Fls us. perfect, in racemes or panicles; sepals 5, united below; petals 5, us. quite free; stamens us. 5, alternating with lobes of disk; ovary superior to inferior, 1-6-celled; ovules us. ∞. Fr. capsular or baccate. Trees or shrubs with simple alt. to subopp. exstipulate lvs. A few genera of southern hemisphere.

Evergreen trees or shrubs. Lvs simple, usually alternate, rarely subopposite or subverticillate, mostly with gland-tipped teeth; stipules 0. Fls mostly in racemes or panicles, sometimes in fascicles or solitary, regular, usually 5-merous, usually ☿, rarely unisexual. Sepals mostly united in lower part, rarely free, imbricate or valvate, often persistent. Petals usually free, rarely connate into a short tube, imbricate or valvate. Stamens (4)-5-(6), sometimes alternating with staminodes; filaments free; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing longitudinally; disc lobes alternating with stamens. Ovary 1-6-locular, superior or inferior, surmounted by a variously shaped disc; ovules 1 and pendulous, or few to numerous and parietal in the 1-locular ovaries, otherwise in central placentas, anatropous. Fr. a capsule, drupe or berry; seeds with copious endosperm.