Part 40 (1/2)

4. oXALIS, L. WOOD-SORREL.

Sepals 5, persistent. Petals 5, sometimes united at base, withering after expansion. Stamens 10, usually monadelphous at base, alternately shorter. Styles 5, distinct. Pod oblong, membranaceous, 5-celled, more or less 5-lobed, each cell opening on the back; valves persistent, being fixed to the axis by the part.i.tions. Seeds 2 or more in each cell, pendulous from the axis, anatropous, their outer coat loose and separating. Embryo large and straight in fleshy alb.u.men; cotyledons flat.--Herbs, with sour watery juice, alternate or radical leaves, mostly of 3 obcordate leaflets, which close and droop at nightfall.

Several species produce small peculiar flowers, precociously fertilized in the bud and particularly fruitful; and the ordinary flowers are often dimorphous or even trimorphous in the relative length of the stamens and styles. (Name from ????, _sour_.)

[*] _Stemless perennials; leaves and scapes arising from a rootstock or bulb; leaflets broadly obcordate; flowers nearly 1' broad; cells of the pod few-seeded._

1. O. Acetosella, L. (COMMON WOOD-SORREL.) _Rootstock creeping_ and scaly-toothed; _scape 1-flowered_ (2--5' high); petals white with reddish veins, often notched.--Deep cold woods, Ma.s.s. to Penn., L. Superior, and northward; also southward in the Alleghanies. June.

(Eu.)

2. O. violacea, L. (VIOLET W.) Nearly smooth; _bulb scaly; scapes umbellately several-flowered_ (5--9' high), longer than the leaves; petals violet.--Rocky places and open woods; most common southward. May, June.

[*][*] _Stems leafy, branching; peduncles axillary; flowers yellow; cells several-seeded._

3. O. corniculata, L. (YELLOW W.) Annual or perennial by running subterranean shoots, erect or proc.u.mbent, strigose-p.u.b.escent; stipules round or truncate, ciliate; peduncles 2--6-flowered, longer than the leaves; pods elongated, erect in fruit.--Rare; on ballast, etc.; indigenous in Mo. (_Bush_), and southwestward. (Cosmopolitan.)

Var. stricta, Sav. Stem erect, somewhat glabrous to very villous; stipules none. (O. stricta, _L._)--Common. May--Sept. Varies greatly.

4. O. recurva, Ell. Like var. stricta of n. 3; leaflets larger (--1'

broad), usually with a brownish margin; flowers larger (6--8”

long).--Penn. to S. Ill., and southward.

5. IMPaTIENS, L. BALSAM. JEWEL-WEED.

Calyx and corolla colored alike and not clearly distinguishable. Sepals apparently only 4; the anterior one notched at the apex and probably consisting of two combined; the posterior one (appearing anterior as the flower hangs on its stalk) largest, and forming a spurred sac. Petals 2, unequal-sided and 2-lobed (each consisting of a pair united). Stamens 5, short; filaments appendaged with a scale on the inner side, the 5 scales connivent and united over the stigma; anthers opening on the inner face.

Ovary 5-celled; stigma sessile. Pod with evanescent part.i.tions, and a thick axis bearing several anatropous seeds, 5-valved, the valves coiling elastically and projecting the seeds in bursting. Embryo straight; alb.u.men none.--Leaves simple, alternate, without stipules, in our species ovate or oval, coa.r.s.ely toothed, petioled. Flowers axillary or panicled, often of two sorts, viz.,--the larger ones, which seldom ripen seeds;--and very small ones, which are fertilized early in the bud; their floral envelopes never expand, but are forced off by the growing pod and carried upward on its apex. (Name from the sudden bursting of the pods when touched, whence also the popular appellation, _Touch-me-not_, or _Snap-weed_.)

1. I. pallida, Nutt. (PALE TOUCH-ME-NOT.) _Flowers pale-yellow, sparingly dotted_ with brownish-red; sac dilated and very obtuse, broader than long, tipped with a short incurved spur.--Moist shady places and along rills, in rich soil; most common northward.

July--Sept.--Larger and greener than the next, with larger flowers, and less frequent.

2. I. fulva, Nutt. (SPOTTED TOUCH-ME-NOT.) _Flowers orange-color, thickly spotted with reddish-brown_; sac longer than broad, acutely conical, tapering into a _strongly inflexed spur_ half as long as the sac.--Rills and shady moist places; common, especially southward.

June--Sept.--Plant 2--4 high; the flowers loosely panicled, hanging gracefully on their slender nodding stalks, the open mouth of the cornucopiae-shaped sepal upward. Spur rarely wanting. Spotless forms of both species occur.

ORDER 24. RUTaCEae. (RUE FAMILY.)

_Plants with simple or compound leaves, dotted with pellucid glands and abounding with a pungent or bitter-aromatic acrid volatile oil, producing hypogynous almost always regular 3--5-merous flowers, the stamens as many or twice as many as the sepals (rarely more numerous); the 2--5 pistils separate or combined into a compound ovary of as many cells, raised on a prolongation of the receptacle (gynoph.o.r.e) or glandular disk._--Embryo large, curved or straight, usually in fleshy alb.u.men. Styles commonly united or cohering, even when the ovaries are distinct. Fruit usually capsular. Leaves alternate or opposite.

Stipules none.--A large family, chiefly of the Old World and the southern hemisphere; our two indigenous genera are

1. Xanthoxylum. Flowers dicious; ovaries 3--5, separate, forming fleshy pods.

2. Ptelea. Flowers polygamous; ovary 2-celled, forming a samara, like that of Elm.

1. XANTHoXYLUM, L. p.r.i.c.kLY ASH.

Flowers dicious. Sepals 4 or 5, obsolete in one species. Petals 4 or 5, imbricated in the bud. Stamens 4 or 5 in the sterile flowers, alternate with the petals. Pistils 2--5, separate, but their styles conniving or slightly united. Pods thick and fleshy, 2-valved, 1--2-seeded.