290 LAUREL FAMILY. 



R. salicif61iU8, WHITE D. Salt marshes : l-3 high ; pedicels much 

 shorter than the fruiting calyx and in much-crowded whorls, forming a spike ; 

 valves more triangular than in the foregoing and smaller, their grain very 

 large ; root white. 



R. verticillatus, SWAMP D. Common N. : 3 -5 high ; whorls loose; 

 fruit-bearing pedicels slender and club-shaped, abruptly reflexed ; valves some- 

 what rhombic and with narrow blunt apex, each bearing a very large grain ; 

 leaves thickish, the lowest often heart-shaped at base. 



* * Weeds not. from. Europe, in cult, or waste ground : stem erect, 2 -4 high : 

 lower leavis or some of them heart-shafted at base, all more or less wavy: 

 root commonly yellow and spindle-shaped, y. 



R. crispus, CURLED D. Leaves green, lanceolate, very wavy-curled, the 

 lower rather truncate than heart-shaped at base; whorls * crowded in long 

 racemes ; valves rounded, heart-shaped, nearly entire ; mostly grain-bearing. 



R. sanguineus, BLOODY-VEINED or RED D. Leaves less curled and 

 red-veined, lanceolate or oblong ; whorls distant ; pedicels very short ; valves 

 narrowly oblong, one or more grain-bearing. 



R. Obtusif61ius, BITTER D. Leaves little wavy, the upper lance-oblong 

 and acute, lower oblong-heart-shaped and obtuse ; whorls loose and distant ; 

 valves ovate, partly halberd-shaped, beset with some long sharp teeth near the 

 base, usually only one grain-bearing. 



* * # Sandy sea-shore and river-banks N. : 5' -12' high, spreading. 



R. maritimus. Minutely pubescent ; leaves lance-linear, wavy-margined, 

 the lower auricled or heart-shaped at base ; whorls much crowded into leafy 

 spikes ; valves rhombic-oblong with a tapering point, turning orange-colored, a 

 large grain on the back and 2 or 3 long stout bristles on each margin. 



2. SORRELS. Herbage acid: some leaves halberd-shaped, others with entire 

 narrowed base : flowers dioecious, small, in a terminal naked panicle : wtlves 

 naked : fl. spring and summer. 2/ 



R. AcetOS&Lla, COMMON" or SHEEP SORREL. Low weed in all sterile 

 fields ; leaves lance-oblong or halberd-shaped, the lobes or auricles narrow ; pedi- 

 cels jointed with the flower ; ovate valves hardly enlarging in fruit. 



R. Engelmanni, only S. & W., differs in pedicels jointed near the mid- 

 dle, and thin rounded heart-shaped valves becoming many times larger than 

 the akene. 



96. LAURACE.3S, LAUREL FAMILY. 



Spicy-aromatic trees or shrubs, the alternate simple leaves (with 

 entire margins but sometimes lobed) more or less marked with 

 minute pellucid dots ; the regular flowers with a calyx of 4 or 6 

 sepals imbricated in two ranks in the bud, and free from the 

 ovary ; the latter is terminated by a simple style and stigma, is 

 1 -celled with a hanging ovule, and in fruit becomes a berry or 

 drupe. The stamens (in ours 9) furnish a special character, their 

 anthers opening by uplifted valves ! To this family belong the 

 classical Laurel or Bay, the Cinnamon, the Camphor-tree, &c. 



# Flowers perfect, in axillary panicles. 



1. PERSE A. Calyx 6-parted, persistent at the base of the berry. Stamens 9 



with anthers, "the 3 outer of which are turned outwards, the 6 others inward; 

 also 3 glands or sterile filaments forming an innermost row. The two proper 

 cells of the anther with a lower and an upper chamber, making 4 compart- 

 ments, each opening by a valve in the manner of a trap-door. 

 # * FUywers wholly or nearly diazcious, greenish-yellow, leaves deciduous. 



2. SASSAFRAS. Flowers in an open corymbed and peduncled cluster, with 



spreading 6-parted calyx : sterile ones with 9 stamens in 3 rows, the filaments 

 of the three inner with a pair of yellow stalked glands on their base. Anthers 

 with 4 chambers as in the preceding. Fertile flowers with 6 rudiments of 

 stamens and an ovoid ovary, becoming a drupe. 



