Genus 5. ASÍMINA.
Small trees or shrubs with simple, deciduous, alternate, entire, pinnately-veined leaves. Flowers large, dull purplish, solitary in the axils of last year's leaves. Fruit a large, oblong, several-seeded, pulpy berry.
A. tríloba.
Asímina tríloba, Dunal. (Common Papaw.) Leaves large (8 to 12 in. long), oblong-obovate, acuminate, thin, lapping over each other in such a manner as to give the plant a peculiar imbricated appearance. Flowers 1 in. broad, appearing before the leaves. Fruit 3 in. long, 1½ in. thick, yellowish, fragrant, about 8-seeded, ripe in the autumn. Small (10 to 20 ft. high), beautiful tree with dark-brown twigs. All parts have a rank, fetid smell. Wild in New York and southward along streams; cultivated.
Order IV. TAMARISCÍNEÆ.
A small order, consisting mostly of shrubs (from the Old World) with minute leaves.
Genus 6. TÁMARIX.
Leaves simple, very small, alternate, clasping; old ones almost transparent at the apex. Flowers in spike-like panicles, small, red, or pink, rarely white.
