This section is from the book "Handbook Of Hardy Trees, Shrubs, And Herbaceous Plants", by W. Botting Hemsley. Also available from Amazon: Handbook of hardy trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants.
Evergreen shrubs with opposite leaves and dioecious flowers in catkins. Petals none. Calyx-lobes and stamens 4. Berry 1-celled, 1- or 2-seeded. There are eight species known, one West Indian, and the remainder from California and Mexico. Named after Mr. Garry, of the Hudson's Bay Company.
1. G. elliptica. - A handsome shrub with dark green coriaceous leaves, and catkins of yellowish flowers in clusters near the tips of the branches. The male plant only is in cultivation, in which the catkins are pendulous, silky, and furnished with connate bracts. The flowers are produced from November till February. A native of California.
Griselinia littoralis and G. lucida, are allied dioecious tender shrubs or small trees from New Zealand, with handsome coriaceous glossy oblique alternate persistent leaves; the former being indistinctly and the latter prominently veined beneath.
The genus Nyssa comprises about half-a-dozen arborescent species, with polygamous small capitate flowers, 1-celled 1-seeded drupes, and simple alternate deciduous leaves. One or two of the North American species are met with here and there, but they are very rare. N. multiflora, syn. N. aqudtica, villosa, etc., and N. uniflora, syn. N. denticuldta, tomentosa, etc., are the principal species. They are both handsome trees. The female flowers are solitary in the latter, and the fruit oblong and blue, whereas in the former the female flowers are clustered and the fruit ovoid. There are several popular names applied to them, as Tupelo, Pepperidge, Sour Gum Tree, etc.
 
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