The Phillyrea is a handsome evergreen shrub, very useful in shrubberies, from its forming a close compact bush of a deep green, which makes a good background to Tree Roses, Almond-trees, Magnolia conspicua, or any other flowering plant that would appear naked if its flowers were not relieved by a background of green. The flowers of the Phillyrea are small and of a greenish white. The fruit is a drupe, containing a two-celled stone or nut, but with seldom more than one perfect seed.
The Olive (Olea sativa) has small white flowers, resembling those of the Privet, and a fleshy drupe like a Sloe, with a one or two celled stone or nut. The oil is contained in the fleshy part of the fruit, and the best oil is that which is obtained by crushing the pulp of the fruit without breaking the stone or nut.
The Fringe-tree (Chionanthus virginica) differs from the preceding genera in the length of the segments of the limb of its corolla, which is cut into long slender shreds like fringe. In all other respects except that the pulp of the fruit does not contain oil, this genus is closely allied to the Olive.
The common Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) has its flowers disposed in a kind of panicled raceme called a thyrsus. The calyx is very small, and obscurely four-toothed (see a in fig. 66), and the corolla (b) is funnel-shaped, with a four-parted limb; the stigma is two-cleft, and both the style and stamens are enclosed in the tube of the corolla. The fruit is a dry two-celled and two-seeded capsule, which opens with two valves, as shown at c, each valve having a narrow dissepiment down the middle: the shape of the seed is shown at d. The leaves are simple, opposite, and entire; and the branches are filled with pith, which may easily be taken out and the branch left hollow like a pipe; and hence the generic name of Syringa, from Syrinx a pipe.
Fig. 66.—Flower and seed-pods of the Lilac.
The Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) differs so much from the other genera as to seem scarcely to belong to the same order. The flowers are without any petals, and frequently without any calyx; and some of them, which are called the female flowers, have no stamens, while others, which are called the males, have no pistil. Some of them, however, have both stamens and pistil. The fruit is what is called a samara or key; that is, it is furnished with a membrane-like wing so as to resemble a dry leaf. It is two-celled, but very frequently only one-seeded. The shape of the keys, and the manner in which
Fig. 67.—American Ash (Fraxinus americana). they grow, is shown at a in fig. 67; and the leaves, at b. The leaves are opposite and generally pinnate, with five or six pairs of leaflets; but there is one species with simple leaves (Fr. simplicifolia). The Weeping Ash is only an accidental variety of the common kind. The leaves of the Ash come out late and fall early; but the tree may easily be recognised when quite bare by the greyness of its bark and its black buds. It will grow in any soil; but it is injurious to arable land, from its roots spreading widely near the surface.