CELASTRACE^. ( STAFF-TREE FAMILY.) 109 



* Leaves deciduous ; flowers in sessile clusters, or the fertile solitary ; fruit bright 



red. 



7. I. vertieillata, Gray, (Black Alder. Wixterberry.) Leaves 

 oval, obovate, or wedge-lanceolate, pointed, acute at base, serrate, downij on 

 the veins beneath ; flowers all very short-ped uncled. — Low grounds ; common. 

 May, June. 



8. I. laevigata, Gray. (Smooth Winterberrt.) Leaves lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, pointed at both ends, appressed-serrulate, shining abovC; 

 beneath mostly (jlabrous ; sterile flowers lonrj-peduncled. — Wet grounds, Maine 

 io the mountains of Va. June. — Fruit larger than in the last, ripening 

 earlier in the autumn. 



* * Leaves coriaceous, evergreen and shining, often black-dotted beneath ; fruit 



black. 



9. I. glabra, Gray. (IxKBERRY.) Leaves wedge-lanceolate or oblong, 

 sparingly tuothed toward the apex, smooth ; peduncles {h' long) of tlie sterile 

 flowers 3 - 6-flowered, of the fertile 1-flowered; calyx-teeth rather blunt. — 

 Sandy grounds. Cape Ann, Mass., to Va., and southward near the coast. June. 

 — Shrub 2 - 3° high. 



2. NEMOPANTHES, Raf. Mountain Holly. 



Flowers polygamo-dioecious. Calyx in the sterile flowers of 4 - 5 minute de- 

 ciduous teeth, in the fertile ones obsolete. Petals 4 - .5, oblong-linear, spread- 

 ing, distinct. Stamens 4 - .5 ; filaments slender. Drupe with 4-5 bony nutlets, 

 light red. — A much-branched shrub, with ash-gray bark, alternate and oblong 

 deciduous leaves on slender petioles, entire or slightly toothed, smooth. Flow- 

 ers on long slender axillary peduncles, solitary or sparingly clustered. (Name 

 said by the author to mean " flower with a filiform peduncle," therefore prob- 

 ably composed of vriij.a, a thread, irovs, foot, and 6.v6os, flower.) 



1. N. fascicul^ris, Raf. (N. Canadensis, Z)C.)— Damp cold woods, 

 from the mountains of Va. to Maine, Ind., Wise, and northward. May. 



Order 26. CELASTKACE.^. (Staff-tree Family.) 



Shrubs with simple leaves, and small regular flowers, the sepals arid the 

 petals both imbricated in the bud, the 4 or 5 perigynous stamens as many as 

 the petals and alternate with tJiem, inserted on a disk which fills the bottom 

 of the calyx and sometimes covers the ovary. Seeds arilled^ — Ovules one 

 or few (erect or pendulous) in each cell, anatropous ; styles united into 

 one. Fruit 2-5-celled, free from the calyx. Embryo large, in fleshy 

 albumen; cotyledons broad and thin. Stipules minute and fugacious. 

 Pedicels jointed. 



* Leaves alternate. Flowers in terminal racemes. 

 1 Celagtrus. A slu-ubby climber. Fruit globose, orange, S-valved. Aril scarlet. 



* * Leaves opposite. Flowers in axillary cymes or solitaiy. 

 2. Euonyinus. Erect shrubs. Leaves deciduous. Fruit 3 - 5-lobed, 3 - .5-valve(]. Aril red 

 S. Pachystima. Dwarf evergreen shrub. Flowers very small. Fruit oblong, 2-valved 

 Aril whit*. 



