LAUREL FAMILY. 285 



inner ones. Styles 3, short ; stigmas large, multifid. Akene triquetrous, 

 winged at the angles, surrounded at base by the withered calyx. Her- 

 baceous: leaves chiefly radical, large ; flowers fasciculate, racemose-panic- 

 ulate. 



1. R. RHAPON'TICUM, Ait. Leaves cordate-ovate, rather obtuse, the 

 sinus at base dilated ; petioles with a shallow channel above, rounded at 

 the edges. 



HHAPOXTIC RHEUM. Rhubark. Pie Rhubarb. 



Root perennial, tuberous, large, reddish-brown, yellow within. Stem 3-5 feet high, 

 stout, striate-suloate, smoothish, fistular, paniculately branched at summit. Radical 

 leaves becoming very large (18 inches to 2 feet long), smoothish above, 1 pubescent on the 

 veins beneath; petioles thick and succulent, 4-8 or 10 inches long, the stem-leaves 

 smaller, and petioles shorter, as they ascend ; stiimles large, membranaceous, sheathing. 

 Fl'iii'rr.-s in large terminal racemose panicles, ihcpedicels fasciculate, slender, one-third 

 to half an inch long, articulated near the middle. Sepals greenish, with white margins, 

 the outer ones rather narrow. Stigmas large, multifid, rellexed. 



Gardens : cultivated. Native of Scythia. Fl. May. Fr. July -August. 



Obs. Frequently cultivated for the sake of its fleshy acid petioles - 

 which are used by the pastry cook, in early spring, as a substitute for 

 fruit, in making pies. The root of other species affords the medicinal 

 Rhubarb, and this species is cultivated in England for its roots, which 

 form an inferior kind of the drug. 



ORDER LXI. LAURA' CE^. (LAUREL FAMILY.) 



Aromatic trees or shrubs with alternate simple leaves, without stiptdes, and clustered often 

 polygamo-dioecious^/Zowws; calyx of 4-6 colored sepals, imbricated in two rows in the 

 bud ; stamens definite, usually more numerous than the sepals ; anthers 2-4-cclled, open- 

 ing by uplifted persistent valves ; style single ; fruit a 1 -seeded berry or drupe. Seed sus- 

 pended, without albumen. 



The tropical plants of this Order are highly interesting, affording Cinnamon, Cassia 

 and Camphor ; and also that species of Laurus (L. nobilis, L.) of which the ancients 

 formed their Laurel wreaths or crowns. The species in the United States are of less im- 

 portance. 



1. SAS'SAFRAS, Nees. SASSAFRAS. 



[Altered from Salsafraj, the Spanish name.] ** 



Flowers dioecious. Sepals 6, membranaceous, united at base, persistent. 

 STAM. FL. Stamens 9, in three scries, all fertile, the 3 innermost with 

 a pair of stipitate glands at base ; anthers introrse, linear, 4-celled. 

 PISTILLATE FL. Stamens 6, all sterile. Berry on a thickened clavate 

 fleshly pedicel. Trees with leaves often lobed but the margins entire, 

 and greenish yellow flowers in corymbose racemes, appearing with the 

 leaves. 



1. S. officina'le, Nees. Leaves ovate or some of them 3-lobed and 

 cuueate at base ; drupe dark blue ; peduncle purple. 



OFFICINAL SASSAFRAS. Sassafras. 



