OLEASTER FAMILY 163 



Family 103. THYMELAEACEAE. 



Mezereum Family. 



Trees, shrubs, or rarely herbs with opposite or sometimes alternate simple ex- 

 stipulate leaves. Flowers in short racemes or spikes, capitate or rarely solitary, 

 bracteate, regular or slightly irregular, perfect or unisexual. Calyx usually colored 

 and corolla-like, 4-5-lobed. Corolla none. Stamens as many or twice as many as 

 calyx-lobes, inserted on the calyx-tube ; anthers basifixed. Disk hypogynous or 

 wanting. Ovary superior, 1-2-celled ; style simple ; stigma capitate or discoid ; 

 ovules 1 in each cell, pendant. Fruit a berry or drupe. Seed solitary or in the 2- 

 celled fruits 2 ; endosperm present or sometimes none. 



A family of 40 genera and about 425 species of wide geographical distribution but mainly tropical. Besides 

 the following native genus, Daphne and Pimelea are commonly cultivated in our gardens. 



1. DIRCA L. Sp. PI. 358. 1753. 



Shrubs, with smooth tough fibrous bark. Leaves deciduous, alternate, entire, short- 

 petioled. Flowers yellow, appearing before the leaves in peduncled clusters of 2-4 from 

 scaly buds at the nodes of the previous season. Calyx campanulate or funnelform, 4-lobed. 

 Stamens 8, exserted, the alternate ones longer. Disk wanting. Ovary subsessile, 1 -celled; 

 style elongated, very slender; stigma small, capitate. Fruit a red oval-oblong drupe. 

 [Named for a celebrated fountain in Thebes (Boeotia), the plants growing in moist 

 places.] 



An American genus of 2 species. Dirca palustris L. of eastern North America is the type of the genus. 



1. Dirca occidentalis A. Gray. Western Leatherwood. Fig. 3343. 



Dirca occidentalis A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 8: 631. 1873. 



Low erect shrub, 1-2 m. high, with mostly erect or ascending branches, smooth very tough 

 leathery bark and soft wood. Leaves obovate-oval, 4-6 cm. long, thin. Flowers in clusters of 

 2 or 3, more or less deflexed ; calyx 8-10 mm., the tube narrowed below, the lobes broadly ovate; 

 stamens 8 or rarely 9 or 10 ; drupe 6-7 mm. long, ovoid. 



Moist wooded hillsides, Humid Transition and Upper Sonoran Zones; locally distributed in Marin, Alameda, 

 and San Mateo Counties, California. Type locality: Oakland Hills, near Oakland, California. Feb.-March. 



Family 104. ELAEAGNACEAE. 



Oleaster Family. 



Shrubs or a few trees, with entire alternate or opposite leaves, mostly silvery- 

 scaly or stellate-pubescent. Flowers perfect, polygamous or dioecious, clustered or 

 rarely solitary, on the nodes of the preceding season. Calyx in the pistillate or per- 

 fect flowers with lower part tubular or urceolate and persistent, 4-lobed and decidu- 

 ous ; in the staminate flowers 4-parted. Corolla wanting. Stamens 4 or 8, in the 

 perfect flowers borne on the calyx-throat. Disk annular or lobed. Ovary superior, 

 sessile, 1 -celled ; style slender, ovule 1, erect, anatropous. Fruit drupe-like, the calyx- 

 base becoming thickened and enclosing the achene or nut. Seed erect; embryo 

 straight ; endosperm scanty or none. 



A family of 3 genera and about 20 species, widely distributed. 



1. SHEPHERDIA Nutt. Gen. 2:240. 1818. 

 Shrub clothed with a brown- or silvery-scurfy or stellate-pubescence. Leaves oppo- 

 site, entire, petioled, deciduous. Flowers dioecious or polygamous, small, spicate or clus- 

 tered in the axils or the pistillate solitary. Staminate flowers with a rotate 4-parted calyx ; 

 stamens 8, alternating with the lobes of the disk ; filaments short. Pistillate flowers with 

 the lower part of calyx urceolate, bearing an 8-lobed disk at the mouth the upper part 

 4-cleft. Fruit drupe-like, the fleshy calyx base enclosing the achene [Name m honor 

 of John Shepherd, at one time curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.] 



A North American genus of 3 species. Type species, Hippophae canadensis L. 



Shrub not thorny; leaves green above. o' c 



Shrub usually thorny; leaves silvery on both surfaces. ■ ■ '^^^en ca. 



