1. A. Canadense, L. Soft-p.u.b.escent; leaves membranaceous, kidney-shaped, more or less pointed (4--5' wide when full grown); calyx bell-shaped, the upper part of the short-pointed lobes widely and abruptly spreading, brown-purple inside.--Hillsides in rich woods; common, especially northward. (Addendum)--Asarum Canadense. In this species there are rudimentary subulate petals, alternate with the calyx-lobes.

-- 2. _Calyx-tube inflated bell-shaped, somewhat contracted at the throat, its base adnate to the lower half of the ovary; limb 3-cleft, short; anthers sessile or nearly so, oblong-linear; styles 6, fleshy, diverging, 2-cleft, bearing a thick extrorse stigma below the cleft; leaves thickish, persistent, usually only one each year, often whitish-mottled; peduncle very short; rootstocks cl.u.s.tered, ascending._

2. A. Virginic.u.m, L. Nearly glabrous; _leaves round-heart-shaped_ (about 2' wide); calyx short, reticulated within; anthers pointless.--Va. to Ga., in and near the mountains.

3. A. ariflium, Michx. _Leaves halberd-heart-shaped_ (2--4' long); calyx oblong-tubular, with very short and blunt lobes; _anthers obtusely short-pointed_.--Va. to Fla.

2. ARISTOLCHIA, Tourn. BIRTHWORT.

Calyx tubular; the tube variously inflated above the ovary, mostly contracted at the throat. Stamens 6, the sessile anthers wholly adnate to the short and fleshy 3--6-lobed or angled style. Capsule naked, septicidally 6-valved. Seeds very flat.--Twining, climbing, or sometimes upright perennial herbs or shrubs, with alternate leaves and lateral or axillary greenish or lurid-purple flowers. (Named from reputed medicinal properties.)

-- 1. _Calyx-tube bent like the letter S, enlarged at the two ends, the small limb obtusely 3-lobed; anthers contiguous in pairs (making 4 cells in a row under each of the three truncate lobes of the stigma); low herbs._

1. A. Serpentaria, L. (VIRGINIA SNAKEROOT.) Stems (8--15' high) branched at base, p.u.b.escent; leaves ovate or oblong (or narrower) from a heart-shaped base or halberd-form, mostly acute or pointed; flowers all next the root, short-peduncled.--Rich woods, Conn. to Fla., west to Mich., Mo., and La. July.--The fibrous, aromatic-stimulant root is well known in medicine.

-- 2. _Calyx-tube strongly curved like a Dutch pipe, contracted at the mouth, the short limb obscurely 3-lobed; anthers contiguous in pairs under each of the 3 short and thick lobes of the stigma; very tall twining shrubs; flowers from one or two of the superposed accessory axillary buds._

2. A. Spho, L'Her. (PIPE-VINE. DUTCHMAN'S PIPE.) _Nearly glabrous; leaves round-kidney-shaped_ (sometimes 8--12' broad); peduncles with a clasping bract; calyx (1' long) with a brown-purple _abrupt flat border_.--Rich woods, Penn. to Ga., west to Minn. and Kan. May.

3. A. tomentsa, Sims. _Downy or soft-hairy; leaves round-heart-shaped_, very veiny (3--5' long); _calyx yellowish_, with an _oblique_ dark purple closed _orifice_ and a _rugose reflexed limb_.--Rich woods, mountains of N. C. to Fla., west to S. Ill. and Mo. June.

-- 3. _Calyx-tube straight, open, with ample 6-lobed limb, the lobes appendaged; anthers equidistant; erect herbs; flowers in axillary cymose fascicles._

A. CLEMat.i.tIS, L., with long-petioled cordate leaves, from Europe, is said to have permanently escaped near Ithaca, N. Y. (_Dudley_).

ORDER 92. PIPERaCEae. (PEPPER FAMILY.)

_Herbs, with jointed stems, alternate entire leaves, and perfect flowers in spikes, entirely dest.i.tute of floral envelopes, and with 3--5 more or less separate or united ovaries._--Ovules few, orthotropous. Embryo heart-shaped, minute, contained in a little sac at the apex of the alb.u.men.--The characters are those of the Tribe _Saurureae_, the _Piperaceae_ proper (wholly tropical) differing in having a 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary.

1. SAURuRUS, L. LIZARD'S-TAIL.

Stamens mostly 6 or 7, hypogynous, with distinct filaments. Fruit somewhat fleshy, wrinkled, of 3--4 indehiscent carpels united at base.

Stigmas recurved. Seeds usually solitary, ascending.--Perennial marsh herbs, with heart-shaped converging-ribbed petioled leaves, without distinct stipules; flowers (each with a small bract adnate to or borne on the pedicel) crowded in a slender wand-like and naked peduncled terminal spike or raceme (its appearance giving rise to the name, from sa????, _a lizard_, and ????, _tail_).

1. S. cernuus, L. Flowers white, fragrant; spike nodding at the end; bract lanceolate; filaments long and capillary.--Swamps, Conn. to Ont., Minn., Mo., and southward. June--Aug.

ORDER 93. LAURaCEae. (LAUREL FAMILY.)

_Aromatic trees or shrubs, with alternate simple leaves mostly marked with minute pellucid dots, and flowers with a regular calyx of 4 or 6 colored sepals, imbricated in 2 rows in the bud, free from the 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary, and mostly fewer than the stamens; anthers opening by 2 or 4 uplifted valves._--Flowers cl.u.s.tered. Style single. Fruit a 1-seeded berry or drupe. Seed anatropous, suspended, with no alb.u.men, filled by the large almond-like embryo.

