92 



WEEDS AXD USEFUL PLANTS. 



Moist low grounds ; swampy woodlands : Canada to Florida. Fl. :\[arcli - April. FV 

 September. 



Obs. The variety with yellowish or tawny flowers is quite common 

 m Pennsylvania. — and in a pretty extensive examination, I find those 

 flowers generally staminate and sterile (rarely perfect) : while the bright 

 purple flowers are constantly perfect. The wood of the Eed ]\Iaple — 

 especially that variety or form of it, known as Curled ]Maple — is much 

 used in the manufacture of various articles of furniture, <fcc., and the 

 refuse timber makes excellent fuel. The bark affords a dark purplish- 

 blue dye, and makes a pretty good bluish-black ink. The sap of all 

 the species is more or less saccharine. 



2. XEGUX'DO, 3Ioench. Box-elder. 



[Origin of the name obscure.] 



DicEciGus. Calyx minute, 4-5-cleft. Petals none. Stamixate Fl. 

 mostly with 5 stamens on capillary clustered pedicels. Pistillate 

 Fl. in simple slender pendulous racemes. FruH as in Acer. Leaves 

 pmnate. 



1 K". aceroi'des, Moench. Leaves pinnate in threes or fives ; leaflets 

 rhombic-ovate, coarsely cut-toothed. 



Acer-like Neguxdo. Box-elder. Ash-leaved Maple. 



stem 20-40 feet higli, branched ; young branches with a yellowish -green bark. Lmflds 

 mostly 3, sometimes odd-pinnate in fives, .3-5 inches long ; ccrimion petioles 3-4 inches in 

 lengtli. Floicers yellowish-green, from lateral buds ; ovaries hairy ; fi-uit diverging. 



Low grounds : iliddle and Southern and Western Stat-es. April." 



Obs. A handsome little tree, more abundant in the South and T>'est 

 than in the Eastern states. 



Order XXW. POLTGALATE^. (Milkwort Family.) 



Serbs with mostly alternate simple and entire leaves, without stipules, and irregular some- 

 what papilhonaceous^/iou-ers. Stamens i - 8 , diadelphous : anthers 1-celled, opening by a 

 pore at the summit. "Style curved, often hooded. Fruit a'2-celled 2-seeded capsule. 



1. POLTGA'LA, Tournef. Milkwort. 



[Greek, Poly, much, and Gala, milk ; from its supposed influence on the lacteal secretion.] 



Sepals 5, persistent ; the upper and two lower ones small, greenish ; the 

 two lateral ones (called wings) much larger and petal-like. Petals 3, 

 hypogynous, connected with each other and with the stamen-tube ; the 

 middle or lower one keeled, often crested. Capsule compressed con- 

 trary to the narrow partition, loculicidal. Seeds with a caruncle or 

 variously shaped appendage at the hilmn. 



1. P. Sen'ega, L. Perennial, stems simple, terete ; leaves alternate, 

 elliptic-lanceolate, the upper ones acuminate ; raceme terminal, spike- 



