164 THE TAMARISK AND THE CAPER FAMILIES. 



diflPerent families of them, mostly agreeing, as to their flowers and 

 fruit, with families of high development, but generally destitute of 

 leaves, or at all events of green leaves, though usually provided with 

 scales that represent those organs. The mistletoe is an example of a 

 pai'asite where the ordinary green colour of flowering vegetables is 

 preserved. The leafless parasites are usually of a dingy cadaverous 

 white or brownish colour, passing into purple or yellowish, their 

 stems rising to the height of six or eight inches, and fixed upon the 

 roots of trees and shrubs. Such is the case with the present family, 

 one species of which grows wild in England, but not within the limits 

 of the Manchester Flora. It is found, however, at Southport, on 

 which account the family is here included. (See Appendix of South- 

 port and Blackpool plants.) The affinities of the Monoiropacea are 

 nearest with the Pyrola Family. 



XLI.— THE TAMARISK FAMILY. Tamaricdcece. 



A little family of shrubs and herbs, usually growing by the sea-side, 

 though sometimes by the edges of rivers and torrents, and having its 

 maximum, both of species and individuals, on the borders of the 

 Mediterranean. One species reaches to England, growing on the 

 southern coasts, though doubtful if truly wild, and on account of its 

 beauty, has been brought into the garden. The Tamarisk or Tamarix 

 Gallica (E. B. xix. 1318.) is a slender shrub, three to five or six feet 

 high, with numerous twiggy and flexible branches, erect, or slightly 

 pendulous at the extremities, and covered with minute, green, scaly, 

 and pointed leaves, pressed close to the stem, the general ensemble of 

 the plant being elegantly light and feathery. The flowers are small, 

 pink or white, pentamerous, crowded into numerous spikes an inch or 

 two long, and followed by little capsules of abundant feathery seeds. 

 The Tamarisk is not a common plant, but may be seen in good 

 shrubberies. 



XLTI.— THE CAPER FAMILY. Capparidea;. 



A family of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees, chiefly found in 

 the tropics, and in the countries bordering on them, and in structure 

 strongly resembling the Brassicaceee, from which they are distinguished 



