204 CLASS DICEC1A. 



In the order Hexandria is the genus Smilax, or 

 Green Briar, a group of climbing thorny shrubs, with 

 smooth, shining, thickish, entire, cordate or elliptic, 

 nerved leaves ; of the natural family of the Aspara- 

 GEiE. — The staminiferous flowers have a 6-leaved ca- 

 lyx ; no corolla ; the anthers adnate to the filaments. 

 The fertile flowers have a minute style, and 3 stigmas ; 

 the berry is superior, 3-celled ; 1,2, or 3-seeded. 

 The most remarkable species is the &. herbacea, dy- 

 ing down to the ground annually ; with heart-shaped 

 leaves, above verticillated ; sending out long axillary 

 peduncles, with umbels of greenish flowers, smelling 

 like the most foetid carrion or Stapelia flowers. The 

 root of a particular species of this genus is the Sarsa- 

 parilla of medicine. 



The Gleditscia, or Honey locust, is a genus of spiny 

 trees, of the natural family of the Leguminosje, and 

 peculiar to China and North America. They have 

 bipinuated leaves, consisting of many small and partly 

 elliptic leaflets. The flowers are small, greenish, and 

 inconspicuous, disposed in axillary aments. — The per- 

 fect ones have a 6 to 8 parted, deciduous, equal calyx, 

 of which, 3 or 4 of the exterior segments are smaller ; 

 and there is no corolla ; the stamina 5 to 6, rarely 8. 

 The legume is flatly compressed, containing only one, 

 or many seeds (often imbedded in a sweetish eatable 

 pulp, and hence the common name). In the sterile 

 flower the calyx is partly turbinate (or top-shaped), 5 

 to 8-parted, with 3 to 5 of the segments interior. The 

 stamina G to 8. Our commonly cultivated species, 

 indigenous to most of the western states, is the G. 

 tnacanthos, translated 3 thorned Acacia, from the 

 spines often occurring trifid. On the trunk, however, 

 in youngish trees, the spines, in reality abortive branch- 

 lets, are large and ramified, but occasionally plants 

 occur without any armature. In the southern states 



