Flowers perfect or polygamous, regular. Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed. Petals 5, distinct. Stamens 5 or 10. Pod flat, membranaceous or somewhat coriaceous, several-seeded, 2-valved, smooth.—Herbs, with twice-pinnate leaves of numerous small leaflets, and with one or more glands on the petiole, setaceous stipules, and axillary peduncles bearing a head of small greenish-white flowers. (Name composed of δέσμα, a bond, and ἄνθος, flower.)
1. D. brachýlobus, Benth. Nearly glabrous perennial, erect (1–4° high); pinnæ 6–15 pairs; leaflets 20–30 pairs; peduncles 1–3´ long; stamens 5; pods numerous in dense globose heads, oblong or lanceolate, curved, scarcely 1´ long, 2–6-seeded.—Prairies and alluvial banks, Ind. and Ky. to Minn., Mo., and Tex.; also in Fla.
2. D. leptólobus, Torr. & Gray. Pinnæ 5–8 pairs; leaflets 10–20 pairs; peduncles 1´ long or less; heads rather loose, stamens 5; pods usually few, narrowly linear, erect, 1–2´ long.—Central Kan. to Tex.
46. SCHRÁNKIA, Willd. Sensitive Briar.
Flowers polygamous, regular. Calyx minute, 5-toothed. Petals united into a funnel-form 5-cleft corolla. Stamens 10–12, distinct, or the filaments united at base. Pods long and narrow, rough-prickly, several-seeded, 4-valved, i.e., the two narrow valves separating on each side from a thickened margin.—Perennial herbs, nearly related to the true Sensitive Plants (Mimosa); the procumbent stems and petioles recurved-prickly, with twice-pinnate sensitive leaves of many small leaflets, and axillary peduncles bearing round heads of small rose-colored flowers. (Named for F. P. Schrank, a German botanist.)
1. S. uncinàta, Willd. Prickles hooked; pinnæ 4–6 pairs; leaflets elliptical, reticulated with strong veins beneath; pods oblong-linear, nearly terete-short-pointed, densely prickly (2´ long).—Dry sandy soil, Va. to Fla., west to S. Ill., Kan., and Tex.
2. S. angustàta, Torr. & Gray. Leaflets oblong-linear, scarcely veined; pods slender, taper-pointed, sparingly prickly (about 4´ long).—S. Va. (?) to Fla., Tenn., and Tex.
Order 33. ROSÀCEÆ. (Rose Family.)
Plants with regular flowers, numerous (rarely few) distinct stamens inserted on the calyx, and 1–many pistils, which are quite distinct, or (in the last tribe) united and combined with the calyx tube. Seeds (anatropous) 1–few in each ovary, almost always without albumen. Embryo straight, with large and thick cotyledons. Leaves alternate, with stipules, these sometimes caducous, rarely obsolete or wanting.—Calyx of 5 or rarely 3–4–8 sepals (the odd one superior), united at the base, often appearing double by a row of bractlets outside. Petals as many as the sepals (rarely wanting), mostly imbricated in the bud, and inserted with the stamens on the edge of a disk that lines the calyx tube. Trees, shrubs, or herbs.—A large and important order, almost destitute of noxious qualities, and producing the most valuable fruits. Very intimately connected with Leguminosæ on one hand, and with Saxifragaceæ on the other.
I. Ovary superior and not enclosed in the calyx tube at maturity.