534 SALVADORACE^ — ASOLEPIADACE^. 



and is used for oars, as well as by coachmakers, etc. The wood of its 

 roots is beautifully veined. The pendulous variety, called Weeping- 

 ash, is often engrafted on the common Ash, so as to produce a better 

 effect. The leaves of Ligustrum mtlgare, common Privet (fig. 272, 

 p. 184), are astringent. L. lucidvm yields a kind of waxy excretion, 

 which is used in China for economical purposes. L. Ibota is a Japan 

 privet, on which the wax insect (Asicaca cerifera) feeds. 



Order 115. — Salvadoeace^, the Salvadora Family. (Mmopet. 

 Hypog.) Calyx of 4 minute sepals; corolla 4-partite; stamens 4; 

 ovary superior. Fruit succulent, 1-celled ; seed solitary, exalbuminous. — 

 Small trees or shrubs, with opposite leaves and minute panicled flowers. 

 Natives of Syria and India. The plants are acrid and stimulant, and 

 some of them have properties like Mustard. Salvadora persica was 

 considered by Royle to be the Mustard tree of Scripture, but this 

 seems to be an error. (See Mustard, under natural order CEUciFEEiE, 

 p. 437.) There are 2 or 3 genera and a small number of species. 

 Examples — Salvadora, Monetia. 



Order 116. — Asclepiadace^, the Asclepias Family. (Monopet. 

 Hypog.) (Figs. 385, 386, p. 230; 753-761.) Calyx 5-divided, 

 persistent (fig. 756 c). Corolla synpetalous (monopetalous), hypogy- 

 nous, regular, 5-lobed (figs. 754, 755 p p), deciduous ; aestivation im- 

 bricate, rarely valvate. Stamens 5, inserted into the base of the 

 coroUa, and alternate with its segments (fig. 756 e) ; filaments usually 

 combined so as to form a tube ; staminal tube rarely naked behind, 

 generally furnished with a corona (crown) of variously-formed leaves, 

 which are either distinct or connate. Anthers bilocular, each cell 

 sometimes spuriously divided ; pollen, when the anther dehisces, 

 cohering in masses (poUinia), which are either as numerous as the 

 cells, or are confluent in pairs, and adhere to the five stigmatic pro- 

 cesses, either in sets of two or four, or singly (figs. 381, p. 229 ; 385, 

 386, p. 230 ; 757). Ovaries 2 (fig. 756 o) ; ovules 00 ; styles 2, closely 

 approaching each other (fig. 756 s), often very short ; stigma common 

 to both styles, dilated, quinquangular ; the angles furnished with 

 cartilaginous corpuscles which retain the poUinia, or with glands (figs. 

 755, 756 g). Fruit consisting of two foUicles (sometimes only one 

 by abortion), having a placenta on the ventral suture (fig. 759). 

 Seeds 00, imbricate, pendulous, usually comose (hairy) at the hUum 

 (fig. 760); albumen thin (fig. 761 p); embryo straight; cotyledons 

 leafy; radicle superior (fig. 761 e). — Shrubs, or occasionally herbs, 

 usually with milky juice, and often twining. The leaves are usually 

 opposite, sometimes alternate or verticiUate, with interpetiolary cUia 

 in place of stipules. The gynostegium {yvvn, pistil, and eriyoi, I 

 cover), staminal crown, or peculiar-hooded (cucullate) appendages, pro- 

 longed from the tube of the filaments, which occur in many of the 

 plants of this order, give a peculiar aspect to their flower (see fig. 385,. 



