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Forestiera 



II. FORESTIERA 



GENUS FORESTIERA POIRET 

 Species Forestiera acuminata (jMichaux) Poiret 

 Adelia acuminata Michaux 



SMALL tree or shmb, sometimes called Privet, growing along river 

 banks from southern Illinois to Missouri, southward to Georgia and 

 Texas; it reaches a maximum height of lo meters, with a trunk diam- 

 eter of 1.5 dm. 



The trunk is much branched, the slender branches somewhat spiny. The bark 

 is about 4 mm. thick, close, and brownish gray, the winter buds ovoid, smooth, 1.5 



mm. long. The twigs are slender, shghtly 

 angular, somewhat hairy, and yellowish 

 green, becoming round and brownish gray. 

 The leaves are opposite, deciduous, mem- 

 branous, elliptic-oval or ovate-elHptic, 3 to 

 10 cm. long, tapering at each end, finely 

 toothed, especially above the middle, Hght 

 green and smooth; the slender leaf -stalk is 

 5 to 15 mm, long. The flowers, appearing 

 before the leaves, are dioecious or polyga- 

 mous, small, yellowish or greenish. The 

 staminate flowers are in short clusters, the 

 pistillate in short panicles ; the calyx is want- 

 ing or very small and 4-toothed ; the corolla 

 is usually wanting or composed of i or 2 

 small, deciduous petals; anthers ovate or 

 Fig. 744. - Forestiera. oblong; ovary ovoid, 2-celled, each cell con- 



taining 2 ovules; style slender and terminated by a 2-lobed stigma. The fruit is a 

 drupe, fusiform and curved when young, becoming narrowly oblong, 12 to 15 mm. 

 long, deep purple; stone usually i -seeded. 



Its wood is rather soft, not strong, close-grained, yellowish brown and satiny; 

 its specific gravity is about 0.64. 



The genus, of which this is the type, consists of about 15 species of trees or 

 shrubs of temperate and tropical America, 8 of which are indigenous to the United 

 States. The name commemorates Charles Leforestier, a French botanist. 



Patrick Browne in 1756, named this genus Adelia, but as he did not use nor 

 refer to binominal nomenclature, the name is invalid, and was applied by Linnaeus 

 three years later to a genus of the Spurge Family. 