[*] Flowers perfect, panicled; stamens 12, three of them sterile, three with extrorse anthers.

1. Persea. Calyx persistent. Anthers 4-celled. Evergreen.

[*][*] Flowers dicious, or nearly so; stamens in the sterile flowers 9.

Leaves deciduous.

2. Sa.s.safras. Flowers in corymb- or umbel-like racemes. Anthers 4-celled, 4-valved.

3. Litsea. Flowers few in involucrate umbels. Anthers 4-celled, 4-valved.

4. Lindera. Flowers in umbel-like cl.u.s.ters. Anthers 2-celled, 2-valved.

1. PeRSEA, Gaertn. ALLIGATOR PEAR.

Flowers perfect, with a 6-parted calyx, persistent at the base of the berry-like fruit. Stamens 12, in four rows, the 3 of the innermost row sterile and gland-like, the rest bearing 4-celled anthers (i.e. with each proper cell divided transversely into two), opening by as many uplifted valves; the anthers of 3 stamens turned outward, the others introrse.--Trees, with persistent entire leaves, and small panicled flowers. (An ancient name of some Oriental tree.)

1. P. Carolinensis, Nees. (RED BAY.) h.o.a.ry with a fine down, at least when young; leaves oblong, pale, soon smooth above; peduncle bearing few flowers in a close cl.u.s.ter; sepals downy, the outer shorter; berries dark blue, on a red stalk.--Swamps, S. Del. to Fla. and Tex. May. A small tree.

2. Sa.s.sAFRAS, Nees.

Flowers dicious, with a 6-parted spreading calyx; the sterile kind with 9 stamens inserted on the base of the calyx in 3 rows, the 3 inner with a pair of stalked glands at the base of each; anthers 4-celled, 4-valved; fertile flowers with 6 short rudiments of stamens and an ovoid ovary. Drupe ovoid (blue), supported on a club-shaped and rather fleshy reddish pedicel.--Trees, with spicy-aromatic bark, and very mucilaginous twigs and foliage; leaves deciduous, often lobed. Flowers greenish-yellow, naked, in cl.u.s.tered and peduncled corymbed racemes, appearing with the leaves, involucrate with scaly bracts. Leaf-buds scaly. (The popular name, applied by the early French settlers in Florida.)

1. S. officinale, Nees. Trees 15--125 high, with yellowish-green twigs; leaves ovate, entire, or some of them 3-lobed, soon glabrous.--Rich woods, E. Ma.s.s. to S. Ont., Mich., E. Iowa and Kan., and south to the Gulf. April.

3. LiTSEA, Lam.

Flowers dicious, with a 6-parted deciduous calyx; the sterile with 9 stamens in 3 rows; their anthers all introrse, 4-celled, 4-valved; fertile flowers with 12 or more rudiments of stamens and a globular ovary. Drupe globular.--Shrubs or trees, with entire leaves, and small flowers in axillary cl.u.s.tered umbels. (Name of Chinese origin.)

1. L. geniculata, Benth. & Hook. (POND SPICE.) Flowers (yellow) appearing before the deciduous oblong leaves, which are hairy on the midrib beneath; branches forked and divaricate, the branchlets zigzag; involucres 2--4-leaved, 2--4-flowered; fruit red. (Tetranthera geniculata, _Nees._)--Swamps, Va. to Fla. April.

4. LiNDERA, Thunb. WILD ALLSPICE. FEVER-BUSH.

Flowers polygamous-dicious, with a 6-parted open calyx; the sterile with 9 stamens in 3 rows, the inner filaments 1--2-lobed and gland-bearing at base; anthers 2-celled and 2-valved; fertile flowers with 15--18 rudiments of stamens in 2 forms, and a globular ovary. Drupe obovoid, red, the stalk not thickened.--Shrubs, with deciduous leaves, and honey-yellow flowers in almost sessile lateral umbel-like cl.u.s.ters, appearing before the leaves (in our species); the cl.u.s.ters composed of smaller cl.u.s.ters or umbels, each of 4--6 flowers and surrounded by an involucre of 4 deciduous scales. Leaf-buds scaly. (Named for _John Linder_, a Swedish botanist of the early part of the 18th century.)

1. L. Benzin, Blume. (SPICE-BUSH. BENJAMIN-BUSH.) _Nearly smooth_ (6--15 high); _leaves oblong-obovate_, pale underneath.--Damp woods, N.

Eng. to Ont., Mich., E. Kan., and southward. March, April.

2. _L. melissaeflia_, Blume. Young branches and buds _p.u.b.escent; leaves oblong, obtuse or heart-shaped_ at base, downy beneath; umbels few.--Low grounds, N. C. to Fla., west to S. Ill. and Mo. April.

ORDER 94. THYMELaeaCEae. (MEZEREUM FAMILY.)

_Shrubs, with acrid and very tough (not aromatic) bark, entire leaves, and perfect flowers with a regular and simple colored calyx, bearing usually twice as many stamens as its lobes, free from the 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary_, which forms a berry-like drupe in fruit, with a single suspended anatropous seed. Embryo large; alb.u.men little or none.

1. Dirca. Calyx tubular, without spreading lobes. Stamens and style exserted.

2. Daphne. Calyx-lobes (4) spreading. Stamens included. Style very short or none.

1. DiRCA, L. LEATHERWOOD. MOOSEWOOD.