CELASTRACE.E. (STAFF-TREE FAMILY.) 109 



* Leaves deciduous ; flowers in sessile clusters, or the fertile solitary ; fruit bright 



red. 



7. I. verticillata, Gray. (BLACK ALDER. WIXTERBERRY.) Leaves 

 oval, obovate, or wedge-lanceolate, pointed, acute at base, serrate, downy on 

 the veins beneath ; flowers all very short-ped uncled. Low grounds; common. 

 May, June. 



8. I. laevigata, Gray. (SMOOTH WINTERBERRY.) Leaves lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, pointed at both ends, appressed-serrulate, shining above, 

 beneath mostly glabrous ; sterile flowers lontj-ped 'uncled. Wet grounds, Maine 1 

 to the mountains of Va. June. Fruit larger than in the last, ripening 

 earlier in the autumn. 



* * Leaves coriaceous, evergreen and shining, often black-dotted beneath; fruit 



black. 



9. I. glabra, Gray. (INKBERRY.) Leaves wedge-lanceolate or oblong, 

 sparingly toothed toward the apex, smooth ; peduncles (Y long) of the sterile 

 flowers 3-6-flowered, of the fertile 1-flowered; calyx-teeth rather blunt. 

 Sandy grounds, Cape Ann, Mass., to Va., and southward near the coast. June. 

 Shrub 2 -3 high. 



2. NEMOPANTHES, Raf. MOUNTAIN HOLLY. 



Flowers polygamo-dioecious. Calyx in the sterile flowers of 4 - 5 minute de- 

 ciduous teeth, in the fertile ones obsolete. Petals 4-5, oblong-linear, spread- 

 ing, distinct. Stamens 4- 5; filaments slender. Drupe with 4 - 5 bony nutlets, 

 light red. A much-branched shrub, with ash-gray bark, alternate and oblong 

 deciduous leaves on slender petioles, entire or slightly toothed, smooth. Flow- 

 ers on long slender axillary peduncles, solitary or sparingly clustered. (Name 

 Baid by the author to mean " flower with a filiform peduncle," therefore prob- 

 ably composed of vrj/j.a, a thread, irovs,foot, and &v6os, flower.) 



1. IN", fascicularis, Raf. (N. Canadensis, DC.) Damp cold woods, 

 from the mountains of Va. to Maine, Ind., Wise., and northward. May. 



ORDER 26. CELASTRACE^. (STAFF-TREE FAMILY.) 



Shrubs with simple leaves, and small regular flowers, the sepals and the 

 petals both imbricated in the bud, the 4 or 5 perirjynous stamens as many as 

 the petal* and alternate with them, inserted on a disk which Jills the bottom 

 of the calyx and sometimes covers the ovary. Seeds arilled. Ovules one 

 or few (erect or pendulous) in each cell, anatropous ; styles united into 

 one. Fruit 2 - 5-celled, free from the calyx. Embryo large, in fleshy 

 albumen; cotyledons broad and thin. Stipules minute and fugacious. 

 Pedicels jointed. 



* Leaves alternate. Flowers in terminal racemes. 



1. Celastrus. A shrubby climber. Fruit globose, orange, 3-valved. Aril scarlet. 



* * Leaves opposite. Flowers in axillary cymes or solitary. 



2. I ; cm 11. \ inns. Erect shrubs. Leaves deciduous. Fruit3-5-lobed,3-5-valved. Aril red. 



3. Pachystima. Dwarf evergreen shrub. Flowers very small. Fruit oblong, 2-valved. 



Aril white. 



