gg CELASTRACE^E. Euonymus. 



lines in diameter, solitary or 2 to 4 together, exceeding the pedicels : petals twice 

 longer than the ovate sepals : fruit 3 lines in diameter ; the outer integument thin 

 and crustaceous when dry : seed-coat dark hrown, hard and thickened. — Benth. & 

 Hook. Gen. PI. i. 312. Pitavia dumosa, ISfutt. in Torr. & Gray, PL i. 215 ; Torr. 

 Bot. Hex. Bound. 43. 



About San Diego and San Pascual ; flowering in February. Leaves pungent to the taste. 



Order XXVI. CELASTRACE-ffi. 



Shrubs, with simple and undivided leaves, no stipules or hardly any, and small 

 dull-colored or white chiefly perfect regular flowers, the stamens as many as the 

 petals and inserted on the surface or margin of a broad perigynous disk, — distin- 

 guished from the following order (with which only comparison need be made) by 

 the imbricated calyx and corolla, stamens alternate with the petals, and the arillate 

 seeds, these oftener two or more in each cell and sometimes pendulous. 



A rather large order widely spread over the world, feebly represented in North America, espe- 

 cially on the western side of the continent. 



1. Euonymus. Flowers rather conspicuous. Ovary 3 - 5-celled. Fruit colored, Seeds in a 



bright red aril. Deciduous shrubs. 



2. Pachystima. Flowers very small. Ovary 2-celled. Fruit small, not colored. Evergreen 



undershi'ubs. 



Qelastktjs obtusattts, Presl, Bot. Bemerk. 34, from Monterey, is doubtless Simmondsia Call- 

 fomica, Nutt. 



1. EUONYMUS, Tourn. Spindle-tkee. Burning-bush. 



Sepals and petals 4 or 5, widely spreading. Stamens as many, very short, on a 



broad angled disk. Ovary immersed in the disk, 3 -5-celled : style short or none. 



Capsule 3 - 5-lobed and 3 - 5-valved, loculicidal, coriaceous, colored, often warty. 



Seeds 1 to 4 in each cell, covered with a fleshy red aril. — Shrubs, with 4-angled 



branches, opposite petioled serrate glabrous leaves, and flowers in loose cymes on 



axillary peduncles. 



A genus of about 40 species, chiefly of Asia and Europe ; two or three in the Atlantic States, 

 and one in California. 



1. E. occidentalis, Nutt. A shrub 7 to 15 feet high, with slender upright 

 greenish branches : leaves ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, serrulate, 2 to 4 

 inches long, on short petioles : peduncles slender, 1 - 4-flowered : flowers dark 

 brown, 4 to 6 lines in diameter, the parts in fives : fruit smooth, deeply lobed. ■ — 

 Torr. Pacif. R. Eep. iv. 74. E. atropurpureus (?), Hook. Fl. i. 119. 



From Tomales Bay (Bigclow) northward to the Columbia River. Piesembling E. atropurpurexis, 

 Jacq., of the Atlantic States, which has more numerous and smaller 4-merous flowers. 



2. PACHYSTIMA, Eaf. 

 Calyx with a short obconical tube, and 4 rounded lobes. Petals 4. Stamens 4, 

 short, inserted at the edge of the broad disk which lines the calyx-tube. Ovary 

 free, 2-celled : style very short. Capsule small, oblong, coriaceous, 2-valved, 1-2- 

 seeded, at length loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds enclosed in a white many-cleft 

 membranaceous aril. — Low evergreen shrubs ; leaves smooth, opposite, very shortly 

 petioled, serrulate ; flowers small, green, in one - few-flowered axillary cymes. 



A genus of two species, the second (P. Canlyi, Gray) known from a single locality in the Alle- 

 ghany Mountains, in Virginia. 



