108 
22. CEL ASTR ACEiE . 
serrulate ; pedunc. very short, mostly simple and 1-fl., aggre- 
gate on short axillary spurs . — Celastrus umbellatus Dryander! 
in BH. ; Buch ! 198. no. 424. — Shr. per. Mad. reg. 1 ; Rocks 
in ravines for about a mile from the sea. Sea-cliffs a little out 
of Funchal to the eastward along the Caniso road, and rocks at 
the edges of the first ravine. Up the Rib. de S ta Luzia nearly to 
the origin of the Levada on the S. Roque side ; and rocks on the 
W. side of the Palmeira, &c. In similar situations near Camera 
de Lobos, in the Soccorridos ravine, at Paid do Mar, &c. ; and in 
the north at the Arco de S. Jorge, S. Vicente at the edge of the 
cliffs above the cemetery, and along the coast towards Seixal 
at the first waterfall, and again at the descent into the Rib. 
do Inferno. Dec., Jan. — A low bushy close-branched thickly 
leafy shrub, 3 or 4 ft. high, with strong stout st. and branches 
covered with a smooth brownish ash-coloured bark, the younger 
branches straight and reddish. Foliage evergreen, like that of 
a PhiUyrea. L. shortly petioled, solitary and alternate only on 
the young shoots, clustered on the spurs and older branches 
from the development of numerous secondary leaf-buds ; very 
variable in size and shape, 1-2 in. long and ^-1 in. broad, more 
or less lanceolate-oblong, often blunt or even spathulate, but 
mostly more or less attenuated at each end, very irregularly 
and sparingly serrulate, rarely entire. Inflorescence depau- 
perately or abortively cymose. FI. small, \ in. diam., pale 
greenish -yellow, scentless, mostly solitary each on its own 
proper ped., produced abundantly on the short woody side- 
spurs from the axils of the leaves ; each ped. from } to ^ in. 
long, jointed halfway or more upwards, with from 1-3 minute 
discoloured bractlets below the joint, bearing very rarely more 
than one fl., but sometimes producing from the joint 3 or more, 
each on its own proper pedic. and so far approximating to 
the cymose inflorescence of the allied Tenerifan C. cassinoides 
(Merit. ). Sep. short ovate obtuse. Pet. ovate somewhat thick 
or fleshy, opening like a star. Siam, scarcely more than half 
the length of pet. Fil. somewhat crimson, all parts of the fl. 
having a tendency to become reddish. Ov. large. Style short. 
Stigma nearly sessile trifid crimson. Fr. growing very fast and 
soon acquiring its full size, but not ripening till May, large 
and conspicuous, fynearly \ in. diam., pale yellowish, globose, 
subangular, 3-celled, mostly only 2-seeded, one cell being abor- 
tive, bursting wide open from the top halfway downwards 
before it fully ripens and disclosing the 3 large cells, with a 
single erect rather large oval shining light chestnut-brown seed 
in 2 of the 3 cells, each seed supported at the base, as in a 
little shallow cup, by the arillode, which is beautifully white, 
like spermaceti. As the fr. ripens the valves become strongly 
and stiffly reflexed, and so, by corrugation, closely and elegantly 
striated. 
