EUPHORBiACE^. SILYA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



23 



DRYPETES. 



Flowers dioecious ; calyx 4 to 6-parted, the divisions imbricated in aestivation ; 

 corolla ; stamens as many as the divisions of the calyx, or about twice as many ; disk 

 ^ypogynous, pulvinate ; ovary 1 or rarely 2-celled ; ovules 2 in each cell, suspended. 

 Fruit drupaceous. Leaves alternate, entire, or obscurely sinuate-toothed, stipulate, 

 persistento 



Drypetes, Vahl, Eclog. iii. 49 (1807). — EndUcher, Gen. Liparena, Poiteau, Dic^. /Sci. iVaf. xxvii. 6 (1823). 



1124. — Meisner, Gen. 344. — Baillon, Etude G^n. Freireodendron, Mueller Arg., De Candolle Prodr. xv. pt 

 Euphorh. 606; Hist. PL v. 248 (excl. Hemicyclia and ii. 244 (1862). — BaiUon, Hist. PL v. 248. 



Cyclostemon) . — Bentham & Hooker, Gen. iii. 278. 

 Pax, Engler & Prantl Pfianzenfam. iii. pt v. 25. 



Trees or shrubs, with thick milky juice and terete branchlets. Leaves involute in vernation, 

 alternate, petiolate, penniveined, coriaceous, persistent ; stipules minute, caducous. Flowers axillary, 

 sessile or pedicellate, the males in many-flowered clusters, the females solitary or in few-flowered clusters. 

 Pedicels developed from the axils of minute deciduous bracts, ebracteolulate. Calyx divided nearly to 

 the base into four to six lobes rounded or acute at the apex, deciduous or persistent under the fruit. 

 Stamens inserted under the margin of a flat or concave slightly lobed disk j filaments filiform j anthers 

 ovate, emarginate, attached on the back near the base, extrorse or introrse, two-celled, the cells affixed 

 to a broad oblong connective, opening longitudinally, wanting in the pistillate flower. Ovary sessile 

 on a thick lobed disk, ovoid, one or rarely two-celled, crowned by one or two sessile or subsessile 

 peltate or renif orm stigmas ; rudimentary or wanting in the sterile flower ; ovules two in each cell, 

 collateral, descending, attached to the central angle of the cell, operculate with a hood-Hke body 

 developed from the placenta, anatropous j raphe ventral ; micropyle extrorse, superior. Fruit drupa- 

 ceous, ovoid, or subglobose, tipped with the withered remnants of the stigmas, one-celled and one-seeded, 

 or rarely two-celled and two-seeded ; exocarp thick and corky or thin and crustaceous ; endocarp 



thick or th 



Seed filling the cavity of the nutlet, estrophiolate 



ceous or membranaceous. Embryo erect in thin fleshy albumen ; cotyledons broad and flat, much 

 longer than the superior radicle. 



Drypetes is confined to the tropical regions of the New World, where it is distributed from 

 southern Florida through the West Indies to eastern Brazil. Eleven species ^ are now distinguished, of 

 which two inhabit Florida. 



Drypetes produces hard durable wood, but is not known to possess other useful properties. 



The generic name, from hovnna^ relates to the character of the fruit. 



Arg., De Candolle Prodr. xv. pt. ii. 453 ; Martins Fl. 



XV. 351 



