GENUS 2. SOAPBERRY FAMILY. 501 



2. CARDIOSPERMUM L. Sp. PI. 366. 1753. 



Climbing and extensively branching herbaceous vines, with alternate bipinnate or decom- 

 pound leaves, and small axillary tendril-bearing corymbs of slightly irregular polygamo- 

 dioecious flowers. Tendrils 2 to each corymb, opposite. Pedicels jointed. Sepals 4, the 2 

 exterior smaller. Petals 4, 2 larger and 2 smaller. Disk i -sided, undulate. Stamens 8; fila- 

 ments unequal. Ovary 3-celled ; style short, 3-cleft ; ovules I in each cavity. Capsule inflated, 

 3-lobed. Seeds arilled at the base; cotyledons conduplicate. [Greek, heart-seed.] 



About 15 species, of warm and temperate regions, the fol- 

 lowing typical. 



i. Cardiospermum Halicacabum L. Balloon 

 Vine. Heart-seed. Fig. 2821. 



Cardiospermum Halicacabum L. Sp. PI. 366. 1753. 



Slender, glabrous or slightly pubescent, climbing, 2-6 

 long. Leaves petioled, biternate or bipinnate, 2.'-^' long; 

 segments stalked, ovate or oblong, acute or acuminate, 

 sharply serrate ; peduncles commonly longer than the 

 leaves, bearing a few-flowered corymb at the summit ; 

 flowers white, 3"-4" broad ; capsule much inflated, about 

 i' long, globose-pyriform ; seeds globose, nearly black. 



In waste places, New Brunswick, N. J., Washington, 

 D. C., Kansas, and in ballast about the sea-ports ; common 

 in cultivation. Native of tropical America, and widely dif- 

 fused as a weed in the warmer parts of the Old World. 

 Heart-pea. Winter-cherry. Puff-ball. Summer. 



Koelreuteria paniculata Laxm., a Chinese tree with pinnate leaves and terminal panicles of 

 yellow flowers succeeded by 3-lobed bladery pods, is much planted for shade and ornament and is 

 reported spontaneous from seed in Indiana. 



Family 82. RHAMNACEAE Dumort. Fl. Belg. 102. 1827. 

 BUCKTHORN FAMILY. 



Erect or climbing shrubs, or small trees, often thorny. Leaves simple stip- 

 ulate, mainly alternate, often 3-5-nerved. Stipules small, deciduous. Inflo- 

 rescence commonly of axillary or terminal cymes, corymbs or panicles. Flowers 

 small, regular, perfect or polygamous. Calyx-tube obconic or cylindric, the limb 

 4 5-toothed. Petals 4-5, inserted on the calyx, or none. Stamens 4-5, inserted 

 with the petals and opposite them ; anthers short, versatile. Disk fleshy. Ovary 

 sessile, free from or immersed in the disk, 25- (often 3-) celled; ovules i in each 

 cavity, anatropous. Fruit a drupe or capsule, often 3-celled. Seeds solitary in 

 the cavities, erect ; endosperm fleshy, rarely none ; embryo large ; coryledons flat. 



About 50 genera and 600 species, natives of temperate and warm regions. 

 Ovary free from the disk ; fruit a drupe. 



Petals sessile, entire ; stone of the drupe 2-celled. i. Berchemia. 



Petals short-clawed or none ; stones of the drupe 2-4. 2. Rhamnits. 



Ovary adnate to the disk at its base ; fruit dry. 3. Ceanothus. 



i. BERCHEMIA Neck. ; DC. Prodr. 2 : 22. 1825. 

 [?OENOPLEA Hedw. f. Gen. i: 151. 1806.] 



Climbing or erect shrubs, with alternate petioled ovate or oblong coriaceous pinnately- 

 veined leaves, and small greenish-white flowers in axillary or terminal clusters, or rarely 

 solitary. Calyx-tube hemispheric, the limb 5-toothed. Petals 5, sessile, concave or cucullate. 

 Stamens 5 ; filaments filiform. Disk filling the calyx-tube, covering but not united with the 

 ovary. Drupe oval, obtuse, compressed, its flesh thin and coriaceous, its stone 2-celled. Seeds 

 linear-oblong; cotyledons thin. [Name unexplained.] 



About 10 species, the following typical one in southeastern North America, the others in Asia 

 and tropical Africa. 



