The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 38

Calyx naked at the base, 5-toothed. Petals entire. _Flowers dicious_; the staminate flowers dest.i.tute of pistils, with 15--20 anthers; the fertile with a short column of filaments but usually no anthers. Styles 8--10, stigmatic along the inside. Fruit depressed-globular, separating when ripe into as many kidney-shaped 1-seeded beakless and scarcely dehiscent carpels as there are styles. Radicle pointing downward.--A tall roughish perennial herb, with very large 9--11-parted lower leaves, the pointed lobes pinnatifid-cut and toothed, and with small white flowers in panicled cl.u.s.tered corymbs. (Named from ??p?, a glade or dell, or, poetically, a nymph of the glades.)

1. N. diica, L. Stems nearly simple, 5--9 high.--Penn. to Va., and west to Iowa and Minn.; rare. July.

5. MALVaSTRUM, Gray. FALSE MALLOW.

Calyx with an involucel of 2 or 3 bractlets, or none. Petals notched at the end or entire. Styles 5 or more; stigmas capitate. Carpels as in Malva, or else as in Sida, but the solitary kidney-shaped seed ascending and the radicle pointing downward, as in the former. (Name altered from _Malva_.)

1. M. angustum, Gray. Annual, slightly hairy, erect (6'--1 high); leaves lance-oblong or linear, with scattered fine callous teeth; flowers in the upper axils, on peduncles shorter than the broadly ovate-triangular sepals; bractlets and stipules setaceous; petals yellow, scarcely exceeding the calyx; carpels 5, kidney-shaped, smooth, at length 2-valved.--W. Tenn. to Iowa and Kan. Aug.

2. M. coccineum, Gray. Perennial, low and h.o.a.ry; leaves 5-parted or pedate, flowers in short spikes or racemes, the pink-red petals very much longer than the calyx; carpels 10 or more, reticulated on the sides and indehiscent.--Minn. to W. Tex., and westward.

6. SDA, L.

Calyx naked at the base, 5-cleft. Petals entire, usually oblique. Styles 5 or more, tipped with capitate stigmas; the ripe fruit separating into as many 1-seeded carpels, which are closed, or commonly 2-valved at the top, and tardily separate from the axis. Seed pendulous. Embryo abruptly bent; the radicle pointing upward. (A name used by Theophrastus.)

1. S. Napae'a, Cav. A smooth, tall (4--10 high) perennial; _leaves 3--7-cleft_, the lobes oblong and pointed, toothed; _flowers (white) umbellate-corymbed_, 1' wide; carpels 10, pointed.--Rocky river-banks, along the Alleghanies, Penn. to Va., rare. (Cultivated in old gardens.)

2. S. Elliottii, Torr. & Gray. A smooth, erect perennial (1--4 high); _leaves linear_, serrate, short-petioled; peduncles axillary, 1-flowered, short; _flowers (yellow)_ rather large; _carpels 9--10, slightly and abruptly pointed_, forming a depressed fruit.--Sandy soil, S. Va. and southward. May--Aug.

S. SPINSA, L. Annual weed, minutely and softly p.u.b.escent, low (10--20'

high), much branched; _leaves ovate-lanceolate or oblong_, serrate, rather long-petioled; peduncles axillary, 1-flowered, shorter than the petiole; _flowers (yellow)_ small; _carpels 5_, combined into an ovate fruit, _each splitting at the top into 2 beaks_.--A little tubercle at the base of the leaves on the stronger plants gives the specific name, but it cannot be called a spine.--Waste places, S. New York to Iowa, and common southward. (Nat. from the tropics.)

7. SPHaeRaLCEA, St. Hil.

Ovules and seeds usually 2 or 3 in each cell. Characters otherwise as in Malvastrum. (Name from sfa??a, _a sphere_, and ????a, _a mallow_--from the commonly spherical fruit.)

1. S. aceriflia, Nutt. Perennial, erect, 2--6 high, stellately p.u.b.escent or glabrate; leaves maple-shaped, 3--7-cleft; flowers cl.u.s.tered in the upper axils and subspicate, rose-color to white.--Kankakee Co., Ill., _E. J. Hill_; Dak. and westward.

8. ABuTILON, Tourn. INDIAN MALLOW.

Carpels 2--9-seeded, at length 2-valved. Radicle ascending or pointing inward. Otherwise as in Sida. (Name of unknown origin.)

A. AVICeNNae, Gaertn. (VELVET-LEAF.) Tall annual (4 high); leaves roundish-heart-shaped, taper-pointed, velvety; peduncles shorter than the leaf-stalks; corolla yellow; carpels 12--15, hairy, beaked.--Waste places, escaped from gardens. (Adv. from India.)

9. MODOLA, Moench.

Calyx with a 3-leaved involucel. Petals obovate. Stamens 10--20. Stigmas capitate. Carpels 14--20, kidney-shaped, pointed, and at length 2-valved at the top; the cavity divided into two by a cross part.i.tion, with a single seed in each cell.--Humble, proc.u.mbent or creeping annuals or biennials, with cut leaves and small purplish flowers solitary in the axils. (Name from _modiolus_, the broad and depressed fruit resembling in shape the Roman measure of that name.)

1. M. multifida, Moench. Hairy; leaves 3--5-cleft and incised; stamens 15--20; fruit hispid at the top.--Low grounds, Va. and southward.

10. KOSTELeTZKYA, Presl.

Pod depressed, with a single seed in each cell. Otherwise as Hibiscus.

