STORAX FAMILY 



(Styracacece) 



A small order of shrubs or trees with alternate, simple 

 leaves, and usually regular, perfect flowers. Stamens at least 

 twice as many as the petals or corolla lobes, inserted on its 

 tube or base, the filaments wholly or in part united. 



CALIFORNIA STORAX (Styrax californica, Torr.). Flowers 

 white, about an inch long, bell-shaped, the petals conspicu- 

 ously overlapping in the bud, in loose, few flowered, drooping 

 racemes which are axillary or terminal. Leaves deciduous, 

 somewhat oval, an inch or two long. A downy-scurfy shrub, 

 5 to 8 feet high, blooming in April and May in the mountains 

 of California. 



The genus Styrax is of numerous species widely distributed 

 in the warmer parts of the world. Some have been noted 

 from very early times for their yield of valuable aromatic 

 gums; others for the charm of their flowers. Our beautiful 

 California Storax is in the latter class, and it has to some extent 

 been introduced into cultivation, especially in England. 



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