HIPPOCASTANACE^. 89 



in our northern woods. The bark is smooth, and beautifully striped length- 

 wise with green and black. Flowers large, yellowish green, succeeded by 

 long clusters of fruit, with pale-gieeu wings. The smaller brandies are straight 

 and smootli, easily separated from the bark in spring, and are often manufac- 

 tured by the boys into certain wind instruments. Hence it is called whistle- 

 wood. In Europe it is highly prized in ornamental gardening. May. 



Striped Maple. Whistle- wood. 



5. A. SPICA'tUM. Lam. A. montanum. Jlit. 



Leaves ahout 5-lobed, acute, dentate, pubescent beneath; racemes erect, 

 compound. A shrub of smaller stature than tlie last, found in mountain or 

 hilly woods throughout the country. The bark is a light gray. Leaves small, 

 rough, divided into 3 or 5 lobes, which are somewhat pointed with large, sharj) 

 teeth, and more or less cordate at base. Flowers greenish, numerous and 

 minute, in cylindric, oblong, close, branched clusters, becoming pendulous 

 with the winged fruit. Jn. Mountain Maple Bush. 



2. NEGU'NDO. 

 Flowers dioecious; Corolla 0; fertile flowers racemed; 

 staminate flowers fascicled ; leaves compound, of 3 — 5 leaflets. 



A fine, ornamental tree, distinguished from the genus Acer chiefly by its 

 pumate leaves. Calyx, stamens, styles and fruit as in the last genus. 



N. ACEROI'dES. Mwuck. Acer Negundo, L. 



Leaves ternate and 5-pinnate; Icnjlets ovate, acuminate, remotely and une- 

 qually dentate; fertile flowers in long, pendulous racemes; barren flowers 

 corymbose ; fruit oblong, with large wings dilated upwards. A handsome 

 tree, 20 — ?>0 feet in hight, with irregular, spreading branches, growing in 

 woods. The trunk is a foot or more in diameter, and when young, covered 

 with a smooth, yellowish-green bark. Leaflets serrated above the middle, 

 petiolale. the terminal one largest, all slightly pubescent. Wings of the sama- 

 ra approximate, broadest towards the end. Apr. Ash-leaved Maple. Box-Elder. 



ORDER XLIV. HIPPOCASTANACE^. Horse- chestnut Tribe. 



Ca/.— Campanulate, of .5 united sepals. 



Cor.— Petals o (one of them sometimes abortive), unequal, liypog}'nous. 



Sta. — 6 — 8, distinct, unequal, inserted upon a disli with the petals. 



Oi-a.— Roundish, ^-cornered, 3-celled, crowned with a single, filiform, conical style. 



Pr.— Roundish, coriaceous, with 1— 3'larjje, roundish, smooth seeds. 



Native of N. America and Northern India. The species are generally ornamental trees, 

 with astringent properties residing in the bark. The seeds contain much starch, and are 

 nutritive, but bitter. 



Only the following genus is found iii the Northern States, and even this is not indigenous. 



^'SCULUS. 



Calyx campanulate or tubular, 5-lobed ; corolla irregular, 



4 — 5-petaled; stamens, ovary and fruit as expressed in the 



order. « 



M. HiPPOCA'STANUM. 



Leaves digitate in 7s; petals 5, spreading; capsule prickly. A noble tree, 

 justly admired for its majestic proportions, and for the beauty of its foliage 



