FLORA OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 27 



Flowers in terminal racemes, panicles, umbels, or corj'mbs. 



Inflorescence a small dense panicle or corymb. P'riiit dry, a capsule or 

 of several follicles; petals white or i)ink; low shrubs. 

 Stipules present; leaves not 3-nerved; fruit of several follicles. 



Spiraea (p. 174). 

 Stipules none; leaves 3-nerved; fruit a 3-celled capsule. 



RHAMNACEAE (p. 201). 

 Inflorescence of racemes or of loose umbels. 

 Leaves broadest above the middle, wedge-shaped at the base. Shrubs; 



fruit a 3-valved capsule CLETHRACEAE (p. 220). 



Leaves broadest at or below the middle, not wedge-shaped at the base. 

 Fruit a dry capsule, 2-lobed at the apex; petals about 5 mm. long; 

 flowers in dense 1-sided racemes; shrubs 



ESCALLONIACEAE (p. 172). 

 Fruit fleshy; petals usually more than 5 mm. long; flowers not in 

 1-sided racemes; shrubs or trees. 

 Fruit 1-seeded, sometimes pubescent, the calyx borne at its base 



and deciduous AMYGDALACEAE (p. 179). 



Fruit with more than 1 seed, glabrous, the calyx lobes present on its 

 summit MALACEAE (p. 177). 



II. Herbaceous Plants. 



Key to the Groups. 



Plants grasses or grasslike. Corolla green or none A (p. 28) . 



Plants not gi'asslike. 



Plants floating on or submerged in water B (p. 28). 



Plants not floating on or submerged in water, sometimes growing in the edge of 

 water but then usually erect. 

 Leaves compound, composed of few or many leaflets, or lobed to the midrib 



or base (p. 29). 



Leaves simple, sometimes lobed but the lobes not extending to the midrib or 

 base. 

 Stems climbing or twining, sometimes furnished with tendrils; plants green. 



D (p. 31). 

 Stems not climbing or twining, or, if so, without green coloring, never fur- 

 nished with tendrils. 

 Plants without green coloring. Fruit a capsule; leaves reduced to scales. 



E (p. 31). 

 Plants with green coloring. 



Plants without a leafy stem, or the stems undergroimd, the flowering 

 stems naked or bearing a single leaf or a whorl of leaves subtending 



the inflorescence F (P- 32). 



Plants with leafy stems, the leaves sometimes reduced to scales; stems 

 sometimes bearing only a single leaf, but this borne far below the 

 inflorescence. 

 Leaves evidently parallel- veined ; parts of the flower in 3'8 or 6'b; plants 



sometimes with bulbs Gr (p. 33). 



Leaves net-veined; parts of the flower usually in 4's or 5'8, but rarely 

 in 3's; plants never with bulbs. 

 Leaves all, or at least some of them, opposite. 



Leaves entire H (p. 34) . 



Leaves toothed or lobed •. I (p. 36). 



