Corn us. CORNACEiE. f]53 



two pairs of opposite leaves, or somctimps bracts, and a whorl of about G 

 oval or ovate acuminate leaves at the summit. Those leaves arc iidt strictly 

 verticillate, but the apparent whorl arises from the development i)f a very 

 short branch (producing usually a pair of leaves only) in the axils of the 

 upper pair of cauline leaves. Leaves of the involucre broadly ovate, green- 

 ish-white and pptaloid, surrounding the inconspicuous uml)el-lii\e cyme of 

 flowers. Ovary turbinate, caiiescently hairy. Drupe baccate, rather large, 

 sweetish : a botanical friend informs us that in the northern ])ortions of the 

 New-England States, the fruit is employed as an ingredient in plum-pud- 

 ding, and is called Pudiima-hernj. — The more arctic forms of this species, 

 particularly those from the North West Coast, as Ciiamisso remarks, 

 often approach C. Suecica in ajjpearance. — We possess an interesting 

 specimen of C. Canadensis, from St. Lawrence County, New York, in 

 which the cyme is more developed than usual, divided into four primary 

 branches, each arising in the axil of an involucral leaf and adnate to its 

 short petiole : the secondary branches of the cj'me are in like manner fur- 

 nished with similar, though smaller, involucral leaves. 



-11. C. <S«ecJca (Linn.) : flowering stems sometimes branched ; leaves all 

 opposite, sessile, the nerves all arising from the base ; petals dark puqile ; 

 drupes red, globose. — Linn. ! fl. Lapp. n. 65, t. 5, /. 3, S^' spec. 1. p. 118 ; 

 FL Dan. t. 5 ; Engl. lot. t. 310 ; Wahl. Jl. Lapp. p. 50; VHer. I. c. p. 2, 

 t. I ; DC. ! prodr. 4. p. 274 ; Cham. Hf Schlecht. ! in Linnaa, 3. p. 138 ; 

 Hook. ! jl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 277. 



In shady damp woods, Greenland ! Labrador ! and Newfoundland ! to 

 Kotzebue's Sound ! Sitcha ! &c. : south to Brandy-Pots Island in the St. 

 Lawrence (Hooker), and on the Pacific Coast to Fort Vancouver. 



Order LXXI. LORANTHACE.^. Jitss. 



Perianth in the unisexual flowers sometimes none, or often sim- 

 ple (calyx), adnatc to the ovary in the fertile flowers, 3-5.cleft in 

 the sterile flowers ; in the perfect flowers double, viz : Calyx ad- 

 nate to the ovary ; the limb entire or denticulate, or often obsolete. 

 Corolla of 3-4 or 8 petals, either distinct, or more or less coherent in 

 a tube, inserted into the epigynous disk : aestivation valvate. Sta- 

 mens equal in number with the petals and opposite them, or as 

 many as the segments of the calyx and inserted upon them when 

 the perianth is simple. Ovary 1. celled, with a single suspended 

 ovule: style simple, or none. Fruit baccate, 1-celled, l-seeded. 

 Seed anatropous ; the membranous testa often adhering to the walls 

 of the fruit. Embryo in a superficial cavity of the fleshy albumen : 

 radicle clavate, often exserted : cotyledons obtuse, sometimes con. 

 jiate. — Parasitical half-shrubby evergreen plants, with dichotomous 

 stems. Leaves mostly opposite, fleshy or coriaceous, almost vein- 

 less ; sometimes reduced to scales or entirely wanting. Stipules 

 none. Flowers unisexual and small (whitish or greenish-yellow), or 

 perfect and very showy. 



