878 LAURACEJE. (LAUREL FAMILY.) 



broadest cuwve their middle, obtuse, entire, one at least grain-bearing ; veins of the 

 leaf red, or, in var. vfRiDis, green. Waste and cultivated grounds. (Nat. 

 from Eu. ) 



* * * Leaves linear-lanceolate, wavy-margined; the lower ones auricled or somewhat 

 heart-shaped at the base : valves awn-toothed : low annuals, 



9. R. marifiiniis, L. (GOLDEN DOCK.) Minutely pubescent, dif- 

 fusely branched ; wh(/rls excessively crowded in leafy and compact or interrupted 

 spikes ; valves rhombic-oblong, lance-pointed, each bearing 2-3 long awn-like 

 bristles on each side, and a large grain on the back. (Also R. persicarioides, L.) 

 Sea-shore, Virginia to Massachusetts, and in saline soil in the interior. Aug., 

 Sept. Plant 6' -12' high; remarkable for the crowded and almost orange- 

 colored fruiting calyx, beset with bristles which are usually longer than the 

 width of the valves. (Eu.) 



2. ACETO SELL/A, Tourn. Flowers dioecious: styles adherent to the angles of 

 the ovary : herbage acid. 



10. B. ACETOSELLA, L. (FIELD or SHEEP SORREL.) Low; leaves lance- 

 halberd-form, at least those of the root, the narrow lobes entire ; whorls leafless, 

 in slender panicled racemes ; valves scarcely enlarging in fruit, ovate, not grain- 

 bearing, y. An abundant weed in waste places and all sterile and worn fields. 

 May. The fertile panicles usually turn reddish in summer. (Nat. from Eu.) 



RHEUM RiiAp6NTicuM is the PIE RHUBARB, so commonly cultivated for 

 the sake of its fleshy and acid esculent leaf-stalks. 



ORDER 93. LAURACE^. (LAUREL FAMILY.) 



Aromatis trees or shrubs, with alternate simple leaves mostly marked with 

 minute pellucid dots, andjlowers with a regular calyx 0/4 - 6 colored sepals, 

 which are barely united at the base, imbricated in 2 rows in the bud, free from 

 the l-cetted and 1-ovuled ovary, and mostly fewer than the stamens : anthers 

 opening by 2-4 uplifted valves. Flowers clustered. Style single. Fruit 

 a 1 -seeded berry or drupe. Seed anatropous, suspended, with no albumen, 

 filled by the large almond-like embryo. A well-marked family, very nu- 

 merous in the tropics, represented in our district by only five species. 



Synopsis. 



* Flowers perfect : stamens 12, three of them sterile. 



1. PERSEA. Calyx persistent. Anthers 4-celled, those of 3 stamens turned outward. 



* * Flowers dioecious or dioeciously polygamous : stamens 9 



2. SASSAFRAS Flowers destitute of any involucre. Anthers 4-celled, 4-valved. 



8. BENZOIN. Flowers developed from a 4-leaved involucre. Anthers 2-celled, 2-valved. 

 4. TETRANTITERA. Flowers from a 2 - 4-leaved involucre. Anthers 4-celled, 4r-valyed. 



1. PERSEA, Gaertn. ALLIGATOR PEAR. 



Flowers perfect, with a 6-parted calyx, which persists at the base of the berry- 

 like fruit. Stamens 12, in four rows, the 3 of the innermost row sterile and ro- 



