100 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 



toothed ; fruit in a globular, pendulous head which remains on the 

 tree through the winter, dropping the seeds very slowly. March- 

 April. Common on river banks and in swampy woods. 



56. ROSACEiE. ROSE FAMILY. 



Herbs, shrubs or trees ; leaves alternate, simple or com- 

 pound, stipulate ; flowers perfect ; sepals 3-8, usually 5, 

 more or less united ; petals as many as the sepals or none ; 

 stamens numerous and, with bhe petals, inserted on the calyx 

 tube; pistils 1, few or numerous, often united with the calyx 

 tube ; ovary 1-2- or several-seeded ; fruit of many forms, but 

 more often an achene, follicle, or aggregation of drupes. 



Shrubs ; leaves simple, palmately veined and lobed, petioled ; 

 flowers white, in terminal corymbs ; calyx spreading, 5-lobed ; 

 petals 5 ; stamens numerous ; pistils 1-5, short-stipitate, 

 stigma terminal ; ovaries becoming inflated at maturity, 2-4- 

 seeded, dehiscent. 



O. OPULiFOLius (L.) Kuntze. Ninebark. A spreading shrub 

 3-6 ft. high, the old bark separating into thin strips ; leaves petioled, 

 broadly ovate or rounded, often cordate, 3-lobed, the lobes doubly 



