CELASTRACEiE. 395 



Order XLI. CELASTRACE^. 



By W. Trelease. 



Woody plants, sometimes spinose or climbing. Leaves alternate or opposite, 

 simple, not lobed, entire or serrate, not glandular-punctate, with minute or fre- 

 quently abortive stipules. Flowers commonly in reduced axillary cymes, rarely 

 subpanicled, small, often greenish, perfect or dioecious by abortion, 4-5-merous, 

 with a conspicuous disk often surrounding the base of the ovary. Calyx deeply 

 parted, with imbricate persistent segments. Petals distinct, inserted below the 

 free margin of the disk, not hooded. Stamens mostly as many as the petals and 

 alternate with them (fewer in Hippocratea, and mostly of double the number in 

 Glossopetalon) , distinct, commonly inserted on or beneath the margin of the disk ; 

 anthers short, rounded, 2-celled, introrse, versatile on short filaments. Pistil 

 mostly compound ; ovary 1-5-celled, scarcely lobed, free from the calyx but 

 sometimes more or less invested by the disk; ovules 1 to 10, variously situated; 

 style mostly short or wanting ; stigmas 1 to 5, capitate, lateral or rarely expanded, 

 mostly short. Fruit capsular (then loculicidal, with the septa adhering to the 

 valves), drupaceous or winged, 1-few-seeded ; seeds mostly arillate or caruncu- 

 late, albuminous except in Maytenus and Hippocratea ; embryo with flat cotyle- 

 dons. — Represented in our flora by two very distinct tribes, sometimes treated 

 as orders. 



Tribe I. CELASTRE^. Stamens mostly 4 or 5, inserted on or below the margin 

 of the disk. Fruit and seeds not winged in our genera. 



* Stamens as many as the petals or sepals. 

 -(— Fruit loculicidal : ovary nearly or quite immersed in the disk : leaves normally opposite. 



1. EUONYMUS. Flowers seemingly perfect but really polygamo-trioecious, 4-5-merous. 

 Style mostly short, terminal ; ovary .3-5-celled, with 2 to 10 ovules in each cell. Capsule 

 lobed, coriaceous, often magenta-colored, with usually a single large seed in each cell ; seed 

 enclosed in a scarlet or orange aril. 



2. PACHISTIMA. Flowers perfect, 4-merous. Style short, at length commonly unilat- 

 eral ; ovary 2-celled, with 2 erect ovules in each cell. Capsule not lobed, small, oblong, 

 2-edged, usually 1-seeded and commonly unilateral by abortion ; seed with a pale lacerate 

 aril at base. 



H 1— Fruit loculicidal : leaves alternate. 



3. CELASTRUS. Flowers subdioecious, 5-merous. Anthers oval, mucronate. Ovary free, 

 usually 3-4-celled, with 2 erect ovules in each cell. Seed enclosed in a crimson aril. 



4. MAYTENUS. Flowers polygamo-dioecious, 4-.'5-merous. Anthers round-cordate. Ovary 

 confluent with the disk below, usually 3-4-celled, with a single erect ovule in each cell. 

 Seed exalbuminous, with a red aril open above. 



-(— H 1^ Fruit dry or drupaceous, indehiscent : leaves mostly alternate. 



5. GYMINDA. Flowers dioecious, 4-merous. Stamens erect. Stigma sessile, terminal ; 

 ovary partly immersed in the disk, 2f-4?)-celled, with a suspended ovule in each cell. 

 Drupe .spheroidal ; seed almost without aril. 



