440 EXOGENOUS OR DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



Persimmon. The fruit, which is extremely austere and astrin- 

 gent when green, is sweet and eatable when fully ripe. The bark 

 is powerfully astringent. Ebony is the wood of D. Ebenus and 

 other African and Asiatic species. 



826. Ord, StyracaCCSB (the Storax Family). Shrubs or trees with 

 perfect flowers. Calyx-tube coherent either with the base of the 

 ovary, or with its whole surface. Styles and stigmas perfectly 

 united into one. Stamens more or less united. Cells of the ovary 

 opposite the calyx-lobes. Otherwise much as in the last family. 

 Ex. Styrax, Halesia, Symplocos. Some yield a fragrant, bal- 

 samic resinous substance ; such as Storax and Benzoin, containing 

 Benzole acid. The sweet leaves of our Symplocos tinctoria afford 

 a yellow dye. 



827. Ord, Sapotaces (the Sapodilla Family). Trees or shrubs, 

 usually with a milky juice ; the leaves alternate, entire, coriaceous, 

 the upper surface commonly shining. Flowers perfect, regular, ax- 

 illary, usually in clusters. Calyx four- to eight-parted. Corolla four- 

 to eight- (or many-) cleft. Stamens distinct, inserted on the tube 

 of the corolla, commonly twice as many as its lobes, half of them 

 fertile and opposite the lobes, the others petaloid scales or filaments 

 and alternate with them : anthers extrorse. Ovary 4 - 12-celled, 

 with a single ovule in each cell. Styles united into one. Fruit a 

 berry. Seeds with a bony testa, with or without albumen. Ex. 

 Bumelia of the Southern United States. The fruit of many spe- 

 cies is sweet and eatable ; such as the Sapodilla Plum, the Marma- 

 lade, the Star-Apple, and other West Indian species. The large 

 seeds, particularly of some kinds of Bassia, yield a bland fixed oil, 

 which is sometimes thick and like butter, as in the Chee of India 

 (B. butyracea), and the African Butter-tree, or Shea, described by 

 Mungo Park. 



828. Ord, MjTSinaceSB, Trees or shrubs, mostly with alternate 

 coriaceous leaves, which are often dotted with glands, and with all 

 the characters of Primulacese, except the drupaceous fruit and 

 arborescent habit. Nearly all tropical (Ardisia, Myrsine). 



829. Old. PrinmlaceSB, Herbs, with opposite, whorled, or alter- 

 nate leaves, often with naked scapes and the leaves crowded at the 

 base. Calyx four- or five-cleft or toothed, usually persistent. 

 Corolla rotate, hypocrateriform, or carnpanulate. Stamens insert- 

 ed on the tube of the corolla, as many as its lobes and opposite 

 them ! Ovary free, one-celled with a free central placenta ! 



