SAPINDACEAE (^SOAPBERRY FAMILY) 659 



rather incurved wings. (Negundo aceroides Moench.) — River-banks, w. N. E. 

 to Man., southw. and westw. ; extensively cultivated and frequently seeding 

 itself eastw. Apr. — A small but handsume tree, with light-green twigs, and 

 very delicate drooping clusters of small greenish flowers rather earlier than the 

 leaves. 



SAPINDACEAE (Soapberry Family) 



Trees, shrubs, rarely herbaceous climbers, with exstipulate chiefly alternate and 

 compound leaves. Flowers often polygamous, mostly unsymmetrical. Stamens 

 commonly more numerous than the petals, rarely twice as many. Embryo 



curved or convolute, rarely straight ; cotyledons thick and fleshy. Large 



family, chiefly woody climbers in the tropics. 



1. Sapindus. Flowers subregular. Leaves alternate, pinnate. 

 2« AeSCUluS. Flowers Irregular. Leaves opposite, palmate. 



1. SAPINDUS TTourn.] L. Soapberry 



Flowers regular, polygamous. Sepals 4-5, imbricated in 2 rows. Petals 

 4-5, with a scale at the base. Stamens 8-10, upon the hypogynous disk. Ovary 

 3-celled, with an ascending ovule in each cell. Fruit a globose or 2-3-lobtd 

 berry, 1-3-seeded. Seed crustaceous, globose. — Trees or shrubs, with alternate 

 abruptly pinnate leaves, and small flowers in terminal or axillary racemes or 

 panicles. (Name a contraction of sapo indicus, Indian soap, having reference 

 to the saponaceous character of the berries.) 



1. S. Dnimm6ndi H. & A. Tree, G-18 m. high ; leaflets 4-9 pairs, obliquely 

 lanceolate, sharply acuminate, entire, 3.7-7.5 cm. long; the rhachis of the leaf 

 not winged ; flowers white, in a large panicle ; fruit mostly globose, 1.2 cm. in 

 diameter. (^S*. acuminatus Man. ed 6, not Eaf.) — Kan. to La. and Mex. 



Cardiospermum Halicacabum L., the Balloon Vine of cultivation, an 

 herbaceous climber with bi-ternate leaves and bladdery pods, is occasionally 

 spontaneous. (In trod, from Tropics.) 



2. AESCULUS L. Horse-chestnut. Buckeye 



Calyx tubular, 6-lobed, often oblique or gibbous at base. Petals 4-5, more or 

 less unequal, with claws, nearly hypogynous. Stamens 7 (rarely 6 or 8) ; fila- 

 ments long, slender, often unequal. Style 1 ; ovary 3-celled, with 2 ovules in 

 each cell. Fruit a leathery pod, 3-celled and 3-seeded, or usually by abortion 

 1-celled and 1-seeded, loculicidally 3-valved. Seed very large, with thick shin- 

 ing coat, and a large round pale scar. Cotyledons very thick and fleshy, their 

 contiguous faces coherent, remaining under ground in germination ; plumule 

 2-leaved ; radicle curved. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, digitate; leaf- 

 lets serrate, straight-veined, like a Chestnut leaf. Flowers in a terminal thyrse 

 or dense panicle, often polygamous, most of them with imperfect pistils and 

 sterile ; pedicels jointed. Seeds farinaceous, but imbued with a bitter and nar- 

 cotic principle. (The ancient name of some Oak or other mast-bearing tree.) 



§1. EUA;feSCULUS Pax. Fruit covered with prickles lohen young. 



1. A. HippocAsTANUM L. (Common H.) Corolla spreading, white, spotted 

 with purple and yellow, of 5 petals; stamens declined; leaflets 7. — Com- 

 monly planted and occasionally self-sown. (Introd. from Asia via Fai.) 



2. A. glabra Willd. (Fetid or Ohio B.) Stamens curved, longer than the 

 pale yellow corolla of 4 upright petals ; leaflets usually 5. — River-banks, w. Pa. 

 to Mich., Mo., Kan., and southw. June. — A large tree; the bark exhahng an 

 unpleasant odor, as in the rest of the genus. Flowers small, not showy. 



