COBNACEAE. 



261 



HELWINGIA. 

 (Family Cornaceae). 



Shrubs: deciduous. Twigs ter- 

 ete, rather slender: pith relatively 

 large, round, continuous, very 

 white. Buds solitary, sessile, 

 small, ovoid, with 2 scales. Leaf- 

 scars alternate, crescent-shaped, 

 somewhat raised: bundle-trace 1, 

 transverse or slightly curved: 

 stipule-scars minute, round. 



By common consent, Helwingia 

 is now placed in the Cornaceae, 

 but the Standard Cyclopedia fol- 

 lows the usually excellent judg- 

 ment of Bentham and Hooker in 

 placing it in the related family 

 Araliaceae. 



Winter-character references to 

 Helwingia japonica: Schneider, 

 f. 124; Shirasawa, 242, 250, pi. 5. 



The specific name ruscifolia, 

 which is a synonym of japonica, 



indicates a peculiarity recalling the genus Ruscus of 

 the Liliaceae; for the 'flowers of Helwingia are clus- 

 tered on the surface of its leaves. There is this im- 

 portant difference, though, that in Helwingia what are 

 called leaves are really leaves, while in Ruscus they are leaf- 

 like branches of the stem, developed in the axils of small 

 scales which are morphologically the true leaves. The in- 

 florescence of Helwingia is comparable with that of Tilia with 

 its adnate bract, except that here the really axillary flower- 

 cluster has grown into attachment to a foliage leaf, while in 

 Tilia the leaf is reduced to a bract. 

 Glabrous, with occasional rather large lenticels. H. japonica. 



