SYMPLOCACE^. 271 



if stimulated by the contact of a bristle becomes wet with a 

 copious exudation of honey. An insect visiting the flower for 

 honey would have to hang on the flower and in probing for the 

 narrow slits between the staminodes, by which alone access to 

 the honey is possible, would shake the corolla and be dusted 

 with pollen : the style being curled upwards out of the way would 

 not receive this pollen. The flower closes again before drop- 

 ping off", and autogamy would occur as the corolla and stamens 

 fell off past the style. 



SYMPLOCACE/E. 



included in F.B.I, in STYRACACE^, only genus. 



SYMPLOCOS. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, stalked, 

 glossy. Flowers in the leaf-axils, solitary or in fascicles 

 or short spikes or racemes, quite regular. Sepals five. 

 Corolla of three to eleven petals, more or less united at 

 the base. Stamens attached to the corolla, four to many, 

 in one or more series. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, 

 of two to five cells, each with two to four ovules. Style 

 slender : stigma capitate. Fruit a berry, but usually 

 with only one seed. Seed-coat thin : endosperm thick : 

 embryo straight or curved, with large radicle and very 

 short cotyledons. 



Species 280 (Brand in Das Pflaiizenreich IV 242). Natives 

 of the tropics of America and Australia. 



Leaves entire S. pendula. 



Leaves serrate right to the base S. foliosa. 



Serrations dying out about the middle .... S. spicata. 



Leaves with shallow crenations S. obtusa. 



Symplocos spicata Roxh., var laurina WalLj Cat. 

 4416 ! ; F.B.L iii 573, I 2. A small tree with smooth grey 

 bark, covered with lichen, like an English Beech. 

 Branches numerous, several often arising together, with 

 numerous leaf-scars, which are at first fiat with a barely 

 visible, raised centre, later on depressed round this 



