TREES AND SHRUBS. 



RAPJlKEA, Aubl. 



(Myrsinaceae.) 



Rapanea, Aublet, Hist. PI. Guian. i. 121 (1775).— A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 288. — Mez, Urban 



Symb. FL Antill. ii. 427 ; Engler, Pflanzenreich, Heft 9 (iv. 236), 342. 

 Manglilla, A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 151 (1789). 

 Athruphyllum, Loureiro, Fl. Cochin, i. 120 (1790). 

 Caballeria, Ruiz & Pavon, Prodr. 141 (1794). 



Roemeria, Thunberg, Nov. Gen. ix. 130 (1798) ; Roemer, Archiv. Bot. ii. 1. 

 Scleroxylum, Willdenow, Berl Mag. iii. 57 (1809). 



Myrsine, R. Brown, Prodr. i. 533 (in part, not Linnaeus) (1810). — A. de Candolle, Ann. Sci. 

 Nat. se'r. 2, ii. 292 (in part) ; xvi. 78 (in part) ; Trans. Linn. Soc. xvii. 104 (in part). — Miquel, 

 Martins Fl. Brasil. x. 306 (in part). — Bentham & Hooker, G^. ii. 642 (in part). — Pax, 

 Engler & Prantl Pflanzenfam. iv, pt. i. 92 (in part). — Baillon, Hist. PL xi. 333 (in part). ' 

 Suttonia, A. Richard, Bot. Voy. Astrol. 349 (1832). 

 Fialaris, Rafinesque, Sylva Tellur. 166 (1838). 

 Heurlinia, Rafinesque, Sylva Tellur. 166 (1838). 



Trees or shrubs, with watery juices and terete branchlets. Leaves alternate, entire or rarely 

 dentate, usually distinctly lepidote, persistent, exstipulate. Flowers perfect or unisexual by 

 abortion, minute, four- or five- or rarely six- or seven-merous, sessile or pedicellate, in small axil- 

 lary sessile or pedunculate fascicles, their bracts deciduous ; calyx inferior, free, persistent, the 

 sepals imbricate-valvate in the bud, ciliate, usually glandular-punctate; corolla hypogynous,' the 

 lobes more or less connate at the base, ovate or elliptical, spreading or recurved, glandular- 

 punctate, papillose on the margins, imbricate or rarely convolute in the bud ; stamens inserted 

 on the base of the corolla, opposite its lobes ; filaments wanting ; anthers short, connate to the 

 corolla, acuminate and papillose at the apex, introrse, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally ; 

 ovary globose or ellipsoidal, one-celled ; stigma capitate, irregularly lobed ; ovules few, peltate' 

 immersed in one series near the middle of the free fleshy globose placenta, amphitropous. Fruit 

 drupaceous, pea-shaped, dry or fleshy, one-seeded. Seed filling the cavity of the fruit, globose, 

 intruded at the base ; testa thin ; albumen copious, corneous, rarely slightly ruminate ; embryo 

 cylindrical, elongated, transverse, usually curved ; cotyledons small, radicle elongated. 



Of Rapanea, chiefly distinguished by Metz from Myrsine by its sessile or nearly sessile anthers 

 and by its usually nearly sessile stigmas, one hundred and forty species are recognized. 1 These 

 are widely distributed through the tropical and semitropical regions of the two hemispheres, one 

 species reaching southern Florida from the south. 



The generic name is from the native name of Papanea guianensis in French Guiana. 



c. s. s. 



1 The fact that in one of the forms of the staminate flowers of Rapanea guianensis as it grows in Florida the ovary is narrowed 

 into a distinct style terminating in an oblique stigma appears to have been overlooked. In the pistillate flowers of this species 

 there is a short style hidden by the lobes of the large stigma. The sessile or nearly sessile stigma cannot therefore be relied 

 upon always to separate Rapanea from Myrsine. 



