The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States / Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee

by Asa Gray

1. O. arbòreum, DC. Tree 15–40° high; leaves in size and shape like those of the peach.—Rich woods, from Penn. to Ind., and southward, mostly along the Alleghanies, to Fla. June, July.

9. LEUCÓTHOË, Don.

Calyx of 5 nearly distinct sepals, imbricated in the bud. Corolla ovate or cylindraceous, 5-toothed. Stamens 10; anthers naked, or the cells with 1 or 2 erect awns at the apex, opening by a pore. Capsule depressed, more or less 5-lobed, 5-celled, 5-valved, the sutures not thickened; valves entire; the many-seeded placentæ borne on the summit of the short columella. Seeds mostly pendulous.—Shrubs with petioled and serrulate leaves, and white scaly-bracted flowers in dense axillary or terminal spiked racemes. (A mythological name.)

[*] Anthers awnless; stigma 5-rayed; racemes sessile, dense, with persistent bracts, in the axils of thick and shining evergreen leaves; calyx not bracteolate.

1. L. axillàris, Don. Leaves lanceolate-oblong or oval, abruptly pointed or acute, somewhat spinulose-serrulate, on very short petioles; sepals broadly ovate.—Low grounds, Va. to Fla. and Ala. Feb.–April.—Shrub 2–4° high.

2. L. Catesbæ̀i, Gray. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed, serrulate with ciliate-spinulose appressed teeth, conspicuously petioled (3–6´ long); sepals ovate-oblong, often acute.—Moist banks of streams, Va. to Ga. along the mountains. May.—Shrub 2–4° high, with long spreading or recurved branches. Flowers exhaling the unpleasant scent of Chestnut-blossoms.

[*][*] Anthers awned; stigma simple; flowers very short-pedicelled, in long one-sided racemes mostly terminating the branches; bracts deciduous; leaves membranaceous and deciduous, serrulate; calyx bibracteolate.

3. L. recúrva, Buckley. Branches and racemes recurved-spreading; leaves lanceolate or ovate, taper-pointed; sepals ovate; anther-cells 1-awned; pod 5-lobed, seeds flat and cellular-winged.—Dry hills, Alleghanies of Va. to Ala. April.—Lower and more straggling than the next.

4. L. racemòsa, Gray. Branches and racemes mostly erect; leaves oblong or oval-lanceolate, acute; sepals ovate-lanceolate; anther-cells each 2-awned; pod not lobed; seeds angled and wingless.—Moist thickets, Mass. to Fla. and La., near the coast. May, June.—Shrub 4–10° high. Corolla cylindrical.

10. CASSÁNDRA, Don. Leather-Leaf.