Part 148 (1/2)
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.