20 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 



A large family, mostly growing in tufts in wet places, few 

 species being of any value. Fig. 212 shows a common form 

 of inflorescence, and an achene with its perianth of bristles. 



6. SABALACEiE. PALM FAMILY. 



Trees or plants with woody creeping stems or nearly acau- 

 lescent, leaves petioled, pinnate or palmate, plaited in the bud, 

 flowers perfect or polygamous, on a spadix which is often 

 branching or paniculate ; sepals and petals 3, more or less 

 united, persistent ; stamens usually 6 ; ovary 3-celled, 3-ovuled ; 

 styles 3, distinct or united, stigma entire, fruit a drupe or 

 berry. 



I. SABAL. 



Stem short, erect, or decumbent, usually simple ; leaves 

 long-petioled, nearly orbicular in outline, deeply parted, the 

 divisions 2-cleft at the apex and often with thread-like fila- 

 ments in the sinuses ; sheaths of the leaves usually of dry 

 interlaced fibers ; spadix long and branching, with sheathing 

 spathes at the joints ; flowers perfect, sessile, each in the 

 axil of a small iDract; perianth cup-shaped ; petals distinct; 

 stamens 6, filaments distinct ; styles 3, united, 3-angled ; 

 stigma capitate, fruit a drupe. 



S. Andersonii Guerns. Dwarf Palmetto. Stem short, mostly 

 buried in the earth ; leaves orbicular, glaucous, divisions slightly 

 cleft at the apex, filaments few ; petiole usually shorter than the leaf, 

 crescent-shaped in cross-section, edges smooth ; spadix erect, slender, 

 taller than the leaves, 4-6 ft. high, paiiiculately much branched ; 

 drupe black, globose, i in. in diameter. June-July, Low grounds, 

 Central Louisiana to North Carolina and southward. 



IL SERENOA. 



Stems creeping, widely branched ; leaves orbicular, long- 

 petioled, at the apex of the branches, divisions slightly cleft 

 at the apex, thread-like filaments none ; spadix short, flowers 

 perfect, sessile, bracted ; petals slightly united ; stamens 6, 

 distinct ; style slender ; fruit a drupe. 



