508 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



oblong-ovate or obovate, or rhomboidal, ciliate on the margin, 

 with 3 or 4 rounded or obtuse teeth on each side, very downy 

 on both surfaces when young, leathery and smooth after mid- 

 summer. The yellowish flowers project, on a short footstalk, 

 from the angular, hairy-edged, brown, imbricate scales of a 

 catkin which grows on a short stalk from the axil of last year's 

 leaves. 



In the fertile flowers, the segments of the calyx are rounded, 

 those of the corolla more than twice the length, oblong ; the sta- 

 mens wanting ; the disk at the bottom of the cup crenate ; the 

 ovary egg-shaped ; the styles 3, short, with enlarged stigmas. 



This plant is cultivated in England and France on account 

 of the agreeable fragrance of its leaves when crushed. 



FAMILY XXXV. THE PRICKLY ASH FAMILY. XANTHOXY- 

 LA S CE2E. Adrien de Jussieu. 



A family of trees and shrubs, with aromatic, bitter, and pun- 

 gent bark, leaves without stipules, alternate or opposite, simple, 

 or, more commonly, unequally pinnate, with pellucid dots ; and 

 gray, green, or pink, axillary or terminal flowers. They are 

 found most abundantly in America, particularly in the tropical 

 regions, also in Africa and its islands and in India and China. 

 Flowers sometimes perfect, usually fertile and barren on differ- 

 ent plants. Sepals 3 to 9 ; petals as many, or wanting ; stamens 

 as many or twice as many. Seed-vessels 2 or more, on the 

 receptacle, distinct, or more or less united ; seeds 1 or 2 in each 

 cell or seed-vessel, smooth and shining. 



The only genus foimd in Massachusetts is 



THE PRICKLY ASH. XANTHCTXYLUM. L. 



This is a genus of forty or fifty species of plants, chiefly 

 American, and principally found within the tropics. Some of 

 the species are powerfully sudorific and diaphoretic, and re- 

 markable for their power in exciting salivation. Some furnish 



