TAMARICACEAE. 279 



In red soil pockets and red-lands, New Providence, Cat Island, Great Exuma, 

 Long Island, Great Ragged Island, Fortune Island, Acklin's, Crooked Island, Mari- 



fuana and Ambergris Cay : the Florida Keys and Texas to California ; West In- 

 ies, south to Guadelope ; continental tropical America. COMMON AYENIA. 



Order 17. HYPEEICALES. 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, the flowers mostly complete, perfect and 

 regular (irregular in Violaceae). Sepals distinct, or more or less united, 

 imbricated or convolute. Petals present and distinct or wanting. Stamens 

 usually numerous. Ovary compound, superior; placentae mostly parietal. 



Styles none ; trees or shrubs with small imbricated leaves. Fam. 1. TAMARICACEAE. 

 Styles present, separate or united. 

 Styles separate or partly united. 



Stigmas not brush-like ; endosperm little or none. 

 Herbs or low shrubs, rarely trees ; flowers per- 

 fect ; stamens distinct. Fam. 2. HYPEBICACEAE. 

 Trees or shrubs ; stamens mostly united. 



Flowers dioecious or polygamous ; placentae 



axile. Fam. 3. CLUSIACEAE. 



Flowers perfect ; placentae parietal. Fam. 4. CANELLACEAE. 



Stigmas brush-like ; endosperm copious. Fam. 5. TURNERACEAE. 



Styles completely united ; endosperm fleshy. Fam. 6. FLACOURTIACEAE. 



Family 1. TAMARICACEAE Lindl. 

 TAMARISK FAMILY. 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, without stipules, relatively small or 

 scale-like, entire, often imbricated. Flowers mainly perfect, regular, 

 usually in spikes or racemes. Calyx of 5, or rarely 4 or 6, imbricated 

 sepals. Corolla of 5, or rarely 4 or 6, distinct imbricated petals. Disk 

 10-lobed or obsolete. Stamens 5 to many; filaments distinct, free; anthers 

 opening lengthwise. Ovary 1-celled, superior, with 3-5 basal placentae. 

 Stigmas 3-5, distinct. Ovules 2-many on each placenta. Fruit a capsule. 

 Seeds erect, terminating in a coma. Four genera and about 100 species, 

 natives of the Old World. 



1. TAMAEIX L. Sp. PI. 270. 1753. 



Shrubs or trees, with irregularly and widely branching stems, the wood 

 firm. Leaves small, scale-like, clasping or sheathing. Flowers in dense spikes, 

 racemes or panicles. Sepals 4 or 5, rarely 6, distinct. Petals white or pink, 

 inserted under the lobed disk, distinct. Stamens 5-10; filaments not adnate 

 to the corolla. Stigmas 2-5, short. Seeds numerous. Endosperm wanting. 

 [Latin name.] About 60 species, of the Old World, the following typical. 



1. Tamarix gallica L. Sp. PI. 270. 1753. 



A shrub or a small tree, with slender spreading branches, the branchlets 

 very numerous, approximate or clustered, completely clothed with the imbri- 

 cated, scale-like, acute leaves which are 1 mm. long or less; spikes numerous, in 

 panicles; sepals triangular, about 0.5 mm. long; petals white or pinkish; 

 capsule pyramidal, about 1 mm. long. 



Waste places, spontaneous after cultivation, South Caicos and Grand Turk 

 Island : Naturalized from southern Europe in various localities from New York to 

 New Mexico and southward, and in Bermuda and the West Indies. TAMARISK. 



