CHAP. XCVII. 



^L^AGNA^CE^. ELMa'gUVS. 



1323 



^ E. />. 4 sphihsa ; E. spinosa L. 

 Fruit insipid. 



Branches spiny. Leaves lanceolate. 



» 2. E. arge'ntea Ph. The iC\\\Qry-leaved Elfeagnus, or Wild Olive Tree. 



Identification. Pursh FL Amer. Sept., 1. p. 114. ; Nutt. Gen. Amer., 1. p. 97. ; Lodd. Cat., ed. 1836. 

 Synonynie. Missouri Silver Tree, V. S. of N. Amer. 

 Engraving. Out Jig. 1204. 



Sj)ec. Char., tf-c. A shrub, from 8 ft. to 12ft. high, not spiny. Leaves 

 waved, oval-oblong, rather acute, glabrous on both surfaces, and covered 

 with silvery scales. Flowers aggregate, nodding. Sexes apparently 

 dioecious. Fruit roundish-ovate, of about the size of a small cherry, car- 

 tilaginous, covered with silvery scales, having 8 grooves ; the flesh dry, 

 farinaceous, eatable ; the nucule subcylindric, its exterior part consisting of 

 a tenacious woolly integument. A native of Hudson's Bay, and found on the 



argillaceous broken banks of the Missouri, near Fort Mandan ; flowering in 

 Julyand August. (Ktdt.) It was introduced in 1813. There are plants in the 

 Horticultural Society's Garden, and in the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges. 

 According to Pursh, ShepherdJa arg^ntea N'utf. resembles the Elseagnus 

 argentea Pursh so much, without the fruit, that, in this state, one might 

 easily be mistaken for the other. In the Garden of the London Horticultural 

 Society, the shrub or low tree bearing this name is very distinct from any 

 species of .Elaeagnus ; but it differs from the species of that genus, in having 

 opposite leaves and branches. Whether it is the plant meant to be described 

 by Pursh, we are unable to determine ; it is certainly not the E. argentea 

 figured in Watson's Dendrologia, which appears to be J5.orientalis,the flowers 

 being produced on the current year's wood. The plant which is in the 

 Horticultural Society's Garden, and which may be considered provisionally 

 as E. argentea, is one of very great neatness and beauty ; and well deserving 



