110 



FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 



shrub possessing more or less aromatic j)i"operties ; they have alternate 

 entire leaves and rather large solitary flowers, with 3 sepals and about 

 6 petals, thus presenting an anthotaxy or floral arrangement somewhat 



unusual among exogenous plants. The 

 stamens and carpels are variable, the lat- 

 ter usually fleshy in fruit. 



The common papaw, Asimiiia triJoha, is 

 familiar to ' residents of the southern 

 States and of the Ohio and Mississ- 

 ippi valley regions. The lurid purple 

 flowers of this tree, appearing with the 

 leaves in early spring, are quite ornamen- 

 tal, while the oblong yellowish fruits have 

 a rich flavor when ripe, superior in the 

 writer's opinion to that of the banana. 

 There are other species of Ashnina in the 

 far South. None of them attain the dig- 

 nity of arborescence, but some have very 

 large and handsome flowers (see Fig. 92.) 

 ^/^.'^f.;,>'. /""'"'f"'Tu"T'f 111 the West Indies the related genus 



(Myrtstica fragrans). o\\e-\\?ai natural " 



size. Original. Ano7\a yields several much-prized tropical 



fruits. The soursop is the product 

 of A. muricata; it has a white pulp 

 and a pleasant subacid flavor, the 

 outer rind being greenish and cov- 

 ered with prickles. The sweetsop 

 is the fruit of A. squamosa : it is 

 sweeter but also more tasteless. 

 Uvaria, which is common through- 

 out the Indo-Malayan region, con- 

 sists wholly of climbing shrubs; the 

 fruit is occasionally edible, but the 

 genus is chiefly valuable on ac- 

 count of the variety of medicinal 

 substances extracted from roots, 

 bark, flowers and seeds in the dif- 

 ferent species. The South Amer- 

 ican genus Xylopla is similarly use- 

 ful. 



Family Myristicaceae. Nutmeg 



Family. Consists of the single ^..^ ^^ California nutmeg (Umbellularia 



genus Myristica, including about <ra//>r«/ca)shawing fruit and detached flower, 



OA • 1 • p ii i • £ the former reduced, the latter enlarged one-half. 



oO species, natives oi the tropics oi original. 



