1. I. pállida, 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. fúlva, 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 cornucopiæ-shaped sepal upward. Spur rarely wanting. Spotless forms of both species occur.
Order 24. RUTÀCEÆ. (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 (gynophore) or glandular disk.—Embryo large, curved or straight, usually in fleshy albumen. 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 diœcious; ovaries 3–5, separate, forming fleshy pods.
2. Ptelea. Flowers polygamous; ovary 2-celled, forming a samara, like that of Elm.
1. XANTHÓXYLUM, L. Prickly Ash.
Flowers diœcious. 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. Seed-coat crustaceous, black, smooth and shining. Embryo straight, with broad cotyledons.—Shrubs or trees, with mostly pinnate leaves, the stems and often the leafstalks prickly. Flowers small, greenish or whitish. (From ξανθός, yellow, and ξύλον, wood.)
1. X. Americànum, Mill. (Northern Prickly Ash. Toothache-tree.) Leaves and flowers in sessile axillary umbellate clusters; leaflets 2–4 pairs and an odd one, ovate-oblong, downy when young; calyx none; petals 4–5; pistils 3–5, with slender styles; pods short-stalked.—Rocky woods and river-banks; common, especially northward. April, May.—A shrub, with yellowish-green flowers appearing before the leaves. Bark, leaves, and pods very pungent and aromatic.
2. X. Clàva-Hérculis, L. (Southern P.) Glabrous; leaflets 3–8 pairs and an odd one, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, oblique, shining above; flowers in an ample terminal cyme, appearing after the leaves; sepals and petals 5; pistils 2–3, with short styles; pods sessile. (X. Carolinianum, Lam.)—Sandy coast of Virginia, and southward. June.—A small tree with very sharp prickles.
2. PTÈLEA, L. Shrubby Trefoil. Hop-tree.
Flowers polygamous. Sepals 3–5. Petals 3–5, imbricated in the bud. Stamens as many. Ovary 2-celled; style short; stigmas 2. Fruit a 2-celled and 2-seeded samara, winged all round, nearly orbicular.—Shrubs, with 3-foliolate leaves, and greenish-white small flowers in compound terminal cymes. (The Greek name of the Elm, here applied to a genus with similar fruit.)
1. P. trifoliàta, L. Leaflets ovate, pointed, downy when young.—Rocky places, Long Island to Minn., and southward. June.—A tall shrub. Fruit bitter, used as a substitute for hops. Odor of the flowers disagreeable.
Ailánthus glandulòsus, Desf., called Tree of Heaven,—but whose blossoms, especially the staminate ones, are redolent of anything but "airs from heaven,"—is much planted as a shade-tree, especially in towns, and is inclined to spread from seed. It belongs to the order Simarubaceæ, which differs from Rutaceæ in the absence of dots in the leaves. The tree is known by its very long pinnate leaves of many leaflets, and small polygamous greenish flowers in panicles, the female producing 2–5 thin, linear-oblong, veiny samaras. (Adv. from China.)
Order 25. ILICÌNEÆ. (Holly Family.)
Trees or shrubs, with small axillary 4–8-merous flowers, a minute calyx free from the 4–8-celled ovary and the 4–8-seeded berry-like drupe, the stamens as many as the divisions of the almost or quite 4–8-petalled corolla and alternate with them, attached to their very base.—Corolla imbricated in the bud. Anthers opening lengthwise. Stigmas 4–8, or united into one, nearly sessile. Seeds suspended and solitary in each cell, anatropous, with a minute embryo in fleshy albumen. Leaves simple, mostly alternate. Flowers white or greenish.—A small family, nearly related to the Gamopetalous order Ebenaceæ.
1. Ilex. Petals or corolla-lobes oval or obovate. Pedicels mostly clustered.
2. Nemopanthes. Petals linear. Pedicels solitary.
1. ÌLEX, L. Holly.
Flowers more or less diœciously polygamous. Calyx 4–6-toothed. Petals 4–6, separate, or united only at the base, oval or obovate, obtuse, spreading. Stamens 4–6. The berry-like drupe containing 4–6 little nutlets.—Leaves alternate. Fertile flowers inclined to be solitary, and the sterile or partly sterile flowers to be clustered in the axils. (The ancient Latin name of the Holly-Oak, rather than of the Holly.)
§ 1. AQUIFÒLIUM. Parts of the flower commonly in fours, sometimes in fives or sixes; drupe red, its nutlets ribbed, veiny, or 1-grooved on the back; leaves (mostly smooth) coriaceous and evergreen.
[*] Leaves armed with spiny teeth; trees.
1. I. opàca, Ait. (American Holly.) Leaves oval, flat, the wavy margins with scattered spiny teeth; flowers in loose clusters along the base of the young branches and in the axils; calyx-teeth acute.—Moist woodlands, Maine to Va., near the coast, and more common southward. June.—Tree 20–40° high; the deep green foliage less glossy than in the European Holly (I. Aquifolium, L.), the berries not so bright red, and nutlets not so veiny.
[*][*] Leaves serrate or entire, not spiny; shrubs.
2. I. Cassìne, L. (Cassena. Yaupon.) Leaves lance-ovate or elliptical, crenate (1–1½´ long); flower-clusters nearly sessile, smooth; calyx-teeth obtuse.—Virginia and southward along the coast. May.—Leaves used for tea by the people along the coast, as they were to make the celebrated black drink of the North Carolina Indians.
3. I. Dahòon, Walt. (Dahoon Holly.) Leaves oblanceolate or oblong, entire, or sharply serrate toward the apex, with revolute margins (2–3´ long), the midrib and peduncles pubescent; calyx-teeth