A family of about thirty-eight genera widely distributed over the tropical and warm temperate parts of the world, with five arborescent representatives in the United States.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT GENERA OF THE UNITED STATES.
Leaves opposite, deciduous; parts of the flower in 4’s; fruit a fleshy capsule enclosed in a colored aril.1. [Evonymus.] Leaves alternate, persistent (0 in 3). Fruit capsular; parts of the flower in 5’s. Capsule 3—4-valved, loculicidal, its outer coat woody, the valves apiculate at apex; base of the seed enclosed in a colored aril.2. [Maytenus.] Capsule 5-valved, septicidal, its outer coat thin and fleshy, the valves 2-lobed at apex; seed without an aril.3. [Canotia.] Fruit drupaceous; parts of the flower in 4’s; seed without an aril. Leaves often crenately serrate above the middle; stipules minute, caducous; fruit usually 1-seeded; branchlets quadrangular.4. [Gyminda.] Leaves entire; stipules 0; fruit 2-seeded; branchlets terete.5. [Schæfferia.]
1. EVONYMUS L.
Small generally glabrous trees or shrubs, with usually square sometimes wing-margined branchlets, bitter drastic bark, slender obtuse or acuminate winter-buds, and fibrous roots. Leaves opposite, petiolate, entire, crenate or dentate, deciduous or rarely persistent; stipules minute, caducous. Flowers perfect or polygamo-diœcious, in dichotomous axillary usually few-flowered cymes; calyx 4-lobed (in the North American arborescent species); disk thick and fleshy, cohering with and filling the short tube of the calyx, flat, 4-angled or lobed, closely surrounding and adhering to the ovary; petals inserted in the sinuses of the calyx under the free border of the disk, as many as and much longer than the calyx-lobes, spreading, deciduous; stamens as many as the petals and alternate with them, inserted on the summit of the disk; filaments very short, subulate, erect or recurved; anthers 2-celled, the cells nearly parallel or spreading below; ovary 4-celled; styles short, terminating in a depressed stigma; ovules usually 2 in each cell, ascending from the central angle; raphe ventral, micropyle inferior, or pendulous, the raphe then dorsal and the micropyle superior. Fruit capsular, 4-lobed and celled, fleshy, angled or winged, smooth (in the North American arborescent species), loculicidally 4-valved, the valves septicidal. Seeds 2 in each cell, or commonly solitary by abortion, ascending, surrounded by a colored aril; seed-coat chartaceous; albumen fleshy; embryo axile; cotyledons broad, coriaceous, parallel with the raphe; the radicle short, inferior.
Evonymus is widely distributed through the northern hemisphere, extending south of the equator to the islands of the Indian Archipelago and to Australia. About forty species are distinguished, the largest number occurring in the tropical regions of southern Asia, and in China and Japan. Of the four species found within the territory of the United States one only is a small tree. Many of the species are rich in bitter and astringent principles, and are drastic and slightly stimulant. Many are valued as ornaments of gardens and parks.
The generic name is from the classical name of one of the European species.
1. [Evonymus atropurpureus] Jacq. Bunting Bush. Wahoo.
Leaves ovate-elliptic, acuminate, minutely serrate or biserrate, thin, puberulous below, 2′—5′ long and 1′—2′ wide, with a stout midrib and primary veins; turning pale yellow in the autumn and falling in October; petioles stout, ½′—1′ in length. Flowers appearing from May to the middle of June, nearly ½′ across, in twice or thrice dichotomous usually 7—15-flowered cymes borne on slender peduncles 1′—2′ long and conspicuously marked by the scars of minute bracts; calyx-lobes 4, rounded or rarely acute at apex, mostly entire; petals broad-obovate, undulate, often erose on the margins; anthers spreading. Fruit ripening in October, usually persistent on the branches until midwinter, deeply lobed, ½′ across, with light purple valves; seeds sometimes gibbous on the dorsal side, broad and rounded above, narrowed below, ¼′ long, with a thin light chestnut-brown wrinkled coat and a thin scarlet aril.