LEADING FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 353 



fruit is dry in some genera (Fig. 147) and fleshy in others 

 (Fig. 148). Our genera are grouped into four divisions (based 

 on characters of the flowers and fruit), which are often ranked 

 as separate families. 



320. Various uses of rosaceous plants. Aside from their im- 

 portance as fruit producers (Chapter XXIV), plants of the 

 Rose family are of value in many other ways. 



Medicinal products are oil of bitter almonds, blackberry-root 

 bark, wild-cherry bark, and oil of rose (used mainly as a perfume). 



Cabinet wood of 

 fine quality is 

 furnished by our 

 wild black cherry, 

 and the wood of 

 the apple, pear, 

 and wild haw- 

 thorn is excellent 

 for tool handles 

 and similar uses. 



In the Rose 

 family ornamental 

 plants are so nu- 

 merous that a 

 mere list of all of 

 them would oc- 

 cupy too much space. Some of the principal ones are roses, 

 hawthorns, various species of spiraBa, several kinds of crab 

 apple, the rowan tree or mountain ash, and the Japan quince. 



321. The Pea family (LeguminoscE). 1 The Pea family com- 

 prises about 7000 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees. The 

 flowers are usually hypogynous or somewhat perigynous, often 

 bilaterally symmetrical (Fig. 289), perianth generally in fives, 

 pistil of one carpel, fruit usually a one-celled pod (Fig. 290). 



1 The characteristic pod of the family is called a legume, and the plants 

 of the most familiar of the sub-families are often spoken of as legumes, but 

 the name does not seem to be botanically desirable. 



FIG. 288. Pea family 



A, actinomorphic corolla (Acacia cinerascens) ; B, zygo- 



morphic corolla of wild senna (Cassia marilandica). 



After Schnizlein 



