106 GERANIACE^E. (GERANIUM FAMILY.) 



oled. Flowers axillary or panicled, often of two sorts, viz., the larger 

 ones, which seldom ripen seeds ; and very small ones, which are fertilized 

 early in the bud ; their floral envelopes never expand, but are forced off by 

 the growing pod and carried upward on its apex. (Name from the sudden 

 bursting of the pods when touched, whence also the popular appellation, Touch- 

 me-not, or Snap-weed.) 



1. I. pallida, Nntt. (PALE TOFCH-ME-VOT.) Flowers pale-yellow, spar- 

 ingly dotted with brownish-red ; sac dilated and very obtuse, broader than long, 

 tipped with a short incurved spur. Moist shady places and along rills, in 

 rich soil ; most common northward. July - Sept. Larger and greener than 

 the next, with larger flowers, and less frequent. 



2. I. fiilva, Nutt. (SPOTTED TOUCH-ME-XOT.) Flowers orange-color, 

 thickly spotted with reddish-brown; sac longer than broad, acutely conical, ta- 

 pering into a strongly injiexed spur half as long as the sac. Rills and shady 

 moist places ; common, especially southward. June - Sept. Plant 2-4 high ; 

 the flowers loosely panicled, hanging gracefully on their slender nodding 

 stalks, the open mouth of the cornucopias-shaped sepal upward. Spur rarely 

 wanting. Spotless forms of both species occur. 



ORDER 24. RTJTACEvE. (RuE FAMILY.) 



Plants with simple or compound leaves, dotted with pellucid glands and 

 abounding with a pungent or bitter-aromatic acrid volatile oil, producing 

 hijpogynous almost always regular 3 -5-merous flowers, the stamens as many 

 or twice as many as the sepals (rarely more numerous) ; the 25 pistils sep- 

 arate or comliiied into a compound ovary of as many cells, raised on a pro- 

 longation of the receptacle (gynophore) or glandular disk. Embryo large, 

 curved or straight, usually in fleshy albumen. Styles commonly united 

 or cohering, even when the ovaries are distinct. Fruit usually capsular. 

 Leaves alternate or opposite. Stipules none. A large family, chiefly 

 of the Old World and the southern hemisphere; our two indigenous 

 genera are 



1. Xaiithoxylum. Flowers dioecious ; ovaries 3-5, separate, forming fleshy pods. 



2. Ptelea. Flowers polygamous ; ovary 2-celled, forming a samara, like that of Elm. 



1. XANTHOXYLUM, L. PRICKLY ASH. 



Flowers direcious. Sepals 4 or 5, obsolete in one species. Petals 4 or 5, 

 imbricated in the bud. Stamens 4 or 5 in the sterile flowers, alternate with 

 the petals. Pistils 2 5, separate, but their styles conniving or slightly united. 

 Pods thick and fleshy, 2-valved, 1 - 2-seeded. Seed-coat crustaceous, black, 

 smooth and shining. Embryo straight, with broad cotyledons. Shrubs or 

 trees, with mostly pinnate leaves, the stems and often the leafstalks prickly. 

 Flowers small, greenish or whitish. (From av06s, yellow, and v\ov, wood.) 



1. X. Americanum, Mill. (NORTHERN PRICKLY ASH. TOOTHACHE- 

 TREE.) Leaves and flowers in sessile axillary umbellate clusters ; leaflets 2-4 

 pairs and an odd one, ovate-oblong, downy when young ; calyx none ; petals 

 4 - 5 ; pistils 3-5, with slender styles ; pods short-stalked. Rocky woods and 

 river-banks; common, especially northward. April, May. A shrub, with 



