TREES AND SHRUBS 



COMMON PRIVET, Ugustrum vulgare. 



Thickets, hedgerows, gardens. June, July. Best in a moist and strong loamy- 

 soil. 



Flowers white, changing to reddish-brown, fragrant, in a panicled, thyrsoid 

 cyme, 1-3 ins. long ; Calyx slightly 4-toothed ; Corolla 4-lobed, short tube ; 

 Stamens 2, short, within tube ; Ovary superior, 2-celled, ovoid, stigma bifid, 

 obtuse; Fruit a berry, purple-black, globular, 2-celled, ^ in. diam., flesh oily; 

 seeds ovoid ; ripe in November, persistent through winter. 



Leaves nearly evergreen, opposite, elliptical-lanceolate or oblong, acute, 

 entire, glabrous, shortly stalked, 1-2J ins. Autumn tint purplish. 



A sub-evergreen shrub, 6-10 ft. ; Branches slender, wiry ; Tivigs smooth. 



Common in S. England ; especially favours chalk districts and coast cliffs ; 

 also indigenous in S. Ireland. 



Class I. . . . . Dicotyledons 

 Division III. . . . Gamopetalce 

 Natural Ohdek . . Apocynacece 



Trees, shrubs, or rarely herbs, usually with milky juice ; Leaves opposite, 

 rarely whorled or alternate, entire, exstipulate ; Calyx 4-5-fid, salver-shaped or 

 campanulate ; Corolla hypogynous, 4-.5-lobed, twisted in bud ; Stamens 5, rarely 

 4, included within corolla tube, anthers sometimes adhering to the stigma; 

 Ovary superior, 2-, or rarely 1 -celled, of 2 carpels, sometimes distinct below, but 

 united in the style and stigma ; stigma often swollen above or below, constricted 

 in middle ; Fruit of 1 or 2 follicles, or a capsule, berry, or drupe. 



Distinguished from Gentianacese chiefly by the ovary completely divided 

 into 2 cells, or more frequently into 2 distinct carpels, with the style, or at least 

 the stigma, entire. 



112 



