HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY 



CAPRIFOLIACE^ Ventenat 



HIS family includes about lo genera, comprising upward of 275 species 

 of trees, shrubs, woody climbers, and a few perermial herbs, widely 

 distributed in temperate regions. 



The Caprifohaceae have opposite leaves, which are either simple 

 or compound and usually without stipules. The inflorescence is axillary or ter- 

 minal; the flowers, usually in cymes, are regular or irregular, often fragrant and 

 showy; the superior calyx is usually 4- or 5-cleft, and subtended by 2 or more 

 bracts at its base; the gamopetalous corolla is rotate or tubular, the limb 5-lobed 

 or 2-lipped ; the 5 stamens are inserted on the corolla-tube and sometimes imited 

 with it by their filaments, which are alternate with the divisions of the corolla, 

 their anthers versatile; the inferior ovary has 2 to 5 cells, each containing a soli- 

 tary pendulous o\aile ; the slender style is capped by a 2- to 5-lobed stigma. The 

 fruit is a i- to 5-celled berry, drupe or an indehiscent capsule; the seeds are 

 inverted, their coating often bony, the embryo very small, nearly straight and 

 enclosed in fleshy endosperm. 



Ornamentation is the principal utility of plants of this family; the genus Loni- 

 cera, many species of which are well-known vines and shrubs of our gardens and 

 parks, is one of its largest groups. Many species of the following genera are also 

 used in this way. They are also used in medicine and their fruits to some extent 

 as food. 



Leaves pinnate; drupe 2- to 5-seeded. 1. Sambucus. 



Leaves simple; drupe i-seeded. 2 Viburnum. 



I. THE ELDERS 



GENUS SAMBUCUS [TOURNEFORT] LINN^US 



AMBUCUS includes some 20 species of trees, or shrubs, and several 

 herbs. They usually grow in rich moist soil, and are widely dis- 

 tributed in the north temperate zone, and flower in spring or sum- 

 mer. 



They have very pithy twigs and branches, and opposite, pinnately compound 

 leaves; the leaflets are more or less toothed on their margins, and usually long 

 pointed. The small white, yellowish or pink flowers are arranged in compound 

 umbel-Uke or thyrsoid cymes, their pedicels with i or 2 scales; the calyx-tube is 



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