The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 148

Calyx petal-like, tubular-funnel-shaped, truncate, the border wavy or obscurely about 4-toothed. Stamens 8, long and slender, inserted on the calyx above the middle, protruded, the alternate ones longer. Style thread-form; stigma capitate. Drupe oval (reddish).--A much-branched bush, with jointed branchlets, oval-obovate alternate leaves, at length smooth, deciduous, on very short petioles, the bases of which conceal the buds of the next season. Flowers light yellow, preceding the leaves, 3 or 4 in a cl.u.s.ter from a bud of as many dark-hairy scales, forming an involucre, from which soon after proceeds a leafy branch. (Name of uncertain derivation.)

1. D. pal.u.s.tris, L. Shrub 2--5 high; the wood white, soft, and very brittle; but the fibrous bark remarkably tough (used by the Indians for thongs, whence the popular names).--Damp rich woods, N. Brunswick to Minn. and Mo., south to the Gulf. April.

2. DaPHNE, Linn. MEZEREUM.

Calyx salver-shaped or somewhat funnel-shaped, the border spreading and 4-lobed. Stamens 8, included; the anthers nearly sessile on the calyx-tube. Style very short or none; stigma capitate. Drupe red.--Hardy low shrub. (Mythological name of the nymph transformed by Apollo into a Laurel.)

D. MEZeREUM, L. Shrub 1--3 high, with purple-rose-colored (rarely white) flowers, in lateral cl.u.s.ters on shoots of the preceding year, before the lanceolate very smooth green leaves; berries red.--Escaped from cultivation in Canada, Ma.s.s., and N. Y. Early spring. (Nat. from Eu.)

ORDER 95. ELaeAGNaCEae. (OLEASTER FAMILY.)

_Shrubs or small trees, with silvery-scurfy leaves and perfect or dicious flowers_; further distinguished from the Mezereum Family by the erect or ascending alb.u.minous seed, and the calyx-tube becoming pulpy and berry-like in fruit, strictly enclosing the achene.

1. Elaeagnus. Flowers perfect. Stamens 4. Leaves alternate.

2. Shepherdia. Flowers dicious. Stamens 8. Leaves opposite.

1. ELaeaGNUS, Tourn.

Flowers perfect. Calyx cylindric-campanulate above the persistent oblong or globose base, the limb valvately 4-cleft, deciduous. Stamens 4, in the throat. Style linear, stigmatic on one side. Fruit drupe-like, with an oblong, 8-striate stone.--Leaves alternate, entire and petioled, and flowers axillary and pedicellate. (From ??a?a, _the olive_, and ?????, _sacred_, the Greek name of the Chaste-tree, _Vitex Agnus-castus_.)

1. E. argentea, Pursh. (SILVER-BERRY.) A stoloniferous unarmed shrub (6--12 high), the younger branches covered with ferruginous scales; leaves elliptic to lanceolate, undulate, silvery-scurfy and more or less ferruginous; flowers numerous, deflexed, silvery without, pale yellow within, fragrant; fruit scurfy, round-ovoid, dry and mealy, edible, 4--5" long.--N. W. Minn. to Utah and Montana.

2. SHEPHeRDIA, Nutt.

Flowers dicious; the sterile with a 4-parted calyx (valvate in the bud) and 8 stamens, alternating with as many processes of the thick disk; the fertile with an urn-shaped 4-cleft calyx, enclosing the ovary (the orifice closed by the teeth of the disk), and becoming berry-like in fruit. Style slender; stigma 1-sided.--Leaves opposite, entire, deciduous; the small flowers nearly sessile in their axils on the branches, cl.u.s.tered, or the fertile solitary. (Named for _John Shepherd_, formerly curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.)

1. S. Canadensis, Nutt. Leaves elliptical or ovate, nearly naked and green above, silvery-downy and scurfy with rusty scales beneath; fruit yellowish-red, insipid.--Rocky or gravelly banks, Vt. and N. Y. to Mich., Minn., and north and westward. May.--Shrub 3--6 high, the branchlets, young leaves, yellowish flowers, etc., covered with rusty scales.

