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POLY GONACEiE.
bracts, and produced in terminal and axillary thick-stemmed puberulous many-flowered racemes six tofourteen inches in length. The sheaths which surround the fascicles and the pedicels of the separateflowers are scarious, light brown, puberulous, about a third of an inch long, and persistent. The calyxis conical, and an eighth of an inch across when expanded, with broadly ovate rounded reflexed whitelobes, puberulous on the inner surface, and rather longer than the red stamens. The ovary is oblong,three-angled, and abruptly contracted into three short styles, reflexed and stigmatic on their inner face.The fruit, which hangs in long crowded clusters, is ovoid or obovoid, three quarters of an inch long,rounded and marked at the apex with the conspicuous connivent remnants of the calyx-lobes, and grad-ually narrowed into a stalk-like base; it is purple or greenish white, translucent, with thin juicy astrin-gent flesh and a thin-walled light red nutlet, and in falling separates from its thickened persistent stalk.
Coccolobis Uvifera inhabits saline shores and beaches, and in Florida is found from MosquitoInlet to the southern keys on the east coast, and from the shores of Tampa Bay to Cape Sable on thewest coast. It is common on the Bermuda 1 and Bahama 2 islands and on the Antilles , and in South America ranges from Colombia to Brazil .
The wood of Coccolobis Uvifera is very heavy, hard, close-grained, and susceptible of receiving abeautiful polish; it contains scattered small open ducts and obscure medullary rays, the layers of annualgrowth being hardly distinguishable, and is dark brown or violet-color, with thick lighter coloredsapwood. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.9635, a cubic foot weighing 60.05pounds. It is sometimes used in cabinet-making.
The fruit, which is scarcely edible, and is extremely astringent before it is fully ripe, is sometimesused medicinally in the West Indies ; 3 and it is perhaps from the wood of this tree that the JamaicaKino, 4 * a powerful astringent occasionally imported into the United States , is obtained.
The strange sight of a tree covered with clusters of tempting grape-like fruit naturally attractedthe attention of the Europeans when they first landed on the burning sands of the Antillean shores, andthe beauty and value of the Sea Grape were extolled in the narratives of many of the early voyages 6to the New World. The first technical description and a figure of this species were published in1586.®
1 Lefroy, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 25,100 (Bot. Bermuda ).
2 Hitchcock, Rep. Missouri Bot. Gard. iv. 123.
8 Barham, Hart. Amer. 68. — Lunan, Hort. Jam. i. 76. — Duncan,Edinburgh Med . Dispens. ed. 2, 162. — Descourtilz, FI. Med.Antill.ii. 41, t. 77. — Hayne, Arzn. x. t. 4. — Rafinesque , Med . FI. ii.211. — Nees von Esenbeck, PI. Med . Suppl. t. 33. — Schomburgk ,Linncea, viii. 280. — Grosourdy, Med . Bot. Crioll . ii. 107—Ernst,Jour. Bot. iii. 320.
* Carson, Med . Bot. ii. 21, t. 68. — Karsten, Pharm. Med . Bot.518. — Nat. Dispens. ed. 2, 799. — Guibourt, Hist. Drog. ed. 7, iii.434. — U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 856.
8 “ Del arbol llamado guiabara, que Ios christianos llamanuvero.” (Oviedo, Hist. Nat. Gen. Ind. lib. viii. cap. 13.)
“And so doe their wild Grapes, which are a fruit growing inClusters and therein have very little meat upon them.” (Layfield,Purchas his Pilgrims, iv. 1172.)
“There is a berrie in those parts very excellent against thebloudie-fluxe, by the Indians it is called Kellette.” (Harcourt,Purchas his Pilgrims, iv. 1276.)
“Acinus qui barbaris dicitur Kellete utiliter adhibetur contradysenteriam.” (Jan de Laet, Nov. Orb. 645.)
“ Arbor, cujus materies rubra est instar ligni Brasiliam, foliapene orbicularia, fert racematim fructus uvis haud dissimiles, sapo-ris admodum grati; nascitur potissimum juxta littora.” (Jan deLaet, Nov. Orb. 665).
Guiabara, Dalechamps , Hist. PI. 1850, f. — C. Bauhin , Pinax ,19. — Parkinson , Theatr. 1667.
Populus rotundifolia Americana, C. Bauhin , Pinax , 430. — Jons-ton, Dendrographia, 439.
Arbor insulce Tabago materie ligno Brasiliano simili, Jonston, Den-drographia, 458, t. 130, f.; ed. 2, ii. 247, f.
Papyracea arbor Guaiabara, J. Bauhin, Hist. Gen. i. lib. iii.374, f.
Populus novi orbis, J. Bauhin, Hist. Gen. i. lib. viii. 164, f.
Du Raisinier, Rochefort, Histoire Naturelle et Morale des Isles An-tilles, 71, f. — Du Tertre, Hist. Gen. Antill. ii. 186.
Uvifera arbor Occidentals folio rotundo, Hermann, Parad. Bat.Prodr. 385.
Uvifera litorea folds amplioribus, fere orbiculatis crassis Americana,Plukenet , Phyt. 236, f. 7 ; Aim. Bot. 394.
Prunus maritima racemosa, folio rotundo glabro, fructu minore pur-pureo, Sloane, Cat . PI. Jam. 183 ; Nat. Hist. Jam. ii. 129, t. 220, f.3-5. — Ray, Hist. PI. iii. Dendr. 40. — Catesby , Nat. Hist. Car. ii.96, t. 96.
Uvifera folds subrotundis, amplissimis, Linnseus, Hort. Cliff. 487.—Royen, FI. Leyd. Prodr. 534.
The Bay-Grape-Tree, Griffith Hughes , Nat. Hist. Barbados , 180.Coccolobis folds crassis orbiculatis, sinu aperto, Browne, Nat. Hist.Jam. 209. — Plumier, PI. Am. ed. Burman, 136, t. 145.
Raisinier du bord de la mer, Nicholson, Essai sur FHistoire natu-relle de I’lsle de Saint Domingue, 299.