Ord. ZANTIIOXYLACEiE. 



Frutices vel arbores Rutoideas, interdum aculeatae ; foliis 

 pellucido-punctatis saepissime pinnatis ; floribus abortu imi- 

 sexualibus ; carpellis discretis, vel pi. m. in ovarium com- 

 positum coalitis, 2 - 4-ovulatis ; fmctu carnoso 1 - 5-cocco, 

 rarius samaroideo ; embryone recto. 



Zanthoxyle^, Nees & Mart, in Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Ciir. 1823. Adr. 



Juss. in Mem. Mus. 12. p. 422, 4'J7 (Sitbord. Rutacearuni). Endl. 



Gen. p. 1145. 

 ZANTHoxYLACEiE, Torr. & Gray, FI. N. Am. 1. p. 213. 

 Xanthoxylace^, Lindl. Introd. Nat. Syst. ed. 2. p. 135, &, Vcg. Kingd. 



p. 472. Wight, 111. Ind. Bot. p. 165. t. 66. 

 Pteleace^, Kunth in Ann. Sci. Nat. 2. p. 345. 



The Prickly-Ash Family consists of trees and shrubs, principally of 

 tropical regions and in great part American. It is represented in the United 

 States by three species of the typical genus, two of which belong to our 

 Southern Atlantic border, and one (the common Prickly Ash) to the North- 

 ern States, and by two species of Ptelea, one of which extends northward to 

 the Great Lakes. They are not found north of the tropic of Cancer on the 

 western side of our continent, nor in the Old World, except in China and 

 Japan, of which the Ailanthus, or Tree of Heaven, which flourishes so fa- 

 mously in the United States as a shade-tree, is a native. The Ailanthus, 

 however, although appended to this family, having no dots in the leaves 

 nor albumen in the seeds, and solitary ovules, is not thought properly to 

 belong to it. 



This family is distinguished from Rutacea; and the Diosmeae by the monoe- 

 cious or dioecious flowers ; and from Anacardiaceas by the pellucid dots of the 

 leaves, geminate ovules, albuminous seeds, straight embryo, &,c. 



Pungent aromatic qualities with bitterness prevail in the order. They arc 

 due to an ethereal oil and its resin, which is contained in the pellucid oil- 

 receptacles which dot the leaves and the fruit, and to a bitter-acrid crystal- 

 lizable substance, called Xanthopicrite, with a yellow coloring matter, which 

 are principally contained in the bark. The properties of all the species of 

 Zanthoxylum accord with those of our Prickly Ash. The leaves are fra- 



