302 jASMiNACEiE. [LigustruDi. 



Order XL VIII. JASMIN ACE^. 



" Calyx clivided, toothed, persistent, sometimes 0. Corolla 

 4-cleft, valvate in sestivation, occasionally 0. Stamens 2. Ovary 

 without any hypogynous disk, 2-celled, cells 2-seeded : ovules 

 collateral, pendulous. Style 1 or : stigmas 1 or 2. Fruit a 

 berry, drupe, or capsule, separable in two. Seeds with or without 

 albumen. — ■ Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, without stipules, 

 simple or compound." — Br. Fl.* 



I. LiGOSTEUM, Linn. Privet. 



" Calyx 4-cleft. Corolla 4.-cleft. Berry 2-celled, with the cells 

 1—2 seeded."— Br. Fl. 



Small, hardy, deciduous or subevergreen trees or large shrubs. The few spe- 

 cies known are mostly natives of Asia. Ligustrum is closely allied to and par- 

 takes in character of all the following genera,. — Phillyrea, Olea, Chionanthus and 

 Syringa, — resembling the three former in its leaves and pulpy fruit, and the 

 Lilac in its tubular corolla and close, terminal, panicled inflorescence. 



1. L. vulgare, L. Common Privet, t Prim or Print. Leaves 

 elliptical-lanceolate, panicle 4-sided compact. Sm. E. Fl. i. p. 

 13. Br. Fl. p. 263. E. B. xi. t. 764. Curt. Fl. Lond. ii. fasc. 

 5, t. 1. Loud. Arb. Brit. 



In woods, thickets, hedges, bushy places and on banks, throughout the island; 

 abundantly. jF7. June — July. i^r. October. Tj . 



Profusely about Ryde, as along the road to Brading, &c. 



A shrub, from 4 to 8 feet high in the wild state ; much branched, the branches 

 straight, opposite, covered with a smooth, ash- coloured, greenish or reddish bark. 

 Leaves shortly stalked, opposite, or occasionally subfasciculate, elliptic-lanceolate, 

 pointed or partly obtuse, quite entire and glabrous, about 2 inches long, obscurely 

 veined, dark shining green above, paler beneath, more or less persistent through 

 the winter. Stipules none. Flowers milk-white, in dense, terminal, thyrsoid 

 panicles, which are 4-sided pyramids from the crossing at right angles of their 

 short, slightly compound and downy branches. Calyx tubular, much shorter than 

 the corolla, with minute, unequal, distant teeth. Corolla funnel-shaped, the limb in 

 4 (rarely in 5) ovate segments, a little thickened and hollowed at their tips. Sla- 

 mens inserted on the tube of the corolla between the segments ; anthers large, 

 erect, yellowish v\'hite. Style very short, enlarged upwards ; stigma oblong, cleft 

 and somewhat recurved at the summit, embracing the style with its 2 decurrent 

 lobes. Berries in dense 4-sided clusters, roundish, deep purple-black and shining, 

 filled with a mealy pulp of a bitterish taste, ripening in October. Seeds 4, one or 



* [The characters quoted above, from the ' British Flora,' are those of Oleaceae 

 in that work. The natural family Jasminacea: of Lindley, as distinct from Ole- 

 aces, does not comprise the genera Ligustrum and Fraxinus ; it is therefore used 

 by our author, not as distinguished from the order Oleacese, but as synonymous 

 with it. The above characters are therefore perfectly applicable. — Edrs."] 



f The leaves of the Privet are the favourite food of the fine privet hawk-moth 

 {Sphinx Liyuslri, L.), the beautiful caterpillar of which is very common on this 

 shrub and on Lilac-bushes in gardens at Ryde towards the close of the summer. 



