FLACOURTIACEAE 251 



GORDONIA 



Evergreen or deciduous trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, coria- 

 ceous, entire or serrate, petioled. Flowers solitary, axillary, white and 

 showy; sepals 5, unequal, imbricated ; petals 5, obovate, free or slightly 

 connate at the base; stamens numerous, 5-adelphous or altogether; 

 ovary superior, 3-5 (rarely 6) celled; ovules 4-8 in each cell; style 1; 

 stigma 3-6 lobed. Fruit a woody capsule, 3-6 celled, with a persistent 

 axis. Seeds winged. 



Sixteen or 17 species in tropical and subtropical Asia and E. N. 

 America. Two species in China. 



Gordonia axillaris Szyszylowicz. 



Shrub or small tree to 8 m. tall. Leaves oblong-obovate or oblanceo- 

 late, obtuse, entire or serrate, dark green above, short petioled, 8-15 cm. 

 long. Flowers large, 5-8 cm. long, creamy white, nearly sessile; sepals 

 obcordate, purplish brown; petals roundish, obovate to obcordate; ovary 

 4 or 5 celled. Capsule brown, oblong-ovate. Seeds with a terminal 

 wing. 



, Szechuan, Yunnan to Hongkong and Formosa. 



Gordonia sinensis Hemsley & Wilson. 



Tree to 10 m. tall with gray longitudinally and shallowly fissured 

 bark. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute, crenate-serrate, 12-18 cm. long; 

 petiole up to 1.5 cm. long. Flowers on a peduncle; peduncle about 4 

 cm. long; ovary 5 celled; stigma capitate. 



Szechuan on Omei Shan. 



FLACOURTIACEAE 



Trees or shrubs, rarely climber?. Leaves alternate, simple. Flowers 

 regular, perfect or unisexual. Petals hypogynous, imbricated, as many 

 as the sepals, (10-0) or none; sepals 2-15; stamens numerous, hypogynous 

 or perigynous. Torus often glandular and dilated, frequently surmounted 

 by a variously modified disk. Ovary usually 1 celled with several parietal 

 placentae; ovules 2 to many on each placenta. Style 1 to several. Fruit 

 fleshy or dry, indehiscent or splitting into valves. Seeds with more or 

 less fleshy albumen. 



