Flowers 5-to 1O-merous. Calyx calyptrate, deciduous at or near the torus in anthesis, the flower-buds globose to pyriform or obovoid. Petals white or pink, often very inequilateral or conspicuously retuse. Stamens isomorphic, two to five times as many as the petals; filaments slender, glabrous; anthers linear or oblong, 4-celled, more or less laterally compressed, opening by a terminal or ventro-terminal pore; connective neither appendaged nor prolonged; thecae often prolonged a short distance below the apex of the filament. Ovary wholly inferior, 5-to 12-celled; style straight or bent; stigma punctiform, truncate, capitate, or broadly peltate and retuse. Fruit a many-seeded berry. Trees or shrubs, with usually pli-nerved leaves and terminal panicles of small or medium-sized white or pink flowers.