96 
XXVI. SAPINDACE2E 
XXVI. SAPINDACE^ 
Erect trees or shrubs, rarely climbing herbs. Leaves alternate 
or opposite, stalked, simple and frequently lobed or compound ; 
stipules usually small and soon falling off. Flowers usually small 
and regular, in cymes or panicles, 2- or 1-sexual, the male and 
female sometimes on different plants. Calyx of 4 or 5 sepals, free 
or united in a tube. Petals 4 or 5, rarely none, alternate with 
the sepals, often unequal, sometimes bearing a small scale on the 
inner face. Disk fleshy, complete as an entire or lobed ring, or 
incomplete (the posterior half wanting), or reduced to glands, or 
altogether absent. Stamens normally 8, sometimes fewer, inserted 
within the disk, filaments usually long, anthers oblong, 2-celled, 
versatile or erect. Ovary sessile, free, 3- or 2-celled ; styles 1-3 ; 
ovules 1 or 2, rarely several in each cell. Fruit various, capsular 
or samaroid. Seeds 1-3, rarely numerous. — An Order dispersed 
throughout nearly the whole world ; most abundant in tropical, 
absent in very cold regions. 
Leaves alternate 
Leaves compound. 
A climbing herb. Leaves ternately pinnate, 3 leaflets 
on division. Capsule membranous, inflated . 1. Cardiospermum . 
A tree. Leaves simply pinnate, leaflets about 15. 
Drupe yellow, fleshy 3. Sapindus. 
Leaves simple. Valves of the capsule winged on the back 5. Dodoncea. 
Leaves opposite 
Leaves simple, usually lobed. Fruit of 2 samaras joined 
to a short axis ........ 4. Acer. 
Leaves compound. 
Leaves digitate ; leaflets 5-9. Capsule thick, leathery. 
Seeds 1-3, large 2. AEsculus. 
Leaves pinnate ; leaflets 3. Capsule membranous, 
inflated. Seeds several, small . . . .6. Staphylea . 
1. CARDIOSPERMUM. From the Greek cardia, a heart, and 
sperma, a seed, referring to the heart-shaped excrescence on the 
seeds. — Chiefly tropical America ; only 3 or 4 species in Asia and 
Africa, two of those being also found in America. 
Cardiospermum Halicacabum, Linn . ; FI. Br. Bid. i. 670. An 
annual, climbing, nearly glabrous herb ; branches long, slender, 
grooved. Leaves alternate, ternately pinnate, 2^-3 in. ; each 
division with 3 coarsely toothed, 3-lobed, pointed leaflets, the centre 
one the longest. Flowers few, small, white, irregular, in axillary, 
long-stalked corymbs having a pair of simple coiled tendrils near 
