168 CELASTRINE^ 



Sub-class II. Calyciflor^. 



Sepals distinct, or united ; petals distinct ; stamens inserted on the calyx, 

 or close to its base. 



Order XXIII. CELASTRINEiE— SPINDLE-TREE TRIBE. 



Calyx 4 — 5-lobed, on a fleshy disk, lobes in bud overlapping each other ; 

 petals equal in number to calyx-lobes ; stamens equal in number to the 

 petals, and alternate with them ; ovary wholly or partly sunk in the disk, 

 2 — 5-celled; fruit either a capsule of 2 — 5 cells opening with valves, or 

 berry -like ; seeds often enveloped in a distinct covering called an arillus. 

 This Order consists of a large number of trees and shrubs, which are natives 

 of the warmer parts of Europe, North America, and Asia, but are more 

 abundant beyond the Tropics than within them. Many are found at the 

 Cape of Good Hope ; they also occur in Chili, Peru, and New Holland. 

 They are mostly of an acrid nature. 



1. Spindle-tree (Eudnijinns).— Capsule 3 — 5-angled, with 3—5 cells and 

 valves ; seeds solitary in each cell, coated with a fleshy arillus. Name from 

 Eii6nym4, the mother of the Furies, on account of the noxious properties of 

 the fruit. 



2. Bladder-nut {StaphyUa). — Petals erect during flowering; capsule 

 membranaceous, and like a bladder. Name from the Greek staphyle, a 

 bunch of grapes. 



1. Spindle-tree (Eudnymus). 



Common Spindle-tree (E. europdus). — Petals usually 4, oblong, 

 acute ; stamens usually 4 ; branches angular, smooth ; leaves broadly lanceo- 

 late, minutely serrated. Plant perennial. The berries, which hang among 

 the branches of the trees in autumn, are very beautiful. The flat cluster of 

 scarlet fruits on the cotton or wayfaring-tree, gradually becoming of purplish 

 black, the clear cornelian red berries of the guelder-rose, the scarlet hips and 

 haws, the red round berries of the bryony, and the coral groups of the 

 plant called red-berried bryony, the purple clusters of the dog-wood, are all 

 very attractive objects at a season when flowers have almost passed away 

 from the landscape. Now we see the autumnal fruits contrasting with such 

 remnants of green or yellow foliage as may yet linger on the tree amid the 

 bleak gusts of November, or glistening from among the large clumps of 

 feathered seeds with which the clematis is garlanding the trees, or from 

 among the ivy leaves which are winding on trunk or branch. But no native 

 berries are more beautiful than those of the Spindle-tree ; and this plant is 

 much better known by these than by the small greenish flowers which it 

 bears in May, and which are so like the leaves in hue, that they almost 

 escape notice. In October and November the deeply-lobed capsules are of 

 a rich carmine, and as they burst open they display the seeds, of a brilliant 

 orange hue, lying within. Even in our woods they are among the brightest 

 tinted things to be seen ; and wc are not surprised to find that in America 

 a species of Spindle-tree adorns the woods with fruits so brilliant as to have 



