442 SAPINDACEiE. UrvUlea. 



Slender shrubby climbers of tropical and subtropical America, only the most 

 common species (of § Physelytron, Radlk., with inflated fruit) entering our flora 

 on the Mexican border. Stems usually 3- or 6-grooved. Leaves alternate, 

 3-foliolate. Flowers small, whitish, in ours borne in subsessile or slender-peduncled 

 axillary spikes ; these commonly tendril-bearing at the base of the floriferous 

 portion. — Nov. Gen. & Spec. v. 105, t. 440; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 392; 

 Radlk. Sitzungsb. Kgl. Bayer. Akad. 1878, 263, & in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. 

 Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 5, 305, f. 158. — A small group, closely related to the large 

 tropical genera Serjania and Paullinia, and distinguished from them chiefly by 

 character of fruit. 



U. ulmacea, HBK. I.e. 106. Tomentose: leaflets ovate, acute or acuminate, rarely ob- 

 tusish, rounded or subcordate at base, unequally or somewhat doubly serrate, 1 J to 2 inches 

 lonf^, an inch wide, paler beneath : flowers scarcely more than a line in diameter : the 3- 

 winged fruit about 8 lines in length, half or two thirds as broad. — Radlk. 11. cc. U. Mexi- 

 cana, Gray, PI. Wright, i. 38 ; Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 48 ; Coulter, Contrib. U. S. Nat. 

 Herb. ii. 64. U. triphylla, Poir. in Lam. 111. iii. 604 {U. Berteriana, DC. Prodr. i. 602), is, 

 Jide Radlk., only a smooth form, but does not reach our limits. — Cameron and Hidalgo 

 Counties, Texas (ace. to Coulter, 1. c.) ; fl. ace. to location almost throughout the year, but 

 chiefly in the winter months. (Mex., Berlandier, Eaton & Edwards, Gregg, Thurber, Pringle ; 

 Ceutr. Am., U. S. of Colombia, Trinidad.) 



5. SERJANIA, Plum. (Dedicated by Plumief to Philip Sergeant, a 

 French monk of the 17th century, "skilled in botany, more skilled in medi- 

 cine.") — Woody climbers with alternate biternate or rarely pinnate leaves, and 

 pedunculate thyrsoid-paniculate clusters of small flowers. Inflorescences com- 

 monly subtended by recurving tendrils at the summit of the peduncles. — Nov. 

 Gen. 34 ; Juss. Ann. Mus. xxiii. 476 ; DC. Prodr. i. 602 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. 

 i. 393 ; Radlk. Monogr. Sap. Gat. Serjania (a detailed and masterly treatment), 

 &, in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 5, 302. — The largest genus of 

 the order ; occurring throughout tropical and subtropical America, and especially 

 noteworthy for the complex structure of its rope-like stems. 



* Fruit ratlier large, 1 to 1 J inches long, obtuse at base, nearly smooth at maturity ; wings 

 broad, abruptly contracted at the base. 



S. incisa, Torr. Climbing, 4 to 6 feet in height : leaves 3-divided ; divisions 3-5-foliolate ; 

 leaflets inch long, usually somewhat rhombic in outline, toothed : flowers in racemiform 

 panicles (an inch in length excl. the slender spreading peduncles) : wings of fruit a third 

 inch broad. — Bot. Mex. Bound. 47 ; Radlk. Monogr. Serj. 267. S. ? aff. 5'. racemosa, Gray, 

 PI. Wright, i. 38. — On the Rio Grande, Wright (without fruit and hence doubtful); 

 near Eagle Pass, Texas, Havard ; a second specimen secured by the latter collector from 

 near the mouth of the Pecos River is only in flower, but probably of this species. (Northern 

 Mex., where first coll. in Coahuila by Bigelow.) 



* * Fruit rather short, broadly 3-winged, and cordate at base, nearly or quite glabrous ; 

 wings rounded. 



-1— Seeds not wholly filling the somewhat chartaceous and inflated ceils. 



S. racemosa, Schumacher. Shrubby climber, finely and rather densely pubescent to 

 smoothish : leaves mostly biternate, or with the terminal division pinnately 5-foliolate : 

 leaflets rhombic-ovate, acute or obtusish, mucronate, few-toothed, 1^ to H inches in length • 

 panicles racemose-thyrsoid, 1^ to 2 inches long, solitary at the axils, but approximate and 

 forming more or less pyramidal inflorescences at the ends of the branches : peduncles nearly 

 equalling the inflorescences, tendriliferous at the summit: fruit 6 to 8 (to 10) lines long, 

 broadest near the cordate base. — Skrivt. Natur. Selsk. Ki^b. iii. pt. 2, 127, 1. 12, f. 3 (1794) ; 



