STAFF-TREE FAMILY 



53 



3087 



3087. Rhus ovata 



3088. Rhus laurina 



Family 85. CELASTRACEAE. 

 Staff-tree Family. 



Trees, shrubs or woody climbers. Leaves alternate or opposite, simple, deciduous 

 or persistent. Stipules small and caducous, or none. Flowers small, regular, usually 

 perfect, borne on commonly jointed pedicels, Calyx-lobes 4 or 5, imbricated, per- 

 sistent. Petals 4 or 5, spreading. Disk broad, flat or lobed. Stamens usually as many 

 as petals, inserted on the disk. Ovary sessile, its base free from the disk or often 

 adherent, 3-5-celled; style 1, short; stigma entire or 3-5-lobed; ovules 2 in each 

 cell, anatropous. Fruit in ours a 3-5-celled, loculicidal capsule. Seeds usually aril- 

 late; embryo large. 



A family of about 40 genera and 350 species, widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions. 



Stamens 4-5; pistil 2-S-carpellate. 



Flowers solitary or clustered in the axils; fruit a 2-S-celled, dehiscent capsule; seeds with an aril. 



Leaves (in ours) deciduous; flowers 5-merous; seeds with a red aril. 1. Euonymus. 



Leaves evergreen; flowers 4-merous; seeds with a white basal aril. 2. Pachistima. 



Flowers in terminal narrow thyrsoid cymes, 5-merous; fruit indehiscent, 1-celled and 1-seeded by abortion; 



seed not arillate. 3. Mortonia. 



Stamens 8-10; pistil unicarpellate; fruit a 2-seeded follicle; seed with a small white aril. 4. Glossopetalon. 



1. EUONYMUS [Tourn.] L. Sp. PI. 197. 1753. 



Shrubs with opposite, petioled leaves, deciduous or in some exotic species evergreen. 

 Flowers in axillary, few-flowered cymes, greenish or purple. Calyx-lobes 4 or 5, spreading 

 or recurved. Petals 4 or 5. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted on the broad disk. Ovary 3-5-celled, 

 short; stigma 3-5-lobed. Capsule 3-5-celled and 3-5-lobed or rounded. Seeds 1 or 2 in 

 each cell, enveloped by the red aril. [Name Greek, meaning a good name.] 



About 60 species, natives of the north temperate regions; mainly in Europe and Asia. Besides the following, 

 3 other species inhabit the eastern United States. Type species, Euonymus europaeus L. 



1. Euonymus occidentalis Nutt. Western Burning Bush. Fig. 3089. 



Euonymus occidentalis Nutt. ex Torr. Pacif. R. Rep. 4: 74. 1856. 



Shrub, 2—6 m. high, with slender often scandent branches and smooth, greenish, 4-angled 

 branchlets. Leaves 4-10 cm. long, ovate, acuminate at the apex, serrulate, thin and glabrous, 

 deciduous ; petioles 5-15 mm. long ; peduncles slender, 25-60 mm. long, 1-5-flowered ; petals 5, 

 rounded, 3-4 mm. long, brownish purple, penciled ; capsule deeply 3-lobed, depressed, smooth. 



Deep moist woods, Transition Zone; Washington, along the Columbia River near Vancouver, to Plumas 

 and Monterey Counties, California. Type locality: Oregon. April-May. 



Euonymus occidentalis var. Parishii (Trelease) Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 610. 1925. This variety 



differs only slightly from the typical form. The branchlets are whitish and the cymes are 3-6-flowered. Pine 



forests, Arid Transition Zone; San Jacinto, Cuyamaca, and Palomar Mountains, southern California. Type lo- 

 cality: San Jacinto Mountains. 



