MADDER FAMILY. 



163 



Obs. There are several other species belongiuo- to this section ; this is 

 the most elegant of them, and is really worthy of culture as an ornamen- 

 tal tree, it behig beautifu], yrhether clothed with its rich green foliage 

 and profusion of flowers in spring, or bearing its plentiful clusters of fruit 

 and its many-hued leaves in autumn. 



Marginal flowers of the cymes sterile, and icith corollas many times 

 larger than the others, forming a kind of ray. 



2. V. O'pulus, L. Nearly smooth ; leaves strongly 3-lobed, broadly 

 wedge-shaped or truncate at the base, the lobes toothed ; petioles bear- 

 ing stalked glands at the base ; cymes peduncled ; fruit ovoid, red. 

 Cranberry-tree. Bush, or High-cranberry. 



5ftrw& 3-10 feet high with spreading branches. Zeam 3-5 inches in diameter with 3 

 very large divergent lobes and large unequal obtuse teeth. Cymes 3 -4 inches in diameter, 

 the outer and imperfect florets, more or less numerous, raised on longer stalks, destitute 

 of stamens and pistils, the corolla nearly an inch in diameter, of 5 unequal rounded lobes. 

 Drupes }4 uich long, intensely acid. 



Pennsylvania, northward. FL June. Fr. September. 



Obs. This species is found in the swamps in the northernmost States, 

 and extends to the Arctic circle. The acid fruit is sometimes used as a 

 substitute for cranberries, whence its popular name. It is better known 

 in its cultivated state as the Guelder Rose or •• Snow-ball," which is a 

 variety with all the flowers sterile and bearing large corollas. The Snow- 

 ball is one of the most generally cultivated shrubs, and is beautifully de- 

 scribed by the poet, Cowper, as throwing up its — 



" Silver globes, hght as the foamy surf. 

 That the wind severs from the broken wave.-' * 



Order XXXYU. RUBIA'CEJS. (Madder Family ) 



Herbs, sTirubs or ii-ees with opposite or verticillate, entire leaves, connected by interposed 

 stipules, or whorled without apparent stipules. Flmcers regular. Calyx-tulye' adherent to 

 the ovciry, or sometimes free, — the limb 3-5-cleft or toothed — occasionally obsolete. 

 Corolla inserted on the summit of the calyx-tube, — the loles as many as those of the 

 calyx. Sto.Tu -'-^ t~ r . ^nyas the lobes of the corolla, and alternate with them. Ovary 

 mostly 2-c:-; ; stly 2, more or less united; rfi^?nas mostly 2, distinct or con- 

 crete. Frh : baccate, drupaceous, capsular, or separable into indehiscent car- 

 pels. Seeds - . . , : .v, or numerous in each ceU : embryo in the axis, or at the extremity, 

 of copious fleshy or horny albumen. 



This Order — comprising various Tribes, and nearly 250 Genera — contains many plants 

 of great value — ^though but few of them immediately concern the Xorth American farmer. 

 Among the most important may be mentioned the Coffee plant (Coflfea Arabica, L.. which 

 may yet, possibly, be advantageously cultivated in Florida, and some other places on our 

 southern borders) — ^the Peruvian Bark (from various species of Cinchona) — and the 

 Ipecacuanha (Cephaehs Ipecacuanha, Rich.) The well-known beautiful and fragrant Cape 

 Jessamine (Gardenia fiorida) is also referred to this large Natural Family. 



1. Madder Sub-order. Ovanj entirely coherent with the calyx-tube. 

 Leaves whorled. 



1. RU'BIA, Tournef. Madder. 



[Latin, Ruber, red ; the color produced by its roots.] 



Calyx-tube ovoid-globose, — the Umh 4-tGothed or obsolete. Coixlla sab- 



