218 



RHAMNACEAE. 



HOVENIA. Honey Tree. 

 (Family Rhamnaceae). 



Trees: deciduous. Twigs ter- 

 ete, slender, zig-zag: pith relative- 

 ly large, pale, continuous, round. 

 Buds rather small, superposed, 

 sessile, ovoid, with 1 or 2 exposed 

 scales, the end bud lacking. Leaf- 

 scars alternate, round-heart- 

 shaped, somewhat elevated: 

 bundle-traces 3, large: stipule- 

 scars lacking. 



Winter-characters of Hovenia 

 dulcis are given .by Shirasawa, 

 241, pi. 3. 



Hovenia dulcis, which is grown 

 successfully as far north as 

 Washington, somewhat suggests a 

 hackberry in its foliage and 

 slender zig-zag twigs. When it be- 

 comes old enough to fruit its 

 fleshy edible branching flower- 

 stalks, quite unlike the product of 



any other northern tree but in a way morphologically com- 

 parable with the cashew "apples" of the tropics (Anacar- 

 dium), attract attention, and finally litter the ground, in au- 

 tumn and winter. 

 Twigs from villous, glabrescent: buds dark brown, hairy. 



H. dulcis. 



