538 SIMAKUBACEAE (QUASSIA FAMILY) 



undershrubs with alternate simple or variously compound leaves. (The ancient 

 name.) 



1. R. GRAVEOLENS L. (COMMON R.) Suffruticose, glaucous, 8-6 dm. high ; 

 leaves thickish, 2-3-pinnatifid, ultimate lobes or divisions obovate-cuneate ; 

 petals denticulate. Formerly much cultivated for aromatic qualities and sup- 

 posed medicinal value ; now locally established in pastures, Weybridge, Vt. 

 (Brainerd), Peaks of Otter, Va. (Curtiss), and very likely elsewhere. (Introd. 

 from Eu.) 



SIMARUBACEAE (QUASSIA FAMILY) 



Trees and shrubs with floral structure much as in the Rutaceae but the foliage 

 destitute of pellucid dots. Chiefly tropical. 



1. AILANTHUS Desf. TREE OP HEAVEN 



Flowers polygamous. Calyx regular, 5-parted, the lobes imbricated. Petals 

 5, infolded-valvate. Stamens in staminate flowers 10, in perfect flowers 2-3, in 

 pistillate flowers none. Disk lobed. Ovary 2-5-parted, becoming in fruit 1-5 

 narrowly oblong membranaceous samaras (1-seeded in the middle). Handsome 

 trees of rapid growth. Leaves odd-pinnate. Flowers small, green or yellowish, 

 in ample terminal panicles, especially the staminate of unpleasant odor. (Name 

 said to be from a vernacular Moluccan designation, meaning tree of heaven, in 

 allusion to the height in the native habitat. ) 



1. A. GLANDUL6SA Desf. Leaves 3-6 dm. long, 11-23-foliolate ; leaflets 

 ovate, acuminate, entire or sparingly toothed toward the base. Extensively 

 cultivated as a shade tree, freely spreading by suckers, and locally self-sown. 

 (Introd. from Asia.) 



POLYGALACEAE (MILKWORT FAMILY) 



Plants with irregular hypogynous flowers, 4-8 diadelphous 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. 



1. POLYGALA [Tourn.] L. MILKWORT 



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

 most and the 2 lowest) are small and often greenish, while the two lateral or 

 inner (called wings) are much larger and colored like the petals. Petals 3, 

 hypogynous, 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. Ovary 2-celled, with an anatropous 

 ovule pendulous 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 carunculate. 

 Embryo large, straight, with flat and broad cotyledons, in scanty albumen. 

 Bitter plants (low herbs in temperate regions), with simple entire often dotted 

 leaves, arid no stipules. (An old name composed of TroXtfs, much, and yd\a, milk, 

 applied by Dioscorides to some low shrub reputed to increase lactation.) 

 * Perennial or biennial; flowers purple or white; leaves alternate. 



+- Flowers showy, commonly rose-purple, conspicuously crested; also some 



inconspicuous colorless cleistogamous flowers on subterranean branches. 

 1. P. paucifblia Willd. (FRINGED POLYGALA, FLOWERING WINTERGREEN.) 

 Perennial ; flowering stems short (7-10 cm. high) ; lower leaves small and 

 scale-like, scattered, the upper ovate, petioled, crowded at the summit ; flowers 

 1-3, large, peduncled ; wings obovate, rather shorter than the fringe-crested 

 keel; stamens 6 ; caruncle of 2 or 3 awl-shaped lobes longer than the seed. 



