NAT. ORDER. 



Calastrinece. 



CELASTRUS SCANDENS. BITTER SWEET. 



Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. Cc/yo;, five-lobed, flat. Coro^/a, five petaled. Stam- 

 ens, seated around a five-toothed glandulous disk. Capsule, 

 or theca, obtusely triangular, three-celled, three-valved. Cells, 

 one- seeded. Seeds, covered with a four-cleft colored arillus. 



82^6. Char. Ste?n, climbing, unarmed. Leaves, oblong, acuminate, 

 serrate. Racemes, terminal. Flowers, arillus. 



The root is creeping, of a bright orange color, from three- 

 eights to three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and sometimes 

 extends several rods in length ; the stem is covered with a reddish 

 brown bark, and seldom exceeds an inch in diameter; the leaves 

 are tapering near the base, with minute teeth along the mai-gins, 

 and a sharp and extended point ; the blossoms are of a greenish 

 3'eliow color, and very fragrant; the berries grow in clusters, and 

 remain upon the vines during winter. EarJy m the autumn, they 

 are of an orange color, but after the first or second frost, the exter- 

 nal covering divides into three valves, which turn backward, and 

 disclose a beautiful scarlet berry in the centre. It flowers in the 

 first or second week in June. 



A very beautiful description of this species of Bitter Sweet 

 may be found in Matterson's Vegetable Practice, from which we 

 copy. " The Bitter Sweet is a woody vine, attaining, in favorable 

 situations, the height of thirty or forty feet. It twines around the 

 branches of trees similar to the grape-vine, and creeps upon hedges, 



HO 



