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a densely branched and leafy shrub, with the habit of a myrtle, 3–7 ft. high, pubescent, subferruginous, or sometimes glabrescent; foliage like that of box; leaves opposite or alternate, elliptic or narrowly ovate, acute or apiculate, and obtuse at the apex, mostly obtuse at the base, coriaceous, rigid, rather thick, flat or wavy, minutely crenulate, or quite entire, 1/2–2 in. long, 1/5–1 in. broad; petioles 1/20– 1/8 in. long; cymes axillary, 3–7-flowered, racemose, 3/10– 3/5 in. long, at length drooping; pedicels 1/20– 1/6 in. long; bracts lanceolate, small, deciduous; flowers diœcious or subhermaphrodite, tetramerous, or occasionally pentamerous, pubescent, 1/10– 1/6 in. long, the female flowers nodding; calyx hemispherical, shortly cleft, 1/20– 1/10 in. long; lobes deltoid; corolla campanulate, cleft half-way down or more, twice as long as the calyx, greenish or whitish-herbaceous; lobes broadly ovate or rounded and apiculate, recurved at the apex; stamens 16 or 20–22 in the male flowers, about 12 in the subhermaphrodite, none in the female; filaments short, slender, glabrous; anthers lanceolate, shortly hairy; ovary shortly conical or ovoid, hairy, 2–4-celled; styles 2, or rarely 3, bifid at the apex, glabrous; stigmas trifid, but little exserted; ovules usually 4; fruit globose, dusky or brown, about 1/5 in. in diam., at first pubescent, at length glabrate, edible, the flesh somewhat astringent; seed solitary, comparatively large, sometimes with vestiges of 2 or 3 abortive ovules. null