446 ARISTOLOCHIACE^. (bIRTHWORT FAMILY.) 



§ 3. Calyx-tuhe straight, open, with ample &-lobed limb, the lobes appendnged ., 

 anthers equidistant; erect herbs; flowers in axillary cymose fascicles. 



A. clemAtitis, L., with long-petioled cordate leaves, from Europe, is said 

 to have permanently escaped near Ithaca, N. Y. {Dudley). 



Order 92. PIPERACE^. (Pepper Family.) 



Herbs, with jointed stems, alternate entire leaves, and perfect flowers in 

 spikes, entirely destitute of floral envelopes, and with 3-5 more or less 

 separate or united ovaries. — Ovules few, orthotropous. Embr^'O heart- 

 shaped, minute, contained in a little sac at the apex of the albumen. — 

 The characters are those of the Tribe Saururece, the Piperacece proper 

 (wholly tropical) differing in having a 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary. 



1. SAURIJRUS, L. Lizard's-tail. 



Stamens mostly 6 or 7, hypogynous, with distinct filaments. Fruit some 

 what fleshy, wrinkled, of 3-4 indehisceut carpels united at base. Stigmas 

 recurved. Seeds usually solitary, ascending. — Perennial marsh herbs, with 

 heart-shaped converging-ribbed petioled leaves, without distinct stipules ; flow- 

 ers (each with a small bract adnata to or borne on the pedicel) crowded in a 

 slender wand-like and naked peduncled terminal spike or raceme (its appear- 

 ance giving rise to the name, from aavpos, a lizard, and oupd, tail). 



1. S. cernuus, L. Flowers white, fragrant; spike nodding at the end ; 

 bract lanceolate ; filaments long and capillary. — Swamps, Conn, to Ont., Minn.. 

 Mo., and southward. June - Aug. 



Order 93. LAUKACE^. (Laurel Family.) 



Aromatic trees or shrubs, with alternate simple leaves mosdy marked with 

 minute pellucid dots, and flowers with a regular calyx of A or 6 colored 

 sepals, imbricated in 2 rows in the hud, free from the 1-celled and l-ovuled 

 ovary, and mostly fewer than the stamens ; anthers opening by 2 or 4 uplifted 

 valves. — Flowers clustered. Style single. Fruit a 1-seeded berry or 

 drupe. Seed anatropous, suspended, with no albumeU} filled by the large 

 almond-like embryo. 

 * Flowers perfect, panicled ; stamens 12, three of them sterile, three •with extrorse anthers. 



1. Persea. Calyx persistent. Anthers 4-celled. Evergreen. 



* * Flowers dioecious, or nearly so ; stamens in the sterile flowers 9 Leaves deciduous. 



2. Sassafras. Flowers in corjnub- or umbel-like racemes. Anthers 4-celled, 4-valved 



3. Litsea. Flowers few in involucrate umbels. Anthers 4-celled, 4-valved. 



4. Liindera. Flowers in umbel-like clusters. Anthers 2-celled, 2-valved. 



1. PERSEA, Gaertn. Alligator Pear. 



Flowers perfect, with a 6-parted calyx, persistent at the base of the bwtr^-like 

 fruit. Stamens 12, in four rows, the 3 of the innermost row sterile and gland- 

 like, the rest bearing 4-celled anthers (i. e. with each proper cell divided trans 

 versely into two), opening by as many uplifted valves; the anthers of 3 

 stamens turned outward, the others introrse. — Trees, with persistent entire 

 leaves, and small panicled flowers. (An ancient name of some Oriental tree.) 



