CALYCIFLOR.E 185 



The properties of the plants of this group are 

 emetic, stimulant, and acrid. The native Spindle 

 Wood is of some economic importance. The Arabs 

 are said to eat the leaves of one of the exotic 

 species to preserve them from plague and to make 

 them watchful. 



Spindle Wood {Euonymus europceus). 



The orange aril enclosing the seeds of the Spindle 

 Wood, when the pod is ripe and has opened, is a 

 familiar object, well known to those who live in the 

 neighbourhood of the Chalk downs in the South. 



Spindle Wood is found in England and Wales, 

 Scotland and Ireland, but it is rare in Scotland and 

 local in Ireland. 



Hedges, woods, and copses are the habitats of this 

 shrub or tree. It occurs occasionally in woods with 

 the sessile oak on siliceous soils, most abundantly on 

 limestone in ashwoods, on limestone scrub, and 

 especially on chalk, on chalk scrub, as well as in ash- 

 oakwood on marls and calcareous sandstones. It is 

 frequently planted. 



A shrub or tree, Spindle Wood is 5 to 20 ft. high. 

 It is quite smooth. The bark is grey, the twigs 

 green, with four angles. The leaves are opposite, 

 ovate or oblong to lance-shaped, minutely toothed, 

 shortly stalked, acute. 



The flowers are yellowish-green or greenish-white, 

 four-cleft, in small umbels, or dichotomous cymes, 



