PACHYSTIMA CANBYI. — CANBY's MOUNTAIN-L( >', | - 5 



from the Euonymus, familiarly called the " Spindle -Tree " or 



" Burning-Bush." The order is again divided into two general 

 sections, the one to which the Euonymus belongs having a 

 rather dry capsule, opening to let out the somewhat fleshy seed; 

 while the other, in which our Pachystima is placed, has drupa- 

 cious fruit, or in plain English, a kind of fruit which resembles 

 stone-fruit. With the easily obtained Euonymus before him. 

 the student can readily gain a fair idea of the two divisions of 

 the order. The berries on our species, however, seem to be 

 sparingly produced, and the only ones we ever saw were in a 

 dry condition on Mr. Canby's specimens. Although the plant 

 from which the accompanying plate was drawn has flowered 

 freely in cultivation for several years, it has never produced any 

 fruit; but as in the case of- the flowers themselves, it is not 

 likely that the berries would add much beauty to our pretty- 

 evergreen plant. 



The fact just alluded to, that the Pachystima Canbyi pro- 

 duces berries but sparingly, opens up a question which was 

 already discussed by the botanists of the preceding generation, 

 in connection with the sister species, P. Myrsinites. The ques- 

 tion is, whether the plant may not prove to be, in many cases, 

 monoecious, or even, practically at least, dioecious. Nuttall be- 

 lieved P. Myrsinites to be monoecious, or having the male or- 

 gans in one set of flowers, and the female organs in another. 

 Torrey and Gray, on the contrary, thought it must be her- 

 maphrodite, or with both kinds of organs in each flower, more 

 especially so as Sir William Hooker had figured it that way, 

 But modern experience shows us that even when both kinds ol 

 organs are apparently perfect, the one or the other may be de- 

 fective, and hence the plant may be practically monoecious, or 

 indeed even dioecious, if it should so happen that on some indi- 

 viduals all the male organs are defective, and on others all the 

 female organs. The flowers on our plant seem perfect, but, as 

 already stated, produce no fruit. 



The plant increases by branches running under the ground. 



