174 HALOKAGEiE. (WATEU-MILFOIL FAMILY.) 



3. LIQXJIDAMBAR, L. Sweet-Gum Tree. 



Flowers usually monaciuus, in {^lobular heads or catkins ; the sterile arranged 

 in a conical cluster, naked : stamens very numerous, intermixed with minute 

 scales: filaments short. Fertile flowers consisting;; of many 2-eelled 2-beaked 

 ovaries, subtended by minute scales in place of a calyx, all more or less cohering 

 together and hardening in fruit, forming a spherical catkin or head ; the pods 

 opening between the 2 awl-shaped beaks. Styles 2, stigmatic down the inner 

 side. Ovules many, but only one or two perfecting. Seeds with a wing-angled 

 seed-coat. — Catkins racemcd, nodding, in the bud enclosed by a 4-leaved decid- 

 uous involucre. (A mongrel name, from //^w/V/hs, fluid, and the Arabic «»(/«!/•, 

 nmbcr; in allusion to the fragrant terebinthinc juice which exudes from the 

 tree.) 



1. L. Styraciflua, L. (Sweet Gum. Bilsted.) Leaves rounded, 

 deei)ly 5-7-lol)ed. smooth and shining, glandular-serrate, the lobes pointed. — 

 Motst woods, from Connecticut to Illinois, and southward. April. — A large 

 and beautiful tree, with fine-grained wood, the gray bark commonly with 

 corky ridges on the branchlets. Leaves fragrant when bruised, turning deep 

 crimson in autumn. The woody pods filled mostly with abortive seeds, re- 

 sembling sawdust. 



Order 38. II.lLORAGE.i:. (Water-Milfoil Family.) 



Aquatic or marsh plants (at least in northern countries), with the incon- 

 spicuous symmetrical Jiowers sessile in the axils of leaves or brads, cahjx-lube 

 coherent icith the ovary, which consists 0/2-4 niore or less united carpels 

 (or in Ilippuris of only one carpel), the styles or sessile stir/mas distinct. 

 Limb of the calyx obsolete or very short in (crtile flowers. Petals small 

 oi; none. Stamens 1-8. Fruit indehiscent, 1-4-celled, with a single 

 jwiatropous seed suspended from the summit of each cell. Embryo in the 

 axis of flcsliy albumen : cotyledons minute. — Formerly attached as a sub- 

 order to Onagracea?, but now deemed quite distinct. 



1. Myriophyllutn. Flowrers monoecious or polygamous, the part? in fours, with or without 



petals. Stamens 4 or 8. Immersed leaves pinnately disseoteil. 



2. Proserpinaca. Flowers perfect, the parts in threes. Petals none. Immersed leaves 



pinnately dissected. 

 8. Hippuris. Flowers usually perfect. Petals none. Stamen, style, and cell of the ovary 

 only one. Leaves entire. 



1. MYEIOPHYLLUM, Vaill. Water-Mii.foii.. 



Flowers monaeious or polygamous. Caly.x of the sterile flowers 4-parted, 

 of the fertile 4-toothed. Petals 4, or none. Stamens 4-8. Fruit nut-like, 4- 

 celled, deeply 4-lobed : stigmas 4, recurved. — Perennial aquatics. Leaves 

 crowded, often whorlcd ; those under water pinnately parted into cnpillnry divis- 

 ions. Flowers sessile in the axils of the ujiper leaves, usually above water in 

 summer ; the uppermost staminatc. (Name from fivpios, a t/iousaiul, and ^vX- 

 Xov, a leaf, i. e. Milfoil.) 



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