THE BAYBERRY FAMILY 



MYRICACE.E Dumont 



HIS family consists of 2 genera, with about 35 species of shrubs or 

 small trees of wide geographic distribution in warm and temperate 

 regions. They are of no special economic value; the bark of some 

 has been used for dyestuffs and in medicine, and the juicy fruit of 

 several Asiatic species is eaten in China and Japan. 



The Myricaceae have alternate, evergreen or deciduous, leather}^, resinous- 

 punctate, aromatic leaves, without stipules. The flowers are dioecious, sometimes 

 monoecious, in catkins developed at the axils of the leaves of the previous season, 

 from buds formed during the summer and expanding in early spring. The stami- 

 nate flowers are in elongated, soUtary, fasciculate or paniculate catkins, the flowers 

 consisting of 2 to 8 stamens borne on the thickened base of a scale, their filaments 

 slender, short, somewhat united at the base; anthers ovate, erect, 2-celled, hair}-, 

 opening lengthwise; the ovary is rudimentary. The pistillate catkins are short, 

 ovoid, or globose; the flowers are single or in pairs at the base of the scales, con- 

 sisting of 2 united carpels forming a sessile i -celled ovary, at the axil of a scale, 

 subtended by 2 small bracts and surrounded by 2 to 8 short or long bractlets; 

 the style is short, divided into 2 thread-Uke stigmas; ovules solitary, erect. The 

 fruit is globose, drupe-like, often surrounded by a waxy excretion; the nut is hard, 

 thick- walled, the seed erect, embryo central, and straight; endosperm none. 



The genus Comptonia, with one species, C. peregrina (Linnaeus) Coulter, a low, 

 aromatic shmb of eastern North America, known as the Sweet fern, and the genus 

 Myrica Linnaeus, of which M. Gale is the type, and of which seven species 

 occur in North America, constitute the family. Myrica is the ancient name of a 

 shrub, probably not a member of this family. 



A wax formerly much used for candle-making and in domestic medicine is 

 obtained by boiling the fruits of M. cerijera Linnaeus and of the shrubby 

 M. carolinensis Miller, in water. 



Our arborescent species of Myrica are: 



Flowers dioecious; southeastern trees. 



Leaves oblong-spatulate, usually serrate, yellow-green, glandular beneath, i. M. cerifera. 



Leaves oblong-obovate, entire, dark green, punctate beneath. 2. M. inodora. 



Flowers monoecious; Pacific coast tree. 3- M. calijornica. 



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