334 PLATAXACEJ-: AND URTICACEJB. 



L. Styraciflua, L. Sweet-Gum. Bilsted. 



Leaves rottndcd, deeply 5 to Tdobed, smooth and shining, finely glandular-ser- 

 rate, the lobes pointed. 



Moist woods. April. A large and Bandramo tree. witB finely grained wood and 

 gray bark, with corky ridges on the Lranebli ts. The young twij_-s arc yelk »i»h, 

 putting forth leaves of a rich green, which are fragrant -when bruised, turning 

 deep red or crimson in autumn. Fruit when mature about 1 inch in diameter, 

 forming a brownish woody and prickly strobile. 



Order 108. PLATANACEJE.— Plane-tree Family. 



Trees, with alternate palmatelylobed leaves, sheathing stipules and monaciems flcio. 

 ers in seperate and naked spherical aments, destitute of calyx or dorollu; tht fruit 

 club-shaped l-seedrd nutlets, furnished with bristly down along the base: consisting 

 only of the genus 



PLATANUS, Linn. But:tonwood. 



Gt. platus, broad, in allusion to the ample shade of its foliage. 



Sterile flowers of numerous stamens with elavate 

 small scales intermixed : filaments very short. Fertile 

 flowers in seperate aments consisting of inversely pyra- 

 midal ovaries mixed with little scales : style rather lateral, 

 awl-shaped, or filiform, simple. Nutlets coriaceous, small, 

 tawny-hairy below, containing a single orthotropous pendu- 

 lous seed. 



1 . P. occidentalis,. L. American Plane or Sycamore. 



Leaves angularly-sinuate-lobed and toothed, the short lobes sharp-pointed ; fir- 

 tile heads solitary, suspended on a long peduncle. 



Banks of streams. A very large and well-known tree, with a white bark sepera- 

 ting early in thin brittle plates. Leaves woolly when young, alternate, on long pe- 

 tioles. Aments axillary globose. 



2. P. ORIENTALIS, L. Oriental Sycamore. 



A handsome shade tree, native of the East, is occasionally met with in cultiva- 

 tion. 



Order 109. URTIOACESJ.— Xettlc Family. 



Treet, shrubs and herbs, with alternate or opposite leaves, monoecious or diceci'tis 

 flowers, furnished with a regular calyx, free from the mostly lcelled ovary which 

 forms a l-seeded utricle or achenium in fruit. Stamens as many as the loLes of tlie 

 calyx and opposite them. Comprising several very distinct s ulorders. 



Suborder i. MOREiE. Tee Mulberry Family. 



Shrubs or trees ttrith a mill.y juice. Fhcii fleshy, composed of the fleshy calyx or 

 receptacle. 



