110 PENTANDRIA— TRIGYNIA. Staphylea. 



throats, &c. The inner bark is more actively catliartic, and is 

 thought beneficial, in rustic ointments and cataplasms, for burns. 

 The dried flowers serve for fomentations, and make a fragrant 

 but debilitating tea, useful perhaps in acute inflammations, but 

 not to be persisted in habitually. An infusion of the leaves proves 

 fatal to the various insects which thrive on bliglited or delicate 

 plants, nor do many of this tribe, in the caterpillar state, feed 

 upon tliem. Cattle scarcely touch them, and the mole is driven 

 away by their scent. 

 Both the varieties above marked have usually whitish berries, of a 

 less disagreeable flavour than the recent black ones ; but tlie 

 latter are best for medical use. A wine is often made of them, 

 to be taken warm, with spices and sugar ; and they are said 

 frequently to enter into the composition of a less innocent be- 

 verage, artificial or adulterated Port. 



175. STAPHYLEA. Bladdernut. 



Linn. Gen. \4S. Juss.377. Fl.Br.337. Lnm.t. 210. Gartn.i. (i9. 

 Staphylodendron. Tourn. <. 386. 



Nat. Orel. Trihilatce. Linn. 23. Bhamni. Juss. 95. Celas- 

 trince. Brown Bot. of Terra Austr. 22. Linneeus in MS. 

 has hinted its affinity to Celastriis. 



Col. inferioi-, of 1 leaf, concave, in 5 deep, coloured, seg- 

 ments, full as large as the corolla. Pet. 5, oblong, ob- 

 tuse, erect, similar to the calyx. Nectary cup-shaped, 

 central. Filam. thread-shaped, erect, the length of the 

 petals. AntJi. roundish. Germ, superior, rather tumid, 

 in 2 or 3 deep divisions. Styles 2 or 3, simple, erect, a 

 little longer than the stamens. Stigmas obtuse, near to- 

 gether. Caps. 2 or 3, inflated, bladdery, open at the top and 

 obliquely pointed, combined lengthwise by their sutures, 

 where they burst, at the inner side. Seeds 2 in each cap- 

 sule, hard, globose, with a large scar, and an oblique, 

 adjoining, lateral point. 



S. piunafa has generally but 2 styles, and as many capsules. 



Shrubs, or trees, with opposite branches and leaves; the 

 latter simply or doubly pinnate, or only ternate ; leaflets 

 ovate. Fl. in drooping clusters, greenish-yellow. 



1. S. pzfmafa. Common Bladder-nut. 



Leaves pinnate. Styles and capsules but two. 



S. pinnata. Linn. Sp. PL3S6. TViUd. v. 1. 1497. Fl. Br. 337. Engl. 



Bot. V. 22. t. 1560. Ehrh.Arb. 103. 

 S. n. 831. Hall. Hist. V. 1.371. 



