288 OLEACE^. [FRAXINUS, 



Woods and hedges, N. to Shetland, but generally planted ; ascends to 1,350 ft. 

 in Yorkshire; Ireland, Channel Islands; fl. April-May. IWe 50-80 ft.; 

 bark pale ; branchlets stout ; buds large, black. Leaflets 1-3 in., 4-7 pair. 

 Flowers small, polygamous, in dense small axillary panicles. Stamens purple- 

 black. Samaras 1J? in., in large drooping panicles, pedicelled, linear oblong, 

 notched at the tip, nucleus oblong ribbed. Seed f in. DISTRIB. Europe, 

 N. Africa. Wood excellent. F. heterophyl'la, Vahl, is a 1-foliolate state. 



ORDER XLVIII. APOCYNA'CEJE. 



Trees or shrubs, rarely herbs, often climbing ; juice milky. Leaves 

 opposite, rarely whoiied, quite entire ; stipules or rudimentary. Flowers 

 regular, solitary or cymose. Calyx 4-5-fid. Corolla hypogynous, funnel- 

 or salver-shaped ; throat naked or with scales ; lobes usually oblique, 

 contorted in bud. Stamens 4-5, on the tube or throat of the corolla, 

 filaments very short ; anthers basifixed, free, or connate and adhering to 

 the stigma, cells sometimes obliterated below ; pollen granular. Disk 

 or annular. Ovary of 2 free or connate carpels ; style short, dilated, 

 stigma entire or 2-fid often constricted in the middle ; ovules many, 

 placentas marginal. Fruit of 2 many-seeded follicles, or a berry or drupe. 

 Seeds compressed, sometimes winged, hilum basilar or lateral, with often 

 a pencil of silky hairs at the hilar (rarely at the other) end, albumen fleshy 

 or hard or ; embryo straight, cotyledons flat thin. DISTRIB. Chiefly 

 trop. ; genera 103 ; species 900. AFFINITIES. With Asclepiadece, and 

 ftubiacece. PROPERTIES. Usually poisonous, drastic purgatives, or 

 febrifuges. 



1*. VIN'CA, L. PERIWINKLE. 



Perennial herbs or slender decumbent undershrubs. Leaves evergreen. 

 Flowers solitary, white blue or purple. Calyx 5-partite, lobes acuminate, 

 glandular at the base inside. Corolla salver-shaped ; tube hairy inside ; 

 throat thickened, angled ; lobes 5, oblique. Stamens 5, filaments short ; 

 anthers inflexed, tipped with a bearded membrane ; pollen glutinous. Disk 

 of 2 glands alternating with the carpels. Ovary of 2 carpels ; style 

 terminated by a cup-shaped reflexed membrane, within which is the short 

 conical entire or 2-lobed stigma. Follicles 2, slender, terete, many-seeded. 

 Seeds subcylindric, testa black tuberculate, hilum lateral, albumen fleshy ; 

 embryo axile. DISTRIB. Europe, Asia, Africa ; species about 10. 

 ETYM. vincere, from a use of the stems in binding. 



V. mi'nor, L. ; flowerless-stems prostrate rooting, leaves elliptic-ovate 

 margins glabrous, calyx-lobes glabrous the length of the corolla-tube. 

 Woods, copses, and hedgebanks, from Mull and Elgin southd. ; (a denizen, 



Wats.}] not indigenous in Scotland, 'Ireland, or the Channel Islands; fl. 



April-May. Stems 1-2 ft. trailing, tough, flowering ones short erect. 



Leaves 1-1| in., very shortly petioled. Flowers 1 in. diam.; peduncles not 



