Schaefferia
(named in honour of James Christian Schaeffer, 1718-1790, a German naturalist). ORD. Celastrineae. A genus consisting of only two species of rigid, glabrous shrubs, natives of the West Indies, Texas, and New Mexico. Flowers greenish or white, small, in the axils of the leaves; calyx four-parted; petals four, hypogynous, oblong. Drupes the size of small peas. Leaves alternate or fascicled, small, coriaceous, entire, exstipulate, obovate or spathulate. Only one of the species has been introduced, and that possesses no particular beauty. It thrives in the stove, in a mixture of loam, peat, and sand. Half-ripened cuttings will root if inserted in sandy soil, under a hand glass, in heat.
S. frutescens (shrubby). Crabwood-tree; False Box. fl. white, on axillary, fascicled pedicels. August. fr. scarlet. l. elliptic, veiny, tapering at the base, 1 1/2in. long. h. about 10ft. West Indies, 1793. S. lateriflora (brick-flowered). A synonym of Drypetes crocea.