TAXONOMY 
38l 
Styracece or Benzoin Family. —Shrubs or low trees. Leaves alter¬ 
nate to opposite, entire, often acuminate. Flowers hermaphrodite, 
regular, rarely sub-irregular, either in condensed fascicles or solitary 
in the axils of the leaves; sepals and petals typically five each; 
corolla often white, rarely pinkish or yellowish; stamens many to 
four to two, perigynous or sub-hypogynous; pistil bicarpellary or 
four to five carpellate. Fruit either fleshy or dry, often winged and 
rarely as many-celled as there are carpels. 
Official drug Part used 
Benzoinum Balsamic resin 
Botanical origin Habitat 
Styrax Benzoin East Indies and 
and other species Siam 
III. Order Contortae (Gentianales). — Oleacece or Olive Family .— 
Shrubs (. Forsythia , Chionanthus, Syringa, etc.) or trees (. Fraxinus , 
Olea, etc.) with stems possessing close white wood, and slightly 
swollen or enlarged nodes. Leaves opposite, decussate, simple, 
rarely pinnately compound (Ash). Inflorescence dichesial or scor- 
pioid cymes but tending constantly toward condensation and so in 
the Lilac, the inflorescence becomes a clustered raceme of cymes 
(thyrsus). Flowers regular, pentamerous or tetramerous; sepals 
small, green, rarely petaloid, synsepalous; petals synpetalous, elong¬ 
ated into a narrow tube, expanding above into a stellate limb; 
stamens very rarely five, rarely four to three, nearly always two, 
epipetalous and high set on corolla tube; pistil bicarpellate, rarely 
of three to four carpels; ovary two-celled with two to one pendulous 
ovules in each cavity. Fruit either a capsule (Lilac), drupe (Olive), 
berry (Privet) or a winged indehiscent akene (Ash). Seeds with 
moderate to scanty albumen becoming occasionally exalbuminous. 
Official drug Part used 
Manna Dried saccharine 
exudate 
Oleum Olivae Fixed oil 
Chionanthus N.F. Bark of root 
Fraxinus N.F. Bark 
Botanical origin Habitat 
Fraxinus Ornus Southern Europe 
Olea Europaea Southern Europe, 
Algeria, Asia 
Chinoanthus Southern United 
virginica States 
Fraxinus AmericanaNorthern United 
States and 
Canada 
