170 CELASTRACEAE 



EUONYMUS OBOVATA Nuttall 

 Running Euonymus 



The Running Euonymus, fig. 41, is a decumbent shrub which 

 roots at the nodes and sends up upright branches to a height 

 of 6 to 18 inches. These branches are gray and terete, and 

 the branchlets, at first green, become gray and smooth or, 

 rarely, remain somewhat pubescent. Each branch has, as a 

 rule, 2 to 4 pairs of leaves, which are either sessile or on short 

 petioles seldom more than 1/^ inch long. The leaf blades are 

 obovate to elliptic or oblong, and the terminal 2 leaves on each 

 branch are definitely the largest. The leaves range from l]/^ 

 to 3^ inches long and from ^ to 1^ inches wide and 

 they are abruptly narrowed at the tip to a blunt point and 

 tapered to the petiole below. The margins are crenulate-serrate 

 or sometimes somewhat double toothed, and the leaf surface 

 is smooth or pubescent on the principal veins above and glabrous 

 beneath. 



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

 together in small cymes. The petals are circular, with short 

 or indistinct claws, and are greenish yellow on the outer part 

 and maroon colored toward the base. The fruit matures in 

 autumn as a flat, 3-angled, scarlet to orange-red capsule about 

 14 inch wide, which is tuberculately roughened. Each cell in 

 the capsule contains 1 to 2 seeds which are elliptic and more 

 or less flattened, smooth, and flesh colored. 



Distribution. — The Running Euonymus prefers rich, moist 

 soil in woods and grows in dense mats which may cover several 

 square yards. It ranges from Ontario to Michigan and south 

 to Pennsylvania and Kentucky. In Illinois, it has been col- 

 lected and reported frequently from woody portions of the 

 state, but not from the prairie regions in the central part, 

 and it ranges from the northern to the southern and from 

 the eastern to the western boundaries. 



CELASTRUS Linnaeus 



Bittersweets Waxworts 



The bittersweets are twining vines or shrubs with alternate, 

 entire or toothed leaves and minute stipules. The flowers are 

 borne in axillary or terminal racemes or panicles. There are 



