CELASTRACEAE 1 69 



up usually of 2 to 4 cells. In each cell there are 1 or 2 oblong, 

 light brown nutlets less than Yi inch in length. 



Distribution. — The Wahoo is a shrub that prefers banks 

 and low ground along streams, although it is found occasionally 

 in other situations. It ranges from New York to Minnesota 

 and south to Florida and Texas. In Illinois, it occurs in all 

 wooded portions and is recorded in many places along small 

 and large streams, where prairie regions are invaded by 

 woods. 



EUONYMUS AMERICANA Linnaeus 

 Brook Euonymus 



The Brook Euonymus, fig. 40, is a low but erect or ascend- 

 ing shrub, which reaches a height of only 6 to 12 inches. It is 

 much branched, and the branches and branchlets are greenish 

 gray, 4-angled, and smooth. The leaves are nearly sessile and 

 ovate-lanceolate to broadly oval, and the terminal pair on the 

 branch usually is not so large as other pairs. The leaf blades 

 are acuminate or abruptly acute at the apex, generally nar- 

 rowed at the base or sometimes rounded or subcordate, and 

 1 to 4 inches long by ^ to \Y\ inches wide. The margins are 

 crenulate-serrate and the surface is smooth above and also 

 beneath, except on the midrib, which may be pubescent. 



The flowers, which appear in May, are grouped 1 to 3 

 together in small cymes which arise from the axils of leaves 

 of the present year. The petals are circular or nearly so, with 

 toothed margins, and are usually greenish purple. The fruit 

 matures in September and October as a somewhat flattened 

 3- to 5-celled and lobed, light red capsule, which is tuber- 

 culately roughened. Each cell of the capsule contains 1 to 6 

 nutlets, which are elliptic and more or less flattened and have 

 the orange color characteristic of bittersweet. 



Distribution. — The Brook Euonymus prefers low, flat 

 woods. It is a species definitely southern in distribution and 

 ranges from New York west to Illinois and south to Florida 

 and Texas. In Illinois, it has been reported only rarely, but 

 these reports range throughout the length of the state, from 

 Cook County in the northeast to Hancock County in the cen- 

 tral west by way of La Salle County, and finally in Pulaski 

 Countv in the south. It is one of the rare shrubs of the state. 



