648 SAPOTACEAE (SAPODILLA FAMILY^ 



SAPOTACEAE (Sapodilla Family) 



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

 (often rusty-downy beneath), small and perfect regular flowers ustially in axillary 

 clusters; the calyx free and persistent ; the fertile stamens commonly as many 

 as the lobes of the hypogynous short corolla and opposite them, inserted on its 

 tube, along with one or more rows of appendages and scales (or sterile stamens) ; 

 anthers turned otitward; ovary 4-l2-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 family. 



1. BUMELIA Sw. 



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-celled. Fruit small, resembling 

 a cherry, black, eostaining a large ovoid and erect seed, with a roundish scar 

 at its base. — Flowers small, white, in fascicles from the axils of the leaves. 

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

 hard. (The ancient name of a kind of Ash.) 



1. B. lycioides (L.) Pers. (Southern Buckthorn.) Spiny, 3-9 dm. high ; 

 leaves ivedge-oblong varying to oval-lanceolate, with a tapering Ijase, often acute, 

 reticulated, nearly glabrous, 3-12 cm. long; clusters densely many-flowered, 

 glabrous ; fruit ovoid. — Moist ground, Va. to s. 111., Fla., and Tex. June, July. 



2. B. lanuginbsa (Michx.) Pers. (False Buckthorn.) Spiny, 3-18 m. 

 high ; leaves oblong-obovate or wedge-obovate, rusty-woolly beneath, obtuse, 

 2.5-9 cm. long; clusters 6-12-flowered, pubescent; fruit globular. — Woods, 

 s. 111. to Kan., southw. to Fla. and Tex. July. 



EBENAcEAE (Ebony Family) 



Trees or shrubs, with alternate entire leaves, and polygamous regular flowers 

 which have a calyx free from the S-l'2-celled ovary ; the stamens 2-4 times as 

 many as the lobes of the corolla, often in pairs before them, their anthers turned 

 inward, and the fruit a several-celled berry ; ovules 1 or 2, suspended from the 

 summit of each cell. Seeds anatropous, mostly single in each cell, large and 

 flat, with a smooth coriaceous integument ; the ^mbryo shorter than the hard 

 albumen, with a long radicle and flat cotyledons. Styles wholly or partly sep- 

 arate. Wood hard and dark-colored. No milky juice. — A small family, chiefly 

 tropical. 



1. DIOSPYROS L. Persimmon 



Calyx 4-6-lobed. Corolla 4-6-lobed, 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 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 from At6s, of Jove, and irvpds, 

 grain.) 



1. D. virginillna L. (Common P.) Leaves thickish, ovate-oblong, smooth 

 or nearly so ; peduncles very short ; calyx 4-parted ; corolla pale yellow, 

 thickish, between bell-shaped and um-sliaped, 1-1.5 cm. long in the fertile 

 flowers, much smaller in the sterile ; styles 4, two-lobed at the apex ; ovary 

 8-celled. — Woods and old fields, Ct. to s. e. la., and southw. June. — Tree, 

 0-30 m. higli, nith very hard blacki.sh wood ; the plum-like fruit 2-4 cm. in 

 diameter, exceedingly astringent when green, yellow when ripe, and sweet and 

 sometimes edible after exj)o.sure to frost. 



