THE SPINDLE-TREE— continued. 
the structure of this plant is seen in the four-angled or four-winged character of the 
shoots, and even of their buds, as well as in the parts of the inconspicuous little 
greenish flowers, which appear in May and June. Twigs and leaves are alike bitter 
in taste, give off a fetid odour if bruised, and contain an irritant poison known 
as euonymin. 
Produced in stalked clusters, generally of three together, the pale blossoms are 
individually less than half an inch across; but it will be at once noticed that all their 
parts are in fours : four sepals, four petals, four stamens at the margin of the 
relatively large fleshy disk, and four carpels. In some of the flowers the stamens, 
and in others the stigmas, are functionless ; and, when both are functional, the 
stamens discharge their pollen before the stigmas are ready to receive it. Cross- 
pollination, which is thus necessary for seed-production, is effected by the many 
flies which visit the blossoms, attracted by the abundant honey poured out on 
the fleshy disk, and, perhaps, by some fetid odour perceptible to their delicate 
sense of smell. 
It is in autumn, however, that the Spindle-tree is most attractive to us. The 
leaves then turn to crimson and yellow, the two colours blending in every 
conceivable manner even on the same leaf, while the veins or other parts may 
retain some of their original green, or decay to russet-brown. Then too 
“the fruit 
Which in our winter woodland looks a flower, '* 
which Tennyson wished the wisdom of his maturity might resemble, presents us 
with one of the most daring of Nature’s colour-contrasts. The slightly fleshy, 
biretta-like pericarp becomes a rosy red, or more rarely a creamy white, resembling 
a cross, with the smooth rounded outlines and the colour of coral or of ivory ; and 
then, bursting, discloses the seeds each covered with the now orange-scarlet aril, 
which exists solely, it would seem, to attract birds, so that the seeds may be 
disseminated. Thus we appear to have, side by side, a display of those brilliant 
but seemingly purposeless colours which accompany the chemical changes of decay, 
and another, appealing equally to man’s sense of the beautiful but subservient to a 
very obvious purpose in the economy of the plant. 
There are several varieties in cultivation, with dark purple, silver- variegated or 
gold-variegated foliage. These are commonly grafted on the common wild form. 
