CHAP. XCVvI. SANTALA CE. 1315 
Description, §c. A low deciduous shrub with the habit of a miniature tree, 
a native of Virginia, where it grows about 5 ft. or 6 ft. high, producing: its 
yellow flowers in March and April. It was in- 4 
troduced in 1750, and is common in collection 
of peat-earth shrubs. It has a branchy and 
fastigiate habit, and has a tumidity at the base 
of each branch on the under side. The bark is 
brown and glabrous. Linneus has remarked , 
that the wood and bark are so tough, that it is 
scarcely possible to divide the substance of either 
without a knife, and this quality has obtained 
for the plant the English name of leather-wood. 
The leaves are lanceolate, oblong, alternate, of 
a pale green, villous beneath, and deciduous. 
The flowers are produced while the plant is 
leafless, and, in England, they are seldom, if ever, 
followed by seeds. The bud of the shoot of the 
same year is enclosed in the bud of the inflo- 
rescence. The young plants are very liable to 
be eaten by snails. (Bot. Reg.) Though quite 
a tree in its habit of growth, it is rarely seen in 
England above 3 ft. high. In Canada, the twigs 
are used for rods, and the bark for ropes, baskets, 
&c., for which it is very suitable, being equal in 
strength and toughness to the bark of the lime 
tree. In British gardens, D. paldstris is propa- ae : 
gated by layers, which require two years to root properly. The soil in which 
the plant grows best is peat kept moist. Price of plants, in the London 
nurseries, 5s. each; at Bollwyller, 3 francs; and at New York, 25 cents. 
App. I. Half-hardy ligneous Plants belonging to the Order 
Thymelacee. 
Gnidia imbricata L.; G. denudata Bot. Reg., t.757.; has grey villous leaves, and pale yellow 
flowers. There were plants of this species in Knight’s Exotic Nursery, King’s Road, Chelsea, in 
1830, one of which was upwards of 4 ft. high. : 
Passerina filiformis L. is a plant well known in old collections. It is a native of the Cape of Good 
Hope, which was introduced in 1752; and in a conservatory it will grow to the height of 8 ft. 
It has slender, twiggy, spreading branches, which have the leaves imbricated along their terminal 
rts in 4 rows. It bears its white flowers plentifully on the terminal parts of the branches. Nearly 
ali the species of Passerina are low shrubs, natives of the Cape of Good Hope, which might probably 
stand out against a conservative wall. : . 
Pimeléa drupicea Lab., Bot. Cab., t. 540., the cherry-fruited pimelea, is tolerably hardy. It is 
an evergreen shrub, about 2 ft. high, a native of New Holland, which was introduced in 1817. 
Its flowers, which are white, are produced in May, and they are succeeded by a berry-like sessile 
pie ae. is quite black when ripe, and has a striking appearance on the plant when produced 
abundantly, 
CHAP. XCVI. 
OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER SANTALA‘CEX. 
Tue only hardy genus is Nyssa L., to which the following character be- 
longs : — 
Ny’ssa L. Flowers bisexual and male: the two kinds upon distinct plants, 
and without petals.—Bisexual flower. Calyx connate, with the ovary in its 
lower part; it has a free 5-parted limb. Stamens 5. Ovary ovate, containing 
1 pendulous ovule (2 in some instances, Nuttall), Style simple, revolute 
(curved inwards, Rees’s Cyclop.). Stigma acute. Fruit a roundish drupe : 
nut elliptical, acute, angular, somewhat irregular, grooved lengthwise, contain- 
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