192 STAPHYLEACE^. 



lobed, the carpels united at the axis or sometimes only at the 

 base, the lobes tardily dehiscent at the summit along the 

 ventral suture. Seeds by abortion few or solitary in each 

 cell or carpel, horizontal or ascending, subglobose or lenticu- 

 lar-obovoid, truncate at the base, sessile ; the testa thick and 

 bony, polished ; the raphe forming a ridge on one side. 

 Embryo straight, in the axis of fleshy albumen, of nearly its 

 length and width : cotyledons oval or orbicular, flat and 

 thin : radicle very short, next the hilum. 



Shrubs, with opposite and stipulate trifoliolate or pinnate 

 leaves, with five to seven ovate or oblong serrulate leaflets, 

 which are involute in vernation and setaceously stipellate. 

 Stipules and stipels deciduous. Flowers white or cream- 

 colored, rather showy, in terminal racemose or cymose droop- 

 ing panicles. Pedicels bracteate, articulated above the middle. 



Etymology. The original name, Staphylodendron, of Tournefort, from 

 ara(jjv\rj, a raceme or cluster, and bivbpov, a tree, was abbreviated by Lin- 

 naeus into Staphylea. 



Properties. The Bladder-nuts are neat shrubs, with drooping and pret- 

 ty, though not showy, white, vernal blossoms, which are replaced in summer 

 by the large and bladdery pods. 



PLATE 172. Staphylea trifolia, Linn.; — a flowering branchlet of 

 the natural size. (Cambridge Botanic Garden.) 



1. Diagram of the flower (placed to the left of the axis, toward which 



the second sepal looks). 



2. A flower, with its pedicel and bractlets, enlarged. 



3. A petal, more enlarged. 



4. Pistils, with the disk, &c., enlarged; the calyx-lobes cut away. 



5. A stamen, enlarged, seen from the inside. 



6. The same, seen from the outer side. 



7. Magnified transverse section of the compound ovary, one of the cells 



also vertically divided, as is the disk and receptacle. 



8. An ovule, more magnified. 



9. The bladdery fruit, of the natural size. 



10. The same, the upper part cut away, showing the cells and seeds. 



11. A seed, enlarged. 



12. A transverse section of the same. 



13. A magnified vertical section of a seed, enlarged, showing the embryo. 



