Leaves oblong-obovate to elliptic, rounded and rarely emarginate or acute at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate at base and entire, deeply tinged with red when they unfold and at maturity, 1′—1½′ long and ½′—¾′ wide, with thickened often slightly undulate margins, a slender midrib, obscure primary veins, and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; petioles stout, ⅙′—¼′ in length. Flowers usually solitary or in compact fascicles, short-stalked, about 1/12′ in diameter; calyx-lobes rounded at apex, often persistent under the fruit, reddish, shorter than the white petals; ovary 3—4-celled. Fruit solitary, short-stalked, broad-obovoid, 4-angled, rounded and minutely mucronate at apex, abruptly narrowed below, bright red, ¼′—⅓′ long and broad, 1-celled, 3—4-valved, the valves opening to the base, ridged down the inner surface with a low ridge developed from the dissepiment, 2—4-seeded; seed ellipsoid, acute at the ends, 1/12′ long, surrounded at base by an open bright red aril.
A round-topped tree, rarely 20° high, with a trunk 1°—2° in diameter (teste J. K. Small), and slender alternate glabrous pale gray branchlets; usually a low shrub.
Distribution. Florida, west coast, Captiva Island, Lee County, to the neighborhood of Cape Sable; Cocoanut Grove, Dade County, and on many of the southern keys; on bluffs of Matagorda Bay near Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas; in northern Mexico and Lower California; probably of its largest size in Florida on Sands Key and on Captiva Island.
3. CANOTIA Torr.
A glabrous leafless tree, with light brown deeply furrowed bark, stout terete alternate branches terminating in rigid, pale green and striate spines, their base and those of the peduncles surrounded by black triangular persistent cushion-like processes minutely papillose on the surface. Flowers perfect, on slender spreading pedicels jointed below the middle, 3—7 together, in short-stemmed fascicles or corymbs near the end of the branches, from the axils of minute ovate subulate bracts; calyx 5-lobed, minute, persistent, much shorter than the oblong obtuse white hypogynous petals imbricated in the bud, reflexed at maturity above the middle, deciduous; stamens 5, hypogynous, opposite the lobes of the calyx; filaments awl-shaped, rather shorter than the petals, persistent on the fruit; anthers oblong, cordate, minutely apiculate, attached below the middle, grooved on the back; ovary raised upon and confluent with a fleshy slightly 10-angled gynophore, papillose-glandular on the surface, 5-celled, the cells opposite the petals, terminating in a fleshy elongated style; stigma slightly 5-lobed; ovules 6 in each cell, inserted in 2 ranks on its inner angle, subhorizontal; micropyle inferior. Fruit a woody ovoid, acuminate capsule rounded at base, crowned with the subulate persistent style, septicidally 5-valved, the valves 2-lobed at apex; outer coat thin, fleshy; inner coat woody. Seed solitary or in pairs, ascending, subovoid, flattened; seed-coat subcoriaceous, papillate, produced below into a subfalcate membranaceous wing; embryo surrounded by thin fleshy albumen, erect; cotyledons oval, compressed; radicle very short, inferior.
The genus is represented by a single species.
The generic name is that by which this plant was known to the Mexicans of Arizona at the time of its discovery.
1. [Canotia holacantha] Torr.
Leaves 0. Flowers ⅛′—¼′ in diameter, appearing from June until October. Capsule 1′ long; seed about ¾′ in length.