Styrax, | XLVII, LENTIBULACEA, 297 
family, which is entirely exotic. It consists of trees and shrubs, with 
the calyx often partially adherent to the ovary, the corolla mono- 
petalous, and stamens, although inserted on the corolla, usually more 
or less united together. 
(Se 
XLVIII. OLEACEA. THE OLIVE FAMILY. 
| (Jasminacec, 1st edit.) 
Trees, shrubs, or tall climbers, with opposite (or in a very 
few exotic species alternate) leaves, entire or pinnate, and 
flowers usually in terminal panicles or clusters. Calyx and 
corolla regular, each of 4 or 5 divisions, or in a few species 
entirely deficient. Stamens 2. Ovary and fruit 2-celled, each 
cell containing 1 or 2 seeds. 
An Order widely spread over nearly the whole of the globe, readily 
known by the 2 stamens inserted at the base of the corolla, without 
reference to the number of its divisions. It is commonly divided into 
two :—Oleacee proper, with the divisions of the corolla 4 or 2, and 
usually valvate in the bud, which comprises the two British genera, as 
well as the Olive (Olea) and the Lilac (Syringa), Filarea (Phillyrea), 
Chionanthus, and Forsythia of our shrubberies ; and /Jasminee, consisting 
of Jasminum (Jessamine) and some other small exotic genera, which 
have 5 or more divisions to the corolla, overlapping each other and 
obliquely twisted in the bud. The seeds also have usually a consider- 
able albumen in the one tribe and little or none in the other, but this 
difference is not constant. 
Trees, with pinnate leaves, and a dry, oblong, linear fruit : . 1. FRAXINUS. 
Shrubs, with simple leaves, and a berry . : ; . 2, LigusTrRuM. 
I. FRAXINUS. ASH. 
Trees, with pinnate leaves, and a dry fruit produced at the top into 
an oblong, rather firm wing, and divided at the base into 2 cells, each 
containing a single seed, Calyx and corolla either none, or in some 
exotic species 4-lobed. 
A small genus, limited to the northern hemisphere, without the 
tropics. Several American species are to be met with in our planta- 
tions. 
1, F. excelsior, Linn. (fig. 670). Common Ash.—A tall, handsome 
tree, with opposite, deciduous, pinnate leaves, consisting of from 7 to 
11 ovate-lanceolate, toothed segments. The flowers open before the 
leaves, and appear at first sight like clusters of stamens issuing from 
opposite buds along the last year’s shoots, each cluster surrounded by 
a few small, woolly scales. On examination it will be found to consist 
of a number of pedicels, arranged in a short raceme, each pedicel bear- 
ing a pair of sessile anthers, with an ovary in the middle, ending in a 
straight style with a thickened stigma. The capsules, commonly called 
keys, are, including the wing, about an inch and a half long. 
In woods, throughout temperate Europe and western Asia, extending 
northwards into Scandinavia, but generally replaced in southern Europe 
