688 SANTALACEA.— BALANOPHORACES, 
the Apple tree. The Mistletoe of the Oak, which is very rare, was an ob- 
ject of superstitious veneration by the Druids. The fruit has a viscid pulp, 
which is sometimes employed for making bird-lime. It is said that the 
fruits when eaten produce severe poisoning symptoms, the effects resembling 
those of alcoholic intoxication. Its bark has astringent properties. The 
plant is now out of use as a medicinal agent, but was formerly in great 
repute as an antispasmodic. The leaves of V. monoicum, a plant which is 
parasitic on Strychnos Nux-vomica, were found in India to possess similar 
poisonous properties to that plant, from growing upon it, and to be useful in 
like cases to it in medicine. © 
Order 2. SANTALACEH, the Sandal-wood Order. —Charac- 
ter.—Herbs, shrubs, or trees. Leaves entire, alternate. Flowers 
usually hermaphrodite. Calyx superior, 4—5-cleft, valvate in 
zestivation. Stamens perigynous, equal in number to, and 
opposite the segments of, the calyx. Ovary 1-celled, inferior ; 
ovules 1—4, usually suspended; placenta free-central. Fruit 
indehiscent, 1-seeded. Seed with a quantity of fleshy albumen ; 
embryo straight, minute ; radicle superior. 
Distribution aud Numbers.—Natives of various parts of the 
world. The species found in North America and Europe are 
inconspicuous herbs; those of India, Australia, &¢., are trees 
or shrubs. The genus Thesiwm is partially parasitic on the roots 
of other plants. Illustrative Genera :—Thesium, Linn. ; San- 
talum, Linn. There are about 120 species. 
Properties and Uses.—Some of these plants, as Thesiwm, are 
slightly astringent; others have a fragrant wood; and a few 
produce edible fruits and oily seeds. 
Fusanus acuminatus ( Santalum cygnorum) is the Quandang Nut of Aus- 
tralia. The fruit is edible, and resembles Almonds in flavour. This tree 
also vields a kind of Sandal-wood. (See Santalum.) 
Santalum.—S. album is a native of India. The wood called Sandal-wood 
is remarkable for its fragrance. It is sometimes used as a perfume ; but its 
chief consumption is for incense in the Chinese temples, and in India in the 
celebration of sepulchral rites, where pieces of Sandal-wood are placed by 
the wealthy in the funereal pile. The wood is also much used by cabinet 
makers for caskets and other purposes. In India and other parts of the 
East it is also employed medicinally as a sedative and for its refrigerant 
_ properties. By distillation it yields a fragrant volatile oil, which is esteemed 
as a perfume, and also medicinally as a remedy for gonorrheea, gleet, &c. Itis 
official in the British Pharmacopceia.—S. Freycinetianum and S. pyrularium 
produce the Sandal-wood of the Sandwich Islands; S$. Vasi, a kind of 
Sandal-wood from the Fiji Islands; S. austro-caledonicum, that from New 
Caledonia ; and S. cygnorum (Fusanus acuminatus) and 8, spicatum, that 
from Western Australia. (See /usanus.) 
Order 3. BALANOPHORACES, the Balanophora Order. — 
Character.—Leafless root-parasites with amorphous fungoid 
stems of various colours, but never green; and underground 
more or less fleshy tubers or rhizomes. Pedwncles naked or 
scaly, bearing spikes of flowers, which are commonly unisexual, 
bracteated, and of a white colour. Male flowers very evident, 
each with a tubular calyx, which is either entire or 3—5-lobed. 
