OLEACEAE. An order of erect or climbing shrubs or trees, inhabiting the temperate and warmer regions of the globe. Flowers hermaphrodite, rarely dioecious or polygamous, regular; calyx campanulate, four or many-toothed or lobed, rarely none; corolla gamo-patalous, salver or funnel-shaped, or campanulate; lobes or petals four, rarely five or six, sometimes absent; inflorescence sometimes centrifugal, dichotomously cymose, sometimes trichotomously paniculate, mostly or totally centripetal, or the branchlets ultimately centrifugal-cymose; panicles, or cymes, loose, or in contracted fascicles, axillary or terminal. Fruit indehiscent, or a loculicidal capsule, a berry, or a drupe. Leaves opposite, rarely alternate or whorled, simple or pinnately three or few-foliolate, entire or toothed; stipules none. Olive oil is expressed from the pericarp of the drupe of Olea europaea, and the unripe drupe, macerated in brine, is eaten. Ash-wood (Fraxinus) is invaluable for its lightness, flexibility, and strength; and a sugary juice, Manna, is produced by F. Ornus and some other species; while the bark of the common Ash (F. excelsior) has been proposed as a substitute for quinine. The order contains eighteen genera and about 280 species. Illustrative genera are: Fraxinus, Jasminum, Olea, and Syringa.