96 



MYRICACEAE. 



Fruit a small drupe or nut, the exocarp often waxy. Seed erect. Cotyle- 

 dons plano-convex. Radicle very short. Two genera and some 35 species 

 of wide geographic distribution. 



1. MYRICA L. 



Leaves entire, dentate or lobed, mostly resinous-dotted, fragrant. Stami- 

 nate aments oblong or narrowly cylindric, expanding before or with the leaves. 

 Stamens 4-8. Pistillate aments ovoid or subglobose; ovary subtended by 2-4, 

 mostly short bractlets. Drupe globose or ovoid, its exocarp waxy. [Ancient 

 Greek name of the Tamarisk.] About 33 species, natives of Europe, America 

 and Asia. Type species: Myrica Gale L. 



1. Myrica car if era L. Wax- 

 myrtle. Candleberry-myrtle. 

 (Fig. 113.) A low slender 

 dioecious tree, up to 25° high, 

 with a trunk 1° thick, or usually 

 a shrub 3°-7° high, the bark 

 gray, nearly smooth. Leaves 

 narrow, oblong or oblanceolate, 

 mostly acute, entire or sparingly 

 dentate, narrowed at the base, 

 fragrant, short-petioled, dark 

 green above, paler and some- 

 times pubescent beneath, resin- 

 ous, I'-SY long, unfolding with 

 or before the aments; stami- 

 nate aments cylindric ; pistil- 

 late aments short, oblong; ripe 

 drupes globose, bluish white, 

 waxy, tipped with the base of 

 the style, long-persistent. [M. 

 X>unctata of Rein.] 



Common on hillsides and 

 along marshes. Native. South- 

 eastern United States and West 

 Indies. Flowers in spring and 

 early summer. Its fruits, pro- 

 tected by the layer of wax, may have reached Bermuda by floating. 



Order 5. JUGLANDALES. 



Trees with alternate pinnately compound leaves, and monoecious 

 bracteolate flowers, the staminate in long drooping aments, the pistillate 

 solitary or several together. Staminate flowers consisting of 3-numerous 

 stamens with or without an irregularly lobed perianth adnate to the bract- 

 let, very rarely with a rudimentary ovary. Anthers erect, 2-eelled, the 

 sacs longitudinally dehiscent; filaments short. Pistillate flowers bracted 

 and usually 2-bracteolate, with a 3-5-lobed (normally 4-lobed) calyx or 

 with both calyx and petals, and an inferior 1-celled or incompletely 2-4- 

 celled ovary. Ovule solitary, erect, orthotropous ; styles 2, stigmatic on the 

 inner surface. Fruit a drupe with indehiscent or dehiscent, fibrous or 

 woody exocarp (husk; ripened calyx; also regarded as an involucre),. 



