Part 63 (1/2)

Stamens about 24, borne on the margin of the calyx in one row, all alike; filaments very long, thickened at the top (white). Styles 2, slender. Capsule cohering with the base of the calyx, 2-lobed, 2-celled, with a single bony seed in each cell.--A low shrub; the oval or obovate leaves smooth, or h.o.a.ry underneath, toothed at the summit; the flowers appearing rather before the leaves, each partly covered by a scale-like bract. (Dedicated to the distinguished _Dr. John Fothergill_.)

1. F. Gardeni, L. (F. alnifolia, _L. f._)--Low grounds, Va. to N. C.

April, May.

3. LIQUIDaMBAR, L. SWEET-GUM TREE.

Flowers usually moncious, in globular heads or catkins; the sterile arranged in a conical cl.u.s.ter, naked; stamens very numerous, intermixed with minute scales; filaments short. Fertile flowers consisting of many 2-celled 2-beaked ovaries, subtended by minute scales in place of a calyx, all more or less cohering together and hardening in fruit, forming a spherical catkin or head; the capsules opening between the 2 awl-shaped beaks. Styles 2, stigmatic down the inner side. Ovules many, but only one or two perfecting. Seeds with a wing-angled seed-coat.--Catkins racemed, nodding, in the bud enclosed by a 4-leaved deciduous involucre. (A mongrel name, from _liquidus_, fluid, and the Arabic _ambar_, amber; in allusion to the fragrant terebinthine juice which exudes from the tree.)

1. L. Styraciflua, L. (SWEET GUM. BILSTED.) Leaves rounded, deeply 5--7-lobed, smooth and s.h.i.+ning, glandular-serrate, the lobes pointed.--Moist woods, from Conn. to S. Ill., and south to Fla. and Tex.

April.--A large and beautiful tree, with fine-grained wood, the gray bark commonly with corky ridges on the branchlets. Leaves fragrant when bruised, turning deep crimson in autumn. The woody pods filled mostly with abortive seeds, resembling sawdust.

ORDER 39. HALORaGEae. (WATER-MILFOIL FAMILY.)

_Aquatic or marsh plants (at least in northern countries), with the inconspicuous symmetrical_ (perfect or unis.e.xual) _flowers sessile in the axils of leaves or bracts, calyx-tube coherent with the ovary_ (or calyx and corolla wanting in Callitriche), _which consists of 2--4 more or less united carpels_ (or in Hippuris of only one carpel), _the styles or sessile stigmas distinct_. Limb of the calyx obsolete or very short in fertile flowers. Petals small or none. Stamens 1--8. Fruit indehiscent, 1--4-celled, with a single anatropous seed suspended from the summit of each cell. Embryo in the axis of fleshy alb.u.men; cotyledons minute.

1. Myriophyllum. Flowers moncious or polygamous, the parts in fours, with or without petals. Stamens 4 or 8. Leaves often whorled, the immersed pinnately dissected.

2. Proserpinaca. Flowers perfect, the parts in threes. Petals none.

Leaves alternate, the immersed pinnately dissected.

3. Hippuris. Flowers usually perfect. Petals none. Stamen, style, and cell of the ovary only one. Leaves entire, in whorls.

4. Callitriche. Flowers moncious. Calyx and petals none. Stamen 1.

Ovary 4-celled, with 2 filiform styles. Leaves entire, opposite.

1. MYRIOPHLLUM, Vaill. WATER-MILFOIL.

Flowers moncious or polygamous. Calyx of the sterile flowers 4-parted, of the fertile 4-toothed. Petals 4, or none. Stamens 4--8. Fruit nut-like, 4-celled, deeply 4-lobed; stigmas 4, recurved.--Perennial aquatics. Leaves crowded, often whorled; those under water pinnately parted into capillary divisions. Flowers sessile in the axils of the upper leaves, usually above water in summer; the uppermost staminate.

(Name from ?????, _a thousand_, and f?????, _a leaf_, i.e., Milfoil.)

[*] _Stamens 8; petals deciduous; carpels even; leaves whorled in threes or fours._

1. M. spicatum, L. Leaves all pinnately parted and capillary, except the _floral ones or bracts_; these _ovate, entire or toothed, and chiefly shorter than the flowers_, which thus form an interrupted spike.--Deep water, Newf. to N. Eng. and N. Y., west to Minn., Ark., and the Pacific. (Eu.)

2. M. verticillatum, L. _Floral leaves much longer than the flowers, pectinate-pinnatifid_; otherwise nearly as n. 1.--Ponds, etc., common.

(Eu.)

[*][*] _Stamens 4; petals rather persistent; carpels 1--2-ridged and roughened on the back; leaves whorled in fours and fives, the lower with capillary divisions._

3. M. heterophllum, Michx. Stem stout; _floral leaves ovate and lanceolate_, thick, crowded, sharply serrate, the lowest pinnatifid; _fruit obscurely roughened._--Lakes and rivers, Ont. and N. Y. to Fla., west to Minn. and Tex.

4. M. scabratum, Michx. Stem rather slender; lower leaves pinnately parted with few capillary divisions; _floral leaves linear_ (rarely scattered), _pectinate-toothed or cut-serrate; carpels strongly 2-ridged and roughened on the back_.--Shallow ponds, S. New Eng. to S. C., west to Mo. and La.

[*][*][*] _Stamens 4; petals rather persistent; carpels even on the back, leaves chiefly scattered, or wanting on the flowering stems._

5. M. ambiguum, Nutt. _Immersed leaves pinnately parted_ into about 10 very delicate capillary divisions; _the emerging ones pectinate, or the upper floral linear_ and sparingly toothed or entire; _flowers mostly perfect_; fruit (minute) smooth.--Ponds and ditches, Ma.s.s. to N. J. and Penn.; also in Ind.--Var. CAPILLaCEUM, Torr. & Gray, has stems floating, long and very slender, and leaves all immersed and capillary.