OLEACE.E. (OLIVE FAMILY.) 335 



Shrubs or small trees, the leaves commonly turning yellowish in drying, 

 and furnishing a yellow dye. Flowers in axillary clusters or racemes, yellow. 

 (Name <ru/j.ir\oKos, connected, from the union of the stamens.) 



1. S. tinctdria, L'Her. (HORSK-SITGAR, &c.) Leaves elongated-oblong, 

 acute, obscurely toothed, thickish, almost persistent, minutely pubescent and 

 pale beneath (.3-5' long) ; flowers 6-14, in close and bracted clusters, odor- 

 ous. Rich ground, Del. to Fla. aud La. April. Leaves sweet, greedily 

 eaten by cattle. 



ORDEK 65. OLEACEJE. (OLIVE FAMILY.) 



Trees or shrubs, tcith opposite and pinnate or simple leaves, a 4-cleft (or 

 sometimes obsolete.) calyx, a regular 4-cleft or nearly or quite 4-petalous 

 corolla, sometimes apelalous : the stamens only 2 (rarely or accidentally 3 

 or 4) ; the ovary ^-celled, with 2 (rarely more) ovules in each cell. Seeds 

 anatropous, with a large straight embryo in hard fleshy albumen, or 

 without albumen. The Olive is the type of the true Oleaceae, to which 

 belongs the Lilac (Syringa), etc. ; and the Jessamine (Jasminum) rep- 

 resents another division of the order. 



Tribe I. FKAXINE^E. Fruit dry, indehiscent, winged, a samara. Leaves pinnate. 



1. Fraximis. Flowers dioecious, mostly apetalous, sometimes also without calyx. 

 Tribe II. OLEINE^E. Fruit, a drupe, or rarely a berry. Leaves simple. 



2. Forestiera. Flowers apetalous, dioecious or polygamous, from a scaly catkin-like bud. 



Stamens '2 - 4. 



3. Chionaiithus. Flowers complete, sometimes polygamous. Calyx and corolla 4-merous, 



tlie latter with long and linear divisions. 



4. Ligustrum. Corolla funnel-form, 4-cleft, the tube longer than the calyx. 



1. FRAXINUS, Tourn. ASH. 



Flowers polygamous or (in our species) dkecious. Calyx small and 4-cleft, 

 toothed, or entire, or obsolete. Petals 4, or altogether wanting in our species. 

 Stamens 2, sometimes 3 or 4 ; anthers linear or oblong, large. Style single ; 

 stigma 2-cleft. Fruit a 1-2-celled samara or key-fruit, flattened, winged at 

 the apex, 1 - 2-seeded Cotyledons elliptical ; radicle slender. Light timber- 

 trees, with petioled pinnate leaves of 3-15 either toothed or entire leaflets; 

 the small flowers in crowded panicles or racemes from the axils of last year's 

 leaves. (The classical Latin name.) 



* Leaflets petiohtliite ; anthers linear-oblong ; calyx small, persistent. 

 -i- Fruit innrjed only at the upper part of the terete or nearly terete body. 



1. F. Americana, L. (WniTE ASH.) Branchlets and petioles glabrous ; 

 leaflets 7-9, ovate- or lance-oblong, pointed, pale and either smooth or pubes- 

 cent underneath, entire or sparingly serrate or denticulate ; fruit (about !' 

 long) marr/inless below, abruptly dilated into a lanceolate, oli/anceo/ate, or icedge- 

 linear ivinr/ 2 or 3 times as long as the terete cylindraceous body. Rich or 

 moist woods, common from the Atlantic to Minn., E. Neb. and Kan. April, 

 May A large and very valuable forest tree, with gray furrowed bark, smooth 

 jrrav branchlets and rustv-colored buds. Monoecious flowers rarelv occur. 



