324. EXOSTEMA CARIB^UM PRINCE-WOOD. 4! 



ORDER RUBIACE^: MADDER FAMILY. 



Leaves simple, opposite or verticillate, entire, mostly with stipules and turn- 

 ing black in drying. Flowers regular, perfect; calyx 4-5-toothed or lobed and 

 with tube adnate to the ovary; corolla 4-5-lobed, stamens as many as the lobes 

 of the corolla, alternate with them and inserted on the tube with filaments free 

 or united at base and introrse 2-celled anthers opening longitudinally; disk 

 epigynous; ovary i-io-celled with slender style and ovules I to many in each 

 cell. Fruit a capsule, drupe or achene; seeds with membranaceous coat and 

 without albumen. 



Trees, shrubs and a few herbs of about 5,550 species grouped in 

 some 350 genera. They are chiefly natives of tropical regions and 

 comprise several species which yield products of great economic 

 importance, such as coffee, quinine, ipecac, madder, -etc. 



GENUS EXOSTEMA RICHARD. 



Leaves persistent, sessile or petiolate, with pointed interpetiolar stipules. 

 Flowers axillary, fragrant, erect, with peduncles bibracteolate above the middle; 

 calyx with 5 very short triangular persistent lobes; corolla white, with long 

 narrow tube and 5 elongated linear spreading lobes; stamens with filiform fila- 

 ments united into a tube at base adnate to the base of the corolla and linear- 

 oblong anthers; pistil with 2-celled ovary, a long slender exserted style and 

 capitate stigma; ovules numerous. Fruit a many seeded firm 2-celled capsule, 

 septicidally dehiscent, each cell 2-parted; seeds oblong compressed lustrous dark 

 brown with lighter winged margin and minute embryo in fleshy albumen. 



A genus of about 20 species of tropical American trees and shrubs, 

 the following one species being found on the Keys of southern Florida. 



324. EXOSTEMA CARIB^UM R. & S. 



PRINCE-WOOD. 



Ger., Prinz-holz. Fr., Quinquina Caraibe. 



Sp., Cuero de sapo, Macagua de costa, Falsa quina (Mex.). 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves persistent, oblong-lanceolate, i*/ 2 to 3 in. 

 long, with slender petioles */ 2 in. or less in length, entire, acummate or acute 

 and apiculate at apex, cuneate at base, coriaceous, smooth dark green above and 

 yellow green with orange-colored midrib and few arcuate veins beneath; inter- 

 petiolar stipules triangular, apiculate. Flowers, appearing in middle or late 

 spring, about 3 in. long, solitary in the axils of the leaves, with peduncles some- 

 what shorter than the leaf-stalks; calyx narrow bell-shaped, corolla with tube 

 nearly i l / 2 in. long. Fruit capsules about H in. long, blackish when dry with 

 seeds about A in. long. 



A small tree occasionally attaining the height of about 25 ft. (8m.), 



