Turpinia
(named in honour of P. Turpin, French botanical artist and naturalist, who died in 1840). SYNS. Dalrymplea, Eyrea, Lacepedea, Ochranthe, Triceraia. ORD. Sapinaaceae. A genus embracing about eight species of stove or greenhouse, glabrous trees or shrubs, inhabiting India, the Indian Archipelago, China, the West Indies, and the northern provinces of South America. Flowers white, small, in spreading, axillary and terminal panicles; calyx five-cleft; petals five, orbicular, sessile, imbricated; stamens five. Fruit nearly globose, three-celled. Leaves opposite, exstipulate, imparipinnate or very rarely simple; leaflets opposite, serrulated, sometimes stipellate, coriaceous. Branchlets terete. The species known in gardens are here described. They thrive in a compost of peat, loam, and sand. Propagation may be effected by ripened cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat. T. arguta (sharp). fl. dirty-white, or purplish when in bud; inner sepals and petals oblong-ovate, about equal in length, the two outer sepals rather smaller; panicle dense, terminal. March. l. slightly crenate, 3in. to 6in. long, glabrous. h. 3ft. to 4ft. China, 1826. Greenhouse shrub. SYN. Ochranthe arguta (B. R. 1819).
T. insignis (remarkable). fl. sweet-scented; calyx segments unequal; petals very shortly unguiculate; panicle terminal. May. l. serrulated. h. 20ft. Mexico, 1847. A handsome, stove tree. SYN. Lacepedea insignis. T. nepalensis (Nepaul). A synonym of T. pomifera.
T. occidentalis (Western). Cassava Wood. fl., primary divisions of the panicle racemiform, opposite, bearing small corymbs, of which the upper ones are usually alternate. May. fr. dark blue. l., leaflets two or three pairs, elliptic-oblong, crenate or serrate, glabrous, petiolulate, stipellate. h. 20ft. to 30ft. West Indies, 1824. Stove tree.
T. pomifera (apple-bearing). fl., primary branches of the panicle opposite. May. fr. red, purplish, yellow, or green, 1/3in. to 1/2in. in diameter. l. 5in. to 20in. long; leaflets three to nine, elliptic, oblong, or ovate, acuminate, 2 1/2in. to 8in. long. h. 25ft. or less. India and China, 1820. Stove shrub or tree. (B. F. S. 159, under name of T. nepalensis.)