556 CELASTRACEAE (STAFF TREE FAMILY) 



CELASTRACEAE (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 perigynous stamens as many as 

 the petals and alternate with them, inserted on a disk which fills the bottom 

 of the calyx and sometimes covers the ovary. Seeds arilled. Ovule 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 opposite ; flowers in axillary cymes or solitary. 



1. Evonymus. Erect shrubs. Leaves deciduous. Fruit 3-5-lobed, 3-5-valved. Aril red. 



2. Pachistima. Dwarf evergreen shrub. Flowers very small. Fruit oblong, 2-valved. Aril 



white. 



* * Leaves alternate ; flowers in terminal racemes. 



3. Celastrus. A shrubby climber. Fruit globose, orange, 8-valved. Aril scarlet. 



1. EV6NYMUS [Tourn.] L. SPINDLE TREE 



Flowers perfect. Sepals 4 or 5, united at the base, forming a short and flat 

 calyx. Petals 4-5, rounded, spreading. Stamens short, borne on the edge or 

 face of a broad and flat 4-5-angled disk, which coheres with the calyx and is 

 stretched over the ovary, adhering to it more or less. Style short or none. 

 Pod 3-5-lobed, 3-5-valved, loculicidal. Seeds 1-4 in each cell, inclosed in a 

 red aril. Shrubs, with 4-sided branchlets, opposite serrate leaves, and loose 

 pedunculate cymes of small flowers on axillary peduncles. (Name from e&, 

 good, and 6vo/jM, name, but used ironically, the plants having had the bad 

 reputation of poisoning cattle.) 



1. E. atropurpureus Jacq. (BURNING BUSH, WAAHOO.) Tree-like shrub, 

 2-4 m. high; leaves petioled, oval-oblong, pointed; parts of the dark-purple 

 flower commonly in fours; pods smooth, deeply lobed. N. Y. to Wise., Neb.; 

 south w. and westw.; also cultivated, and locally establishing itself northeastw. 

 June. Ornamental in autumn, its copious crimson fruit drooping on long 

 peduncles. 



2. E. EUROPAEUS L., the EUROPEAN SPINDLE TREE, with similar foliage 

 but less numerous greenish or yellowish-white flowers, occasionally escapes from 

 cultivation in the Atlantic States. (Introd. from Eu. ) 



3. E. americanus L. (STRAWBERRY BUSH.) Shrub, low, upright or strag- 

 gling, 1-2 m. high ; leaves almost sessile, thickish, bright green, ovate to oblong- 

 lanceolate, acute or pointed; parts of the greenish-purple flowers mostly in 6's ; 

 petals distinctly clawed ; pods rough-warty, depressed, crimson when ripe ; the 

 aril and dissepiments scarlet. Wooded river-banks, N. Y. to 111., Fla. and 

 Tex. June. 



4. E. obovatus Nutt. Trailing, with rooting branches ; flowering stems 3-<> 

 dm. high ; leaves thin and dull, obovate or oblong, obtuse; petals without 

 distinct claw. (E. americanus, VAT. T. & G.) Low or wet places, w. Ont. to 

 Pa. , Ky , and 111. ; commoner than the preceding. 



2. PACHfSTIMA Raf. 



Flowers perfect. Sepals and petals 4. Stamens 4, on the edge of the broad 

 disk lining the calyx-tube. Ovary free ; style very short. Pod small, oblong, 

 2-celled, loculicidally 2-valved. Seeds 1 or 2, inclosed in a white membrana- 

 ceous many-cleft aril. Low evergreen shrubs, with smooth serrulate coria- 

 ceous opposite leaves and very small green flowers solitary or fascicled in the 

 axils. (Name from iraxfa, thick, and or^/ta, stigma.) 



