CELASTRACEJE. (STAFF-TREE FAMILY.) H5 



* * Lobes of the calyx and stamens 5 : petals wanting. 



3. R. alnifolius, L'Her. A low shrub, leaves oval, acute, serrate, nearly 

 straight-veined : fruit 3-seeded. Swamps, Maine to Penn., Illinois, and north- 

 ward. June. 



3. PRANGULA, Tourn. ALDER-BUCKTHORN. 



Seeds not grooved or concave (but convex) on the back. Cotyledons plane, 

 thick. Flowers perfect; the lobes of the calyx, petals, and stamens almost 

 always 5. Leaves with nearly straight parallel veins. Otherwise as in Rham- 

 nus. (Name from frango, to break, in allusion to the brittleness of the stems.) 



1. P. Caroliniana, Gray. Thornless shrub or small tree; leaves (3' -5' 

 long) oblong, obscurely serrulate, nearly glabrous, deciduous ; flowers in one 

 form umbelled, in another solitary in the axils, short-peduncled ; drupe globose, 

 3-seeded. Secaucus swamp, New Jersey, Dr. Post, W. H. Leggett, and river- 

 banks. Virginia to Kentucky and southward. June. 



4. CEANOTHUS, L. NEW JERSEY TEA. RED-ROOT. 



Calyx 5-lobed ; the lobes colored and incurved ; the lower part with the thick 

 disk cohering with the ovary, the upper separating across in fruit. Petals 

 hooded, spreading, on slender claws longer than the calyx. Filaments also 

 elongated. Fruit 3-lobed, dry and splitting into its 3 carpels when ripe'. Seed 

 as in Frangula. Shrubby plants ; the flowers in little umbel-like clusters, 

 which are crowded in dense panicles or corymbs at the summit of naked flower- 

 branches : calyx and pedicels colored like the petals. (An obscure name in 

 Theophrastus, probably misspelled.) 



1. C. Americanus, L. (NEW JERSEY TEA.) Leaves ovate or ob- 

 long-ovate, 3-ribbed, serrate, downy beneath, often heart-shaped at the base : 

 common peduncles elongated. Dry woodlands. July. Stems l-3high 

 from a dark red root : branches downy. Flowers in pretty white clusters. 

 The leaves were used for tea during the American Revolution ; and the manu- 

 facture has been recently revived in Pennsylvania. 



2. C. ovalis, Bigelow. Leaves narrowly oval or elliptical-lanceolate, finely 

 glandular-serrate, glabrous or nearly so, as well as the short common peduncles. 

 Dry rocks, W. Vermont to Wisconsin, and westward. May. The white 

 flowers larger than in No. 1, more corymbed: leaves narrower, smooth, mostly 

 acute at both ends. 



ORDER 29. CELiASTRACEJE. (STAFF-TREE FAMILY.) 



Shrubs with simple leaves, and small regular flowers, the sepals and the 

 petals both imbricated in the bud, the 4 or 5 perigynous stamens as many as 

 the petals and alternate with them, inserted on a disk which Jills the bottom 

 of the calyx and sometimes covers the ovary. Seeds arilled. Ovules one 

 or few (erect or pendulous) in each cell, anatropous : styles united into 

 one. Fruit 2-5-celled, free from the calyx. Embryo large, in fleshy 

 albumen : cotyledons broad and thin. Stipules minute and fugacious. 

 Pedicels jointed. Represented by two genera. 



