ORDER 29. SAPINDaCEae. (SOAPBERRY FAMILY.)

_Trees or shrubs, with simple or compound leaves, mostly unsymmetrical and often irregular flowers; the 4--5 sepals and petals imbricated in aestivation; the 5--10 stamens inserted on a fleshy (perigynous or hypogynous) disk; a 2--3-celled and -lobed ovary, with 1--2 (rarely more) ovules in each cell; and the embryo_ (except Staphylea) _curved or convolute, without alb.u.men._--A large and diverse order.

SUBORDER I. Sapindeae. Flowers (often polygamous) mostly unsymmetrical and irregular. Stamens commonly more numerous than the petals, rarely twice as many. Ovules 1 or 2 in each cell. Embryo curved or convolute, rarely straight; cotyledons thick and fleshy.--Leaves alternate or sometimes opposite, without stipules, mostly compound.

1. aesculus. Flowers irregular. Calyx 5-lobed. Petals 4 or 5. Stamens commonly 7. Fruit a leathery 3-valved pod. Leaves opposite, digitate.

2. Sapindus. Flowers regular. Sepals 4--5, in two rows. Petals 4--5.

Stamens 8--10. Fruit a globose or 2--3-lobed berry. Leaves alternate, pinnate.

SUBORDER II. Acerineae. (MAPLE FAMILY.) Flowers (polygamous or dicious) small, regular, but usually unsymmetrical. Petals often wanting. Ovary 2-lobed and 2-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell. Fruits winged, 1-seeded. Embryo coiled or folded; the cotyledons long and thin.--Leaves opposite, simple or compound.

3. Acer. Flowers polygamous. Leaves simple.

4. Negundo. Flowers dicious. Leaves pinnate, with 3--5 leaflets.

SUBORDER III. Staphyleae. (BLADDER-NUT FAMILY.) Flowers (perfect) regular; stamens as many as the petals. Ovules 1--8 in each cell. Seeds bony, with a straight embryo in scanty alb.u.men.--Shrubs with opposite pinnately compound leaves, both stipulate and stipellate.

5. Staphylea. Lobes of the colored calyx and petals 5, erect. Stamens 5.

Fruit a 3-celled bladdery-inflated pod.

1. ?SCULUS, L. HORSE-CHESTNUT. BUCKEYE.

Calyx tubular, 5-lobed, often oblique or gibbous at base. Petals 4--5, more or less unequal, with claws, nearly hypogynous. Stamens 7 (rarely 6 or 8); filaments long, slender, often unequal. Style 1; ovary 3-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell. Fruit a leathery pod, 3-celled and 3-seeded, or usually by abortion 1-celled and 1-seeded, loculicidally 3-valved.

Seed very large, with thick shining coat, and a large round pale scar.

Cotyledons very thick and fleshy, their contiguous faces coherent, remaining under ground in germination; plumule 2-leaved; radicle curved.--Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, digitate; leaflets serrate, straight-veined, like a Chestnut-leaf. Flowers in a terminal thyrse or dense panicle, often polygamous, most of them with imperfect pistils and sterile; pedicels jointed. Seeds farinaceous, but imbued with a bitter and narcotic principle. (The ancient name of some Oak or other mast-bearing tree.)

-- 1. aeSCULUS proper. _Fruit covered with p.r.i.c.kles when young._

ae. HIPPOCaSTANUM, L. (COMMON HORSE-CHESTNUT.) Corolla spreading, white spotted with purple and yellow, of 5 petals; stamens declined; leaflets 7.--Commonly planted. (Adv. from Asia via Eu.)

1. ae. glabra, Willd. (FETID or OHIO BUCKEYE.) Stamens curved, longer than the pale yellow corolla of 4 upright petals; leaflets usually 5.--River-banks, W. Penn. to Mich., Mo., Kan., and southward. June.--A large tree; the bark exhaling an unpleasant odor, as in the rest of the genus. Flowers small, not showy.

