210 SAPINDACE^. 



than the petals and nearly equal : filaments filiform : an- 

 thers oblong, fixed near the base, introrse, two-celled, the 

 cells openmg longitudinally. Ovary raised on a slender 

 stipe longer than itself, ovoid, three-celled ; in the sterile 

 flowers abortive and destitute of a style ; in the fertile with 

 the STYLE subulate-filiform, elongated, a little curved : stig- 

 ma minute, terminal. Ovules two in each cell, borne on its 

 inner angle near the middle, at first apparently collateral, 

 soon superposed, between amphitropous and anatropous, both 

 ascending and with the micropyle inferior. 



Fruit a large coriaceous capsule, conspicuously stipitate, 

 strongly three-lobed, smooth and unarmed, three-celled, lo- 

 culicidally three-valved, the somewhat obcordate valves bear- 

 ing the dissepiment on the middle. Seeds, by the abortion 

 of one (commonly the upper) ovule, solitary in each cell, 

 large, nearly spherical, inserted by a broad and somewhat 

 carunculate hilum, with a dark chestnut-brown very smooth 

 and shining crustaceous testa, and a thin tegmen, peritro- 

 pous, destitute of albumen. Embryo filling the seed : coty- 

 ledons very thick and fleshy, almost hemispherical, slightly 

 complicate and their contiguous faces more or less coherent 

 with each other (conferruminate). hypogsous in germina- 

 tion, incumbent upon the very short and conical descending 

 RADICLE, which points to the hilum. 



A shrub or small tree, with brittle wood, alternate impari- 

 pinnate leaves, destitute of stipules, deciduous, or sometimes 

 persistent ; the leaflets five or seven, or on the earlier leaves 

 sometimes only three, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, pinnately 

 veined, reticulated, serrate, the terminal one conspicuously 

 petiolulate. Flowers lateral, in small fascicles or simple 

 corymbs, appearing with the leaves in early spring from the 

 axils of the leaves of the preceding season, chiefly from sepa- 

 rate buds, sometimes from the base of a leafy branch, rather 

 large and showy. Corolla rose -colored. Pedicels articulated 

 in the middle. 



Etymology. This remarkably interesting genus, which, with foliage not 



