THE POPULAR EDUCATOR 



a sort of wine. The flowera of Thibaudia Quereme are used by 

 the Peruvians in the composition of an aromatic tincture useful 

 in toothache. 



The rhododendrons, which belong to the family Ericaceae, 

 are remarkable for their narcotic property. The yellow- 

 flowered rhododendron (Rhododendron chrysanthum), a shrub 

 growing in the Alps and Northern Asia, has bitter astringent 

 leaves, employed occasionally in medicine. 



Among the Vacciniaceae, the South American plant Thibaudia 

 microphylla, a shrub which grows on the Andes in Peru, 

 deserves to be mentioned. Its leaves con- 

 tain a powerful narcotic, and if eaten by 

 cattle they are fatal. Kalmia latifolia, if 

 swallowed, causes a species of drunkenness 

 and delirium, vomitings, convulsions, and 

 frequently death. The intoxicating honey 

 of the Euxine, so celebrated amongst the 

 ancients from the date of the retreat of 

 the ten thousand under the Greek historian 

 Xenophon, derived its qualities from the 



straight in the axis of a fleshy albumen ; stem woody ; leaves 

 provided with caducous stipules, and ordinarily alternate. 



The Celastracese are usually shrubs, sometimes climbing. 

 Their flowers are regular, axillary, disposed in cymes, small 

 green, white, or purple in colour. The base of the calyx is 

 surrounded with a fleshy disc, sometimes adherent to the ovary. 

 The petals, enlarged towards the base, are inserted upon the 

 border of the disc; imbricated in aestivation. The ovary is 

 merged to a varying extent into the disc; ovules reflexed. 

 Fruit, two to five celled, sometimes dehiscent, cither drupaceous 

 or samaroidal, or, finally, capsular with 

 loculicidal dehiscence, or mode of splitting 

 into the cells. The seeds are usually en- 

 veloped in a fleshy arillus. Eadicle inferior. 

 The Celastracese inhabit for the most 

 part the sub-tropical regions of the southern 

 hemisphere ; towards either pole and the 

 equator they become rare, and none are 

 found in the two frigid zones. The greater 

 number of Celastraceie contain bitter 



I 



3 



209. THE YELLOW JASMINE (JASMINUM HTJMILE). 

 210. A SPECIES OF HEATH (ERICA HEK- 

 BACEA). 



flowers of the Azalea pontica and Rhododeii' 

 dron ponticum. 



Most of the species already mentioned are 

 cultivated in gardens as ornamental shrubs. 

 The Vacciniacese furnish to horticulture the 

 Thibaudia and Macleania. Thibaudia pulcher- 

 rima was originally brought from Northern 

 India ; its flowers are disposed in umbels sessile npon the aged 

 and leafless stems. The corolla of these flowers is tubular, 

 campanulate, palish-red in colour, verging occasionally towards 

 greenish-yellow, marked longitudinally and transversely with 

 lines of deep red. 



SECTION LXIL CELASTEACE^, OK SPINDLE-TREES. 



Characteristics : Calyx free, of four or five sepals ; corolla peri- 

 gynous, of four to five petals ; stamens four to five, alternate with 

 the petals ; ovary two to five celled, cells ordinarily containing 

 one or two ovules ; ovules ascending ; fruit capsular or dru- 

 paceous ; seeds generally provided with an arillus, or exterior 

 coating fixed to them at the base only ; embryo dicotyledonous, 



211. THE BROAD-LEAVED KALMIA (KALMIA LATI- 

 FOLIA). 212. THE BOX-LEAVED OI:LASTJB.US 

 (CELASTRUS BUXIFOLIUS). 



and astringent principles, united with others 

 which are acrid, purgative, and emetic, or 

 simply stimulant. The fruit of certain species 

 is fleshy and edible, the seeds of others con- 

 tain a fixed oil. The Celastrus scandens is 

 termed by the French Bourreau des arbres 

 (trees' hangman), because it winds so tightly 

 around the trunks of trees, that they are strangled. This 

 species is indigenous to North America. Its bark is emetic. 

 The Celastrus venenatus, a spring shrub growing at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, is dangerous on account of the wounds it 

 causes. The Maytenus macrocarpus is a Peruvian shrub, the 

 leaves of which are acid. The M. Chilen&is is an efficacious 

 remedy against the poison oak. The decoction of its leaves is 

 employed as a wash for application to parts injured by the 

 former plant. The kat or gat (Catha ednlis) is cultivated 

 along with coffee in Arabia, and is in great repute amongst the 

 Arabs as a preventive of sleep. They moreover pretend that 

 localities where this plant grows are always free from the plague, 



