BURNING BUSH; WAHOO (Euonymus atropurpureus, Jacq!). 

 Shrub to 25 feet. Dainty tree with spreading, slender 

 branches, smooth twigs. Bark ashy gray, fluted, thin, with 

 minute scales. Wood white, tinged orange, hard, very close- 

 grained, used for knitting needles, spindles, crochet hooks, 

 skewers and toothpicks. Leaves opposite, simple, elliptical- 

 ovate, acuminate at tip, acute at base, finely and obscurely 

 saw-toothed, and thickened along margins, leathery, thin, 

 smooth above, dull, downy beneath, 2 to 5 inches long, turn- 

 ing yellow in autumn, slow to fall. Flowers in axillary, in 

 compound, forking cymes, inconspicuous, with 4 spreading 

 sepals and 4 much longer purple petals, alternating with the 

 calyx lobes, both inserted in a fleshy receptacle, or disk, and 

 bearing the stamens and pistils on a square centre. Fruit 

 fleshy, 4-lobed, turning to purple as it ripens in October, \ inch 

 across, parting and revealing 1 or 2 seeds in each cell, a scarlet 

 outer coat loosely enveloping each bony seed. The persistent 

 fruits make the tree look as if hung full of red-hot coals until 

 midwinter. Often cultivated for winter effect in gardens. 

 Dist.: Western New York to Nebraska, and South Dakota 

 and Kansas; south to Florida, Arkansas, and Oklahoma; 

 upper valley of the Missouri River, into Montana 

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