330 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



the bark of some species of the flowering ash, exudes the mild 

 and useful purgative known by the name of manna. The olive 

 is one of a very few plants which yield oil from the fleshy part 

 of their fruit, it being almost universally confined to the kernel 

 or seed. The sap of the ash has some resemblance to that of 

 the maple. 



The family is divided into three sections, each of which has 

 a representative, indigenous or introduced, in our forests or gar- 

 dens : — 



1. The Olive Tribe, — whose fruit is a drupe or berry, com- 

 • prehending, with the Olive, the Privet, the Philly'rea, and the 



Fringe Tree, or Snow Flower ; 



2. The Lilac Tribe, — fruit a capsule ; containing the Lilac 

 and the Fontanesia ; 



3. The Ash Tribe, — fruit a key ; the Ash and the Ornus, or 

 Flowering Ash. 



1. THE OLIVE TRIBE. OLEI'NEJE. 

 The only genus which has become naturalized, is 



XV. 1. THE PRIVET. LIGU' STRUM. Tournefort. 



This genus contains a very few shrubs or low trees, indige- 

 nous to the temperate regions of Europe and Central Asia, with 

 opposite, entire, smooth leaves, and flowers in terminal panicles. 

 The calyx is short and four-toothed ; the corolla has a short 

 tube, longer than the calyx, with its border fonr-lobed. Sta- 

 mens two, with short filaments attached to the tube of the 

 corolla. The ovary is two-celled, with two ovules in each cell, 

 and surmounted by a very short style bearing a two-cleft stig- 

 ma. The berry is two-celled with one or two seeds in each 

 cell. 



The Common Privet or Prim. L. vulgarc. L. 



A hardy shrub, with numerous opposite branches, growing to 

 the. height of six or eight feet. It grows in clumps, from strong, 

 matted, bright yellow roots. The bark on the trunk is of a dark 



