130 LYTHRACEAE. [| Psidium. 
3. PSIDIUM, L. 
Calyx-tube ovate and adnate at the base, the upper free portion quite 
mi 
or more-celled, with many ovules in each cell, inserted on bifid axile 
placentas. Fruit a berry. Seeds several, kidney- or horseshoe-shaped. 
Embryo curved, with a long radicle and short cotyledons. — Trees or 
shrubs with opposite leaves. Flowers solitary or few together on axillary 
peduncles. 
An American genus, of which the following species has become naturalized in many 
tropical countries 
71. P. Guayava, L.— A small tree, pubescent on the young branches. 
Leaves on short petioles, ovate or oblong, usually acuminate, glabrous 
above, softly pubescent underneath, with the principal veins very pro- 
minent. Peduncles axillary, !/-—1‘ long, 1—3-flowered. Buds ovoid in 
the adnate part, the free part also ovoid, but much larger and more or 
less acuminate. Petals aut: fully '/2‘ in diameter. Fruit globular or 
pear-shaped. — Benth. Fl. Hongk. p. 120. — P. pomiferum and P. pyri- 
ferum, L. 
The Guava is of early introduction and has spread over many parts of the Islands, 
in some valleys forming close thickets, to the exclusion of every other shrub or tree 
Its fruit is of the size and wraki of a medium-sized apple, sweet geen Pe to the taste. 
Another cultiva vari smaller, ovoid, ree 5 less acid fruit, the pulp being 
wish or white. The variety pio pear-shaped s rather rare. A distinct species 
so called Chinese Guava 
To the Order Combretaceae belongs the Terminalia Catappa, L., generally called 
«Kamani» a tree much planted for the shade egensed sa ag horizontal branches and 
large leaves, less on account of the almond-like edibl 
Orper XXXII. LYTHRACEAE. 
Calyx-tube free, but usually enclosing the ovary, with as many or twice 
as many teeth as there are petals. Petals 4, 5 or sometimes more, rarely 
deficient, inserted at the top of the sale sulin crumpled in the bud. 
tamens as many or twice as many, or rarely indefinite, inserted in the 
tube of the calyx, often lower dows than the petals. Ovary 2- or more: 
celled, with several ovules in each cell. Style single. Fruit a capsule, 
often 1-celled by the drying up of the partitions. an small, without 
albumen. — Trees, shrubs or herbs. Leaves mostly (at least the lower 
ones) opposite, entire, hones stipules. Flowers axillary, or in terminal 
racemes, spikes or pani 
A considerable Order, some of the herbaceous genera spread over the greater part of 
the globe, the larger woody-stemmed ones confined to the tropics of both Worlds. 
Calyx straight; petals and cells of ovary equal . 1. Lythrum. 
Calyx gibbous at the base; petals pi ovarian cells unequal ee Cuphea. 
