114 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one-leafed, turbinate pe- 

 rianthium; border five-parted, acute, close-converging, and perma- 

 nent : the corolla has five equal petals, roundish, of an arched sac- 

 cular shape, compressed, very obtuse, spreading, smaller than the 

 calyx, seated on claws the length of the petal, growing from the in- 

 terstices of the calyx : the stamina consist of five subulate, erect fila- 

 ments, opposite to the petals, the length of the corolla: the anthers 

 are roundish r. the pistillum is a superior, triangular germ: the style 

 cylindric, semitrifid, the length of the stamens: the stigma obtuse 

 the pericarpium is a berry (capsule), dry, three-grained, three-celled, 

 obtuse, retuse, and set with tubercles : the seeds solitary and ovate. 



The species commonly cultivated are: 1. C. Americanns, Ameri- 

 can Ceanothus, or New Jersey Tea; 2. C. Asiaticus, Asiatic Ceono- 

 thus; 3. C. Africanus, African Evergreen Ceanothus. 



The first in this climate is a shrub, which seldom rises more than 

 three or four feet high, sending out branches on every side from the 

 ground upwards: the branches are very slender, and, as it is pretty 

 late in the spring before they begin to shoot, keep growing very late ; 

 consequently, unless the autumn proves dry and mild, the tender 

 shoots are often killed down very low by the early frosts; but in 

 favourable seasons, the extreme parts of the shoots only are injured 

 by the cold: these branches are garnished with oval-pointed leaves, 

 placed opposite, deciduous, and of a light green colour : the flowers 

 are produced at the extremity of each shoot in close thick spikes, 

 and composed of five small petals, of a clear white colour, making 

 a fine appearance, as the whole shrub is covered over with flowers. 



These appear in. July, and in mild seasons again in October. It 

 is a native of North America, where the leaves are sometimes used 

 as tea. 



The second species rises with a shrubby branching stem, four feet 

 high. The branches are alternate, flexuose, striated and smooth : 

 the leaves are alternate, resembling those of the pear, acuminate, 

 smooth, at the ends of the small branches, scarcely an inch in length, 

 on petioles half the length of the leaves : the racemes from each 

 axilla usually two, small, the length of the petioles, consisting of 