2. S. argentea, Nutt. (BUFFALO-BERRY.) Somewhat th.o.r.n.y, 5--18 high; leaves cuneate-oblong, silvery on both sides; fruit ovoid, scarlet, acid and edible.--N. Minn. to Col., and westward.

ORDER 96. LORANTHaCEae. (MISTLETOE FAMILY.)

_Shrubby plants with coriaceous greenish foliage, parasitic on trees_, represented in the northern temperate zone chiefly by the Mistletoe and its near allies; distinguished from the next family more by the parasitic growth and habit, and by the more reduced flowers, than by essential characters.

1. Phoradendron. Anthers 2-celled. Berry globose, pulpy. Leaves foliaceous.

2. Arceuthobium. Anthers a single orbicular cell. Berry compressed, fleshy. Leaves scale-like, connate.

1. PHORADeNDRON, Nutt. FALSE MISTLETOE.

Flowers dicious, in short catkin-like jointed spikes, usually several to each short fleshy bract or scale, and sunk in the joint. Calyx globular, 3- (rarely 2--4-) lobed; in the staminate flowers a sessile anther is borne on the base of each lobe, transversely 2-celled, each cell opening by a pore or slit; in the fertile flowers the calyx-tube adheres to the ovary; stigma sessile, obtuse. Berry 1-seeded, pulpy.

Embryo small, half imbedded in the summit of mucilaginous alb.u.men.--Yellowish-green woody parasites on the branches of trees, with jointed much-branched stems, thick and firm persistent leaves (or only scales in their place), and axillary small spikes of flowers. (Name composed of f??, _a thief_, and d??d???, _tree_; from the parasitic habit.)

1. P. flavescens, Nutt. (AMERICAN MISTLETOE.) Leaves obovate or oval, somewhat petioled, longer than the spikes, yellowish; berries white.--On various deciduous trees, N. J. to S. Ind., Mo., and southward.

2. ARCEUTHBIUM, Bieb.

Flowers axillary or terminal, solitary or several from the same axil.

Calyx mostly compressed; the staminate usually 3-parted, the pistillate 2-toothed. Anthers a single orbicular cell, opening by a circular slit.

Berry compressed, fleshy, on a short recurved pedicel.--Parasitic on Conifers, glabrous, with rectangular branches and connate scale-like leaves; flowers often crowded in apparent spikes or panicles, opening in summer or autumn and maturing fruit the next autumn. (From ???e????, _the juniper_, and ???, _life_.)

1. A. pusillum, Peck. Very dwarf, the slender scattered or cl.u.s.tered stems 3--10" high, usually simple, olive-green to chestnut; scales obtuse; flowers solitary in most of the axils; fruit narrowly oblong, 1" long.--On _Abies nigra_; N. New York; Hanover, N. H. (_Jesup_).

ORDER 97. SANTALaCEae. (SANDALWOOD FAMILY.)

_Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with entire leaves; the 4--5-cleft calyx valvate in the bud, its tube coherent with the 1-celled ovary, which contains 2--4 ovules suspended from the apex of a stalk-like free central placenta which rises from the base of the cell, but the (indehiscent) fruit always 1-seeded._--Seed dest.i.tute of any proper seed-coat. Embryo small, at the apex of copious alb.u.men; radicle directed upward; cotyledons cylindrical. Stamens equal in number to the lobes of the calyx, and inserted opposite them into the edge of the fleshy disk at their base. Style 1. A small order, the greater part belonging to warm regions.

