Stamens in many series, the twelve outer fertile. Flowers purple, lurid red or brownish, appearing in Summer. There are three North American species, with seven or eight names. Derived from cup or calyx, and avQos, a flower, from the coloured sepals.

1. C. floridus. Carolina Allspice. - Leaves oval or rotun-date, rounded at the base, hispid above, softly pubescent beneath. Flowers very shortly pedunculate. A compact free-flowering species, very common in gardens. There are several varieties in nurseries, under the names nanus, inoddrus, Penn-sylvanicus, asplenifolius, with cut leaves; bullatus, with bladdery leaves, etc.

2. C. Occidentalls. - Leaves oblong or ovate-cordate, acuminate, hispid above, slightly pubescent on the veins only beneath. A larger-growing shrub than the last, with larger leaves and fewer larger brighter coloured inodorous flowers on distinct peduncles. This includes C. macrophyllus of gardens.

C. Iaevigatus or glaucus is a variety or species seldom seen in gardens, having the under side of the leaf of a pale glaucous tinge.