188 CELASTRACE^. 



Fruit a three - five-lobed and three - five-celled fleshy 

 and colored capsule, either smooth or verrucose, loculici- 

 dally three - five-valved ; the valves at length coriaceous, 

 bearing the dissepiments on their middle. Seeds two, or 

 commonly solitary in each cell by the abortion of one ovule, 

 ascending or resupinate-suspended, inclosed in a pulpy red 

 arillus which is pervious at the apex, the testa smooth and 

 chartaceous. Embryo straight, in the axis of fleshy albumen, 

 of nearly its length : cotyledons broad and flat, foliaceous, 

 parallel with the raphe : radicle short, next the hilum. 



Shrubs or small trees, sometimes trailing ; with mostly 

 square branchlets, opposite and usually serrulate pinnately- 

 veined leaves, minute and caducous stipules, and cymose (or 

 rarely solitary) flowers on axillary peduncles. Petals green- 

 ish or dark purple. Capsules and arillus usually red. 



Etymology and Properties. From ev, good, and ovofia, food ; a name 

 ironically given, according to Tournefort, because the herbage or fruit of 

 these plants was thought to be noxious to cattle. 



Geographical Distribution, &c. This genus belongs almost entirely 

 to the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Of our three or four 

 species, one only extends westward to Oregon. E. atropurpureus, a highly 

 ornamental shrub in autumn, when the bright red pods are ripe, is one of 

 that section of the genus in which the ovules and seeds maintain their origi- 

 nal position, and are ascending, with the raphe internal. 



PLATE 171. EuoNYMUs Americanus, var. obovatus, Torr. 4" Cr>'- (E. 

 obovatus, Nutt.) ; — a branch in flower, of the natural size. 



1. Section of the flower-bud, enlarged, showing the aestivation, &c. 



2. A magnified flower, seen from above. 



3. The same, seen from beneath. 



4. Vertical section of a flower, more magnified, showing' the ovules, &c. 



5. A detached stamen, more magnified, seen from within. 



6. An ovule much magnified, from a left-hand cell (resupinate). 



7. Section of a half-grown fruit, showing the fertilized and abortive seeds, 



8. A young seed more magnified, showing the growing arillus. 



9. Dehiscent capsule, of the natural size. 



10. A seed inclosed in its pulpy arillus, magnified. 



11. The same, with the arillus longitudinally divided. 



12. Vertical section of the seed and embryo across the cotyledons, magnified. 



13. The embryo detached entire, magnified. 



