FOLYGALACE.E. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 85 



5. A. i'Ubruisl, L. (Red or Swamp Maple.) Leaves 3 - 5 lobed with 

 the sinuses acute, whitish underneath; the lobes irregularly serrate and notched, 

 acute, the middle one usually longest ; petals linear-oblong ; flowers on very short 

 pedicels (scarlet, crimson, or sometimes yellowish) ; but the fruit smooth, on pro- 

 longed droot)ing pedicels. — Swamps and wet woods ; everywhere. March, 

 April. — A small tree, with reddish twigs ; the leaves varying greatly in shape, 

 turning bright crimson in early autumn. 



A. Pseudo-Plat anus, L., the False Sycamore, and A. platanoides, 

 L., called Norway Maple, are two European species occasionally planted. 



4. 1VEGIINDO, Mcench. Ash-leaved Maple. Box-Elder. 



Flowers dioecious. Calyx minute, 4 - 5-cleft. Petals none. Stamens 4-5. 



— Sterile flowers in clusters on capillary pedicels ; the fertile in drooping ra- 

 cemes, from lateral buds. Leaves pinnate, with 3 or 5 leaflets. (Name un- 

 meaning. The genns, apparently of only a single species, is too near Acer 



itself.) 



1. N. acerolsles, Mcench. (Acer Negundo, L.) Leaflets smoothish 

 when old, very veiny, ovate, pointed, toothed ; fruit smooth, with large rather 

 incurved wings. — River-banks. Penn. to Wisconsin, and southward. April. 



— A small but handsome tree, with light-green twigs, and very delicate droop- 

 ing clusters of small greenish flowers, rather preceding the leaves. 



Order 37. POLYGALACE^E. (Milkwort Family.; 



Plants icith irregular, as if papilionaceous, hypogynous flowers, 4-8 dia- 

 delphous or monadelphous stamens, their l-celled anthers opening at the top 

 by a pore or chink; the fruit a 2-celled and 2-seeded pod. — Represented 

 by the typical genus 



1. POLYGALA, Tourn. Milkwort. 



Flower very irregular. Calyx persistent, of 5 sepals, of which 3 (the upper 

 and the 2 lower) are small and often greenish, while the two lateral or inner 

 (called wings) are much larger, and colored like the petals. Petals 3, hypogy- 

 nous, connected with each other and with the stamen-tube, the middle (lower) 

 one keel-shaped and often crested on the baefc. Stamens 6 or 8 : their filaments 

 united below into a split sheath, or into 2 sets, cohering more or less with the 

 petals, free above : anthers 1 -celled, often cup-shaped, opening by a hole ov 

 broad chink at the apex. Ovary 2-celled, with a single anatropous ovule pen- 

 dulous in each cell : style prolonged and curved : stigma various. Fruit a 

 small, loculicidal 2-seeded pod, usually rounded and notched at the apex, much 

 flattened contrary to the veiy narrow partition. Seeds with a caruncle, or vari- 

 ously shaped appendage, at the hilum. Embryo large, straight, with flat and 

 broad cotyledons, surrounded by a sparing albumen. — Bitter plants (low herbs 

 in temperate regions), with simple entire leaves, often dotted, and no stipules: 

 sometimes bearing concealed fertile flowers also next the ground. (An old 



