286 CHINESE ECONOMIC TPEES 



Insect white wax is sometimes produced on this tree. A very- 

 attractive tree in winter with its dark green glossy foliage and abundant 

 blue-black fruits. Very often planted in yards, over graves and along 

 rqadsides. L. ibota Siebold, L. sinense Lourieo and L. amurense Carriere 

 are some of the most common shrubby forms in this country. 



BORAGINACEAE 



Herbs, rarely shrubs or trees, usually hispid. Leaves alternate, 

 mostly entire, without stipules. Flowers perfect, regular, rarely irregu- 

 lar, usually pentamerous, in panicles, corymbs or racemes, rarely 

 solitary; calyx persistent, free, 5 (4-8) cleft or lobed ; corolla game- 

 petalous, 5 (4-6) lobed; stamens 5 or as many as, and alternating with, 

 the lobes of the corolla; carpels 2, more or less united into an entire or 

 2-4 lobed ovary; cells 2; ovules 2 in each cell or cells 4, each 1 ovuled; 

 style 1 (or 2) ; stigma usually 2. Fruit composed of 4, 1-seeded nutlets, 

 the seed coat variously modified, or a drupe. 



Eighty-five genera and about 1,500 species widely distributed. 

 Ehretia is the only known arborescent genus in China. 



EHRETIA 



Shrub or trees. Leaves alternate, entire or dentate, with or without 

 stiff hairs. Flowers perfect, pentamerous, small, white, in clusters or 

 rarely solitary in the axils of the upper leaves; calyx persistent in the 

 fruit; corolla rotate or cylindric with 5 narrow, rounded lobes; stamens 

 on the corolla, exserted or rarely included; ovary at first 1 celled, later 

 becoming imperfectly 4 celled by the development of 2 parietal placentae; 

 ovules 2 in each cell; style 2 or bifid. Fruit a small drupe, 2(0 celled, 

 usually 4 seeded. The nutlets are bony and attached to a central 

 column. 



About 50 species, mostly in the tropics. Two species in China. The 

 fruits are edible. 



Ehretia acuminata R. Brown. 

 (Ehretia serxata Eoxburgh) 



Tree up to 15 m/tall with gray bark longitudinally fissured. Leaves 

 alternate, elliptic to oblong or acuminate, serrate, rounded at the base, 



