The plants belonging to this family, with very few exceptions, are trees or shrubs. The leaves are usually simple; stipules may be absent or present. The flowers in almost all the orders are small, green or whitish; they are always regular, 4-or 5-merous with 2–5 carpels, but never have more than 1 whorl of stamens, which in Rhamnaceæ and Ampelidaceæ are placed opposite the petals (typically 5 + 5 or 4 + 4 stamens, of which however either the external or internal whorl is always wanting); hypogynous or slightly perigynous, in Rhamnaceæ only strongly perigynous or epigynous; generally ☿; the calyx is inconspicuous; petals free or slightly united. Gynœceum simple; ovary generally multilocular; style short or entirely wanting. A disc is nearly always developed in the flower, but is found sometimes inside the staminal whorl, sometimes outside it or between the stamens. The ovules are apotropous (anatropous with dorsal or ventral raphe).
Order 1. Celastraceæ. Euonymus europæa (Spindle-tree) may be chosen as a type. It is a shrub with simple, opposite leaves and small caducous stipules. The small, greenish-yellow flowers, borne in regularly-branched dichasia, are regular, ☿, with 4 whorls, 4-(or 5-) merous in regular alternation. There is a thick disc upon which the polypetalous corolla (imbricate in the bud) and the stamens are borne, with a slightly perigynous insertion. The style is short and thick; the ovary has 2 erect ovules in each loculus. The fruit is a red, 4-valvate capsule with loculicidal dehiscence; the seeds are few in number, and have a large, red-yellow aril (developed from the micropyle). Embryo green, in a large, fleshy, white endosperm. The dingy yellow flowers are generally visited only by flies and ants for the sake of the honey secreted by the disc, and while they run about on the flowers they touch the anthers and stigmas, now with one part of the body, now with another. The flower is protandrous. The stigmas are not developed till several days after the opening of the anthers.—Celastrus, Cassine, Catha, etc.
38 genera; 300 species. Distributed over the entire globe, with the exception of the colder districts, and especially in the Tropics. Some are ornamental bushes (Euonymus japonica). The leaves of Catha edulis are used by the Arabs and Abyssinians in the same way as those of Coca by the Peruvians.
Order 2. Hippocrateaceæ. 150 species; tropical; chiefly lianes. S5, P5, A3, G3. Anthers extrorse.
Fig. 477.—Ilex aquifolium: magnified flower.
Order 3. Aquifoliaceæ (Hollies). The genus Ilex forms almost the entire order. (175 species out of 180; especially from S. Am.) They are shrubs or trees with scattered, leathery, simple leaves (in Ilex aquifolium, spiny) with very small stipules. The flowers are small, white, and borne in few-flowered inflorescences in the axils of the foliage-leaves; they are most frequently unisexual and diœcious. There are 4–5 sepals, petals, stamens and carpels in regular alternation; the calyx and corolla have their leaves slightly connate; stamens slightly adnate to the corolla; the ovary is generally almost spherical with a thick, sessile stigma (Fig. [477]). This order deviates especially from Celastraceæ in the absence of the disc and in having only 1 (pendulous) ovule in each of the 4 loculi of the ovary, and in having a drupe with generally 4 stones. Embryo extremely small, at the apex of the large endosperm, with the radicle directed upwards.—3 genera.—I. aquifolium (Holly) principally on the coasts of European countries; from Norway to W. Denmark, and further westward. It is a common garden shrub with stiff, shining leaves and red fruits. Several South American species contain so much caffeine that they may be used as a beverage in the place of tea (I. paraguayensis, Paraguay tea, or Maté). The Holly does not contain caffeine.
Order 4. Ampelidaceæ (Vines). Shrubs with the stem swollen at the insertion of the petioles and climbing by tendrils borne opposite the leaves (Figs. [478], [479]). The leaves are scattered (generally 1/2), stalked, stipulate, frequently palminerved and lobed, divided or compound. The small, greenish flowers are generally borne in paniculate inflorescences, whose position is the same as that of the tendrils (Fig. [478]); they are hypogynous or slightly perigynous, ☿, with 4–5 sepals, petals, stamens (which, as in the Rhamneæ, are opposite the petals; Fig. [480] A, B) and 2 carpels. The calyx is very small, entire, or slightly dentate; corolla valvate, and in some falling off as a hood, since the individual parts remain united at the summit (Fig. [480] A). Between the stamens and gynœceum is situated an hypogynous disc, with 5 lobes alternating with the stamens (Fig. [480] A, B, E). In each loculus of the 2-locular ovary there are 2 erect ovules (E); the style is short or wanting. The fruit is a berry. The embryo is small and lies in a horny, sometimes slightly folded (ruminate) endosperm (Fig. [480] C, D).
Figs. 478–481.—Vitis vinifera.
