200 



POPULAR FLORA. 



4. Cherry or Sweet B. Tree, with hciirt-ovate arid pointed leaves, downy on the veins beneath, 

 and a close bark, bronze-colored on the twigs, which are spicy-tasted, like the foliage of Check- 

 erberry. Common N. B. Itnla. 



87. SWEET-GALE FAMILY. Order MYRICACEiE. 



Shrubs (generally low), with fragrant alternate leaves; and with catkins mncli as in the 

 Birch family, but short and with only one naked blossom under each scale ; the ovary 

 forming a little nut or dry drupe. 



Flowers monoecious : fertile catkins round and bur-like : fruit a smooth little nut. Leaves 



lance-linear, pinnatifid. Fern-like, whence the common name, ( Comptunia) Sweet-Fekn. 

 Flowers dioecious: scales of the fertile catkins falling off, and leaving only the small 

 round fruits, which are incrusted with wax, and so appear like drupes. Leaves 

 entire or serrate, (Jfyj-'tca). 



One species in wet grounds, N., with wedge-lanceolate pale leaves, (M. Gale) Sweet-Gale. 



One on the sea-coast with lance-oblong, shining leaves, and waxy fruit, {M. cerifera) Baybekry. 



88. WILLOW FAMILY. Order SALIC ACE^.. 



Dioecious trees or shrubs, with both 

 kinds of blossoms in catkins (often 

 earlier than the foliage) ; the flowers 

 naked (without any calyx or corolla), 

 one sort of two or more stamens 

 under a scaly bract ; the other of a 

 one-celled pistil with two styles or 

 stigmas, making a many-seeded pod : 

 the seeds bearing a long tuft of down. 

 Leaves alternate and simple : wood 

 soft and li^ht : bark bitter. — The 

 AVillows are of very many species, 

 and are much too difficult for the 

 beainner. 



494. Shoot and catkin of sterile flowers of the Com- 

 mon White Willow. 495. A scale separated, wuli its 

 flower, consisting of two slnmei i and a liiile ghind, 

 magnified. 496. Shoot an*] fertile catkin of' the same. 

 497 A ptBtillate flower wiih its scale and gland, mag- 

 nified. 



Scales of the catkins entire: stamens 2 to 6: stigmas short: leaves narrow, (Salix) Willow. 



Scales of the catkins cut-lobed: stamens 8 to 40; stigmas long: leaves broad. Scaly leaf- 

 buds covered with a resinous varnish, {Pdjndus) PorLAn. 



