304 APOCYNACE^. [Vinca. 



the terminal one, which is eilhev sessile like the rest, or on a st:ilk often of consi- 

 derable length ; all serrated, the serratures shallow, more or less distant and acute, 

 pointing forward, often uncinate, the base of the leaflets entire. Flowers in much- 

 branched, paniculate, glabrous clusters, produced before the leaves at the extre- 

 mities of the previous year's wood, from large buds with concave deciduous scales, 

 of which the outer ones are greenish black, the inner of an olive-browu colour ; 

 sprinkled with rusty or gland-like or woolly hairs; quite destitute, in our only Bri- 

 tish species, of either calyx or corolla ; some trees bear staminate blossoms above, 

 others hermaphrodite flowers, or both intermixed. Staminate clusters dense, 

 roundish, shorter than the hermaphrodite, thickly crowded, repeatedly forked, the 

 ultimate forkings or pedicels bearing each 2 dark purplish, cordato- elliptical, 

 deeply 2-lobed, nearly sessile anthers bursting laterally ; pollen yellowish white, 

 globular. Bracts solitary at the base of the pedicels, linear, minute, deciduous, 

 the lower ones often broader and woolly. Hermaphrodite flowers on much longer, 

 glabrous, erect pedicels. Stamens one on each side of the ovate, compressed, 

 purplish germen, opposite to and immediately beneath its flattened faces, deci- 

 duous ; anthers on long flattish filaments, appearing to me abortive, being 

 smaller, scarcely lobed and indehiscent, having no lateral suture nor elahorating 

 pollen.* Style tapering ; stigma oblong, purplish, with 2 fleshy decurrent lobes. 

 Samarce in pendent clusters, reddish brown, often with a tinge of green, glabrous, 

 elliptical-oblong or obovate, from about Ij to If inch in length and 3, 4, or 5 

 lines in breadth, tapering or slightly rounded at base, compressed, sulcate-striate, 

 produced anteriorly into a flat, leal-like, striated, coriaceous, mostly twisted wing, 

 rounded at the end, which is entire, obtuse or even bifid, sometimes acute, with 

 or without a small point or mucro. Seed (by abortionf) solitary, anatropous, 

 pendulous from the summit of the cell by a long funiculus, 6 or 7 lines in length, 

 elliptical, flat and wrinkled, in shape and colour much like small shrivelled 

 almonds, and appearing under a high magnifier to he covered with pellucid bris- 

 tle-like points : their taste, as Smith remarks, is bitter, hot and nauseous. 



The " fraxinus in sylvis pulcherrima" is, next to the Elm, the tree which 

 attains to the greatest magnitude as timber of any indigenous to the island, and 

 is second to none but the Oak in value. 



This tree inhabits every part of Europe as high as 61*^ in the interior regions, 

 and 63J" on the western shores of Norway. 



Order XLIX. APOCYNACEiE. 



" Calyx of 4 persistent divisions. Corolla regular, 5-lobed, 

 deciduous ; (estivation twisted. Stamen's 5. Anthers 2-celled. 

 Ovaries 2, 1 — 2 celled, many-seeded. Styles 2 — 1. Stigma 1, 

 capitate, contracted in the middle (like an hour-glass). Frwit a 

 follicle, capsule, drupe, or herry. Seed albuminose. — Trees or 

 shrubs, often milky ; leaves opposite, wiiliout stipules." — Br. Fl. 



I. Vinca, Linn. Periwinkle. I 



Calyx 5-partite. Corolla salver- shaped, the limb in 5 broad, 

 oblique, truncate segments. Filaments jointed at the base, 



* In some specimens gathered at Bonchurch, and chiefly staminate clusters, 

 I observed that many of the stamens were placed in pairs between an elongated 

 reddish pedicel like an abortive style, and carrying an abortive stigma at the 

 summit. 



f Occasionally I find both seeds perfected. 



\ Periwinkle: Pervinca, Ital. ; Pervenche,Fr:. Its ancient name was Vinca 



