THE SPINDLE-TREE 13 



The shoots are matt-green, give off a fetid odour 

 when bruised, and are bitter to the taste. They 

 contain an irritant poison known as euonymin. Four 

 distinct wings give the twigs a four-sided character, 

 and their sub-opposite, short, egg-shaped, pointed 

 green buds, which are pressed against the branch, are 

 also slightly four-angled. In April they put forth 

 their pairs of delicately glossy, oblong-lanceolate 

 leaves, of a rather deep shade of green, each leaf 

 being shortly stalked, two or three inches long, with 

 a finely toothed margin and a tapering point. The 

 midribs give off about eight pairs of pinnately arranged 

 secondary veins which curve forward and loop on to 

 one another, the network of finer veins not being 

 conspicuous. 



About a month later, in the axils ot these leaves 

 appear the bifurcating few-flowered clusters of incon- 

 spicuous blossoms. These are not individually half 

 an inch across, and are of a pale green colour ; but 

 they are noticeable from the regularly " tetramerous," 

 or fourfold, arrangement of their parts — four sepals, 

 their margins overlapping, or " imbricate," four petals 

 alternating with them, each of an oblong-acute outline, 

 four stamens, and an ovary made up of four carpels. 



It is not, however, tiU the year begins to wane that 

 the Spindle-tree displays its real charm. The leaves 

 often turn crimson in autumn ; but the fleshy four- 

 lobed fruit is the most distinctive beauty of the tree. 

 Of a rosy red, or more rarely creamy white, it 

 resembles a cross of coral or ivory ; and, on bursting, 

 discloses one of the most beautiful or most daring of 

 Nature's colour contrasts. This is produced by the 



