2. DIPHOLIS A. DC.
Trees or shrubs, with naked buds, and persistent leaves, the slender veins arcuate and united near the margins. Flowers minute, on clavate ebracteolate pedicels from the axils of minute deciduous bracts, in the axils of existing leaves or from the leafless nodes of previous years; calyx ovoid, deeply 5-lobed, the lobes nearly equal, ovate, rounded at apex; corolla campanulate, white, 5-lobed, the spreading lobes furnished on each side at the base with a linear or subulate appendage; stamens exserted; filaments filiform; anthers oblong-sagittate, extrorse; staminodia 5, petaloid, ovate, acute, fimbriately cut on the margins, oblique, keeled on the back, inserted in the same rank and alternate with the stamens; ovary oblong or narrow-ovoid, gradually contracted into a slender style shorter than the corolla and stigmatic at the apiculate apex. Fruit oblong-ovoid, with thin dry flesh. Seed ovoid; seed-coat thick, coriaceous and lustrous; hilum oblong, basilar or slightly lateral; embryo erect in thick fleshy albumen; cotyledons ovate, flat, much longer than the short radicle turned toward the hilum.
Dipholis with three species is confined to the West Indies and southern Florida.
The generic name, from δίς and φολίς, relates to the appendages of the corolla.
1. [Dipholis salicifolia] A. DC. Bustic. Cassada.
Leaves oblong-lanceolate or narrow-obovate, acute, acuminate, or rounded at apex, gradually contracted at base, with slightly thickened cartilaginous wavy margins, thickly coated when they unfold with lustrous rufous pubescence, and at maturity thin and firm, dark green and lustrous above, pale yellow-green below, 3′—5′ long, ½′—1½′ wide, and glabrous, or slightly puberulous on the lower side of the narrow pale midrib, with inconspicuous veins and reticulate veinlets; appearing in Florida in the spring and remaining on the branches between one and two years; petioles slender, ½′—1′ in length. Flowers opening during March and April, ⅛′ long, on thick pedicels ¼′ in length from the axils of minute ovate acute scarious bracts, and coated with rufous pubescence, in dense many-flowered fascicles crowded on branchlets of the year or of the previous year for a distance of 8′—12′; calyx half the length of the corolla, coated on the outer surface with rusty silky pubescence; appendages of the corolla as long as the oval acute irregularly toothed staminodia; ovary narrow-ovoid, glabrous, gradually contracted into a slender style shorter than the corolla and stigmatic at apex. Fruit solitary or rarely clustered, ripening in the autumn, short-oblong to subglobose, black, ¼′ in length; seed pale brown, about 3/16′ in length.
A tree, in Florida sometimes 40°—50° high, with a straight trunk 18′—20′ in diameter, small upright branches forming a narrow graceful head, and slender branchlets coated with rufous pubescence when they first appear, becoming ashy gray or light brown tinged with red and marked by numerous circular pale lenticels and by small elevated orbicular leaf-scars displaying near the centre a compact cluster of fibro-vascular bundle-scars. Bark of the trunk about ⅓′ thick and broken into thick square plate-like brown scales tinged with red. Wood very heavy, exceedingly hard, strong, close-grained, dark brown or red, with thin sapwood of 4 or 5 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Florida, rich hummock soil, shores of Bay Biscayne and on the Everglade Keys, Dade County, and on several of the southern keys; on the Bahama Islands and on many of the Antilles.