Order 63. EBENÀCEÆ. (Ebony Family.)
Trees or shrubs, with alternate entire leaves, and polygamous regular flowers which have a calyx free from the 3–12-celled ovary; the stamens 2–4 times as many as the lobes of the corolla, often in pairs before them, their anthers turned inward, and the fruit a several-celled berry. Ovules 1 or 2, suspended from the summit of each cell. Seeds anatropous, mostly single in each cell, large and flat, with a smooth coriaceous integument; the embryo shorter than the hard albumen, with a long radicle and flat cotyledons. Styles wholly or partly separate.—Wood hard and dark-colored. No milky juice.—A small family, chiefly tropical.
1. DIOSPỲROS, L. Date-Plum. Persimmon.
Calyx 4–6-lobed. Corolla 4–6-lobed, convolute in the bud. Stamens commonly 16 in the sterile flowers, and 8 in the fertile, in the latter imperfect. Berry large, globular, surrounded at base by the thickish calyx, 4–8-celled, 4–8-seeded.—Flowers diœciously polygamous, the fertile axillary and solitary, the sterile smaller and often clustered. (Name, Διός, of Jove, and πυρός, grain.)
1. D. Virginiàna, L. (Common Persimmon.) Leaves thickish, ovate-oblong, smooth or nearly so; peduncles very short; calyx 4-parted; corolla pale yellow, thickish, between bell-shaped and urn-shaped, 6–8´´ long in the fertile flowers, much smaller in the sterile; styles 4, two-lobed at the apex; ovary 8-celled.—Woods and old fields, R. I. and N. Y. to Iowa, and south to Fla. and La. June.—Tree 20–70° high, with very hard blackish wood; plum-like fruit 1´ in diameter, exceedingly astringent when green, yellow when ripe, and sweet and edible after exposure to frost.
Order 64. STYRACÀCEÆ. (Storax Family.)
Shrubs or trees, with alternate simple leaves destitute of stipules, and perfect regular flowers; the calyx either free or adherent to the 2–5-celled ovary; the corolla of 4–8 petals, commonly more or less united at base; the stamens twice as many as the petals or more numerous, monadelphous or polyadelphous at base; style 1; fruit dry or drupe-like, 1–5-celled, the cells commonly 1-seeded.—Seeds anatropous. Embryo nearly the length of the albumen; radicle slender, as long as or longer than the flat cotyledons. Corolla hypogynous when the calyx is free; the stamens adherent to its base. Ovules 2 or more in each cell.—A small family, mostly of warm countries, comprising two very distinct tribes.
Tribe I. STYRACEÆ. Calyx 4–8-toothed or entire. Stamens 2–4 times as many as the petals, in one series; anthers linear or oblong, adnate, introrse. Cotyledons flat.—Flowers white, handsome. Pubescence soft and stellate.
1. Styrax. Calyx coherent only with the base of the 3-celled ovary. Corolla mostly 5-parted. Fruit 1-celled, 1-seeded.
2. Halesia. Calyx coherent with the whole surface of the 2–4-celled ovary, which is 2–4-winged and 2–4-celled in fruit. Corolla 4-lobed.