple-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Leaves simple, usually palmately lobed (sometimes 3-foliolate in 1, 3-lobed at apex in )
Flowers appearing with or after the leaves.
Flowers with petals; sepals distinct.
Flowers in terminal drooping corymbs.
Leaves 3-lobed or parted. 1. A. glabrum (B, F, G).
Leaves palmately 3-5-lobed. 2. A. circinatum (B, G).
Flowers in dense erect racemes. . A. spicatum (A).
Flowers in drooping racemes.
Ovary and young fruit glabrous; leaves 3-lobed at apex.
4. pennsylvanictun (A).
Ovary and young fruit hairy ; leaves deeply 5-lobed. 5 . A. macrophyllum (G) .
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
Flowers without petals; sepals united; inflorescence corymbose; pedicels long, pen-
dulous, mostly hairy.
Leaves pale or glaucescent, or green and glabrous beneath.
Leaves green or pale beneath, glabrous or in one form villose-pubescent on the
under side of the veins and on the petioles. C. A. saccharum (A, C).
Leaves pale and pubescent, rarely glabrous beneath, their lobes usually short
and obtuse or acuminate.
Lobes of the leaves only slightly lobed or entire; bark of young trees smooth
and pale. 7. A. floridanum (C).
Lobes of the leaves distinctly lobulate; bark of young trees dark brown and
scaly. H. A. grandidentatum (F, H).
Leaves green and pubescent, rarely glabrous beneath.
Leaves hirsute-pubescent beneath and on the petioles, the lobes entire or lobu-
late, the basal sinus often closed by the lower lobes; bark dark and furrowed.
9. A. nigrum (A).
Leaves pilose-pubescent, rarely glabrous beneath, the lobes slightly lobulate,
the basal sinus open; petioles glabrous; bark pale and smooth.
10. A. leucoderme (C).
Flowers appearing before the leaves in dense lateral clusters from separate buds;
leaves 5-lobed (3-lobed in varieties of 12) \ fruit ripening in May or June.
Flowers sessile or short-stalked, without petals; ovary and young fruit tomentose.
11. A. saccharinum.
Flowers on long pedicels, with petals; ovary and young fruit glabrous.
12. A. rubrum.
Leaves 3-7-foliolate; flowers dioecious, without petals. 13. A. Negundo (A, B, C, F, G, H) .
1. Acer glabrum Torr. Dwarf Maple.
Leaves glabrous, thin, rounded in outline, cordate-truncate or cuneate at base, 3-5-lobed,
the middle lobe usually narrowed and entire below the middle, or often 3-parted or 3-foli-
olate (f. trisecta Sarg.), with acute or obtuse doubly serrate lobes, 3'-5' in diameter, dark
green and lustrous on the upper, paler on the lower surface, with conspicuous veinlets;
petioles stout, grooved, l'-6' in length, and often bright red. Flowers about ' long on
short slender pedicels, in loose few-flowered glabrous racemose corymbs on slender droop-
ing peduncles from the end of 2-leaved branchlets, the staminate and pistillate usually
produced separately on different plants; sepals oblong, obtuse, petaloid, as long as the
greenish yellow petals; stamens 7 or 8, with glabrous unequal filaments shorter than the
petals, much shorter or rudimentary in the pistillate flower; ovary glabrous, with short
obtuse lobes, rudimentary or in the staminate flower; style divided to the base into 2
spreading stigmatic lobes as long as the petals. Fruit glabrous, with broad nearly erect
or slightly spreading wings t'-' long, often rose-colored during the summer; seeds ovoid,
bright chestnut-brown, about ^' long.
A small tree, occasionally 20-30 high, with a short trunk 6'-12' in diameter, small
upright branches, and slender glabrous branchlets often slightly many-angled, pale greenish
brown when they first appear, becoming bright red-brown during their first winter; often a
shrub. Winter-buds acute, |' long, with bright red or occasionally yellow scales, those of
the inner ranks pale brown tinged with pink, tomentose on the inner surface, becoming
1 ' long and narrow-spatulate. Bark of the trunk thin, smooth, and dark reddish brown.
Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, light brown or often nearly white, with thick lighter
colored sap wood.
Distribution. Borders of mountain streams usually at elevations of 5000-6000; Rocky
Mountains from Montana to Wyoming, the Black Hills of South Dakota, Sioux County,
Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, northern Arizona, and to the Sacramento Mountains,
New Mexico; in California from the Siskiyou Mountains along the Sierra Nevada to the
East Fork of the Kaweah River, Kern County, at altitudes of 5000-6000 at the north
and of 8000-9000 at the south. Passing into
Acer glabrum var. Douglasii Dippel.
Acer Douglasii Hook.
Leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, slightly cordate by a wide shallow sinus, truncate or rarely
rounded at base, 3-lobed with acuminate lobes often slightly divided into acuminate lobules,
the terminal leaflet usually ovate from a broad base, or occasionally gradually narrowed
below and rhombic in outline and sharply serrate to the base or nearly to the base of the
lobe with long-acuminate teeth pointing forward, dark green above, paler and often glau-
cescent below, 3|'-4' long and 3'-4' wide, with 3 prominent nerves extending to the points
of the lobes, and slender veins; petioles glabrous, I'-Stf in length. Flowers as in the species.
Fruit with erect or nearly erect wings, f '-!' long and %'-?' wide.
684 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
A tree, occasionally 40 high, with a short trunk 12'-18' in diameter, small upright
branches and slender bright red-brown branchlets.
Distribution. Coast of southern Alaska (head of Lynn Canal), southward near the coast
to Vancouver Island and western Washington, and eastward on the high mountains of
Washington to the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, western Idaho and northern Mon-
tana; on Loomis Creek, Natrona County, Wyoming.
2. Acer circinatum Pursh. Vine Maple.
Leaves almost circular in outline, cordate at base by a broad shallow' sinus, or some-
times almost truncate, palmately 7-9-lobed occasionally nearly to the middle, with acute
lobes sharply and irregularly doubly serrate, and conspicuously palmately nerved, with
prominent veinlets, when they unfold tinged with rose color, and puberulous, especially
on the lower surface and >pn the petioles, and at maturity glabrous with the exception of
tufts of pale hairs in the axils of the large veins, thin and membranaceous, dark green above,
pale below, and 2'-7' in diameter; in the autumn turning orange and scarlet; petioles stout,
grooved, l'-2' in length, clasping the stem by their large base. Flowers appearing when
the leaves are about half grown, in loose 10-20-flowered umbel-like corymbs pendent on
long stems from the end of slender 2-leaved branchlets, the staminate and pistillate flowers
produced together; sepals oblong to obovate, acute, villose, purple or red, much longer than
the greenish white broad, cordate petals folded together at apex; stamens 6-8, \vith slender
filaments villose at base, exserted in the staminate flower, much shorter than the petals in
the pistillate flower; ovary glabrous, with spreading lobes, in the staminate flower reduced
to a small point surrounded by a tuft of pale hairs; style divided nearly to the base into
long exserted stigmas. Fruit with thin wings, 1|' long, spreading almost at right angles,
red or rose color like the nutlets in early summer, ripening late in the autumn ; seeds smooth,
pale chestnut-brown, |'-|' long.
A tree, rarely 30-40 high, often vine-like or prostrate, with a trunk 10'-12' in diameter,
and glabrous pale green or reddish brown branchlets frequently covered during their first
winter with a glaucous bloom, and occasionally marked by small lenticels; often a low
wide-spreading shrub. Winter-buds f ' long, rather obtuse, with thin bright red outer scales
rounded on the back, and obovate-spatulate inner scales rounded at apex, contracted into
a long narrow claw, bright rose-colored and more or less pubescent, especially on the outer
surface, and when fully grown often 2' long and \ f broad. Bark of the trunk thin, smooth,
bright red-brown, marked by numerous shallow fissures. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained,
not strong, light brown, sometimes nearly white, with thick lighter colored sapwood; used
for fuel, the handles of axes and other tools, and by the Indians of the northwest ooast for
the bows of their fishing-nets.
