632 



False Boxwood 



leaves are opposite or in whorls, ovate, obovate, oblong 

 or elliptic, i to 4 cm. long, blunt or acutish or notched 

 at the apex, narrowed and tapering at the base, the 

 margin bluntly toothed at least toward the apex; they 

 are light green and smooth above, paler with promi- 

 nent midrib beneath; the leaf-stalk is about 2 mm. long. 

 The flowers are very small, perfect, in the axils of the 

 leaves, in slender-stalked clusters, appearing in spring; 

 their um-shaped calyx has 4 roundish lobes; petals 4, 

 inserted under the flattened 4-lobed disk, oval and re- 

 flexed; stamens 4, inserted between the lobes of the 

 disk; ovary 4-celled, merging into the disk; stigmas 4; 

 ovules sohtary and erect in each cavity. The fruit is a 

 red, slightly oblique drupe 5 to 6 mm. long, with a 

 bony stone. 



The genus consists of 10 or more species, mostly 

 shrubs, of the warmer portions of the New World. One 

 other species, a small, straggling, or prostrate shrub, 



with spiny-toothed leaves, also grows in southern Florida. 



The name is supposed to be from Rha, the old name of the Volga, and was 



used by Pliny for some Old World plant. 



Fig. 583. — Rhacoma. 



III. FALSE BOXWOOD 



GENUS GYMINDA [GRISEBACH] SARGENT 



Species Gyminda latifolia (Swartz) Urban 



Myginda latifolia Swartz. Gyminda Grisebachii Sargent 



YMINDA, as now 

 known, consists of 2 

 species, one here de- 

 scribed, the other Costa 



Rican. They are evergreen trees 



with simple opposite leaves, and 



small greenish imperfect flowers, 



in small axillary clusters, the pistil- 

 late on one plant, the sterile on 



another. The calyx has 4 small 



lobes; there are 4 petals much 



longer than the calyx; the stami- 



nate flowers have 4 stamens about 



as long as the petals and a minute 



abortive ovary; the fertile flowers Fig. 384. — False Boxwood. 



