378 laukacejE. (laurel family.) 



broadest above thdr middle, obtuse, entire, one at least grain-bearing ; reins of the 

 leaf red, or, in var. vfniDis, green. — Waste and cuItiTated grounds. (Nat. 

 from Eu.) 



* # * Leaves linear-lanceolate, wavy-margined; the lower ones aurided err somewhat 

 heurt-shaped at the base : valves awn-toothed : low annuals. 



9. R. inaritiinus, L. (Golden Dock.) Minutely pubescent, dif- 

 fusely branched ; whorls excfssively crowded in leafy and compact or interrupted 

 spikes; valves rhombic-oblong, lance-pointod, each bearing 2-3 long awn-like 

 bristles on each side, and a la»go grain on the back. (Also E. persicarioides, L.) 

 — Sea-shore, Virginia to Massachusetts, and in saline soil in the interior. Aug., 

 Sept. — Plant 6' -12' high; remarkable for the crowded and almost orange- 

 colored fruiting ealyx, beset with bristles which are usually longer than the 

 width of the valves. (Eu.) 



§ 2. ACETOS^LLA, Toum. — Flowers dioecious: styles adherent to the angles of 

 the ovary : herbage acid. 



10. B. AcETOsiLLA, L. (Field or Sheep SoBEEL.) Low; leaves lance- 

 halberd-form, at least those of the root, the narrow lobes entire ; whorls leafless, 

 in slender panicled racemes ; valves scarcely enlarging in fruit, ovate, not grain- 

 bearing. 1|. — An abundant weed in waste places and all sterile and worn fields. 

 May. — The fertile panicles usually turn reddish in summer. (Nat. from Eu.) 



EniuM Ehaf6htictim is the Pie Ehubakb, so commonly cultivated for 

 the sake of its fleshy and acid esculent leaf-stalks. 



Order 93. LAURACEiE. (Laurel Family.) 



Aromatic trees or sTiruhs, with alternate simple leaves mostly marked iuith 

 minute pellucid dots, and Jtowers with a regular calyx of i — 6 colored sepals, 

 which are barely united at the base, imbricated in 2 rows in the bud, free from 

 the l-celled and l-avuled ovary, and mostly fewer than the stamens : anthers 

 opening by 2-4 uplifted valves. — Flowers clustered. Style single. Fruit 

 a 1-seeded berry or drupe. Seed anatropous, suspended, with no albumen, 

 filled by the large ahnond-like embryo. — A well-marked family, very nu- 

 merous in the tropics, represented in our district by only five species. 



Synopsis. 



# Flowers perfect : stamens 12, three of them sterile. 



1. PERSEA. Calyx persistent. Anthers 4-celled, those of 3 stamens turned outward. 



* * Flowers dioecious or diocclously polygamous : stamens 9. 



2. SASSAFRAS Flowers destitute of any involucre. Anthers 4-celled, 4-Talved. 



8. BENZOIN. Flowers developed from a 4-leayed involucre. Anthers 2-celled, 2-valyed. 

 4. TETRANTHERA Flowers from a 2 - 4-leaved involucre. Anthers 4-€elled, 4 valved. 



1. PER SEA, Gsertn. Allibatoe Pear. 



Flowers perfect, with a 6-parted calyx, which persists at the base of the berry- 

 like fruit. Stamens 12, in four rows, the 3 of the innermost row sterile aijd re- 



