POPULAR FLORA. 
139 
80. STAFF-TREE FAMILY. Order CELASTRACEiE. 
Woody plants, with simple alternate or opposite leaves; the divisions of the calyx and 
the petals both overlapping in the bud ; the stamens as many as the petals (4 or 5) and 
alternate with them, inserted on a thick expansion of the receptacle (disk) which fills the 
bottom of the calyx. Pod colored, of 2 to 5 mostly one-seeded cells, showy when ripe in 
autumn, especially when they open and display the seeds enveloped in a pulpy scarlet aril. 
Flowers polygamous or nearly dioecious, white, in racemes: disk cup-shaped: style long. 
Pod globular, orange-yellow. Leaves alternate. Our only species is a twin- 
ing shrub, sometimes called Bittersweet, ( Celdslrus ) Waxwork. 
Flowers perfect, flat, dull green or dark purple, in axillary racemes : disk flat, covering 
the ovary, and bearing 4 or 5 very short stamens, the short style just rising 
through it. Pods red, lobed. Shrubs: leaves opposite, ( Euonymus ) Burning-bush 
Pods smooth, strongly lobed, or Spindle-tkee. 
Pods roundish, rough, ( Euonymus ) Strawberry-bush. 
31. SOAPBERRY FAMILY. Order SAPINDACEiE. 
The proper Soapberry family belongs mostly to warmer climates ; but we have 
shrubs and trees belong- 
ing to three of its sub- 
families : 
347 
344 
315 
I. BLADDERNUT Sub- 
family. Flowers regular and 
perfect. Stamens 5, as many 
as the petals, and alternate 
with them. Seeds bony. 
Leaves opposite, pinnate or 
with 3 leaflets, having stipules, 
and also little stipules ( stipds ) 
to the leaflets. 
Shrub: flowers white in racemes. Fruit of 3 bladdery 
pods united. ( Staphylea ) Bladdernut. 
II. HORSECHESTNUT Subfamily. Flowers po- 
lygamous, some of them having no good pistil, mostly 
irregular and unsym metrical. Calyx bell-shaped or 
tubular, 5-toothed. Petals 4 or 5, with claws, on the 
receptacle. Stamens generally 7, long. Style one. 
Ovary 3-celled, with a pair of ovules in each cell, 
only one or two ripening in the fruit; which becomes 
346. Same, a leathery 3-valved pod. Seeds very large, like chest- 
Fine ornamental trees, with opposite palmate 
o44. Red Buckeye, i educed in size. 345. Flower. 
'vith calyx and two petals taken away. 347. Magnified ovary, . 
divided lengthwise. 348 Same, divided crosswise, showing the 
two ovules in each cel,. 349 tame, partly grown, only one seed leaves, and flowers in thick panicles. 
growing. 350. Ripe pod bursting. 
Petals 5, spreading ; stamens declined : fruit prickly. Leaflets 7, 
Petals 4, unlike, with long claws in the calyx. Leaflets generally 6, 
10 
( JEscuhis ) *IIorsechestnut. 
( EEsculus, § Pavia) Buckeye. 
