BLADDER NUT FAMILY 151 



58. STAPHYLEACEiE. Bladder Nut Family 



Shrubs. Leaves pinnately compound, "with stipules, and 

 the leaflets with little individual stipules (stipels). Flowers 

 regular and perfect. Calyx lobes 5. Petals 5, inserted in or 

 around a saucer-shaped disk. Stamens 5, alternate with the 

 petals, perigynous. Ovary 2-3-celled, with the carpels more 

 or less distinct ; ovules several ; styles 2-3, somewhat united 

 below. Fruit usually 1-few-seeded. 



STAPHYLEA L. 



Calyx deeply 5-parted, the lobes appearing like separate 

 sepals, erect. Petals spatulate, borne on the rim of the thick 

 disk. Pod large, papery, 3-celled, finally opening at the top. 

 Seeds 1-4 in each cell, bony. 



1. S. trifolia L. American Bladder Nut. A shrub 6-12 ft. 

 high, with smooth, slender, greenish-striped, at length gray, branches. 

 Leaves long-petioled, with 3 ovate, taper-pointed, finely serrate leaf- 

 lets. Damp thickets. 



59. ACERACE.^;. Maple Family 



Trees or shrubs, with abundant, often sugary sap. Leaves 

 opposite, simple and palmately lobed, or pinnate, without 

 stipules. Flowers regular, mostly somewhat monoeeious or 

 dioecious, in axillary and terminal cymes or racemes. Calyx 

 4-9-parted. Petals as many as the lobes of the calyx or none. 

 Stamens 4-12, hypogynous. Ovary 2-celled; styles 2. Fruit 

 a double key.* 



ACER L. 



Characteristics of the genus as above given for the family. 



1. A. saccharum Marsh. Sugar Maple. A large tree. Leaves 

 simple, palmately lobed, truncate or heart-shaped at the base, lobes 

 sinuate-toothed and acuminate, pale and slightly downy beneath. 

 Flowers appearing with the leaves, on clu.stered drooping pedicels. 

 Calyx bell-shaped, fringed. Petals none. Keys smooth, wings about 



