Litsea
(from the Japanese name). SYN. Tetranthera. Including Tetradenia. ORD. Laurineae. A large genus (upwards of 140 species have been described) of greenhouse or half-hardy trees, rarely shrubs, natives of tropical and Eastern Asia, from the Malayan Archipelago to Japan, tropical and sub-tropical Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia, and (a few) North America. Flowers dioecious, umbellate or capitate; involucres globose, pedicellate or sessile, disposed in sessile or shortly pedunculate fascicles, or in axillary or lateral racemes. Leaves alternate, few, or rarely almost opposite, penniveined or triplinerved. Few of the species are grown in this country. For culture, see Laurus.
L. geniculata (jointed). fl. yellow, polygamous, disposed in terminal, few-flowered umbels; pedicels short. May. l. deciduous, lanceolate, glabrous. Branches deep red, divaricately flexuous. h. 6ft. South United States, 1759. Half-hardy. SYN. Laurus geniculata (under which name it is figured in B. M. 1471).
L. glauca (glaucous). fl. whitish, as large as a hazel-nut, in dense branched clusters. Summer. l. lanceolate-oblong, acuminate, green above, silvery beneath. Japan. A handsome bush for cool conservatory decoration. L. japonica (Japanese). fl. white; umbels fasciculated, shortly peduncled; involucre five to nine-flowered. l. rigid, coriaceous, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, glabrous or shining above, ferruginous or tomentose beneath. h. 3ft. Japan, 1843. Half-hardy. (S. Z. F. J. 87, 100.)