OLEACE^E. (OLIVE FAMILY.) 401 



2. 6 LEA, Tourn. OLIVE. 



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

 and a 4-parted spreading limb. Stamens 2. 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 white flowers, in 

 panicles or corymbs. (The classical name of the Olive, O. EUROP^A.) 



1. O. Americana, L. (DEVIL-WOOD.) Leaves oblong-lanceolate, smooth 

 and shining (3' -6' long) ; fruit spherical. Moist woods, coast of S. Virginia, 

 and southward. May. Tree 1 5 - 20 high. 



3. CHIONANTHTJS, L. FRINGE-TREE. 



Calyx 4-parted, very small, persistent. Corolla of 4 long and linear petals, 

 which are barely united at the base. Stamens 2 (rarely 3 or 4), on the very base 

 of the corolla, very short. Stigma notched. Drupe fleshy, globular, becoming 

 1 -celled, 1 -3-seeded. Low trees or shrubs, with deciduous and entire petioled 

 leaves, and delicate flowers in loose and drooping graceful panicles, from lateral 

 buds. (Name from \ia>v, snow, and avdos, blossom, alluding to the light and 

 snow-white clusters of flowers.) 



1. C. Virginica, L. Leaves oval, oblong, or obovate-lanceolate ; flowers 

 on slender pedicels; drupe purple, with a bloom, ovoid (6" -8" long). River- 

 banks, S. Pennsylvania and southward: very ornamental in cultivation. June. 

 Petals 1' long, narrowly linear, acute, varying to 5-6 in number. 



4. FRAXINUS, Tourn. ASH. 



Flowers polygamous or (in our species) dioecious. Calyx small and 4-cleft, 

 toothed, or entire, or obsolete. Petals 4, slightly cohering in pairs at the base, 

 or only 2, oblong or linear, or altogether wanting in our species. Stamens 2, 

 sometimes 3 or 4 : anthers linear or oblong, large. Style single : stigma 2-cleft. 

 Fruit a 1 - 2-celled samara or key-fruit, flattened, winged at the apex, 1-2- 

 seeded. Cotyledons elliptical : radicle slender. Light timber-trees, with peti- 

 oled pinnate leaves of 3-15 either toothed or entire leaflets; the small flowers 

 in crowded panicles or racemes from the axils of last year's leaves. (The clas- 

 sical Latin name, thought to be derived from <ppdis, a separation, from the 

 facility with which the wood splits. ) 



* Fruit winged from the aper only, barely margined or quite terete towards the base : 



calyx minute, persistent : corolla none : leaflets stalked. 



1. F. Americana, L. (WHITE ASH.) Branchlets and petioles glabrous ; 

 leaflets 7-9, ovate- or lance-oblong, pointed, pale and either smooth or pubescent 

 underneath, somewhat toothed or entire ; fruit terete and marginless below, above 

 extended into a lanceolate, oblanceolate, or wedge-linear wing. (F. acuminata, and 

 F. juglandifolia, Lam. F. epiptera, Michx.) Rich or moist woods: common. 

 April, May. A large forest tree, with gray furrowed bark, smooth gray branch- 

 lets, and rusty-colored buds. (The figure of the fruit in Michaux's Sylva is 

 misplaced, apparently interchanged with that of the Green Ash. ) 

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