Addisonia 75 



(Plate 158) 



EUONYMUS PATENS 

 Spreading Spindle-tree 



Native of central China 

 Family C^i^astraceas Staff-tree Family 



Euonymus patens Rehder, in Sarg. Trees & Shrubs 1: 127. 1903. 



A glabrous compact shrub up to ten feet tall, with spreading 

 branches, semi-persistent chartaceous leaves, greenish flowers, and 

 pink fruit. The grayish green young branchlets are obscurely 

 four-angled and minutely warty; the winter-buds are ovate. The 

 leaves are opposite, with petioles usually a quarter inch long or less. 

 The blades are elliptic to oblong-elliptic, or sometimes obovate or 

 obovate-oblong, up to three inches long and an inch and a half wide, 

 with the apex acutish or somewhat acuminate, and the base cuneate; 

 they are bright green on the upper surface, paler beneath, and have 

 five or six pairs of ascending nerves; the margin is crenate-serrate. 

 The flowers, a third to two fifths of an inch in diameter, are borne 

 in loose upright cymes which are long-stalked, and are from two 

 to four times dichotomously branched ; the peduncles are up to one 

 and a half inches long, and the pedicels commonly less than a half 

 inch. The four sepals are nearly orbicular, and the four petals of 

 similar shape, but about three times as long. The four stamens 

 are a half to two thirds as long as the petals and are inserted below 

 the four-angled disk. The pink capsules are about two fifths of an 

 inch in diameter, nearly globose, and not lobed. The seeds are 

 pinkish brown, and are entirely covered by the orange-red arils. 



A shrub of decorative value on account of its semi-persistent 

 foliage and handsome fruits. It grows well in any ordinary soil, 

 and is hardy as far north as Massachusetts. It was introduced into 

 the United States by George H. Hall, who had resided at Shang- 

 hai, China, for several years previous to 1860. It flowers in August 

 and September, and ripens its fruit in October and November. 

 The semi-persistent character of the leaves in the neighborhood of 

 New York city would indicate that further south it would be an 

 evergreen. It is usually cultivated in American gardens and offered 

 for sale in nursery catalogues under the incorrect name of Euonymus 

 Sieboldians. The specimen from which the illustration was 

 prepared has been in the collections of the New York Botanical 



Garden since 1911. 



George V. Nash. 



Explanation of Plats. Fig. 1. — Flowering branch. Fig. 2. — Flower, X 2. 

 Fig. 3. — Fruiting branch. 



