JASMINACEjE. 55 



ORDER XLIV.— J ASMINACE./E. 



Trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing, with opposite (very rarely 

 alternate) entire or pinnate often evergreen leaves without stipules. 

 Flowers perfect, regular, usually in terminal panicles. Calyx 

 persistent, free from the ovary, monosepalous, regular, 4- to 

 8-cleft or -toothed, very rarely absent. Corolla hypogynous, 

 regular, monopetalous, salver-shaped or funnel-sbaped, with a 4-, 

 5-, or 8-cleft limb, more rarely of 1 separate petals, or absent. 

 Stamens 2, inserted on the tube of the corolla, or on the torus 

 when the corolla and the calyx are absent ; filaments adhering to 

 the tube of the corolla, often extremely short ; anthers 2-celled, 

 splitting longitudinally. Ovary free, without a disk, 2-celled ; 

 style 1, short ; stigma undivided or 2-cleft. Ovules solitary or 

 several in each cell of the ovary. Fruit a capsule, opening into 



2 valves or splitting circumscissily, more rarely indehiscent, or a 

 berry or drupe. Seed generally 1 in each cell of the ovary, albu- 

 minous or exalbuminous ; albumen fleshy or subcorneous. 



The British genera both belong to the sub-order Oleinere, 

 having the divisions of the corolla 4 or 2 and valvate in bud, or 

 absent ; ovary commonly with 2 ovules in each cell ; and the seed 

 with abundant albumen. 



GJEN rai.-FRAXINUS. Tournef. 



Flowers usually polygamous or dioecious. Calyx persistent, 

 4-partite, or absent. Corolla hypogynous, deciduous, 2- or 4-partite 

 (almost polypetalous), or more often absent. Stamens 2 (rarely 



3 or 4), affixed to the base of the corolla, or hypogynous when it 

 is absent. Ovary 2-cellcd, each cell with 2, or more rarely 3, 

 ovules. Stigma subsessile, bifid. Fruit a samara, dry, produced 

 at the top into a tough sub-herbaceous wing, 2-celled and each 

 cell with a single seed, or 1-celled and 1-seeded by abortion. 

 Embryo in fleshy albumen with foliaceous cotyledons. 



Trees, more rarely shrubs, with opposite pinnate or rarely 

 simple leaves ; and paniculate flowers, in the British species 

 without calyx and corolla. 



The name of this genus of plants is given by Mayne as coming from the word 

 frantjo, I break, from its brittleness. In London's "Arboretum" we find it thus: 



