112 CASHEW FAMILY. 



Var. nigrum, Torr. aiul Gray. Black Sugar M. Has leaves green, 

 often downy beneath, tliickor and more coriaceous when old, the sinus at 

 the base often closed. Stipules large, early deciduous. Also much planted. 



* » * Flowers in earliest spring much preceding the leaves, in umbel-like 

 clusters from separate lateral buds. 



A. dasyc^rpum, P>hrh. White or Silver M. A handsome tree ; 

 branches long and spreading or drooping ; leaves very deeply 5-lobed, 

 silvery-white, and when young downy beneath, the narrow lobes coarsely 

 cut and tootlied ; tiowers greenish ; petals ; fruit woolly when young, 

 but soon smooth, 2'-3' long, Including the great diverging wings. River 

 banks S. and W. Cut-leaved forms are grown. 



A. rtibrum, Linn. Red, Soft, or Swamp M. Rather small tree ; twigs 

 reddish ; leaves moderately 3-5-lobed, whitish beneath, the middle lobe 

 longest, all irregularly serrate ; petals linear-oblong ; flowers scarlet, 

 crimson, or sometimes yellowish ; fruit smooth, with the slightly spreading 

 wings 1' or less in length, often reddish. 



6. NEGUNDO, BOX ELDER, ASH-LEAVED MAPLE. (Meaning- 

 less name. ) 



N. aceroides, Moench. Small tree, twigs light green ; leaflets ovate, 

 pointed, coarsely toothed, very veiny. Sterile flowers fascicled on long 

 hairy pedicels ; fertile in drooping racemes, all appearing with the leaves. 

 New Eng. S. and W. One form has variegated leaves. 



7. STAPHYLEA, BLADDER NUT. (Greek : a cluster.) 



* Leaflets 3, ovate, acuminate, serrate. 



S. trif61ia, Linn. American B. Shrub 8°-10° high, branches green- 

 ish striped ; stipules deciduous ; raceme-like clusters of white flowers 

 hanging at the end of the branchlets of the season, in spring ; petals 

 longer than sepals ; fruit 3-celled. Low ground, common N. and W. 



S. Bumd/da, DC. Japan B. Leaf edges bristly -serrate ; panicled clus- 

 ters of white flowers, erect or nodding ; petals equaling the serralate sepals ; 

 ovary and flattish fruit 2-celled. Japan. 



* « Leaflets mostly 5, rarely 3 or 7 ; fruit S-celled. 



S. pinnata, Linn. European B. Leaflets broadly ovate; flowers in 

 small pendulous clusters, 3"-4" long ; sepals little spreading ; fruit as 

 broad as long. Eu. 



XXXIV. ANACARDIACEiE, CASHEW FAMILY. 



Trees or shrubs, with resinous or acrid, sometimes poisonous, 

 often colored or milky juice ; alternate leaves without stipules ; 

 small flowers (often polygamous) with sepals, petals, and 

 stamens 5 ; and a 1-celled, 1-ovuled ovary, bearing 3 styles or 

 stigmas:- — represented by the genus 



X. RHUS, SUMACH. (Ancient name.) Flowers whitish or greenish ; 

 stamens inserted under the edge or between the lobes of a flattened 

 disk in the bottom of the calyx ; fruit a small dry or berry -like drupe 

 tiie solitary seed on a curved stalk rising from the bottom of the cell. 



