ARBORETUM ET FRUTICETUM BRITANNICUM. CHAP. XXXIII. OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER CEL ASTRACEÆ. Distinct. Char. Sepals 4-6: æstivation imbricate. Petals 4–6. Stamens with a peltate disk. Petals 4-6, inserted into the disk. Stamens 4-6, 5. Ovary small, immersed in a disk, that is marked with 10 longitudinal lines. Fruit a dehiscent capsule of 2–3 cells. Seed with an aril. Leaves alternate. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 3.) NEMOPA'NTHES Rafin. Sexes polygamous or diæcious. Calyx minute. Petals 5. Ovary hemispherical, covered with a clammy juice or pulp. Fruit an Prod., ii. p. 17.) Ovary surrounded by a fleshy disk. Fruit dehiscent. Capsule of 1-4 cells. Fruit an almost dry drupe; its nut indehiscent, slender, of 3 cells, and 3 Prod., ii. p. II.) Stamens 4-5. Fruit a dry drupe; its nut indehiscent, ovate, of 2 cells, * MM GENUS I. EUOʻNYMUS Tourn. THE EUONYMUS, or SPINDLE TREE. Lin. Syst. Tetra-Hex-ándria Monogynia. states that it has been applied to this genus, or, at least, to the species E. europæ'us, by antiphrasis, * 1. E. EUROPÆ'us L. The European Euonymus, or Spindle Tree. Tree; Fusain d'Europe, Bonnet de Prétre commun, Fr.; gemeine Spindelbaum, Ger. in making toothpicks and skewers, which were formerly called pricks; and it is called Dogwood, names of Gatteridge Tree and Gaitre Tree are derived from a Saxon word signifying a cover ; from the capsule hanging, like a cover, over the fruit. It is called Louse Berry, because the powdered leaves and berries were formerly put on the heads of children to chase away lice. Engravings. Smith's Eng. Bot., t. 362.; Hayne Abbild., t. 16. ; E. of Pl., 2912. ; our fig. 164. ; and the plate of the tree in our Second Volume. Spec. Char., &c. Branches smooth. Leaves lanceolate ovate, very finely sawed. Flowers about 3 upon one peduncle; the petals oblong, rather acute. Lobes of the capsule obtuse. (Dec. Prod., ii. p. 4.). A shrub or low tree, a native of Europe, in hedges and scattered woods; plentiful in Britain ; and, though seldom found in a wild state exceeding 10 ft. or 12 ft. in height, yet, in some situations, attaining, when cultivated, the height of 30 ft. and upwards. It produces its greenish white flowers in 164 May, and ripens its rose-coloured fruits in September. Varieties. * E. e. 2 fòliis variegatis Lodd. Cat. has variegated leaves, but never looks healthy. # E. e. 3 latifolius Lodd. Cat. has rather broader leaves than the species. E. e. 4. nanus Lodd. Cat. is a dwarf-growing plant. # E. e. 5 frúctu álbo Lodd. Cat. has white capsules. Nos. 3. and 5. of these varieties are, in our opinion, alone worth cultivating. Description, &c. The roots are very numerous and whitish ; forming a dense mass of network, and not extending to a great distance from the stem. The branches are numerous and opposite; and the wood hard and fine-grained. The leaves and bark are acrid, poisonous, and fetid when bruised. The capsules are of a fine rose colour, except in the white-capsuled variety, and the seeds are severally invested with an aril of a fine orange colour. This last character is conspicuous in the white-capsuled variety, as the colour of the capsule and that of the aril are in more direct contrast than in the species. Geography, History, fc. This species is common throughout the middle and northern states of Europe; it is found in abundance in Sweden, in the north of Germany, in France, and in Britain ; and it is also a native of Greece and Italy. It was noticed by the ancient Greek and Roman writers, and the from the earliest ages, to have been used for various domestic purposes, more particularly for making netting-needles and spindles; and its uses in France and Germany, even at the present day, are very numerous. In wood seems, Britain, it was formerly employed in the manufacture of musical instruments; and it is still occasionally used for keys to pianofortes, and by turners and coopers. In Scotland, it is employed, along with the wood of the alpine laburnum (Cytisus alpinus L.), to form noggins, called bickers ( ? from the German word becher, a cup). These bickers are formed of small staves, alternately of the spindle tree and the laburnum; the wood of the former being white or yellowish, and that of the latter being very dark brown or black. When the wood of the spindle tree cannot be got, that of the holly is used. These bickers are employed both as drinking-vessels and as porridge dishes : in form they resemble milkpails; and when of a small size, are called luggies, from their having but one handle, which is called a lug, or ear. In Germany, shoots of 3 ft. or 4 ft. in length are bored and employed for the shanks of tobacco-pipes, the bowls being made of earthenware; and spindles are made of the wood in parts of the Continent where that mode of spinning is still practised: hence, the names of fusain and spindelbaum. The wood, split up into thin pieces, is formed into whisks for driving away fies. A charcoal is made of the shoots, which is much valued by artists, from the lines traced with it being easily effaced. This charcoal is made by putting a number of the shoots of two years' growth into an iron tube, and, after closing it so as to exclude the air, putting the tube in a fire till it becomes red. It is then taken out, and allowed to cool before the charcoal is removed. In using this charcoal, or charcoal crayons, as they are called, it is necessary, in sharpening them, to cut them to a point on one side, on account of the centre being only pith. The fruits of the tree have been employed by dyers, who derive three colours from them, green, yellow, and red. The first is obtained by boiling the seeds with alum; the second, by boiling the seeds alone; and the third, by using the