508 WOODY PLANTS OF MASSACHUSET'TS. 
oblong-ovate or obovate, or rhomboidal, ciliate on the margin, 
with 3 or 4 rounded or obtuse teeth on each side, very downy 
on both surfaces when young, leathery and smooth after mid- 
summer. The yellowish flowers project, on a short footstalk, 
from the angular, hairy-edged, brown, imbricate scales of a 
catkin which grows ona short stalk from the axil of last year’s 
leaves. 
In the fertile flowers, the segments of the calyx are rounded, 
those of the corolla more than twice the length, oblong ; the sta- 
mens wanting; the disk at the bottom of the cup crenate; the 
ovary egg-shaped ; the styles 3, short, with enlarged stigmas. 
This plant is cultivated in England and France on account 
of the agreeable fragrance of 1ts leaves when crushed. 
FAMILY XXXV. THE PRICKLY ASH FAMILY. XYANTHOXY- 
LA‘CEZE. Anvpriren pe Jussieu. 
A family of trees and shrubs, with aromatic, bitter, and pun- 
gent bark, leaves without stipules, alternate or opposite, simple, 
or, more commonly, unequally pinnate, with pellucid dots; and 
gray, green, or pink, axillary or terminal flowers. They are 
found most abundantly in America, particularly in the tropical 
regions, also in Africa and its islands and in India and China. 
Flowers sometimes perfect, usually fertile and barren on differ- 
ent plants. Sepals 3 to 9; petals as many, or wanting; stamens 
as many or twice as many. Seed-vessels 2 or more, on the 
receptacle, distinct, or more or less united; seeds 1 or 2 in each 
cell or seed-vessel, smooth and shining. 
The only genus found in Massachusetts is 
THE PRICKLY ASH. XANTHOXYLUM. L. 
This is a genus of forty or fifty species of plants, chiefly 
American, and principally found within the tropics. Some of 
the species are powerfully sudorific and diaphoretic, and re- 
markable for their power in exciting salivation. Some furnish 
