1. H. Canadénsis, L. (Golden Seal, etc.) Leaves rounded, heart-shaped at the base, 5–7-lobed, doubly serrate, veiny, when full grown in summer 4–9´ wide.—Rich woods, N. Y. to Minn., and southward.
22. XANTHORRHÌZA, Marshall. Shrub Yellow-root.
Sepals 5, regular, spreading, deciduous. Petals 5, much smaller than the sepals, concave and obscurely 2-lobed, raised on a claw. Stamens 5 to 10. Pistils 5–15, with 2 pendulous ovules. Pods 1-seeded, oblong, the short style becoming dorsal.—A low shrubby plant; the bark and long roots deep yellow and bitter. Flowers polygamous, brown purple, in compound drooping racemes, appearing along with the 1–2-pinnate leaves from large terminal buds in early spring. (Name compounded of ξανθός, yellow, and ῥίζα, root.)
1. X. apiifòlia, L'Her. Stems clustered, 1–2° high; leaflets cleft and toothed.—Shady banks of streams, Penn. to S. W. New York and Ky., and south in the mountains. The rootstocks of this, and also of the last plant, were used as a yellow dye by the aborigines.
Nigélla Damascèna, L., the Fennel-flower, which offers a remarkable exception in having the pistils partly united into a compound ovary, so as to form a several-celled capsule, grows nearly spontaneously around gardens.
Order 2. MAGNOLIÀCEÆ. (Magnolia Family.)
Trees or shrubs, with the leaf-buds covered by membranous stipules, polypetalous, hypogynous, polyandrous, polygynous; the calyx and corolla colored alike, in three or more rows of three, and imbricated (rarely convolute) in the bud.—Sepals and petals deciduous. Anthers adnate. Pistils many, mostly packed together and covering the prolonged receptacle, cohering with each other, and in fruit forming a sort of fleshy or dry cone. Seeds 1 or 2 in each carpel, anatropous; albumen fleshy; embryo minute.—Leaves alternate, not toothed, marked with minute transparent dots, feather-veined. Flowers single, large. Bark aromatic and bitter.
1. MAGNÒLIA, L.
Sepals 3. Petals 6–9. Stamens imbricated, with very short filaments, and long anthers opening inward. Pistils coherent, forming a fleshy and rather woody cone-like red fruit; each carpel at maturity opening on the back, from which the 1 or 2 berry-like seeds hang by an extensile thread composed of unrolled spiral vessels. Inner seed-coat bony.—Buds conical, the coverings formed of the successive pairs of stipules, each pair enveloping the leaf next above, which is folded lengthwise and applied straight against the side of the next stipular sheath, and so on. (Named after Magnol, Professor of Botany at Montpellier in the 17th century.)
[*] Leaves all scattered along the branches; leaf-buds silky.
1. M. glaùca, L. (Small or Laurel Magnolia. Sweet Bay.) Leaves oval to broadly lanceolate, 3–6´ long, obtuse, glaucous beneath; flower globular, white, 2´ long, very fragrant; petals broad; cone of fruit small, oblong.—Swamps, from near Cape Ann and N. Y. southward, near the coast; in Penn. as far west as Cumberland Co. June–Aug.—Shrub 4–20° high, with thickish leaves, which farther south are evergreen.
2. M. acuminàta, L. (Cucumber-tree.) Leaves thin, oblong, pointed, green and a little pubescent beneath, 5–10´ long; flower oblong bell-shaped, glaucous-green tinged with yellow, 2´ long; cone of fruit 2–3´ long, cylindrical.—Rich woods, western N. Y. to Ill., and southward. May, June.—Tree 60–90° high. Fruit when young slightly resembling a small cucumber, whence the common name.
3. M. macrophýlla, Michx. (Great-leaved Magnolia.) Leaves obovate-oblong, cordate at the narrowed base, pubescent and white beneath; flower open bell-shaped, white, with a purple spot at base; petals ovate, 6´ long; cone of fruit ovoid.—S. E. Ky. and southward. May, June.—Tree 20–40° high. Leaves 1–3° long, somewhat clustered on the flowering branches.
[*][*] Leaves crowded on the summit of the flowering branches in an umbrella-like circle; leaf-buds glabrous; flowers white, slightly scented.
