66 PLATANACEJO. }iatanu.f. 



flowers in dense globose naked unisexual heads, without perianth, mingled with 

 clavate truncate and minute liairy scales ; akenes obpyramidal, coriaceous, 1 -celled 

 and 1-seeded, surrounded at base by a dense ring of long hairs ; seed pendulous, 

 orthotropous. Staminate and pistillate heads on diiferent branches, the latter termi- 

 nal, solitary or few and moniliform-spicate. Filaments very short : anthers clavate, 

 with a prolonged peltate connective. Ovaries in clusters on a globular fleshy recep- 

 tacle : style terminal, stigmatic on one side, persistent : ovules 1 (rarely 2), pendu- 

 lous. Seed with membranous testa and little or no albumen. Kadicle elongated, 

 inferior. 



A single genus of half a dozen bpecios, one in tlie orient of tiie Old World, the rest Noitii 

 Anieiican und iMexicuu. 



1. PLATANUS, Tourii. BunuNwuoD. Sycamouk. 

 Characters as of the order. 



1. P. racemosa, Kutt. A widely branched tree, rarely becoming 100 feet high 

 and 6 feet or more in diameter : leaves very variable, densely tomentose when young 

 ■with pale or rusty tomentum, which is mostly deciiluous, usually very broadly cordate 

 in outline, sometimes truncate at base, or cuneate and decurrent upon the petiole, 

 3dobed or mostly 5 lobed usually beyond the middle, often large (sometimes li or 2 

 feet broad or more) ; lobes acute or acuminate, entire or denticulate or sometimes 

 coarsely sinuate-toothed ; sinuses acute or rounded ; petioles an inch or two long ; 

 stipules ocreate, deciduous, scarious with a foliaceous often nuich dilated entire or 

 toothed Yunh, cleft next to the petiole : fertile heads 2 to 7 in a moniliform spike, 

 an inch broad in fruit : nutlets tomentose when young, becoming glabrate, 3 lines 

 long, beaked by a slender style one-half as long or more, the basal hairs two-thirds 

 as long. — Audubon's Birds, t, 302; Nuttall, Sylva, i. 47, t. If); Newberry, Pacif. 

 K. Hep. vi. 33, t. 2, and hg. 10. F. occideiUalis, Jlook. it Arn. liot. Beechey, 160 

 and 390. P. Cali/ontica, IJenth. ]jot. Sulph. 54. 



A fref^nent and conspicuous tree from the Sacramento Valley to Southern California, liark 

 very white ; wood brittle, but is said to receive a good polish and to be more durable than that of 

 the eastern species. Tiie largest tree whose measurement has been reported is growiu" iu San- 

 tiago Canon, Los Angeles County. This was measured by Mias J. A*. Buah of San Jose, and 

 found to be 29 feet and 7 inches in circumference. 



OuDEu LXXXVI. BUXACE^. 



!N[onwcious trees or shrubs, or even herbs, with coriaceous simple evergreen 



leaves, without stipules, and rogtdar 4 - G-parte<l perianth free from the compound 



ovary ; distinguished from the following order especially by the watery juice, 



loculicidal capsule, and inverted ovules, i. e. the anatropous ovules, suspended from 



the summit of the cells, have the rliaphe dorsal or averse from (instead of next to) 



the jdacenta or axis. Segments of the perianth imbricate in 2 rows : stamens 4 or 



more : ovary 2- or 3-celled, with as many short mostly excentric styles, and 1 or 2 



ovules in each cell. 



An order of 5 genera and 25 species, of tropical and warm-temperate regions, of whicli the Bo.x 

 (valuable for its line-grained liard wood) is the type ; represented in tlie Atlantic States by a 

 single herbaceous s]»eeies {Pachysandra }>roci(i)ibciis), and on the I'aciHe by the following Cali- 

 fornian genus, which is ])eculiar in having central styles, solitary ovules, and exalbuminous seeds 

 with thin-coriaceous testa. 



