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Habitat and Range. —Rhode Island,—occasional but doubtfully native; Connecticut,—at Lighthouse Point, New Haven, near the East Haven boundary line, there is a grove consisting of about one hundred twenty-five small trees not more than a hundred feet from the water's edge, in sandy soil just above the beach grass, exposed to the buffeting of fierce winds and the incursions of salt water, which comes up around them during the heavy winter storms. These trees are not in thriving condition; several are dead or dying, and no new plants are springing up to take their places. A cross-section of the trunk of a dead tree, as large as any of those living, shows about fifty annual rings. There is no reason to suppose that the survivors are older. This station is said to have been known as early as 1846, at which date the ground where they stand was grassy and fertile. These trees, if standing at that time, must assuredly have been in their infancy. The encroachment of the sea and subsequent change of conditions account well enough for the present decrepitude, but their general similarity in size and apparent age point rather to introduction than native growth.
South to Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana; west to Iowa, Kansas, and Texas.
Habit. —One of the Rhode Island trees measured 3 feet 11 inches girth at the base, and gradually tapered to a height of more than 40 feet (L. W. Russell). The trees at New Haven are 15-20 feet in height, with a trunk diameter of 6-10 inches, trunk and limbs much twisted by the winds. Their branches, beginning to put out at a height of 6-8 feet, lie in almost horizontal planes, forming a roundish, open head.
Bark. —Trunk in old trees dark, rough, deeply furrowed, separating into small, firm sections; large limbs dark reddish-brown; season's shoots green, turning to brown.
Winter Buds and Leaves. —Buds oblong, conical, short. Leaves simple, alternate, 3-6 inches long, about half as wide, dark green and mostly glossy above, somewhat lighter and minutely downy (at least when young) beneath, ovate to oval, entire; apex acute to acuminate; base acute, rounded or truncate; leafstalk short; stipules none.
Inflorescence. —June. Sterile and fertile flowers on separate or on the same trees; not conspicuous, axillary; sterile often in clusters, fertile solitary; calyx 4-6-parted; corolla 4-6-parted; about ½ inch long, pale yellow, thickish, urn-shaped, constricted at the mouth and somewhat smaller in the sterile flowers; stamens 16 in the sterile flowers, in fertile flowers 8 or less, imperfect; styles 4, ovary 8-celled.
Fruit. —A berry, ripe in late fall, roundish, about an inch in diameter, larger farther south, with thick, spreading, persistent calyx, yellow to yellowish-brown, very astringent when immature, edible and agreeable to the taste after exposure to the frost; several-seeded.
Horticultural Value. —Hardy along the south shore of New England; prefers well-drained soil in open situations; free from disfiguring enemies; occasionally cultivated in nurseries but difficult to transplant. Propagated from seed.
| 1. Winter buds. |
| 2. Branch with sterile flowers. |
| 3. Vertical section of sterile flower. |
| 4. Branch with fertile flowers. |
| 5. Section of fertile flower. |
| 6. Fruiting branch. |