America, and Asia, but are more abundant beyond the Tropics than within them. Many are found at the Cape of Good Hope; they also occur in Chili, Peru, and New Holland. They are mostly of an acrid nature.

1. EUÓNYMUS (Spindle-tree).-Capsule 3-5-angled, with 3-5 cells and valves; seeds solitary in each cell, coated with a fleshy arillus. Name from Euonymé, the mother of the Furies, on account of the noxious properties of the fruit.

2. STAPHYLÉA (Bladder-nut).—Petals erect during flowering; capsule membranaceous, and like a bladder. Name from the Greek staphyle, a bunch of grapes.

1. EUNÓYMUS (Spindle-tree).

1. E. Europaus (Common Spindle-tree). - Petals usually 4, oblong, acute; stamens usually 4; branches angular, smooth; leaves broadly lanceolate, minutely serrated. Plant perennial. The berries, which hang among the branches of the trees in autumn, are very beautiful. The flat cluster of scarlet fruits on the Cotton or Wayfaring-tree, gradually becoming of purplish black, the clear cornelian red berries of the Guelder-rose, the scarlet hips and haws, the red round berries of the Bryony, and the coral groups of the plant called Redberried Bryony, the purple clusters of the Dog-wood, are all very attractive objects at a season when flowers have almost passed away from the landscape. Now we see the autumnal fruits contrasting with such remnants of green or yellow foliage as may yet linger on the tree

amid the bleak gusts of November, or glistening from among the large clumps of feathered seeds with which the clematis is garlanding the trees, or from among the ivy-leaves which are winding on trunk or branch. But no native berries are more beautiful than those of the Spindle-tree; and this plant is much better known by these than by the small greenish flowers which it bears in May, and which are so like the leaves in hue, that they almost escape notice. In October and November the deeply-lobed capsules are of a rich carmine, and as they burst open they display the seeds, of a brilliant orange hue, lying within. Even in our woods they are among the brightest tinted things to be seen; and we are not surprised to find that in America a species of Spindle-tree adorns the woods with fruits so brilliant as to have gained for it the name of the Burning Bush. This is the Euonymus Americanus.

Spindle-tree is the common name for the shrub whose dark green foliage so often thickens in our hedge-rows, and it has a name of the same meaning in many other countries. Thus it is the Spindlebaum of the Germans, the Fusaggino of the Italians, and the Fusain of the French. The latter people call it also Bois à Lardoire ; and Bonnet de prêtre is another familiar name given, from its three-corned capsules; the Spaniards also commonly term it Bonetero. It was known to the old English herbalists chiefly by the name of Prickwood. The distaff and spindle are so little used in modern days, that it is no longer employed for making spindles, as it once was, though the Germans still use the tree for that purpose.

Skewers are yet cut from its tough

close-grained wood, which forms also a serviceable material to the watch and clock-maker, who make of it the implements with which they clean their machinery. The musical instrument-maker also uses the wood of the Spindle-tree; and in Ireland it is called Peg-wood, because shoemakers cut their pegs from its branches. The burnt wood forms a good charcoal for the use of the artist.

This plant seldom attains in our hedges the size of a tree, and is rarely more than eight or ten feet in height, but in shrubberies it sometimes grows into a tall and handsome tree. The bark and leaves are very poisonous, and so also are the handsome and fetid berries, which cause sickness almost immediately on being swallowed.

Most animals refuse to eat these berries, but they are sometimes used in dyeing, and afford a good yellow colour when boiled, without the admixture of any other ingredient, while, if mingled with alum, they yield a green dye, and a beautiful red tint is obtained from the seed-vessels.

The several species of Spindle-tree, which are very ornamental to our shrubberies, are the plants of other lands. The Hindoos make use of the inner bark of one of them, (Euonymus tingens,) which is of a beautiful yellow colour, to mark the tika on their foreheads. Another of the Spindle-tree tribe, (Catha edulis,) is the Kat or Khât of the Arabs. It seems to possess some stimulating properties. Forskhal says that the Arabs eat the green leaves with avidity, believing them to have the power of causing great watchfulness, so that a man may, after eating them, stand sentry all night without drowsiness.

So efficacious do they imagine this plant to be against the plague, that they assert of a person wearing a small piece about him, that he may go with impunity among the infected, and that the plague will not enter a neighbourhood in which it is planted. Forskhal, however, did not consider that the flavour of the leaf indicated any virtue of this kind.

2. STAPHYLÉA (Bladder-nut).

1. S. pinnáta (Common Bladder-nut).-Leaves pinnate; leaflets from 5 to 7; flowers in racemes; styles 2; capsules bladdery and membranaceous. Plant perennial. The yellowish-white flowers of this plant are to be seen in June in some thickets and hedges. It has no pretensions to be called a wild flower, for it is scarcely even naturalized, and custom alone sanctions its admission into a list of British plants. It occurs in Yorkshire, and about Ashford, in Kent. It is a native of Eastern Europe, and is an ornamental, hardy, shrubby plant, often cultivated in gardens for its singularity rather than its beauty. Its bony polished seeds are used in some countries for rosaries; they are bitter, but are eaten on the Continent by poor people, and by children. Gerarde says, that when first tasted they are sweet, but that this agreeable flavour becomes afterwards nauseous.