98 CELASTRACE.i^l h'unnytuns. 



lines in diameter, solitary or 2 to 4 together, exceeding the pedicels : petals twice 

 longer than the ovate sepals : fruit 3 lines in diameter ; the outer integument thin 

 and crustaceous when dry : seed-coat dark brown, hard and tliickened. — Benth. & 

 Hook. Gen. PI. i. 312. Pitavia dumosa, Nutt. in Torr. &l Gray, H. i. 215 \ Torr. 

 Bot. Mex. Bound. 43. 

 About Saa Diego aud S;ui Pascual ; ttoweriug in February. Leaves pungeut to the taste. 



Order XXVI. CELASTRACE^. 



Shrubs, with simple anil undivided leaves, no stipules or hardly any, and small 

 dull-colored or white chielly perfect regular flowers, the stamens as many as the 

 petals and inserted on the surface or margin of a Ijroad perigyuous disk, — distin- 

 guished from the following order (with which only comparison need be made) by 

 the imbricated calyx and corolla, stamens alternate with the petals, and the arillate 

 seeds, these oftener two or more in each cell and sometimes pendulous. 



A rather large order widely spread over the world, feebly represented in North America, espe- 

 cially on the western side ol the continent. 



1. Euonymua. Flowei-s rather consi)icuous. Ovary 3 - 6-celled. Fruit colored, Seeds in a 



briglit led aril. Deciduous sliruba. 



2. Fachystima. Flowers very small. Ovary 2-celled. Fruit small, not colored. Evergreen 



uudersluubs. 



Cela.stkus ourusATUs, Presl, Bot. Bemerk. 34, from Monterey, is doubtless Simniondsia Cali- 

 fm-nica, Nutt. 



1. EUONYMUS, Tourn. Spindle-tree. Bukning-bush. 



Sepals and petals 4 or 5, widely spreading. Stamens as many, very short, on a 



broad angled disk. Ovary immersed in the disk, 3 -5-celled : style short or none. 



Capsule 3 - 5-lobed and 3 - 5-valved, loculicidal, coriaceous, colored, often warty. 



Seeds 1 to 4 in each coll, covered with a lloshy red aril. — Shrubs, with 4-anglod 



branches, opposite petioled serrate glabrous leaves, and llowers in loose cymes on 



axillary peduncles. 



A genus of about 40 .species, chiefly of Asia and Europe ; two or three in tiie Atlantic States, 

 and one in Califyriiia. 



1. E. occidentalis, Nutt. A shrub 7 to 15 feet high, with slender upright 

 greenish brandies : leaves ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, serrulate, 2 to 4 

 inches long, on short petioles: [leduncles slender, 1 - 4-llowered : llowers dark 

 brown, 4 to 6 lines in diameter, the parts in fives : fruit smooth, deeply lobed. — 

 Torr. Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 74. E. atropurpureus (?), Hook. Fl. i. 119. 



From Tomales Bay (Bu/elmv) northward to the Columbia River. Resembling E. atropurpureus, 

 Jacq., of the Atlantic States, whicli has more numerous and smaller 4-merous flowers. 



2. PACHYSTIMA, Kaf. 



Calyx with a short oboonical tube, and 4 rounded lobes. Petals 4. Stamens 4, 



short, inserted at the edge of the broad ilisk which lines the calyx-tube. Ovary 



free, 2-celled : style very short. Capsule small, oblong, coriaceous, 2-valved, 1-2- 



seeded, at length loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds enclosed in a white many-cleft 



membranaceous aril. — Low evergreen shrubs ; leaves smooth, opposite, very shortly 



petioled, serrulate; llowers small, green, in one - few-flowered axillary cymes. 



A genus of two species, the second {F. Canhiji, Gray) known from a single locality in the Alle- 

 ghany Mountains, in Virginia. 