Distribution. Banks of streams; coast of British Columbia through western Washington
and Oregon to Mendocino County, and the canon of the upper Sacramento River, Cali-
fornia; one of the most abundant of the deciduous-leaved trees of western Washington and
Oregon up to altitudes of 4000 above the sea, and of its largest size on the rich alluvial
soil of bottom-lands, its vine-like stems in such situations springing 4 or 5 together from
the ground, spreading in wide curves and sending out long slender branches rooting when
they touch the ground and forming impenetrable thickets of contorted and interlaced
trunks, often many acres in extent; in California smaller and less abundant, growing along
streams in the coniferous forest or rarely on dry ridges up to an altitude of 4000 in the
northeastern part of the state.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental plant in Europe, and in the eastern states, and
hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.
3. Acer spicatum Lam. Mountain Maple.
Leaves subcordate or sometimes truncate at base, conspicuously 3-nerved, 3 or slightly
5-lobed, with gradually narrowed pointed lobes, and sharply and coarsely glandular-
serrate, when they unfold puberulous on the upper surface and densely tomentose on the
Fig. 61 7
lower surface, and at maturity thin, 4 '-5' long and broad; turning in the autumn
to various shades of orange and scarlet; petioles slender, enlarged at base, 2'-3' in
length, often becoming scarlet in summer. Flowers opening in June after the leaves are
fully grown, f ' diameter, on slender pedicels |'-|' long, the pistillate toward the base and
the staminate at the apex of a narrow many-flowered long-stemmed upright slightly com-
pound pubescent raceme; calyx-lobes narrow-obovate, yellow, pubescent on the outer
surface, much shorter than the linear-spatulate pointed yellow petals; stamens 7 or 8, in-
serted immediately under the ovary, with slender glabrous filaments as long as the petals in
the sterile flower, about as long as the sepals in the pistillate flower, and glandular anthers;
ovary hoary-tomentose, reduced to a minute point surrounded by a tuft of pale hairs in
the staminate flower; style columnar, almost as long as the petals, with short stigmatic
lobes. Fruit fully grown and bright red or yellow in July, turning brown late in the au-
tumn, almost glabrous, with more or less divergent wings about \' long; seeds smooth,
dark red-brown, f ' long.
A bushy tree, occasionally 25-30 high, with a short trunk 6'-8' in diameter, small up-
right branches, and slender branchlets light gray and pubescent when they first appear,
TREES OF NORTH AMERICA
becoming glabrous during the summer, bright red during their first winter, gray or pale
brown the following season, and blotched or streaked with green toward the base; more
often a tall or low shrub. Winter-buds acute; the terminal |-' long, with bright red outer
scales more or less coated with hoary tomentum, those of the inner ranks becoming at
maturity 1' or more in length and then lanceolate, pale and papery; axillary buds much
smaller and glabrous or puberulous. Bark of the trunk very thin, reddish brown, smooth
or slightly furrowed. Wood light, soft, close-grained, light brown tinged with red, with
thick lighter colored sapwood.
Distribution. Moist rocky hillsides usually in the shade of other trees, and really
arborescent only on the western slopes of the high mountains of Tennessee and North
Carolina; Newfoundland and Labrador to Hudson Bay, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan,
and southward through the northern states, and westward to Minnesota and northeastern
Iowa, and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornament of parks and gardens in the northern states.
4. Acer pennsylvanicum L. Striped Maple. Moose Wood.
Leaves rounded or cordate at base, palmately 3-nerved, 3-lobed at apex, with short lobes
contracted into a tapering serrate point, and finely and sharply doubly serrate, when they
unfold thin, pale rose color and coated with ferrugineous pubescence, especially on the
lower surface and on the petioles, and at maturity glabrous with the exception of tufts of
ferrugineous hairs in the axils of the principal nerves on the two surfaces, thin, pale green
above, rather paler below, o'-6' long and 4'-5' wide; turning in the autumn clear light
yellow; petioles stout, grooved, l^'-2' in length, with an enlarged base nearly encircling
the branch. Flowers bright canary-yellow, opening toward the end of May or early in