THE MYRSINE FAMILY 



MYRSINACE^ Lindley 



HIS family comprises about 30 genera, including some 475 species of 

 trees or shrubs of the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemi- 

 spheres. They are of very httle economic importance, a few producing 

 edible fruits and several are cultivated in conservatories for ornament, 

 the best known,, perhaps, being the Ardisia, Ardisia crenaia Sims, a beautiful dark- 

 green foliaged shrub, with brilliant scarlet fruit, for which it is much admired, 

 especially if well grown, and popular for Christmas decoration. 



The Myrsinaceae have mostly alternate, simple, leathery, punctate leaves with- 

 out stipules. The inflorescence is racemose, corymbose, or clustered on scaly 

 spurs; the flowers are regular, perfect, or polygamo-dicecious ; the inferior calyx 

 consists of 4 to 6 or rarely more, persistent, usually glandular sepals; the corolla 

 is flat, salverform, or wheel-shaped, the tube very short, the lobes spreading, re- 

 flexed, or curled back, often glandular Uke the calyx; stamens 4 to 7, opposite the 

 corolla- lobes and joined to the base or the tube of the corolla; filaments some- 

 times united into a tube; ovary of 4 to 7 united carpels, i-celled, the styles united; 

 stigma capitate. Fruit a dryish drupe, often leathery, globular, rarely obovoid, 

 often tipped by the style; seeds solitary, entirely filUng the cavity, often lobed at 

 the base; endosperm copious, surrounding the embryo. 



Two genera, each represented by a single species, occur in southern Florida. 



Stamens joined to the base of the corolla-lobes; anthers blunt; flowers lateral. i. Rapanea. 

 Stamens joined to the throat of the corolla-tube; anthers acute; flowers terminal. 2. Icacorea. 



I. MYRSINE 



GENUS RAPANEA AUBLET 

 Species Rapanea guianensis Aublet 



SMALL tree or shrub of the coasts of peniasular Florida and the Keys, 

 and occurring throughout the Bahamas and other West Indies, to 

 South America. Its maximum height is about 6 meters, with a trunk 

 diameter of 16 cm. It is the type of the genus, which includes 100 

 species or more, natives of tropical regions. 



The trunk is sparingly branched ; the branches are straight and ascending. The 

 bark is thin, close, and grayish. The twigs are slender, round, smooth, grayish 

 or reddish brown and marked by numerous leaf scars. The leaves are alternate, 



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