CYRILLACE^ 



611 



1. CYRILLA, L. 



A glabrous tree or shrub, with spongy bark, slender terete branchlets conspicu- 

 ously marked by large leaf-scars, and narrow acute winter-buds covered with chest- 

 nut-brown scales. Leaves usually clustered near the ends of the branches, oblong or 

 obovate-oblong, pointed, rounded, or slightly emargiuate at the apex, conspicuously 

 reticulate-veined, short-petiolate, without stipules. Flowers on pedicels from the 

 axils of narrow alternate persistent bracts, in slender racemes from the axils of fallen 

 leaves or of small deciduous bracts near the extremities of the branches of the pre- 

 vious year; calyx minute, divided nearly to the base into 5 ovate-lanceolate acute 

 coriaceous lobes; petals 5, contorted in the bud, white or rose color, inserted on an 

 annular disk, three or four times longer than the calyx-lobes, oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute, concave, subcoriaceous, furnished below the middle on the inner surface with 

 a broad glandular nectary; stamens 5, opposite the divisions of the calyx, inserted 

 with and shorter than the petals; filaments subulate, fleshy; anther-cells united 

 above the point of the attachment of the filament, free below; ovary free, sessile, 

 ovoid, pointed, 2-celled; styles short, thick; stigma 2-lobed, with spreading lobes; 

 ovules 3 in each cell, suspended from an elongated placental process developed 

 from the apex of the cell. Fruit 2-celled, broadly ovoid, crowned with the rem- 

 nants of the persistent style; pericarp spongy. Seeds 2 in each cell, elongated, acu- 

 minate; embryo minute, cylindrical, 2-lobed. 



Cyrilla is represented by a single species of the coast region of the south Atlan- 

 tic and Gulf states and of the Antilles and eastern tropical South America. 



The name commemorates the scientific labors of Domenico Cirillo (17341799), 

 the distinguished Italian naturalist and patriot. 



1. Cyrilla racemiflora, L. Ironwood. Leather "Wood. 



Leaves 2'-3' long, ^'-1' broad, with stout petioles ^-1' long, turning late in the 

 autumn and early winter to brilliant shades of orange and scarlet and then decidu- 

 ous, or southward persistent with little change of color until the beginning of the 



f^.H-9S 



following summer. Flowers appearing late in June or early in July, in racemes 

 usually 6-10 together and 4'-6' long, at first erect, becoming pendulous before the 



