santalace;e. 87 



Spurge LaureL 



Fi'cncli, Daphne Icmreule. German, WuJdriechendey Kellcrhals. 

 Tlie Spurge Laurel possesses similar properties to the Mczereou, and may in many- 

 cases be substituted for it. Though not sliOAvy in its flowers, it is a valuable plant for 

 shrubberies, from its being evergreen, and from its thick glossy leaves being disposed 

 in tufts at the end of its branches, so as to give it a full bushy appearance. It thrives 

 best in the shade, and will grow under the drip of trees, where few other plants would 

 thrive. The berries are black when ripe, and are a fixvourite food of singing-birds, 

 though poisonous to all other creatures. 



OP.DER LXV.— SANTALACEiE. 



Annual or perennial herbs, or shrubs or trees, often sub parasitical, 

 with the leaves alternate (or sometimes the lower ones opposite), simple, 

 entire, sometimes scalelike or absent. Stipules none. Flowers perfect 

 or polygamo-dioccious, small, in terminal racemes, spikes, or panicles, 

 or solitary and axillary. Perianth single, coloured witliin; tube 

 adhering to the ovary; limb regular, 4- or 5-cleft, the segments with 

 valvate oestivativa. Petals absent. Stamens definite, usually of the 

 same number as the lobes of the perianth and inserted in their base; 

 anthers 2-celled (very rarely 4-celled), opening longitudinally. Ovary 

 solitary, adhering to the tube of the perianth, 1-celled; ovules com- 

 monly 3, but varying from 1 to 4, pendulous from the apex of the free 

 central placenta, very rarely erect, anatropous ; styles generally short ; 

 stigma 2- or 3-lobed. Fruit a nut, or drupe often crowned by the per- 

 sistent perianth. Seed solitary, with a membranaceous testa; albumen 

 dense, fleshy ; embryo straight ; cotyledons cylindrical ; radicle superior. 



GENUS /.— T H E S I U M. Lhm. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth persistent; tube herbaceous, adhering to 

 the ovary; limb coloured Avithin, funnelshaped, divided into 4 or 5 

 segments, which are connivent and more or less rolled inwards in fruit. 

 Disk none. Stamens 5; anthers 2-celled. Style filiform ; stigma capitate. 

 Fruit dry, indehiscent, enclosed and adhering to the herbaceous calyx 

 tube, and crowned by the segments of the perianth. 



Subparasitical herbs or undershrubs with narrow alternate leaves, 

 without stipules, and small flowers generally white on the inside of the 

 limb. 



It is said that this genus of plants was named in honour of Theseus, the mythic 

 Grecian hero. 