4. M. Umbrélla, Lam. (Umbrella-tree.) Leaves obovate-lanceolate, pointed at both ends, soon glabrous, 1–2° long; petals obovate-oblong, 4–5´ long.—S. Penn. to Ky. and southward. May.—A small tree. Fruit rose-color, 4–5´ long, ovoid-oblong.
5. M. Fràseri, Walt. (Ear-leaved Umbrella-tree.) Leaves oblong-obovate or spatulate, auriculate at the base, glabrous, 8–20´ long; petals obovate-spatulate, with narrow claws, 4´ long.—Va. and Ky., along the Alleghanies, and southward. April, May.—A slender tree 30–50° high. Flower more graceful and cone of fruit smaller than in the preceding.
2. LIRIODÉNDRON, L. Tulip-tree.
Sepals 3, reflexed. Petals 6, in two rows, making a bell-shaped corolla. Anthers linear, opening outward. Pistils flat and scale-form, long and narrow, imbricating and cohering together in an elongated cone, dry, separating from each other and from the long and slender axis in fruit, and falling away whole, like a samara or key, indehiscent, 1–2-seeded in the small cavity at the base. Buds flat, sheathed by the successive pairs of flat and broad stipules joined at their edges, the folded leaves bent down on the petiole so that the apex points to the base of the bud. (Name from λίριον, lily or tulip, and δένδρον, tree.)
1. L. Tulipífera, L.—Rich soil, S. New Eng. to Mich., Wisc., and southward. May, June.—A most beautiful tree, sometimes 140° high and 8–9° in diameter in the Western States, where it is wrongly called White Poplar. Leaves very smooth, with 2 lateral lobes near the base, and 2 at the apex, which appears as if cut off abruptly by a broad shallow notch. Petals 2´ long, greenish-yellow marked with orange. Cone of fruit 3´ long.
Order 3. ANONÀCEÆ. (Custard-Apple Family.)
Trees or shrubs, with naked buds and no stipules, a calyx of 3 sepals, and a corolla of 6 petals in two rows, valvate in the bud, hypogynous, polyandrous.—Petals thickish. Anthers adnate, opening outward; filaments very short. Pistils several or many, separate or cohering in a mass, fleshy or pulpy in fruit. Seeds anatropous, large, with a crustaceous seed-coat, and a minute embryo at the base of the ruminated albumen.—Leaves alternate, entire, feather-veined. Flowers axillary, solitary.—A tropical family, excepting the following genus:—
1. ASÍMINA, Adans. North American Papaw.
Petals 6, increasing after the bud opens; the outer set larger than the inner. Stamens numerous in a globular mass. Pistils few, ripening 1–4 large and oblong pulpy several-seeded fruits. Seeds horizontal, flat, enclosed in a fleshy aril.—Shrubs or small trees with unpleasant odor when bruised, the lurid flowers solitary from the axils of last year's leaves. (Name from Asiminier, of the French colonists, from the Indian name assimin.)
1. A. tríloba, Dunal. (Common Papaw.) Leaves thin, obovate-lanceolate, pointed; petals dull-purple, veiny, round-ovate, the outer ones 3–4 times as long as the calyx.—Banks of streams in rich soil, western N. Y. and Penn. to Ill., S. E. Neb., and southward. April, May.—Tree 10–20° high; the young shoots and expanding leaves clothed with a rusty down, soon glabrous. Flowers appearing with the leaves, 1½´ wide. Fruits 3–4´ long, yellowish, sweet and edible in autumn.
Order 4. MENISPERMÀCEÆ. (Moonseed Family.)
Woody climbers, with palmate or peltate alternate leaves, no stipules, the sepals and petals similar, in three or more rows, imbricated in the bud; hypogynous, diœcious, 3–6-gynous; fruit a 1-seeded drupe, with a large or long curved embryo in scanty albumen.—Flowers small. Stamens several. Ovaries nearly straight, with the stigma at the apex, but often incurved in fruiting, so that the seed and embryo are bent into a crescent or ring.—Chiefly a tropical family.
[*] Sepals and petals present. Anthers 4-celled. Seed incurved.
1. Cocculus. Stamens,