Jasminum. 729 
Local name: lishlish (Delile); rakkar (Schweinfurth); generally: 
arak; rak; moswak. 
Also known from Tropical Africa, other parts of the Sahara region, 
Palestine, Arabia and India. — The twigs are used as tooth-brushes. 
87. Oleaceae. 
Flowers usually hermaphrodite, regular. Calyx inferior, small, 
campanulate, usually 4-toothed. Corolla gamopetalous, hypocrateri- 
form, funnel-shaped or campanulate; lobes usually 4. Stamens 
usually 2, epipetalous; filaments short; anthers ovate-oblong, rarely 
linear, dorsifixed, dehiscing longitudinally. Disk 0. Ovary superior, 
2-celled; style usually short; stigma usually capitate, often finally 
shortly 2-lobed; ovules usually 2 in a cell, attached by the base 
to the side or apex of the dissepiment, anatropous or amphitropous. 
Fruit capsular or indehiscent. Seeds 2—4, or by abortion solitary, 
erect or pendulous, albuminous or exalbuminous; testa usually thin; 
embryo straight, fleshy when the albumen is absent. — Erect or 
scandent unarmed shrubs or trees. Leaves usually opposite, simple 
or imparipinnate, entire or dentate, exstipulate. Inflorescence simple 
or compound, centripetal or centrifugal. 
Species about 300, widely spread in the tropical and subtemperate 
regions of both hemispheres. From an economical point of view it is chiefly 
important from including the well-known olive, which yields the most valu- 
able of vegetable oils. The various kind of jasmines and the lilac are com- 
mon garden-plants belonging to the family. 
A. Corolla-tube cylindrical; lobes imbricate ..... . 1. Jasminum. 
B. Corolla-tube short; lobes induplicate-valvate ... . 2. Olea. 
416. (1.) Jasminum Linn. 
Calyx-tube campanulate; lobes 4, long or short. Corolla hypo- 
crateriform; tube cylindrical; limb with 4—10 imbricate lobes. 
Stamens 2, inserted just below the throat of the corolla-tube; 
filaments short. Ovary 2-celled; style variable in length in the 
same species; stigma capitate or 2-lobed; ovules usually 2 in each 
cell, attached near the base of the dissepiment. Berry didymous 
or by abortion simple. Seeds solitary, erect; testa double; albumen 0; 
cotyledons plano-convex; radicle inferior. — Shrubs, often more or 
less scandent. Leaves usually opposite, simple or compound. Flowers 
usually white or yellow, fragrant, arranged in simple or compound 
cymes. 
Species about 100, spread through the tropical and temperate regions 
of the Old World. 
