300 WALNUT FAMILY. 



104. PLATANACE^, PLANK-TREK FAMILY. 



This order, it' it may be so called, consists merely of the small 

 genus 



1. PLATANUS, rLAXK-TRKK. (The ancient name of the Oriental 

 specie-, from tin- (Jreek word for l>r<i<iil, alluding either to the leaves or the 



wide-sprcadiie.: branches.) Flowers moncccious, in .separate nak> d head- 

 hanizinv; on Blender peduncle.- ; the sterile of many short stamens with club- 

 sliaped littlo scale- intermixed ; the fertile of dub-shaped or inverselv pv- 

 rainidal ovaries mixed with little scales and tipped with a slender awl--haped 

 simple style, ripening into a sort of akene with a tawny-hairy contracted 

 l>ase. No evident calyx. Leaves alternate, pahnatelv lohed or angled, tho 

 hollowed base of the petiole covering and concealing the axillary hud (Les- 

 sons, p. 28, litr. 74) : stipules sheathing, like those of the Polygonum Family. 

 M. spring. 



P. OCCidentalis, AMKKK AN PI.VN-I:. SYCAMORE, or BI;TTONWOOD. 



Well-known larue tree by river-hank-, with white close bark separating in thin 

 brittle plates : leaves truncate or heart-shaped at lia.se. rather scurfy-downy 

 until old. the short lobes sharp-pointed, and fertile heads .solitary. 



P. orientalis, OUIKNTAI. I'I.AM:, especially its var. AC i;t:in>i.i v, seldom 

 planted in this country, is very like ours, but has leaves more cut and sooner 

 smooth, the heads larger. 



105. JUGLANDACE.2E, WALNUT FAMILY. 



Trees with alternate pinnate leaves, no stipule?, and monceoiniis 

 flowers ; the sterile ones in catkins with an irregular calyx and 

 several stamens ; the fertile single or 2 or more in a cluster, with a 

 ." - .>]<>!>ed calyx, the tube of which i.- adherent to the ovary. 

 The latter is incompletely 2-4-cel!rd. but has only a single ovule, 

 erect from its base, and ripens inio a lari_ r e fruit, the Ixrny inner part 

 of which forms the nut, the ile>hy at length dry miter part the 

 husk. Seed 4-lobed, filled wilh the fle.-hy and oily embryo, the 

 large and separated cotyledons deeply two-lobed and crumpled or 

 corrugated. 



1. .TniLAXS. Sterile flower- in solitary catkins from the wood of the preeedin;: 



vear, e-ieli with 12 --Id stamen.- on very short filament.-. Fertile llo\\er- on 

 /ininal p-'diniele, with a 4-toothed calyx, 4 little ;:n-eu jietnls. ;md ii elnh- 

 sha]-d and fringed eon.-picuous stipnas. ' Hu-k of the fruit drying np with- 

 out splitting. Hark anil .-1 ..... t- resinous-aromatic and -troujr-seeuted. I'.IP!- 

 -everal, one over the other, the uppermost far above the axil the-soiis, p. al, 

 lit:. 78). 1'ith in [ilates. Leaflets numerous. 



2. CAh'VA. Sterile flowers La clustered lateral catkins, with 3- in almost - 



anthers. Fen ile ilow.-r- -j -5 in a cluster on a terminal peduncle: no petal-: 



stiumas _> or 4. lar.'c. Hu-kof the fruit splitting into .} valv.-s and falling 

 away from the -inooth nut. Valuable timber and nut tree-, with very hard 

 and'touu'h wood, and scaly buds single (Lessons, p. ~2~, ir_ r . 7:0. from which 

 are u-iiiilly put forth both 'kinds of llowcr-, the .sterile below and the fertile 

 above the leaves. 



1. JUGLANS, \VAIATT. (Name from foots gJans, the nut of Jupiter.) 

 I'l. spring : fruit rij>e in autumn. Seed sweet and edible. 



* Xutice tffin i >f tin- i-ninitri/ : nut irith ri nj r"n>i/i and jvurowed surface, from 



which tin' ilriii) /,i.:--t.- i/i', v nut /.;,'/ ninii/ : M r/ rr i>/ ui/i/. 



J. Cin6rea, UrTTKKM- r <>r WIUTI: \V. Middle-si/eil tree, mostly \. 

 stalks and shoots clammy-downy: leaflets downy, at least beneath, oblong- 

 lanceolate, pointed, serrate ; fruit oblong ; nut with very rugged ridges. 



