General description:- Shrubs or trees.

Leaves:- Alternate, simple, exstipulate.

Flowers:- Actinomorphic, hermaphrodite. Calyx more or less adnate to the ovary. Corolla usually with united petals (sympetalous). Stamens usually twice as many as the corolla-lobes. Ovary superior to inferior, 3- to 5-celled (locular), with axile placentae.

Fruit:- A drupe or capsule.

STYRAX

Flowers:- In short, lax, terminal or axillary racemes. Calyx campanulate. Corolla-lobes overlapping (imbricate); tube usually very short. Stamens 10(-12), attached to (adnate) the base of the corolla. Ovary 3-locular; ovules few in each loculus.

Fruit:- A dry, usually 1-seeded drupe.