78 CELASTRACE^. 



winged pear-shaped capsule from which after dehiscence 



hang the brilliantly coloured seeds with their large red or 



orange arils. 



Species about sixty, mostly in India, especially on the 

 Himalayas. Malaya has four or five, the Phillipines two, 

 Australia, North America and Europe one each. The last is 

 the Spindle tree of England. Fr. Fusain. Ger, Spindlebaum. 



Euonymus crcnulatus Wallich, ex Wight and Arnott 

 Prod. l6l ; omitting Wall. Cat. 4409. Herb. Wight. Prop, 

 482 ! ; FB.I. i 608, I 4 ; the Spindle-tree. A small tree 

 or shrub with rather loosely spreading branched and 

 yellowish green leaves more or less horizontal so that the 

 foliage is in flat tiers and light. Year's shoots four- 

 angled, not or slightly lenticelled. Leaves all opposite, 

 shortly petioled, elliptic, or occasionally ovate, coriace- 

 ous, entire or obscurely serrate towards the top, quite 

 glabrous ; margins revolute, midrib strong but nerves 

 obscure- Flowers in small cymes or cymose panicles of 

 three or seven, on slender peduncles I inch long, often in 

 pairs in the upper leaf-axils. Bracts and bracteoles 

 minute ; pedicels % inch ; buds globular % inch. 

 Calyx of four or five rounded sepals. Petals J^ inch, 

 rounded, purplish brown, surrounding the thick fleshy 

 disc on which stand the four or five stamens with broad 

 anthers. Ovary sunk in the disc with short thick style, 

 of five cells each with two ovules hanging from the 

 upper corner. Fruit a brilliantly crimson pear-shaped 

 capsule (with the dried calyx as a ring at its base), 

 opening so as to allow the five or more orange-coloured 

 seeds, each capped by a large orange red aril, to hang 

 down on slender but firm stalks, where they remain some 

 time attached to the valves, against whose silvery white 

 inner surfaces they are very conspicuous, t. 60. Wight 

 Ic. 973. 



Microtropis microcarpa also had its flowers on slender peduncles, but in 

 the absence of the fruit may be distinguished by its erect and darker les^ves 



