172 CXVI. LAURINEE (STAPF). [ Cryptocarya. 
Embryo straight; cotyledons thick, fleshy, sometimes very tightly 
adpressed to each other and not separable; radicle superior ; plumule 
distinct.—Trees or shrubs, very rarely (Cassytha) twining parasitic 
herbs, all parts with aromatic oil glands. Leaves alternate, rarely 
opposite or subopposite, coriaceous and evergreen, rarely membranous. 
and annual, penniveined or 3—5-nerved, usually with a distinct network 
of veins, very rarely (Cassytha) reduced to small scales; stipules 0; 
leaf-buds often scaly. Flowers small, greenish or yellowish, in axillary 
or subterminal, rarely terminal, cymose or racemose inflorescences, 
rarely solitary ; bracts caducous or subpersistent, sometimes forming 
involucres below the partial inflorescences; bracteoles 0, except in 
Cassytha. 
Species about 1000, in the tropics and subtropical regions ; few in Africa. 
Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Linn., is often cultivated for the sake of its aromatic 
bark, and Persea gratissima, Gaertn., the Avocado pear, for its edible fruit, 
Leaf-bearing trees and shrubs. 
Anthers 2-valved. 
Fruit completely enclosed in the persistent and 
accrescent receptacle . : : : : . 1, CRYPTOCARYA. 
Fruit free; perianth deciduous : : cE . 2. TYLOSTEMON. 
Anthers 4-valved. 
Valves collateral ; ovary inferior. : : . 3. HyPODAPHNIS. 
Valves superposed ; ovary superior . . c - 4, OCOTEA. 
Leafless slender climbers ~ ©. CASSYTHA. 
1. CRYPTOCARYA, R. Br.; Benth. et Hook. f. 
Gen. PI. iii. 150. 
Flowers hermaphrodite. Perianth herbaceous; receptacle ovoid to 
turbinate or subcylindric, after flowering constricted above, persistent ; 
lobes 6, in 2 whorls, subequal, deciduous. Stamens in + whorls, the 
outer 2 whorls fertile and inserted at the base of the perianth-lobes, 
the third fertile, and like the fourth, which is staminodial, inserted in 
the upper part of the receptacle; anthers 2-valved, of the two outer 
whorls introrse, of the third extrorse; filaments short, those of the 
third whorl with a pair of sessile or stipitate glands at the base or in 
front of it; staminodes ovoid and shortly stipitate or attenuated at the 
base. Ovary sessile, enclosed in the receptacle; style shortly exserted- 
Fruit globose or oblong, enclosed in the enlarged indurated or somewhat 
fleshy receptacle, smooth or longitudinally ribbed ; pericarp membranous 
or indurated, more or less free from the receptacle. Testa membranous, 
not or imperfectly separable from the pericarp.—Trees or shrubs. 
Leaves alternate, rarely subopposite, penninerved or 3-nerved, coria- 
ceous. Flowers small, in subterminal or axillary panicles. 
About 40 species in the tropics, mostly in the Indo-Malayan region, and in extra- 
tropical South Africa. 
1. C. liebertiana, Lngl. Jahrb. xxvi. 390, t. 10, fig. B. A tree 
of medium size; branches and leaves (particularly the petiole and 
