BITTERSWEET 341 



Flowers homogamous, with the honey hidden in the 

 tube : in pjTamidal panicles, up to 8 cm. long, odorous ; 

 similar in structure to those of the Lilac, but the corolla 

 smaller, white, and with less spreading lobes. Fruit 

 fleshy, shining black, about the size of a pea, with purple 

 flesh ; persistent through the winter. 



[The Ash, Fraccinus excelsior, also belongs to the 

 same Natural Order {Oleacece) as the Privet and Lilac, 

 but it is abnormal in its polygamy and in having no 

 calyx or corolla (see p. 275) : the latter are present in 

 other species, however.] 



** Stamens 5, equal in number to the corolla- 

 lobes, which are purple-bluish or lilac, and 

 not valvate in bud. Leaves not opposite. 



t Flowers in small umbellate lateral or leaf- 

 opposed cymes ; corolla blue, rotate, with 

 short tube ; stamens sub-sessile ; anthers 

 long and conniving into a central yellow 

 cone, opening by apical pores. 



Solanum Dulcamara, L. Bittersweet. Sub-shrub, 

 with scrambling or climbing shoots and the leaves and 

 inflorescences often displaced. 



Flowers drooping, homogamous and devoid of honey ; 

 on slender pedicels. Calyx 5-fid, the lobes broad and 

 obtuse. Corolla purple-blue, with five re volute lobes, 

 each with a pair of greenish spots at its base which 

 are visited by insects: about 12 15 mm. in diameter. 

 Stamens 5, sub-sessile ; anthers yellow, long and tapering, 

 coherent into a cone, with apical pores. Ovary 2-celled, 

 with many ovules : style simple, stigma blunt. Berry red. 

 Pollen w^hite, very small, rounded to ellipsoid-fusiform, 

 with 3 longitudinal grooves, smooth, about 15 x 10 12 fx. 



