274 PLANE 



palmately lobed leaves and pseudo-palmate venation ; buds 

 buried in the swollen leaf-bases. 



Flowers monoecious and anemophilous, proterogynous. 

 Heads greenish, globoid, on the end and sides of a pendent, 

 villous, cylindric flexible stalk 3 15 or more cm. long, 

 developed from the tips of the dwarf shoots ; the </* about 

 5 7, the $ about 10 13 mm. in diameter. Anthers 

 yellow, pollen minute, ellipsoid, with 3 bands; stigmas 

 purple. 



Fruiting heads up to 3'5 cm. diameter, and looking 

 like rough spheroidal buttons when young, warted owing 

 to the projecting tips of the closely aggregated obcuneate 

 nutlets. Floral formula K 3 _ 4 (7 3 _ 4 A s , 4 (or G 3 or 4). 

 Sepals triangular, hairy ; petals spathulate, smooth ; 

 stamens opposite sepals; carpels tubular, tapering to a 

 curved stigma; ovule 1. Caryopsis with a basal hair tuft. 



[P. occidentalis. Button Wood, scarcely differs except 

 in the lobing of the leaves (Fig. 98). 



The inflorescence reminds one in some respects of the 

 pendent interrupted </ catkins of the Beech, in so far as 

 the flowers are there in a tassel on a slender dangling 

 stalk ; but, being dichlamydeous, we cannot regard them 

 as true catkins. See p. 252.] 



B. FLOWERS NOT DICLINOUS, BUT NORMALLY WITH 



BOTH STAMENS AND PISTIL i.e. HERMAPHRODITE: 

 MONOCLINOUS. 



[For (2) (1) Flower with or without a perianth i. e. 



see p. 282.] monochlamydeous -but devoid of distinct 



calyx and corolla. 



[For (b) (a) Perianth absent (achlamydeous). Flowers small, 



see p. 275.] in dense axillary panicles, of decussate racemes; 



each flower consisting at most of a bottle-shaped 



ovary and 2 stamens. 



