MYRTACER, SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 30 
CALYPTRANTHES. 
FLowers perfect ; calyx produced above the ovary, closed in the bud by a decidu- 
ous lid; petals 2 to 5, minute, imbricated in estivation, or 0; stamens indefinite, 
many-ranked; ovary inferior, 2 or 3-celled ; ovules 2 in each cell, or rarely indefinite. 
Fruit baccate. Leaves opposite, entire, penniveined, pellucid-punctate, persistent, 
destitute of stipules. 
Calyptranthes, Swartz, Prodr. 79 (1788). — Meisner, Gen. Chytralia, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 80 (1763). 
108. — Endlicher, Gen. 1232. — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. Calyptranthus, A. L. de Jussieu, Dict. Sci. Nat. vi. 274 
i. 717. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. vi. 352. (1805). 
Aromatic trees or shrubs, with terete or angled branchlets. Leaves complanate in vernation, 
opposite, entire, penniveined, marked with pellucid or resinous dots, petiolate. Flowers bibracteolate, 
minute, in subterminal or axillary pedunculate many-flowered panicles, their primary and secondary 
branches often racemose, the ultimate branches cymose. Bracts and bractlets minute, acute, caducous. 
Flower-buds ovoid or spherical. Calyx-tube turbinate, produced above the ovary, closed in the bud by 
a slightly four or five-lobed lid-hke orbicular limb, opening in anthesis by a circumscissile line, the 
limb at first attached laterally, finally deciduous. Disk lining the tube of the calyx. Petals, two to 
five, minute, inserted on the slightly thickened margin of the disk, or wanting. Stamens indefinite, 
inserted in many ranks on the margin of the disk; filaments filiform, inflexed in the bud, exserted ; 
anthers ovate, attached on the back below the middle, introrse, two-celled, the cells opening longitudi- 
nally. Ovary inferior, two to three-celled; style filiform, simple, crowned with a minute capitate 
stigma; ovules two or three in each cell, collateral, or rarely definite, attached to an axile placenta, 
ascending, anatropous; micropyle inferior ; raphe ventral. Fruit baccate, crowned with the truncate 
persistent calyx-tube, two to four-seeded. Seed subglobose, destitute of albumen ; testa membranaceous, 
shining. Embryo filling the cavity of the seed; cotyledons foliaceous, contortuplicate ; radicle elon- 
gated, incurved. 
Calyptranthes is confined to tropical America, where seventy or eighty species,’ distributed from 
the shores of Lake Worth in southern Florida to Brazil and Peru, are distinguished. 
The genus possesses few useful properties. The flower-buds and fruit are aromatic and astringent, 
and are occasionally used in condiments and as stimulants and digestives,’ especially those of the 
Brazilian C. aromatica*® and C. obscura,’ of the Mexican C. Schlechtendaliana® and C. Schiedeana,® 
and of the Peruvian C. paniculata.’ 
The name of the genus, from xaAvarpa and d&y6x, refers to the peculiar lid-like limb which closes 
the calyx before the opening of the flower. One species inhabits Florida. 
1 Swartz, Prodr. 79; Fl. Ind. Occ. ii. 917.— Willdenow, Spec. 8 St. Hilaire, Pl. Usuelles Brasil. t.14 (1824). — De Candolle, 
ii. 974.— Ruiz & Pavon, Syst. 130.— De Candolle, Prodr. iii. 1. c. — Berg, I. c. 19; 1. c. 38. , 
256. — Berg, Linnea, xxvii. 18; Martius Fl. Brasil. xiv. pt. i. 4 De Candolle, J. c. 257 (1828). — Berg, J. c. 31; 1. . 542, 627. 
38. — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 232 ; Cat. Pl. Cub. 85.— Hems- 5 Berg, Linnea, xxvii. 29 (1854). — Hemsley, J. c. 409. 
ley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 408. 6 Berg, J. c. 28 (1854). — Hemsley, 7. c. 409. 
2 Rosenthal, Syn. Pl. Diaphor. 924.— Baillon, Hist. Pl. vi. 7 Ruiz & Pavon, Prodr. 74, t. 13 (1794) ; Syst. 131.— De Can- 
340. dolle, /. c. 258. — Berg, J. c. 20. 
