74 



FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS. 



sentative of the order Myricales, and its only genera are Myrica, the 

 bayberry, sweet bay or sweet gale, and Comptonia, the sweet fern. 

 Both are shrubs, the foliage delightfully aromatic, the leaves thick and 

 coriaceous. The flowers are dioecious, without perianth, borne in 

 aments, and are succeeded by small bony nut-like fruit, covered with a 

 waxy resinous secretion. These berries, when gathered in quantity, 

 furnish a most excellent wax, from which candles are occasionly manu- 

 factured. The species are not numerous, but have a wide distribution, 

 mostly in temperate regions. (See Fig. 61.) 



Bt^.V dUl 



Fig. tiO.— The Black WiUow- (SaLix nigra) showing staminate and 

 pistillate aments. Original. 



The tropical family Balanopsidaceae represents another mono- 

 typic order and consists of the single genus Balanoj^s. The plants are 

 of little interest save to botanists. 



Family Leitneriaceae. Leitneria Family. This family is re- 

 stricted to a single rare tree of the southern United States, Leitneria 

 Florldana, so peculiar in structure that it is made the type of a 

 distinct order, Leitneriales. It occurs, so far as known, only in 

 Florida and Missouri, and is a small tree or shrub with gray bark, 



