CHAP. XCVI. 



SANTALA CE^. 



J 3 15 



Desmption, ^-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- 

 troduced in 1730, 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. Linnaeus 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. Beg.) 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. palustris is propa- 

 gated by layers, which require two years to root properly, 

 the plant grows best is peat kept moist. Price of plants, in the London 

 nurseries, 5s. each ; at BoUwyller, 3 francs ; and at New York, 25 cents. 



App. I. Half-hard^ lig^ieous Plants belonging to the Order 

 ThymeldceiE. 



Gnidia imhricuta L. ; G. denudita Bot. Re^., t. 757. ; has grey villous leaves, and pale yellow 

 flowers. There were plants of this species in Knight's Bxotic Nursery, King's Road, Chelsea, in 

 1830, one of which was upwards of 4 ft. high. 



Passerlnafllifdrmis 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 

 parts in ■i rows. It bears its white flowers plentifully on the terminal parts of the branches. Nearly 

 all the species of Passerina are low shrubs, natives of the Cape of Good Hope, which might probably 

 stand out against a conservative wall. 



Pimelia drupucea 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 

 fruit, which_ is quite black when ripe, and has a striking ajipearance on the plant when produced 

 abundantly. 



The soil in which 



CHAP. XCVI. 



OF THE HARDY LIGNEOUS PLANTS OF THE ORDER SANTALA^CEjE. 



The only hardy genus is Nyss« L,, to which the following character be- 

 longs : — 



Nv'ss.i 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, Nidtall). Style simple, revolute 

 (curved inwards, Rees's Cychp.). Stigma acute. Fruit a roundish drupe ; 

 nut elliptical, acute, angular, somewhat irregular, grooved length wise, contain- 



4 R 3 



