102 KEY AND FLORA 



are small, dioecious, in large panicles, with 5 greenish petals and 10 

 stamens. The fruit consists of numerous pungent rose-color drupes 

 as large as dry peas. 



SAPINDAXE^ (including Buckeye and Maple) 



Trees or shrubs with deciduous simple or compound leaves 

 without stipules. Sepals 5, often irregular, and more or less 

 united. Petals alternate with the sepals or wanting. Stamens 

 more than 5. Ovary with 2 ovules in each cell, often only 

 one maturing. 



I. iESXULUS, Buckeye 



Leaves opposite, pahnately compound, of 5-9 leaflets. 

 Flowers white or pale rose-color, in a panicle nearly a foot 

 long ; very few are fertile, the majority being staminate. 

 Calyx tubular. Petals 4 or 5, with long claws. Ovules 6, 

 2 in each cell of the ovary ; but generally only one ripening, 

 hecoming a large chestnut-like seed which is covered with the 

 three leathery valves of the capsule. The abortive seeds can 

 all be seen within the capsule. 



M. Califor'nica Nutt. This is a low-spreading tree or, rarely, a shrub. 

 The leaves fall very early, leaving the pods hanging on long, naked 

 peduncles. Rather widely distributed through middle California. 



n. ACER, Maple 



Trees or shrubs with deciduous pjalmately lohed leaves. 

 Petals as many as the sepals, and inserted with the sta- 

 mens on the margin of the disk. Fruit of 2, winged carpjels. 



a. A. macrophynum Pursh. Large-leaved Maple. This grows 

 to be a large tree with leaves from 6 in. to nearly a foot broad. 

 Floioers yelloivish, fragrant, in drooping racemes. Fruit densely 

 hairy, with wings obliquely spreading. This grows along streams. 

 From Santa Barbara to British Columbia. 



h. A. circina'tum Pursh. Vine Maple. Shrubs or small trees with 

 trailing stems that strike root where they touch the ground, forming 

 thickets. Flowers in loose, umbel-like corymbs. Fruit smooth, with wings 

 horizontally spreading. Northern California to British Columbia. 



