4 BULLETIN 121.1, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
BOTANICAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE JUJUBE. 
The jujube belongs to the buckthorn family (Rhainnacese) and to 
the genus Ziziphus Mill. (Zizyphus Adans.), which derives its name 
from the Arabian word Zizouf, the name for one of the members 
of this genus, which comprises about 50 species widely distributed 
through temperate and tropical regions. 
In the genus Ziziphus the plants are shrubs or small trees, the 
branches spiny at the nodes; the leaves alternate. 3-nerved, in the 
Fig. 1. — Portion of a deciduous branch of the jujube, showing the axillary cymes of 
small greenish flowers. 
axils of the spines; flowers small, in axillary clusters, greenish; the 
sepals five, triangular, keeled on the upper side; petals 5, hoodlike, 
at first surrounding the 5 opposite stamens with which they are in- 
serted on a yellowish disk; ovary sunk in the disk, 2 or 3 celled, ter- 
minating in -2 to 6 styles with terminal or lateral stigmatic sur- 
faces; fruit a drupe, fleshy, with a horny stone; seeds 1 to 3, with 
thin coats. 
Of all the species of Ziziphus, by far the most important horticul- 
turally is the Chinese jujube, of which a short description follows. 
