Dicotyledons with Gamopetalous Ftowers. 
67 
.Natural Order 
OLE AC RE. Tab. 55. 
D iagnosis. —Trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing, with opposite leaves. 
Flowers regular, small. Corolla hypogynous; rarely polypetalous or 
wanting. Stamens 2, usually epipetalous. 
Distribution. —A rather small but cosmopolitan Natural Order. The genera are grouped under 
two Sub-orders, viz. :— 
I. OLEINE^E.—Corolla-lobes usually 4, valvate in bud. 
II. JASMINE2E.—Corolla usually salver-shaped, hypocrateriform, with 5 or more lobes, imbri¬ 
cate or twisted in bud. 
Number of British Genera, 2 ; Species, 2. 
Leaves simple as in Privet ( Ligustrum) and Lilac ( Syringa), or pinnate as in Ash ( Fraxinus ) and Garden 
Jessamine (Jasminum). 
Calyx and Corolla wanting and flowers polygamous in Common Ash ( Fraxinus excelsior); calyx and corolla 
present in Flowering Ash (FOrnus), 
FRUIT a winged samara in Ash ; a drupe in Olive (Olea); a capsule in Lilac. 
USES, &c.—The wood of the Ash is very tough and elastic, and much employed by Cartwrights and for 
structures exposed to much strain. Manna is the concrete saccharine juice exuded from incisions in the bark of two 
Mediterranean species of Ash (Fraxinus Ornus and F. rotundifolid). Olives are the drupaceous fruits of Olea 
ewropcea , cultivated from remote antiquity in South Europe and the Levant for the sake of the invaluable oil 
obtained from the pulp on pressure. The Lilac, numerous species of Jessamine, and the Chinese spring-flowering 
yellow Forsythias in general cultivation, belong to this Order. 
