SOAPBEKRT FAMILY. 8^ 



I. BLADDER-NUT FAMILY; has perfect and regular 

 flowers, stamens as many as the petals, several bony seeds with 

 a straight embi-yo in scanty albumen, and opposite compound leaves 

 both stipulate and stipellate. 



1. STAPH YLEA. Erect sepals, petals, and stamens 5; the latter Borne on tbe 



margin of a fleshy, disk which lines the bottom of the oalj'x. Styles 3, slen- 

 der, separate or lightly cohering: ovary strongly 3-lobed, in fruit becoming 

 a bladdery 3-lobed 3-celled and several-seeded large pod. Shrubs, with pin- 

 uately compound leaves of 3 or 5 leaflets. 



n. SOAPBERRY FAMILY tropee ; has flowers often 

 polygamous or dioecious, and more or less irregular or unsyrametri- 

 cal, only 1 or 2 ovules, ripening but a single seed in each cell of 

 the ovary, the embryo colled or curved, without albumen. No 

 Stipules. 



* Leaves alternate. Pod blaMery4nfialed, except in No. 4. 



2. CARDIOSl'EKMUM. Herbs, with twice ternate and cut-toothed leaves, climb- 



ing by hook-liiie tendrils in the flower-clnsters. Sepals 4, the inner pair 

 larger. Petals 4, each with an appendage on the inner face, that of the two 

 upper large and petal-like, of the two lower crest-like and with a deflexed 

 spur or process, raised on a claw. Disk irregular,, enlarged into two glands, 

 one before each lower petal. Stamens 8, turned towards the upper side of 

 the flower away from the glands, the filaments next to tliem shorter. Styles 

 or stigmas 3, sliort: ovary triangular, 3-celled, with a single ovule rising from 

 the middle of each cell. Fruit a large and thin bladdery 3-lobed pod: seeds 

 bony, globose, with a scale-like heart-shaped aril adherent to the base. 



8. KffiLREUTERlA. Small tree, with pinnate leaves. Sepals 5. Petals 3 or 4 

 (the place of the others vacant), each with a small 2-pai"ted scale-like appen- 

 dage attached to its claw. Disk enlarging into a lobe before each petal. 

 Stamens 5-8, declined: filaments hairy. Style single, slender: ovary trian- 

 gular, 3-celIed, with a pair of ovules in each cell. Pod bladdery, 3-lobed, 

 3-oelled. 



4. SAPINDUS. Trees, with abruptly pinnate leaves. Sepals and petals each 5, 

 or rarely 4 ; the latter commonly with a little scale or appendage adhering to 

 the short claw. Stamens mostly 8, equal. Style single: ovary 3-lobed, 

 3-celled, with a single ovnle in each cell. Fruit mostly a globular and fleshy 

 1-celled berry (the other cells abortive), filled with a large globular seed, its 

 coat crustaccous : cotyledons thick and fleshy. ^ 



* * Leaves opposite, ofb-Q digitate lectjleis. Pod leathery, not injlated. 



6. JISCULUS. Trees' or shrubs. Calyx 5-lobed or 6-toothed. Petals 4 or 5, 

 more or less unequal, on claws enclosed in the calyx, not appendaged. Sta- 

 mens 7, rarely or 8: filaments slender, often unequal. Style single, as 

 also the miniite stigma: ovary S-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell. 

 Fruit a leathery pod, splitting at maturity into 3 valves, ripening 1-8 very 

 large, chestnut-like, hard-coated seeds : the kernel of these consists of the very 

 thick cotyledons firmly joined together, and a small incurved radicle. 



III. MAPLE FAMILY ; has flowers generally polygamous 

 or dioecious, and sometimes apetalous, a mostly 2-lobed and 2-celled 

 ovary, with a pair of ovules in each cell, ripening a single seed 

 in each cell of the winged fruit. Embryo with long and thin coty- 

 ledons, coiled or crumpled. (See Le=sons, p. 5, fig. 1-3, &c.) 

 Leaves opposite : no stipules. 



6, ACER. Trees, or a few only shrubs, with palmately-Iobed or even parted leaves. 



Calyx mostly 5-cteft. ' Petals as many or none, and stamens 3-8 or rarely 

 more, borne oti the edge of the disk. Styles or stigmas 3, slender. Fruit 

 a pair of samaras or key-fruits, united at the base or inner face and winged 

 from the back. Occasionally the ovary is 3-celled and the fruit 8-winged. 



7. NEGUNDO. Trees, with pinnate leaves of 3 -7 leaflets, and dioecious very 



small flowers, without petals or disk; the calyx minute: stamens 4 or S. 

 Fruit, &o. of Acer, g » ■„, , g 



