Staphylea. CELASTRACEyE. 139 



Group 10. Ovary compound, 2 - b-celled. Calyx free from, or adherent to the base 

 of the ovary. Petals and stamejis equal in number to the lobes of the calyx, 

 and inserted into its base or throat, or upon the disk that covers it. Seeds 

 albuminous. — Trees or shrubs. Floxoers regular. 



Order XXXIII. CELASTRACE.E. R. Broum. The Spindle-tree Tribe. 



Calyx of 4 - 5 sepals, which are united at the base, and imbricated in aestivation. 

 Petals as many as the sepals and alternate with them, plane, inserted by a 

 broad base under the flat disk which surrounds the ovary ; the gestivation 

 imbricated. Stamens as many as the petals and alternate with them, inserted 

 upon the margin or upper surface of the disk. Ovary free from the calyx, 

 2 - 5-celled (rarely by abortion 1-celled), with 1, 2 or several erect or as- 

 cending ovules in each cell. Styles and stigmas 2-5, distinct or united. Fruit 

 a capsule or drupaceous, sometimes samara-like, with one or few seeds in each 

 cell. Seeds often furnished with an arillus. Albumen usually fleshy, some- 

 times thin or wanting: radicle short: cotyledons thick or foliaceous.— Shrubs 

 or rarely trees, with alternate or opposite leaves and small caducous stipules. 



Tribe I. STAPHYLE^. DC. 



Seeds without an arillus, with a large truncate hilum and a bony testa. Cotyledons thick. 

 Disk urceolate, 5-angled. — Leaves opposite, unequally pinnate or trifoliolate : leaflets 

 serrate. Floiuers in terminal racemes or panicles. 

 Bartling, Lindlcy and Endlicher consider this tribe as a distinct order. 



1. STAPHYLEA. Linn. ; Endl. gen. 5673. (Plate XIX.) bladder-nut. 



[ Named from the Greek, staphyle, a bunch of grapes; from its mode of flowering.] 

 Flowers perfect. Sepals 5, oblong, erect, colored, persistent. Petals 5. Stamens 5. Ovary 

 of 3 carpels, united at the axis. Styles distinct or slightly united. Fruit a membranaceous 

 and inflated, 2 - 3-celied, 2 - 3-lobcd capsule. Seeds globose, ascending, few, or by 

 abortion solitary in each cell : albumen little or none. — Shrubs. Leaves 3 - 7-foliolate : 

 leaflets involute in vernation. Flowers white ; the racemes sometimes panicicd. 



1. Staph YLEA tiu folia, Linn. Ainerican Bladder-nut. 



Leaves trifoliolate ; leaflets ovate, acuminate, finely serrate, more or less pubescent when 



young ; styles smooth, united above. — " Schn. arh. t. 81 ;" Michc.fl. \.p. 184 ; Ell. sk. 1. 



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