682 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



StyracacEAE. Styrax Family. 



Mostly tropical shrubs or trees with regular perfect, or pol3'gamo-dioecious 

 flowers ; calyx free or adherent to the ovary ; corolla gamopetalous, or poly- 

 petalous ; the lobes or petals 4-8; stamens twice as many as the lobes of the 

 corolla, or more, inserted on its tube or base; the filaments nionadelphous, or 

 in 4-5 sets ; style 1 ; ovary 2-5-celled ; fruit a berry or drupe. 



About 75 species and 7 genera, few of them native to the United States. 

 Several species are cultivated for ornamental purposes, especially the snow- 

 drop or silver bell tree (Halesia Carolina) which is a small tree native to the 

 southern states. Styrax Benzoin is obtained from Sumatra and Java, benzoin 

 being obtained by cutting incisions into the plant, from which a resin exudes 

 and soon hardens by exposure to the air. Benzoin is used chiefly as incense in 

 the service of the Greek Church. 



I 



Fig. 392. Black Ash (Fra.riints nigra). 1. Flowering branch of 

 .■staminate tree. 2. Flowering branch of pistillate tree. 3. Pistillate 

 Dower showinfr rudimentary stamens, enlarged. 4. Longitudinal section 

 of ovary, enlarged. 5. Fruiting branch. 6. I.^ngitudinal section of 

 fruit. 7. lunbryo. 8. Winter branchlct. 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, one-half natural 

 size. (M. M. Cheney in Green's Forestry of Minnesota.) 



