pepper tree

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several evergreen trees of the genus Schinus, especially S. molle, native to South America, having compound leaves, yellowish-white flowers clustered in branching panicles, and small rose-colored drupes. Also called California pepper tree.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A shrub or small tree of the cashew family, Schinus Molle, native in South America and Mexico, and cultivated for ornament and shade in southern California and other warm dry climates. It is a fast-growing evergreen of graceful habit, having leaves with twenty or more pairs of leaflets, and greenish-white flowers in feathery panicles, which appear at all seasons, followed by pendent clusters of small red drupes. The latter are strongly pungent, whence the name. The leaves emit a pleasant resinous fragrance, and also exude a gum, whence the shrub is also called (Peruvian) mastic-tree. Thrown into water, the leaves appear to move spontaneously, owing to the bursting of resin-glands. Also called pepper-shrub and Chili pepper. See Schinus.
2. n. A shrub or small tree of the magnolia family, Drimys (Tasmannia) aromatica, of Victoria and Tasmania. Its bark has properties like those of D. Winteri, and its small globular berries serve as a substitute for pepper.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) an aromatic tree (Drimys axillaris) of the Magnolia family, common in New Zealand. See Peruvian mastic tree, under Mastic.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. small Peruvian evergreen with broad rounded head and slender pendant branches with attractive clusters of greenish flowers followed by clusters of rose-pink fruits
2. n. small African deciduous tree with spreading crown having leaves clustered toward ends of branches and clusters of creamy flowers resembling lilacs