CELTIS
- Celtis, Linnæus, Gen. Pl. 337 (1837); Bentham et Hooker, Gem. Pi. iii. 354 (1880).
- Mertensia, Humboldt, Bonpland et Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. ii. 30 (1817).
- Momisia, F.G. Dietrich, Lexic. Garten. v. 128 (1819).
- Solenostigma, Endlicher, Prod. Fl. Norf. 41 (1833).
The genus Celtis, belonging to the order Ulmacez, comprises about sixty species, spread over the temperate and tropical regions of the northern hemisphere ; and was divided into four sub-genera by Planchon.’ In the following account, the characters of one of the sub-genera, Euceltis, are given, as all the species in cultivation belong to it.
Deciduous trees, without spines. Leaves stipulate, alternate, distichous, simple, stalked, serrate or entire, usually oblique and three-nerved (rarely four- or five- nerved) at the base, the midrib and basal nerves giving off pinnately secondary nerves,
Flowers minute, pedicellate on the branchlets of the year, polygamo-monœcious. Staminate flowers in few-flowered fascicles from the axils of caducous bud-scales. Perfect flowers solitary or in two- to three-flowered fascicles in the axils of the lower leaves. Calyx four- or five-lobed, imbricate in æstivation, deciduous. Corolla absent. Stamens, four or five, inserted under the margin of a pubescent disc; filaments, subulate, erect and exserted in the staminate flowers, shorter and included, occasion- ally absent, in the perfect flowers ; anthers two-celled, extrorse, opening longitudinally. Ovary sessile, one-celled, crowned with a short style, divided into two divergent, elongated, reflexed lobes, papillo-stigmatic on the inner surface; ovule solitary, suspended. Fruit, a fleshy drupe, with a firm epicarp, a succulent thin mesocarp, and a thick-walled bony stone, containing one seed. Cotyledons emarginate at the apex, raised above ground in germination.
Seven species of Celtis are in cultivation in this country, which may be distinguished as follows:—
I. Leaves ovate.
* Leaves quite glabrous.
- 1. Celtis Davidiana, Carrière. China. See p. 929.
- Leaves shining on both surfaces, toothed in the upper third, shortly acuminate,
minutely punctate when viewed with a lens.
1 De Candolle, Prod. xvii. 169 (1873).
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