Part 14 (2/2)

A small order of trees and shrubs, including for our purpose only one genus:

GENUS =18. LEX.=

Trees or shrubs with simple, alternate, thick, mostly evergreen leaves.

Flowers rather inconspicuous, mostly in cl.u.s.ters. Fruit berry-like, small ( to in.), with 4 to 6 nutlets; hanging on the plants late in the autumn or through the winter.

* Leaves evergreen. (=A.=)

=A.= Leaves with spiny teeth 1.

=A.= No spiny teeth 2.

* Leaves deciduous 3.

[Ill.u.s.tration: I. opaca.]

1. =lex opaca=, Ait. (AMERICAN HOLLY.) Leaves evergreen, oval, acute, thick, smooth, with scattered spiny teeth. Flowers white; May. The bright-red berries, found only on some of the trees, remain on through the greater part of the winter. Small tree, 15 to 40 ft. high, with very hard white wood; wild in southern New England and southward. A beautiful broad-leaved, evergreen tree which should be more extensively cultivated. North of lat.i.tude 41 it needs a protected situation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: I. Dahon.]

2. =lex Dahon=, Walt. (DAHOON HOLLY.) Leaves 2 to 3 in. long, evergreen, oblanceolate or oblong, entire or sharply serrate toward the apex, with revolute margins, not spiny. Young branches and lower surface of the leaves, especially on the midrib, p.u.b.escent. Small tree, 10 to 30 ft. high; Virginia and south, with very hard, white, close-grained wood. Rarely cultivated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: I. monticola.]

3. =lex monticola=, Gray. Leaves deciduous, ovate to lance-oblong, 3 to 5 in. long, taper-pointed, thin, smooth, sharply serrate. Fruit red, on short stems, with the seeds many-ribbed on the back. Usually a shrub but sometimes tree-like; damp woods in the Catskills and in the Alleghany Mountains.

ORDER =XIII. CELASTRaCEae.=

Shrubs with simple leaves and small, regular flowers, forming a fruit with ariled seeds.

GENUS =19. EUoNYMUS.=

Shrubs somewhat tree-like, with 4-sided branchlets, opposite, serrate leaves, and loose cymes of angular fruit which bursts open in the autumn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: E. atropurpureus.]

1. =Euonymus atropurpureus=, Jacq. (BURNING-BUSH. WAHOO.) Leaves petioled, oval-oblong, pointed; parts of the dark-purple flowers commonly in fours; pods smooth, deeply lobed, when ripe, cinnamon in color and very ornamental. Tall shrub, 6 to 20 ft. high; wild in Wisconsin to New York, and southward; often cultivated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: E. Europaeus.]

2. =Euonymus Europaeus=, L. (EUROPEAN SPINDLE-TREE OR BURNING-BUSH.) Leaves oblong-lanceolate, serrate, smooth; flowers and fruit commonly in threes on compressed stems; fruit usually 4-lobed, the lobes acute; flowers greenish-white; May; fruit abundant, scarlet, ripe in September. Generally a shrub, though sometimes tall enough (4 to 20 ft.) and trimmed so as to appear tree-like; twigs smooth, green or reddish-green. Extensively cultivated; from Europe.

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