Tovomita
(from Tovomite, the Caribbean name of T. guianense). SYNS. Beauharnoisia, Marialva, and Micranthera. ORD. Guttiferae. A genus comprising about a score species of tropical American, stove trees or shrubs, with resinous juice. Flowers often rather small, cymose-umbellate or in dense panicles; sepals two or four; petals four to ten, imbricated, often twin-seriate; stamens indefinite. Fruit often obovoid-oblong or pyriform. Leaves penninerved. The three species introduced are handsome trees, thriving in a mixture of loam, peat, and sand. Ripened cuttings will root freely in sand, under a hand glass, in heat.
T. Choisyana (Choisy's). fl. yellow; sepals four, the two inner ones petaloid; petals eight to eleven; pedicels shorter than the flowers; male cymes terminal, few-flowered. May. l. oblong, acute at base, shortly and rather obtusely acuminate at apex, entire. h. 20ft. Cayenne, 1823. SYN. Micranthera clusiaefolia.
T. fructipendula (pendulous-fruited). fl. yellowish, on jointed pedicles; sepals two; petals four; peduncles filiform, axillary and terminal, two or three-flowered, elongated. January and February. fr. turbinate, pendulous, crowned by the permanent styles. l. oblong, acutely and sharply acuminate, 3in. long. h. 18ft. Peru. SYN. Beauharnoisia fructipendula. T. guyanensis (Guiana). fl. dioecious; sepals two; petals four, green; anthers white; pedicels jointed; peduncles corymbose, dichotomous, thick, terminal. June. l. ovate-oblong, bluntly acuminate, somewhat stem-clasping, coriaceous, 4in. to 5in. long. white beneath. h. 10ft. Guiana and Brazil, 1827. (A. G. 364.) SYN. Marialva guyanensis.