CLASSIFICATION OF ANGIOSPERMS. 323 



Paraguay. They contain about i per cent, of caffeine, 15 per 

 cent, of tannin and some volatile oil, and are used like tea in the 

 making of a beverage. Cassine or Appalachian tea consists of 

 the leaves of the Dahoon holly (Ilex Cassine) growing in the 

 Southern United States. These leaves contain about half as much 

 caffeine and tannin as Mate. 



e. CELASTRACE^ OR STAFF-TREE FAMILY.— These 

 are shrubs, as Euonymus, or woody climbers, as the climbing bit- 

 tersweet (Celastrus scandens). The plants are especially char- 

 acterized by their dehiscent fruits and scarlet or reddish arilled 

 seeds. 



Euonymus atropurpiireus (Wahoo or Burning. Bush) is a 

 shrub or small tree. The twigs have four distinct cork-wings 

 making them somewhat 4-angIed. The leaves are opposite, petio- 

 late, ovate-oblong, acuminate, crenulate-serrulate and hairy be- 

 neath. The flowers are purplish and in axillary cymes. The fruit 

 is a 3- to 4-lobed, persistent, loculicidally dehiscent capsule with 

 6 to 8 scarlet seeds. The bark of the root is official (p. 531). 



The leaves of Catha edulis growing in Arabia and Abyssinia 

 are chewed and also used like tea. They contain the alkaloids 

 cathine and celastrine which are supposed to have similar proper- 

 ties to cocaine, as well as tannin and an ethereal oil. A yellow 

 coloring principle is found in the bark of Euonymus tingens of 

 the East Indies. The yellow coloring principle in the arils of the 

 seeds of Celastrus and Euonymus appears to closely resemble 

 carotin. The seeds of a number of plants of this family contain 

 a considerable quantity of fixed oil, as Celastrus macrocarpus of 

 Peru, and Maytenus Boaria of Chile. 



f. ACERACE^ OR MAPLE FAMILY.— The plants of this 

 family are trees or shrubs, the most widely distributed repre- 

 sentative of which is the maple (Acer). The most distinguishing 

 character of this family is the fruit, which is a double samara. 

 The sap of a number of species of Acer contains cane sugar or 

 sucrose, and the sap of the sugar maple (Acer saccharinum) which 

 grows in the United States and Canada contains from 3 to 4 per 

 cent. The making of maple syrup and maple sugar is quite an 

 industry in some localities. Maple sugar is also obtained from 

 the black sugar maple (Acer nigrum) and the ash-leaved maple 



