SAFINDACEiE. (SOAPBEEET FAMILY.) 83? 



like clusters, terminating the branchlets. Stipules and stipels deciduous. (tiTame 

 from (TTa(j)v\ri, a cluster.) 



1. S. trifdlia, L. (Americai* Bladdbe-nut.) Leaflets 3, ovate, 

 pointed. — Thickets, in moist soil. May. — Shrub 10° high, with greenish 

 striped branches. 



Suborder II. SAPITVDACEJE; proper. 



3. .^SCVLilTS, L. Horse-chestnut. Buckeye. 



Calyx tubular, 5-lobed, often rather oblique or gibbous at the base. Petals 4, 

 sometimes 5, more or less unequal, with claws, nearly hypogynous. Stamens 

 7 (I'arely 6 or 8) ; filaments long and slender, often unequal. Stylo 1 : ovary 

 S-celled, with 2 ovules in each, only one of which, or one in each cell, forms 

 a seed. Seed very large, with a thick and shining coat, and a large and round 

 pale scar, without albumen. Cotyledons very thick and fleshy, their contiguous 

 faces more or less united, remaining under ground in germination : plumule 

 a-leaved : radicle curved. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, digitate : leaf- 

 lets serrate, straight-veined, like a Chestnut-leaf. Flowers in a terminal thyrsus 

 or dense panicle, often polygamous, the greater portion with imperfect pistils 

 and sterile. Pedicels jointed. Seeds farinaceous, but imbued with an intensely, 

 bitter and narcotic principle. (The ancient name of some Oak or other mast- 

 keai'ing tree.) 



§ 1. .iESCULTJS PKOPEK. — Fruit covered mth prickles when t/oung. 



1. 2E. HippocAsTANUM, L. (Common Horse-chestnut.) Corolla 

 Spreading, white spotted with purple and yellow, of 5 petals ; stamens declined ; 

 leaflets 7. — Commonly planted. (Adv. from Asia via Eu.) 



2. .2E. glabra, Willd. (Fetid or Ohio Buckeye.) Stamens curved, 

 much longer than the pale yellow corolla of 4 npright petals ; fjiiit prickly when 

 yotmg; leaflets 5. — River»banks, W. Penn. and Virginia to Michigan and 

 Kentucky. June. — A small tree ; the bark exlialiug an unpleasant odor, as 

 in the rest of the genus. Flowers small, not showy. 



4 2. PA VLA, Boerh. — Fruit smooth : petals 4, erect and conniving ; the 2 upper 

 smaller and longer Hum the others, consisting of a small and rounded blade on a 

 verg long claw. 



3. JE. flikva, Ait. (Sweet Buckeye.) /Stamens incWed in the yellow 

 corolla; calgx oblong-campanulate ; leaflets 5, sometimes 7, glabrous, or often 

 minutely downy underneath. — Rich woods, "Virginia to Ohio, Indiana, and 

 southward. May. A large tree, or a shrub. 



Var. purpiirascens. Flowers (both calyx and corolla) tinged with 

 flesh-color or dull purple; leaflets commonly downy beneath. {M. discolor, 

 Pursh, ^-c.) — From W. Virginia southward and westward. 



4. J9E. Pavia, L. (Red Buckeye.) Stamens not longer than the 

 corolla, which is bright red, as well as the iuhular calyx; leaflets glabrous or 

 Boft-downy beneath. — Fertile valleys, Vh-ginia, Kentucky, and southward. 

 May. — A shrub or small tree. 