-- 2. PaVIA. _Fruit smooth; petals 4, conniving; the 2 upper smaller and longer than the others, with a small rounded blade on a very long claw._

2. ae. flava, Ait. (SWEET BUCKEYE.) _Stamens included_ in the yellow corolla; _calyx oblong-campanulate_; leaflets 5, sometimes 7, glabrous, or often minutely downy underneath.--Rich woods, Va. to Ohio, Mo., and southward. May. A large tree or a shrub.

Var. purpurascens, Gray. Calyx and corolla tinged with flesh-color or dull purple; leaflets commonly downy beneath.--From W. Va., south and westward.

3. ae. Pavia, L. (RED BUCKEYE.) Stamens not longer than the corolla, which is bright red, as well as the _tubular calyx_; leaflets glabrous or soft-downy beneath.--Fertile valleys, Va., Ky., Mo., and southward.

May. A shrub or small tree.

2. SAPNDUS, L. SOAP-BERRY.

Flowers regular, polygamous. Sepals 4--5, imbricated in 2 rows. Petals 4--5, with a scale at the base. Stamens 8--10, upon the hypogynous disk.

Ovary 3-celled, with an ascending ovule in each cell. Fruit a globose or 2--3-lobed berry, 1--3-seeded. Seed crustaceous, globose.--Trees or shrubs, with alternate abruptly pinnate leaves, and small flowers in terminal or axillary racemes or panicles. (Name a contraction of _Sapo Indicus, Indian soap_, having reference to the saponaceous character of the berries.)

1. S. ac.u.minatus, Raf. A tree 20--60 high; leaflets 4--9 pairs, obliquely lanceolate, sharply ac.u.minate, entire, 1--3' long; the rhachis of the leaf not winged; flowers white, in a large panicle, fruit mostly globose, 6" broad. (S. marginatus of authors, not _Willd._)--S. Kan. to La., Fla., and Mex.

3. aCER, Tourn. MAPLE.

Flowers polygamo-dicious. Calyx colored, 5- (rarely 4--12-) lobed or parted. Petals either none or as many as the lobes of the calyx, equal, with short claws if any, inserted on the margin of the lobed disk, which is either perigynous or hypogynous. Stamens 3--12. Ovary 2-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell; styles 2, long and slender, united only below, stigmatic down the inside. From the back of each carpel grows a wing, converting the fruit into two 1-seeded, at length separable samaras or keys. Embryo variously coiled or folded, with large and thin cotyledons.--Trees, or sometimes shrubs, with opposite palmately-lobed leaves, and small flowers. Pedicels not jointed. (The cla.s.sical name, from the Celtic _ac_, hard.)

[*] _Flowers in terminal racemes, greenish, appearing after the leaves; stamens 6--8._

1. A. Pennsylvanic.u.m, L. (STRIPED MAPLE.) Leaves 3-lobed at the apex, finely and sharply doubly serrate, the short lobes taper-pointed and also serrate; _racemes drooping, loose; petals obovate_; fruit with large diverging wings.--Rich woods, Maine to Minn., and southward to Va., Ky., and Mo. June.--A small and slender tree, with light-green bark striped with dark lines, and greenish flowers and fruit. Also called _Striped Dogwood_ and _Moose-Wood_.

2. A. spicatum, Lam. (MOUNTAIN M.) Leaves downy beneath, 3- (or slightly 5-) lobed, coa.r.s.ely serrate, the lobes taper-pointed; _racemes upright, dense_, somewhat compound; _petals linear-spatulate_; fruit with small erect or divergent wings.--Moist woods, with the same range as n. 1.

June.--A tall shrub, forming clumps.

[*][*] _Flowers in nearly sessile terminal and lateral umbellate-corymbs, greenish-yellow, appearing with the leaves._

3. A. saccharnum, w.a.n.g. (SUGAR or ROCK M.) Leaves 3--5-lobed, with rounded sinuses and pointed sparingly sinuate toothed lobes, either heart-shaped or nearly truncate at the base, whitish and smooth or a little downy on the veins beneath; flowers from terminal leaf-bearing and lateral leafless buds, drooping on very slender hairy pedicels; calyx hairy at the apex; petals none; wings of the fruit broad, usually slightly diverging.--Rich woods, especially northward and along the mountains southward. April, May.--A large and handsome tree.

