42 EXOCARPOS-TREES OR NATIVE CHERRY-TREES. 
Victoria besides. another desert-species, E. aphylla, which is of 
shrubby growth, produces stout often spinescent branchlets, has 
sessile very short clusters of flowers and extremely short scale-like 
leaves. Particularly along watercourses occurs another shrubby 
congener, H. stricta ; the branchlets of this are very angular ; 
the flowers are prevailingly cleft into four parts and the succulent 
stalklet of the fruit is pale. Our only other Exocarpos, namely 
KE. humifusa, is restricted to alpine elevations, forming there a 
prostrate bush, sometimes reduced on the coldest places near the 
edges of glaciers to almost herbaceous growth. These plants 
belong to the order of Santalacee@, of which the Sandal-wood 
trees, species of Santalum, are the typical representatives. The 
so-called native Peachtree of our desert tracts is a true Santalum, 
S. acuminatum, and to this is associated another species, San- 
talum persicarium, which however does not afford any pulpy 
acidulous fruit, although the kernels of both species are edible. 
Passing the other Victorian plants of the santalaceous order 
(species of Thesium, Choretrum and Leptomeria, none arboreous) 
it remains to be observed, that the impossibility of depending on 
solitary characteristics even for main-classification is strikingly 
demonstrated by the Santalaceze. For they afford an instance 
of the occurrence of fruits placed above the calyx (in Exocarpos) 
and fruits enclosed within the tube of the calyx (in Santalum), 
therefore technically called superior and inferior fruits, within 
the limits of the same order. Another remarkable feature of 
Santalaceeze is their tendency to parasitic (or epiphytal) growth ; 
thus the species of Thesium, of which we have only one in 
Australia (T. Australe), are fond to grow on the roots of other 
plants, and this accounts for the difficulty experienced in the 
cultivation of many of the Santalaceze ; by these means also an 
approach to the order of Loranthacez, irrespective of other mutual 
affinities, is established. 
The word Santalum is of Arabic origin. Leptomeria got its 
name from the minuteness of the floral segments. The fruit of 
our principal species, Leptomeria aphylla, is succulent, pleasantly 
acidulous and harmless. 
