Xylopia
(abridged from xylopicron, which is from xylon, wood, and pikros, bitter; the wood of some of the species is intensely bitter). Bitter Wood. ORD. Anonaceae. A genus comprising nearly thirty species of leafy, stove trees or shrubs; five are Indian, six or seven African, and the rest inhabit America. Flowers solitary or fascicled in the axils, sessile or shortly pedicellate; sepals three, more or less connate, valvate; petals six, biseriate, the inner ones included; stamens indefinite. Leaves coriaceous, often distichous. It is doubtful whether the under-mentioned tree is still grown in gardens. A compost of sandy loam and fibry pat, to which is added a small quantity of broken bricks, charcoal, and dried cowdung, is most suitable for its culture. Propagated by cuttings of the hard shoots, inserted in sandy soil, in heat.
X. glabra (smooth). fl., corolla silky; outer petals 1/3in. to 1/2in. long; bracteoles somewhat remote from the calyx, deciduous. l. lanceolate, taper-pointed, 2in. to 3in. long, downy beneath, clothed with appressed hairs in the younger state. h. 20ft. West Indies, Venezuela, and Guiana, 1820.