70 EBENACEJE. Diospyi-os. 



D. Texana, Scheele. (MEXICAN PERSIMMON.) Shrub or tree 10 to 29 feet high, widely 

 much branched, with smooth bark and heavy white wood : leaves cuneate-oblong or ob- 

 ovate, rounded at apex, often retuse (an inch or two long), almost sessile, tomentose, as 

 also the branchlets : flowers silky-tomentose outside ; sterile few in a fascicle : calyx 5-6- 

 parted : stamens 10 to 20 in two ranks, glabrous ; none in the fertile flowers : ovary and 

 young fruit pubescent, 8-celled : stigmas 4, each 2-lobed : fruit globose, black, luscious 

 (ripe in August), with 3 to 8 triangular seeds. Linnasa, xxii. 145; Torr. Mex. Bound. 109 ; 

 Hicrn, Mon. Eben. 1. c. 209. Woods along streams, Southern and Western Texas. (Ad- 

 jacent parts of Mex. ) 



ORDER LXXXV. STYRACACE^E. 



Shrubs or trees, with alternate simple leaves, and mostly perfect regular flowers, 

 having at least twice as many stamens as the petals or lobes to the corolla, borne 

 on its tube or base, or sometimes inserted with it ; the filaments monadelphous or 

 4 5-adelphous at base ; style and stigma one ; calyx more or less adnate to the 

 2-5-celled ovary ; the fruit or its cells one-seeded ; seed anatropous, with a mostly 

 straight embryo in copious fleshy albumen. Calyx either imbricated or open in 

 bud. Anthers introrse or innate. Disk none. Ovules solitary, in pairs, or few 

 in each cell, most of them aborting in the fruit. Style filiform. A small order, 

 in warm regions ; but nearly half the genera are represented in the United States. 

 -Gray, Mem. Am. Acad. v. 334; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. G67. 



TRIBE T. SYMPLOCINE^E. Stamens in several series : anthers short, innate. 

 Calyx-lobes imbricated in the bud. Pubescence simple. Embryo terete. 



1. SYMPLOCOS. Calyx 5-lobed ; the tube adnate to the 2-5-celled ovary. Corolla 

 5-parted, or nearly 5-petalous. Stamens very numerous, with filiform filaments, usually a 

 cluster adnate to the base of each petal. Ovules mostly a pair suspended from the sum- 

 mit of each cell. Fruit a small dry drupe or nut-like, mostly 1-ccllcd and 1-seeded. 



TRIBE II. STYRACE2E. Stamens definite in a single series : anthers linear or 

 oblong, adnate, introrse. Pubescence more or less stellate or scurfy. Calyx-lobes 

 or teeth mostly very short or obsolete, open in the bud. Cotyledons flat or foliaceous. 



2. HALESIA. Calyx-tube obconical or obpyramidal, 4-ribbed, adnate to the 2-4-celled 

 ovary ; the short truncate limb 4-toothed. Corolla campanulate, 4-cleft, or sometimes 

 nearly 4-petalous, convolute or imbricated in the bud. Stamens 8 to 16 : filaments flat- 

 tened, more or less monadelphous in a ring at base and somewhat adnate to the base of 

 tke corolla. Ovules 4 in each cell, the upper pair ascending, the lower pendulous. Fruit 

 dry-drupaceous or at maturity nut-like, 2-4-winged, within bony, 1-4-celled, pointed with 

 the persistent base of the style. Seeds single in each cell, cylindrical, with a thin coat. 



3. STYRAX. Calyx-tube campanulate ; its base adnate only to the lower part of the 

 primarily 3-celled ovary : the truncate limb of very small or obsolete teeth. Corolla 5- 

 petalous or 5-parted, or rarely 48-parted ; the lobes or petals imbricate, or nearly con- 

 volute, or valvate in the bud. Stamens double the number of the lobes of the corolla or 

 rarely fewer : filaments flat, in ours borne on the base of the corolla, cither monadelphous 

 or nearly distinct : anthers linear. Ovules several in each cell, ascending. Fruit usually 

 globular, becoming one-celled and dry, coriaceous or crustaceous, sometimes 3-valved from 

 the top. Seed mostly solitary, filling the cell, erect, with a bony smooth coat. 



1. SYMPLOCOS, Jaeq. SWEET-LEAF. (JiywirP.oxfv, connected, referring 

 to the stamens, which in some are highly monadelphous.) Shrubs or small trees 

 (American and Asiatic) ; with pinnately veined leaves, which commonly turn yel- 

 lowish in drying and yield a yellow dye ; the flowers axillary and yellow. Jacq. 

 Stirp. Amer. 166; L. Gen. 677. ffopea, Garden; L. Mant. 1.3. 



S- tinctoria, L'Her. Shrub 4 to 18 feet high : leaves rather coriaceous, oblong, acute 

 or acuminate, obscurely more or less serrate (4 or 5 inches long), soon glabrate and shining 



