50 
CELASTRACEAI. 
[Ploeodendron. 
leaves ; pedicels equalling or exceeding the corolla. Expanded flower 
under J inch across. Calyx lobed down nearly to the base. Petals 
glabrous, yellowish-green. Disk plate-shaped, with a broad rim out- 
side the ovary. Drupe oblong, the size of an olive, usually 2-celled 
with one seed in each cell. 
Mauritius, frequent in the hill-forests. Rodriguez, perhaps the commonest tree 
of the island, Bouton ! Balfour ! Also Bourbon and Madagascar. Bois cV Olive. 
Young leaves dimorphic, linear, acute, half a foot long, passing into the mature by 
gradual transition stages. 
3. GYMNOSPORIA, Wt. and Arn. 
Calyx minute, with 4-5 round teeth. Petals 4-5, hypogynous, 
oblong, spreading. Disk large, cupular. Stamens as many as the petals, 
inserted in the edge of the disk ; filaments short, subulate ; anthers 
oblong. Ovary 3-celled, confluent with the disk ; style very short ; 
stigma capitate, 3-lobed ; ovules 2 in a cell, basal. Eruit a 3-lobed 
capsule, with loculicidal dehiscence. Seed with a fungoid arillus at the 
base. — Shrubs, often spinose, with alternate leaves and copious minute 
cymose flowers. Distrib. Old World, from Australia to the Cape, 
Spain, and Canaries. Species 55. 
1. G. trigyna, Baker. A glabrous shrub, 6-12 feet high, with 
straggling branches, without spines. Leaves short-pe.tioled, alternate, 
often fascicled on short branches, oblanceolate-oblong, 3-4 inches long, 
firm, obtuse, crenate, narrowed at the base. Flowers in copious peduncled 
often fascicled cymes shorter than the leaves; pedicels slender, 2-4 
times the length of the flowers. Calyx minute, with 4-5 round fim- 
briated teeth. Petals white, denticulate, £ inch long. Capsule the 
size of a large pea, with 3 firm persistent divaricating valves bearing 
the septum down the middle. Seeds 1-3 maturing. Celastrus trigynus. 
Lam. ; D.C. Prod. ii. 6. Catha trigyna, Presl. Celastrus pyreus, 
Willem. Ilex salicifolia, Jacq. Coll. v. 56, tab. 2, fig. 2. 
Mauritius, woods of Pouce, Moka, etc. Endemic. Bois d poudre. 
Order XXVIII. RHAMNACEiE. 
Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or polygamous. Calyx with a 
cupular usually free tube and 4-5 deltoid valvate teeth. Petals the 
same number as the sepals, minute, often hooded. Stamens 4-5, often 
hidden in the folded or concave petals ; filaments subulate ; anthers 
2-celled, splitting down the side. Disk lining the calyx, with a free 
border, in Gouania and Phylica epigynous. Ovary free (inferior in 
Gouania and Phylica ), usually 3-celled; ovules solitary, erect, ana- 
tropal ; style simple or trifid. Fruit capsular or drupaceous. Seeds 
albuminous. — Shrubs or trees, often climbers ; leaves simple, alternate 
or opposite, stipulate ; flowers minute, copious, cymose or racemose. 
Distrib. Cosmopolitan. Species 430. 
