POLTGALACE^. (MILKWORT FAMILY.) 85 



5. A. rftbrum, L. (Red or Swamp Maple.) Leaves S-blobedwith 

 the sinuses acute, whitish underneath ; the lobes irregularly serrate and notched, 

 acute, the middle one usually longest ; petals linear-Mong ; flowers on very short 

 pedicels (scarlet, crimson, or sometimes yellowish) ; but the fruit snwoth, on pro- 

 longed drooping pedicels. — Swamps and wet woods ; everywhere. March, 

 April. — A small tree, with reddish twigs ; the leaves varying greatly in shape, 

 turning bright crimson in early autumn. 



A. Psbudo-PlAtanus, L., the Palse Sycamoke, and A. platanoIdes, 

 L., called Nobwat Maple, are two European species occasionally planted. 



4. BfEGXTNDO, Mcench. Ash-lbaved Maple. Box-Eldeb. 



Flowers dioecious. Calyx minute, 4 - 5-cleft. Petals none. Stamens 4-5. 



— Sterile flowers in clusters on capillary pedicels j the fertile in drooping ra- 

 cemes, from lateral buds. Leaves pinnate, with 3 or 5 leaflets. (Name un- 

 meaning. The genus, apparently of only a single species, is too near Acer 

 itself.) 



1. W. aceroldes, Mcench. (Acer Negnndo, L.) Leaflets smoothish 

 when old, very veiny, ovate, pointed, toothed ; fruit smooth, with large rather 

 incurved wings. — Eiver-banks. Penn. to Wisconsin, and southward. April. 



— A small but handsome tree, with light-green twigs, and very delicate droop- 

 ing clusters of small greenish flowers, rather preceding the leaves. 



Order 37. POL,YGAL.ACEJE. (Milkwort Family.) 



Plants with irregular, as if papilionaceous, Tiypogynous flowers, 4-8 dm- 

 delphous or Tnonadelphous stamens, their l-celled anthers opening at the top 

 hy a pore or chink ; the fruit a 2-celled and 2-seeded pod. — Represented 

 by the typical genus 



1. POIi'^OALA, Toum. Milkwort. 



Plower very irregular. Calyx persistent, of 5 sepals, of which 3 (the upper 

 and the 2 lower) are small and often greenish, while the two lateral or inner 

 (called wings) are much larger, and colored like the petals. Petals 3, hypogy- 

 nous, connected with each other and with the stamen-tiibe, the middle (lower) 

 one keel-shaped and often crested on the back. Stamens 6 or 8 : their filaments 

 united below into a split sheath, or into 2 sets, cohering more or less with the 

 petals, free above : anthers l-celled, often cup-shaped, opening by a hole or 

 broad chink at the apex. Ovary 2-celled, with a single anatropous ovule pen- 

 dulous in each cell : style prolonged and curved : stigma various. Eruit a 

 small, loculicidal 2-seeded pod, usually rounded and notched at the apex, much 

 flattened contrary to the very narrow partition. Seeds with a caruncle, or vari- 

 ously shaped appendage, at the hilum. Embryo large, straight, with flat and 

 broad cotyledons, snn-ounded by a sparing albumen. — Bitter plants (low herbs 

 in temperate regions), with simple entire leaves, often dotted, and no stipules : 

 iometimes bearing concealed fertile flowers also next the ground. (An old 

 8 



