SANTALACE^. 307 



Rocky banks of streams. Can. and western part of N. Y. N. to Arct. Amer. 

 May, June. >2- — >^i^^ 6 — 8 feet high, with numerous opposite branches. Flowers 

 minute, in short axillary racemes. Berry scaly, sweetish. 



Canadian Shepherdia. 



Order CVI. THYMELACE^.— Daphnads. 



Perianth inferior, tubular, colored; tlie limb 4- seldom 5- 

 cleft. Stamens definite, usually 8, sometimes 4 or 2 ; anthers 

 2-celled. Ovary solitary ; style 1 ; stigma undivided. Fruit a 

 nut or drupe ; albumen none, or thin and fleshy. — Shrubs with 

 a tough bark. Leaves alternate or opposite, entire, without 

 stipules. 



DIRCA. Z,m%.— Leather Wood. 

 (From the Greek 6ipKa, di fountain ; in allusion to its usual place of growth.) 



Perianth colored, tubular-campanulate ; limb obsolete, loosely 

 dentate. Stamens 8, inserted into the perianth, unequal. Style 

 1. Berry 1 -seeded. 



D. palustris Linn. 



Woods. Can. to Geor. April. I7 . — Stem 2 — 4 feet high, with tough yel- 

 lowish branches. Leaves alternate, ovate, sometimes subrhomboid, petioled, en- 

 tire, obtuse, smooth above, pubescent and glaucous beneath. Flowers appearing 

 before the leaves, usually in threes, on a short thick peduncle, pale-yellow. 

 Berry oval, reddish when ripe. The bark has a sweetish taste, and when 

 chewed excites a burning sensation in the fauces. Leather Wood 



Order CYII. SANTALACE^.— Sandalworts. 



Perianth superior, 4- or 5 -cleft, half colored, with valvate 

 aestivation. Stamens 4 or 5, opposite the segments of the per- 

 ianth and inserted into their bases. Ovary 1 -celled, with from 

 1 — 4 ovules ; style 1 ; stigma often lobed. Fruit a nut or drupe. 

 Seed with fleshy albumen. — Trees, shrubs, or sometimes herba- 

 ceous plants, with alternate undivided leaves and small flowers. 



1. NYSSA. Linn.— Gum Tree. 

 (Origin of the name uncertain.) 



Diceciously polygamous. Sterile Fl. Perianth 5-parted. 

 Stamens 5 — 10. Fertile Fl. Perianth 5-parted. Stamens 

 5. Style 1. Drupe inferior, 1 -seeded. 



1. N. multijlora Walt : leaves oval and obovate, very entire, acute at each 

 end, the petiole margin and midrib villous ; fertile peduncles mostly 2 — 3 

 flowered. N. villosa Willd. Mich. N. sylvatica Mich. f. 



Low woods. Can. to Car. June — A tree 30—50 feet high. Flowers small, 

 green ; the sterile ones 2 — 6 in a cluster ; the fertile mostly 2 on a peduncle. 



