298 THE OLIVE FAMILY. [Praxmus. 



by a closely allied but perhaps distinct species. Common in Britain, 

 and truly wild excepting in the northern parts of Scotland, where, how- 

 ever, it bears the climate in plantations. Fl. spring. A garden variety 

 with solitary leaflets is the F. heterophylla. * 



II. LIGUSTRUM. PEIVET. 



Shrubs, with opposite, simple leaves, and small white flowers. Calyx 

 slightly 4-toothed. Corolla 4-lobed, with a short tube. Stamens short. 

 Fruit a berry, with 2 cells and 1 or 2 seeds in each. 



Besides our own, the genus contains but a small number of species, 

 chiefly from eastern Asia, some of which are in cultivation in our 

 gardens. 



1. L. vulg-are, Linn. (fig. 671). Common P. — A shrub, attaining 6 

 to 8 feet in height, with long, slender branches. Leaves nearly ever- 

 green, lanceolate or oblong, quite entire, and shortly stalked. Flowers 

 in short, compact panicles at the ends of the branches. Berries black, 

 globular or somewhat ovoid. 



In hedges and thickets, over the greater part of Europe and western 

 Asia, penetrating far into Scandinavia, but so much planted that its 

 natural limits cannot well be traced. In Britain, common in southern 

 England, and has been considered as truly wild in chalk districts and 

 coast cliffs as far north as Durham and Yorkshire; in Ireland it is 

 considered indigenous only in the south of the island. Fl. summer. 



XLIX. APOCYNACE-ffi. THE PEKIWINKLE FAMILY. 



A large tropical Order, distinguished from Gentianacece chiefly 

 by the ovary completely divided into 2 cells, or more frequently 

 into 2 distinct carpels, whilst the style, or at least the stigma, 

 is entire. 



It is limited in Britain to the single genus Vinca, but is represented 

 in our planthouses by the Oleander (Nerium), from southern Europe ; 

 the Mandevilla, Allamandas, Dipladenias, &c, from South America ; and 

 others from tropical Asia. The closely allied Asclepias family, which is 

 entirely exotic, but includes the Periploca, Stapelias, Royas, Stephanotus, 

 &c, of our gardens and planthouses, differs chiefly in the curious manner 

 in which the anthers are connected with the stigma. 



I. VINCA. PERIWINKLE. 



Herbs, with opposite, entire leaves, and blue, pink, or white flowers, 

 growing singly on axillary peduncles. Calyx free, deeply divided into 5 

 narrow divisions. Corolla with a cylindrical or almost campanulate 

 tube, and a flat, spreading limb, with 5 broad, oblique segments, twisted 

 in the bud. Stamens 5, enclosed in the tube. Ovaries 2, distinct at 

 the base but connected at the top by a single style, terminating in an 

 oblong stigma, contracted in the middle. Fruit consisting of 2 oblong 

 or elongated capsules or follicles, each of a single cell, of a greenish 

 colour, diverging as they ripen, and opening by a longitudinal slit on 



