0157 



CAROLINA ALLSPICE 



Family: ROSACEAE. [Translator's note: this plant is now assigned to the 

 Calycanthaceae family.] 



Reproductive system: ICOSANDRY, POLYGYNY. 



The Carolina allspice, Calycanthus floridus, Linn., is a densely branched, broad 

 shrub eight or ten feet high. The leaves are opposite, ovate, entire, and whitish 

 underneath. The flowers are red-brown. The colored sections of the calyx are linear and 

 lanceolate, with light down. Ligulate petals of the same color and recurved at the top are 

 inserted into the calyx. A large number of stamens, shorter than the petals, also are 

 inserted into the calyx. The ovaries terminate in acuminate styles; they turn into seeds 

 enclosed in the calyx, which thickens and becomes an oval berry. 



FLOWERS: from May until August. 



RANGE: Carolina; cultivated for a long time in our parks and gardens. 



Nomenclature. Originally the plant was named pompadoura, in honor of the 



duchess de Pompadour. Its present name Calycanthe means calycine flower because its 

 calycine sepals are colored like the petals. Miller [Translator's note: Philip Miller, 1691- 

 1771, English botanist and horticulturist] had called it Basteria, in memory of Job Baster, 

 a Dutch botanist. Commonly, Varbre aux anemones [Translator's note: the anemone 

 tree]. German, der specereystrauch. English, all spice. 



USES. This shrub has beautified our parks and large gardens for a long time. At 

 the close of day it emits a pleasant aroma of pineapple or pippin apple. The bark is 

 aromatic and fragrant. It's an ingredient of a table liqueur whose color changes when you 

 look toward the sun through a glass containing it. 



The sweetbush, Calycanthus fertilise Walt., is a three-to-four foot shrub that forms 

 a rounded bush. 



