118 SAPINDACE^E. (SOAPBERRY FAMILY.) 



5. A. rtlbrum, L. (KED or SWAMP M.) Leaves 3-5 lobed, with acute 

 sinuses, whitish underneath ; the lobes irregularly serrate and notched, acute, 

 the middle one usually longest; petals linear-oblong ; flowers (scarlet, crimson, 

 or sometimes yellowish) on very short pedicels ; but the smooth fruit on pro- 

 longed drooping pedicels. Swamps and wet woods. April. A small tree, 

 with reddish twigs ; the leaves varying greatly in shape, turning bright crim- 

 son in early autumn. 



4. NEGTJNDO, Moench. ASH-LEAVED MAPLE. BOX-ELDER. 



Flowers dioecious. Calyx minute, 4 - 5-cleft. Petals none. Stamens 4 - 5. 

 Disk none. Sterile flowers in clusters on capillary pedicels, the fertile in 

 drooping racemes, from lateral buds. Leaves pinnate, with 3 or 5 leaflets. 

 Fruit as in Acer. (Name unmeaning.) 



1. N. aceroid.es, Moench. Leaflets smoothish when old, very veiny, 

 ovate, pointed, toothed ; fruit smooth, with large rather incurved wings. 

 River-banks, W. New Eng. to the Dakotas, south and westward. April. A 

 small but handsome tree, with light-green twigs, and very delicate drooping 

 clusters of small greenish flowers, rather earlier than the leaves. 



5. STAPHYLEA, L. BLADDER-NUT. 



Calyx deeply 5-parted, the lobes erect, whitish. Petals 5, erect, spatulate, 

 inserted on the margin of the thick perigynous disk which lines the base of 

 the calyx. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals. Pistil of 3 several-ovuled 

 carpels, united in the axis, their long styles lightly cohering. Pod large, 

 membranaceous, inflated, 3-lobed, 3-celled, at length bursting at the summit ; 

 the cells containing 1-4 bony anatropous seeds. Aril none. Embryo large 

 and straight, in scanty albumen , cotyledons broad and thin. Upright shrubs, 

 with opposite pinnate leaves of 3 or 5 serrate leaflets, and white flowers in 

 drooping raceme-like clusters, terminating the branchlets. Stipules and stipels 

 deciduous. (Name from a-ra^v^, a cluster.) 



1. S. trifblia, L. (AMERICAN BLADDER-NUT.) Leaflets 3, ovate, pointed. 

 Thickets, in moist soil. May. Shrub 10 high, with greenish striped 

 branches. 



ORDER 30. AKACAKDIACE^B. (CASHEW FAMILY.) 



Trees or shrubs, with resinous or milky acrid juice, dotless alternate 

 leaves, and small, often polygamous, regular, 5-merous flowers, but the ovary 

 l-celled and 1-ovuled, with 3 styles or stigmas. Petals imbricated in the 

 bud. Fruit mostly drupaceous. Seed without albumen, borne on a 

 curved stalk that rises from the base of the cell. Stipules none. Juice 

 or exhalations often poisonous. 



1. RHTJS, L. SUMACH. *'. 



Calyx small, 5-parted. Petals 5. Stamens 5, inserted under the edge or 

 between the lobes of a flattened disk in the bottom of the calyx. Fruit small 

 and indehiscent, a sort of dry drupe. Leaves usually compound. Flowers 

 greenish-white or yellowish. (The old Greek and Latin name.) 



