208 



SAPINDACEAE. 



SAPINDUS. Soapberry. 

 (Family Sapindaceae). 



Trees (some species erect or 

 climbing shrubs) : deciduous or 

 some species evergreen. Twigs 

 rather stout, somewhat fluted: 

 pith rather large, roundish, con- 

 tinuous, pale. Buds sessile, su- 

 perposed, depressed-globose, with 

 2 exposed scales, the end-bud 

 lacking. Leaf-scars alternate, lit- 

 tle raised, rather large, triangu- 

 lar or somewhat 3-lobed: bundle- 

 traces 3, large but indistinct: sti- 

 pule-scars lacking. 



Winter-character references: 

 Sapindus Drummondii. Hitch- 

 cock (1), 4, f. 6, (3), 10. S. Mu- 

 kurosi. Shirasawa, 237, pi. 2. 



Acer and Aesculus, now made 

 the basis of distinct families, were 

 formerly placed in the Sapinda- 

 ceae, the name of which, as of 



its typical genus Sapindus, refers to a saponifying glucoside, 

 saponin, which occurs abundantly in the buckeyes. One case 

 has come to my knowledge in which pollen of Aesculus (jla~bra 

 caused a severe inflammation of the eyes that extended to 

 the throat and bronchial tubes and was held to be the pre- 

 disposing cause of a fatal pneumonia infection. 



1. Twigs and buds quite glabrous. S. Saponaria. 

 Buds, at least, pubescent. 2. 



2. Twigs becoming nearly glabrous. 



(Wild China-tree). (1). S. Drummondii. 

 Twigs persistently yellow-tomntose. S. marginatus. 



