FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 161 
which are sold among the Chinese in our large cities, are the product 
of Litcht Chinensis. Blighia sapida, a West African tree, also furnishes 
edible fruit. 
Family Sabiaceae. Sabia Family. Four genera and about 65 
species, tropical trees and shrubs of no special interest. 
Family Melianthaceae. Melianthus Family. Two genera and 
about 15 species, also tropical. 
Family Balsaminaceae. Balsam Family. Contains the genus Im- 
patiens, with about 220 species, mostly natives of the Old World, and 
Hydrocero, with one, the latter a native 
of India. The balsams or jewel-weeds, 
as we call them, are succulent herbs, 
with alternate single leaves and showy, 
very irregular flowers. Sepals 3, the 
two lateral ones small and green, the 
other large and sac-shaped, spurred, 
and colored like the corolla; petals 5, 
3 of them cleft; stamens 5; fruit in Im- 
patiens a capsule, in Hydrocera a berry. 
We have two jewel*weeds, the pale 
and the spotted (see Fig. 141). The 
flowers are dainty little things, quite in 
keeping with the cool, shaded swamps 
or brooksides where the plants usually 
abound. Other species are cultivated 
in our gardens. 
Family Rhamnaceae. Buckthorn 
Family. Contains about 45 genera and 
575 species, widely distributed in tem- Bi ee aha decane gs 
perate and tropical regions. They are Pennsylvuanicum). After Britton & Brown, 
shrubs or small trees, sometimes thorny, 1. Fl. Northeast. U. s. 
with small, clustered, regular flowers. Calyx 4-5-toothed; petals 45, 
inserted on the throat of the calyx, or sometimes wanting; stamens 4-5; 
ovary 2-5-celled, becoming in fruit a small drupe or a capsule. 
Rhamnus, the buckthorn, occurs in both Europe and America, and 
several species may be classed as ornamental trees, the dark green foli- 
age being usually very handsome. The fruits of 2. catharticus’ were 
formerly in some demand as a purgatfve; various pigments are derived 
from the fruits of this and other species. On the Pacific coast one of 
the conspicuous shrubs is the California lilac (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus), 
which has bluish flowers somewhat resembling those of the lilac. 
There are over 30 other species of this genus through California and 
Mexico. One of the few eastern species, C. Americanus, is known as 
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