0273 



FONTANESIA 



Family: JASMINES [Translator's note: now classified in the family Oleaceae].. 

 Reproductive system: DlANDRY, MONOGYNY. 



The phillyrea-leaved Fontanesia, Fontanesia phillyreoides, Billard., is a charming 

 tree recently acclimatized in our gardens. It grows ten or twelve feet high; the numerous 

 branches are slender and straight. The leaves are opposite, sessile, oval-lanceolate, 

 pointed, quite entire, and resemble those of the phillyrea. The flowers are small, 

 numerous, white, and form small axillary clusters. The calyx is persistent and has four 

 sections. The corolla has two bifurcate petals. The two stamens, inserted on the unguis of 

 the petals, terminate in large anthers. The ovary is free and surmounted by a style and two 

 stigmas. The fruit is a membranous capsule without valves. It consists of two 

 monospermous compartments. 



FLOWERS: in May. 



RANGE: Syria. M. de la Billardiere brought it from there in 1788. In the last 

 twenty years or so this tree has become very common in gardens. 



NOMENCLATURE. The genus Fontanesia is named after M. Rene des Fontaines, 

 an authority on Atlantic flora, the author of several other very highly regarded works, and 

 professor of botany at the King's Garden [Translator's note: now the Jardin des Plantes in 

 Paris]. 



USES. It's said that the leaves are used for dyeing in the Orient. The tree is used as 

 an ornamental in gardens and in groves. They can be made into small palisades either 

 against walls that need to be concealed or to enclose particular sections of a garden. 



CULTIVATION. The Fontanesia is easily propagated from suckers, cuttings, and 

 seeds. It doesn't suffer from the cold around Paris, and it thrives well in almost all kinds 

 of soil as long as 



