489 
Eleagnaceae. Oleaster lamily. 
An atin rn 
Shrubs or small trees with opposite entire leaves bearing a 
characteristic silvery or scurfy pubescence. Flowers in axillary clusters, 
aves te saicceiiteodbccas 
perfect, polygamous or dioecious. Sepals 4, deciduous, Petals none, 
Stamens 4 or 8 Pistil 1, the ovary inferior, Fruit drupe-like, the 
‘0 Thorne 
nSamraehinty 9 achene being closely invested by the fleshy calyx-tube, 
Shepherdia Nutt, 
Flowers dioecious. Staminate flowers bearing eight stamens alternating 
with lobes of the disc, Pistillate flowers urn-shaped, with 4 small sepals, 
the mouth closed by an 8-lobed disc. Fruit drupe-like or berry-like, the 
leathery achene enclosed by the fleshy calyx-tube, 
1. Se canadensis (L.) Nutt. Buffalo Berry, A dense much branched shrub 
1-2 m, tall, the branches bronze-color, scurfy-pubescent with peltate 
fringed hairs, soon becoming longitudinally rugose and gray; leaves 
leathery, opposite, the blades 5-6 cm, long, 1,5=-2,.5 cm. wide, ovate, 
obtuse, rounded at the base, entire, green and nearly glabrous above, 
silvery below with the same type of hairs as on branches, a few of which 
are bronze-color, borne on petioles 5-10 mm, long; staminate flowers in 
ne ee 
axillary clusters, bronze-colored in the bud, due to the peltate hairs, 
globose, the segments 1.5-2 mm. long; fruit red, fleshy, oval, 6-9 m, 
long, sprinkled with peltate hairs, the sepals persistent; achene 
flattened oval, 4-6 mm. long. (Lepargyrea canadensis Greene). 
Abundant in Kootenai Valley, Margin of Lake Pend Oreille near Sand- 
point in thickets, upling 10412; Indian Cr., Ellison. The seeds are 
yet 
ereedily eaten by stwening Grosbeaks and it is possible the sporadic 
distribution of the shrubs in the southern Rocky lits, is due to the 
southward wanderings of these birds. 
