390 YOUNGKEN— ON THE MYRICACEAE 



Myriceae, L. C. Richard, Anal. Fr., 1811, p. 493; 



H. Baillon Hist. Plant., t. 6, p. 245. 

 Galeaceae, Bubani, Fl. Pyr., 2, 1899, p. 49. 



Dioecious or sometimes monoecious, aromatic, resinous shrubs or 

 trees with watery juice and possessing underground branches which 

 arch downward then upward producing many suckers. Roots fibrous 

 and bearing many short rootlets upon which are frequently found coral- 

 loid clusters of tubercles containing the Actinomyces myricarum, Young- 

 ken. Leaves alternate, revolute in vernation, serrate, irregularly dentate, 

 lobed or entire, rarely pinnatifid, pinnately and reticulately veined, 

 pellucid punctate, evergreen or deciduous, generally exstipulate, rarely 

 stipulate. Flowers naked, unisexual, monoecious or dioecious, in the 

 axils of unisexual or androgynous aments from scaly buds formed in 

 the summer in the axils of the leaves of the year, remaining covered 

 during the winter and opening in March or April before or with the 

 unfolding of the leaves of the year. Staminate flowers in elongated 

 catkins, each consisting of 2-8 stamens inserted on the torus like base 

 of the oval to oval-lanceolate bracts of the catkin, usually subtended by 

 2 or 4 or rarely by numerous bracteoles; filaments short or elongated, 

 filiform, free or connate at the base into a short stipe; anthers ovoid, erect, 

 2-celled, extrose, showing longitudinal dehiscence. Pistillate flowers 

 in ovoid or ovoid-globular catkins. Gynoecium of two united carpels on 

 a bract. Ovary sessile, unicellular, subtended by two lateral bracteoles 

 which persist under the fruit or by 8 linear subulate bracteoles, accrescent 

 and forming a laciniate involucre inclosing the fruit; styles short and 

 dividing into 2 elongated style arms which bear stigmatic surfaces on 

 their inner face; ovule orthotropous, solitary, with a basilar placenta 

 and superior micropyle. Fruit an akene or ceriferous nut. Pericarp 

 covered with glandular emergences which secrete wax or fleshy emer- 

 gences, smooth and lustrous or smooth, glandular. Seed erect, exal- 

 buminous, covered with a thin testa. Embryo straight, cotyledons 

 thick, plano-convex; radicle short, superior. 



There are two distinct genera of this family, eg. Myrica and Comp- 

 tonia. 



Characters of the Genera and Species 



Genus: Myrica, L., Species Plantarum, 1024 (1753) 



Mostly dioecious, evergreen, sub-evergreen or deciduous aromatic 

 shrubs or trees with entire, dentate, or lobed glandular-dotted, exstipu- 

 late leaves; scales surrounding the ovary generally 2-4 very short. Sta- 

 mens usually 2-6 in the axil of each bract. Ovary covered with ceriferous 



