PEA FAMILY TI3 



very rugged, corky, fissured bark; leaves 2— 4 in. across, 5-lobed, 

 lobes obtuse ; racemes erect ; wings of samara oblong, horizontally 

 divergent, each \ in. long. — Woods and hedges; common. — Fl. 

 May, June. 



The leaves of both species of Maple are commonly spotted with 

 round black patches produced by a parasitic fungus, Rhytisma 

 acer'mum. 



ACEK camp6str6 {Common Maple). 



Ord. XXV. LEGUMiNoSiE. — The Pea Family 

 The second largest Order of Dicotyledons, containing nearly 

 7,000 species, ranging in size from minute herbs to huge trees, is 

 yet a very natural one. They have scattered and usually stipulate 

 kaves, which are seldom simple ; of the 5 more or less united 

 sepals, forming the inferior calyx, the odd one is anterior ; there 

 is only a single carpel., which usually forms a i- chambered ovary ^ 

 ripening to a legume, or dry pod dehiscing down both sutures ; 

 and the seeds are exalbuminous. Though agreeing in these 

 characters the Order as a whole is subdivided into three sub-orders, 

 only one of which, the Papilionacece, is represented by British 

 species. This sub-order is marked by the additional characters 

 that \\.'s> flowers are monosymmetric ; that the corolla of ^petals is 

 papiUonaceous ; and that there are lo stamens, either monadel- 



