114 PAPAVERACEAE (POPPY FAMILY) 



with 6 short rudiments of stamens and an ovoid ovary. Drupe ovoid (blue), 

 supported on a club-shaped and rather fleshy reddish pedicel. —Trees, with 

 spicy-aromatic bark, and very mucilaginous twigs and foliage ; leaves decidu- 

 ous, often lobed. Flowers greenish yellow, naked, in clustered and peduncled 

 corymbed racemes, appearing with the leaves, involucrate with scaly bracts. 

 (The popular name, applied by the early French settlers in Florida.) 



1. S. variifblium (Salisb.) Ktze. Trees 4-38 m. high, with yellowish 

 green twigs ; leaves ovate, entire, or some of them 3-lobed, soon glabrous. (^S. 

 officinale Nees & Eberm. ; S. Sassafras Karst.) — Rich woods, s. Me. {Deane, 

 Parlin) to s. Ont., Mich., e. la., and Kan., and s. to the Gulf. Apr. 



3. LITSEA Lam. 



Flowers dioecious, with a 6-parted deciduous calyx ; the sterile with 9 sta- 

 mens in 3 rows ; their anthers all introrse, 4-celled, 4-valved ; fertile flowers 

 with 12 or more rudiments of stamens and a globular ovary. Drupe globular. 



— Shrubs or trees, with entire leaves, and small flowers in axillary clustered 

 umbels. (Name of Chinese origin.) 



1. L. geniculata (Walt.) Nicholson. (Pond Spice.) Flowers (yellow) 

 appearing before the deciduous oblong leaves, which are hairy on the midrib 

 beneath ; branches forked and divaricate, the branchiets zigzag ; involucres 

 2-4-leaved, 2-4-flowered ; fruit red. {Malapoenna Coult.) — Swamps, Va. to 

 Fla. Apr. 



4. BENZ6lN Fabric. Wild Allspice. Fever Bush 



Flowers polygamous-dioecious, with a 6-parted open calyx ; the sterile with 

 9 stamens in 3 rows, the inner filaments 1-2-lobed and gland-bearing at base ; 

 anthers 2-celled and 2-valved ; fertile flowers with 15-18 rudiments of stamens 

 in 2 forms, and a globular ovary. Drupe obovoid, red, the stalk not thickened. 



— Deciduous-leaved shrubs, with honey-yellow flowers in almost sessile lateral 

 umbel-like clusters, appearing before the leaves (in our species) ; the clusters 

 composed of smaller clusters or umbels, each of 4-6 flowers and surrounded by 

 an involucre of 4 deciduous scales. Leaf-buds scaly. (So named from its odor, 

 which resembles that of benzoin, an oriental gum.) 



1. B. aestivale (L.) Nees. (Spice Bush, Benjamin Bush.) Nearly smooth 

 (2-5 m. high); leaves oblong-obovate, pale underneath. {Lindera benzoin 

 Blume ; B. Benzoin Coult.) — Damp woods, s. Me. to Ont., Mich., e. Kan., and 

 southw. March, Apr. 



2. B. melissaefblium (Walt.) Nees. Young branches and buds i)?i6escc>i«,- 

 leaves oblong, obtuse or heart-shaped at base, downy beneath; umbels few. 

 {Lindera Blume.) — Low grounds, N. C. to Fla., w. to s. 111. and Mo. Apr. 



PAPAVERACEAE (Poppy Family) 



Herbs with milky or colored juice, regular flowers with the parts in twos or 

 fours, fugacious sepals, polyandrous, hypogynous, the ovary l-celled with two or 

 more parietal placentae. — Sepals 2, rarely 3, falling when the flower expands. 

 Petals 4-12, spreading, imbricated and often crumpled in the bud, early de- 

 ciduous. Stamens rarely as few as 16, distinct. Fruit a dry l-celled pod (in 

 Papaver imperfectly many-celled, in Glaucium 2-celled). Seeds numerous, 

 anatropous, often crested, with a minute embryo at the base of fleshy and oily 

 albumen. — Leaves alternate, without stipules. Peduncles mostly l-flowered 

 Juice narcotic or acrid. 



