220 STOEAX FAMILT. 



inserted on the tube of the corolla : anthers turned inwards. Berry edible 



when very ripe, plum-like, globular, surrounded at base by the persistent 



thickish calyx. Fl. early summer. 



D. Virginiina, Common P. Southern New England to Illinois and S. ; 

 tree 20° -60° high, with very hard blackish wood, nearly smooth thickish ovate 

 loaves, very short peduncles, 4-parted calyx, pale yellow 4-cleft corolla, 4 styles 

 2-lobed at tip, 8-celled ovary, and plum-like fruit gi-een and very acerb, but yel- 

 low, sweet, and eatable after frost. 



67, SAPOTACEiE, SAPPODILLA FAMILY. 



Mainly tropical trees or shrubs, with hard wood, and in other 

 respects also resembling the last family, but mostly with milky 

 juice, perfect flowers, anthers tnrned outwards, erect ovules, and 

 bony-coated seeds. Eepresented S. by a few species of 



1. BTJMELIA. (Ancient name of a kind of Ash, transferred to this genus. ) 

 Flowers small, white or whitish, in clusters in the axils of the leaves. Calyx 

 5-parted. Corolla 5-cleft, and with a pair of internal appendages between the 

 lobes, 5 good stamens before them, and as many petal-like sterile ones or 

 scales alternating. Ovary 5-celled, hairy: style 1, pointed. Fruit cherry- 

 like, containitig a single large stony-coated seed. Small trees or shrubs, with 

 branches often spiny, and deciduous but thickish leaves entire. Fl. summer : 

 fruit purple or blackish. Natives of river-banks, &c. 

 B. lyeioides, from Virginia to Illinois and S., is smooth, with obovate- 



oblong or lance-wedge-shaped leaves 2' - 4' long, and greenish flowei's. 



B. tfenax, still more southern, has smaller leaves brown-silky underneath, 



and a shorter white corolla. 

 B. Ianugin6sa, in dry soil from S. Illinois S. ; has leaves rusty-hairy or 



woolly beneath, and white corolla. 



68. STYRACACE.ffl, STORAX FAMILY. 



Shrubs or trees, with alternate simple leaves, perfect flowers with 

 4-8 petals more or less united at the base, and bearing twice as 

 many or indefinitely numerous partly monadelphous or polyadel- 

 phous stamens, only one style, and a 1 - 5-celled 1 - 5-seeded fruit. 

 Ovules as many as 2 in each cell. Calyx in ours coherent more or 

 less with the 2 - 4-celIed ovary. 



1 STYRAX. Flowers from the axils of the leaves, white, showy, on drooping pe- 

 duncles. Calyx scarcely 5-toothed, its base coherent merely with the b.ise of 

 the 3-ceIled many-ovuled ovarr. Corolla open bell-shapetf, mostly 5-parted, 

 rather downy outside. Stameiis twice as many as the lobes of the corolla, 

 with flat filaments monadelphous at base, and linear anthers. Fruit dry, 

 1-celIed, with usually only one globular hard-coated seed at its base. 



2. HALF.SIA- Flowers in fascicles on h.anging pedicels from the axils of the 



deciduous leaves of the preceding year, white, showy. Calyx 4-toothed, the 

 tube wholly coherent with the 2 -4-oelled ovary. Petals 4," or united into a 

 bell-shaped corolla. Stamens 8-16: filaments monadelphous at the base: 

 anthers hnear-oblong. Ovules 4 in each cell. Fruit large and dry, 2-4- 

 winmd, within bony or woody and 1-4-ceLled, a single seed filling each 

 slender cell. 



3. SYIIPLOCOS. Flowers yellow, in the axils of the thickish leaves, not droop- 



ing. Calyx 5-cleft, coherent with the lower part of the 3-celled ovarj-. 

 Petals 6, broad, nearly separate. Stamens very many in 5 clusters, one 

 attached to the base of each petal: filaments very slender: anthers very 

 short. Fruit 1-oelled, 1-seeded, small and dry. 



