FMIILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 



161 



whicL. are sold among the Chinese in our large cities, are the product 

 of Litclii Chinensis. Bllghia sapida, a West African tree, also furnishes 

 edible fruit. 



Family Sabiaceae. Sabia Family. Four genera and about 65 

 species, tropical trees and shrubs of no special interest. 



Family Melianthaceae. Melianthus Family. Two genera and 

 about 15 species, also tropical. 



Family Balsaminaceae. Balsam Family. Contains the genus Im- 

 pafiens, with about 220 species, mostly natives of the Old World, and 

 Hi/drocero, with one, the latter a native 

 of India. The balsams or jewel- weeds, 

 as we call them, are succulent herbs, 

 with alternate single leaves and showy, 

 very irregular flowers. Sepals 3, the 

 two lateral ones small and green, the 

 other large and sac-shaped, spurred, 

 and colored like the corolla; petals 5, 

 3 of them cleft; stamens 5; fruit in Iin- 

 patiens a capsule, in Hydrocera a berry. 



We have two jewel-weeds, the pale 

 and the spotted (see Fig. 141). The 

 flowers are dainty little things, quite in 

 keeping with the cool, shaded swamps 

 or brooksides where the plants usually 

 abound. Other species are cultivated 

 in our gardens. 



Family Rhamnaceae. Buckthorn 

 Family. Contains about 45 genera and 

 575 species, widely distributed in tem- 

 perate and tropical regions. They are 

 shrubs or small trees, sometimes thorny, ^^'^- ^^- Northeast, u. s. 

 with small, clustered, regular flowers. Calyx 4-5-toothed; petals 4-5, 

 inserted on the throat of the calyx, or sometimes wanting; stamens 4-5; 

 ovary 2-5-celled, becoming in fruit a small drupe or a capsule. 



Bhamnus, the buckthorn, occurs in both Europe and America, and 

 several species may be classed as ornamental trees, the dark green foli- 

 age being usually very handsome. The fruits of R. catharticus were 

 formerly in some demand !is a purgatfve; various pigments are derived 

 from the fruits of this and other species. On the Pacific coast one of 

 the conspicuous shrubs is the California lilac {Ceanothus thyrsi/lor us), 

 which has bluish flowers somewhat resembling those of the lilac. 

 There are over 30 other species of this genus through California and 

 Mexico. One of the few eastern species, C. Americanus, is known as 



Fig. 139. The striped maple {Acer 

 Pennsylvaniaim). After Britton & Brown, 



