Styrax benzoin. 149 
Gen. Char. Calyx inferior. Corolla funnel-slmped. Drupe 
" two-seeded. - ' 
Spec. Char. Leaves ovate, pointed, entire. Flowers racemes, 
compound. 
This species of Styrax is a native of Sumatra, flowering in July. 
It is a tree of quick growth, and rises to a considerable height, 
sending off numerous branches ; the trunk and branches are round, 
and covered with a whitish downy bark ; the leaves stand upon 
short foot-stalks, and are placed alternately on the branches : in form 
they are ovate, pointed, from two to four inches long, and from one 
to two broad, entire, veined : on the upper surface smooth, and of a 
bright green : on the under side downy ; the flowers are produced 
in clusters, stand upon short slender peduncles, mostly hang all 
on one side, and arise from the axilla of the leaves ; the calyx is bell- 
shaped, downy, and divided at the brim into five obscure segments 
or teeth ; the corolla is composed of five linear obtuse petals, four 
times longer than the calyx, and connected together at the base : 
externally cineritious and somewhat downy ; the ten filaments are 
the length of the calyx, connected together at the base into a tube, 
and crowned with linear erect anthers; the germen is ovate, downy, 
and placed above the insertion of the corolla ; style filiform, longer 
than the stamens, and crowned with a simple stigma ; the fruit is a 
simple drupe of an ovate form, containing two angular nuts. 
Although the tree which produces the resinous substance known 
under the name of benzoin, or gum benjamin, was known to Garcias 
ab Horto, Grimm, Sylvius, and subsequent botanists, yet its bota- 
nical character was entirely mistaken* till about the year 1787, 
when Mr. Dryander, at the request of the late Sir Joseph Banks, 
undertook to investigate the subject; for this purpose, proper spe- 
cimens (from the tree which produces the benzoin,) were obtained 
fi-om Mr. Marsden at Sumatra, when Mr. Dryander satisfactorily 
ascertained it to be a Styrax. 
. This tree, which grows abundantly in some parts of the northern 
coast of Suniatra, when arrived at the age of six or seven years (or 
*- Mr. Ray had erroneously supposed it to be a species of Laaras, a native of Vir- 
ginia, and Linuaeas in his Mantissa Plantarum, describes it under the name of Croton 
Benzoe, and afterwards in the Supplementam Plantarum under the name of Terminalis 
Benzoin. 
VOL. II. Y 
