1. H. Virginiàna, L. Leaves obovate or oval, wavy-toothed, somewhat downy when young; blossoming late in autumn, when the leaves are falling, and maturing its seeds the next summer.—Damp woods, N. Scotia to Fla., west to E. Minn. and La.
2. FOTHERGÍLLA, L.
Flowers in a terminal catkin-like spike, mostly perfect. Calyx bell-shaped, the summit truncate, slightly 5–7-toothed. Petals none. 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 hoary 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. Gardèni, L. (F. alnifolia, L. f.)—Low grounds, Va. to N. C. April, May.
3. LIQUIDÁMBAR, L. Sweet-Gum Tree.
Flowers usually monœcious, in globular heads or catkins; the sterile arranged in a conical cluster, 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. Styracíflua, L. (Sweet Gum. Bilsted.) Leaves rounded, deeply 5–7-lobed, smooth and shining, 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. HALORÀGEÆ. (Water-Milfoil Family.)
Aquatic or marsh plants (at least in northern countries), with the inconspicuous symmetrical (perfect or unisexual) 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 albumen; cotyledons minute.
1. Myriophyllum. Flowers monœcious or polygamous, the parts in fours, with or without petals. Stamens 4 or 8. Leaves often whorled, the immersed pinnately dissected.