102 CLASS DECANDRIA. 



Potomac and Ohio, is a larger leaved plant, much 

 less branched, and early producing its delicate blue 

 flowers. 



The Cercis, or Red-bud of the Indians, is another 

 example of a papilionaceous plant with 10 uncom- 

 bined stamina. It has its branches early in the spring 

 loaded with clusters of fine red flowers, which make 

 their appearance before the leaves, and is a small, 

 spreading tree, at length, clothed with large, roundish, 

 cordate leaves. The calyx is 5-toothed and gibbous, 

 or swelled out at the base ; the corolla papilionace- 

 ous, as already remarked, with the wings larger than 

 the vexillum, and the keel (very unusual with this 

 form of flower), consists of 2 separate petals. The 

 legume is so much compressed, that but very few ever 

 produce perfect seed, and the seminiferous suture is 

 margined. 



The Cassia (of which some of the species have 

 been called Wild Pea), also one of the Leguminosje, 

 or Papilionacete, presents a very anomalous structure, 

 having a 5-leaved calyx, and a spreading or open 

 corolla of 5 nearly equal petals. The stamina are 

 unequal in length, and the 3 upper ones have blackish, 

 sterile anthers, the 3 lower have elongated or ros- 

 trate anthers, and are seated upon longer and incurved 

 filaments. The legume is flat and membranaceous, 

 but does not readily open. All these plants have 

 pinnated leaves, which remain folded at night; and 

 yellow clustered flowers. The C. marilandica is a 

 common, tall, perennial plant in wet places and by 

 the banks of rivers, bearing abundance of flowers 

 about August, and the leaves have been employed as 

 a substitute for the Senna of the shops. 



Rhododendron, the type of a peculiar, natural 

 order Rhododendraceje, is certainly one of the most 

 beautiful tribe of shrubs indigenous to America. To 



