528 



LORANTHACEAE 



2. Comandra pallida A. DC. Pale Comandra. 



Fig. 



1279. 



Comandra pallida A. DC. Prodr. 14: 636. 1857. 

 Comandra umhellata pallida Jones, Proc. Calif. Acad. II. 



5: 722. 1895. 

 Comandra calif arnica Eastw.; Heller, Muhlenbergia 2: 



20. 1905. 



Similar to the preceding species, but paler and 

 glaucous, usually much branched. Leaves sessile, 

 linear or linear-lanceolate, or the lower oblong- 

 elliptic, 15-35 mm. long, acute; cymes few- 

 several -flowered, corymbosely clustered at the sum- 

 mit ; pedicels 2-4 mm. long ; calyx purplish, about 

 4 mm. long, the lobes oblong; drupe ovoid-oblong, 

 6-8 mm. long, 4-5 mm., in diameter, the calyx- 

 tube scarcely produced above the body of the fruit. 



Dry soils, arid Transition Zone; British Columbia to 

 Manitoba south to the Sierra Nevada, California, Arizona, 

 Texas, and Kansas. Type locality: near Clearwater, 

 Idaho. The fruits are sweet and edible. 



3. Comandra livida Richards. Northern Comandra. Fig. 1280. 



Comandra /iT'u/a Richards. 

 1823. 



App. Frank. Journ. 734. 



Stems slender, usually simple, 10-30 cm. high. 

 Leaves 10-25 mm. long, oval, obtuse at apex, nar- 

 row at base, thin, green; short-petioled ; cymes 

 axillary, few, or often only 1, 1-5-flowered; 

 peduncle shorter than the leaves, filiform; flowers 

 sessile; calyx-lobes ovate; style very short; drupe 

 oblong-globose, about 6 mm. in diameter, red and 

 edible, the calyx-tube not produced above the body 

 of the fruit. 



In moist soils, Canadian and Hudsonian Zones; Alaska 

 to Newfoundland, south to Washington, Idaho, Michigan 

 and New Hampshire. Type locality: "not seen to the 

 northward of Great Slave Lake." 



Family 33. LORANTHACEAE. 

 Mistletoe Family. 



Evergreen shrubs or herbs, parasitic on shrubs or trees and absorbing food 

 from their sap through specialized roots (haustoria). Stems dichotomously 

 branched, swollen at the joints and bearing opposite thick coriaceous entire 

 exstipulate leaves, foliaceous or reduced to connate scales. Flowers dioecious, 

 regular, clustered or solitary, small and greenish. Petals none. Calyx-tube 

 adnate to the ovary, 2-5-lobed. Stamens equalling the calyx-lobes and inserted 

 ui>on them; anthers 2-celled or confluently 1-celled. Ovary inferior, 1-celled, 

 1-ovuled; style simple or none; stigma 1. Fruit a berry. Seed solitary with 

 glutinous testa and copious endosperm; embryo straight, terete or angled. 



About 21 genera and 500 species, widely distributed, most abundant in tropical regions, where some are 



terrestrial. 



.Anthers 1-celled; pistillate calyx 2-lobed; berry compressed. 



Anthers 2-celled; pistillate calyx 3-lobed; berry globose. 



1. Kasoumofskya. 



2. Fhoradcndron. 



