Order 111.— ELEAGNACE.-E. 623 



Calyx somewhat urceolate, tube adherent, limb 4 to 5-parted ; stamens 

 4 to 5, opposite the sepals, and connected to them by a tuft of hairs ; 

 filaments inserted into the top of the perigynous, 5-lobed disk, between 

 its lobes; fruit drupaceous, 1 -seeded, crowned with the limb of the 

 calyx. — Very smooth, suffruticous plants. Ped. axillary and terminal. 

 Fls. small, umbellate 



6 1. Kucomandua. Flowers perfect Leaves all alternate No. 1 



§2. Darbya. Flowers dioecious. Leaves mostly opposite , No. M 



1 C. umbellata Nutt. Erect ; lvs. oval-lanceolate ; fls. subcorymbed, terminal ; 

 connecting hairs yellow. — If. Plant about a foot high, in rocky woods, U. S. and 

 Brit Am. Stem slender, striate, generally branching at top. Leaves entire, al- 

 ternate, acutish, 1 — \\' long, and ^ as wide, tapering to a very short petiole. 

 Flowers small, white, in little umbels of about 3. Each umbel is furnished with 

 a deciduous involucre of aboat 4 small leaflets, the whole constituting a kind of 

 corymb. June. 



2 C. Darbya A. DC. Lvs. elliptical ; cymes lateral, about 5-flowered ; calyx 

 lobes spreading-reflexed, connecting hairs white. — Ga. near Macon (Darby), N. 

 Car. near Lincolnton (Curtis). A small shrub with terete, blackish branches, the 

 branchlet3 herbaceous, short, leafy. Lvs. thin and pale, 12 to 18" by 5 to 8", 

 short-petioled, apex obtuse or submucronate. Cymes shorter than the leaves, 

 on slender peduncles. Pedicels 1 or 2" long. Bracts deciduous. Calyx lobes 

 ovate, acute. Fruit unknown. (Darbya umbellulata Gray.) 



Order CX. TIIYMELACE^L Daphnads. 



Shrubs with a very tough, acrid bark, entire leaves and perfect flowers, with Iho 

 mix tubular, colored, the limb 4 (-4 or 5)-parted, regular, tho tube bearing the stam- 

 ens as many or usually twice as many as its lobes, and freo from the ovary, which 

 is 1-celled, 1-ovuled, tho suspended seed with little- or no albumen. 



Genera 40, .specif-* 375, very abundant in Australia and S. Africa, sparingly disseminated in 

 Europe and Asia. The only N. American genus is the following. 



Properties. — The hark is acrid and caustic, raising blisters upon the skin. It is composed of 

 Interlaced fibers, which are extremely tough, but easily separable. Tho lace-bark tree {Lagutta) 

 of Jamaica is particularly remarkable for this property. 



DIR'CA, L. Leather-wood. (Gr. di'pKa, a fountain ; the shrub 

 grows near mountain streams or rivulets.) Calyx colored, tubular, 

 with a truncate or obscurely 4-toothed limb ; stamens 8, unequal, 

 longer than and inserted into tho tube ; style 1 ; berry 1-seeded. — Lvs. 

 alternate, simple. Fls. expanding before the oblong-obovatc lvs., 3 

 from ef.ch bud. 



D. palustris L. — A shrub Gf in height when full grown, U. S. and Can. Tho fls. 

 appear in April and May, much earlier than the leaves. They are small, yellow, 

 funnel-shaped, about 3 together, with a bud-like involucre. Lvs. from the same 

 buds, entire, on short petioles, pale underneath. Stam. much longer than tho 

 calyx, alternately a long and a short one. Berry oval, small, red. Every part 

 of this shrub is very tough. The twigs furnish "rods for the fool's back," the 

 bark is used for ropes, baskets, &c. 



DAPHNE is a genus differing from Dirca by its spreading calyx limb and 

 included stamens. 



D. Mezereum, with deciduous lvs. and D. lanceola with evergreen lvs. are 

 occasionally cultivated. 



Order CXI. ELEAGNACE^E. Oleasters. 



Shrubs or trees usually with the leaves covered with a silvery scurf, entire; 

 fiowcrs mostly dioecious, the calyx free, entire, persistent, becoming in fruit pulpy 



