274 PLANE 



palmately lobed leaves and pseudo-palmate venation ; buds 

 buried in the swollen leaf-bases. 



Flowers monoecious and anemophilous, proterogynous. 

 Heads greenish, globoid, on the end and sides of a pendent, 

 villous, cylindric flexible stalk 3 15 or more cm. long, 

 developed from the tips of the dwarf shoots ; the </ about 

 5 7, the ? about 10 13 mm. in diameter. Anthers 

 yellow, pollen minute, ellipsoid, with 3 bands; stigmas 

 purple. 



Fruiting heads up to 3*5 cm. diameter, and looking 

 like rough spheroidal buttons when young, warted owing 

 to the projecting tips of the closely aggregated obcuneate 

 nutlets. Floral formula K.^.^ Og.j ^3_4 (or G^ 3 or 4). 

 Sepals triangular, hairy ; petals spathulate, smooth ; 

 stamens opposite sepals; carpels tubular, tapering to a 

 curved stigma; ovule 1. Caryopsis with a basal hair tuft. 



[P. occidentalis, Button Wood, scarcely differs except 

 in the lobing of the leaves (Fig. 98). 



The inflorescence reminds one in some respects of the 

 pendent interrupted (/ catkins of the Beech, in so far as 

 the flowers are there in a tassel on a slender dangling 

 stalk ; but, being dichlamydeous, we cannot regard them 

 as true catkins. See p. 252.] 



B. Flowers not diclinous, but normally avith 



BOTH STAMENS AND PISTIL i.e. HERMAPHRODITE: 

 MONOCLINOUS. 



[For (2) (1) Flower with or without a perianth 1. e. 



see p. 282.] monochlamydeous but devoid of distinct 



calyx and corolla. 



[For (b) (a) Perianth absent (achlamydeous). Flowers small, 



see p. 275.] in dense axillary panicles, of decussate racemes; 



each flower consisting at most of a bottle-shaped 



ovary sjid 2 stamens. 



