298 THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



3. FREESIA. Freesia. 



Small cormous plants with flat leaves: flowers white or yellowish, tubu- 

 lar, with a somewhat spreading limb, the tube generally curved : stem about 

 1 ft. high, bearing several erect flowers on a sidewise cluster. Popular 

 florists' plants of easy culture and quick growth. 



F. refracta, Klatt. Fig. 439. Leaves narrow: flower usually somewhat 

 2-lipped or irregular, white in the most popular forms but yellowish in some, 

 often with blotches of yellow ; fragrant. Cape of Good Hope. 



4. GLADIOLUS. Gladiolus. 



Tall, erect plants, with flat, strong-veined leaves, the stem ' 

 arising from a corm (Fig. 50) : flowers in a more or less 1-sided 

 terminal spike, short-tubed, the limb flaring and somewhat 

 unequal: stamens separate (united in some related genera): 440. Gladiolus 

 style long, with three large stigmas. Gandavensis. 



G. Gandavensis, Van Houtte. Fig. 440. Upper segments of the peri- 

 antb nearly horizontal : colors various and bright : spikes long. Hybrid of 

 two or more species from the Cape of Good Hope. Summer and fall. 



BB. PHENOGAMS: ANGIOSPEEMS: DICOTYLEDONS. 



c. CHOEIPETAL^E. 



VII. CUPULIFER.E. Oak Family. 



Monoecious trees and shrubs with staininate flowers in catkins 

 and the fertile in catkins or solitary : lvs. alternate, with stipules 

 early deciduous (mostly scale-like), and the side-veins straight or 

 nearly so: stamens 2 to many: fruit a 1-seed nut, sometimes inclosed 

 in an involucre. Ten or a dozen genera and upwards of 450 species. 

 Representative plants are oak, chestnut, beech, birch, hazel, ironwood. 



a. Sterile flowers in a hanging head: fruits 2 three-cornered 



nuts in a small, spiny involucre or bur 1. Fagns 



aa. Sterile flowers in cylindrical catkins. 



b. Fruit 1 to 4 rounded or flat-sided nuts in a large, sharp- 

 spiny involucre or bur 2. Castanea 



bb. Fruit an acorn a nut sitting in a scaly or spiny cup 3. Quercus 



bbb. Fruit flat and often winged, thin and seed-like, borne 

 under scales in a cone 



C. Fertile flowers naked: mature cone-scales thin 4. Betula 



cc. Fertile flowers with a calyx: cone-scales thick 5. Alnus 



1. FAGUS. Beech. 



Tall forest trees with light bark, and prominent parallel side-veins in 

 the leaves : sterile flowers in a small, pendulous head, with 5-7-cleft calyx 



