18S4.J 



BE A UTIES OF BRITISH TBEES. 



817 



BEAUTIES OF BRITISH TREES. 



kHE SPINDLE-TREE (Euonymus Euroj)ceus).— Though, little 

 more than a shrub, the Spindle-tree claims notice from the beauty 

 of its fruit. It is a species of a small genus in the small order 

 CelastracecE, a genus of plants belonging to the north temperate zone, 

 which derive their flattering name from their bad rather than their good 

 qualities. As the Irish peasant to-day speaks of the fairies euphemisti- 

 cally as ' the good people ' because he is afraid of them, so the ancient 

 Greeks called their avenging deities or furies the Eumenides, or ' kind 

 folk/ and their mother, Euonyme, ' her whose name is good.' From its 



FLOWER OP SPINDLE TREE, 



poisonous though lovely fruits the Spindle-tree has been given the 

 name of this once dreaded being. Mainly confined to Europe,^our 

 British species is but rarely seen either in Scotland or Ireland ;fbut in 

 the South its smooth bright green shoots and leaves in summer, and its 

 rose-red capsules in autumn, are not uncommon objects in hedgerows 



