LORANTHACE^. (MISTLETOE FAMILY.) 449 



cellate. (From ihaia, the olive, aud &yuos, sacred, the Greek name of the 

 Chaste-tree, Vitez Agnits-castus.) 



1. E. argentea, Pursh. (Silver-Berry.) A stolouiferous unarmed 

 shrub (6-12° high), the younger branches covered with ferruginous scales; 

 leaves elliptic to lanceolate, undulate, silvery-scurfy and more or less ferrugi- 

 nous; flowers numerous, deflexed, silvery without, pale yellow Avithin, fra- 

 grant; fruit scurfy, round-ovoid, dry and mealy, edible, 4-5" long. — N. W. 

 Minn, to Utah and Montana. 



2. SHEPHERDIA, Nutt. 



Flowers dioecious; the sterile with a 4-parted calyx (valvate in the bud) aud 

 3 stamens, alternating with as many processes of the thick disk ; the fertile 

 ivith an urn-shaped 4-cleft calyx, enclosing the ovary (the orifice closed by the 

 teeth of the disk), and becoming berry -like in fruit. Style slender ; stigma 

 1 -sided. — Leaves opposite, entire, deciduous; the small flowers nearly sessile 

 in their axils on the branches, clustered, or the fertile solitary. ( Named for 

 John Shepherd, formerly curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.) 



1. S. Canadensis, Nutt. Leaves elliptical or ovate, nearly naked and 

 green above, silvery -downy and scurfy with rusty scales beneath ; fruit yel- 

 lowish-red, insipid. — Rocky or gravelly banks, Vt. and N. Y. to Mich., Minn., 

 and north and westward. May. — Shrub 3-6° high, the branchlets, young 

 leaves, yellowish flowers, etc., covered with rusty scales. 



2. S. argentea, Nutt. (Buffalo-Berry.) Somewhat thorny, 5-18^ 

 high; leaves cuneate-oblong, silvery on both sides; fruit ovoid, scarlet, acid 

 and edible. — N. Minn, to Col., and westward. 



Order 96. LORATiTHACE^. OIistletoe Family.) 



Shruhhy plants with coriaceous greenish foliage, parasitic on trees, repre- 

 sented in the northern temperate zone chiefly by the Mistletoe and its 

 near allies ; distinguished from the next family more by the parasitic 

 growth and habit, and by the more reduced flowers, than by essential 

 characters. 



1. Ph or a den droll. .Anthers 2-celled. Berry globose, pulpy. Leaves foliaceous. 

 ?, Arceuthobium. A.nthers a single orbicular cell. Berry compressed, fleshy. Leaves 

 scale-like, connate. 



1 PHORADENDRON, Nutt. False Mistletoe. 



Flowers dioecious, in short catkin-like jointed spikes, usually several to each 

 short fleshy bract or scale, and sunk in the joint. Calyx globular, 3- (rarely 

 2 -4-) lobed ; in the staminate flowers a sessile anther is borne on the base of 

 each lobe, transversely 2-celled, each cell opening by a pore or slit ; in the 

 fertile flowers the calyx-tube adheres to the ovary; stigma sessile, oljtuse. 

 Berry 1-seeded, pulpy. Embryo small, half imbedded in the summit of muci- 

 laginous albumen. — Yellowisli green woody parasites on the branches of trees, 

 with jointed much-branched stems, thick and firm persistent leaves (or only 

 scales in their place), and axillary small spikes of flowers. (Name composed 

 of 'p(i>p, a thief, and SevSpou, tree ; from the pai-asitic habit.) 



