8*8 LAURACEJE. (LAUREL FAMILY.) 



broadest a-x it their middle, obtuse, entire, one at least grain-bearing ; veins of the 

 leaf red, or, in var. vfRiois, green t "Waste and cultivated grounds. (Nat, 

 from Eu.) 



# * * Leaves linear-lanceolate, wavy-margined; the lower ones aurickd or sonewhat 

 heart-shaped at the base: valves awn-toothed: low annuals. 



9. R. IIK1I tti ill ll*, L. (GOLDEN DOCK.) Minutely pubc-sccnt, dif- 

 fusely branched ; whorls excessively crowded in leafy and compact or interrupted 

 spikes; valves rhombic-oblong, lance-pointed, each bearing 2-3 long awn-like 

 bristles on each side, and a large grain on the back. (Also R. persicarioides, L.) 

 Sea-shore, Virginia to Massachusetts, and in saline soil in the interior. Aug., 

 Sept. Plant 6' -12' high; remarkable for the crowded and almost orange- 

 colored fruiting calyx, beset with bristles which are usually longer than the 

 width of the valves. (Eu.) 



4 2. ACETOSELLA, Tourn. Flowers dioecious: styles adherent to the angles of 

 the ovary : herbage acid. 



10. R. ACETOSELLA, L. (FIELD or SHEEP SORREL.) Low ; leaves lance, 

 halberd-form, at least those of the root, the narrow lobes entire ; whorls leafless, 

 in slender panicled racemes ; valves scarcely enlarging in fruit, ovate, not grain- 

 bearing. 1J. An abundant weed in waste places and all sterile and worn fields 

 May. The fertile panicles usually turn reddish in summer. (Nat. from Eu , 



See Addend. 



RHEUM RIIAPONTICUM is the PIE RHUBARB, so commonly cultivated foi 

 the sake of its fleshy and acid esculent leaf-stalks. 



ORDER 93. LAURACE^E. (LAUREL FAMILY.) 



Aromatic trees or shrubs, with alternate simple leaves mostly marked with 

 minute pellucid dots, and powers with a regular calyx 0/4 - 6 colored sepals, 

 which are barely united at the base, imbricated in 2 rows in the bud, free from 

 the l-celled and l-ovuled ovary, and mostly fewer than the stamens : anthers 

 opening by 2-4 uplifted valves. Flowers clustered Style single. Fruit 

 a 1-seeded berry or drupe. Seed anatropous, suspended, with no albumen, 

 filled by the large almond-like embryo. A well-marked family, very nu- 

 merous in the tropics, represented in our district by only five species. 



Synopsis. 



* Flowers perfect : stamens 12, throe of them sterile. 



1. PERSEA. Calyx persistent. Anthers 4-celled, those of 3 stamens turned outward 



* * Flowers dioecious or dioeeiously polygamous : stamens 9. 



2. SASSAFRAS Flowers destitute of any involucre Anthers 4-celled, 4-valved. 



a BENZOIN. Flowers developed from a 4-leaved involucre. Anthers 2-celled, 2-valved. 

 4. TETR ANTIIERA. Flowers from a 2 - 4-leaved involucre Anthers 4-celled, 4 valved. 



1. PERSEA, Gaertn. ALLIGATOR PEAR. 



Flowers perfect, with a 6-parted calyx, which persists at the base of the berry- 

 like fruit Stamens 12. in four rows, the 3 of the innermost row sterile and re- 





