92 WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



. Moist low grounds ; swampy woodlands : Canada to Florida. Fl. March - April. Fr. 

 September. 



Obs. The variety with yellowish or tawny flowers is quite common 

 in Pennsylvania, and in a pretty extensive examination, I find- those 

 flowers generally staminate and sterile (rarely perfect) ; while the bright 

 purple flowers are constantly perfect. The wood of the Red Maple 

 especially that variety or form of it, known as Curled Maple is much 

 used in the manufacture of various articles of furniture, c., and the 

 refuse timber makes excellent fuel. The bark affords a dark purplish- 

 blue dye, and makes a pretty good bluish-black ink. The sap of all 

 the species is more or less saccharine. 



2. NEGUN'DO, Moench. BOX-ELDER. 



[Origin of the name obscure.] 



Dicecious. Calyx minute, 4-5-cleft. Petals none. STAMINATE Fl. 

 mostly with 5 stamens on capillary clustered pedicels. PISTILLATE 

 Fl. in simple slender pendulous racemes. Fruit as in Acer. Leaves 

 pinnate. 



1. N. aceroi'des, Moench. Leaves pinnate in threes or fives ; leaflets 



rhombic-ovate, coarsely cut-toothed. 



ACER-LIKE NEGUNDO. Box-elder. Ash-leaved Maple. 



Stem 20-40 feet high, branched ; young branches with a yellowish -green bark. Leaflets 

 mostly 3, sometimes odd-pinnate in fives, 3-5 inches long ; common petioles 3-4 inches in 

 length. Flmvers yellowish-green, from lutofcl buds ; ovaries hairy ; fruit diverging. 



Low grounds : Middle and Southern and Western States. April. 



Obs. A handsome little tree, more abundant in the South and West 

 than in the Eastern states. 



ORDER XXIV. POLYGALA'CEJ^. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 



Herbs with mostly alternate simple and entire leaves, without stipules, and irregular some- 

 what papillionaceous powers. Stamens 4 -8, diadelphous ; anthers 1-celled, opening by a 

 pore at the summit. Style curved, often hooded. Fruit a 2-celled 2-seeded capsule. 



1. POLYGA'LA, Tournef. MILKWORT. 



[Greek, Poly, much, and Gala, milk ; from its supposed influence on the lacteal secretion.] 



Sepals 5, persistent ; the upper and two lower ones small, greenish ; the 

 two lateral ones (called wings) much larger and petal-like. Petals 3, 

 hvpogynous, connected with each other and with the stamen-tube ; the 

 middle or lower one keeled, often crested. Capsule compressed con- 

 trary to the narrow partition, loculicidal. Seeds with a caruncle or 

 variously shaped appendage at the hilum. 



1. P. Sen'ega, L. Perennial, stems simple, terete ; leaves _ alternate, 

 elliptic-lanceolate, the upper ones acuminate ; raceme terminal, spike- 



