USING THE KEYS xi 



attention early in the spring. The Synopsis of Groups refers 

 me to Key C (p. xxxvii) where, by the successive steps 1 to 15, 

 15 to 37, 37 to 38, 38 to 39, 39 to 41, 41 to 48, 48 to 49, 49 to 50, 

 I reach the conclusion that it is Vinca. Reference to the ac- 

 count of this genus (p. 134) shows that it is the periwinkle or 

 running "myrtle," Vinca minor. 



Of late years a gigantic twiner, woody only at base, has 

 come into extensive use. Its alternate compound leaves with 

 three large lobed leaflets enable me to trace it through Key D 

 (p. xli), by the steps 1-9-12-13-25-28-29 where I see that it is a 

 Pueraria, and reference to p. 77 shows that it is the Kudzu 

 vine, P. hirsuta. 



Finally, to take a more complicated case, I gather a shoot 

 of a very slender and graceful deciduous shrub under my win- 

 dow and note that is has alternate 5-ranked simple but some- 

 what lobed glabrous rather pointed leaves, with a single C- 

 shaped woody bundle showing when I snap the leaf-s'talk off 

 at its base; and the partly ripened fruits, earlier a mass of 

 small white flowers, clustered on short twigs, consist of sev- 

 eral very small follicles in each persistent calyx. The 

 Synopsis of Groups refers me to Key B (p. xxi) where I trace 

 it from 1-35-66-67-68-70-71-144-146-147-148-149-153-154 where I 

 conclude that it is a Spiraea. In the key to species of th,is; 

 genus (p. 54) I follow it from 1 to 9; 9 to 11; and 11 to 13, 

 where I am satisfied that it is the now very popular betterment 

 of the "bridal wreath," X 8. Vanhouttei. The Cyclopedia tells 

 me that this is- a hybrid of its fore-runner, 8. trilobata, with 

 8. cantoniensis, and incidentally I learn something of the num- 

 ber of species 1 of this attractive genus that the larger collec- 

 tions may include, and of their scientific classification. 



