HALESIA 



Halesia, Ellis, in Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. 1044 (1759), and in Phil. Trans, li. 931 (1761) (not 

 Brownei); Bentham et Hooker, Gen. PL ii. 669 (excl. Pterostyrax) (1876)5 Perkins, m 

 Engler, Pflanzenreich, iv. 241, Styracacem, 94 (190?); Schneider, Laubholzkunde, ii. 



582 (1911)- 

 Mohria, Britton, in Garden and Forest, vi. 434 (1893) (not Swartz ). 

 Mohrodendron, Britton, in Garden and Forest, vi. 463 (1893); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. vi. 19 



(1894), and Trees N. Amer. 754 (1905). 

 Carlomohria, Greene, in Erythea, i. 236 (1893). 



Deciduous trees or shrubs, belonging to the order Styracaceee. Branchlets slender, 

 with chambered pith ; one large bundle-scar in the centre of each leaf-scar. Buds 

 all axillary, no true terminal bud being formed, two or three superposed above each 

 leaf-scar, with a few imbricated scales. Leaves simple, alternate, stalked, penninerved, 

 without stipules, denticulate in margin, more or less stellate-pubescent. 



Flowers regular, perfect, in fascicles or short racemes, arising from the axils 

 of the leaf-scars of the previous year's branchlet ; calyx-tube obpyramidate, four- 

 ribbed, with a short four-toothed limb ; corolla epigynous, campanulate, divided into 

 four or five shallow or deep lobes. Stamens, eight to sixteen in one series, adnate to 

 the tube of the corolla, included ; filaments nearly free or more or less connate ; ovary, 

 two- to four-celled, inferior in greater part, gradually contracted into an elongated 

 style, which is stigmatic at the apex ; ovules, four in each cell, two ascending and 

 two pendulous. Fruit, a drupe, crowned by the calyx-tube and the thickened 

 persistent style, dry, indehiscent ; with a thick exocarp, produced into two or 

 four wings ; containing a thick and bony obovate stone, gradually narrowed 

 at the base into an elongated stipe, one- to four-celled. Seed solitary in each 

 cell. 



Halesia comprises three species, natives of the United States, one of which, 

 Halesia parviflora^ is a small shrub, not known in cultivation in Europe. 



Pterostyrax, Siebold and Zuccarini, Fl. Jap. 96 (1835), ^^.s included under 

 Halesia by Bentham and Hooker, Gen. PL ii. 669 (1876) ; but is a distinct genus, 

 comprising three species, shrubs or small trees, natives of China and Japan, with 



1 Halesia, Patrick Browne, Hist. Jamaica, 205 (i7S5), was applied to a West Indian tree, which is a species of Guettarda, 

 a genus founded by Linnseus in 1753. 



2 Mohria, Swartz, Syn. Fil. 159 (1806), is a genus of ferns, with one species, in South Africa. 



2 H. parviflora, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Amer. ii. 40 (1803), is a little-known shrub of southern Georgia and Florida, which 

 has never been properly described. The plant described under this name by Lindley, Bot. Reg. t. 952 (1825), and Loudon, 

 Arb. et Frut. Brit. ii. 1 190 (1838), is Styrax americana, Lamarck. Cf. Perkins, Styracacece, 76 (1907), and also a note by 

 Smith, in Rees' Cyclopadia, under the article on Halesia. 



1600 



