Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, petiolate; leaf blade pinnately veined. Inflorescences axillary or often lateral below leaves. Flowers bisexual, solitary or clustered. Hypanthium short. Calyx lobes 4. Petals 4. Stamens numerous; anthers parallel, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary 2-or 3-loculed; ovules many per locule, amphitropous. Fruit a berry, with persistent sepals at apex. Seed usually 1, embryo straight, with 2 fully or partly fused massive cotyledons.
Fls us. 4-merous, in terminal compound cymes; receptacle globose to turbinate; stamens ∞; ovary us. 2-celled, with filiform style and small stigma. Fr. us. baccate, seeds solitary or few per cell. Embryo thick, fleshy; testa thin, radicle short. Shrubs or trees with aromatic gland-dotted opp. lvs. Some 800 mostly tropical and subtropical spp., the N.Z. one endemic.