Trees, shrubs or undershrubs. Leaves undivided, without stipules. Flowers in simple or compound spikes, unisexual, without a perianth, but usually with 2-6 bracteoles. Stamens 2-12, usually 4. Anthers opening by two longitudinal slits. Ovary 1-celled. Ovule 1, erect, straight. Styles 2, united at the base, thread-shaped, stigmatose on the inside. Fruit a drupe. Seed with a thin coat and a straight embryo, without albumen. (Plate 29.)
Genus 1, species 25. Tropical and South Africa, Canary Islands, Azores.
They yield bark for tanning, wax, and edible fruits, and are also used in medicine. Myrica L.
ORDER JUGLANDALES
[FAMILY 49.] JUGLANDACEAE
Trees. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, without stipules. Flowers in spikes or catkins, monoecious, with bracteoles which are adnate to the ovary in the female flowers. Perianth 3-4-parted. Stamens numerous. Anthers opening by two longitudinal slits. Ovary inferior, 1-celled. Ovule 1, basal, straight. Styles 2, united at the base, stigmatose lengthwise. Fruit a drupe with an incompletely septate stone. Seed lobed, with a thin coat, without albumen.
Genus 1, species 2. Cultivated in North Africa. They yield timber, tans and dyes, edible fruits (walnuts), oil, sugar, and medicaments. Juglans L.
ORDER FAGALES
[FAMILY 50.] BETULACEAE
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, undivided, stipulate. Flowers monoecious, in spikes or catkins, with a perianth of bract-like segments or without a perianth. Stamens 4. Ovary 2-celled at the base. Ovules solitary in each cell, descending, inverted. Styles 2. Fruit a nut. Seed 1, exalbuminous, with a membranous coat.—Genera 2, species 2. Extra-tropical regions. (Under CUPULIFERAE.)
Male flowers without a perianth, with 2-parted filaments and hairy anthers.
Female flowers with a small perianth and a jagged involucre free from the bract but adnate to the fruit. Fruit large. Female spikes bud-shaped, solitary. Leaves folded at the mid-rib in the bud.—Species 1
(C. Avellana L., hazel). Cultivated and naturalized in North-west
Africa. Fruits edible. [Tribe CORYLEAE.] Corylus Tourn.
Male flowers with a 4-parted perianth, simple filaments, and glabrous anthers.
Female flowers without a perianth, enclosed by a 5-parted involucre formed by the connate bracts and bracteoles. Fruit small. Female spikes cone-shaped, at length woody, arranged in racemes. Leaves