82 RUE FAMILY. 



sometimes elevates more or less the single compound pistil or the 

 2-5 more or less separate carpels. Leaves either opposite or alter- 

 nate, in ours mostly alternate, without stipules. Flowers only in 

 No. 2 irregular. Many species are medicinal. 



1. Perennial, strong-scented, hardy (exotic] herbs : flowers perfect : stamens 8 or 

 10: ovary 4-5-lobed, 4-5-celled: seeds several. 



1. RUT A. Sepals and petals 4 or 5, short, the latter roundish and arching. Sta- 



mens twice as many as the petals. Style 1. Pod globular and many-seeded. 

 Leaves decompound. 



2. D1CTAMNUS. Sepals and petals 6; the latter long and lanceolate, on short 



claws, the lower one declining, the others ascending. Stamens 10; the long 

 filaments declining and curved, partly glandular. Styles 5, nearly separate. 

 Ovary a little elevated, deeply 5-lobed, in fruit becoming 5 flattened rough- 

 glandular 2-3-seeded pods, each splitting when ripe into 2 valves, which 

 divide into an outer and an inner layer. Leaves pinnate. 



2. Shrubs or trees, hardy, with polygamous, dioecious, or sometimes perfect, small 

 (greenish or whitish ) flowers : stamens 4 or 6, as many as lite petals: steds 

 single or in pairs. 



* Indigenous : leaves pinnate or of 3 leaflets, deciduous. 



3. Z ANTHOXYLUM. Flowers dioecious. Pistils 2 - 5 ; their styles slightly co- 



hering ; the ovaries separate, ripening into rather fleshy at length dry and 

 2-valved little pods. Seed black, smooth and shining. Prickly trees or 

 shrubs: leaves pinnate. 



4. PTELEA. Flowers polygamous. Pistil a 2-celled ovary tipped with a short 



style, forming a 2-celled 2-seeded and rounded wing-fruit or samara, in shape 

 like that of the Elm. Not prickly : leaflets 3. 



* # Exotic : leaves simple and entire, evergreen. 



6. SKIMMIA. Flowers polygamous or perfect. Ovary 2 -5-celled, with a single 

 ovule from the top of each cell, in fruit becoming a red berry or drupe. 



3. Shrubs or trees, exotic, not hardy, with sweet-scented foliage and perfect flowers, 

 having numerous (20-60) stamens. 



6. CITRUS. Petals 4-8, usually 5, thickish. Filaments irregularly united more 

 or less. Ovary many-celled, encircled at the base by a conspicuous disk (see 

 Lessons, p. 125, fig. 281), in fruit becoming a thick-rinded many-seeded large 

 berry. Branches usually spiny. Leaves evergreen, apparently simple, but 

 with a joint between the blade and the (commonly winged or margined) 

 petiole, showing that the leaf is a compound one reduced to the end-leaflet. 



1. RUTA, RUE. (The ancient name.) Natives of the Old World, y. 

 R. grav6olens, COMMON RUE. Cult, in country gardens ; a bushy herb, 



woody or almost shrubby at the base, with bluish-green and strongly dotted 

 obiong or obovate small leaflets, the terminal one broader and notched at the 

 end, and corymbs of greenish-yellow flowers, produced all summer ; the earliest 

 blossom has the parts in. fives, the rest in fours. Plant very acrid, sometimes 

 even blistering the skin. 



2. DICTAMNUS, FRAXINELLA. (Ancient Greek name.) Native of 

 Southern Europe. ^ 



D. Fraxindlla. Cult, for ornament ; herb with an almost woody base, 

 viscid-glandular, and with a strong aromatic scent ; the leaves likened to those 

 of Ash on a smaller scale (whence the common name) of 9 - 13 ovate and ser- 

 rate leaflets ; the large flowers in a terminal raceme, in summer, in one variety 

 pale purple with redder veins, another white. 



3. ZANTHOXYLUM, PRICKLY ASH. (Name composed of two 

 Greek words, meaning yellow wood.) Bark, leaves, and little fleshy pods very 

 pungent and aromatic. 



Z. Americanum, NORTHERN P. or TOOTHACHE-TREE. Rocky woods 

 and banks N. ; a prickly shrub or small tree, with leaves downy when young, 

 of ( J- 11 ovate or oblong leaflets ; the greenish flowers in axillary clusters, in 



