DIOECIA— TETRAXDRIA. Hippopliae. S37 



about a foot high. Leaves of rather a (lee|)er hue, one incli and 

 half long, rigid, ahnost woody, with parallel ribs, evergreen. Fl. 

 in small, axillary, yellowish heads, al)0ut a in each head. Berries 

 white, pellucid, the size of a (AuTnnt, sweet, very glutinous in- 

 ternally, serving to make the best birdlime, when boiled with 

 a small portion of vegetable oil. 

 Loranthus curopceus seems to be the original, or most common 

 Misseltoc, i^og, of the Greeks, which grows usually on some 

 kind of Fir-tree. But our fiscum album is likewise found in 

 Greece, though rarely, growing on the Oak • and this has been 

 preferred from the most remote antiquity. Hence, when the 

 superstitions of the East travelled westward, our Druids adopted 

 a notion of the Misseltoe ot the Oak being more holy, or effica- 

 cious, in conjurations or medicine, than what any other tree 

 afforded, the Loranthus , or ordinary Misseltoe, not being known 

 here. This superstition actually remains, and a plant of f- iscum 

 gathered from an oak, is preferred by those who rely on virtues, 

 which perhaps never existed in any Misseltoe whatever. 



^52. HIPPOPHAE. Sallow-thorn. 



Linn. Gen.:) \ 7. Juss. 7o. Fl. Br. 1 07:). Lam. t. 808. Gcorln. t. 42. 

 Rhamnoides. Tourn. /. 481. 



^•di.Ox'd, CalijciJIora'. T.inn. 16. El(Vngni. Jii.ss. 21'. San- 

 talacccr. Brown Prodr. Nov. Holl. 350. 



Bcwr.Ji. Cnl. in 2 deep, roundish, valvular sep^mcnts, 

 originally folded flatly together. Cor. none. Filam. 4-, 

 very short, erect. Anth. terminal, ohlong, angular, 

 erect, of 2 cells, not projecting beyond the calyx. 



Fcrt, JL CaL of I leati inferior, tubular, cloven at tlie 

 summit, deciduous. Coj: none. Genu, superior, small, 

 roundish. Style short and thick. Sfigma simple, ob- 

 long, projecting beyond the . calyx. Berrij globular, 

 very juicy, of I cell, with a thin skin. Seed solitarv, 

 oblong, polisheil, with a furrow at each side, invested 

 with a double membranous tunie^ the outermost perhaps 

 only the proper lining of the cell. 



Thorny s^hruhs^ with opposite or alternate, stalked, simple, 

 undivided, entire leaves^ scaly and silvery, esj)eciallv 

 beneath. /'/. from the same hu(h^ below the leaves, 

 aggregate, small, greenisli. /^r/vvV.v acitl, not unwlK)le- 

 some. Some of i\w /hncers are reported to have sldm. 

 and 7^/.s/. occasic^nally in the same imlividiial. 



