DICOTYLEDONES : POLYPETALJ1 : DISCIFLORJS. 



G17 



blooming before the unfolding of the leaves, and fruits with widely diverging 

 wings (even more than in Fig. 418) ; A. campestre, the common Maple, which 

 is sometimes shrubby, with a trilobate leaf, short erect racemes of flowers which 

 bloom after the unfolding of the leaves, and fruits with wings which are dia- 

 metrically opposite. Some North American species are often cultivated, such as 

 A. rubrum, with five stamens opposite to the sepals, and a rudimentary disc ; 

 A. dasycarpum, with the same number and position of the stamens, without any 

 corolla, and having dioscious flowers ; A. Neyundo, with compound 3-5 foliolate 

 leaves, and dioecious flowers like those of the preceding species. Sugar is 

 prepared from the sap of A. saccharinum and dasycarpum especially. 



Order 3. PoLYGAr,ACE2E. Flowers irregular, dorsiventral ; the 

 two lateral sepals conspicuously large and known as " wings " 

 (Fig. 419 k') : petals three, the two lateral being absent; the an- 

 terior petal is very large and carinate : stamens usually eight, 

 forming a tube open posteriorly, to which the corolla, or at least 

 the anterior 

 petal, is adnate B 



( Fig. 419): disc 

 rudimentary : 

 carpels two, 

 median, forming 

 a bilocular 

 ovary, each 

 loculus con- 

 taining a single 

 suspended 

 ovule : fruit 



usually, a capsule. The flower somewhat resembles that of the 

 Papilionese, but it must be borne in mind that here the two " alee " 

 or wings belong to the calyx. 



The flower of the Polygalaceae resembles that of the Aceracese in the suppres- 

 sion of two stamens in the plane of the two carpels. 



Polygala vulgaris, amara, and others, the Milkworts, are herbs, woody at 

 the base, occurring in woods and meadows. 



Order 4. ANACARDIACEJ;. Flowers usually actinomorphic, and 

 often diclinous: stamens usually inserted on the disc, but disc 

 sometimes absent: gynaeceum of but few carpels; sometimes one 

 only is developed, the others being represented by two or more 

 stigmata; each loculus of the ovary contains one anatropous 

 ovule with dorsal raphe : resin-ducts present : seed without endo- 

 sperm. 



FIG. 419 Flower of Polygala grandiflora. A SHOII from out- 

 sitle after the removal of the wing-sepal fe. JB Longitudinal 

 section: fc calyx ; k' wing; c corolla; s tube of stamens. (After 

 Sachs.) 



