


ADJACENT TO HORTICULTURAL HALL. 69 
PLATANACE, Plane-Tree Family. 
Trees ; leaves alternate, deeply divergently lobed ; flowers in globular heads, 
male and female on the same plant, but not in the same heads; calyx and 
corolla both wanting; male flowers of many stamens mixed with small scales; 
pistillate flowers of upwardly enlarged ovaries, and mixed with the scales. 
Platanus occidentalis, /imm@eus. AMERICAN PLANE, SYCAMORE, BuT- 
TONWoop. Large, well-known native tree along our river-banks. Bark 
white, separating in thin sheets; leaves squarely cut or heart-shaped at base, 
lobes short but sharp, scurfy downy on under surface, remaining so until old; 
fertile heads solitary, an inch in diameter when mature. Wood valuable for 
certain purposes. 
Platanus orientalis, Zimmeus. ORIENTAL PLANE. Distinguished from 
the preceding by its leaves being somewhat more deeply divided, becoming 
smooth sooner, and by the heads of fruit and flowers being larger. 
RHAMNACE., Buckthorn Family. 
Shrubs or trees with simple and usually alternate leaves; stamens of same 
number as the petals and offosite to them, inserted on the disk lining the 
bottom of the calyx; ovary with a single young seed in each of its 2 to 5 
cells. The family has bitter astringent and cathartic properties. 
Berchemia. Swuppie-JAcK. Woody twiners climbing over neighboring 
bushes and trees; disk almost filling the bottom of the calyx; ovary maturing 
into a 2-celled stone fruit with a thin purple pulp; calyx free from the ovary. 
Berchemia volubilis, De Candolle. A common plant in the Southern 
States ; leaves oblong, feather-veined ; flowers greenish white, in small clusters 
terminating the young branchlets. 
Ceanothus. New Jersey TEA, Rep Root. Disk adhering to the calyx; 
petals small, 5, somewhat hooded or incurved at the summit, spreading, on 
slender claws; ovary 3-celled, maturing into a hardish 3-seeded pod; flowers 
white. : 
Ceanothus Americanus, Zinnezus. This species strictly is the New 
Jersey TEA, and was during the Revolution used as a substitute for the 
imported article. It is a shrub I to 2 feet high; root dark red; leaves ovate, 
distinctly 3-veined, pointed, finely toothed; flowers in summer crowded into a 
somewhat dense cluster on the ends of the branches. 
Ceanothus ovalis, Bigelow. OvAaLt-LEAVED CEANOTHUS. Native on dry 
rocks from Vermont to Wisconsin and westward; smaller than the preceding, 
with oval leaves acute at each end, somewhat larger flowers, and blooming in 
spring. 
Frangula. ALpeR BuckTHORN. Our single species, F. Caroliniana, 
Gray, is a shrub or small tree without thorns; flowers hermaphrodite, calyx- 
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