SAPINDACE^E. (SOAPBERRY FAMILT.) 83 



like clusters, terminating the branchlets. Stipules and stipels deciduous. (Name 

 from <rra(f>v\fi, a cluster.} 



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

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

 striped branches. 



SUBORDER II. SAPINDACEJE PROPER. 



2. ^SCUI^US, L. HORSE-CHESTNUT. BUCKEYE. 



Calyx tubular, 5-lobed, often rather oblique or gibbous at the base. Petals 4, 

 sometimes 5, more or less unequal, with claws, nearly hypogynous. Stamens 

 7 (rarely 6 or 8) : filaments long and slender, often unequal. Style 1 : ovary 

 3-celled, with 2 ovules in each, only one of which, or one in each cell, forms 

 a seed. Seed very large, with a thick and shining coat, and a large and round 

 pale scar, without albumen. Cotyledons very thick and fleshy, their contiguous 

 faces more or less united, remaining under ground in germination : plumule 

 2-leaved : radicle curved. Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, digitate : leaf- 

 lets serrate, straight-veined, like a Chestnut-leaf. Flowers in a terminal thyrsus 

 or dense panicle, often polygamous, the greater portion with imperfect pistils 

 and sterile. Pedicels jointed. Seeds farinaceous, but imbued with an intensely 

 bitter and narcotic principle. (The ancient name of some Oak or other mast 

 bearing tree.) 



1. JESCULUS PROPER. Fruit covered with prickles when young. 



1. JE. HlPPOCASTANUM, L. (COMMON HORSE-CHESTNUT.) Corolla 



spreading, white spotted with purple and yellow, of 5 petals ; stamens declined ; 

 leaflets 7. Commonly planted. (Adv. from Asia via Eu.) 



2. JE. glabra, Willd. (FETID or OHIO BUCKEYE.) Stamens curved, 

 much longer than the pale yellow corolla of 4 upright petals ; fruit prickly when 

 young; leaflets 5. River-banks, W. Penn. and Virginia to Michigan and 

 Kentucky. June. A small tree ; the bark exhaling an unpleasant odor, as 

 in the rest of the genus. Flowers small, not showy. 



$ 2. PAVIA, Boerh. Fruit smooth : petals 4, erect and conniving ; the 2 upper 

 smaller and longer than the others, consisting of a small and rounded blade on a 

 very long claw. 



3. JE. flsYva, Ait. ( SWEET BUCKEYE.) Stamens included in the yellow 

 corolla; calyx oblong-campanulate ; leaflets 5, sometimes 7, glabrous, or often 

 minutely downy underneath. Rich woods, Virginia to Ohio, Indiana, and 

 southward. May. A large tree, or a shrub. 



Var. piirpurascciis. Flowers (both calyx and corolla) tinged with 

 flesh-color or dull purple; leaflets commonly downy beneath. (JEi. discolor. 

 Pursh, Sf-c.} From W. Virginia southward and westward. 



4. JE. Fa via, L. (BED BUCKEYE.) Stamens not longer than the 

 corolla, which is bright red, as well as the tubular calyx; leaflets glabrous or 

 soft-downy beneath. Fertile valleys, Virginia, Kentucky, an'l southward. 

 Mav. A shrub or small tree. 



