397 
NYSSACEA2. (TUPELO FAMILY.) 
2-4 together or sometimes solitary. (The name of a water 
Nymph, applied by Linnaeus to this genus, of which some of the 
Southern species “ grow in the waters.”) 
L N. mill till ora, Wang. (Tupelo. Black or Sour Gum- 
tree.) Leaves oval and obovate, acute or pointed at both ends, en¬ 
tire, the petiole and midrib hairy, deep green and shining above ; fer¬ 
tile flowers mostly in threes; drupe oval, blackish-blue. (N. aqu&t- 
ica, L., in part. N. sylvdtica, Marsh. N. villosa, Willd.) — Woods, 
in dry or moist soil, New England to Wisconsin, principally south¬ 
ward. May. —A middle-sized tree, with dark gray bark, horizontal 
branches with a light flat spray, like the Beech : the wood very un- 
wedgeable, on account of the oblique direction and crossing of the 
fibre of different layers. Flowers small, greenish.—Probably the 
only species in the Northern States. 
Order 91. SANTALACEiE. (Sandalwood Family.) 
Herbs, shrubs , or trees , with entire leaves; the 4 - 5 -xleft 
calyx valvate in the bud , its tube coherent with the 1 -celled 
ovary , which contains 2-4 ovules (consisting of a cellular 
nucleus , destitute of any proper integument) suspended 
from the apex of a stalk-like free central placenta which 
rises from the base of the cell , but the (indehiscent) fruit 
always 1 -seeded. —Embryo small, at the apex of copious 
albumen : radicle directed upward: cotyledons cylindrical. 
Stamens equal in number to the lobes of the calyx, and in¬ 
serted opposite them into the edge of the fleshy disk at their 
base. Style 1. 
1* COMANDBA, Nutt. Bastard Toad-flax. 
Flowers perfect. Calyx bell-shaped or soon urn-shaped, lined 
above the ovary with an adherent disk which has a 5-lobed free 
border. Stamens inserted on the edge of the disk between its 
lobes, opposite the lobes of the calyx, to the middle of which the 
anthers are connected by a tuft of threads ! Fruit dry and rather 
nut-like, the apex free from the calyx, crowned by its persistent 
lobes, the cavity filled by the globular seed. — Low and smooth 
perennial herbs, with alternate oblong and sessile leaves, and 
greenish-white flowers in terminal or axillary umbel-like cymes. 
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