capsules. A decoction of the capsules in alkali is said to colour hair red; and the leaves, dried and powdered, and put among the hair of the heads of children, is said to drive away vermin: hence one of the names. The fruit is said to be purgative and emetic in an eminent degree; so much so as not to be eaten by birds. After all, the principal use of the spindle tree at present, in Britain, is, to form skewers for butchers and cooks, and for watchmakers; the large trees in Forfarshire, that were formerly used by coopers in making bickers, being, for the most part, no longer to be met with. In ornamental plantations, this species, and all the others, are chiefly interesting in autumn, when, as Dumont elegantly observes, “they spread, by their numerous pendent capsules of a bright red colour or pure white, and their white and orangecoloured seeds, some rays of brilliance over the departing season, and recall the remembrance of the fine days of summer.” (Bot. Cult., vol. vi. p. 243.) Casualties. The leaves are liable to be attacked by the caterpillar of the Yponomeùta Euonymella Latr.; so much so, that the plant, both in hedges and gardens, may frequently be seen wholly without leaves, and bearing numerous webs of a cobwebby appearance and consistence, which are formed by the young caterpillars, in the course of their feeding, in passing from point to point. Statistics. The largest specimens of E. europæ'us in Great Britain appear to be in Scotland ; more especially in Forfarshire, where the tree abounds, and attains a very considerable size, being frequently found from 5 it. to 35 ft. in height, with trunks from ift. to 18 inches in diameter. wood, in that part of the country, is, or was formerly, much in demand by coopers and turners. In the neighbourhood of London, we know of but few large trees. One in Kensington Gardens, a little distance west of the Bayswater Gate, is 15 ft. high; in the Brompton Nursery, the white capsuled variety has attained the height of 12 st., with two stems, and a head covering a space of 25 it, in diameter; at Mount Grove, Hampstead, 10 years planted, the species is 6 ft. high; in Essex, at Hylands, 10 years planted, it is 14 it. high ; in Oxfordshire, in the Oxford Botanic Garden, 40 years planted, it is 17 it. high; in Pembrokeshire, at Golden Grove, 7 years planted, and 10 ft. high; in Rutlandshire, at Belvoir Castle, 18 years planted, and 15 ft. high; in Staffordshire, at Trentham, 14 ft. high; in Yorkshire, at Grimston, 12 years planted, and 12 ft. high. In Scotland, in the Glasgow Botanic Gar. den, 12 years planted, and 13 it. high; in Bamffshire, at Gordon Castle, many trees are 20 ft. high. In Ireland, at Cypress Grove, near Dublin, 15 ft. high ; at Terenure, 15 ft. high ; at Coole, 17 it. high, the diameter of the trunk, at I ft. from the ground, 1 ft. 2 in., and of the space covered by the branches 25 ft. In France, near Paris, at Scéaux, 20 ft. high. In Austria, at Kopenzel, near Vienna, 16 ft. high; in Held's Nursery, at Vienna, the white-capsuled variety, 12 ft. high; at Hadersdorf, 15 ft. high; at Brück on the Leytha, 14 st. high. In Prussia, at Sans Souci, 15 ft. high. In Bavaria, in the Botanic Garden at Munich, 12 ft. high. In Sweden, in the Botanic Garden at Lund, 16t. high. The Commercial Statistics. The species, being little in demand, is not generally Tree. Prod., 2. p. 4.; Don's Mill., 2. p. 4. warziger Spindelbaum, Ger. nent lenticular glands. Leaves ovate, slightly Tree. delbaum, Ger. our fig. 166.; and the plate of the species in our Second Volume. Spec. Char., &c. Branches smooth. Leaves 166 broadly ovate. A shrub or low tree, a native of Europe, and particularly of the south of Germany, and of some parts of France and Switzerland, where it grows to the height of 10 ft. or 12 ft., producing its greenish white flowers in June and July, which become of a reddish purple as they fade. Introduced in 1730. In British gardens, this forms much the handsomest species of the genus, from its broad shining leaves and its large red pendulous fruits, with orange-coloured seeds, which, when the capsules open, are suspended from the cells somewhat in the manner that the seeds of the magnolias hang from their strobiles. Even the wood of this species, during winter, is much handsomer than that of any other, the branches being regularly divaricate, with a clean bark, of a reddish green, and with long-pointed dark brown buds; by which alone this species may be distinguished from all the others. Unfortunately for this species, it is generally treated as a shrub, and crowded among other shrubs or trees; so that it is never allowed a chance of attaining either its full size 4. E. Na'vus Bieb. The dwarf Euonymus, or Spindle Tree. entire, nearly opposite. Flowers 4-cleft, from 1 to 3 on a peduncle. A Spindle Tree. 2. p. 5. . E. caroliniensis Marsh. Arb. Amer., No. 1.; and, probably, E. latifolius Marsh. Arb. Amer., stalked, lanceolate, sawed. Flowers many No. 2. 25 cents. * 6. E. AMERICA'NUs L. The American Euonymus, or Spindle Tree. Identification. Lin. Sp., 286. ; Dec. Prod., 2. p. 4.; Don's Mill., 2. p. 5. Synonymes. E. sempervirens Marsh., E. alternifolius Mænch, the Burning Bush, Amer. Engravings. Nouv. Du Ham., 3. t. 9. ; Pluk. Alm., t. 150., fig. 5. ; Schmidt Árb., t. 75. ; our fig. 168., representing the plant in flower; and fig. 169, representing it in seed, with the warty capsule. Spec. Char., fc. Branches smooth. Leaves almost sessile, elliptic-lanceolate, sawed. Flowers 1 to 3 on a peduncle. Petals sub-orbiculate. Capsule echinately warty. (Dec. Prod., 'ii. p. 4.) A sub-evergreen shrub, growing to the height of 6 ft. or 8 ft.; a' native of North America, from New England to Carolina, in hedges and shady woods, among rocks, and on the |
