GELASTRAGEyE-STAFF TREE FAMILY 



CLIMBING BITTER-SWEET 



Celdstrus scdndens. 

 Celastrus, an ancient Greek name for some evergreen. 



Twining shrub, common along streams and in thickets, from Maine to 

 Manitoba and southward. June. 



Stem. — Climbing to twenty feet or more. 



Leaves. — Alternate, ovate-oblong, finely- 

 serrate, pointed. 



Flowers. — Small, greenish-white, poly- 

 gamo-dioecious in axillary or terminal 

 racemes. 



Sepals. — Small, five-cleft. 



Petals. — Five, stamens five; both inserted 

 on the margin of a cup-shaped disk which 

 lines the base of the calyx. 



Ovary. — ^Two to four-lobed; two to four- 

 celled; style thick; stigma lobed. 



Capsule. — Orange-yellow, dehiscent by 

 two to four valves, each containing one or 

 two seeds enclosed in a fleshy scarlet aril. 



Climbing Bitter-sweet is a very vigor- 

 ous twining shrub, leafy in summer and • Climbing Bitter-sweet. Ceiisims 



p , , • r 1 scdndens 



m autumn, ripenmg a mass of beautiful, 



berry-like fruit, orange and crimson, which remains upon the 



branches well into the winter. 



Eudnymus rddicans is a Japanese climbing shrub of the Staff 

 Tree Family. The climate of northern Ohio seems not particu- 

 larly favorable to its development; it lives, but does not thrive; 

 at the south it flourishes apace. 



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