Fam. 83. Celastraceae R. Br. Staff-tree Family 



Shrubs, woody vines or small trees; leaves simple, opposite or alternate; stipules 

 lacking or minute, fugacious; flowers with jointed pedicels, regular, perfect or 

 unisexual, 4- or 5-merous, the perianth parts imbricated in the bud; stamens 

 4 to 10, commonly as many as the petals and alternate with them, inserted on a 

 broad flat usually lobed disk that fills the bottom of the calyx and sometimes 

 covers the ovary; ovules anatropous; styles completely united; fruit 1- to 5-celled, 

 free from the calyx; seeds mostly arillate. 



About 850 species in more than 50 genera, world-wide in distribution. 



1. Euonymus L. Spindle-tree 



Shrubs or small trees with 4-sided green-barked branchlets; leaves opposite, 

 serrulate; flowers small, perfect. 4- or 5-merous, solitary or in loose pedunculate 

 cymes in the leaf axils; sepals united at the base to form a short flat calyx; petals 

 rounded, spreading; stamens short, inserted on the margin of a broad and flat 

 4- or 5-angled disk that coheres with the calyx to conceal the ovary and more or 

 less adhere to it; style short or none; capsule 3- to 5-lobed and -valved, loculicidal; 

 seeds 1 to 4 in each cell, enclosed in a red aril. 



About 175 species, primarily in North America, Eurasia and Australia. 



1. Leaves often essentially sessile, with petioles less than 5 mm. long; flowers 



5-merous; fruits tuberculate 1. E. americanus. 



\. Leaves with prominent petiole more than 5 mm. long; flowers 4-merous; fruit 

 smooth (2) 



2(1). Leaves ovate-elliptic to elliptic, acute or abruptly short-acuminate, per- 

 sistently pubescent beneath. ...2. E. atropurpureus var. atropiirpureus. 



2. Leaves lanceolate, attenuate at apex into a long acumen, entirely glabrous 



2. E. atropurpureus var. Cheatumii. 



1. Euonymus americanus L. Strawberry-bush, bursting-heart. 



Low erect or straggling shrub to about 2 m. high; leaves sessile or essen- 

 tially so, firm, bright-green above, pale beneath, ovate to elliptic or oblong- 

 lanceolate, acute to acuminate, crenulate-serrulate, essentially glabrous, to about 

 1 dm. long and 35 mm. wide; flowers solitary or in few-flowered cymes, 5-merous, 

 1-1.2 cm. wide, greenish-purple; petals distinctly clawed; capsules rough-warty, 

 3- to 5-lobed, depressed, about 15 mm. thick, crimson when ripe, the aril and 

 dissepiments scarlet. 



In mud along streams, swamps, river bottomlands and on forested stream 

 banks in e. Tex. and s.e. Okla. {Waterfall), May-June; from Fla. to Tex., n. to 

 N.Y., Pa., W.Va., Ind., 111., Mo. and Okla. 



2. Euonymus atropurpureus Jacq. Burning-bush, wahoo. 



Erect shrub or small tree to 8 m. high; leaves with petioles 1-2 cm. long, 

 oblong-oval to lanceolate, acute to acuminate or long-attenuate, pubescent beneath 

 or entirely glabrous, 7-13 cm. long, serrulate; peduncles 7- to 15-flowered; 

 flowers dark-red or purple, 4-merous, mostly 6-8 mm. wide; ovules ascending, 2 

 in each cell; fruits red or purple, depressed-obovoid, about 15 mm. broad, deeply 

 4-lobed, smooth; seeds brown, with a scarlet aril. 



Rich moist woods, bottomlands, swamps, thickets and ravines, mainly in 

 n.-cen. Tex. and e. half of Okla. (Waterfall), Apr.-July; from Ont. to Mont., 

 s. to N.C., Tenn., Ala., Ark., Okla. and Tex. 



We have two variants as noted in the key — var. atropurpureus and var. 

 Cheatumii Lundell. 



1103 



