in Sicily, where the wild boars root it up for food. The fishermen use it to expel cuttle-fish from their hidingplaces among the rocks, in order to procure their ink-bags, which are dried to furnish sepia used in water-colour drawing.

41. Natural Order-Oleaceæ. The Olive Family.

DISTRIBUTION.-Widely dispersed through both hemispheres, rare in tropical America.-British genera 2, species 2.

Tree or shrub. Leaves opposite. Stamens 2.

FIG. 125.-Flowers of Ash; the hermaphrodite flower; two staminate (diandrous) flowers; and a pistillate flower.

Type-Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior).

A tall deciduous tree, with opposite pinnate leaves, and inconspicuous polygamous flowers.

Seeds. One in each cell of the winged capsule.

Although the Ash is the most accessible species, it cannot be accepted as representing the prevalent structure

FIG. 126. Flower (dichlamydeous) of Flowering Ash.

of the Order, since the flowers of Oleaceae are usually

FIG 127.-Winged fruit (samara) of
Ash, laid open.

FIG. 128.-Longitudinal section of albuminous seed of same.

hermaphrodite, and provided with both calyx and corolla, as in Privet (Ligustrum), the only native species of the Order in Britain besides the Ash. The case of the Ash serves, however, to show that the suppression of calyx and corolla in a single species or genus of a Natural Order is not regarded as of sufficient moment to warrant its removal to the Incomplete. In another (South European) species of Ash (F. Ornus), called the Flowering Ash, calyx and corolla are present.

The flowers of Common Ash are termed polygamous, because they are either staminate, pistillate, or hermaphrodite, and the different kinds of flowers may be upon the same or different trees. In a variety of the Ash, called the "Weeping Ash," the branches are naturally pendulous. The original of this variety, from which all have been propagated by cuttings, is said to have been found in Cambridgeshire. Young plants, raised from seeds of the Weeping Ash by Professor Henslow, had a tendency to "weep" in their first branching, but the "in anomaly disappeared in two or three years in several young trees which he raised.

The wood of the Ash is very tough and elastic, and valued by cart- and wheelwrights. Manna is the concrete sap of species of Ash (F. Ornus and F. rotundifolia), collected from wounds in the bark in summer and autumn. It is procured in Sicily.

The Olive (Olea europaea), emblem of peace and plenty, a native of Syria and Greece, has been cultivated from a remote period on the shores of the Mediterranean, in Spain and the South of France, for the sake of the valuable oil (Olive-oil) expressed from the pulp of its drupaceous fruit.

The Lilac (Syringa) and Jessamine (Jasminum) are members of the Order, everywhere grown in gardens. Observe the symmetry of the flowers of these two plants, representing two divisions of the Order, the former with the parts of the calyx and corolla in fours and valvate in bud, the latter with five or more divisions to the corolla and overlapping (imbricate) in æstivation.

42. Natural Order-Apocynaceæ. Family.

The Periwinkle

DISTRIBUTION.-Chiefly tropical, with but comparatively few outliers in temperate regions.-One British genus (scarcely indigenous), species 2.

Type-Lesser Periwinkle (Vinca minor).

A trailing wiry evergreen, with opposite entire shining leaves, and large blue solitary axillary flowers.

FIG. 129.-Vertical section of flower of Vinca rosea. The transversely constricted annulate stigma to the left.

OBSERVE the contorted æstivation of the unequalsided lobes of the corolla : the hour-glass contraction of the stigma the carpels, free at the base (ovary), consolidated in the style and stigma; ultimately (in fruit) wholly free.

Generally, the Apocynacea are dangerous. Seven out of twelve French soldiers, at Madrid, are said to have died from using a spit of the wood of the Oleander (Nerium) in cooking; and a kernel of the Madagascar Ordeal - poison (Tanghinia) is stated to be sufficient to kill twenty people. This ordeal used to be employed in cases of suspected witchcraft or apostasy. Some

'tropical species of the Family abound in a milky juice, which is collected for the sake of its caoutchouc.

Closely allied to Apocynaceæ is the exotic Asclepias Family, including the beautiful Hoyas and Stephanotus of our stoves and the Carrion-flowers (Stapelias) of South Africa. The pollen of Asclepiads is held together by a wax-like cement, so as to form pollinia resembling those of Orchids.

43. Natural Order Gentianaceæ. The Gentian Family.

DISTRIBUTION.-Widely spread in both hemispheres ; most numerous in temperate and alpine regions.-British genera 6, species 11.

Herbs. Corolla hypogynous, regular, lobes twisted in bud.
Stamens alternate with corolla-lobes. Ovary usually
I-celled, with parietal placentas.

Type-Autumn Gentian (Gentiana Amarella).

A small erect smooth annual, with opposite entire leaves, and numerous purplish flowers.

OBSERVE the connate leaves of Yellow-wort (Chlora perfoliata): trifoliolate leaves and bearded petals of Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata): orbicular floating leaves of Fringed Buckbean (Ĺimnanthemum nymphæoides).