132 XANTHOXYLACEiE. Zanthoxylum. 



Order XXX. XANTHOXYLACEiE. Ad. Juss. The Prickly-ash Tribe. 



Flowers by abortion dicecious or polygamous, regular. Calyx of 3 - 5 sepals- 

 Petals as many as the sepals,^ or rarely none, convolutely imbricated in aestiva- 

 tion. Stamens as many as the sepals and alternate with them,, or twice as- 

 many, arising from the base of the torus which bears the abortive carpels. 

 Ovaries usually equal in number to the sepals, sometimes fewer, inserted on the 

 convex or elevated torus^ distinct or more or less united, each with 2 (rarely 4) 

 ovules. Styles united into one when the ovaries are combined -^ usually distinct, 

 or partly so, when the ovaries are not connate. Fruit sometimes baccate or 

 membranaceous, sometimes composed of 1 - 5 drupes or 2-valved capsules ; 

 the rather fleshy sarcocarp partly separable from the endocarp. Seeds one 

 or two in each cell or carpel, anatropous, pendulous, with a crustaceous testa,, 

 usually smooth and shining. Embryo lying within fleshy albumen : cotyledons 

 oval, flat. — Trees or shrubs, aromatic, pungent and bitter. Leaves without 

 stipules, simple or pinnate, usually marked with pellucid dots. 



.1. ZANTHOXYLUM. L. ; H. B. ^ K. nov, gen. ^ spec. 6.p. 1 ; Endl. gen. 597^. 



PRKKLY ASB. 



[iFrom the Greek, xanthos, yellow, and xylon, wood.] 



Flowers polygamo-dicecious. Sepals 3-5, small. Petals longer than the sepals, or none. 

 Stamens as many as the sepals and opposite them (or fewer) ; those of the pistillate flower 

 rudimentary. Ovaries 1-5, raised on a globose or cylindrical torus, distinct or united at 

 the base, with 2 collateral suspended ovules : styles distinct or united at the apex, some- 

 times very short. Carpels sessile or stipitate on the torus ; crustaceous in fruit, 1-2- 

 seeded. Seeds oval-globose when solitary, hemispherical when in pairs, black and shining. 

 — Trees or shrubs, usually with strong prickles. Leaves usually pinnate, rarely simple or 

 trifoliolate. Flowers small, greenish or whitish. 



&. Zanthoxylum proper, Colden. Sepals 5, with a minute glandular beard at the apex : petals 

 none : ovaries as many as the sepals and opposite them : styles at first somewhat united : stigmas 

 ciavate. 



1. Zanthoxylum Americanum, Mill. Common Prickly Ash.. 



Branches, and often the petioles, armed with short strong (stipular) prickles ; leaves pin- 

 nate ; leaflets ovate-oblong, nearly sessile, obscurely serrftlate or entire, more or less pubescent; 

 flowers in short axillary sessile umbels; carpels stipitate. — Willd. beschr. (1781), p. 116; 



