
66 TREES AND SHRUBS 


has a single species,—7.e., Hibiscus Syriacus, /izneus. TREE H1piscus 
or SHRUBBY ALTHA of the gardeners. Shrub 6 to 8 feet high, with leaves 
wedge-ovate, 3-lobed ; variously-colored flowers 3 inches across (often double), 
situated in the axils of the leaves. There are about 10 varieties of this species 
in the Park. 
. 
MYRICACEZ. Sweet Gale Family. 
Low shrubs; leaves resinous dotted and often fragrant; flowers with pistils 
and stamens either on different plants or on different parts of the same plant, 
always in scaly clusters, without either true calyx or any corolla; fruit a 1- 
seeded fleshy or dry stone fruit, often covered with wax. Family character- 
ized by aromatic, tonic, and astringent properties. 
Comptonia. SWEET FERN. Sexes on different parts of the same plant; 
the staminate clusters in cylindrical, the pistillate in round bur-like heads % 
to 3¢ of an inch in diameter; nut surrounded by long-pointed scales. 
Comptonia asplenifolia, A7¢ov. Has linear or lanceolate, downy, double- 
toothed, aromatic leaves. Native on our barren hills. Infusion of the leaves 
a domestic remedy in dysentery. 
Myrica. BAYBERRY, WAX MyRTLE. Stamens and pistils usually on dif- 
ferent plants; the flower-clusters from lateral scaly buds; 2 to 8 stamens to a 
male flower; fertile flowers with an ovary having 2 slender stigmas and 
surrounded by a few small scales. 
Myrica cerifera, Zzzucus. Shrub 2 to 8 feet high, with fragrant, mostly 
entire, lanceolate leaves, the hard small nuts covered with wax and looking 
like berries. Most common along the Atlantic coast. 
Myrica Gale, Zizneus. SWEET GALE. Leaves somewhat wedge-shaped, 
notched towards the apex; small nuts crowded and furnished with wing-like 
scales. 
OLEACE, Olive Family. 
Corolla united in a more or less elongated cup, or nearly or quite separated ; 
stamens fewer than the 4 to 5 lobes or parts of the corolla. Free ovary usually 
2-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell. Trees or shrubs with “ bitter tonic 
and astringent properties.’’ Some, as the olive, yield a fixed oil. 
Chionanthus. The white flower with 4 very long narrow petals; stamens 
2, short, barely adherent to the lobes of the corolla; fruit round and fleshy, 
with a I-celled, 1-seeded stone. 
Chionanthus Virginicus, Zizv@us. FRINGE-TREE. Grows from Penn- 
sylvania south, and is a most strikingly handsome tree in cultivation, 
* Forestiera acuminata, Po7ret. Is a low shrub, with the sexes on differ- 
ent individuals; flowers crowded in scaly buds from the axils of the last year’s 
leaves; corolla absent, and calyx falls early. Native of the river-banks from 
Illinois southward. 

