SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 93 
LEGUMINOS4. 
CERCIS. 
FLowers fascicled or racemose; calyx disciferous, shortly turbinate, 5-toothed, the 
short broad teeth imbricated in zstivation ; corolla subpapilionaceous, the upper petal 
the smallest, inserted within the others; ovary many-ovuled. Legume compressed, 
narrow-winged on the ventral suture. Leaves simple. 
Cercis, Linneus, Gen. 125.— A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 351. — 
Meisner, Gen. 99. — Endlicher, Gen. 1310. — Bentham & 
Hooker, Gen. i. 576. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. ii. 187. 
Siliquastrum, Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii. 317. 
Small trees or shrubs, with scaly bark, slender unarmed branches, and small scaly buds. Leaves 
simple, alternate, entire or emarginate at the apex, three or many-nerved, long-petiolate, deciduous ; 
stipules small, membranaceous, deciduous. Flowers on thin jointed pedicels in simple fascicles or in 
short or long racemes produced on the branches of the previous or of earlier years, or on the trunk.’ 
Bracts small, scale-like, often imbricated at the base of the inflorescence; bractlets minute or wanting. 
Calyx colored, persistent, the tube oblique at the base, campanulate, enlarged on the lower side, the five 
teeth short and broadly triangular. Petals nearly equal, pink or rose-color, oblong-ovate, rounded at the 
apex, unguiculate, slightly auricled on one side of the base of the blade, the upper one the smallest and 
inclosed in the bud by the wings encircled by the broader slightly imbricated keel-petals, the vexillum 
and wings reflexed after anthesis. Stamens ten, inserted in two rows on the margin of the thin disk, 
free, declinate, those of the inner row opposite the petals and rather shorter than the others; filaments 
enlarged and pilose below the middle, persistent until the fruit is grown; anthers uniform, oblong, 
attached on the back near their base, two-celled, the contiguous cells opening longitudinally. Ovary 
shortly stipitate, inserted obliquely in the bottom of the calyx-tube, many-ovuled ; style filiform, fleshy, 
incurved, tipped with a stout obtuse stigma ; ovules two-ranked, superposed, attached to the inner angle of 
the ovary, anatropous, the micropyle superior. Legume slightly stipitate, oblong or broadly linear, acute 
at the two ends, compressed, tipped with the thickened remnants of the style, many-seeded, two-valved, 
the valves coriaceo-membranaceous, reticulate-veined, tardily dehiscent by the dorsal and often by the 
wing-margined ventral suture, dark red-purple and rather lustrous at maturity, the thin endocarp silvery 
white. Seed suspended transversely by a slender funicle, ovate or oblong, compressed, the hilum near 
the apex, small, depressed ; testa crustaceous, reddish brown, the tegmen thickened. Embryo surrounded 
by a thin layer of horny albumen, compressed; cotyledons oval, flat, the radicle short, straight or 
obliquely incurved, slightly exserted. 
Cercis is found in North America, where it occurs on the two sides of the continent, in Europe, in 
the Orient, and in central and eastern Asia. The type is an ancient one, and the genus has existed 
in Europe almost in its present state from the Eocene period.’ Seven species are now distinguished. 
The type of the genus, Cercis Siliquastrum,’ is widely distributed in southern Europe and in the 
Orient. Cercis Grifithii® inhabits Afghanistan, Cercis Chinensis® and Cercis racemosa’ the prov- 
1 The flowers developed upon the trunk or the old branches are, Candolle, Prodr. ii. 518.— Bot. Mag. t. 1138.— Loudon, Arb. Brit. 
according to Baillon (Hist. Pl. ii. 122), produced year after year 
from excrescences which correspond to the axils of ancient leaves, 
and are composed of the remnants of the axes of earlier inflo- 
rescences which have gradually united and formed a more or less 
prominent mass. 
2 Saporta, Origine Paléontologique des Arbres, 315, f. 43, 2, 3. 
8 Linneus, Spec. 374.— Sibthorp, Fl. Grac. iv. 60, t. 367. — De 
ii. 657. — Koch, Dendr. i. 13. 
4 Boissier, Fl. Orient. ii. 633. 
5 Boissier, J. c. 
8 Bunge, Mem. Sav. Etr. St. Peétersbourg, ii. 95 (Enum. Pl. Chin. 
Bor. 21).— Miquel, Prol. Fl. Jap. 243. —Franchet & Savatier, 
Enum. Pl. Jap. i. 116. — Hemsley, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 213. 
7 Oliver, Hooker Icon. xix. t. 1894. — Hemsley, I. c. 
