CELASTRACE^E. 71 



leaves j the lower pedicels changed to tendrils, and small 

 whitish flowers. 



C. Haliacabum, L. Heart-seed. Balloon-vine. 



Plant nearly smooth ; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, incisely lobedand dentate ; flowers 

 Bmall, axillary, solitary; fruit pyriform-globose, largo, bladder-like. Native along 

 the Missouri river. Toir. & Or. July. A curious vine 4 to 6 feet long, with 

 remarkably large inflated membraneous capsules. 



Sue^order. HIPPOCASTANACE^E. 



Trees or shrubs, with opposite digitate leaves, without sti- 

 pules. Fruit roundish, coriaceous, dehiscent, with 1 to 3 

 very large seeds, resembling chestnuts. Embryo very large 

 and fleshy, showing a 2-leaved plumule. Cotyledons united, 



2. iESCULES. Linn. Horse-chestnut. 



Calyx regular, 5-lofced, companulate. Petals 4, some- 

 times 5, more or less unequal, with claws. Stamens 7 

 (rarely 6 or 8) ; filament, long and slender, often unequal. 

 Style 1, filiform, acute; ovary 3-celled, with 2 ovules in 

 each, only one of which, or one in each cell, ripens into a 

 seed. — Trees and shrubs with 5 to 7 -foliate leaves, and flowers 

 in thyrse-l ike panicles. 



1. M. glabra, "Willd. Ohio Buckeye. 



Leaflets 5, oval or oblong, acuminat?, sorrato or serrulate, very smooth; corolla 

 4-petalled, spreading, with the claws as long as the calyx; stamens longer than the 

 corolla; fruit echinate. 



Banks of streams : Western part of the State. May. A small ill-scented tree. 

 Leaflets 3 to 6 inches long, 1 to 2 inches wide, sub-sessile, or abruptly contracted at 

 base to a short stalk. Flowers yellowish-white, small, slightly irregular, in terminal 

 racemose panicles. Fruit about % i ncU * n diameter, prickly. 



2. JE. Pavla, L. Small Buckeye. 



Leaflets 5, oblong-lanceolate, cuneate at base, abruptly and shortly acuminate, 

 finely serrate; flowers very irregular in a loose thyrsoid raceme; petals 4, erect, as 

 long as the stamens. 



A beautiful shrub, 6 to 10 feet high, cultivated for ornament : native of the South- 

 ern States ; probably indigenous in the South-western part of our State. April, 

 May. Flowers large, red, smooth. 



3. M. Hippocastanum, L. Common Horse-chestnut. 



Leaves digitate, of 7 obovate-cuneate leaflets, crenat?, dentate ; petals 5, spreading; 

 stamens 7 declined, fruit prickly. This well known introduced tree is nearly natu- 

 ralized. Native of Asia. In June it puts forth numerous pyramidal racemes o* 

 thyrses of pink and white flowers, finely contrasting with the dark-green of Us 

 massy foliage. 



Order 34. CELASTRACE^. 



Ghrubs or small trees, with opposite or alternate leaves, small, regular and tym? 

 Metrical flowers. Sbpals 4 to 5, united at base, imbricated. Pztals 4 to 5, inserted 