1. Comandra. Flowers perfect, in umbel-like cl.u.s.ters. Low herbaceous perennials.

2. Pyrularia. Flowers dicious or polygamous, in short spikes or racemes. Shrub.

1. COMaNDRA, Nutt. b.a.s.t.a.r.d TOAD-FLAX.

Flowers perfect. Calyx bell-shaped or soon urn-shaped, lined above the ovary with an adherent disk which has a 5-lobed free border. Stamens inserted on the edge of the disk between its lobes, opposite the lobes of the calyx, to the middle of which the anthers are connected by a tuft of thread-like hairs. Fruit drupe-like or nut-like, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes, the cavity filled by the globular seed.--Low and smooth (sometimes parasitic) perennials, with herbaceous stems from a rather woody base or root, alternate and almost sessile leaves, and greenish-white flowers in terminal or axillary small umbel-like cl.u.s.ters. (Name from ???, _hair_, and ??d?e?, for _stamens_, in allusion to the hairs on the calyx-lobes which are attached to the anthers.)

1. C. umbellata, Nutt. Stem 8--10' high, branched, very leafy; leaves oblong, pale (1' long); _peduncles_ several and _corymbose-cl.u.s.tered at the summit, several-flowered_; calyx-tube conspicuously continued as a neck to the dry _globular-urn-shaped fruit; the lobes oblong; style slender_.--Dry ground, common. May, June. Root forming parasitic attachments to the roots of trees.

2. C. pallida, A. DC. _Leaves narrower, more glaucous and acuter, linear to narrowly lanceolate_ (or those upon the main stem oblong), all acute or somewhat cuspidate; _fruit ovoid, larger_ (3--4" long), sessile or on short stout pedicels.--W. Minn. to S. W. Kan., and westward.

3. C. livida, Richardson. _Peduncles_ slender, _axillary, 3--5-flowered_, shorter than the oval leaves; calyx-tube not continued beyond the ovary, _the lobes ovate; style short_; fruit pulpy when ripe, red.--Newf., N. Vt., sandy sh.o.r.es of L. Superior, and northward.

2. PYRULaRIA, Michx. OIL-NUT. BUFFALO-NUT.

Flowers dicious or polygamous. Calyx 4--5-cleft, the lobes recurved, hairy-tufted at base in the male flowers. Stamens 4 or 5, on very short filaments, alternate with as many rounded glands. Fertile flowers with a pear-shaped ovary invested by the adherent tube of the calyx, naked at the flat summit; disk with 5 glands; style short and thick; stigma capitate-flattened. Fruit fleshy and drupe-like, pear shaped; the globose endocarp thin. Embryo small; alb.u.men very oily.--Shrubs or trees, with alternate short-petioled and deciduous leaves; the small greenish flowers in short and simple spikes or racemes. (Name a diminutive of _Pyrus_, from the shape of the fruit.)

1. P. p.u.b.era, Michx. Shrub straggling (3--12 high), minutely downy when young, at length nearly glabrous; leaves obovate-oblong, acute or pointed at both ends, soft, very veiny, minutely pellucid-punctate; spike small and few-flowered, terminal; calyx 5-cleft; fruit 1' long.

(P. oleifera, _Gray_.)--Rich woods, mountains of Penn. to Ga. Whole plant, especially the fruit, imbued with an acrid oil.

ORDER 98. EUPHORBIaCEae. (SPURGE FAMILY.)

_Plants usually with a milky acrid juice, and moncious or dicious flowers, mostly apetalous, sometimes achlamydeous (occasionally polypetalous or monopetalous); the ovary free and usually 3-celled, with a single or sometimes a pair of ovules hanging from the summit of each cell; stigmas or branches of the style as many or twice as many as the cells; fruit commonly a 3-lobed capsule, the lobes or carpels separating elastically from a persistent axis and elastically 2-valved; seed anatropous; embryo straight, almost as long as and the flat cotyledons mostly as wide as the fleshy or oily alb.u.men._ Stipules often present.--A vast family in the warmer parts of the world; most numerously represented in northern countries by the genus Euphorbia, which has very reduced flowers within a calyx-like involucre.

[*] Flowers all without calyx, included in a cup-shaped calyx-like involucre,--the whole liable to be mistaken for a single flower.

1. Euphorbia. Involucre surrounding many staminate flowers (each of a single naked stamen) and one pistillate flower (a 3-lobed pistil).

[*][*] Flowers with a calyx, without involucre.