THYMELEACE^o (mEZEREUM FAMILY.) 39i> 



/arge shrub, with numerous spreading and forked branches. Leaves somewhat 

 coriaceous, ^'-l' long. 



5. CASSYTA, L. 



Flowers perfect. Calyx 6-cleft, persistent, the exterior lobes minute. Sta- 

 mens 12, in 4 rows, the inner row sterile : anthers 2-cclled, the inner ones 

 extrorse, the outer introrse. Style very short : stigma disk-like. Fruit enclosed 

 in the ileshy persistent tube of the calyx. — A leafless parasitic plant, with 

 twining filiform stems, and spiked flowers. 



1. C. filiformis, Miller. — South Florida. — Spikes 2- 4-flowered. Calyx- 

 lobes thick, triangular, arutc. Anthers oval, obtuse. 



Order 112. THYMELEACEJS. (Mezereuji Family.) 



Shrubs, with acrid juice, tough bark, simple entire dotless leaves, with- 

 out stipules, and regular perfect flowers, with a tubular or bell-shaped 

 4 - 5-cleft rarely entire calyx. Stamens commonly twice as many as the 

 calyx-lobes, in 2 rows : anthers 2-celled, opening lengthwise. Style sim- 

 ple : stigma capitate. Drupe with a single suspended anatropous seed, 

 containing little or no albumen. Cotyledons plano-conve.x. Radicle 

 superior. 



1. DIRCA, L. Leatherwood. 



Calyx bell-shaped, entire, or obscurely 4-toothed. Stamens 8, unequal, ex- 

 serted. Style filiform. Albumen none. — A low branching shrub, with alter- 

 nate petioled oblong or obovate at length smooth and deciduous leaves, and 

 light yellow flowers, from hairy buds, appearing before the leaves. 



1. D. palustris, L. — Shady banks of streams, Florida, and northward. 

 Feb. and March. — Shrub 2° -3° high, with pale spreading jointed branches. 

 Leaves 2' long, silky when young. Flowers three in a cluster, on short pedicels. 

 Drupe small, red. 



Order II ;3. SAlVTALACEiE. (Sandalwood Family.) 



Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with simple entire exstipulate leaves. — Calyx 

 tubular, 4 - 5-clcft, valvate in the bud, the tube coherent with the ovary. 

 Stamens 4 - 5, opposite the lobes, and inserted on the fleshy disk at their 

 base, anthers introrse, opening lengthwise. Ovary 1-celled, with 2-4 

 anatropous ovules suspended from the apex of the free central placenta. 

 Style single. Fruit 1-seeded. Embryo small, at the ape.x of copious 

 albumen. Cotyledons cylindrical, liadicle superior. 