(Named after _V. F. Kosteletzky_, a Bohemian botanist.)

1. K. Virginica, Gray. Roughish-hairy perennial (2--4 high); leaves halberd-shaped and heart-shaped, the lower 3-lobed; corolla 2' wide, rose-color; column slender.--Marshes on the coast, N. Y. and southward.

Aug.

11. HIBiSCUS, L. ROSE-MALLOW.

Calyx involucellate at the base by a row of numerous bractlets, 5-cleft.

Column of stamens long, bearing anthers for much of its length. Styles united, stigmas 5, capitate. Fruit a 5-celled loculicidal pod. Seeds several or many in each cell.--Herbs or shrubs, usually with large and showy flowers. (An old Greek and Latin name of unknown meaning.)

[*] _Indigenous tall perennials (4--8 high), flowering late in summer._

1. H. Moscheutos, L. (SWAMP ROSE-MALLOW.) _Leaves ovate_, pointed, toothed, the lower 3-lobed, the uppermost oblong-lanceolate, all whitened underneath with a fine soft down, glabrous or slightly downy above; the 1-flowered peduncles sometimes united at the base with the petioles; bractlets not hairy; _calyx not inflated; pod and seeds smooth_ or nearly so.--Brackish marshes along the coast, from E. Ma.s.s.

southward, and lake sh.o.r.es and swamps westward to Ill. and Mo., especially within the influence of salt springs.--Corolla 5--6' in diameter, light rose-color or white, with or without a crimson eye.

2. H. lasiocarpus, Cav. Leaves soft-downy both sides, the lower broadly ovate and heart-shaped; bractlets ciliate; pod hirsute;--otherwise resembling the last. (H. grandiflorus, _Michx._)--Ind. to Mo., and southward.

3. H. militaris, Cav. (HALBERD-LEAVED R.) _Smooth throughout_; lower leaves ovate-heart-shaped, toothed, 3-lobed; _upper leaves halberd-form_, the short lateral lobes spreading at the base, the middle one prolonged and taper-pointed; peduncles slender; _fruiting calyx inflated; seeds hairy_.--River-banks, Penn. to Minn., and southward.--Corolla 2--3' long, flesh-color with purple base.

[*][*] _Escaped from gardens or grounds._

H. TRINUM, L. (BLADDER KETMIA.) A low, rather _hairy annual_; upper leaves 3-parted, with lanceolate divisions, the middle one much the longest; fruiting _calyx inflated, membranaceous, 5-winged_; corolla sulphur-yellow with a blackish eye, ephemeral; hence the name _flower-of-an-hour_. (Adv. from Eu.)

H. SYRACUS, L. (SHRUBBY ALTHaeA of gardeners.) _Tall shrub_, smooth; leaves wedge-ovate, pointed, cut-toothed or lobed; corolla usually rose-color.--Escaped rarely from cultivation, Penn., etc. Sept. (Adv.

from Eu.)

ORDER 21. TILIaCEae. (LINDEN FAMILY.)

_Trees (rarely herbs), with the mucilaginous properties, fibrous bark, valvate calyx, etc., of the_ Mallow Family; _but the sepals deciduous, petals imbricated in the bud, the stamens usually polyadelphous, and the anthers 2-celled._ Represented in Northern regions only by the genus,

1. TiLIA, Tourn. LINDEN. Ba.s.sWOOD.

Sepals 5. Petals 5, spatulate-oblong. Stamens numerous; filaments cohering in 5 cl.u.s.ters with each other (in European species), or with the base of a spatulate petal-like body placed opposite each of the real petals. Pistil with a 5-celled ovary, and 2 half-anatropous ovules in each cell, a single style, and a 5-toothed stigma. Fruit dry and woody, indehiscent-globular, becoming 1-celled and 1--2-seeded. Embryo in hard alb.u.men; cotyledons broad and thin, 5-lobed, crumpled.--Fine trees, with soft and white wood, very fibrous and tough inner bark, more or less heart-shaped and serrate alternate leaves (oblique and often truncate at the base), deciduous stipules, and small cymes of flowers, hanging on an axillary peduncle which is united to a ligulate membranaceous bract.

Flowers cream-color, honey-bearing, fragrant. (The cla.s.sical Latin name.)

1. T. Americana, L. (Ba.s.sWOOD.) Leaves large, green and glabrous or nearly so, thickish; floral bract usually tapering at base; fruit ovoid.--Rich woods. May, June.--Here rarely called _Lime-tree_, oftener _White-wood_, commonly _Ba.s.swood_; the latter name now obsolete in England.

2. T. p.u.b.escens, Ait. Leaves smaller (2--3' long), thinner, and rather p.u.b.escent beneath; floral bract usually rounded at base; fruit globose, smaller (3" broad). (T. Americana, var. p.u.b.escens, _Man._)--N. Y. to Fla., and westward.

3. T. heterophlla, Vent. (WHITE Ba.s.sWOOD.) Leaves larger, smooth and bright green above, silvery-whitened with a fine down underneath.--Mountains of Penn. to S. Ill., and southward.

T. EUROPae'A, the EUROPEAN LINDEN, several varieties of which are planted in and near our cities for shade, is at once distinguished from any native species by the absence of the petal-like scales among the stamens. This tree (the _Lin_) gave the family name to _Linnaeus_.

ORDER 22. LINaCEae. (FLAX FAMILY.)