356 OLEACE^S. (OLIVE FAMILY.) 



ly-flowered cymes; divisions of the brownish-purple corolla linear-oblong, very 

 hairy above. Near Rochester, &c., New York. Aug. (Adv. from Eu.) 



ORDER 86. OLEACE^E. (OLIVE FAMILY.) 



Trees or shrubs, with opposite and pinnate or simple leaves, a -cleft (or 

 sometimes obsolete) calyx, a regular 4-cleft or nearly or quite 4^-petalous corol- 

 la which is valvate in the bud, sometimes apetalou's ; the stamens 2-4, mostly 

 2, and fewer than the lobes of the corolla; the ovary 2-celled, with 2 sus- 

 pended ovules in each cell. Seeds anatropous, with a large straight em- 

 bryo in hard fleshy albumen. A small family of which the OLIVE is the 

 type, also repres'ented by the LILAC (Syringa vulghris, S. Pirsica, &c.), 

 and by the ASH, which is usually apetalous. 



Synopsis. 



TMBK I. OLEINE^E. Fruit a drupe or berry. Flowers perfect or polygamous, with 

 both calyx and corolla. Leaves simple, mostly entire. 



1. LIGUSTRUM. Corolla funnel-form, its tube longer than the calyx, 4-cleft. 



2. OLEA. Corolla short, bell-shaped or salver-shaped ; the limb 4-parted 



8. CHIONANTHUS. Corolla 4-parted or 4-petalous, the divisions or petals long and linear. 



TBIBB EL FRAXINEJE. Fruit dry and winged (a samara). Flowers dioecious or polyg- 

 amous, mostly apetalous, and sometimes without a calyx. Leaves odd-pinnate. 



4. FRAXINUS. The only genus of the Tribe. 



TEIBE HI. FORESTIERE.3S. Fruit a drupe or berry. Flowers dioecious or perfect, 

 apetalous. Leaves simple. 



5. FORESTIERA. Flowers dioecious, from a scaly catkin-like bud. Stamens 2-4. 



1. L,IOIJSTRTJ], Tourn. PRIVET. 



Calyx short-tubular, 4-toothed, deciduous. Corolla funnel-form, 4-lobed ; the 

 lobes ovate, obtuse. Stamens 2, on the tube of the corolla, included. Stigma 

 2-cleft. Berry spherical, 2-celled, 2 - 1 -seeded. Shrubs with entire leaves on 

 short petioles, and small white flowers in terminal thyrsoid panicles. (The 

 classical name.) 



1. Li. VULGARE, L. (COMMON PRIVET or PRIM.) Leaves elliptical-Ian, 

 ceolate, smooth, thickish, deciduous; berries black. Used for low hedges: 

 naturalized in copses by the agency of birds in E. New England and New York. 

 May, June. (Nat. from Eu.) 



2. OLEA, Tourn. OLIVE. 



Calyx short, 4-toothed, rarely entire. Corolla with a short bell-shaped tube 

 and a 4-parted spreading limb. Stamens 2. Fruit a drupe, with a bony stone, 

 2-1-seeded. Shrubs or trees, with opposite and coriaceous mostly entire 

 leaves, and perfect, or (in our species) polygamous or dioecious, small whita 

 flowers in panicles or corymbs. (The classical name of the European Olive, 0. 

 Europcea.) 



