Part 44 (1/2)

Calyx small, 5-parted. Petals 5. Stamens 5, inserted under the edge or between the lobes of a flattened disk in the bottom of the calyx. Fruit small and indehiscent, a sort of dry drupe.--Leaves usually compound.

Flowers greenish-white or yellowish. (The old Greek and Latin name.)

-- 1. RHUS proper. _Fruit symmetrical, with the styles terminal._

[*] _Flowers polygamous, in a terminal thyrsoid panicle; fruit globular, clothed with acid crimson hairs; stone smooth; leaves odd-pinnate. (Not poisonous.)_--(-- SUMAC, DC.)

1. R. tphina, L. (STAGHORN SUMACH.) _Branches and stalks densely velvety-hairy_; leaflets 11--31, pale beneath, oblong-lanceolate, pointed, serrate, rarely laciniate.--Hillsides. June.--Shrub or tree 10--30 high, with orange-colored wood. Apparently hybridizes with the next.

2. R. glabra, L. (SMOOTH S.) _Smooth, somewhat glaucous_; leaflets 11--31, whitened beneath, lanceolate-oblong, pointed, serrate.--Rocky or barren soil. June, July.--Shrub 2--12 high. A var. has laciniate leaflets.

3. R. copallna, L. (DWARF S.) _Branches and stalks downy; petioles wing-margined_ between the 9--21 oblong or ovate-lanceolate (often entire) leaflets, which are oblique or unequal at the base, smooth and s.h.i.+ning above.--Rocky hills. July.--Shrub 1--7 high, with running roots.

[*][*] _Flowers polygamous, in loose and slender axillary panicles; fruit globular, glabrous, whitish or dun-colored; the stone striate; leaves odd-pinnate or 3-foliolate, thin.

(Poisonous.)_--(-- TOXICODENDRON, DC.)

4. R. venenata, DC. (POISON S. or DOGWOOD.) Smooth, or nearly so; _leaflets 7--13, obovate-oblong_, entire.--Swamps. June.--Shrub 6--18 high. The most poisonous species; also called _Poison Elder_.

5. R. Toxicodendron, L. (POISON IVY. POISON OAK.) Climbing by rootlets over rocks, etc., or ascending trees, or sometimes low and erect; _leaflets 3, rhombic-ovate_, mostly pointed, and rather downy beneath, variously notched, sinuate, or cut-lobed,--high-climbing plants (R.

radcans, _L._) having usually more entire leaves.--Thickets, low grounds, etc. June.

[*][*][*] _Flowers polygamo-dicious, in small solitary or cl.u.s.tered spikes or heads which develop in spring before the leaves; leaves 3-foliolate; fruit as in first group. (Not poisonous)._--(-- LOBADIUM, Torr. & Gray.)

6. R. Canadensis, Marsh. Leaves soft-p.u.b.escent when young, becoming glabrate; leaflets rhombic-obovate or ovate, unequally cut-toothed, 1--3' long, the terminal one cuneate at base and sometimes 3-cleft; flowers pale yellow. (R. aromatica, _Ait._)--Dry rocky banks, W. Vt. to Minn., and southward.--A straggling bush, 3--7 high; the crushed leaves not unpleasantly scented.

Var. trilobata, Gray. With smaller leaflets (--1' long), crenately few-lobed or incised toward the summit.--Long Pine, Neb., and common westward. Unpleasantly scented.

-- 2. CTINUS. _Ovary becoming very gibbous in fruit, with the remains of the styles lateral; flowers in loose ample panicles, the pedicels elongating and becoming plumose; leaves simple, entire._

7. R. cotinodes, Nutt. Glabrous or nearly so; leaves thin, oval, 3--6'

long; flowers and fruit as in the cultivated _Smoke-tree_ (R.

Cotinus).--Mo. to Tenn., and southward.--A tree, 25--40 high.

ORDER 31. POLYGALaCEae. (MILKWORT FAMILY.)

_Plants with irregular hypogynous flowers, 4--8 diadelphous or monadelphous stamens, their 1-celled anthers opening at the top by a pore or c.h.i.n.k, the fruit a 2-celled and 2-seeded pod._

1. POLGALA, Tourn. MILKWORT.

Flower very irregular. Calyx persistent, of 5 sepals, of which 3 (the upper and the 2 lower) are small and often greenish, while the two lateral or inner (called _wings_) are much larger, and colored like the petals. Petals 3, hypogynous, connected with each other and with the stamen-tube, the middle (lower) one keel-shaped and often crested on the back. Stamens 6 or 8; their filaments united below into a split sheath, or into 2 sets, cohering more or less with the petals, free above; anthers 1-celled, often cup-shaped, opening by a hole or broad c.h.i.n.k at the apex. Ovary 2-celled, with a single anatropous ovule pendulous in each cell; style prolonged and curved; stigma various. Fruit a small, loculicidal 2-seeded pod, usually rounded and notched at the apex, much flattened contrary to the very narrow part.i.tion. Seeds carunculate.

Embryo large, straight, with flat and broad cotyledons, in scanty alb.u.men.--Bitter plants (low herbs in temperate regions), with simple entire often dotted leaves, and no stipules; sometimes (as in the first two species) bearing cleistogamous flowers next the ground. (An old name composed of p????, _much_, and ???a, _milk_, from a fancied property of its increasing this secretion.)

[*] _Perennial or biennial; flowers purple or white; leaves alternate._

[+] _Flowers showy, rose-purple, conspicuously crested; also bearing inconspicuous colorless cleistogamous flowers on subterranean branches._

1. P. pauciflia, Willd. _Perennial_; flowering stems short (3--4'

high), from long slender prostrate or subterranean shoots, which also bear concealed fertile flowers; lower leaves small and scale-like, scattered, the _upper ovate, petioled, crowded_ at the summit; _flowers 1--3, large_, peduncled; wings obovate, rather shorter than the fringe-crested keel; stamens 6; caruncle of 2 or 3 awl-shaped lobes longer than the seed.--Woods, in light soil, N. Eng. to Minn., Ill., and southward along the Alleghanies. May.--A delicate plant, with very handsome flowers, 9” long, rose-purple, or rarely pure white. Sometimes called _Flowering Wintergreen_, but more appropriately FRINGED POLYGALA.