ELAEAGNACEAE 919 
Orpver THYMELEALES — THyMELEAL ORDER 
Shrubs or trees, or partially herbaceous plants. Leaves opposite or 
alternate, the blades simple, rarely mere scales, or obsolete. Flowers per- 
fect, polygamous, or dioecious, regular or nearly so. Calyx of 6 or fewer 
sepals. Corolla wanting (in our species). Androecium of as many sta- 
mens as there are sepals or of twice as many. Anthers opening by slits 
or hinged valves. Gynoecium a single carpel. Ovary inferior. Ovules 
mostly solitary. Fruit usually baccate or drupaceous. 
ma opening by slit 
Ovule and seed end dogs leaves green, sometimes merely pubescent. 
Fam.1. DAPHNACEAE. 
Ovule and seed erect: leaves oe scurfy. Fam. 2. ELAEAGNACEAE, 
Anthers opening by hinged valve 
Leafy shrubs or trees: fruit se Gc id on the hypanthium. Fam.3. LAURACEAE. 
eafless, twining, para s vines: fruit enelosed in 
"the acerescent hypanthiu Fam.4. CASSYTHACEAE. 
FAMILY 1. DAPHNACEAE — MEZEREON FAMILY 
Shrubs or trees, or rarely herbs, often pubescent. Leaves opposite 
or alternate: blades entire. Calyx of 4 or 5 sepals, sometimes with 4 or 5 
seales withi ndroeci y e sepal 
twice a Gynoecium seat the bottom of t ypanthium. Styl 
; in e 
ally eccentric.—Forty gene era and about 425 species, most abundant in 
Australia and southern Afri 
1. DIRCA L. Shrubs. Leaves alternate. Flowers appearing before the 
leaves. Sepals usually shorter than the hypanthium. Filaments slender. 
Ovary  l-eelled: style filiform. Drupe 
slightly elongate.—Two species, North Ameri- 
can. 
1. D. palustris L. e e m. tall: 
leaf-blades oval or obovate, 4—8 p 
flowers inus ellow: ME md, T- 8 m 
er ee eai short: drupe oval, 7-9 
ong, — (LEATHERWOOD. SWAMP- 
o 00D Moos E-WooD. | LEATHER-BARK.) — 
Rich woods, bluffs, and stream-banks, vari- 
ous provinces, rarely Coastal Plain, Fla, to 
La., ye and N. B.—Spr. ES ba t bos 
bee sed medicinally. The wood 
m brittle but the bark is vm edle end 
and was used by the aborigines for thongs. 
| Famity 2. BLAEAGNACEAE — OLEASTER FAMILY 
Shrubs or pate scaly or stellate-pubescent. Leaf-blades entire. 
Calyx of 4, or rarely of 2, sepals. Androecium of 4 or 8 en 
ynoecium closely invested bs the hypanthium which is thickened and 
G 
often ridged within. Style usually axial.— Three genera and about 20. 
d. 
man widely distribute 
1. ELAEAGNUS L. Shrubs or rarely trees, pubescent with silvery scales. 
Leaves alternate. Flowers white or yellow within, silvery without. Sepals 
