Part 16 (1/2)

Var. _purpurascens_ of this species has flesh-colored or dull-purple flowers, and leaflets quite downy beneath.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ae. macrostachya.]

5. aesculus macrostachya, Mx. (LONG-RACEMED BUCKEYE.) Leaflets 5 to 7, ovate, ac.u.minate, serrate, velvety with hairs beneath. Flowers white, in long, slender, erect cl.u.s.ters; July; petals 4, spreading; stamens very long. A beautiful, widely spreading shrub. 5 to 18 ft. high; from the Southern States; often cultivated. Probably hardy throughout.

GENUS =24. KOELREUTeRIA.=

A small tree with alternate, once to twice irregularly pinnate leaves with many coa.r.s.ely toothed leaflets. Flowers conspicuous, yellow, in terminal panicles. In summer. Fruit rounded, bladdery, 3-celled, few-seeded pods; ripe in autumn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: K. paniculata.]

=Koelreuteria paniculata=, Laxm. Leaflets thin and very irregularly toothed. Cl.u.s.ters 6 to 12 in. long, of many irregular flowers, in.

wide; through the summer. Fruit an ovate, bladdery capsule, ripening in autumn. A fine, small, round-headed tree, 20 to 40 ft. high; from China.

Probably hardy throughout.

GENUS =25. aCER.=

Trees, or rarely shrubs, with simple, opposite, and almost always palmately lobed leaves, which, in our species, are always deciduous.

Flowers small and usually dull-colored, in cl.u.s.ters. Fruit double-winged and 2-seeded, in some species hanging on the tree till the leaves have fallen; in others dropping off early in the spring. The species differ much in the spreading of the wings of the fruit. Wood light-colored and medium hard; bark rather smoothish, but in large trees with longitudinal cracks.

* Leaves slightly or not lobed 13.

* Leaves about 3-lobed (rarely 5-lobed); shrubs or small trees.

(=A.=)

=A.= Leaves serrate 1, 2.

=A.= Leaves somewhat sinuate, not at all serrate; juice milky. 10.

* Leaves 5-, rarely 3-lobed. (=B.=)

=B.= The lobes acute, irregularly but quite fully serrate; juice not milky. (=C.=)

=C.= The fruit in corymbs, dropping early; American species. (=D.=)

=D.= Leaf-notches somewhat rounded; tree large; limbs drooping on old trees 3.

=D.= Leaf-notches acute; tree small 4.

=C.= Fruit in hanging racemes, remaining on the tree till autumn; leaves thickish 5.

=B.= The lobes acute; sparingly or not at all serrate. (=E.=)

=E.= Juice not milky 6.

=E.= Juice milky at the bases of the leaves 8, 9.

=B.= The lobes obtuse and sinuate 10.

* Leaves 5- to 7-lobed. (=F.=)