Bursera BUKSERACE^ 205 



Family XL VII. BURSERACE^. 



Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, without stipules, simple 

 or imparipinnate ; leaflets opposite. Flowers racemose or pani- 

 culate, hermaphrodite or polygamo-dicecious. Calyx 3-6-lobed. 

 Petals 3-6, deciduous. Disk free or adnate with the tube of the 

 calyx. Stamens generally twice as many as the petals, inserted 

 on the disk. Ovary 2-5-celled. Ovules 2 in each cell, attached 

 near the apex at the interior angle of the cell. Fruit drupaceous. 

 Seeds without endosperm. Cotyledons contortuplicate ; radicle 

 superior. 



Species 400 or more, natives of the tropics. 



Ovary 3-celled ; stigma 3-lobed 1. Bursera. 



Ovary 4-5-celled ; stigma 4-5-lobed , 2. Protium. 



1. BURSERA L. 



Trees with balsamic resinous juices. Leaves compound or 

 simple. Flowers small,' polygamous, in lateral panicles or 

 racemes, sometimes clustered. Calyx small, with 3-6 lobes. 

 Petals 3-6, valvate. Stamens twice as many as the petals, 

 inserted at the base of the annular disk. Ovary 3-celled ; style 

 very short ; stigma obtusely 3-lobed. Drupe indistinctly 

 3-angled ; epicarp leathery-fleshy, resinous, separating into three 

 valves ; stone usually solitary, bony, triangular, united to a 

 persistent fleshy axis, 1 -celled, 1 -seeded. 



Species 100, natives of the tropics, chiefly America. 



Leaves compound. 



Leaflets papery. Bark flaking off 1. B. Simaruba. 



Leaflets leathery. Bark persistent 2. B. Hollickii. 



Leaves simple 3. B. simplicifolia. 



1. B. Simaruba Sarg. Gard. <& For. in. 260 (1890) ; leaves 

 compound ; leaflets papery ; bark flaking ofi". — Sarg. Silv. i. 97, 

 t. 41, 42; Engl, in Engl.-Prantl Pflzfam. Hi. pt. 4, 249,/. 145; 

 TJrh. Symb. Ant. iv. 324. Bursera gummifera L. Sp. PI. ed. 2, 

 471 (1762) ; Jacq. Sel. Stirp. Amer. 94, t. 65 (Burseria) & Ed. 

 pict. t. 96; Sw. Obs. Bot. 131 ; Wright Mem. 193; Macf. Jam. i. 

 229 ; Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 173 ; Baill. Hist. v. 261, /. 269-274 ; 

 Engl, in DC. Mon. iv. 39, t. i, /. 33-39 ; Cook & Coll. in Contrib. 

 U.S. Nat. Herb. viii. 97, t. 21. Betula arbor Americana &c. 

 Pluh. Phyt. t. 151, f. 1. Terebinthus major betulse <ic. Sloane 

 Cat. 167 & Hist. ii. 89, t. 199. T. foliis cordato-ovatis &c. Browne 

 Hist. Jam. 345. T. Brownei Jacq. Enum. PI. Carib. 18 (1760). 

 T. simaruba W. F. Wight, ex Bose in Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb. x. 



