XXXII. CYRILLACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, with small scaly buds and watery juice. Leaves alternate, entire, subcoriaceous, without stipules, persistent or tardily deciduous. Flowers small, regular, perfect, on slender bibracteolate pedicels, in terminal or axillary racemes; calyx 5—8-lobed, persistent, the lobes imbricated in the bud; petals 5—8, hypogynous; stamens 5—10, hypogynous, those opposite the petals shorter than the others; anthers oblong, introrse, 2-celled, the cells laterally dehiscent, opening longitudinally; ovary 2—4-celled; ovules suspended, anatropous; raphe dorsal; micropyle superior. Fruit an indehiscent capsule. Seed suspended; seed-coat membranaceous; albumen fleshy, radicle superior.
A family confined to the warmer parts of America, with three genera, of which two are represented by small trees in the southern states.
CONSPECTUS OF THE GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Flowers in axillary racemes; calyx 5-lobed; petals 5 contorted in the bud; fruit without wings, 2-celled, with 2 seeds in each cell.1. [Cyrilla.] Flowers in terminal racemes; calyx 5—8-lobed; petals 5—8 imbricated in the bud; fruit with 2—4 wings, 3 or rarely 4-celled, with 1 seed in each cell.2. [Cliftonia.]