256 CELASTRACE^. Staphylea. 



dill dehiscence. Seeds anatropous, 1 or few in each cell, ascending or 

 erect, or by resupination suspended, often arillcd : albumen fleshy, often 

 very thin or wanting. Embryo straight, usually nearly as long as the 

 albumen : radicle short : cotyledons thick or foliaceous. — Slirubs, or 

 rarely trees, with alternate or opposite leaves. Flowers sometimes po- 

 lygamous or dioecious. 



Cyrilla, Linn, and Cliftonla, Soland. in kerb. Banks and Gcprtn. (Mylocarium, 

 Willi!.) are i-eferred to this family by Lindley, we know not on wliat ground ; since 

 they liavc not a flat perigynous disk; their stamens are twice the nnmber of the pe- 

 tals, the latter are inserted by a narrow base ; their ovaries have a single suspended 

 ovule in each cell, and the embryo is cylindrical and slender. These two genera, 

 with Elliottia, J\luhl., form apparently a suborder of Ericacea3, perhaps even a 

 group of equal rank with Pyrolacese, &c., (which may receive the name Cyrille^, 

 from the oldest genus), distinguished from Ericacea; proper by the ovary seated upon 

 a short torus, with a single suspended ovule in each cell, by the texture of tiie peri- 

 carp, the flat or dilated filaments, with the cells of the anthers not separated or ap- 

 pendaged either at the apex or base, and opening longitudinally ; and by the polype- 

 talous corolla (the petals of Elliottia, although cohering at the base, are at length 

 separable), which is hardly met with in true Ericaceae, except in Cletbra, to which 

 Elliottia is somewhat related. Pickeringla, JVwW. (Cyrilla paniculata, Nutt. in Sill, 

 jour. 5. p. 290) is, as the acute botanist and zoologist to whom it was dedicated first 

 suspected, a species of Ardisia ; probably A. coriacea, Sicarlz, a West Indian plant. 



Tribe I. STAPHYLEA^. DC. 



Seeds not arilled, with a large truncate hilum ; the testa bony. Co- 

 tyledons thick. Disk urceolate, 5-angIed. Leaves opposite, unequally 

 pinnate, with (caducous) general, and sometimes partial stipules : leaf- 

 lets serrate. Flowers in terminal racemes or panicles. 



1. STAPHYLEA. Linn.; Lam. ill. t. 210. 



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

 Stamens 5. Ovary of 3 carpels united at the axis : styles separate or sepa- 

 rable. Fruit a membranaceous and inflated 2-3-ceIled 2-3-lobed capsule. 

 Seeds globose, ascending, few, or by abortion solitary, in each cell : albumen 

 little or none. — Shrubs. Leaves 3-7-foUolate : leaflets involute in vernation. 

 Flowers white : the racemes sometimes panicled. 



1. S.trif olia (h'mn.): leaves 3-foliolate, with caducous stipules; leaflets 

 ovate, acuminate, finely serrate, more or less pubescent when young ; styles 

 glabrous, connate above ; capsules inflated. — Mich.r.! Ji. 1. p. 184 ; Ell. sk. 



1. p. 369 ; DQ. prodr. 2. p. 2 ; Torr. ! ji. 1. p. 325 ; Bxgel.fi. Bost. ed, 



2. p. 121; Hook.fi. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 119. Staphylodendron, Toiirn. inst. 

 t. 3S6. 



In moist places, Canada ! to S. Carolina, and west to Arkansas ! May. — 

 Shrub 6-12 feet high, with slender smooth dotted branches. Petioles pubes- 

 cent above. Partial stipules mostly none. Petals obovate-spatulate, ciliate 

 at the base. Stamens rather exserted : filaments hairy below : anthers cor- 

 date ; the lobes somewhat united at the tip. Capsule 2 inches long, the car- 

 pels (sometimes 4) distinct at the summit, tipped with the persistent styles, 

 and opening by the inner suture. Seeds smooth and polished, all but one 

 often abortive. — Bladder-nut. 



