1. CORDIA L.
Trees or shrubs, with petiolate entire persistent leaves and naked buds. Flowers in terminal scorpioid-branched cymes; calyx tubular or campanulate, conspicuously many-ribbed or rayed, the teeth valvate in the bud; corolla funnel form; anthers oblong-ovate; ovary 4-celled; style slender, elongated, 2-branched above the middle, the branches 2-parted, their division stigmatic to the base; ovule ascending, laterally attached below the middle to the inner angle of the cell, suborthotropous; micropyle superior. Fruit entirely or partly inclosed in the thickened calyx; flesh dry and corky or sweet and juicy; stone thick-walled, hard and bony, 1—4-celled, usually 1 or 2-seeded. Seeds without albumen; embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons thick and fleshy or membranaceous, longitudinally plicate or corrugated, much shorter than the superior radicle turned toward the hilum.
Cordia with two hundred and fifty species inhabits the tropical and warm extratropical regions of the two hemispheres, the largest number of species being American. Of the four species found within the territory of the United States two are trees. Some of the species are valuable timber-trees, and others are cultivated for their edible fruits.
The generic name is in honor of Valerius Cordus (1515—1544), the German writer on pharmacy and botany.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
Corolla orange or flame color; fruit inclosed in the smooth glabrous thickened ivory-white calyx; leaves ovate.1. [C. Sebestena] (D). Corolla white with a yellow centre; fruit entirely or partly inclosed in the thin many-ribbed tomentose orange-brown calyx; leaves oval or oblong-ovate.2. [C. Boissieri] (E, H).
1. [Cordia Sebestena] L. Geiger-tree.
Leaves unfolding through a large part of the year, ovate, short-pointed or rounded at apex, rounded, subcordate, or cuneate at base, entire or remotely and coarsely serrate above the middle, covered when they unfold, like the branches of the inflorescence, the outside of the calyx, and the young branchlets, with thick dense rusty tomentum and with short rigid pale hairs, and at maturity thick and firm, dark green, scabrous-pubescent, or often nearly glabrous below, reticulate-venulose, 5′—6′ long and 3′—4′ wide, with a broad midrib usually covered below with pale hairs, especially in the axils of remote primary veins connected by conspicuous cross veinlets; petioles stout, pubescent, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers appearing throughout the year on slender pedicels, in open flat cymes 6′—7′ in diameter, some individuals producing flowers with short included stamens and elongated styles, and others with exserted stamens and included styles; calyx tubular, ½′—⅔′ long, and obscurely many-rayed, with short nearly triangular rigid teeth; corolla orange or flame color, puberulous on the outer surface, with a slender tube about twice as long as the calyx and spreading rounded lobes, irregularly undulate on the margins and 1′—1½′ in diameter when fully expanded; ovary conic, glabrous, contracted into a slender style branched near the apex. Fruit broad-ovate, rather abruptly narrowed and pointed at apex, concave at base, 1¼′—1½′ long and about ¾′ broad, inclosed in the thickened fibrous calyx smooth and ivory-white on the outer surface; flesh thin, pale, and corky, separable from the irregularly sulcate thick-walled stone gradually narrowed and acuminate at apex, and deeply lobed at base; seeds linear-lanceolate, ½′ long, with a delicate white seed-coat.
A tree, in Florida 25°—30° high, with a tall trunk 5′—6′ in diameter, slender upright branches forming a narrow close round-topped head, and stout branchlets with thick pith, dark green at first, becoming ashy gray and marked by large nearly orbicular cordate leaf-scars displaying 2 central circular clusters of fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Bark of the trunk ½′—¾′ thick, dark brown, frequently nearly black, and deeply and irregularly divided into narrow ridges broken on the surface into short thick appressed scales. Wood heavy, hard, close-grained, dark brown, with thick light brown or yellow sapwood.
Distribution. Florida, Flamingo near Cape Sable (A. A. Eaton) and Madeira Hammock, Munroe County, and on the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands, on most of the Antilles, and in Guiana and New Granada.
Often planted in tropical countries as an ornament of gardens.
2. [Cordia Boissieri] A. DC. Anacahuita.
Leaves oval to oblong-ovate, acute or rounded at apex, rounded or subcordate at base, entire or obscurely crenulate-serrate, covered when they unfold like the branches of the inflorescence, both surfaces of the calyx and the young branchlets with rusty or dark brown tomentum and short white usually matted hairs, thick and firm, dark green, minutely rugose and more or less scabrous above, coated below with thick soft pale or rufous tomentum, 4′—5′ long and 3′—4′ wide, with a broad midrib, and conspicuous primary veins forked near the margins and connected by cross veinlets; deciduous at the end of their first year; petioles stout, tomentose, 1′—1½′ in length. Flowers opening from April to June, slightly fragrant, sessile or short-pedicellate, in open terminal dichotomous cymes; calyx tubular or subcampanulate, conspicuously many-ribbed, with 5 linear acute teeth, and about half as long as the tube of the white corolla puberulous on the outer surface, marked in the throat by a large light yellow spot, the lobes rounded, imbricated in the bud, and 2′ across when fully expanded; ovary glabrous, gradually narrowed into a slender 2-branched style. Fruit ovoid, 1′ long, about ¾′ broad, pointed at apex, lustrous, bright red-brown, and inclosed entirely or partly by the thin fibrous now conspicuously rayed orange-brown calyx coated on the outer surface with thick short pale tomentum, and often splitting nearly to the base; flesh thin, sweet, and pulpy, separating easily from the ovoid smooth light brown stone gradually narrowed from above the middle, faintly reticulate-veined, and marked by 4 longitudinal lines and at the acuminate apex by a deeply 4-lobed thin cap, thick-walled, hard and bony, deeply lobed at base; seeds ovoid, acute, ¼′ long, with a thin delicate pure white coat.
A tree, occasionally 20°—25° high, with a short often crooked trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, stout spreading branches forming a low round-topped head, and stout branchlets, becoming in their second year dark gray or brown, slightly puberulous, and marked by occasional large lenticels and by elevated obcordate leaf-scars; or often a shrub, with numerous stems sometimes only 2° or 3° tall. Bark of the trunk thin, gray tinged with red, and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges, the surface ultimately separating into long thin papery scales. Wood light, rather soft, close-grained, and dark brown, with thick light brown sapwood.
Distribution. Dry limestone ridges, and depressions in the desert; valley of the Rio Grande, Texas, and southern New Mexico, southward into Mexico; most abundant and of its largest size in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon between the mouth of the Rio Grande and the base of the Sierra Madre.