Spring Flora of Oklahoma 
103 
3. iEsculus octandra Marsh. Yellow sweet Buckeye. A large 
tree. Leaves with 5-7 leaflets. Flowers in a short, dense panicle. 
Petals 4, long-clawed, in 2 unlike pairs, bending inward. Blades of 
the longer pair very small. Fruit smooth. 
Woods. April-May. 
FAMILY 53. SAPINDACEiE. Soapberry Family. 
Trees or shrubs, with watery sap, rarely herbaceous 
vines. Leaves alternate, mostly pinnate or palmate, with¬ 
out stipules. Flowers polygamo-dicecious, regular or 
slightly irregular. Calyx of 4 or 5 sepals. Petals 3-5. 
Stamens 5-10. Ovary 1, 2-4-lobed or entire, 2-4-celled, 
ovules 1 or more in each cell. Fruit a leathery or mem¬ 
branous capsule, or berry-like. 
I. SAPINDUS (Tourn.) L. 
Trees or shrubs, with alternate abruptly-pinnate 
leaves, and regular polygamo-dicecious flowers in terminal 
or axillary racemes or panicles. Sepals 4-5, imbricated 
in 2 rows. Petals 4-5, with a scale at the base. Stamens 
8-10, upon the hypogynous disk. Ovules with 2-4 cavities. 
Ovules 1 in each cavity. Fruit a globose berry with 1-3 
seeds. 
1. Sapindus Drummondii H. & A. Drummond’s Soapberry. 
Wild China-tree. A tree with maximum height of 50°. Leaflets 
4-9 pairs, obliquely-lanceolate, sharply-acuminate, entire, l%'-4' long. 
The rachis of the leaf not winged. Flowers white, in a long pan¬ 
icle. Fruit mostly globose, 4"-7" in diameter. 
River valleys and hillsides. Common. May-June. 
FAMILY 54. RHAMNACAEE. Buckthorn Family. 
Erect or climbing shrubs, or small trees, often thorny. 
Leaves simple with stipules, alternate, often 3-5-nerved. 
Inflorescence commonly of axillary or terminal cymes, cor¬ 
ymbs or panicles. Flowers small, regular, perfect or polyg- 
