Styracaceae

Evergreen trees or shrubs. Leaves simple, spirally arranged, sometimes pseudoalternate, margin entire or toothed, mostly with stellate or lepidote indumentum. Stipules O. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, axillary or terminal. Calyx tubular more or less adnate to the ovary; lobes if present valvate. Corolla rarely of free petals, mostly united in a basal tube, 4-7, valvate or imbricate. Stamens equal and alternate, or double the number of the petals, mostly adnate to the tube. Disk absent; anthers 2-celled, introrse, splitting lengthwise. Ovary superior, rarely semiinferior, 3—5-celled. Style 1; stigma punctiform to 3—5-lobed. Ovules l-~ in each cell, axile. Fruit capsular (rarely drupaceous) 1—~-seeded, dehiscent or not, pericarp often thick and woody or corky, with a persistent calyx. Seeds with copious endosperm and straight or slightly curved embryo. Distr. Ca 12 genera mostly in the N. hemisphere, absent in Australia and the Central Pacific, richly developed in E. Asia. No Styracacea has yet been found in the Philippines proper, Central & East Java, and the Lesser Sunda Isl.. Sumatra is the richest centre in Malaysia.