378 THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



M. Hippocastanum, Linn. Common horse-chestnut. Fig. 277. Buds 

 noticeably large and resinous: leaf-scars large, horseshoe-shaped: leaves 

 large, palmately compound, usually with 7 leaflets; leaflets obovate, abruptly 

 pointed at tip: corolla of 5 petals, white, spotted with purple and yellow; 

 stamens long, exserted: fruit prickly. Blooms June to July. 



M. rubicunda, Loisei. Red horse-chestnut. Small, round-headed tree, 

 cultivated: leaflets 5-7: petals 4, broad, on slender claws, rose-red; stamens 

 usually 8. 



EL. glabra, Willd. Ohio buckeye. Tall tree, native in woods and along 

 river banks, west of Alleghanies: bark rough and ill-scented when peeled or 

 bruised: leaflets 5, oval or oblong, acuminate: flowers small, in short panicle; 

 petals 4, narrow, on claws, nearly equal, erect, pale yellow; stamens longer 

 than petals: fruit prickly at first. April, May. 



EL. octandra, Marsh. Sweet buckeye. Large tree, rarely shrubby: bark 

 dark brown, scaly: leaflets usually 5, sometimes 7: flowers yellow; calyx 

 oblong; petals 4, very unequal, long-clawed, connivent, longer than sta- 

 mens: fruit glabrous. Rich woods West and South. April and May. 



EL. Pavia, Linn. Red buckeye. Shrub or small tree, 3-10 ft., found in 

 fertile soil West and South: flowers red; calyx tubular; petals 4, unequal, 

 longer than the stamens: fruit nearly smooth. 



4. STAPHYLFA. Bladder-nut. 



Upright shrubs with opposite leaves, pinnately compound, with 3-7 leaf- 

 lets, stipulate: flowers small, white, in drooping clusters; sepals, petals and 

 stamens 5; styles 2-3: capsule a large bladdery pod, 2-3-lobed, 2-3-celled, 

 each cell several-seeded. 



S. trifolia, Linn. Shrub 6-10 ft., in thickets, in moist soil: leaflets 3, 

 ovate, acuminate, serrate, stipules deciduous: flowers bell-like, white, in 

 clusters at ends of branchlets. 



XXVII. POLYGALACE.E. Milkwort Family. 



Herbs or shrubs, with leaves mostly simple, entire, without stipules, 

 and flowers irregular and perfect. Represented by the genus 



POLYGALA. Milkwort. 



Mostly herbs, with bitter juice: flowers very irregular, some often cleisto- 

 gamous; sepals 5, unequal, 2 of them winged and colored (petal-like); petals 

 3, usually united into a tube, the middle petal hooded or crested, or other- 

 wise appendaged; stamens 6 or 8, the filaments usually monadelphous, but 

 the sheath split, more or less connate, within or hidden in the middle petal; 

 ovary 2-celled. The irregularity of the flowers makes some of the species 

 conspicuous, but others have very minute flowers, difficult to examine. 



P. paucifolia, Willd. Fringed polygala. Flowering wintergreen. The 

 most striking of the common milkworts, the flower being large (about 1 in. 

 long) and showy, rose-purple, with a fine, fringed crest on the central corolla 



