478 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



rolla, and open lengthwise towards the stigma, which is sim- 

 ple and supported by 3 cohering styles as long as the stamens. 

 Fruit an inch and a half or two inches long, made up of 3 mem- 

 branous capsules or pods, grown together, each ending in an 

 awl-like point, which is the style. The pods are not unlike 

 pea-pods in texture, and strongly resemble them in smell. The 

 seeds are usually abortive, except, in one of the pods, a single 

 one, which is brown, ovoid, and flattened at one end. 



The seeds of the European species, which is very analogous 

 to ours, differing from it in having 5 to 7 leaflets, are strung as 

 beads by Roman Catholics in some countries. The wood is 

 yellowish- white and close-grained. 



XXXII. 2. THE STAFF TREE. CELA'STRUS. L. 



A genus of nearly seventy species of unarmed, climbing 

 shrubs, found in America, Asia, and tropical Africa. Flowers 

 small, pale yellowish-green, in axillary or terminal, bracteated 

 racemes. Leaves alternate, of thin texture, with very minute 

 stipules. 



Fertile and sterile flowers sometimes on separate plants. 

 Calyx 5-lobed, forming a short tube. Petals 5. Stamens 5. 

 Ovary 3-celled, sessile on the fleshy disk. Styles short, united, 

 with a 3-lobed stigma. Capsule imperfectly 2- or 3-celled. 

 Seeds 1 or 2 in each cell, enclosed in a pulpy aril. Embryo in 

 the thin albumen, nearly as long as the seeds. Cotyledons 

 broad and leaf-like. 



The Climbing Staff Tree. Wax-Work. C. scandens. L. 



This is a beautiful, twining shrub, climbing over rocks, bushes 

 and trees, often to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and de- 

 lighting in moist and shady situations. The stem is very slen- 

 der, rarely more than an inch thick, preserving its size but 

 enlarging at the angle of the branches and just below. It is of 

 an olive green, or alder color, ash or clay-colored above, con- 

 spicuously dotted with numerous, oval, brown dots, and termi- 

 nating in long and slender green shoots, with small leaves. 



The leaves vary from egg-shaped to elliptic and inverse egg- 

 shaped, acute or somewhat decurrent or rounded at base, with 



