POLYGALACE.fi. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 85 



ft. A. 1'Ub mm, L. (RED or SWAMP MAPLE.) Leaves 3-blobedvrith 



the sinuses acute, whitish underneath; the lobes irregularly serrate and notched, 

 acute, the middle one usually longest; petals linear-oblong ; flowers on very short 

 pedicels (scarlet, crimson, or sometimes yellowish) ; but the fruit smooth, on pro- 

 longed drooping pedicels. Swamps and wet woods ; everywhere. March, 

 April. A small tree, with reddish twigs ; the leaves varying greatly in shape, 

 turning bright crimson in early autumn. 



A. PSEUDO-PLATAXUS, L., the FALSE SYCAMORE, and A. PLATANOIDES, 

 L., called NORWAY MAPLE, are two European species occasionally planted. 



4. NEG1JNDO, Mcench. ASH-LEAVED MAPLE. BOX-ELDER. 



Flowers dioecious. Calyx minute, 4- 5-cleft. Petals none. Stamens 4 -5. 



Sterile flowers in clusters on capillary pedicels ; the fertile in drooping ra- 

 cemes, from lateral buds. Leaves pinnate, with 3 or 5 leaflets. (Name un- 

 meaning. The genus, apparently of only a single" species, is too near Acer 

 itself.) 



1. W. aceroides, Mcench. (Acer Negnndo, L.) Leaflets smoothish 

 when old, very veiny, ovate, pointed, toothed ; fruit smooth, with large rather 

 incurved wings. River-banks. Penn. to Wisconsin, and southward. April. 



A small but handsome tree, with light-green twigs, and very delicate droop- 

 ing clusters of small greenish flowers, rather preceding the leaves. 



ORDER 37. POLYGALACE^E. (MILKWOKT FAMILY.) 



Plants with irregular, as if papilionaceous, Jiypogynous flowers, 4-8 dia- 

 delphous or monadelphous stamens, their l-celled anthers opening at the top 

 by a pore or chink; the fruit a 2-celled and 2-seeded pod. Represented 

 by the typical genus 



1. POL \ r GALA, Tourn. MILKWORT. 



Flower very irregular. Calyx persistent, of 5 sepals, of which 3 (the upper 

 and the 2 lower) are small and often greenish, while the two lateral or inner 

 (called icings) are much larger, and colored like the petals. Petals 3, hypogy- 

 nous, connected with each other and with the stamen-tube, the middle (lower) 

 one keel-shaped and often crested on the back. Stamens 6 or 8 : their filaments 

 united below into a split sheath, or into 2 sets, cohering more or less with the 

 petals, free above : anthers l-celled, often cup-shaped, opening by a hole or 

 broad chink at the apex. Ovaiy 2-celled, with a single anatropous ovule pen- 

 dulous in each cell : style prolonged and curved : stigma various. Fruit a 

 small, loculicidal 2-seeded pod, usually rounded and notched at the apex, much 

 flattened contrary to the very narrow partition. Seeds with a caruncle, or vari- 

 ously shaped appendage, at the hilum. Embryo large, straight, with flat and 

 broad cotyledons, surrounded by a sparing albumen. Bitter plants (low herbs 

 in temperate regions), with simple entire leaves, often dotted, and no stipules: 

 sometimes bearing concealed fertile flowers also next the ground. (An old 



