SAPOTACE^:. (SAPPODILLA FAMILY.) 267 



shorter than the hard albumen, with a long radicle and flat cotyledons. 

 Styles wholly or partly separate. Wood hard and dark-colored. No 

 milky juice. A small family, chiefly subtropical, represented here by 



1. DIOSPYROS, L. DATE-PLUM. PERSIMMON. 



Calyx 4 - 6-lobed. Corolla 4 - 6-lobcd, convolute in the bud. Stamens com- 

 monly 16 in the sterile flowers, and 8 in the fertile, in the latter imperfect. 

 Berry large, globular, surrounded at the base by the thickish calyx, 4 - 8-celled, 

 4-8-seeded. Flowers dioeciously polygamous, the fertile axillary and solitary, 

 the sterile smaller and often clustered. (Name, Atos, of Jove, and irvpos, (/rain.) 



1. D. Virginia im, L. (COMMON PERSIMMON.) Leaves ovate-obloug, 

 smooth or nearly so ; peduncles very short ; calyx 4-parted ; corolla between 

 bell-shaped and urn-shaped ; styles 4, two-lobed at the apex ; ovary 8-cellcd. 

 Woods and old fields, Rhode Island and New York to Illinois, and southward. 

 June. A small tree with thickish leaves, a greenish-yellow leathery corolla, 

 and a plum-like fruit, 1' in diameter, which is exceedingly astringent when 

 green, yellow when ripe, and sweet and edible after exposure to frost. 



ORDER 67. SAPOTACE^S. (SAPPODILLA FAMILY.) 



Trees or shrubs, mostly with a milky juice, simple and entire alternate 

 leaves (often rusty-downy beneath), small and perfect regular flowers usually 

 in axillary clusters; the calyx free and persistent ; the fertile stamens com- 

 monly as many as the lobes of the hypogynous short corolla and opposite 

 them, inserted on its tube, along with one or more roivs of appendages and 

 scales, or sterile stamens ; anthers turned outwards ; ovary 4 - 12-celled, with 

 a single anatropous ovule in each cell ; seeds large. Albumen mostly none ; 

 but the large embryo with thickened cotyledons. Style single, pointed. 

 A small, mostly tropical order, producing the Sappodilla or Star-apple, and 

 some other edible fruits, represented in our district only by the genus 



1. B ITM E L. I A , Swartz. BDMELIA. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla 5-cleft, with a pair of internal appendages at each 

 sinus. Fertile stamens 5 : anthers arrow-shaped. Sterile stamens 5, petal-like, 

 alternate with the lobes of the corolla. Ovary 5-cellcd. Fruit small, resem- 

 bling a cherry, black, containing a large ovoid and erect seed, with a roundish 

 scar at its base. Flowers small, white, in fascicles from the axil of the leaves. 

 Branches often spiny. Leaves often fascicled on short spurs. Wood very hard. 

 (The ancient name of a kind of Ash.) 



1. B. lycioides, Gaertn. (SOUTHERN BUCKTHORN.) Spiny (10- 

 25 high) ; leaves wedge-d>long varying to oval-lanceolate, with a tapering base, often 

 acute, reticulated, nearly glabrous botli sides (2' -4' long); clusters densely many- 

 flowered; fruit ovoid. Moist ground, S. Kentucky and southward. May, June. 



2. B. lilUUgillOSfl, IVrs. Spiny (10-40 hi^li) ; hare* 

 ui wedyv-obivate, rusty-woolly freneoM, obtuse (1^' 3' long) ; cfntft'ri, ti- 



