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Flowers monœcious in unisexual receptacles. Male: perianth 3–4-lobed. Stamens as many as and opposite to the perianth-lobes which they exceed, free, erect in bud; anthers cordate, cells parallel, opening longitudinally. Female without perianth; ovary included in the receptacle with which it is united in the lower portion; style terminal, bearing a pair of stigmas which spread from the mouth of the receptacle. Ovule solitary, pendulous from the apex of the cell. Fruit adnate to the receptacle, globose or ellipsoid, narrowing below into a stalk-like portion, common wall thin, tough. Seed conforming to the fruit-cavity with a thin testa, filled with the embryo which has a short radicle, one short roundish cotyledon, and one very thick cotyledon which almost fills the seed. —Shrubs or trees, with alternate shortly stalked acuminate leaves; stipules lanceolate, deciduous. Inflorescences on a reduced branch in the leaf-axils, 2–4 male consisting of a short stalk bearing a dense head of flowers subtended by several spreading ovate bracts; female generally between a pair of males, rarely solitary, sessile, consisting of an ovoid receptacle bearing small bracts at the base and on the sides and upper margin, and enveloping one, rarely 2, flowers.