448 TiLIACE.E. 



Lcarcfi mostly pinnate, deciduous. Floircrs small, with short pedicels, in ample racemes 

 or panicles : sepals 4-5, unequal : petals of same number and alternate with the sepals, each 

 usually with a scale at its base inside and inserted under the edge of the disk ; stamens 8-10 

 irsi'rted ou the disk, eciual, usually with hairy filaments included in the perfect fiowers but much 

 longer and exserted in the staminate flowers : anthers versatile : ovary ascending and 3-celled 

 with a single ovule in each cell ; style columnar, short, and 2-4-lobed stigma. Fruit a 

 l-o seeded drupe-like berry, subglobose or 2-3-lot)eu ; seed one in eacn carpel, obovate, with 

 smooth testa and hilum surrounded with silky hairs. 



The name is from sni)o and fiuhis, meaning Indian soap. 

 For species see pp. S'l'iSli-'). 



BUCKTHORN FAMILY. RHAMNACE^ Dumort. 



Trees and shrubs with watery bitter juice and of about five hundred seventy-five specie;;, 



grouped in forty-five genera. They are natives of warm and temperate regions, and six of the 



genera have arborescent representatives in the Ignited States, Rhanuiiis only being represented 



in the northeastern states. 



Leaves simple, mostly alternate and often .S-nerved : stipules small mostly deciduous. 

 Floicers small, greenish, mostly perfect; calyx -l-H-lobed valvate ; jiefnls 4-.'i inserted on the 

 calyx; disk annular and lining the calyx-tube or none; stamens oiijiusite the petals and in- 

 serted with them on the edge of the ileshy disk; anthers introrse, versatile; ovary superior, 

 2-."i-celled with 1 anatroi)ous ovule in each cell ; style columnar with terminal stigma. Fruit 

 a drupe or drupe-like, tipped with the remnants of the style ; seed usually with albumen. 



THE BUCKTHORNS. Genus RHAMXUS L. 



Trees and shrubs with bitter bark and often spinescent branches, of about seventy species, 

 inhabiting chiefly northern temperate and tropical regions. Five or six species are indigenous 

 to the United States and at least one or two others are naturalized from Europe. 



Leaves mostly alternate and deciduous or persistent, petiolate, conduplicate in the bud. 

 Floirers perfect or polygamous in small axillary cymes, racemes or panicles ; calyx campanu- 

 late. 4-i")-lobed ; petals 4-.5-emarginate and hooded around the stamen or none ; stamens 4-.T 

 with very short filaments; ovary ovoid, free from the disk: style .3-4-cleft or lobed. Fruit a 

 druiie with succulent flesh and 2-4-nutlets each containing a single erect grooved seed with 

 large foliaceous cotyledons and scant albumen. 



The name is the classical Green name of the European Buckthorn. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



a Leaves opposite, with P> or 4 pairs of arcuate veins running lengthwise ; nutlets grooved, 



R. Cathartica. 

 a" Leaves alternate, with (J-IO pairs of veins running to margin : nutlets smooth. 



Flowers and fruit in short-peduncled umbels R. Caroliniana. 



Flowers and fruit in sessile umbels R. Frangula. 



For species see pp. 3.'f6-3Ji9 and tJie folloirinr/: 



Alder Buckthorn, Rhamnus Frangnla L. A small tree or shrub of Europe, northern 

 Africa and western Asia, occasionally planted in this country for ornamental purposes and has 

 run wild in localities. It is very similar to the R. Caroliniana, differing chiefly in having rather 

 smaller more obtuse leaves and flowers and fruit in sessile umbels. 



LINDEN FAMILY. TILIACE.T: Juss. 



Trees, shrubs and herbs of about one hundred thirty-fi\-e genera and two hundred forty- 

 five species, chiefly tropical and more numerously repfesented in the southern hemisphere than 

 in the northern. Three genera are represented in North America of which the following only 

 is arborescent. 



Leaves simple, deciduous, mostly alternate and sti])ules small and caducous. Flou-ers 

 regular, perfect, generally in cymes or panicles; sepals mostly •"», valvate, deciduous; i)etnls 

 of same number and hypogenous, rarely more : stamens numerous ; pistil solitary, sessile, 

 2-ltt-celled ; ovules mostly anatropous ; style terminnl columnar; stigma capitate. Fruit 

 ijrupaceous or nut-like ; seeds in fleshy albumen ; cotyledons foliaceous. 



THE LINDENS OR BASSWOODS. Genus TILIA L. 



The Basswoods are widely distributed throughout the temperate regions of the northern 

 hemisphere, none, however, being found in western .\ni(>rica or central Asia. They are gen- 

 erally trees of great economic importance in the production of a soft valuable wood, a fibrous 



