Symplocos
(from symploke, a connection; the stamens are united at the base). Including Hopea. ORD. Styraceae. A large genus (about 150 species) of stove or greenhouse, usually glabrous, rarely pubescent or villous, trees and shrubs, broadly dispersed over the warmer parts of Asia, Australia, and America. Calyx five-lobed, imbricated; corolla lobes or segments five and one-seriate, or six to ten and biseriate, free or more or less connate; stamens often numerous, many-seriate; racemes or spikes axillary, loose or dense, sometimes reduced to few-flowered fascicles or even to single flowers. Leaves alternate, coriaceous or membranous. The five species introduced thrive in a compost of loam, peat, and sand. Propagation may be effected by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass (those of S. coccinea and S. sumuntia in heat). S. coccinea (scarlet). fl. red, axillary, solitary, sessile, 1in. broad; corolla ten-lobed, spreading; petals nearly connate at base. May. l. elliptic-oblong, 3in. to 4in. long, acuminate, obtuse at base, crenulated, glabrous above, pilose beneath; petioles 1/3in. long. h. 10ft. Mexico, 1825. Stove tree.
S. crataegoides (Crataegus-like). fl. white, small; panicles 1in. to 5in. long, cymosely many-flowered. April. l. 2 1/2in. by 1in. to 1 1/2in., varying from lanceolate and acuminate to broadly obovate-elliptic and nearly obtuse, closely serrated towards the apex. h. 3ft. to 40ft. Himalaya and Japan, 1824. Greenhouse shrub or tree.
S. japonica (Japanese). fl. pale yellow, sub-sessile; racemes axillary, simple, shorter than the petioles, three to five-flowered. June. l. oblong-or obovate-elliptic, 2in. long, acute at both ends, glabous, serrated; petioles 1/3in. long. h. 10ft. Japan, 1850. Greenhouse tree. (S. Z. F. J. 24, under name of S. lucida.) S. sinica (Chinese). fl. white, fragrant; racemes compound, terminal and axillary, as long as the leaves. May. l. elliptic, 1 1/2in. to 2in. long, acute at both ends, serrated, and, as well as the branches and branchlets, pubescent. h. 3ft. China, 1822. Greenhouse shrub. (B. R. 710.) S. Sumuntia (Sumuntia). fl. whitish, small, produced in short, few-flowered spikes. Summer. l. narrowly elliptic, acute, serrulate, cuneate at base. Himalaya, 1883. An unattractive, stove shrub. (R. G. 1073, fig. c-g.) S. tinctoria (dyer's). Horse Sugar; Sweet Leaf. fl. yellow, odorous, six to fourteen in close and bracted clusters. April. l. elongated-oblong, 3in. to 5in. long, acute, obscurely toothed, thickish, almost persistent, minutely pubescent and pale beneath. h. 3ft. South United States, 1780. Greenhouse shrub. The leaves are sweet, and are greedily eaten by cattle; after drying, they are used for dyeing yellow.
SYMPODE, SYMPODIUM. "A stem made up of a series of superposed branches in a way to imitate a simple axis; a Sympodial stem" (Asa Gray). SYN. A term which, in Greek compounds, signifies union, adhesion, or growing together: e.g., Synantherous, stamens coalescent by their anthers; Syncarpous, composed of two or more united carpels.