BITTERSWEET 341 



Flowers homogamous, with the honey hidden in the 

 tube : in pyramidal panicles, up to 8 cm. long, odorous ; 

 similar in structure to those of the Lilac, but the corolla 

 smaller, white, and with less spreading lobes. Fruit 

 fleshy, shining black, about the size of a pea, with purple 

 flesh ; persistent through the winter. 



[The Ash, Fraxinus excelsior, also belongs to the 

 same Natural Order (Oleacece) as the Privet and Lilac, 

 but it is abnormal in its polygamy and in having no 

 calyx or corolla (see p. 275) : the latter are present in 

 other species, however.] 



** Stamens 5, equal in number to the corolla- 

 lobes, which are purple-bluish or lilac, and 

 not valvate in bud. Leaves not opposite. 



t Flowers in small umbellate lateral or leaf- 

 opposed cymes ; corolla blue, rotate, with 

 short tube ; stamens sub-sessile ; anthers 

 long and conniving into a central yellow 

 cone, opening by apical pores. 



Solatium Dulcamara, L. Bittersweet. Sub-shrub, 

 with scrambling or climbing shoots and the leaves and 

 inflorescences often displaced. 



Flowers drooping, homogamous and devoid of honey; 

 on slender pedicels. Calyx 5-fid, the lobes broad and 

 obtuse. Corolla purple-blue, with five revolute lobes, 

 each with a pair of greenish spots at its base which 

 are visited by insects ; about 12 15 mm. in diameter. 

 Stamens 5, sub-sessile ; anthers yellow, long and tapering, 

 coherent into a cone, with apical pores. Ovary 2 -celled, 

 with many ovules : style simple, stigma blunt. Berry red. 

 Pollen white, very small, rounded to ellipsoid-fusiform, 

 with 3 longitudinal grooves, smooth, about 15 x 10 12 p. 



