MYRTLE FAMILY 155 



the seedpod but is not adherent to it. The leaves are 

 opposite and entire, and the flowers are in many leafy 

 racemes. The low L. Vulneraria, with creeping stems, 

 short oblong or oval sessile leaves, and little purple flowers 

 in the leaf-axils, is sometimes seen in damp soil. The 

 arrangement of the tiny petals in these plants suggests 

 that of the cultivated crepe myrtles, to which they are 

 related. 



Our more common species of this family are incon- 

 spicuous homely plants of damp places, Ammannia and 

 Rotala, with spreading stems, opposite, narrow, entire 

 leaves, and minute flowers sessile in their axils. The parts 

 of the flowers are in fours, and the seedpod is enclosed 

 in the four-toothed calyx. 



MYRTLE FAMILY (Myrtaceae) 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite, evergreen, entire. Flowers 

 white. Sepals and petals 4 or 5 each, stamens many. Fruit 

 berry-like, crowned with persistent calyx. 



Spice Tree and Stopper (Genera Anamomis and 



Eugenia) 



It is from this large family that Florida has taken 

 many of its exotics — trees, shrubs, and fruits. No other 

 family is so widely represented among cultivated plants 

 in the peninsula, or has contributed so many ornamental 

 and useful species to the state. 



From Australia have come the eucalyptus, cajaput, and 

 bottle-brush trees, whose flowers, like those of the rose- 

 apple from the East Indies, show a profusion of long 

 stamens — white, cream-color, or crimson — that are far 

 more conspicuous than the small petals. From South 

 America and Central America we have the guavas, downy 

 myrtle, Suriname cherry, feijoa, and other fruits. 



