XIX. 2. THE ARROW WOOD. 367 



teeth of the calyx, surrounding the triple or apparently single 

 stigma. 



The young shoots of this tree are said by Marshall, {Arbus- 

 trum, p. 160,) to have been generally used by the natives for 

 arrows, whence it is known by the name of arrow wood. 



Sp. 4. The Maple Leaved Arrow Wood. V. accrifblium. L. 



A slender, low shrub, not often more than five or six feet 

 high, remarkable for the resemblance of its leaves to those of 

 the red maple. It is found in rocky woods throughout the 

 State, and from Canada to the country beyond the Mississippi. 

 The stem is erect, with a brownish bark, and very infrequent 

 wart-like, whitish dots. Recent shoots of a lighter brown or 

 pale green, and with the leaf-stalks and flower-slalks downy 

 and scattered with hairs. Branches opposite, ascending at a 

 sharp angle. Leaves opposite, from two to four inches long, 

 and of nearly equal breadth, rounded or heart-shaped at base, 

 three-lobed, with large, irregular teeth, waved, smooth or some- 

 what hairy, and impressed at the veins above; lighter and 

 downy, and hairy, particularly on the veins and veinlets be- 

 neath; the lobes diverging, separated by abroad, shallow notch, 

 and ending in a prolonged, often bluntish point. The leaf- 

 stalks appressed and swelling at base, round, one inch or less in 

 length, with scattered hairs and somewhat downy, and with 

 colored, linear, pointed stipules at base, or assuming the form 

 of glands higher up. The terminal leaves are often entire, 

 without lobes, and broad-ovate or roundish in shape. 



The flowers are in terminal cymes, on round, smooth, or 

 slightly pubescent stalks, gradually enlarging, and about two 

 inches long, with two linear, perishing bracts at the end. The 

 partial footstalks, about six in number, radiate from one point, 

 and repeatedly and somewhat regularly sub-dividing by threes 

 or twos, terminate in pairs of very short flower-stems. The 

 flowers are tinted with pale purple before opening. The calyx 

 ends in five small, obtuse, appressed, colored teeth. The corolla 

 is white, cup-shaped, with five ovate, pointed or rounded, re- 

 flexed segments. Stamens on tapering filaments, twice as long 

 as the corolla, bearing a large, short, yellow anther. The ber- 



