MYRICACE. 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
83 
MYRICA. 
FLOWERS naked, unisexual, moncecious or dicecious, in unisexual or androgynous 
aments ; stamens usually 4 to 6; ovary 1-celled; ovule solitary, erect. 
ceous. 
persistent. 
Myrica, Linnezus, Gen. 302 (1737). — A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 
409. — Endlicher, Gen. 271.— Meisner, Gen. 351. — 
Baillon, Hist. Pl. vi. 259.— Bentham & Hooker, Gen. iii. 
400. — Engler, Engler & Prantl Pflanzenfam. iii. pt. i. 27. 
Fruit drupa- 
Leaves alternate, resinous-punctate, usually without stipules, deciduous or 
Comptonia, Gertner, Fruct. ii. 58, t. 90 (1791). — Schreber, 
Gen. ii. 811. — Nuttall, Gen. ii. 206. 
Cerophora, Rafinesque, Alsograph. Am. 11 (1838). 
Fayana, Rafinesque, Alsograph. Am. 12 (1838). 
Gale, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 345 (1763). 
Morella, Loureiro, £7. Cochin. 548 (1790). 
Faya, Webb & Berthelot, Phytogr. Canar. sect. iii. 272 (not 
Necker) (1850). 
Aromatic resinous trees or shrubs, with watery juice, terete branches, scaly leaf-buds formed in 
summer, the scales of the inner rows accrescent, and fibrous often stoloniferous roots. Leaves alternate, 
revolute in vernation, serrate, irregularly dentate or lobed, rarely entire or pinnatifid, penniveined with 
obscure veins, resinous-punctate, usually coriaceous, deciduous or persistent, generally exstipulate, or 
furnished with fugacious stipules, leaving, when they fall, elevated semiorbicular leaf-scars displaying 
the ends of three nearly equidistant fibro-vascular bundles. 
axils of the deciduous scales of unisexual or rarely androgynous aments from scaly buds formed in 
Flowers moncecious or dicecious in the 
summer in the axils of the leaves of the year, remaining covered during the winter, and opening in 
early spring before or with the unfolding of the leaves of the year; in monccious species the sterile 
aments in the axils of lower, the fertile in those of upper leaves. Staminate flowers in oblong or 
cylindrical simple fascicled or densely panicled aments, below the pistillate in androgynous aments. 
Stamens from two to sixteen, generally from four to six, inserted on the torus-like base of the scales of 
the ament, usually subtended by two or four or rarely by numerous scale-like bractlets ; filaments 
filiform, short or elongated, free or united at the base into a short stipe; anthers ovate, erect, two-celled, 
introrse, opening longitudinally ; ovary rudimentary, subulate, usually wanting. Pistillate flowers in 
ovoid or globular catkins shorter or longer than those of the staminate flowers, their scales one or rarely 
two or three-flowered. Ovary sessile, one-celled, usually subtended by two lateral bractlets persistent 
under the fruit, or (Comptonia) by eight linear subulate bractlets accrescent and forming a laciniately 
cut rigid involucre inclosing the fruit; styles short, divided into two elongated filiform or abbreviated 
stigmas stigmatic on the inner face; ovule solitary, erect from the bottom of the cell, orthotropous, 
the micropyle superior. Drupe globose or ovoid; exocarp papillose and often covered with a waxy 
exudation, rarely thick, fleshy and succulent, or (Gale) smooth and resinous; endocarp thick, hard, 
and bony. Seed erect, exalbuminous, covered with a thin membranaceous testa. Kmbryo straight ; 
cotyledons plano-convex, fleshy ; radicle short, superior, turned away from the minute basal hilum.’ 
1 By Engler (Engler & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. iii. pt. i. 27) Myrica two to four-flowered clusters, subtended by two bractlets persistent 
is divided into the following sections : — 
MorE.tA. Flowers dicecious or monecious ; staminate flowers 
subtended by two to four or (Myrica sapida) by numerous scale- 
like bractlets, or ebracteolate ; pistillate flowers solitary or in from 
under the fruit. 
or rarely (Myrica sapida) succulent and fleshy. Leaves serrate or 
Pericarp papillose, covered with a waxy secretion, 
rarely entire. 
GALE. Flowers diecious ; pistillate flowers subtended by two 
