SOAPBERRY FAMILY. 89 



I. BLADDER-NUT FAMILY ; has perfect and regular 

 flowers, stamens as many as the petals, several bony seeds with 

 a straight embryo in scanty albumen, and opposite compound leaves 

 both stipulate and stipe Hate. 



1. STAPHYLKA. Erect sepals, petals, and stamens 5; the latter borne on the 



margin of a fleshy disk which lines the bottom of the calyx. Styles 3, slen- 

 der, separate or "lightly cohering: ovary strongly 3-lobed, in fruit becoming 

 a bladdery 3-lobed 3-celled and several-seeded large pod. Shrubs, with pin- 

 nately compound leaves of 3 or 5 leaflets. 



II. SOAPBERRY FAMILY PROPER ; has flowers often 

 polygamous or dioecious, and more or less irregular or unsymmetri- 

 cal. only 1 or 2 ovules, ripening but a single seed in each cell of 

 the ovary, the embryo coiled or curved, without albumen. No 

 stipules. 



Leaves alternate. Pod bladdery-inflated, except in No. 4. 



2. CARDIOSPERMUM. Herbs, with twice ternate and cut-toothed leaves, climb- 



ing by hook-like tendrils in the flower-clusters. Sepals 4, the inner pair 

 larger. Petals 4, each with an appendage on the inner face, that of the two 

 upper large and petal-like, of the two lower crest-like and with a deflexed 

 spur or process, raised on a claw. Disk irregular, enlarged into two glands, 

 one before each lower petal. Stamens 8, turned towards the upper side of 

 the flower away from the glands, the filaments next t them shorter. Styles 

 or stigmas 3, short: ovary triangular, 3-celled, with a single ovule rising from 

 the middle of each cell. Fruit a large and thin bladdery 3-lobed pod: seeds 

 bony, globose, with a scale-like heart-shaped aril adherent to the base. 



8. KCELREUTERIA. Small tree, with pinnate leaves. Sepals 5. Petals 3 or 4 

 (the place of the others vacant), each with a small 2-parted scale-like appen- 

 dage attached to its claw. Disk enlarging into a lobe before each petal. 

 Stamens 5-8. declined: filaments hairy. Style single, slender: ovary trian- 

 gular, 3-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell. Pod bladdery, 3-lobed, 

 3-celled. 



4. SAPINDUS. Trees, with abruptly pinnate leaves. Sepals and petals each 5, 

 or rarely 4; the latter commonly with a little scale or appendage adhering to 

 the short claw. Stamens mostly 8, equal. Style single: ovary 3-lobed, 

 3-celled, with a single ovule in each cell. Fruit mostly a globular and fleshy 

 1-celled berry (the 'other cells abortive), filled with a "large globular seed, its 

 coat crustaceous: cotyledons thick and fleshy. 

 * * Leaves opfwsite, o/'5- 9 digitate leaflets. Pod leathery, not inflated. 



6. jESCULUS. Trees or shrubs. Calyx 5-lobed or 5-toothed. Petals 4 or 5, 

 more or less unequal, on claws enclosed in the calyx, not appendaged. Sta- 

 mens 7, rarely 6 or 8: filaments slender, often unequal. Style single, as 

 also the minute stigma: ovary 3-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell. 

 Fruit a leathery pod, splitting at maturity into 3 valves, ripening 1 -3 very 

 large, chestnut-like, hard-coated seeds: the kernel of these consists of the very 

 thick cotyledons firmly joined together, and a small incurved radicle. 



III. MAPLE FAMILY ; has flowers generally polygamous 

 or dioecious, and sometimes npetalous, a mostly 2-lobed and 2-celled 

 ovary, with a pair of ovules in each cell, ripening a single seed 

 in each cell of the winged fruit. Embryo with long and thin coty- 

 ledons, coiled or crumpled. (See Lessons, p. 5, fig. 1 3, &c.) 

 Leaves opposite : no stipules. 



6. ACER. Trees, or a few only shrubs, with palmately-lobed or even parted leaves. 



Calyx mostly 5-cleft. Petals as many or none,' and stamens 3 - 8 or rarely 

 more, borne 'on the edge of the disk." Styles or stigmas 2, slender. Fruit 

 a pair of samaras or key-fruits, united at the base or inner face and winged 

 from the back. Occasionally the ovary is 3-celled and the fruit 3-winged. 



7. NEGUNDO. Trees, with pinnate leaves of 3 - 7 leaflets, and dioecious very 



small flowers, without petals or disk; the calyx minute: stamens 4 or 6. 

 Fruit, &c. of Acer. S&F _ 15 



