RUBIACER. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 25 
CEPHALANTHUS. 
FLowers perfect ; calyx unequally 4 or 5-toothed or lobed; corolla gamopetalous, 
4-lobed, the lobes imbricated in estivation ; stamens 4; ovary inferior, 2-celled; ovule 
solitary, pendulous. Fruit obpyramidal, 2-coccous; seeds arillate. Leaves opposite or 
verticillate, petiolate, stipulate. 
Cephalanthus, Linnzus, Gen. 61 (1737). — Adanson, Fam. Endlicher, Gen. 530. — Meisner, Gen. 170. — Bentham & 
Pi. ii. 147.— A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 209; Mem. Mus. Hooker, Gen. ii. 30. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. vii. 494. — Schu- 
vi. 402. — A. Richard, Mém. Soc. Nat. Paris, v. 155.— mann, Engler & Prantl Pflanzenfam. iv. pt. iv. 59. 
Small trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite or in verticils of threes, petiolate ; stipules triangular or 
ovate, interpetiolar, deciduous, or persistent. Flowers nectariferous, yellow or creamy white, sessile in 
the axils of glandular bracts, in dense globose pedunculate terminal or axillary solitary or panicled 
heads. Receptacle globose, setose. Calyx-tube obpyramidal, the short limb unequally four or five- 
toothed or lobed. Corolla tubular funnel-form or saucer-shaped, divided into four or five short spreading 
or reflexed lobes, usually furnished with a minute dark gland at the base or on the side of each sinus, 
glabrous or puberulous on the inner surface of the tube. Stamens four, inserted on the throat of the 
corolla ; filaments short; anthers linear-oblong, sagittate, apiculate at the base, attached on the back 
below the middle, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally. Disk thin or obscure, or annular and 
fleshy. Ovary bicarpellate, two-celled ; style filiform, elongated ; stigma clavate, entire or slightly 
bilobed ; ovules solitary, suspended from the apex of the cell on a short thickened papillose funicle, 
anatropous ; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit obpyramidal, coriaceous, dicoccous. Seeds 
oblong, pendulous, covered at the apex by white spongy arils; testa membranaceous. Embryo straight, 
in cartilaginous albumen ; cotyledons linear-oblong, obtuse; radicle elongated, superior. 
. Five species of Cephalanthus are now recognized. One is widely spread over the temperate and 
warmer parts of North America and reaches the Antilles; three species occur in South America from 
Uruguay to eastern Peru ;* and one species? is distributed from the Sikkim Himalaya to China and the 
Malay peninsula and archipelago. 
Only the North American species is known to possess useful properties. 
The generic name, from xefah7 and avOos relates to the capitate inflorescence. 
1 Schumann, Martius Fl. Brasil. vi. pt. vi. 127. Cephalanthus aralioides, Zollinger, Syst. Verz. 61 (1854).— 
2 Cephalanthus tetrandrus. Miquel, FU. Ned. Ind. ii. 152, 344. 
Nauclea tetrandra, Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. ii. 125 (1824). -  Cephalanthus occidentalis, Forbes & Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. 
Cephalanthus naucleoides, De Candolle, Prodr. iv. 539 (1830). — xxiii. 369 (not Linneus) (1888). 
Kurz, Forest Fl. Brit. Burm. ii. 68.— Hance, Jour. Bot. xx. 
6. — Hooker f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iii. 24. 
