STAFF TREE FAMILY. 103 



both ends, downy on the veins beneath ; flowers very short-peduncled, 

 mostly clustered, very bright scarlet-red berries ripening late in autumn. 

 There is nothing whorled in the leaves or flowers, so that the name is 

 rather misleading. Common in low grounds. 



I. laevigata, Gray. SMOOTH W. Leaves mostly smooth, lanceolate or 

 oblong-lanceolate, minutely serrate, glossy above, long-peduncled sterile 

 flowers, and larger, less bright berries ripening earlier. Wet grounds 

 Me. to Va. 



* * Leaves thickish, evergreen, glossy above, often blackish-dotted beneath: 

 fruit black. 



L glabra, Gray. IKK BERET. 2-4 high ; leaves wedge-oblong, few- 

 toothed near the apex; flowers several on the sterile, solitary on the 

 fertile peduncles. Along sandy coasts from Mass. S. 



2. NEMOPANTHES. (Greek : flower stalk, a thread.) 



N. fascicularis, Raf. MOUNTAIN HOLLY. A much-branched shrub ; 

 leaves alternate, oblong, deciduous, nearly or quite entire, smooth. Cold 

 damp woods Me. to Va. and Ind. N. W. 



CELASTRACRE, STAFF TKEE FAMILY. 



Shrubs, sometimes twining, with simple leaves, minute and 

 deciduous stipules or none, and small flowers with sepals and 

 petals both imbricated in the bud, and stamens of the number 

 of the latter, alternate with them, and inserted on a disk 

 which fills the bottom of the calyx and often covers the 2-5- 

 celled, few-ovuled ovary ; the seeds usually furnished with or 

 inclosed in a fleshy or pulpy aril 



1. CELASTETJS. Flowers polygamous or dioecious. Petals and stamens 5, on the edge of 



a concave disk which lines the bottom of the calyx. Filaments and style rather 

 slender. Pod globular, berry -like, but dry, orange ; aril scarlet. Leaves alternate ; a 

 woody twiner. 



2. EUONTMUS. Flowers perfect, flat ; the calyx-lobes and petals (4 or 5) widely spread- 



ing. Stamens mostly with short filaments or almost sessile anthers, borne on the 

 surface of a flat disk which more or less conceals or covers the ovary. Pod 8-5-lobed, 

 generally bright-colored. Leaves opposite ; branchlets 4-sided. Shrubs not twining, 

 with dull-colored inconspicuous flowers, in small cymes on axillary peduncles, pro- 

 duced in early summer ; the pods in autumn ornamental, especially when they open 

 and display the seeds enveloped in their scarlet, pulpy aril. 



1. CELASTRTJS, STAFF TREE. (Old Greek name for some ever- 

 green, which this plant is not.) 



C. scandens, Linn. CLIMBING BITTERSWEET; WAXWORK. Smooth, 

 with thin ovate-oblong and pointed, finely serrate leaves, racemes of 

 greenish white flowers (in early summer) terminating the branches, the 

 petals serrate or crenate-toothed, wild in low grounds, and planted for the 

 showy, autumnal fruit. 



C. articulatus, Thunb., a Japanese species, with conspicuously warty 

 branches, obovate or oval crenate leaves, and short peduncled axillary 

 flowers, is hardy, and occasionally planted, but inferior to the native 

 species. The fruit hangs long after the leaves have fallen. 



