Forestiera

A group of New World shrubs, of which three species are occasionally cultivated in botanical collections. They have some affinity with the olive. Leaves deciduous, opposite; flowers small, greenish, without petals, unisexual; the sexes often on separate plants. The fruit, which is oblong or egg-shaped and pulpy, I have never seen produced in this country, and the flowers but rarely. Even in their absence the first two species described below are easily distinguished from each other by the short-stalked, downy leaves of F. ligustrina; and the long, narrow, much tapered, smooth leaves of F. acuminata. They grow in any ordinary soil, and are easily propagated by late summer cuttings. The genus has also been known as Adelia. The name here adopted was given in honour of Charles Le-Forestier, a French physician and naturalist.