SAPINDACEZ. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 63 
UNGNADIA. 
FLowErs polygamous, irregular ; calyx 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated in zstivation ; 
petals 4 or 5, imbricated in estivation, hypogynous, conspicuously crested; ovary 
stipitate, 3-celled; ovules 2, homotropous. Fruit a coriaceous capsule, 3-celled and 
loculicidally 3-valved. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, destitute of stipules. 
Ungnadia, Endlicher, Atakt. Bot. t. 36; Nov. Stirp. Dec. Fl. N. Am. i. 253, 684. — Gray, Gen. Ill. ii. 209. — Ben- 
75; Gen. 1075. — Meisner, Gen. 346. — Torrey & Gray, tham & Hooker, Gen. i. 398. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. v. 423. 
A small tree or shrub, with thin pale gray fissured bark, slender terete slightly zigzag branchlets 
marked with large conspicuous leaf-scars, small obtuse nearly globose winter-buds covered with chestnut- 
brown scales, and thick fleshy roots. Leaves alternate, long-petioled, four or five, or rarely three-folio- 
late, deciduous ; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded, or wedge-shaped, often oblique at the 
base, irregularly crenulate-serrate, coated at first on the lower surface, like the petioles, with dense pale 
tomentum, pilose above, glabrous at maturity with the exception of a few hairs on the lower surface 
along the principal veins, pinnately veined, reticulated, the terminal one long-petiolulate. Flowers large 
and showy in small pubescent fascicles or simple corymbs appearing just before or simultaneously with 
the new leaves from the axils of those of the previous year, usually from separate buds, or occasionally 
from the base of a leafy branch. Pedicels jointed in the middle. Calyx-lobes hypogynous, oblong- 
lanceolate, somewhat united irregularly at the base only, deciduous. Petals four by the suppression of 
the anterior one, or five and then alternate with the lobes of the calyx, hypogynous on the margin of a 
thickened truncate torus, unguiculate, bright rose-colored, deciduous; when four, almost equal, unequal 
when five; the claw as long as the lobes of the calyx, nearly erect, clothed with tomentum especially on 
the inner surface, and conspicuously appendaged at the summit with a fimbriated crest of short fleshy 
tufted threads, the blade obovate, spreading, often erose-crenulate. Disk unilateral, oblique, lingulate, 
surrounding and connate with the base of the stipe of the ovary. Stamens seven to ten, usually eight 
or nine, inserted on the oblique edge of the disk, much exserted and unequal in the sterile flower, the 
anterior one shorter than the others, equal or almost so and shorter than the petals in the pistillate 
flower ; filaments filiform; anthers oblong, attached near the base, two-celled, the cells opening longitu- 
dinally. Ovary ovoid, three-celled, pilose, raised on a long stipe; rudimentary in the staminate flower ; 
style subulate, filiform, elongated, slightly curved upwards ; stigma minute, terminal ; ovules two, borne 
on the inner angle of the cell near its middle, ascending, amphitropous or anatropous, the micropyle 
inferior. Fruit broadly ovate, a little three-lobed, conspicuously stipitate, crowned with the remnants 
of the style, unarmed, rugosely roughened and dark reddish brown, loculicidally three-valved, the valves 
somewhat cordate, bearing the dissepiment on the middle. Seed generally solitary by abortion, almost 
spherical, destitute of albumen; testa coriaceous, very smooth and shining, dark chestnut-brown or 
almost black; hilum broad, light-colored; tegmen thin. Embryo filling the coat of the seed; cotyle- 
dons thick and fleshy, nearly hemispherical, conferruminate, remaining below ground in germination, 
incumbent on the short conical descending radicle turned towards the hilum. 
The wood of Ungnadia is heavy and close-grained, although rather soft and brittle. It is red 
tinged with brown with lighter colored sapwood, and contains numerous inconspicuous medullary rays 
and many evenly distributed open ducts. The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.6332, a 
cubic foot weighing 39.46 pounds. 
