XXXII. 1. THREE-LEAVED BLADDER-NUT. 477 



The fruit is 1- to 5-celled, membranous, drupaceous, capsular 

 or fleshy, with ascending seeds. 



Two genera are found in Massachusetts : 



1. Staphylea, with ternate leaves, and 



2. Celdstrus, with alternate, simple leaves. 



XXXII. 1. THE BLADDER-NUT. STAPHYLE^A. L. 



A genus of a few species of American and European shrubs. 

 Flowers perfect. Sepals 5, oblong, erect, colored, persistent. 

 Petals 5. Stamens 5. Ovary of 3 carpels united at the axis. 

 Styles separate or separable. Fruit a membranaceous and in- 

 flated, 2- to 3-celled, 2- to 3-lobed capsule. Seeds globose, 

 ascending, few, or, by abortion, solitary, in each cell ; albumen 

 little or none. Leaves 3- to 7-foliolate. Flowers white ; the 

 racemes sometimes panicled. 



The Three-Leaved Bladder-Nut. & irifolia. L. 



An irregular, handsome, tall shrub or small tree, with spread- 

 ing branches, growing on the borders of damp woods. It rises 

 to the height of eight to fifteen feet, and is of rapid growth, the 

 shoots and offsets often making five feet or more in a season. 

 The shoots are of a light green, thickly dotted towards the base 

 with white dots, which enlarge in the succeeding years, and 

 give the purplish brown branch a beautifully striated appear- 

 ance. The trunk is of a light gray color, with linear, white 

 cracks. The leaves are opposite, on long, channelled, or angu- 

 late footstalks, somewhat hairy towards the end ; leaflets 3, 

 broad-oval or ovate, rather acute at base, acuminate, finely ser- 

 rate, light green and smooth above, lighter and somewhat hairy 

 beneath. The flowers are in terminal or axillary, pendulous 

 racemes, with opposite fascicles of flowers, and linear bracts at 

 the base of the partial footstalks. Calyx a circle of 5 oblong 

 sepals, often tinged with pale rose color, embracing a circle of 5 

 obovate, reflected petals, alternate with the sepals, contracted 

 towards the base and folding so as to form an imperfect tube, 

 ciliate below. Five slender, thread-like filaments, opposite the 

 sepals, with yellow anthers, show themselves above the co- 



