XLVII. COMBRETACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with astringent juice, naked buds, and alternate or opposite simple entire coriaceous persistent leaves, without stipules. Flowers regular, perfect, or polygamous; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes valvate in the bud; petals 5, valvate in the bud, inserted at the base of the calyx, or 0; disk epigynous; stamens 5—10, inserted on the limb of the calyx; filaments slender, filiform, distinct, exserted; anthers introrse, 2-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; ovary 1-celled; style slender, subulate; stigma minute, terminal, entire; ovules usually 2, suspended from the apex of the cell, collateral, anatropous; raphe ventral; micropyle superior. Fruit drupaceous, often crowned with the accrescent calyx. Seed solitary; albumen 0; embryo straight, with convolute cotyledons; radicle minute, turned toward the hilum.
Of the fifteen genera of this family, widely distributed through the tropics, three have arborescent representatives in southern Florida.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Corolla 0; leaves alternate. Calyx persistent; flowers in spikes; seeds without wings.1. [Bucida.] Calyx deciduous; flowers in capitate heads; seeds winged.2. [Conocarpus.] Corolla of 5 petals; calyx persistent; leaves opposite.3. [Laguncularia.]