Manual of the Trees of North America (Exclusive of Mexico) 2nd ed.Sargent, Charles Sprague
Science
Manual of the Trees of North America (Exclusive of Mexico) 2nd ed.
Sargent, Charles Sprague
Trees -- North America
Leaves 10°—12° long, closely pinnate, the pinnæ, 2½°—3° long, 1½′ wide
near the base of the leaf, and gradually decreasing in size toward its
apex, deep green with slender conspicuous veins, and covered below with
minute pale glandular dots; petioles almost terete, concave near the
base, with thin edges separating irregularly into pale fibres, and
enlarged into bright green cylindrical clasping bases 8° or 9° long and
more or less covered with dark chaffy scales. Flowers: spadix about 2°
long, with a nearly terete stem and slightly ridged primary and
secondary branches compressed above, abruptly enlarged at the base, and
simple slender flexuose long-pointed flower-bearing branchlets 3′—6′
long, pendant and closely pressed against the secondary branches;
flowers opening in Florida in January and February, the staminate nearly
¼′ long and rather more than twice as long as the pistillate. Fruit
oblong-obovoid, full and rounded at apex, narrowed at base, violet-blue,
about ½′ long, with a thin outer coat and a light red-brown inner coat,
loose and fibrous on the outer surface, and closely investing the thin
light brown seed.
A tree, 80°—100° high, with a trunk rising from an abruptly enlarged
base, gradually tapering from the middle to the ends and often 2° in
diameter, covered with light gray rind tinged with orange color, marked
with dark blotches and irregularly broken into minute plates, the green
upper portion 8°—10° long, and a broad head of gracefully drooping
leaves. Wood of the interior of the stem spongy, pale brown, much
lighter than the hard exterior rim, containing numerous dark conspicuous
fibro-vascular bundles. The outer portion of the stem is made into
canes, and the trunks are sometimes used for wharf-piles and in
construction.
Distribution. Florida, hummocks on Rogue River twenty miles east of
Caximbas Bay, on some of the Everglades Keys, Long’s Key, and formerly
on the shores of Bay Biscayne near the mouth of Little River; common in
the West Indies and Central America.
Largely cultivated as an ornamental tree in tropical countries, and
often planted to form avenues, for which its tall pale columnar stems
and noble heads of graceful foliage make it valuable.
7. PSEUDOPHŒNIX H. Wendl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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