Var. ngrum, Torr. & Gray. (BLACK SUGAR-M.) Leaves scarcely paler beneath, but often minutely downy, the lobes wider, often shorter and entire, the sinus at the base often closed.--With the ordinary form; quite variable, sometimes appearing distinct.

[*][*][*] _Flowers in umbel-like cl.u.s.ters arising from separate lateral buds, and much preceding the leaves; stamens 3--6._

4. A. dasycarpum, Ehrh. (WHITE or SILVER M.) _Leaves very deeply 5-lobed_ with the sinuses rather acute, silvery-white (and when young downy) underneath, the divisions narrow, cut-lobed and toothed; flowers (greenish-yellow) on short pedicels; _petals none; fruit woolly when young_, with large divergent wings.--River-banks; most common southward and westward. March--April.--A fine ornamental tree.

5. A. rubrum, L. (RED or SWAMP M.) _Leaves 3--5 lobed_, with acute sinuses, whitish underneath; the lobes irregularly serrate and notched, acute, the middle one usually longest; _petals linear-oblong_; flowers (scarlet, crimson, or sometimes yellowish) on very short pedicels; but the _smooth fruit_ on prolonged drooping pedicels.--Swamps and wet woods. April.--A small tree, with reddish twigs; the leaves varying greatly in shape, turning bright crimson in early autumn.

4. NEGuNDO, Moench. ASH-LEAVED MAPLE. BOX-ELDER.

Flowers dicious. Calyx minute, 4--5-cleft. Petals none. Stamens 4--5.

Disk none.--Sterile flowers in cl.u.s.ters on capillary pedicels, the fertile in drooping racemes, from lateral buds. Leaves pinnate, with 3 or 5 leaflets. Fruit as in Acer. (Name unmeaning.)

1. N. acerodes, Moench. Leaflets smoothish when old, very veiny, ovate, pointed, toothed; fruit smooth, with large rather incurved wings.--River-banks, W. New Eng. to Dak., south and westward. April.--A small but handsome tree, with light-green twigs, and very delicate drooping cl.u.s.ters of small greenish flowers, rather earlier than the leaves.

5. STAPHYLeA, L. BLADDER-NUT.

Calyx deeply 5-parted, the lobes erect, whitish. Petals 5, erect, spatulate, inserted on the margin of the thick perigynous disk which lines the base of the calyx. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals.

Pistil of 3 several-ovuled carpels, united in the axis, their long styles lightly cohering. Pod large, membranaceous, inflated, 3-lobed, 3-celled, at length bursting at the summit; the cells containing 1--4 bony anatropous seeds. Aril none. Embryo large and straight, in scanty alb.u.men, cotyledons broad and thin.--Upright shrubs, with opposite pinnate leaves of 3 or 5 serrate leaflets, and white flowers in drooping raceme-like cl.u.s.ters, terminating the branchlets. Stipules and stipels deciduous. (Name from staf???, _a cl.u.s.ter_.)

1. S. triflia, L. (AMERICAN BLADDER-NUT.) Leaflets 3, ovate, pointed.--Thickets, in moist soil. May.--Shrub 10 high, with greenish striped branches.

ORDER 30. ANACARDIaCEae. (CASHEW FAMILY.)

_Trees or shrubs, with resinous or milky acrid juice, dotless alternate leaves, and small, often polygamous, regular, 5-merous flowers, but the ovary 1-celled and 1-ovuled, with 3 styles or stigmas._--Petals imbricated in the bud. Fruit mostly drupaceous. Seed without alb.u.men, borne on a curved stalk that rises from the base of the cell. Stipules none. Juice or exhalations often poisonous.

1. RHuS, L. SUMACH.