326 apocynAce^ 



2. LiGUSTRUM (Privet). — Shrubs with simple, often evergreen 

 leaves ; -flowers perfect, in terminal panicled cymes ; calyx cup- 

 shaped, 4-toothed, deciduous ; corolla funnel-shaped, with 4 

 spreading lobes ; fruit globular, berry-like. (Name, the Classical 

 name of the plant, connected with ligare, to bind, from the use 

 made of the twigs.) 



I. L. vulgar e (Comm.on Privet). — The only British species, a 

 common hedge-bush, with opposite, smooth, elliptical, nearly ever- 

 green leaves ; dense panicles of white, sickly-smelling flowers, and 

 polished, globular, black, berry-Uke fruits. It is commonly used 

 for garden-hedges in towns, not being injured by smoke. — Fl. 

 June, July. Perennial. 



Ord. XLIX. Apocynace.e. — Periwinkle Family 



Trees, shrubs, or herbs, mostly tropical, poisonous, and 

 abounding in a milky juice ; leaves simple, opposite ; flowers 

 showy, polysymmetric ; calyx 5-cleft, persistent ; corolla 5-lobed, 

 the lobes twisted when in bud, and when expanded usually 

 oblique ; stamens 5, inserted in the corolla-tube ; ovary 2-cham- 

 bered ; fruit various. The beautiful Oleander {Nhium Oleander), 

 common in greenhouses, is a member of this Order. It is very 

 poisonous, the wood, when powdered, being sometimes used to 

 kill rats. It is related that in 1809, when the French troops were 

 before Madrid, a soldier formed the unfortunate idea of cutting 

 branches of Oleander (which in Spain is very common and 

 reaches a considerable size) to serve as spits and skewers for 

 their meat when roasting. The wood having been stripped of 

 its bark, and brought in contact with the meat, was productive of 

 most direful consequences, seven soldiers dying out of twelve who 

 ate of the roast. A number of species in the Order belonging to 

 the genera Vahea, Willughbeia, and Landolphia, natives of Tropical 

 Africa and the Malay Archipelago, are valuable sources of india- 

 rubber ; and a few other genera contain medicinal plants. Vinca, 

 the only genus represented among British plants, is astringent 

 and acrid. 



I. Vinca (Periwinkle). — Slender, trailing plants with evergreen 

 leaves ; solitary salver-shaped flowers with 5 oblique lobes to the 

 corolla ; style resembling the shaft of a pillar surmounted by a 

 double capital ; fruit of 2 erect, slender, many-seeded, indehiscent 

 carpels. (Name from the Latin vincio, I bind, from the cord-like 

 stems.) 



I. V. minor (Lesser Periwinkle). — Stem trailing, rooting, send- 

 ing up short, erect, leafy shoots, which bear the flowers ; leaves 



