14 
DESCRIPTION OP MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
charming aspect in winter, when the open sprays, with their 
evergreen foliage, are covered with shining coral-red berries. 
Leaves oval, flat, the wavy margins with scattered spiny 
teeth ; flowers in loose clusters along the base of the young 
branches and in the axils, more or less dioeciously polyga- 
mous. Parts of flowers in fours ; filaments 4-6, the berry- 
like drupe containing 4-6 nutlets. Frequent, but small in 
the mountains, and 50° high and trunk 18' diam. in river bot- 
toms. FI. June. Collect the leaves. Homeopathic Phar- 
macopoeia. 
Ilex verticillata, Gray. (Black Alder. Winterberry.) Small 
tree with deciduous leaves which are obovate, pointed, ser- 
rate, downy on the veins beneath ; flowers in sessile clusters, 
or the fertile solitary, all very short peduncled, fruit bright 
red. Parts of flowers in fives or sixes. Nutlets of the ber- 
ries smooth. May-June. The bark, collected in fall. Very 
frequent in the swampy regions of West Tennessee. 
CELASTRINEiE. (Staff-tree Family.) 
Celastrus scandens, L. Staff tree. Climbing Bitter-sweet.. 
Wax-work. Climbing snrub ; leaves ovate- oblong, finely 
serrate, pointed. Flowers polygamo-dioecious. Petals and 
stamens 5, inserted on the margin of a cup-shaped disk, 
which lines the base of the calyx. Flowers small, greenish, 
in raceme-like clusters. The opening orange-colored pods, 
displaying the scarlet covering of the seeds, are very orna- 
mental. Grows very abundant and luxuriantly along ponds 
and streams in West Tennessee. FI. June. The bark of the 
root. 
Enonymus atropurpureus, Jacq. Burning-bush. Waahoo. 
Upright shrub, 6-12° high ; leaves petioled, oval-oblong,, 
pointed; parts of the dark-purple flower in fours; pods 
smooth, deeply lobed. Ornamental in autumn by its copious 
crimson fruit, drooping on long peduncles. Rich limestone 
soils over the whole State. Bark of the root. 
