208 CLASS DKECIA. 



In the order Decandria is the Gymnocladus or 

 Coffee-Bean tree, another anomalous flowered plant 

 of the LEGUMiNosiE. The name of this genus, giv- 

 en by Lamarck, alludes to the naked or stump like 

 appearance of the branches of this fine tree, common 

 in the western states, south of Ohio and on the great 

 alluvial forests of the Mississippi. The leaves are 

 very large, and compounded 2 or 3 times of broadish 

 elliptic leaflets. The flowers, not very conspicuous, 

 are disposed in short terminal racemes, having a tubu- 

 lar 5-cleft calyx; and 5-petalled corolla. — In the sterile 

 flower there are 10 stamens. — In the fertile 1 style, 

 succeeded by a 1 -celled legume, containing a pulpy 

 matter. The seeds are round, lenticular, large and 

 hard, and when roasted not unpleasant to eat. The 

 pulp of the pod is strongly cathartic. This genus af- 

 fords us another example of a leguminous plant with 

 a regular corolla and uncombined stamens. 



To the order Monadelphia, of the present class, is 

 referred the Yew and Juniper. The appearance of the 

 latter evergreen is too familiar to require description. — 

 The sterile flowers are in ovate aments, with the scales 

 verticillate and peltate. The anthers are 4 to 8 and 

 1 -celled. — In the fertile flowers the aments are glo- 

 bose, the scales 3, growing together ; the stigma gaping; 

 the berry containing 3 bony or hard seeds, surround- 

 ed with the united and fleshy scales of the anient 

 which forms the berry. Our Red Cedar is a Juniper, 

 bearing much smaller fruit than the common kind. 

 Of the J. communis, New England affords a peculiar 

 variety, or rather a distinct species, called J. commu- 

 nis, /?. depressa, remarkable for its spreading prostrate 

 sterns and branches, which rise only at the extremities. 



The Yew (Taxus), belonging also to the natural 

 family of the Coniferje, has no proper perianth, the 

 flowers only surrounded with imbricated scales. — In 



