APOCTNACE.E. 363 



Scotland, where, however, it bears the cUinate in plantations. PI. summer. 

 A garden variety has been described as a distinct British species, under the 

 name of F. heterophylla (Eng. Bot. t. 2476), and several American species 

 are occasionally to be met with in our plantations. 



II. PRIVET. LIGUSTKUM. 



Shrubs, with opposite, simple leaves, and small white flowers. Calyx 

 slightly 4-toothed. CoroUa 4-lobed, with a short tube. Stamens short. 

 Fruit a berry, with 2 cells and 1 or 2 seeds in each. 



Besides our own, the genus contains but a smaU number of species, 

 chiefly from eastern Asia, some of which are in cultivation in our gardens. 



1. Common Privet. Iiig^ustrum ▼ulg'are, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 764.) 



A shrub, attaining 6 to 8 feet in height, with long, slender branches. 

 L«aves nearly evergreen, lanceolate or oblong, quite entire, and shortly 

 stalked. Flowers in short, compact panicles at the ends of the branches. 

 Berries black, globular or somewhat ovoid. 



In hedges and thickets, over the greater part of Europe and western Asia, 

 penetrating far into Scandinavia, but so much planted in hedges and orna- 

 mental shriibberies that its natural limits cannot well be traced. In Bri- 

 tain, common in southern England and Ireland, and has been considered as 

 truly wild as far north as Durham and Yorkshire. Fl. summer. 



XLIX. THE PERIWINKLE FAMILY. APOCYNACE^. 



A large tropical Order, distinguished from the Gentian fa- 

 mily chiefly by the ovary completely divided into 2 cells, or 

 more frequently into 2 distinct carpels, whilst the style, or at 

 least the stigma, is entire. 



It is limited in Britain to the single species Perkoinkle, but is represented 

 in our planthouses by the Oleatider (Nerium) from southern Europe, the 

 Allamandas, Dipladenias, etc., from South America, Mandevilla, and 

 others, from tropical Asia. The closely allied Asclepias family, which is 

 entirely exotic, but includes the Periploca, Stapelias, Hoyas, StepTianotus, 

 etc., of our gardens and planthouses, difi'ers chiefly in the curious manner in 

 , ■which the anthers are connected with the stigma. 



I. PERI'\VINKI.E. YINCA. 



■ Herbs, with opposite, entire leaves, and blue, pink, or white flowers, grow- 



■ ing singly on axillary peduncles. Calyx free, deeply divided into 5 narrow 

 [.divisions. Corolla with a cylindrical or almost campanulate tube, and a 



flat, spreading limb, with 5 broad, oblique segments, twisted in the bud. 



Stamens 5, enclosed in the tube. Ovaries 2, distinct at the base but con- 

 ' nected at the top by a single style, terminating in an oblong stigma, con- 

 • tracted in the middle. Fruit consisting of 2 oblong or elongated capsules 

 !'0r follicles, each of a single cell, of a greenish colour, diverging as they 



