390 WALNUT FAMILY. 



shaped or inversely pyramidal ovaries mixed vyith little scales and 

 tipped with a slender awl-shaped simple style, ripening into a sort of 

 akene with a tawny-hairy contracted base. No evident calyx. Leaves 

 alternate, palmately lobed or angled, the hollowed base of the petiole 

 covering and concealing the axillary bud (Lessons, Fig. 74) ; stipules 

 sheathing, like those of the Polygonum Family. Flowers spring. 



P. occidentsLliB, Linn. American Plane, Sycamore, or Buttonwood. 

 Well-known large tree by river banks, with white close bark separating 

 in thin brittle plates ; leaves truncate or heart-shaped at base, rather 

 scurfy-downy until old, the short lobes sharp-pointed, and fertile heads 

 solitary. 



P. orienta/is, Linn. Oriental Plane, especially its var. acerif6lia, 

 occasionally planted in this country, is very like ours, but is not so hardy, 

 has leaves more cut and sooner smooth, the heads larger. 



CVII. JUGLANDACE^, WALKUT FAMILY. 



Trees with alternate pinnate leaves, no stipules, and monoe- 

 cious flowers ; the sterile ones in catkins with an irregular 

 calyx and several stamens ; the fertile single or 2 or more in 

 a cluster, with a 3-5-lobed calyx, the tube of which is adherent 

 to the ovary, sometimes bearing petals. Ovary incompletely 

 2-4-celled, but with only a single ovule, erect from its base, and 

 ripens into a large fruit, the bony inner part of which forms 

 the nut, the fleshy at length dry outer part the husk. Seed 

 4-lobed, filled with the fleshy and oily embryo, the large and 

 separated cotyledons deeply 2-lobed and crumpled or corru- 

 gated. 



1. JTJGLANS. Sterile flowers in solitary catkins from the wood of the preceding year, 



each with 12-40 stamens on very short filaments. Fertile flowers on a terminal 

 peduncle, with a 4-toothed calyx, 4 little green petals and 2 club-shaped and fringed 

 conspicuous stigmas. Husk of the fruit drying up before splitting. Bark and 8hoot& 

 resinous-aromatic and strong-scented. Buds several, one over the other, the upper- 

 most far above the axil (Lessons, Fig. 78). Pith in plates. Leaflets numerous. 



2. CARTA. Sterile flowers in clustered lateral catkins, with 3-10 almost sessile anthers. 



Fertile flowers 2-5 in a cluster on a terminal peduncle ; no petals ; stigmas 2 or 4, 

 large. Husk of the fruit splitting into 4 valves, and falling away from the smooth 

 nut. Valuable timber and nut trees, with very hard and tough wood, and scaly buds 

 single (Lessons, Fig. 73), from which are usually put forth both kinds of flowers, 

 the sterile below and the fertile above the leaves. 



1. jtrGLANS, WALNUT. (Name from Jovis glans, the nut of Jupiter.) 

 Flowers spring ; fruit ripe in autumn. Seed sweet and edible. 



» Nut icith rough and furroiced surface, from lohich the dried husk does 

 not fall away ; seed very oily. 



J. cin^rea, Linn. Bdtternut or White W. Middle-sized tree with 

 smooth gray branches, growing from N. Eng. to Kan. and S.; stalks and 

 shoots clammy-downy ; leaflets downy, at least beneath, oblong-lanceo- 

 late, pointed, serrate; fruit oblong; nut with very rugged ridges. 



